Happy 5 Years

Today has been 5 years since the man I love and I went to the temple and were married for time and for eternity. No "til death do you part" for us:)

John and I met in May of 2005 at church in Grande Prairie. I had moved there the month before and John had moved up that weekend. My first impression of John was "Wow, that's an ugly tie", ha ha. It didn't take long before John was the one driving me to all of our YSA activities and we were always hanging out. We became good friends pretty fast. It wasn't hard to figure out that John had a thing for me, but it took me a little while longer to figure out how I felt about him.

We had our first date in August. We went out to dinner, had Booster Juice and went for a walk in the park, put Oreo cookies all over the windows of the missionaries' car and had some hot chocolate at Tim Horton's. It was so much fun.

A couple of weeks later John invited me to go and visit his sister and her family for the weekend in Edmonton, since most of the rest of our friends had to work for the long weekend. I was happy to have something to do and went. That Sunday I was fasting to know what I should do about John (basically if I should date him seriously or not). As I stood in the hallway looking at him with his nephew on my shoulder falling asleep, I got my answer in bold full force. This was the man I was supposed to marry. (I also found out later that at the same time with the situation with his nephew, that's when John knew that he was in love with me.) Later that day as we were sitting on the steps of the temple, I let him know that I knew that. So that was the day that John and I became an official couple.

Here is the part where we fit the stereotypical "Mormon dating to engagement time". 2 days later, back in Grande Prairie, John had time to fast about it as well, and proposed to me at the river valley. This was September 7th. It sounds fast, but we both had been told by the Lord that this is what was right, so what was the point in waiting?

We weren't in the same city for a lot of our engagement. I moved in with his youngest sister and her family for a month and a half and got to know his family better, and then went and lived with my mum until the week before the wedding.

On New Year's Eve morning, after a week of a serious head cold, I met up with John at the front of the Cardston Alberta Temple. We were sealed to each other so that our marriage would not end with the death of one of us. Being married without having a single member of your family there in the room with you isn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but I'm very glad that right from day 1 our marriage was an eternal marriage, a 3 way covenant between us and the Lord. I have never ever felt regret over that decision.

Of course, in our 5 years of marriage we've had some ups and some downs. We have been blessed with 2 beautiful boys and are currently 27 weeks pregnant with our third and last child, another boy. We've moved as a married couple 4 times. We have held each other through severe PPD and painful flare ups of mental illness, and marvelled together when we found something that works for mine. We held each other again this year after hearing that I would never have a baby girl of my own to take home from the hospital and are still becoming stronger people as we come more and more to terms with this. Through it all we've had each other and we've had the Lord, and that's what matters the most to us.

John and I may not be the perfect looking couple or have everything together all of the time, but he's perfect for me and I love him so much. I can't imagine my life without him and have a hard time putting into words what he means to me. I have been so blessed to have been married to this wonderful man for the past 5 years, and am SO thankful that we have an eternity left together. Happy First Five Years Of Eternity, John!

Attitude of Gratitude Day

I almost didn't remember to do this today, since we spent most of the day on the road.

Christmas was good. We spent it with John's family. The boys really seemed to enjoy it, except for Caleb puking on Sunday night.

Anyway, I'd love to do a full Christmas update, but I just want to do the Attitude of Gratitude for today and then in a few days I'll probably write about Christmas.

1) I am grateful that we made it home safely today. We saw a few accidents in Calgary (one looked quite bad) and I'm so thankful that we weren't part of any of them. I'm also glad that I remembered to pray for a safe trip home. I always feel better after we've prayed to travel safely.

2) I am grateful for a man that I feel is the best father-in-law in the world. He's always there for me and helps me to keep my cool when my anxiety level is shooting through the roof. I really REALLY lucked out in the father-in-law department.

3) I am grateful for the book that John gave me for Christmas. It's 'Toss the Guilt and Catch the Joy: A Woman's Guide to a Better Life' by Merrilee Boyack. I have 2 other books that she's written (Strangling Your Husband is NOT an Option: A Practical Guide to Dramatically Improving Your Marriage and The Parenting Breakthrough: A Real-Life Plan to Teach Your Kids to Work, Save Money, and Be Truly Independent) and I love them. I love how down to earth she sounds and that she doesn't make herself out to be perfect or anywhere close to it. I'm about 2/3 done this new book and it's been great. I'm so thankful that John bought it for me.

Christmas Eve

I bombed on our family activity yesterday. However, Caleb and I spent a lot of time cleaning the house and getting everything ready, which means that I spent the day teaching my child that it's important to do housework. I think that's more important than sitting down and playing yet another board game with him (we've played quite a few in the last month).

Not too much else to say right now. Today is Christmas Eve, and we'll just be singing some Christmas songs on our way down to Magrath. I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow.

1 MORE DAY:)

Yesterday, Today and Attitude of Gratitude

Wow! What a big day for my blog. This is my 200th post! I'm not going to be doing much of anything special, though. Also, according to my ticker on the side of my blog, there are officially less than 100 days until Brettley is due to enter this world.

Yesterday we read How The Grinch Stole Christmas together. The boys sat so well through the entire thing, I was really impressed. I also read Cat in the Hat to them since Caleb saw that story when I was opening up to our Christmas one and wanted to hear both. Have you ever noticed how your mouth almost seems exhausted after reading 2 Dr Seuss stories in a row?

Last night was date night in our house since Saturday is Christmas Day. John and I played Lord of the Rings Monopoly (and I totally beat him) and ate strawberry rhubarb pie. Lots of casual fun:) I'm glad that we made sure to do our date night this week even though the weekend is booked up.

Today we are playing a board game together and drinking hot chocolate. This will have to be done during the morning since I have to fast during the afternoon to do my glucose screening at 5:20, which means I will be gone until 6:30 at the earliest. I'll definitely be bringing a book with me.

Today also happens to be Attitude of Gratitude day, so here we go:

1) I am grateful for an amazing man who was born in the humblest of circumstances, lived as a perfect example, suffered pain so great as he took upon himself our sins, infirmities, afflictions and more that he bled from every pore, went through the perfected (oh yes, the Romans had pretty much perfected it) painful death of crucifixion and rose again from death on the third day. How can you not be grateful for such a man at any time?

2) I am grateful that I've gained more perspective and am learning to stop wishing my life away. John and I were talking about this yesterday and we realized just how much of our time we spend wishing it away. It's sad, really.

3) I am grateful for this Christmas season, where everything seems to radiate a spirit of festive cheer and people tend to treat each other a lot better than they do the rest of the year. Christmas time always seems to have a magical feel to it, and I love it. I have a carol I listen to by Anne Murray and my favourite line from it is "Thank goodness this season will never grow old". That's how I feel. It hasn't mattered yet how old I am, this season is still so special each and every year.

2 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:) :)

Lights & The Grinch

I discovered last night that Edmonton is really not big on Christmas lights. I realize that I don't have any, but I also don't have an electrical outlet anywhere on the front of my house so there isn't much I can do about that. I have a wreath on my door though. But yeah, there was next to nothing in the way of Christmas lights. Ty was excited just to see any lights though and Caleb ended up falling asleep.

We didn't do very much yesterday, my cold is kind of knocking me out a bit. I'm hoping that today will be the worst day of it. Tonight we're going to read How The Grinch Stole Christmas as a family.

3 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:) :) :)

Epic Failure, Lights and FHE Board

So watching Joy to the World was an epic failure. Neither of the kids would cooperate, so we watched a whole 2 minutes of it. Caleb did manage to make it through a family council, though.

Tonight we'll be getting groceries and picking up library books and doing our family activity for the day, to drive around and look at Christmas lights. I figure as long as I buy the boys some chocolate milk to drink that they'll be up for this one. Ty in particular really loves to see lights when we're driving around.

Last night John and I made name tags for our brand new Family Home Evening board. I forgot to mention that my mum had made us one for Christmas. I love it and I'm really excited to use it. Our tags aren't high class right now, but I have a plan to get some more permanent ones eventually. These will do for now.

That's about it for today, I think. I've got a bit of a cold, but I'm trying to down water like I'm a fish and it seems to be helping to flush it through me a lot faster.

4 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:) :) :)

Christmas Dinner #2 & Church

Our dinner with my dad went really well. Caleb got a new tie, a Mario Kart Wii shirt, some guitar pyjamas and uDraw tablet and studio for the Wii. Ty got a pair of jeans, 3 shirts, a zip up hoodie, Handy Manny pyjamas, a Caillou DVD, a Veggie Tales DVD and the Toy Story 3 DVD.

Church was good yesterday. We made it through all 3 meetings, which was nice. I love Relief Society and I'm always sad when I'm not feeling up to sitting through it. Caleb got a book from his Sunbeams teacher. He will miss her so much next year, he was very attached to her. He will be a CTR 4 next year and Ty will stay in nursery.

Today's activity is to watch the Joy to the World DVD and eat popcorn, so that's what we'll be doing for FHE tonight.

Well, I guess that's it for today. 5 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Christmas Presents and What Not

The boys got some great presents yesterday. Caleb got some art supplies, a hunting jacket, hat and mitts and a kids digital camera, among other stuff. Ty got some Caillou books, a hunting jacket, a Thomas that follows a flashlight and a kids mp3 stereo. John got some stuff for Magic and painting miniatures and a few other things. I got a nice purple themed Pandora charm bracelet, some slip on boots and a pasta maker. Our big gift wasn't in yet, so we'll get it the next time that we see Mum, but we're getting an upright carpet cleaner. Plus, we still have our stockings from her to open on Christmas morning, and the stockings in my family are definitely the best of all of the gifts.

We had a really good meal. I put bacon in with the stuffing and it turned out amazing! The funeral potatoes were really good too, my step-dad liked them the best. However, we were all so full from dinner than none of us had room for dessert before they left. The boys and I tried some apple berry cobbler before bed though, and it was super yummy.

Caleb's pink eye is so much better and thankfully no longer contagious, so he can go to church today:) There's no goop and it doesn't look swollen at all, even though I'm pretty sure that most of the swelling came from him rubbing it so much anyway.

This evening we're doing our dinner and presents with my dad. I'm not going all out again for this one. My dad is happy just to come and have a meal with the kids, which makes my life easy. We're having a lasagna, garlic bread and caesar salad (I think that may be Caleb's favourite food). I know what the boys are getting from my dad because I picked all of it out, but it will still be exciting to see them open it all. John and I already have our present from my dad. My pots and pans were falling apart a few months ago, so we got it early. He gave us a brand new set of way better quality pots and pans.

Well, I guess that's about all for now, except for our biggest news of all:) My brother proposed to his girlfriend yesterday and she said yes! I am so excited for them. She is awesome and I'm very lucky and happy to be getting her as my sister-in-law.

6 MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Bookmarks and Christmas Dinner

Caleb ended up helping me with the chocolate pecan bars anyway last night and during the day I had the boys colour me some bookmarks and I used some tape to waterproof them. It wasn't Christmas related, but they had fun.

Caleb is now working on spelling Tyrell. He's doing really good.

Today we're having our Christmas dinner and presents with my mum and step-dad. Which reminds me that I really need to get down there soon and get the stuffing made and into the slow cooker. We're having ham since my mum and I aren't turkey fans at all. We're also having funeral potatoes, corn, caesar salad and some dessert (chocolate pecan bars and berry crumble). It should be a good day, except for the fact that Caleb has pink eye. That's not so much fun.

1 WEEK (7 DAYS) UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Brettley, Santa and Caleb

Yesterday I heard Brettley's heartbeat and he kicked the fetal doppler. Next week I get to go and drink the sugary orange pop for the gestational diabetes screen. That's about all that's going on there.

The boys and I made Santa crafts before supper. Ty kept trying to smear white glue everywhere, but Caleb did really well. He loves making crafts so much. I'm not really sure what we're going to do today. We were supposed to be making chocolate pecan bars, but I don't have my cooking spray until after supper tonight when John gets groceries, so I'm trying to think of what to do. We'll think of something, I'm sure. I think a project I need to do in the new year is to get a decent box of craft supplies for them organized.

I also forgot Caleb's big news for this last week is that he has learned how to spell his name without help. He is SO proud of himself. Now I just have to work on teaching him how to write it. He has issues with writing letters, pen control doesn't come easy for him at all. I'm not sure what to do about that.

8 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Stuff And Things

I guess I officially do NOT know how to take it easy. I spent most of my day yesterday cleaning and shoveling (twice). Anyway, I did put on Forgotten Carols for the kids, but they were not interested at all. Oh well, maybe next year. Today I have a prenatal appointment and then when we get home we'll do the Santa craft. Caleb will be so excited, he LOVES doing crafts.

As today is Thursday, it's also Attitude of Gratitude day. So here we go:

1) I am grateful that put heat on my back a lot during the night kept my back functioning pretty well today. It's a trick I'm sure I'll need to use more in the coming months and I'm really glad that I found that it works when I did.

2) I am grateful that I will get to have a Christmas dinner with my mum & Bob, then one with my dad and then one with John's parents this year. It will be nice to have something special with everyone. I will really miss getting to see my brother, though.

3) I am grateful for the tin of Almond Roca that John bought me yesterday for cleaning the house. I loves me some Almond Roca:)

Anyway, that's about all for now, I can't believe we're in the single digits for the Christmas countdown. 9 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Change of Plans and Forgotten Carols

We had a change of plans for our activity yesterday. Instead of the Santa craft we read 'The Forgotten Carols: A Christmas Miracle For Isaac and Eliza' and listened to the songs that go with the book. We also watched on you tube The Nativity to the music of Breath of Heaven. I enjoyed it, Ty kind of liked it and Caleb barely endured it. I guess you can't win them all.

Today we're going to watch our Forgotten Carols DVD. John and I watched it a few weeks ago, but the boys have never seen it. I don't know if they'll like it as much as I do, but I definitely can feel the spirit every time that I watch it, so I think it's a great activity.

Anyway, not much else is new. I'm still taking things easy, especially after I woke up with a really bad pain in my back this morning. I have a VERY hard time taking it easy, especially with 2 young kids in the house, but I'm really trying.

10 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

A Short One

So we decorated our gingerbread house but didn't get pictures because the kids started eating it before it was even done. It was great fun, though:)

Today I am taking things super easy because my body and Brett don't seem to like it in the slightest when I do anything other than minimal cleaning. The boys and I are going to hang out and later on we'll make Santa crafts.

Still looking for ideas on how to decorate a house for little cost, so if you have any please let me know. (Everyday decorating, not Christmas decorating)

11 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Reading, Cleaning, Gingerbread House and Decorating

Last night I read 'The Night Before Christmas' to the boys. When we read Polar Express it was Ty that was really into sitting down and listening to the story, but not yesterday. Caleb, however, sat through the whole thing and gave lots of smiles. Also, at some point yesterday I managed to sprain my wrist somehow. I'm still not sure exactly how I did it, but it's definitely aching today. I'd planned on doing lots more cleaning today, but my wrist has other ideas. So I've been doing a fat load of nothing. Well, that's not entirely true. I did manage to get the downstairs bathroom totally scrubbed down before my wrist told me to knock it off. I also got the dishwasher unloaded, most of the dirty dishes put into it and made gifts for the sisters that I visit teach.

Our activity for tonight is to assemble a gingerbread house, take pictures of it and then each sample a piece. That should be interesting. Last year it was just Caleb and I putting it together. I applied the icing and he applied/ate the candies. I'm not artistically talented, so our gingerbread houses are never much to look at, but they always taste great, which is the part that the kids will care about the most.

I'm also trying to think of cheap ways to decorate my house in the new year, so if you have any tips, please let me know.

12 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Caleb's Back, Tub Cleaning and Belly

So I ended up having to stay home from Church with Caleb today. He fell while we were cleaning the chapel yesterday and scraped his back up, which I didn't know until I washed his back in the bathtub this morning and caused him to cry. He was hurting pretty bad so I let him stay home, but the deal was that he had to help me clean his room. (He spit chewed up carrots all over it) So we did that and then I cleaned our upstairs hallway and our upstairs bathroom. I tried something for my hard water stains on my tub that I read about way earlier this year on Feigning Fertility but hadn't actually gotten around to trying. So I spread a whole bottle of toilet bowl cleaner around my tub and let it sit for 45 minutes while the fan was going in there, during which I pigged out on junk food that I definitely should not have been eating. Anyway, I got back up to the bathroom which smelled somewhere in between the smell of sickly sweet bubble gum and spearmint. It was overwhelming, but I stuck it out. I proceeded to use a sponge to rinse off my tub. Notice I said RINSE, not 'scrub until my arms were ready to fall off and then scrub some more'. Long story short, there are no hard water stains left on my tub at all. It's amazing! So if you're reading this Ashley, THANK YOU!!! (For the record, I do realize that I just publicly admitted that I clean on Sundays)

Anyway, our activity for the day is to read 'The Night Before Christmas', which we'll do later once Ty wakes up from his nap. Also, I got some belly photos taken this morning, so here I am, in all my fat belly/butt glory, at 25 weeks:
Oh, 13 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Movies, Pizza and Food Bank

Yesterday we not only watched Rudolph, but also ended up doing a pizza picnic that night and watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I'd had a tiny bit of a flu all day and just wasn't up to making supper, so we skipped that activity up by a couple of weeks. I found another to take its place when the day comes.

Today we bought some extra groceries and put them in the food bank donation box. Before we went shopping I explained to Caleb that we were going to buy some groceries and give it to a place that helps people get food when they don't have enough money to buy food on their own. He seemed to like that idea, but had to make sure that Daddy had enough money to buy groceries for us. I assured him that Daddy had enough to buy groceries for us.

Well, that's about all for now because I need to go and have something to eat.

2 WEEKS (14 DAYS) UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Family Chain and Fatigue

Yesterday we put together Caleb's family chain. He got pretty bored with matching letters near the end, but did really good for most of it. Then we hung it up in his room. He's really proud of what he made.

Today we are watching a classic Christmas movie (he's choosing to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer again).

As for me, I'm just really tired lately. Ty slept in and Caleb was willing to play quietly on my bedroom floor, so I got to sleep in until 9 this morning. I really needed it after I was falling asleep while sitting up by 4pm yesterday.

15 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Attitude of Gratitude, Paper Garland and Activity Days

It's Attitude of Gratitude Day!

1) I'm grateful for John who has been cleaning the house the last 2 nights as I've been out. A lot tends to slip when I'm pregnant, especially at this point where the most normal things cause me lots of hip and back pain, so it's been wonderful the last 2 nights to come home to a house that's even cleaner than I left it. I love my husband:)

2) This past week I've found a renewed appreciation for the plan of salvation and the sealing covenant. I can't go into why because it's a rather personal family matter to be putting up on my blog (at least at this point), but I can tell you that I am SOOOO glad right now that I have a knowledge of these things and I'm so grateful for the peace that they bring. It is so obvious through these things just how much our Heavenly Father really does love us and want nothing but the best for us.

3) I'm grateful for how happy the Christmas season makes me every year. There's a feeling that comes this time of year that I can't compare to much of anything else. It's amazing, I love it and I look forward to it every year. I'm also glad that Caleb has started picking up on it too (Ty just thinks it's great because he loves the lights on trees and houses).

*****

So yesterday the boys and I read the Polar Express book, which Ty loved, and then we watched the movie, which Caleb loved. They also watched Frosty The Snowman, Frosty Returns and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (all 3 are classic Christmas movies). Today we are making paper garland to decorate their room with. Ty has red strips and each one has the name of a family member (the boys' brothers, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) on it. Caleb has the same in green. Ty will get to pick a strip out of his bag and Caleb will have to work on his letter recognition skills to find the name that matches from his bag. I'm excited that I found a way to work his "school" work into a craft. Hopefully he goes for it.

Also, I had Activity Days last night and it was the last night for one of my favourite girls. She earned her Faith in God award about a month ago, which made me really happy/proud. It has been wonderful to have her in Activity Days and I will miss her so much. She brought a cake to share with us and made me a wonderful card that I absolutely love. Now I don't have any girls moving up to Young Women until September.

Well, I should get going for now. 16 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Polar Express (Again) and the Party

The boys and I ended up not watching the movie yesterday because it was a really rotten day for me (it's just been a tough few days in general), so today we're going to watch the Polar Express movie AND read the Polar Express book. I'm sure they'll be more than fine with doing 2 things in one day.

Last night I had our RS Christmas party, which was awesome. A great dinner and the right mixture of fun and spiritual activities/thoughts. I was in charge of putting together one of the broccoli salads and I wasn't sure if I'd end up liking it because I normally don't do well with things that have a mayo base, but it was really good. I came home and found a nice clean house, too, which is always wonderful. Then, my wonderful husband, being the great man that he is, gave me a foot rub and after that he helped me put together all of my goodie bags for Activity Days so that I wouldn't have to do it by myself today. I am so blessed!

So anyway, that's what's going on at the moment. I'll be posting pretty much every day until Christmas just so that I can keep a log of our daily family activities that we're doing. Sorry if it's incredibly boring for you, but since I drop the ball every single time with a paper journal, I feel like I need to at least do something. Have a good one!

17 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Gifts To Jesus, Polar Express And More

Caleb decided that his gift to Jesus is going to be to start asking for permission to do/use things. Ty's is to stop hitting and kicking. I won't post John's just in case he doesn't want everyone and their dog to know. Mine is to get better about saying my prayers every night.

Today's activity is to watch Polar Express. Caleb has watched it a couple times already this year, but don't think that Ty has. Hopefully he'll enjoy it. Then I have to assemble a broccoli salad to bring to our ward's Relief Society Christmas Dinner tonight that requires Sunday dress so I will have to do my chiropractor appointment in Sunday dress. Should be interesting.

Caleb's big accomplishment right now is that he can play Mario Party on the Wii all by himself. This may not seem that big, but it's only been about 2 months since we allowed him to start trying to play the Wii at all. It's kind of nice for us because if he earns game time (being really good in the grocery store or something like that), we don't have to sit through a whole game with him because he loves to play a star battle game by himself now. We also bought him Mouse Trap on Friday and he loves to play that with me. It's probably a good thing that he has 2 more board games coming for Christmas:)

18 Days Until Christmas!!!

Christmas Wrapping, Christmas Party, Christmas Tree

On Friday night I wrapped all of the Christmas gifts that I'm responsible for wrapping. I've never had to sit for well over an hour on the floor trying to wrap Christmas presents with a pregnancy belly. It's interesting and not very comfortable. I'm very glad that I was motivated to do it all in one sitting so that I don't have to sit down to wrap more in the next few weeks.

This past Saturday was our ward Christmas party. We made brownies for it. Caleb had a hard time with it because he was very hungry (we ate about an hour or so later than he's used to eating supper at), but he was really excited to see Santa and was fine once he got some food. Ty wasn't a big fan of Santa, apparently, but I'm sure he'll do better next year.

Last night we put up our Christmas tree. Caleb was very happy and excited. He also left out his boot by the door for Saint Nicholas. Today we'll be starting our Daily December Activities. I wasn't going to start it until next year, but I felt really prompted to do it starting now until Christmas. I really only missed the first few days, so it's all good. Today we get to think of a gift that we want to give to Jesus this upcoming year, write it down and put it in our stockings (next year we'll have a separate stocking for the Savior).

Anyway, that's about all I have to write about for now. I hope you have a great week! 19 Days Until Christmas:)

Attitude of Gratitude

Wow! It's Thursday already. So, what am I grateful for this week?

1) I'm grateful that I had a fun Super Saturday activity to go to and got to make some really fun/cute stuff there. Yummy hot chocolate, an amazing burrito bar for lunch and awesome strawberry cheesecake for dessert. It was wonderful! I love Super Saturdays so much.

2) I'm grateful that John finally got to feel Brettley kick at 5 am this morning. He was very happy and has been waiting for a few weeks to be able to feel him, but Brett was in fine form and just kicking away in there like there was no tomorrow. *Ha ha, he just kicked me now, he must know that I'm writing about him* I've been through a pregnancy where no one was really excited when the baby started kicking, so it's nice to have someone to share it with and know that it makes them happy as well.

3) I'm grateful for Elder Gardner, a missionary serving in our ward at the moment, sharing a couple of Book of Mormon verses with us last night that totally reminded me that Heavenly Father allows us to go through trials and temptations so that we become stronger in our faith and closer to Heavenly Father. They also reminded me of my favourite Doctrine and Covenants scripture, D&C 6:34:
Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

(If you're curious, the scriptures he read were Heleman 5:12 and Ether 2:24-25)

HELP!

I need some help from whoever is actually reading this. I'm trying to make a calendar for December for next year that will have a family activity every day (at least up until the 24th). These can be spiritually oriented, or just good clean fun. So what are some good (mostly indoor as we'll have a 9 month old) activities to do together as a family during December?

Of course one would be to put up and decorate the tree, another for us would be to watch The Forgotten Carols on DVD. I'm looking for stuff like that. So please send any and all ideas that you might have my way. Thanks:)