12 on the 12th--July Edition

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1. I found Landon asleep on his floor, apparently it was too hot up on his bed and he could feel the air conditioning coming from the vent on the floor if he was down there.
2. My birthday decorations and flowers are still around.
3. Randy and I dropped Whitney off to volunteer at Bridle Up Hope (she works with horses).
4. Of course we had to get drinks on the way home.
5. Reading my scriptures.
6. Selfie in the car as I left to go out with Lori.
7. We saw the movie "Begin Again" and really liked it.
8. Lori trying on some very LARGE glasses.
9. Whitney with cute Junie cat.
10. I spent some time reading this delightful book.
11. Randy is fighting a cold, but he loves a nap any day.
12. I'm still working on the birthday pie Michelle made me...delicious!

12 on the 12th--June Edition

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1. Whitney is hard to wake up in the morning.
2. I brought Junie in to help coax Whitney out of bed (it worked).
3. I made a new blog banner and changed the background color on my blog.
4. Book of Mormon reading for the day.
5. Shot of the stuff on my dresser as seen from my spot on the bed.
6. My friend Shannon sent Whitney a good mail package with goodies for Junie (Whitney has a bad sunburn on her shoulders, hence her attire). 
7. I got my hair cut and colored (it's getting harder and harder to keep up on the gray).
8. Quick stop at the grocery store to get taco fixins for dinner.
9. It was pouring rain as I left the store (of course my car windows were partially down).
10. The big bottle of aloe gel I bought to help Whitney's shoulders.
11. Catching up on So You Think You Can Dance.
12. I'm currently reading the 5th Flavia de Luce Mystery, which is a treat.

Our Summer So Far

I had a very successful DI run to kick off, I love finding books for $1 or $1.50.

We've had mostly pleasant, window-open weather but the house has gotten up in the high 70's a couple times and we've had to turn on the air conditioning. I really prefer having the windows open, but I'm not a fan of sweating.

I started reading The Book of Mormon again and have a schedule that has me finishing on Christmas Eve.

Whitney and I have gone walking around the pond a couple times.

Adam invited me to lunch, which was delightful and emotionally draining (it's never small talk).

I got my first pedicure of the summer, woohoo!

I moved the bistro table and chairs to the front yard (since it was basically a bird pooping place in the back yard) and we have really liked it so far. Whitney actually got out of the house to draw while listening to The Book Thief.

It's official, Whitney is in full teen mode!

I read in the shade while Whitney baked in the sun...the shade is way better.

Lori and I saw "Fault In Our Stars" and thoroughly enjoyed it. I expected to sob more than I did so that was a relief.

Kale hired Landon to sand and paint the trip on the house. 

It's a big job and is currently on hold while he is on a Canoe trip in Oregon with the 16-17 year olds from church.

Randy and I helped Robyn move last weekend.

I am currently reading the 5th Flavia de Luce mystery, "well bust my buttons".

I have wanted to put a flag on the house for years, but knew we couldn't drill into the brick. I thought I'd figured out a way around it but it didn't work so we ended up hanging like this, which I love!

The Waffle Luv truck was down the street this week so Whitney and each got a Biscoff and Cream waffle (so good) and took it home to eat on our bistro table under the trees.

We let Junie have some whipped cream when we were done.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these trees in our front yard.

12 on the 12th--May Edition

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1. I watched part of an episode of New Adventures of Old Christine while eating my toast at 6:10am.
2. Family scripture reading, we're still in Alma!
3. I took a selfie in the car while at a red light.
4. It was a beautiful morning, I love the view while I'm driving to work.
5. Michelle and I texted back and forth for a bit (she's in Paris). 
6. I made a drink run to Slurp and read my book while I waited in line at the drive through.
7. Terese gave me the Conference issue of the Ensign and a notepad just because.
8. I stopped to take pictures of the tulips at the Temple on the way home from work.
9. I finished reading The Risk Pool and started reading Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.
10. I got this order of Washi Tape (I'm addicted) in the mail from Pick Your Plum.
11. Uploading pictures from my camera onto the computer.
12. Randy made my favorite Raspberry muffins.

12 on the 12th--March Edition

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1. I record The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon every night and then watch the first 25 minutes in the morning while I eat breakfast, which means I start my day laughing.
2. We read scriptures as family, but couldn't get a decent photo of it happening.
3. Car lunch reading time, glorious but those 30 minutes go way too fast.
4. My Girl Scout Cookie delivery from one of the students.
5. Our Crocus are in bloom.
6. The Great Landini emptying his backpack.
7. Whitney on the phone about a babysitting job...she hasn't caught the vision yet.
8. Glorious weather!
9. I went outside to read for a bit but I was over zealous because the breeze made it a tad chilly.
10. Landon cacked out on the couch.
11. I went to our Relief Society Birthday dinner (it fell on the 12th last year too).
12. Randy and I watched Survivor.

Sunday Thoughts

Today's lesson in Relief Society was taught by one of the members of the presidency about Alma chapters 23 and 24, which though I've read these chapters many times proved to be mind blowing to me.

Alma 24:18-19

 18 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands.

 19 And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.

How have I never noticed these "rather than" sentences?!! I don't know, but I am so grateful they were pointed out to me today. The teacher asked us what some of our "rather than" statements could be.

• Rather than making excuses they did their visiting teaching. (This was mine, hee.)
• Rather than being offended they gave them the benefit of the doubt.
• Rather than going shopping she went to the temple.
• They chose to be a humble people rather than a prideful people.
• Love your neighbor rather than gossiping or judging them. 

These are just a few, but doesn't it make your mind spin just a bit to think of all the "rather thans" you can choose to put in your life? I do believe this calls for the need to have a meeting with myself to see what "rather thans" I need to implement.

Sunday Thoughts

Our new bishop shared a cool experience he had this summer while in Wyoming with the Young Men. They were doing mission preparedness stuff and were teaching the boys to "Armor Up" each morning by praying and reading their scriptures before facing the day. He talked about how all his life he has read his scriptures before going to bed, but how that's illogical if you think about reading the scriptures as putting on the whole armor of God...because who needs to put on armor before going to bed? (Of course it's good to read the scriptures any time, but even better to start the day with them!)

I absolutely love the visual of  putting on the armor of God as a family each morning before we head out into the world to face the day. I know we are better prepared to face the challenges of the day because we start the day together reading the words of God and kneeling in prayer together. It's a simple thing that provides great strength!

Ephesians 6:11-18

 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Today on the back of our ward bulletin was a new thing, it said...

Bishopric Admonition

"Armor up!" Put on the full Armor of God each day with Prayer and Scripture study every morning. Read seven or more chapters a week in the scriptures.

I loved it and thought it was interesting that this new bishopric felt the need to put an admonishment on the program. It was at the very bottom on the back, but I think it caught all of our attention. 

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I think it would be cool to have "Armor Up!" in vinyl lettering above our front door.

12 on the 12th--January Edition

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01. The time I stumbled out of bed to start my day.
02. Family scripture reading, we read Alma Chapter 19.
03. Randy making my lunch for school.
04. I ate my lunch in the car and started reading Ride the Wind.
05. Quintessential junior high--one of the students I help using a fluffy pen (with lips) to write all over her hand.
06. Landon and I in the car after school.
07. I stopped at Sonic for a bag of ice, happy-hour slushies for the kids and a Chili Frito Wrap for me (what they're good and I'm always starving after school).
08. I spent all afternoon working on stuff for Youth Conference.
09. Randy and I had a meeting with a few other leaders about Youth Conference.
10. I bought the next few month's book club books on Amazon and enjoyed free two-day shipping.
11. Drying Whitney's hair before bed.
12. Randy and I finally had time to catch up on a couple episodes of Modern Family (we love that show).

**How was your day?
Did you do 12 on the 12th?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I need a free day at home, the walls are starting to close in on me! I must remedy this.

Christmas Eve Family Fest

This week has been crazy busy and the time (and blogging) clearly got away from me, so I'm skipping ahead to our Christmas Eve festivities.


Randy and I worked together the morning of Christmas Eve to make sure we finished wrapping all the gifts we needed for the family exchange, and then for the kids so that we wouldn't have to come home late that night to finish anything. Randy is a master gift wrapper, so I would find the boxes for each gift, then do the ribbon and the tags for each gift so that he wouldn't have to stop wrapping...it took 2 hours but we finished just in time!


This was the pleasing basket of gifts ready to be loaded into the car.


Somehow we managed to have time to make "turtles" to bring with us. Since Rolos were sold out every time I looked for them, we used Caramel Kisses instead. They were still really good, but the caramel was far more oozing and messy.


Christmas is one of the rare times Andrew gets really excited for family gatherings (he's not usually a fan of the chaos and the noise) so he had been pacing back and forth and watching out the windows for everyone to get there.


Andrew's preferred method of stair descent is to slide down on his bum...so funny.


The kitchen table is now the "kids' table" for meals since there are 8 of them; the adults eat in the dining room.


I never know what I'm going to get when I do a self-portrait with Andrew. Apparently this time he is expressing a "take it or leave it" type look.

Olivia made Christmas cards for everyone in the family.

Oh pebble ice, how I love you!

The 24th is also Austin's birthday (he was 3 months premature) and he was concerned about where his birthday celebration was going to fit into the day's agenda, so he proposed this agenda and gave it to my dad. (Click on photo to enlarge.)


Andrew was so anxious to open presents that he kept coming into the dining room (we sat and talked in there for a long time) to hug my dad and remind him that he was waiting (my dad was laughing at something Adam said).


Eventually we gathered in the kitchen to let Austin open his birthday presents and to sing our birthday song to him.

Andrew checked in again.

Randy was in day 2 of a "man cold" so it wasn't surprising to find him snoring in the next room even though the house was very loud.


Later we all went downstairs to read scriptures; my dad took this very seriously and had prepared this poster of scripture references.


Andrew cracked us up by taking Robyn's video camera and filming. He has never done this before and was so funny about it. I'm sure she's going to end up with a lot of footage of his hand waving really close to the lens.


Reading the scriptural account of Christ's birth was sweet, as was hearing the kids take turns reading verses. I felt the Spirit and teared up a few times, it was nice that the kids were old enough to participate fully in this experience.


After about an hour of scripture reading the kids (especially Andrew) were going crazy and couldn't contain their excitement over the presents any longer. We let Andrew go first, so we piled his presents up and let him tear into them. We saved the best for last...Volume 1 of America's Funniest Home Videos 4-disc DVD set...it's 430 minutes of crotch-pounding hilarity that Andrew will love.


After that, the kids took turns opening gifts from youngest to oldest (Ashley, Megan, Olivia, Tess, Austin, Whitney, Bella then Landon). These were the presents my parents got for them, plus the ones from our exchange, plus Lori (very generously) got presents for everyone.


Whitney was thrilled with the Veterinary Clinic my parents gave her. Sure, it's a PlayMobile toy meant for children 4 and up but the way she plays means it will adapt and go the distance.

A self-portrait of Adam and I.

Landon's big gift from my parents was this fabulous hiking backpack that will serve him well for his next 6 years of Scout Campouts and hikes, woohoo!


Lori gave me these two goodies so I could have "a girl's night in"...of course these are two of my favorite things.

Adam and I had each others' names for the gift exchange.

He gave me this HUGE bag of daffodil bulbs, a heavy duty vase and a nice scarf. I gave him a book I heard about on NPR and his favorite candy (Bottlecaps and Mike & Ikes).


By the time we were done with the opening of gifts it was time to eat again!


I was in charge of bringing a salad (which I hate being in charge of) and got extremely flustered when my salad dressing tasted too vinegary and when hardly anyone ate salad because there were too many tasty options!

We didn't end up leaving my parents' house until after 10:00pm and then had to drive home in the fog (not my favorite thing). It was a scary ride home but it had been a really great day.

**How was your Christmas Eve?
Did you do any of these things?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I'm trying really hard not to be disappointed that I didn't blog for 4 days. I kept thinking I'd be able to do so, but then couldn't.