Joyful Reunions.....

Finally the day arrived.....

The Claytons came back to Tennessee (well minus Phil initially as he was driving back)!!!  It was SO great the see them all again and Amanda and I can get back to active match-making!  ;-)

Jack just adores Evelyn.  We joke about arranging their marriage, but honestly they really do love each other.  The first couple of days after the Claytons had returned we spent over at the farm and the kids all played very well together.  The first day we didn't come over Amanda reported that Evelyn asked for Jack and when she was told that Jack wouldn't be coming today, she began to cry.  Jack likewise one evening as i was putting him to bed, when we hadn't seen Evelyn all day, said to me out of no where, "mommy, i LOVE Evelyn!"   For real though, whatever happens happens of course, but in the meantime we are really enjoying to cuteness of it all.  ;-)

Jack was also excited to have Dallyn back as he's totally in "will you play with me" mode.  Dallyn and Jack share a love for cars and so hopefully Jack will find a great playmate in Dallyn as they are only a year apart.  It has been so sweet to me to have these best friends of mine back home.  Dallyn randomly told me the other day that he loved me, and it truly warmed my heart.  Amanda is the greatest friend ever and i can just be with her and say nothing at all and feel good.  Phil has also already got back to telling me awful jokes and it's almost like they never left.  :-)  It really was like having Christmas 10 times over.

Here are a few pictures of the joyful reunion.  Evelyn is just a doll, although she was a little out of it from their day long journey of planes and car rides.  We gave Dallyn a car and he said, "oh this is a GREAT car!"  We gave Evelyn bracelets as she has a small obsession with them and the smile on her face was enough to know she thought they were fantastic too. 

 Showing us the new red car we gave him along with his 

Lightening McQueen cars.

 Showing Jack his cars....

 So excited about the bracelets!

 Look at that smile!

 Cuddling with Grandma Schutz!

The Lady Vols and the Turners, Perfect!

Last Thursday night we had the opportunity to go to a Lady Vols basketball game at the University of Tennessee.  John's work got in a whole section's worth of tickets and we were allowed as many as we liked.  John asked me if i knew anyone that liked basketball and would like tickets and the first names that popped into my head were the Turners!  


What was more fun than going to the game though, was spending time with awesome friends.  This was officially the first time we hung out with the Turners and i am excited for the next.  They are great people and i have to admit that i didn't see much of the game as Teresa and I talked most of the time and that was just fine with me!  :-)


Jack of course loved seeing a real game, although i think the highlight of the evening for him was when Jeff gave him a piece of gum!  Ha ha!


The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and I am glad for the opportunity as it was all of our first basketball game out here.

 John trying to teach Iman how to whistle using his fingers.

Dakotah, star basketball player at her school 

and youngest of the Turner girls.

Jeff and Teresa Turner

Feliciah with Edy.  She is the third Turner daughter and a huge sweetheart.  The kids LOVE her and the other Turner girls to death!

Dakotah and Sarah

 I have to admit, i liked the cheerleaders better than the basketball players.  ;-)  So cool the things they can do!  

See the girls spinning sideways in the air?!

Happy New Year All Year Long....

Each January instead of making new years resolutions (which i think were made to be broken) we make goals. Sometimes our goals are the same ones we had the year before, as growth is a constant and some things are too important to not be working on each and everyday.

We get together as a family and write down individual goals and then family goals.  We begin our new year with a fancy dinner like one would have at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  This year as we were eating we started brainstorming about our goals.  On Monday for Family Home Evening we will write them down and make a poster board of them.  This poster board of cut outs from magazines (and sometimes drawings) gets put up somewhere really visible in the house and helps us remember the things we are supposed to be working on. If we are more aware of the things we want to accomplish then they are more likely to come to pass.  Positive thinking is key!  Anything can happen.  

Another thing we do that goes hand in hand with the poster board is write ourselves a blessing.  I know that at first that sounds a little strange, but a few years back while we were still in Utah as part of a Relief Society class the RS President shared a story from President Boyd K. Packer.  President Packer shared it at an MIA Conference in June of 1971.  Here's a bit from the quote i have:

"A few years ago Donna and I attended a holiday dinner at the home of one of our beloved friends.  It was a new Years Eve party.  Our host had an activity for the evening. He read a few verses of scripture and then read at some length from a quotation from Heber C. Kimball, a member of the First Presidency during his life. I'll quote just one sentence from his quotation from President Kimball.

'I have often said,' President Kimballs says, 'you may write blessings for yourselves and insert every good thing you can think of and it will come to pass on your heads if you do right.'

Our host gave us a sheet of paper and an envelope and suggested we write upon the paper the things we hoped to achieve during the new year.  And then he repeated again the quotation from Bro. Kimball, 'you may write blessings for yourselves. Insert every good thing you can think of and it will come to pass on your heads if you do right.'

After we had written our goals on the paper we were asked to seal the envelope and put our name on it.  'I will take these to the bank and put them in the vault,' he said.  'And a year from now we'll meet again and have a dinner and I'll deliver them to you.  And we will tell, if we wish, how nearly we have achieved our goals.'"

President Packer goes on to relate a couple of the things he wrote down and how a year later as late as New Years Eve itself all 6 of the things he wrote down had come to pass.  They were miracles.....

We have had miracles, things i thought impossible and some things that there was little i could do to help come to pass other than pray and fast, and yet they did.  It is my favorite part of the new year....writing blessings.

Here are some pics of our dinner.  Happy New Year everyone!  I hope miracles happen for you this year too.

YUM!