If I can be a tenth of what she is...

...her incredible beauty, inside, and indeed out...inspire me.
Lift me.
Help me to reach and stretch to be better.

I hope she knows just how highly I think of her.
How much she has changed me.
Thank you Nie.
Thank you.

Grab a tissue.
You will most certainly need it.

I can be perfect at some things.

Hubbs and I often joke about perfection.

In our religion we believe we can be perfected and exalted in time.

A process that takes a really really long time
and a process that definitely won't happen here on Earth.

Part of this process is the Word of Wisdom...maybe you have heard of it.
Basically we don't smoke or drink alcohol, that kind of stuff.

Other things we have been asked to do, is not look at pornography, or watch R rated movies.

Also, keeping the sabbath day holy.

All of these things help us to grow closer to our Father in Heaven and leave behind the things of the world, that would take us away from our family.

So, as the joke goes with Hubbs and I,
ESPECIALLY when it comes to the R rated movie thing...is that:

"We can't be perfect at ALL things,
but we can be perfect at SOME things."

So when the temptation comes to watch that movie that looks just too good to pass up...we remember our small area of perfection.

One area we are striving to perfect is our
Family Home Evening.

Family Home Evening, or "FHE" as we call it, occurs on Monday nights in our house, and is basically what it sounds like, we spend the evening as a family. The Church suggests doing spiritual activities or creating family memories.

Let me preface by saying the last year has been full of ups and downs and I am not always perfect at planning FHE in advance. Oftentimes it really is planned 5 minutes before we are suppose to start it. Tee hee.

See...NOT perfect, but WORKING on being perfect.

So, last night was FHE. I had these little foam turkey kits that I had purchased awhile back...and so I decided that for Family Home Evening we would talk about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it.

So I read a book, we talk, we ask questions, all the while making six little turkeys to give away to people the kids were thankful for.

So we jump in the car and proceed to drop off all of our little turkeys.

On the way home, little Memms says:

"Mom! I really like this Family Home Evening,
it is a FUN one, and not a BORING one."

My kids are hilarious, and oh so brutally honest.

Hope

Saw this first today via Nie's blog.

Remember my last post?
I don't believe in coincidence.

Never give up hope.

Never.

Happy Sunday.

In Peace

I will try to ignore the way this 'funeral' came about.

I won't tell you it is because this tiny bird was sitting across the street on the porch of the vacant home probably since Millz was born.
I will try to not get into the fact that every day my children have gone over to look at the dead bird that fell out of the nest.
I will even refrain from telling you that yesterday my kids ripped off one of the dead bird's wings with their
bare hands.

I won't tell you how I freaked out when Memms brought said wing to me, or how I began ranting that we need to respect life, la la la la la.

After I washed hands and gave baths, I reset myself and we taught about respect for living things, and so...

A funeral in pictures:

Oh the mess of tears...

Just heard the news that a little friend I have never met
but through blogging passed away this morning.

So thankful for a wonderful Plan.

Love to Sadie and her family.

Please remember them in your hearts and prayers.

Thank you for helping me learn through your example:
to be a better Mother and for taking the extra time to hug my babies and let them know I love them!

Opposition

****
Author Unknown
****

Cripple him, and you have
Sir Walter Scott

Lock him in a prison cell and you have
John Bunyan

Bury him in the snow of Valley Forge, and you have
George Washington

Raise him in poverty and you have
Abraham Lincoln

Subject him to bitter religious strife, and you have
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The only president to serve four terms in office

Burn him so severely in a school house fire that doctors say he will never walk again, and you have
Glen Cunningham,
who set the world record in 1934 for running the mile in 4 minutes 6.7 seconds

Deafen a genius composer and you have Ludwig von Beethoven

Drag him more dead than alive from a rice paddy and you have
Rocky Blyer,
running back for the great 1970 decade Pittsburgh Steelers

Have them born in a society filled with racial prejudice, and hatred
and you have
Booker T. Washington,
Harriet Tubman,
and Martin Luther King Jr.

Have him born in a Nazi concentration camp, paralyze him from the waist down at age 4, and you have
Itzhak Pearlman,
the incomparable violinist

Call him retarded and write him off as uneducated, and you have
Albert Einstein

Amputate the cancer ridden leg of a young Canadian and you have
Terry Fox,
who ran half way across Canada on an artificial leg

Take both legs away from him and you have
Douglas Bader,
an RAF fighter pilot who was captured three times by Germans and escaped three times on artificial limbs

Label him too stupid to learn and you have
Thomas Edison

Blind him at the age of 44 and you have
John Milton,
who 16 years later, wrote The Great Paradise Lost

Call him dull, hopeless, and a flunk out of school in the 6th grade, and you have the famous statesman
Winston Churchill

Tell a boy who loves to draw that he has no talent, and you have
Walt Disney

Spit on Him, mock Him, humiliate Him, betray Him, and crucify Him, and He forgives you...

****

I am back, after a long week. You have been missed. Have had a lot of things going through my mind the past week, about trials and suffering. I have watched many over the past two weeks. It has saddened my heart but also has renewed my faith in who we are and what we can accomplish and overcome.

To all of my friends who are dealing with opposition right now...please know I love you and I am thinking of you. My heart is truly with you.

Hope you all have a beautiful week!

Only...

...one more day of emotional drainment and I'll be back.

Had some really neat experiences regarding my
Grandpa and his passing.

Can't wait to share.

For now?

Sleep.
Yes please!

Easter-Licious.

I love, love, LOVE this time of year.
Everything about it.
The rain, the newness of EVERYTHING, the candy.

Oh the candy.

But what I love the most, is watching my kids and all of the excitement they bring back to the simple things in life. Like coloring eggs:

And eating them. Yumm.

So thankful for the plan. Thankful for the sacrifice.

So very much want to have these littles forever...and oh how I plan to!

Easter is the bomb.

Beauty

This is my good friend Nakia. I am using her picture because she is the ONLY one who won't kill me for using it.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to photograph all of the ladies in my ward's Relief Society during an activity.

I have to say this was one of my most challenging and rewarding feats of all time photographically speaking.

I say ONE because
I am constantly growing and changing and challenging myself
in this area.

As I edited these photos, I got really teary. There were super young girls, and older women, and each one was beautiful, and unique and gorgeous in their own way. It was truly eye-opening.

Oh how I would love to share them with the entire world. But I promised I wouldn't.

If you are really intrigued to see them all. The link is here.
E-mail me: kimsueellen [at] gmail [dot] com for the password.

All of these photos were taken after dark, in a small room, bouncing my flash off of a white divider. (The divider was the size of a 20x9 ft wall.)

Cool Beans

This year, my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are studying the Doctrine and Covenants in Sunday School. I am not a theologian, I don't claim to be super smart in areas of religion, but basically, this book is a book of revelations given to Joseph Smith around the time of the Restoration of the church into the 20th Century. Pretty freaking cool.

I didn't realize it at the time, but around the first part of January I started reading
The Work and the Glory.

Maybe you have heard of the movies?
(They are bomb too, especially that scruffy Joshua. Mmmm gimme some of that.)

Even though these books are considered "fiction" because they greatly revolve around a fictional family, the church history behind them is amazing. The author has done an INCREDIBLE job of documenting his sources, and I have found myself mesmerized by all that I am learning.

On Friday, Hubbs and I had a date. Yes, a real date, cool huh? Anyway, we went to
The Church History Museum.

I freaking LOVE this place. I am a Church History GENIUS now, anyway, I am just amazed.

What is the point of all this rambling?

I have come to love and to respect the temple even more since my study of the Doctrine and Covenants. And I wanted to take the time to share this beautiful video from my church telling you all about the temple and why we have them. Pretty cool stuff.

Have a happy sabbath yo.

Blasted youtube isn't working...here is the linky loo.

Aye--yay, yay.

So, tonight our ward had this bomb fiesta. Minus the Tequila, cerveza, and peyote. There were however muchas senoritas, dancing, hot sauce, AND a pinata.

I am telling you this because it is my calling...(my little job in my ward) and I LOVE IT!

I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time. Watching full grown adults and people of an older generation hit a pinata was seriously SO FUNNY. Watching my kid get hit in the leg with the bat as it broke in two...not so funny. (He is fine. I think he was more upset he didn't get to HIT the pinata.)

Again I say, I love my calling, I haven't had so much fun since I can remember. Who says Latter-day Saints don't have any fun? I'll tell you what...

Word has gone around my ward about this blog. "Eek!" I say,
and cringe in other ways,
but I welcome people getting to know who I really am. It doesn't get more real than this blog. Welcome to my new friends...

Draper, Utah Temple Open House

Photo Courtesy of JD. Thanks!

My heart has been full the past few days. Tears come quite easily when I think back to Monday when it was our turn to go to the Draper Temple Open House.

Firstly, if you haven't gone, you must. Secondly, if you have any opportunity to go, you must.

(This opportunity is available for all, (not just members of the LDS church) all you need to do is reserve a spot and voila!)

The look of joy and excitement on my children's faces was remarkable, especially my little five year old. He was ecstatic to have the opportunity to go to the temple! He was so curious and happy the entire day. It was all he could stand to get through the video and onto the bus. We, of course got the oldest bus in the whole operation, it was dirty, and loud, and "scawy" (as Memms put it) but it was an adventure!

Pulling up to the temple, the feeling of peace was immediate. Walking through the long passageways of tents until we reached the entrance was more than J-Man could handle...he was ready to be INSIDE!

I loved the opportunity to hold his little hand the entire way through. His curiousity and continuing questions made me realize how important my example of the temple is to him, and will continue to be to him throughout his life. I want him to long to go back there when he is old enough. He assures me when he is 12 he is going to go and do the work he can do, until he can do more. He is thrilled!

Walking into the Celestial Room, I lost it. Being there with my sweetheart and my children, and holding them close as we looked up at the seemingly endless ceiling and the beautiful chandelier...tears streamed down my face. Oh how I long to have this little family forever and to feel such perfect love and peace forever with them. How awesome will that be?!

The last room we entered was the sealing room. Amazing, breathtaking, marvelous. The spirit was strong! Wow. I can hardly explain.

SO thankful to have had such a wonderful opportunity. In all my times attending the temple, I seem to forget the power that is there, it's strength and magnitude. Wonderous.

The tour ends in the adjacent church building, where there is a beautifully decorated reception hall, and they even have...brace yourselves:

COOKIES! Yes, cookies. This was more bliss than my little ones could handle.

We ended the afternoon with a wonderful lunch out, together as a family. How I am holding each one of my lovies closer the past few days.

I hope you have the opportunity to go.

Inspired.

And teary.

Tender Mercies

One of my all time favorite talks.

My apologies for no post yesterday. I hit the sack early. WAY early...because I have been getting to bed SUPER late. Or super early, depending on where on earth you live. Ha!

The last few days, my mind has been focusing a lot on what I am thankful for. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time of year. I wish it were in June or something though, because it gets the shaft in the shadow of Christmas. Nonetheless, feeling overly grateful for the things I have. We so easily get distracted by the seemingly grand things in life. The bills that pile up, the laundry that needs to be washed, dishes cleaned, car repairs, etc. How often do we take time to realize the blessings all around us and truly give thanks for them.

This year, especially today, I am thankful for the small and tender mercies that I have been blessed with. To share, I will name a few.

Thankful for exactly two manilla envelopes left. For without them, I would have to ship in a box and it would cost a lot more and drain our already dwindling bank account.

Thankful that as I was running LATE that I found an open parking spot that was CLOSE to the building I was headed into.

Thankful that during these trying economic times that I found the perfect Christmas present for one of my kids. $3 vs. $50. I heart Savers.

Thankful for aunt flow coming four days early instead of four days late.

Thankful for a medical bill of $8,000 instead of a funeral bill.

Thankful my children have a mother.

Thankful for friends who care so much about me. Especially the ones who came and packed away all that baby stuff. Did I ever tell you how much that meant to me?

Thankful to have kissed on these chubby cheeks. Thankful he is safe now.

Thankful for Adoption. That is has blessed my life and the lives of countless people who I love.

Thankful I can run.

Thankful for a talent that blesses my life in more ways than I can count.

Thankful for these munchies.




Thankful for him.


Just oh so very, utterly thankful.

Rotate, Teach, Get a Rock.

Warning...this post is LONG...but worth it. Come back and read it in parts if you must.

Ug, toys. Where do I begin? I think it started with an obession and leftover from childhood. We didn't "get" much...but what we did get we took care of. So, feeling a little "jipped" as a child if you will, I went overboard, a little. Okay probably a lot. And it only looks like so much now because it is nicely organized into these bins, with labels and all. Thank you Leisha! When we moved, I decided that it was either time to get organized or get rid of it all. I got rid of a ton, and frankly would like to get rid of more, but that will have to wait I guess. For every new one we get, one is given away, and eventually that will become less and less and we give away more and more.

So, on to the Great Toy Rotation... See these bins? They are located in "the scary room" of the house. The room that is unfinished and houses the heater, (and is soon to be my new studio, HOLLA!). So, basically the kiddos are too afraid to go in there alone, hence they will leave these toys ALONE! Which is nice. So a few weeks ago, these bins were in their rooms, under the stairs and everywhere, and we gathered them all up and put them here...and every Monday night after Family Home Evening, we put away the bins from the week before and the kids can each choose two bins and one "big" toy box, (we have three of these which contain big trucks, stuffies, dressups etc...) and the key? They have less to play with and they actually do. play. with. them. I am not even joking. They play and they enjoy them as if they were new. I can't take full credit for this idea. I got it from a dear friend in my old ward who is a genius and a wonderful mother and example to me. Hi Katrina if you are out there, THANK YOU!
I hope I can explain this and share the power of this topic, but sometimes I lack words or thoughts, so I will do the best I can. This definition comes straight from http://www.lds.org/.

Family Home Evening

"Church leaders have instructed members to set aside Monday night as "family home evening." This is a time for families to study the gospel together and to do other activities that strengthen the family spiritually, create family memories, and increase unity and love."

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I feel very blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I have seen many powerful effects on my life, and one of the greatest has been the blessing of Family Home Evening. I can remember when I was very young having a few lessons from my mother. Shortly after my parents divorced, my extended family, (grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc...) began having a weekly FHE. From the time I was nine until I was 21 we had this gathering of family and love and teaching. It was a great strength in my life then. Once the family became TOO huge to house a weekly FHE, it fizzled out and I have to admit that it has been four years since we have had a regular family night in my home. A few months ago Hubbs and I decided to implement it again into our little family, and I can tell you that it has made a world of difference.

The most wonderful thing about FHE is that you don't have to be LDS or a "mormon" to have your own night to spend with your family. What better way to show your children or your spouse how much you love and adore them, then by devoting a night a week to them, for them, spending time with them, teaching them, and showing them how important they are to you, and how loved they are. Our evenings are usually spent with a short lesson (thank you four years of Primary Presidency lessons), an opening prayer, a closing prayer, a song, and of course a treat! Sometimes we aren't so formal, we will take the kids to play at the children's museum, walk around temple square, go out to dinner, but generally there is a purpose and we invite the spirit of our Heavenly Father into our home. It allows us time to be together, and when that time is devoted to Him and to one another, the week goes better, our house stays cleaner, and we fight less. There is more patience and love. I have witnessed this, and I encourage everyone who is reading this to implement this into your lives and schedules and let me know how it goes!

From our lesson tonight, one of my favorite Bible stories about Joseph in Egypt. Can you say, "Technicolor Dreamcoat" anyone?

And finally, if you're still with me, our little Toddler chores:

Brush your teeth.

Wash your hands before eating and using the bathroom.

Get yourself dressed (as best you can).

Pick up your toys.

Take your vitamin.

And that is it. They can earn 1 "pedra" or rock for every job they do without having to be asked more than once. We have been doing this for a little over a month now and it works! Right before bed we hand out the rocks, they put them in their little jars and they are SO excited about it. Even the little two year old screams, "Pedras! Pedras!" And FLIPS out if that word is said and she doesn't get to put the rocks in the jar at that very minute.

I let the kids choose their reward. Obviously Miss is a little too young to understand the concept, so her reward is putting the rocks in the jar, (and sharing a bit of Mister's rewards too.) While Mister, he chooses to get a pinata for each jar filled. Not sure why he loves pinatas so much or why that is his choice...but it is. And happily for him he filled up his first jar in time to have a dinosaur pinata for his birthday!

Seriously these little things help keep me sain and keeps our house a little cleaner with four little hands helping.

As for me...well that big jar is mine. Hubband has one too, and seriously, it has been a great motivator for me to do MY chores. I give myself one WHENEVER I do SOMETHING. I know that seems silly, but it helps me make a good dinner, load the dishwasher, fold a load of laundry. When mine gets filled I get to have a scrapbooking night with one of my friends...I can't wait!
So, that's it from the Simply Me house. Hope everyone is doing well, can you belive Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK? I am dying with how fast time is going by. And that my baby isn't so much a baby anymore, but that is another post ENTIRELY!