Fast for the success of Proposition 8

One of things that sets The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints apart from other churches is that we have a living prophet who receives revelation that is relevant for our day.

I remember when I was in Young Womens, and The Family: A Proclamation to the World was revealed. I remember that one Saturday, we were asked to go door to door and pass out copies of this Proclamation. While we recognized that this was a new revelation and recognized it as scripture, I don't think that any of us realized how these profound truths would be threatened.

This November, the citizens of California will be voting on Proposition 8. A 'yes' vote is in support of legally recognizing only the marriage between a man and a woman. I just reread the Proclamation and it really stuck out to me how many times it specifically mentions that marriage between a MAN and a WOMAN is central to God's plan.
I know that this is not a mere coincidence that more than a decade ago, Heavenly Father, through our prophet, began preparing and reinforcing in his children the importance of marriage being between a man and a woman. I know that the wording of The Proclamation is deliberate.

The proclamation states that "the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children."

There is a reason that Satan is attacking the family in this nation. He knows that if he can get the central part of the PLAN to distinigrate, he can personally interfere with the eternal destiny of our brothers and sisters.

Satan is working hard to see that Proposition 8 does not pass. I just received an email where a sister tells of her experience in attending the Oakland Temple. She said that there was a mob of protesters, harassing those going to serve in the temple. This because the church is involved in supporting Proposition 8.
This really hit me hard. The time has come for us, as members of the church, to stand up for what we believe in. We can not afford to be silent. Our leaders have said that if this proposition passes in California, it will spread to the rest of the country. No matter where we live, we will eventually face opposition in attending the temple. In Boston, where homosexual marriage is legal, churches have already been losing their 'tax exempt' status because they refuse to marry couples that are not a man and a woman. The church will never bend on this and so the possibility of us becoming an illegal entity is very real.

We have been asked to fast and pray this weekend for the success of this proposition.

These are truly the last days and we are seeing prophecies being fulfilled.
I am grateful for our leaders and I know that if we follow their counsel, we will be able to enjoy peace and happiness in our lives.

Photoshop give away

I saw this on my friend Tamie's blog, and I just couldn't resist trying to enter.
The blog "The Secret is in the Sauce" is giving away the New Photoshops Element 7. I thought it was worth a try. Click HERE to try to win it for yourself! Good Luck!

Does anyone else's house ever look like this?

As always, I'm a little slow putting up this post that I thought of a while ago. I just had to post it and see if anyone else can say that their house gets this tornado-like:

In my defense, when these pictures were taken,

this little cutie pie...

was suffering from his first ear infection and I consequently was running on little sleep...

so

when this little cutie pie....

...was left to his own devices 'cuz Carter was demanding more than his fair share of my attention...

This is what happened....

After getting both boys into bed, I saw this sight and decided that it would be more therapeutic to take pictures and blog than to tackle the mess just yet.

(All of the shelves on this DVD organizer are normally full)

Halloween preparations

The same weekend that I spent a lot of time on Craig's list looking for the jump-er-oo, I came across another ad. This one was from a photographer who wanted to take pictures of kids, especially babies in their Halloween costumes. Of course, I could not resist responding for this complimentary photo session.

Last weekend, we met with Vivika and she took some amazing pictures. At first, Mason was really shy and wouldn't even look at the camera, he just kept holding his hands over his face. That is what he is doing in the one picture that I appear in. Now the hard part will be deciding which ones we want to order!

If you want to see some cute pictures, click HERE

If it asks you for a password, it is Halloween. Just click on 'view event' and then you can see our pictures. If you want, you can choose the slide show option and you will be able to see the pictures bigger. For any Grandma, Grandpas, Aunts or Uncles out there who may be interested, you can order some of these pictures directly from that website if you want. :)

Jumping through the years

When Mason was almost 5 months, we got this 'Hop and Pop' jumper for him.







When Carter was about the same age, we got it out for him. It's so amazing to me that our boys look so different from each other. Both of them got their Daddy's long eyelashes, though, so that's a similarity.

What do you think? Do you see similarities?


























When Mason looked like this...


the day when he would look like





















THIS seemed so far away....yet here it is. I know it's cliche to say...but time really does fly!








Of course Mason wanted to help Carter learn about this new toy. I LOVE Carter's expressions in these next two photos!

















After Carter tried out the traditional Jump-er-oo at some friends' houses, I spent a weekend checking Craig's list and found a great deal. Carter definitely likes the bigger version better, it was definitely a worthwhile investment.

For your viewing pleasure, here are two videos of him jumping in his new jump-er-oo.

You can scroll down on the right hand side of the blog and put the music playing on pause to hear it better.

I promise that I usually don't give Mason a 'treat' just because he asks for one, but I had told him before I started taping Carter that I would give him one. He's eating strawberry marshmallows FYI. :)

Notice how long Carter jumps in the second one, the whole time that I am talking to Mason. That is just a short time compared to how long it usually it. :)

Thank goodness for baby toys

This is how we quite often find Carter after he has been crying himself to sleep during a car ride. Any little toy that is circular seems to give him comfort. He's so precious!

Recipe for a typical summer day

Take this Mischief Maker

to a mostly dry park...but add one semi-hidden mud puddle.

Then look away for 33 seconds...and you will have a boy who is thrilled to be only wearing his diaper

because

his shorts look like this:

Of course, it's always more fun to have a partner in crime...
Mason's favorite is his cousin Levi!

Meanwhile...angelic Carter smiles and coos in the grass...never dreaming of playing in a mud/clay puddle. :)