When Kennady talked to Grandma Char today, Grandma told her that it is still so hot in AZ that she is still using her air conditioner every day! Meanwhile, we are getting pretty c-c-cold up here! I love the heater.

Also, as promised…I am including some of the notes from my talk in Sacrament Meeting today. Of course, these are just the quotes and ideas I used. I also included personal stories and improvised a lot, but here is my outline for anyone who wants to read over my notes

In the October 2005 general conference, M. Russell Ballard gave a talk entitled, “What matters most is what lasts longest.” He said, “As your leaders, we call upon members of the Church everywhere to put family first and to identify specific ways to strengthen their individual families.” So, logically, our next question will be…How? How do we protect and preserve and strengthen our homes and families in a world that pulls so hard in opposite directions? Elder Ballard gave three simple suggestions:
1.Be consistent in holding daily family prayer and weekly family home evenings. These activities invite the Lord’s Spirit. His Spirit provides the help and power we, as parents, need. Take opportunities to bear testimony and to allow children to bear their growing testimonies.
2.Teach the gospel and basic values in your home. Teach them to be kind, responsible, respectful, modest, etc. There are so many good basic values that we can teach, but we can’t forget that true gospel teaching must also be done in the home. Primary, sunday school and seminary should reinforce the things taught at home. The main responsibility for gospel teaching rests in the home. Elder Ballard encouraged us to prayerfully choose a gospel subject or a family value and then watch for opportunities to teach it. Of course, in order to teach our children these important principles, they must be home. Elder Ballard counseled, “Be wise and do not involve children or yourselves in so many activities out of the home that you are so busy that the Spirit of the Lord cannot be recognized or felt in giving you the promised guidance for yourself and your family.”
3.Create meaningful family bonds that give your children an identity stronger than what they can find with their peer group or at school or anyplace else. This can be done through family traditions for birthdays, for holidays, for dinnertime, and for Sundays. It can also be done through family policies and rules with natural and well-understood consequences. Read good books together. Work together.

In the Church, we have been taught of the importance of families and understand that the sanctity of families is part of our eternal existence. We know that before this life we lived with our Heavenly Father as part of His family, and we know that family relationships can endure beyond death. But, sometimes…we take our families for granted. Yet, going to back Elder Ballard’s statement. It is so true: What matters most lasts the longest.

Robert D. Hales, gave a conference talk entitled “Strengthening Families: Our Sacred Duty,” In that talk, he said, “The key to strengthening our families is having the Spirit of the Lord come into our homes.”
He gave a lot of great ideas of how we can bring create an atmosphere in our homes where they Spirit of the Lord can be present. Where each child will feel safe and loved.

• Spend individual time with our children. Let them choose the activity and the subject of conversation. Block out distractions.
• Encourage our children’s private religious behavior, such as personal prayer, personal scripture study, and fasting for specific needs.
• Pray daily with our children. President Hinckley also reminded us of the importance of prayer in the home. He said, “Is prayer such a difficult thing? Would it be so hard to encourage fathers and mothers to get on their knees with their little children and address the throne of Deity to express gratitude for blessings, to pray for those in distress as well as for themselves, and then to ask it in the name of the Savior and Redeemer of the world? How mighty a thing is prayer. How tragic the loss for any family that fails to take advantage of this precious and simple practice.
• Read the scriptures together.
• Read the words of the living prophets in Church magazines.
• We can fill our homes with worthy music and we sing together from the hymnbook and the Children’s Songbook.
• Hold family home evening every week.
• Hold family councils to discuss family plans and concerns. Some of the most effective family councils are one on one with each family member. Help our children know their ideas are important. Listen to them and learn from them.
• Invite missionaries to teach less-active or nonmember friends in our homes.
• Use a quiet voice in the home.
• Eat together and have meaningful mealtime conversation..
• Work together as a family, even if it may be faster and easier to do the job ourselves. Talk with our sons and daughters as we work together.
• Help our children learn how to build good friendships and make their friends feel welcome in our homes. Get to know the parents of the friends of our children.
• Teach our children by example how to budget time and resources. Help them learn self-reliance and the importance of preparing for the future.
• Teach our children the history of our ancestors and of our own family history.
• Build family traditions.
Plan and carry out meaningful vacations together. Help them create happy memories, improve their talents, and build their feelings of self-worth.
• By word and example, teach moral values and a commitment to obeying the commandments.
• Teach our children the significance of baptism and confirmation, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, partaking of the sacrament, honoring the priesthood, and making and keeping temple covenants. They need to know the importance of living worthy of a temple recommend and preparing for a temple marriage.
• If you have not yet been sealed in the temple to your spouse or children, work as a family to receive temple blessings. Set temple goals as a family.
• Men, Be worthy of the priesthood and use it to bless the lives of your family.

Fathers and Mothers each have divinely appointed roles and purposes within the family.
President Harold B. Lee said: “If you husbands remember that the most important of the Lord’s work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home, you can maintain close family ties. … If you will strengthen your family ties and be mindful of your children, be sure that home is made a strong place in which children can come for the anchor they need in this day of trouble and turmoil, then love will abound and your joy will be increased.”
Last year, Sister Beck gave an inpiring talk in conference, entitled, “Women Who Know.” She said, “The responsibility mothers have today has never required more vigilance. More than at any time in the history of the world, we need mothers who know. Children are being born into a world where they “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Mothers Who Know Bear Children
Mothers Who Know Honor Sacred Ordinances and Covenants
Mothers Who Know Are Nurturers
This is their special assignment and role under the plan of happiness.5 To nurture means to cultivate, care for, and make grow. Therefore, mothers who know create a climate for spiritual and temporal growth in their homes. Another word for nurturing is homemaking. Homemaking includes cooking, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping an orderly home. Home is where women have the most power and influence; therefore, Latter-day Saint women should be the best homemakers in the world. Working beside children in homemaking tasks creates opportunities to teach and model qualities children should emulate. Nurturing mothers are knowledgeable, but all the education women attain will avail them nothing if they do not have the skill to make a home that creates a climate for spiritual growth. Growth happens best in a “house of order,” and women should pattern their homes after the Lord’s house (see D&C 109). Nurturing requires organization, patience, love, and work. Helping growth occur through nurturing is truly a powerful and influential role bestowed on women.
Mothers Who Know Are Leaders
In partnership with their husbands, mothers plan for missions, temple marriages, and education. They plan for prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. Mothers who know build children into future leaders and are the primary examples of what leaders look like. They do not abandon their plan by succumbing to social pressure and worldly models of parenting. These wise mothers who know are selective about their own activities and involvement to conserve their limited strength in order to maximize their influence where it matters most.
Mothers Who Know Are Teachers
Mothers Who Know Do Less
Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all.
Mothers Who Know Stand Strong and Immovable
They do not give up during difficult and discouraging times

President Hinckley taught:
“We must work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it.
“If we fail in our homes, we fail in our lives. … Pray for guidance, for help, for direction, and then follow the whisperings of the Spirit to guide you in the most serious of all responsibilities, for the consequences of your leadership in your home will be eternal and everlasting.”

This was a big week for birthdays in our house. Jase had his 1st birthday…which is always so fun and exciting! In honor of Thanksgiving, we have already been making Tai’s famous cranberry sauce, which happens to be SO DELICIOUS on cheesecake. Since Jase loves cranberry sauce, we made him cheesecake for his birthday. He looks pretty satisfied with it, don’t you think? In this picture, he had already picked off and eaten almost all the cranberries. All that is left is the cheesecake and the sauce. We had to add more cranberries for him

Okay, I guess I can’t mention the famous cranberry sauce without including the recipe. So, here you go:
12 oz. package cranberries
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 2/3 cups gingerale
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 0z. package raspberry jello
Add all ingredients except the jello in a saucepan. Cook over medium high heat until the berries burst open. Remove from heat and add jello. Stir until dissolved. Refrigerate overnight. Enjoy!

Then, just two days later, we celebrated Addy’s sixth birthday. When she woke up in the morning, BJ and Ben (the guy who rents the apartment across the hall from us) took her out shooting. Though she looks pretty fierce, her favorite part of the outing was actually collecting the empty shell casings.

After her expedition, we ate lunch and had a double layer birthday cake which BJ made for her. Addy wanted a wedding cake, but she was content with her double layer round funfetti cake Then, we headed into town so she could spend her birthday money. She chose to buy the Barbie Christmas movie. Then, we grabbed some dinner before heading over to the volleyball game. Overall, I think we had some pretty happy birthdays!

When Addy started kindergarten, I wondered how Brighton would adjust to not have a built-in playmate at home with her all day. I remember my Mom telling the story of how sad I was when Holly went to school. We lived close enough to the elementary school that if I was outside playing in the yard, I could hear the children playing on the school playground. So, of course, I thought they could hear me too. When I was feeling especially sad or bored, I would go out into the yard and yell as loud as I possibly could, “Tressa and Holly! COME HOME NOW!!!” You can imagine my surprise then as the first day of school came and went with not even one little mention of the girls all day. Days turned into weeks. I was starting to wonder if Brighton even realized that the girls were gone!
Well now, here we are in Idaho. The older girls have settled into school, made new friends and seem to be adapting really well. But, Brighton is still really struggling with the change. Now, she asks me every day, multiple times a day if it is time for the girls to come home yet. Meeting the bus is the highlight of her day. I have to admit. It is a highlight of my day too. Just watching Brighton’s excitment and enthusiasm is enough to make it a highlight for me. We start walking down the street. Sometimes we get to the end of the street and wait at the bus stop for the bus to arrive. But, sometimes… Sometimes… the bus makes it to the bus stop before we make it all the way to the end of the street. Kennady and Addy get off the bus, cross the street, and start walking down the sidewalk toward home. As soon as Brighton spots them, she starts running and exclaiming, “Kennady! Addy! Yea!!!” Then, when she meets them, she throws her arms around them and gives them each a big hug.
Also, every day, without fail, she tells me that she “wants to go home to Ariyona.” The other day, BJ was home eating lunch and overheard her saying this. He asked her what she missed about Arizona. Her answer: “My home. Take me home to my home in Ariyona.” We explained to her that Daddy doesn’t have a job in Arizona so we are going to find a new home in Idaho. She said, “Daddy, take me home to Ariyona and I will find you a job.” Poor, sweet little Brighton. Change is hard sometimes, isn’t it?

(Picture taken on the walk to meet the girls’ bus today)

I may regret saying this when I am freezing cold in January, but at least so far…I really like experiencing true seasons instead of one eternal summer. Don’t get me wrong. I love Arizona. I really appreciate the beauty of the desert and nothing beats the smell when it rains. Not to mention the amazing monsoon storms… But, enough reminiscing. The true message was seasons. I like to smell the woodsmoke in the air on a crisp cold day. The kids are loving all the fallen leaves. If I was willing to sit outside all day long (which I am not), Jase would be perfectly content to crawl around in the leaves, hearing the swish as he makes a path on the lawn through the orange, red and brown leaves.

Though I did not take any pictures, we also had our first snow! The older girls had at least seen snow on the ground, but none of the kids had seen it falling, so you can imagine the excitement! When I noticed it snowing, I brought Jase to the window and opened the curtains so he could see the world outside. He stood on the couch watching it snow for several minutes. Well really, he bounced on the couch while watching it snow. When he gets excited, his little legs start moving. Then, when it was time for us to go meet the girls bus, he really thought the snow was fun. He could hold his little hand out and catch a snowflake! You see, everyday the girls ride the bus home from school. Kennady could ride it in the morning, but I am only comfortable with them riding the bus if they are together. So, our daily routine goes something like this: BJ takes Kennady to school in the morning before going into work, for which I am really thankful. Before I devised this system, he left for work and then 5 minutes later, I bundled all the kids up in coats, socks, shoes, etc. just to come home and unbundle them all again. So, this works much better. Then, after lunch, I drive Addy to school for afternoon kindergarten. Then, when the bus drops them off at 3:45, Brighton, Jase and I are there to meet them. The bus stop is only about a block away, but we like to get out of the house everyday and maybe I am a bit of a paranoid mom sometimes. Then the girls come in for an afternoon snack and homework time, before heading out to play in the yard in the few remaining minutes of sunlight they have. Meanwhile, ideally I get dinner in the oven during this time, taking advantage of the time they are outside playing. Then, at 5:05, BJ walks in the door and we all sit down for dinner. Then we all clean up dinner, get ready for bed, play and read together and start the nightly battle to get everyone in bed. The kids are not used to sharing rooms, so this has been (and continues to be) a bit of an adjustment at bedtime.
We are quickly getting initiated into our new ward. I have already received a call to serve in the Primary with the 10 year old class. This Sunday, the girls are singing in sacrament meeting and next Sunday, BJ and I are speaking. We have not spoken in church in over 8 years. So, I guess it is our turn. My topic is Strengthening Home and Family. I have only just started studying the topic and already I feel uplifted and motivated. I will be sure to share some of the quotes and insights I find as I study… Okay, goodnight.

A couple of days ago, Ray gave me a potato. I could not believe my eyes! Seriously. Have you ever seen such a huge potato?!? Only in Idaho…

So, for dinner that night, I baked a potato. Not four or five. One! It fed our whole family! It is very funny to me.

This year, our entire family dressed up (which we have never done before). But, how could we not dress up, considering that we live in the same house as Jane? She has an entire room devoted to costumes! So, for Halloween…we were the royal family:

After taking a few pictures, we went over to the town trunk-or-treat at the church. However, it was short lived because there was a high school football game that night. It just seems so small town to me that the whole town shuts down to go to the football game. But I prefer that my kids not get a ton of candy, so it was just right for us.
Also, BJ and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! We celebrated by talking and drinking hot chocolate on the balcony after the kids went to bed. I know that doesn’t sound very exciting compared to how we spent our 5 year anniversary (in Hawaii), but somehow…it was perfect. I am so thankful to be married to BJ!