Usually what gets me through each day with a smile, or at least without having a giant melt down, is my faith in a loving Heavenly Father who teaches me and tempers me through experiences and trials.  The past couple of weeks have been tough ones for me and this week I was having a harder time feeling that love and hope.  My emotions and anxiety were both closer to the surface than I like them to be, which wasn't helping my patience level with my struggling little family, but especially with myself.  Thankfully I have a great support system including a counselor whom I believe follows the promptings of the spirit as much as he follows the therapy techniques he learned in school and in the years he's been practicing.  After a couple of long talks with him this week, I took his advice and asked someone I love and trust to give me a priesthood blessing.  It's something that had popped into my head a few times lately but I had quickly dismissed the thoughts for some reason.  When he asked me out loud if I had had a blessing recently, the tears started flowing and I knew that was my answer all along and I'd been ignoring it.  It was so nice to be able to come up with a name of who to ask very quickly and to know that not only would he be willing to say yes to my request but that he would also be worthy to fulfill it as a faithful priesthood holder.  I didn't have a chance to talk to him ahead of time and there's no way he could have known the fears of my mind and heart, but when he laid his hands on my head and pronounced a blessing of comfort upon me, he addressed every concern I've been dealing with.  He reminded me that my Heavenly Father is mindful of me and my family and loves us very much.  He told me that I am a good mom and shouldn't question my parenting skills and should continue to trust in the revelations I get concerning my family.  He told me that my husband loves me and that we can strengthen our family together.  He told me that I need to be patient with others but mostly with myself.  He told me to continue to look for the lessons I can learn from my trials and to rely on my faith.  He reminded me that I have a good support system and that I need to let those around me continue to help me with my family.  The feeling of peace and gratitude to a Heavenly Father who loves me and a Savior who understands me completely was almost overwhelming.  They know and care about even the smallest details of my life and of my family, and they want us to succeed as a family and return to them.  How blessed I am to be surrounded by so many who act as instruments in His hands in order to help us along the way.

My mom has been long overdue for getting new carpet upstairs and down as well as new paint downstairs.  My dad especially has continued to work hard to finish the basement and rip up old carpet to prepare for the new.  Today my kids decided to help paint.  It was going pretty well until Buddy decided it was more fun to paint his sister than the wall.  I guess if you can't have a little fun while you work, why work at all?

Brandt, Kylie, and I rode to Cokeville with my parents to watch Rylie play football.  Kylie and Kenzie had fun playing together and Brandt had fun playing on the playground.

No Training Wheels!!

Buddy has attempted to take the training wheels off his bike a few times over the past couple years, but he always ended up getting too nervous to ride without them and Bryce would have to put them back on for him.  It has bothered him more lately that he still has training wheels since other kids his age don't and he asked Shaun to help him out with it at their counseling session this week.  He helped his dad take them off and then was off and riding without ever crashing even one time.  It has been such a blessing to see him overcome so many of his fears!

The kids and I attended a celebration for the Paris tabernacle the past couple days and then Brandt helped write his own talk for primary today:
"I got to go to the celebration at the tabernacle.  I liked hearing stories about my ancestors.  We got to go on a wagon ride and see the first houses built in Paris.  I liked the story about the grasshoppers that were eating all the corn and food in Laketown.  The people prayed and Heavenly Father blessed them with a big wind that blowed the grasshoppers into the lake.  I liked the candy cannon and carrying apples under my chin.  I'm thankful for my ancestors and we should always remember them."
We went to a program Friday night and then an all day celebration yesterday.  There were all kinds of pioneer games and stories at stations done by each ward's primary.  There were log sawing contests, a beard growing contest, wax candle making, horseshoe nail ring making (by Billy Gay), horse drawn wagon rides, dinner, and more.  Jolie and Bridger spent most of the day with us and then Maleri met us for the dinner and the street dance (that ended up being in the school gym because it was cold outside) afterward.  Brandt was the one who had the most fun and was the most attentive to the program and all the stories.  He danced his little heart out with his friend McKenna Johnson and had the best time.

It's been a couple years since we've had a garden, and despite our busy schedules, I was determined to have one this year.  My dad and Bryce were a huge help in putting the perfect little garden spot together in the back corner of our yard.  Bryce built a miniature fence around it using some of the old posts that have bordered my grandparents' property (which is now ours) for years but they were starting to rot away and would no longer work to keep the horses in.  I love that he was able to find a way to incorporate the history I love into something beautiful as well as useful.  The kids and I had a great time working (and playing) in our garden this summer.  We left space in the front corner of the garden for Brandt and Kylie to use as their own dirt pile to dig and play in.  The kids and I enjoyed watching our plants grow.  Of course the best part was harvesting and then eating our yummy veggies.  Unfortunately we got a late start in planting and our melons didn't get big enough to eat, but we loved eating everything else.

This was a big year for canning because we were all getting low on our food storage items.  So we got together at mom's house a couple times and got a ton of soup, salsa, spaghetti sauce, Italian tomatoes, and marinade sauce bottled.  Since Maleri lives so close now she came and so did Jana, so we had a pretty good crew.  Dad even joined in on the fun and added a little speed to the process by using his power tools.  The kids had a great time playing of course.  At one point Brandt disappeared and didn't answer immediately like he's supposed to when we call for him.  When he finally hollered back we found that he was on top of grandpa's hay stack out in the hay shed.  Somehow he had scaled the huge round bales that were stacked 3 high to get up there.  It took me and my dad to talk him into coming down and to get him to stop running back and forth across the top of the bales.  When he did come down we had a good talk with him about the dangers of falling down between the bales.  I then told him the story of when I was younger and staying down at my Grandma Bodily's.  My cousin Kent, who was my best friend down there, was up on top of their hay stack and was accidentally knocked off.  It was super scary!  While he had some injuries it definitely wasn't as bad as it should have been. I still remember my uncle Steven and Bishop Hall giving him a priesthood blessing in Grandma's little TV room after he got home from the hospital.  It is one of the first times that I really remember feeling the spirit and it strengthened my testimony of the priesthood. One funny thing about Brandt getting in trouble for climbing on the hay stack was that Jana said of Amanda that she knew better than to do that because she had talked to her about it ahead of time and told her never to do that.  Later on we found out the truth when Amanda said she'd tried to follow Brandt up but it was too hard and she couldn't do it.