It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Today we got to work putting up the Christmas tree and other decorations. I really love this time of year and decorating for Christmas. So do the kids. They were so excited to put everything up.

I do love this beautiful, sweet girl, and what a hard worker she is. Most of the lights on our pre-lit tree don't work anymore, so she put all the lights on our tree. She's so awesome!

And this little guy was so excited to decorate the tree. He wanted candy canes on the tree this year. So Aaron bought three boxes and John David put them all on the tree.

And since Adam and Rachel are in town, they brought sweet Maggie over to help decorate our tree.

The kids were so excited to have her over here helping decorate.

John just adores Maggie.

After they finished putting the ornaments on the tree, they played Just Dance.

It was quite entertaining to watch these two.

Uncle Ammon came over too, and played with the kids.

The kids had a great time playing together.

What a cute bunch!

Then we turned out the lights and watched Polar Express, and drank hot chocolate.

Perfect way to end a cold winters night!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving didn't turn out as we had planned. We had planned to go camping as a family Thursday and Friday night. All of Aaron's family had planned to be there. Ammon even flew in from Virginia. But because it was supposed to be unusually cold here, we had to change our plans to go over to Amy and Shane's house. That way, whoever wanted to camp out in the freezing weather could, and the normal people could sleep inside the house. But then those plans changed too when Amy hurt her back and can hardly get out of bed. And Kent got really sick. And John David and Sarah got colds and ear infections. So, we ended up going to Kent and Johnice's for the day and had a delicious Thanksgiving lunch that Johnice prepared, and visited for a while. It was a quite day, and quite different from what we had planned, but it was nice and we had a good time just hanging out.

Even though life rarely turns out like we plan, I am so grateful for all that the Lord has blessed me and my family with. We don't have much as far as worldly possessions go, but we have a lot of love for each other, and for our Heavenly Father, and His son, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for my knowledge of the gospel, and for the peace and happiness that it brings into my life. This reminds me of what Pres. Monson said in his talk, The Divine Gift of Gratitude:

“My brothers and sisters, do we remember to give thanks for the blessings we receive? Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love.

My beloved friend President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “When you walk with gratitude, you do not walk with arrogance and conceit and egotism, you walk with a spirit of thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your lives.”

Happy Birthday To Me!

Tonight my sweet family surprised me by inviting a few friends over for my birthday. We ate some dinner, and some yummy cake from Joe's, and just enjoyed hanging out with some of our favorite people.

And even though my birthday is not for a few more days, my husband gave me my present. It was these beautiful dishes that I fell in love with this past summer when we went to the Corelle store in Katy, Texas. While we were in the store, Aaron picked out some thick, ceramic dishes that he liked and I picked out these regular, thin Corelle ones. He thought they were too thin and would break easily. He decided he was going to ask the ladies working there if he could do a break test. To his surprise, they said he absolutely could. He told them he thought the dishes I liked were too thin and that our kids would break them easily because they are hard on stuff. They lady picked up the plate we were looking at and said, "Are they this hard on them?" And she proceeded to bang the plate against the metal rack, over and over, until my husband stood there with his mouth wide open. He then asked if he could drop one on the floor. She said yes, so he held this plate up high and dropped it onto the concrete floor. I'm not sure what we were all expecting, but certainly not what we heard. The dish didn't break, but bounced off of the floor and made a tremendously loud noise. We were all standing there with our mouths open. Aaron said, "Okay, we can get these!" Needless to say, we were pretty impressed. However, we did not buy dishes that day because we didn't want to spend that much money at the time. 

So, Aaron surprised me with them today, and I love them!

Here's a better picture of the cute pattern on them. We have been through at least 3 sets of dishes since we've been married, but I think we'll have these a while. 

Dear Daddy,

Another year has passed without you here with us. I still miss you like crazy. That doesn't change with each passing year. 

I started school a few months ago. I know you are so happy that I've decided to finish school. I am really enjoying it, and I have learned and grown so much during the few short weeks I've been back in school. I recently had to write a paper about work and how working has blessed my life. My paper was kind of about you. Here it is. 

     Working and Healing Together

     When my Daddy passed away almost four years ago, there was a huge hole left in my heart, to say the least. I have always been a Daddy’s girl, and the fact that he is no longer living on this earth hasn’t changed that. I knew it was time for him to go, but I really wasn’t prepared for how hard it would be to say goodbye when it came right down to it. Never having another conversation with him, never hugging him again, and never hearing any of his corny jokes ever again was almost more than I could bear at times. The pain of it all seemed magnified by the fact that I lived so far away from my mom and six siblings. I felt like I needed them more than ever to get through the hard days and nights.

     My mom seemed to be doing amazingly well in the beginning. She was a rock before, during, and after the funeral. I remember being surprised, and impressed by how well she was holding up. But once things started to settle down and everyone returned to their own homes and lives, it all started to hit her. The reality of her being without her husband of over 40 years was hard on her emotionally and physically. I knew she was going to need a lot of support from her children.

     Since we live about 18 hours away from my parents’ home, we usually only go home for

either Thanksgiving or Christmas. And since my daddy had passed away just before Thanksgiving, we figured that would be our trip for the holidays. However, after realizing that my mama needed us there, we decided to go home for Christmas too. It was a wonderful time of love, laughter, and healing for us all.

     After we enjoyed celebrating Christmas together,  we asked my mom what we could do to help her with things around the house. We all helped with Christmas decorations, cleaning, and some odds and ends. My husband, being a landscaper, noticed that her bushes needed trimming and asked if she would like for him to take care of it for her. He got up early one morning and went out and trimmed all of the bushes. It wasn’t until he was done that we all realized just how big my mama’s house is and just how overgrown those bushes really were. My husband, my children,  a few nieces and nephews who were there, and I all went out to help pick up the huge piles of trimmings and carried them to the woods behind my mama’s house.  It took us a few hours to get it all picked up. That was physically hard work.

     However, the hardest part was yet to come. My mama asked if I would clean out the computer room for her. I agreed to do it, since I really enjoy organizing. But I didn’t realize how emotionally hard it would be to clean out that room. This was the room my daddy spent a lot of time in. In the years before he passed away, he had learned to “surf the web”, and he absolutely loved it. But even more that, he loved printing the things he found while he was surfing. We threw out bags and bags full of just random information that he printed off of the computer. We laughed and laughed as we tried to figure out why in the world he printed so much stuff. And we cried together as we found pictures, genealogy, the last few talks that he gave in Sacrament Meeting at church, and some other priceless treasures that we had been searching for since he died.

     My mom also asked if I would help her go through my Daddy’s closet and help clean out his clothes. We made several piles of clothes: a pile for my mama, a pile for my brothers, a pile to donate, and a pile for me. The pile for me was mostly his work clothes, pjs, and some of his favorite shirts that I took and cut into squares. There ended up being enough for each of my siblings to take a stack to make a memory quilt from my daddy’s clothes. This ended up being my favorite part of the whole process.

     Although this was a hard experience, and one that I would have thought I would not have enjoyed, it turned out to be a wonderful blessing for me to be a part of. I felt like it brought me closer to my mama to be able to help her with such a hard task. I also felt closer to my Daddy because I know he was there with us, and that he appreciated me helping my mama. And I felt the love of my Savior as he poured out his tender mercies upon us while we were completing such a tremendous task. I am indeed grateful for the blessings of work.

I sure am grateful for you Daddy.....for the things you have taught me while you were here, and for the lessons I have learned from you since you left this earth. I hope you get to read my blog every now and again like you used to. And I hope you know that I love you dearly.
Love,
Lynetta 

Father/Son Campout

Tonight was the Father/Son campout at Holly Beach.

This boy was so excited to go camping with Daddy. He's only been talking about it all week.

I love that John David loves to be with his Daddy and do the things that he likes to do. Makes my heart so happy!

Veteran's Day Assembly

Today was the Veterans Day assembly at school. These two cute girls performed in our awesome Maplewood Band.



And so did our friend Emma, who played the cello.



The program today was very moving. The music was beautiful, and the words shared very inspiring.



I am so grateful for this amazing country that we live in and for the freedoms we enjoy. I am especially grateful for those, past and present, who fight to keep our freedom alive. God bless America!

John's Transformation

Today I asked Aaron to take John David to get a hair cut. Aaron wanted John to get a crew cut, but I didn't want it that short. So they left and I wondered what kind of haircut John would come home with. They were back so quickly I thought for sure he would have no hair left. Here is the before picture.



And here is the after picture. It is pretty short, but I love it! He looks so handsome!



It's amazing how a haircut can take you from little boy to future missionary. My baby is growing up way too fast!