A really great day, Maya's baptism celebration

The cake that Kim made

Maya and Daddy

The cake close up, the dress, ballet slippers
a book of Mormon and CTR ring
all made out of fondant

Can you tell I loved the cake?

Maya's Instructional Aide at school, she is
so sweet, we are so glad she came

It was a great day, Maya was so beautiful. She was so ready and prepared to be baptized. I told her more than once that she could wait if she wasn't ready or didn't want to. Obviously, she made a great choice. She asked some clever questions before hand that let Tom and I know she was really thinking hard about this choice she was making. She received a set of beautiful leather scriptures for her birthday from Tom's parents. I have been so impressed at how she has really taken to reading them and asking questions. She is well on her way to being a very quick scripture chaser in her primary class.
Now, that cake. OMGoooooooodness, the pictures do not do it justice. It was to die for good. The top cake was a very most strawberry with a chocolate filling. It tasted like chocolate dipped strawberries, no lie. The bottom cake was white chocolate cake, so moist with a lemon curd filling. I have truly found myself thinking about that strawberry cake. And, I also realized I love lemon curd.
I am going to get my brother to take some pictures of her in her dress. I love her dress. She is such a special girl. Our little Buggy. I love that she still lets me call her that even in front of her friends and at school. I don't love that she is growing up, but so happy for the things that are happening in her life. She is thriving at school and is so talented, she can sing, dance, plays piano, loves to play soccer and is taking a power tumbling/gymnastics class. She is pretty amazing.

Junior Achievment City aka Biz town

Mom, Risi and Leanna at Biz town

Risi giving town hall speech

Risi advertising at the Biz town tv station

This was the coolest, most impressive field trip I have taken with any of my kids. And, it was a lot of work. At Discovery Gateway there is a mock city, Junior Achievement City. Risi was employed as the CEO of the JA Restaurant. I along with Leanna supervised the SLC school district. It was a lot of work. Leanna was amazing, she took a day off her own job at Ronald McDonald house to spend the day volunteering. Who does that? Someone who is a best friend and more. I am so thankful she did, b/c she kept me sane running our part of the town.
Risi learned so much including applying for a business loan, writing checks, making business deposits as well as personal banking deposits, getting paid, buying needed supplies for business and personal things and being able to vote.
The town shops and businesses all looked real. The students have been preparing for this for weeks. I believe the started after Christmas break. This would have really helped me growing up. Check out the link. http://www.ja-utah.org/city/virtual_tour
I think if you need a login and password, the login is happy and the password is volunteers. This was a really great day. I'm looking forward to going with Maya now that I have experience.

Family Pictures

Sanft Kids circa 1979 (I think)

Sanft Family 2011

Here are some family pictures Doran took this past Sunday. He did a great job, no photoshop. Maya made the photo shoot because I realized I haven't had a recent one of just her in over a year. The top picture is classic in our family history. My mom gave Ryan and my dad a perm. I wish so bad I could find the picture of my dad and Ryan together with jerry curls. My brother Adam looks just like his son that he has sitting on his knee in the front of the giant family picture. Anyway, old pictures are fun, I love our stylish outfits.

Grandma Millie

My grandma died on March 9th. She was such a wonderful grandmother to me. When I was younger I looked forward to spending a week or two each summer with her and my grandfather, WITHOUT my parents. They spoiled us as only grandparents can. My grandma had a way of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches taste divine, I even liked the crust. She was kind, funny and sweet. I miss her, yet I know how fortunate I am that I had 39 plus years with this neat lady. I had the pleasure of writing her obituary. It's long but hey that's what 91 years of a good life deserves.

Millie Johnson Gould

1919 ~ 2011

Mildred Johnson Gould, beloved wife, mother, sister and daughter, returned to our Father in Heaven March 9, 2011. Millie was born to James and Lillian Russell Nielsen on October 3, 1919 in Centerfield, Utah.

Millie married R. Doran Johnson on November 10, 1939 in the Salt Lake Temple. They had a fairytale marriage absolutely adoring one another. They enjoyed traveling to far away places as well as long trips all over the United States. Millie and Doran loved taking their children on family vacations.

Millie and Doran enjoyed various callings in the LDS church. A highlight of their church service together was having an opportunity to serve a mission at the Independence, Missouri Visitors Center. Millie was a devoted and active member of the LDS church. She served many positions in the wards she attended. She was always compassionate and a friend to all. When traveling, Millie made sure to always find a ward to attend.

A few years after Doran died, Millie was blessed to find love again in the loving arms of a grade school friend, William R. Gould. They had little contact until the phone rang one evening in 1994. From this point, their story-book romance and courtship unfolded rather quickly. They were married in the Provo Temple on December 14, 1994. These were magical years for both of them. They lived in Long Beach, California, coming back to Utah often to visit family.

Millie was the 5th of 10 children, including; E. Leon Nielson, R. Gordon Nielson, Farren Nielson, Vernon C. Nielson, Joel F. Nielsen, Lois Nielsen Barrett, Iona Nielsen Green, Kenneth E. Nielsen and Colleen Nielsen Spencer. Millie lived most her life in Provo, Utah. Being the oldest daughter, she was a great help to her mother; helping with household chores and helping with her younger siblings.

Millie was very proud of her career at First Security Bank. She began working at the bank in 1940. In 1973 she became the first female operations officer of First Security bank. She loved working as a banker. Her work ethic and her meticulous attention to detail were characteristics well suited for this field. She retired in 1979.

Millie was preceded in death by husband Doran in 1991 and husband Bill in 2006. She was also preceded in death by five of her brothers and one sister, as well as her grandsons Ryan Johnson and Max Sanft. She is survived by her sister Iona (Bill) Green, her brother Kenneth (Nedra) Nielson and sister Colleen (Norman, deceased) Spencer. She is also survived by her 3 children: Sue Ann (Ramon) Sanft, Randall Doran (Leslie) Johnson and Charles Marc (Debra Jo) Johnson. Millie was a wonderful grandmother to 10 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. Millie is also survived by her husband Bill's children, Erlyn (Duane) Madsen, William R. (Carol) Gould Jr., Gilbert (Nina) Gould, and Wayne (Janette) Gould, as well as their children and grandchildren.

This, that and other stuff

Odyssey of the Mind, 1st and 2nd place
Shiny ribbons are cool

Last home game, the fans were incredible for this game that honored seniors

Risi crush

Jimmer, can we have those shoes?

Yes, we have watched him fly

We didn't make it to Vegas for the MWC tournament. The girls competed at Utah's Odyssey of the Mind competition. And, they won. Maya's team was the only primary team that competed, so of course she won 1st place. Who cares, it's all about the silky shiny blue ribbon. Marisa's team took 2nd place in their category. Which means now they will compete in Washington DC over Memorial Day weekend. Let the fund raising begin! If anyone knows any good ideas please share, I am the fund raising coordinator, we have short amount of time to raise $6,000. I am also going with her and I can't wait to show her my favorite places in DC.
Grandma Millie died March 9th, I posted about that.
Miles is having his a middle ear hearing implant placed in his left ear on Friday. He is also getting his 5th set of ear tubes at the same time. Awesome. He will also be getting glasses tomorrow (I hope). I really hope once he can hear and see he will not be so aggressive. Last night my parents took all grandchildren 5 and older to dinner and a movie. My dad took the boys and my mom took the girls. They loved it. I only had Miles which meant I didn't have to cook dinner. When I asked him what he wanted to eat for dinner he said mac and Cheese. I took him to Noodles and Co. and we both had mac and cheese. Then he said, "how about a doughnut mama?" So, we went to Krispy Kreme. When we got home he was tired, so we watched a little tv and both fell asleep at 8:00. During Sacrament meeting he struggles to sit still and be quiet. Sometimes, most times he is just plain rotten. I end up in the mothers room with him with nursing mothers wondering why we are in there. It keeps him confined and I can listen. This last Sunday I was holding him at the back of the chapel and he was being loud and acting silly. The speaker was telling a story of young boy who had a dream about Heavenly Father getting hurt. Miles grabbed my face with both hands and loudly said "Mama did he go to the doctor?" He was listening to the talk. I was shocked, and very amused.
Robby has an appointment with Dr. Cartwright, uro doc in 2 weeks. I have a strong feeling he will send us to nephrology where we will be told he needs another kidney biopsy.
Lastly, we love Jimmer in this house. Risi made the comment a few weeks back when I had borrowed my dad's car that "grandpas car is BYU tricked out" I had never heard that before. Her room is Jimmer tricked out. Life size posters, that I am to lazy to take pictures of, number 32 everywhere and her Jimmer t-shirt is constantly in the washer. She wants 2 so she can rotate. When she found out she is going to Washington D.c. she said I'm wearing my Jimmer shirt everywhere. She could have a famous crush on Zac Efron or Justin Beiber, so no complaints here. What can I say, she was born with cougar genes. All of the Jimmer pictures above she took. Thanks Grandpa C. for letting us go to so many games this season, 2nd row is perfect for Jimmer watching. Oh and to be fair, we/she like the whole team. Tomorrows game against Florida can't come fast enough. How are your brackets? Mine isn't pretty, but I did pick Pitt to be the first 1 seed out and I picked BYU to make to the final 4.

Today

Today sucks. Yes, I know BYU lost. And, well, that really sucks a lot. BUT while I will never write a BYU is so awesome they are going all the way post again, until the end of March when they do...that is not why today is a crappy day.
The weather is cold again, and wet and while just two, yes 2 I say, days ago I was driving around with the windows down letting the warm weather inside the momobile, er mini-van I mean, that is also not while I am have a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day.
Here it is. Robby still has a high amount of blood in his urine. It is suppose to go down, from the first test we had 6 weeks ago each time. He's had 2 others since and will have one more in about 10 days and if it is the same specialist doctor we will never be able to pay off wants to do another kidney biopsy, possibly bladder as well.
It's not just my sweet, and he is so sweet Robby, but it's raining, so guess it may as well be pouring. Miles has been really aggressive lately having 2 (what's with that stupid number in this post) pretty major outburst where kids his age were hurt. I am with him so often I have learned that I can almost, like 87% of the time almost link his aggression to not hearing well, or ear trouble. Being sooooooooooooo on top of this I got him into Dr. Rowley right away. Remember this post http://familycrist.blogspot.com/2010/01/miles.html? Well, I made an appointment with Dr. Rowley who we love (I love anyone who works well and patiently with Miles) he looked in his ears then sent us off to the sound room where they have the scary wires and last time I had to hold him down...I almost cried walking into this room. BUT, I did not. I used my super excited way cool mommy voice and did the whole Miles this is going to be so awesome, you get to put these color tubes and wires in you how cool is that and a treat after, blah blah blah. Yes, super cool mommy voice so rocked that he was awesome. What took an hour and lots of screaming last time was so much faster this time. Dr. Rowley told us he is hearing nothing in the left ear. Surgery. AGAIN.
Best part, of all this is I haven't told you all about the eye problems of Miles. I have known (shame on me) for about 2 months, right after Christmas maybe before Miles most likely needs glasses. He goes cross eyed. Usually in the right eye. Lovely left ear problems and right eye. He had a well child visit and Dr. M who is our ped who I also think is the rock star of docs told me to get him in to a good ophthalmologist. Dr. Abrahms. This man many in town wonder why he works with kids. I like him, yet I was worried because Miles is not an easy child. I filled out the paperwork, then went back up to the receptionist and asked to speak to her in private. She looked at me like I was nuts. Didn't care. She obliged. I told her I was concerned because Miles has been known to tell people especially when he is not happy he hates them. She got it. She said something like you are worried about Dr. Abrahms and how he might handle Miles if he has an outburst right? Exactly. She said write your concerns and I believe you will be surprised.
Bless this man. When he came into our assigned room, Miles was on the floor on his stomach playing with his leapster. (kid learning toy) Dr. Abrahms after getting no response from Miles when he said, "hi Miles, what have you got there?" Dr. Abrahms in his dress shirt and nice slacks got down on his stomach on the cold dirty tile (well doctor office dirty) and talked with Miles about his leapster game toy for a good 5 minutes. I teared up. This doctor who has not always been kind to kids, (Marisa's last trip to him with my mother in law he told Ris she was faking, FAKING, faking what?) could not have been more perfect Miles. I didn't remember him saying that to Risi or I wouldn't have taken Miles to him. Getting back on track, Miles needs glasses. Miles can't hear. Robby most likely needs a kidney biopsy again,
It's been a lousy day. I'm going to end it with making the kids their favorite dinner and then I think I'll go to bed, or maybe I'll go get a pedicure.
ps - BYU will be ok, call me crazy, I don't care. They are going to pull it together and they will win.

It's the annual b-ball post

I know I should refrain, but yes this is a post about my love of college basketball. I know, you are all probably sick to death of my facebook status updates and if you are stop reading now.
Also, I'm taking a risk, huge risk because by mentioning how freakin awesome and talented and undeniably skilled BYU is doing this season I'm probably jinxing them for a loss tonight.
Still, aside from summer and super cool events that sometimes happen to my kids, like Risi taking 2nd place in the school Geography bee, well it's my favorite time of year.
The thing is I have always loved college basketball. My dad is the BYU football fan. Growing up raised by him our family vacations each year consisted of trips to San Diego to the Holiday Bowl. Disneyland on the days the team was there, Sea World the day the team was there etc. It also meant I went to games hours, I mean HOURS, in time to watch the tail gate trucks drive in hours early to the home games. I went to practices with my dad (back when we could watch practices) and we watched the players practice together. We knew which players were the first ones on and off the field. Good life lesson for me. In my dad's world, thus mine also, BYU would never lose and each season after the Number 1 season, they were going all the way every season.
I was in high school writing for my school newspaper when I realized basketball not football was my sports passion. I loved watching college basketball. I loved March Madness and wrote an article about this event that I can't find. (That might be best) However, I remember thinking and still feel this way, that it is the single greatest sporting event that happens. 64 teams all have a shot to be number 1. The games are so exciting, anything can and does happen. Every single year games do not disappoint. Multiple overtimes and last second shots for victories. What other sporting event does this happen?
I love basketball. And, I need it out there that I loved basketball before BYU was all about Jimmer mania.

ps. I love football to, and fyi - you heard me here say this; Jake Heaps for heisman. Can not wait to watch him play.

When I get old

When I get old I'm going to Hawaii, or anywhere else want to travel whenever I want to. My parents flew to Kauai on Monday. I guess they aren't technically old, but they are older than me. My mom took me to Hawaii a million years ago and I loved it. It really is paradise. I've been lots of places 38 state I think, Yucatan honeymoon to Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Europe. The point - I've seen some places. And Hawaii lives up to the hype.

My dad called me when they landed. My dad never, ever does anything wrong, in my opinion. However, I sort wanted to reach through the phone and punch him for rubbing the smell of paradise across the ocean and over into a very drab Utah evening. But I got over it, before the end of the phone call even. I was happy my dad is on vacation and I know he deserves the break from all the wonderful things he does for our family.
Then the next day I received an email from my mother.
Here is a little taste of how it went.

Hi, we are here. It is beautiful and smells wonderful.

This place is big and nicer than Turtle Bay Haven't seen the local yet as we arrived after dark. Sure smells like I like it too....floral. Love you all

Love you to mom, have a great time. For now, paradise awaits me until I am old!

Valentine's Day

Tom and I spent a lot the day mocking this holiday and silly people spending an outrageous amount of money professing love to one another. Literally mocking, I mean employees who wouldn't work because of wives that needed dates that night, a dancing gorilla on the sidewalk with a sign saying "Chuck loves Clara," people have you lost your mind?
I bought Tom a card and sent him off to work for the week. Nothing else. We went to dinner and movie on Saturday, wait, we do that every Friday or Saturday. I don't love most holidays. I don't like the expectation that there needs to be a gift.
Tom was at the grocery store on Saturday, I realized I hadn't bought Valentine cards for the kids school classes. I sent him a text telling him to buy the cheapest ones he could find. No candy. The kids wrote out their Valentines and Marisa when finished asked, "where's the candy?" I said, "there is no candy." She was crushed. Maya's comment was so funny, she said, "people are gonna be mad." Oh well, let your classmates be mad. My thoughts were that they were most likely coming home with 25 plus pieces of candy plus a school party snack, plus whatever sugars grandparents load them up with so NO CANDY! I seemed to have Marisa somewhat appeased when she realized I signed up to bring her class treats for her class party. I should of taken them small baggies of carrots, but I didn't I took doughnuts. I did get the kids some dollar store trinkets from me so they wouldn't think they have the worst mother on the planet.
Mostly, yesterday as I was thinking about the holiday I took a minute to reflect on my thoughts about the "Valentines" in my life. I thought about my relationship with Tom. He loves me. It's simple and I never, ever doubt it. The kids love me, same thing, I never doubt it. I love all of them. They are my favorite people to be with. No expensive grand gestures needed at least for Valentines day, not this year.
Now, that being said, I do like flowers, chocolates and jewelry but not when prices are jacked up for a holiday.

Field Trip

Best field trip ever

Getting pain on her pallet, 300 colors to choose from

Almost finished product

Very serious business, being an artist

Maya's eyes look green in this picture

They get to paint plates

Working on her self portrait

On Wednesday I got to chaperon a second grade field trip for Maya's class. We went to the BYU art museum which was truthfully kind of boring. The kids were able to see a photography exhibit of 3 Utah towns. Maybe it's cool, but with 30 kids and docent spending 5 minutes on each photo it got boring fast!
The second half of the field trip was at Color Me Mine. That part was so cool. Maya loved it. I think we will definitely go there again. She painted a plate that will get to bring home on Tuesday.
It was a good day.

Tom's 40th birthday surprise

One of the 3 pools, gorgeous weather.

View from the balcony of our room

Looking out toward downtown San Diego

Tom was such a great sport. This is one of my very favorite places to eat.
We had really great seafood right on the water.

I love these kids!

Flora, Derek, Alexis and Ryan - the perfect host family for a night

Tom's birthday present as much a present for me as it was for him. On his birthday I drove to Duchesne with the kids to see him. He was surprised, it was fun. Then about 20 minutes after seeing us I told him that he was coming home with us. He was shocked. Then I told him we were going on a vacation. I also reminded him that for us right now in our lives vacations are not trips with kids. Trips with kids are great and mostly fun, but no vacation. Someday.
The next morning we got up and sent the kids to school and drove to the sun. This winter has been especially brutal for me. I planned a long weekend to San Diego. I am so glad we went because I grew up going to San Diego with my family every year for our vacations. It is one of my favorite cities. We lived there when I was in kindergarten and first grade.
Tom and I stayed at a very nice Marriott vacation resort. We have stayed at many Marriotts and this was the nicest. It was on Coronado Island and it was one of those places you don't want to leave because of the amenities. We spent 2 nights on Coronado Island, then drove to my brother Ryan's house and spent one night with him and his beautiful family. I have really missed my brother, it's been over a year since I have seen him which I realized is the longest I have gone without seeing him since his mission. Too long. Our time with his family was too short, but we felt a tinge of guilt not having kids with us to see their cousins and goofy uncle.
Tom's birthday was perfect. I like that he turned 40 and I got my sunshine fix until the Utah winter ends and spring comes.
It was so great to spend so much time with just Tom. It was really fun to share one of my favorite cities with him and have him love it like I do. We had a couple of really delicious meals, one at a fantastic Mexican place in Old Town and we had lunch one day at Anthony's sea food grotto. We went on walks along the ocean front, we enjoyed the pool. We slept in and stayed up late. I think I'm looking forward to turning 40!
We are so thankful for family and friends who helped with kids while we were away. It was so nice not to worry about them and to truly be able to relax.

Christmas vacation

Risi and Brennan

So cold and wet

Christmas Eve, Robby received a package with 3 I Spy book from Carrie
he LOVES these books. They were a gift to help him recover from his surgery the day before.

They did not want to pose for me, but were good sports.
I told them they had to let me get a picture before they opened presents

Here are a few pictures of Marisa's first time skiing. It was the coldest and most wet day of the season so far. Just as she really started to do well on the bunny slope (is it still called that?) they closed the mountain down because of an avalanche. It was still a fun day, and you all know how much I HATE being cold, so my saying it was a fun day is a big deal.
The picture of the kids on the stairs is of Christmas morning. We had a great Christmas. The kids get up earlier as they get older, regardless, it was still a great day and a really great season. Maybe that's why my Christmas tree is still up! It's coming down tonight. It's going to be our FHE activity.

Updates

Robby had surgeries on December 18th and 23rd. I should have written about that surgery sooner. I didn't so better late than never right? Right. He had a relatively minor surgery the week before that, I think that one was the 18 of December. The first was a test done by a radiologist who literally spent about ten minutes and who was not very kind. The nurses were great. Robby was under what they call conscious sedation. For the test they filled his bladder up with dye and made him lay on the very hard cold table for 20 minutes with a full bladder. It was conscious sedation, they claimed he would not remember any of this procedure. They inserted a catheter in his urethra which was horrible to watch, he screamed and cried huge crocodile tears. Then they inserted the dye with another fluid his bladder was completely full. He was screaming for at least ten solid minutes because he could not pee it out. They claimed he would not remember, however, an hour after the procedure was done and we were in our car going to his favorite place to eat, In and Out for a hamburger and fries he said it was the worst day of his whole life. Those results came back fine. Whatever fine means. So the following week he had a pretty major surgery in SLC 2 days before Christmas. A Nephrologist was in this surgery as well as our Urologist. The nephro doc came out after about 45 minutes and said he was going home, because his kidneys looked beautiful. I was so thrilled, finally feeling like the roller coaster of being told he has a kidney disease and then he doesn't and then maybe he does again was over. And, for now it is. The Urologist, Dr. Cartwright I absolutely adore. This man is so great. One of the best doctors as a parent I feel my child could have. He came out at the hour and a half point and told me he felt the problems all were in Robby's bladder. He removed 3 tiny tumors and told me Robby had a lot of irritation on the lining of his bladder. This is most likely causing the bleeding in his urine. Because this was the longer surgery and more major, I was expecting a painful recovery. It was not nearly as painful as the procedure the week before. It was no picnic, he was still in a lot of pain, but the week prior was brutal. The tumors are benign which Dr. Cartwright suspected would be the case before they were sent off for a pathology to determine. Now we will do monthly urine test, and we will have a 3 month consult with Dr. Cartwright to make sure everything still looks good. I have to also mention Dr. Clayton has been our biggest advocate. He has rushed lab work, he arranged for the radiology VCUG test to be done quickly so we would have results to Dr. Cartwright in time to do the second surgery before Christmas. He has sent numerous text messages to me 'dumbing' things down for me so I could understand all the medical terms. He has been a great friend and a great doctor. Thank you everyone for your interest in Robby and prayers, fasting, positive thinking etc.

Next update, Marisa won her school class geography bee. She goes to the school geography bee this coming Wed. She loves school, the process of learning. As a mother, I am really enjoying how excited, even passionate she gets about her school work. Her achievement day leader told me she is the daughter every mother dreams of having. And, I she is so right. I love her so much, she continually amazes me.

Tom is turning 40 on Wednesday. That's right the big over the hill paint the world black 40! I have some top secret plans for him. I'll be posting about that after the secrets are all over and done with - well I'll post most of my secrets some of them will be TMI. I love that he takes me out every weekend for a date night. As busy as he is with work, he knows how much I need that time with just him. When he is at work and he calls me at night I get excited like back in the old days of pagers, he used to page me and I couldn't get to a phone fast enough to call him back. It's corny I know, but I love him, and I love knowing that he loves me.

Miles is going to take a power tumbling class. I think he will be so great at this. He is doing so much better in his church class. His primary teacher absolutely loves him. It's amazing how kids know instinctively when adults care. He loves his preschool teacher because she is freakin awesome and he knows how much she loves him, and his primary teacher is the same way. He has a great connection with both these women.

Maya is doing so well with piano lessons. She is learning quickly and practicing without complaining. What's up with that? I get to work in her class on Monday mornings and I love it. She is following in Risi's footsteps academically and getting straight A's. School seems to come so easy for both girls.

Braden is 16 and getting his license in a week. He is a great driver - most the time. He is playing rugby which is such a fun sport to watch. He is also playing basketball. We get to see him a lot and I am really enjoying the time we have with him. He is such a great brother. The boys especially love it when they get to see him and wrestle with him. We tried to get him to go the multi stake New Years Eve dance, but he insisted it was lame and convinced his cousins so they stayed at Grandmas and watched TV, cause that's not lame! I think they played video games.

1% vs. 10%

A few weeks ago we went to tithing settlement. Maya wanted to pay her tithing. She has paid her tithing before, I think she liked the idea of going into the actual meeting with all of us and the Bishop. We talked about how much she needed to pay to be a full tithe payer and she filled out the form and placed the money in the blue envelope. We waited outside our Bishops office for a few minutes before our turn. When we entered he asked us 3 questions he said he asks each family. 1. Do we have family prayer 2. Do we have daily family scripture study 3. Do we have weekly family home evening. Ummm yeah, we didn't pass. We do have FHE pretty consistently, and we do pray at meal time, and when the kids pray they say LONG prayers before we eat, so it feels like it should count. And, sometimes we pray as a family but not regularly. And the scripture study/reading well, Miles. Enough said. So, I know a lot of excuses and believe me I have more. We are currently working on each of these things.
Getting back to Maya, the next day she said to me, "it doesn't sound fair that the kids have to pay as much as the adults." At first I was thinking what? Pay what? Taxes? Cause you don't sweetie. No, then I realized we were talking the money in the blue envelope. We went over the 10% stuff again and I told her she didn't have to pay anything if she doesn't want to in the future. I also asked what she thought sounded fair for the kids. She said 1%. I also asked her how come she didn't say anything when we were in the Bishops office, I was trying to explain to her that he is kind and could answer her questions. She said she saw a candy dish and she thought if she didn't pay up she wouldn't get the candy.
Maya is such a great kid, I love the way she thinks, and the way her mind works. She is so smart and so funny. In the end she did decide 10% is ok. I will be making sure she really wants to pay next time. I love her.

My favorite depiction of the nativity

Brian Kershinik's Nativity

I love this. LOVE IT! My friend Donna shared her feelings about it on her blog last year, maybe even the year before. Anyhow, I went out and bought this beautiful print at the BYU art museum.
Joseph appears to have a headache, perhaps he was thinking he didn't entirely sign on for all this. He is weary from the traveling and who knows how long the poor guy has gone without sleep. He needs some tylenol and a soft bed.
Mary is exhausted, yet, being the mother of this new born she babe holds Him close to her breast, just as so many of us mothers have done after our newborn babies have been born. I love how she is looking at Him, she is so sleepy, yet she looks into His beautiful face so lovingly. Her close girl friends are close by her side waiting most likely to get to hold this precious child. I know I love this because I love newborn babies more than anything on the earth. They are so fresh from heaven. I believe they still remember those first days, maybe months where they came from. And, wow, can you imagine what Christ knew? He knew he had work to do, and he got busy with His work, serving mankind so quickly. He certainly didn't stay a child, in the sense that kids are kids I mean, for very long.
I would love to have you share your thoughts about this print and any others you love.
Recently someone pointed out to our family how typically the nativity is not depicted accurately. Truthfully, who wants to imagine Mary delivering the baby Jesus in a dirty filthy stable. And, it was. The manger that baby Jesus slept in was likely a one of the animals feeding troughs. The stable was smelly and dirty. Yet, the Savior of all mankind was born there.
Merry Christmas everyone.