Thankful Thanksgiving - Oh... So Grateful

This past week has provoked a great deal of contemplation. Like many of you, I have been thinking of the things I am MOST thankful for. It goes without saying that most of us could rattle on and on about many things on every side of the spectrum to be grateful for, many things that are truly ordinary and basic but are necessities life that make our life more comfortable and enjoyable. There is also a long list of rather substantial things I am truly grateful, all of which bring great happiness to me. What has resonated in me the most this past week are the things that sustain the eternal relevance of my existence and because of that I am most grateful for the spiritual elements of my life that promote my happiness and insures even greater happiness forever ever...

READ more HERE

Red Rock Film Festival

We just had the best time in Utah for the red Rock Film Festival. Ben's film played twice and was well received. The film festival was a bit disappointing, it was very disorganized and very poorly managed but we got what we came for so it was well worth the trip. It was so fun hanging out with our fabulous friends and partners the Anderton's and Ben's brother Chad. We had a WONDERFUL time at my parents place Deer Hollow... did I mention it is HEAVEN on earth? Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us camp out there, we LOVE YOU! It really was a wonderfully relaxing and romantic weekend and we got our "fix" for fall!

As always it is good to go, but so good to come home. Ben flew straight to Denver from Utah so when I got home it was after midnight and I just had to go snuggle up my children, it was getting painful to not partake of their smell. They each responded so sweetly to me. It was really amazing, each of them sensed me in the room near them, Eddie nearly ripped my head off in a head lock, Douey gave repeated tight squeezes as if one was just not sufficient. Ronnie embraced me like he usually does but for about a minute and a half he took big whiffs of my neck, smelling me over and over again as we hugged. It was SO sweet. I was so glad to come home and even more glad they were so happy to see me.

Pumpkin Patch

This years pumpkin patch experience at Sweet Berry Farms with Scoubys preschool. It was a fallish looking day with the clouds in the sky but it was still very warm. This is one of our favorite fall time activities.. ours and everyone else's :) I LOVE the FALL!

Clayton Cardinals Choir

Eddie is involved with his schools 4th and 5th grade choir and it has been such a fun experience for him. This was their 1st performance.


Mr. Nunnley - Music teacher and Choir director.

BYT - Jospeh Smith

My post this week is a simple testimony about the re-confirmation I recently received that Jospeh Smith is a true prophet of God. He had a very strong testimony and with that he wrote eloquently about his feelings.

"I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, priest-craft, lawyer-craft, doctor-craft, lying editors, suborned judges and jurors, and the authority of perjured executives, backed by mobs, blasphemers, licentious and corrupt men and women—all hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there. Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty."
History of the Church, 5:401

For more go here...

THANKFUL Thursday

As I contemplate this next week and the Thanksgiving holiday I (we all) have SO much to be thankful for. I am going to strive everyday between now and next Thursday (Thanksgiving) to write 5 things each day that I am thankful for and share them next week, play along... gratitude makes you feel so good inside! It is therapeutic, healing and is a natural endorphin, try it... you'll see.



1) Our safe return from our trip to Utah for the film festival.
2) For Kurt and Naomi... I am still at a lose for words. I am so grateful for them and how they loved our children while we were away. Those are 2 tough little cookies to be thrown into a family with 5 children instantly and do SO remarkably well. The kids have all commented at different times how much they wish they were still here at our house. Our kids defiantly bonded with them and I could not be not grateful for their big loving, kind and patient hearts! Love ya!
3) That sugar bear Ben comes home today from being gone all week.
4) Grateful that the boys get to go see their family in Utah (their Dads side) but also very sad to see them go.
5) That I have fresh fruit out again for the 1st time in a long time and so far no sign of fruit flies.

So Much to Say ....SO Little Time!

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't
own it, but you can use it. You can't keep
it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it
you can never get it back.”* Harvey MacKay


Time is such an interesting thing.... lately my time has just been SLIP SLIDING AWAY faster than I can grasp. The little vacation of ours seemed to put us back and slowly but surely I am catching up. I have a huge pile of things floating around in my brain that either need to be done, said or thought about ...but time seems to just race past me at a remarkable speed. So rest assured, we are all still alive and thriving and yes we are eating even though I have not been posting on Yummy Fun. My BYT blog has also suffered and not due to a lack of material (never), just a deficiency of time. The term "good better and best" are certainly a challenge at times and though there are many wonderful things happening in our life right now it is my many other responsibilities that supersede blogging, at least for a few more days. In due time I will get my barrings and will have plenty to "Blag" (Blog+ Brag = BLAG) about again very soon.

ECCLESIASTES 8:5-6 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment...

“The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention."* Richard Moss

We "HEART" Our Friends!

Ahh! I can not tell you how grateful I am for sweet Kurt and Naomi "Wyoming". They are just the best. If it were not for them stepping up and helping us out we would not be able to enjoy this experience this weekend. So this is the 1st of many thank yous to these great people! My kids are SO excited, in fact last night as we were talking about it during family council I began to wonder if they would even miss us. They might decide they like them better than us....:? How will I ever repay the favor? Also another HUGE thanks to my other great friend Kristi and my gal pal Val (just had to say it) for filling in too!

On a side note ...isn't it annoying that just before you go out of town, as you are franticly trying to get things put together so your departure will be smooth, everything always seems to unravel. Like your 3 year old decides it would be fun to pull all the stuffing out of her bean bag dog.. and the 2 year old decides it would be fun to start climbing out of his crib at night... or the other one decides it would be fun to start coughing and sniffling...and the other 2 decide it would be great fun to snip up cardboard into a million little pieces and leave the mess so they can build a half dozen cardboard box forts for their star wars guys, and then leave that mess too. It seems that JUST because we are leaving, subconsciously we MUST make a bigger mess than usual. Anyway, hopefully I will get all my ducks in a row if not... we will all survive, right? In the meantime I am trying to figure out how to repay the favor to my sweet friends, any ideas?

smooches K&N!

THANKFUL Thursday

The thing with THANKFUL THURSDAYS, is sometimes it is just the average things I am thankful for, other days it is all the huge stuff and some days it is a mixture of both. The fact is there is always SO much to be thankful for, the challenge is coming up with just 5 things that give an accurate representation of how I feel... always seems inadequate, oh well at least I am doing it.

a few of the things I am thankful for today are
1) Kurt and Naomi (AKA Wyoming) for making my life easier :) XXOO
2) My new washer and dryer ...XXOO
3) Laptops. It makes blogging/emailing/other computer stuff so convenient when you can be mobile.
4) Upcoming vacations... the anticipation is always so much fun.
5) That my mama called me today :) LOVE YOU!

BUILD Your Testimony - "This is Hard Doctrine"

This is a talk given 30 years ago by Neal A. Maxwell, truly amazing!

..."Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency...Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened...'And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts' (D&C 29:7)....It is a doctrine for the deep believer and will only bring scorn from the skeptic..."

Read more here.

The Interlopers is "IN"

The Interlopers, the short film Ben did a year and a half ago, was accepted at the Red Rock Film Festival. All are welcome to join us for the premier.... well not really a "premier" but regardless we'll be there with our hats on! If you are interested in joining us you can get tickets here or you can watch the short here.



We shot this at my parents ranch in Utah April 2007. It was over 2 long nights beginning at dusk and all through the night. They all worked their tail off in freezing cold temperatures and they were all troopers! I catered the event so I was very busy feeding this crew every 6 hours plus lots of other treats. We had a great time and though the film didn't turn out exactly the way Ben had hoped (it never really does) considering we funded it out of our own pocket, he was still very pleased with the finished product.