HOPE

My sister has been in the hospital since Thursday due to kidney failure. She has lupus and has had two kidney transplants. When we got the call I was so heart broken and soooo sad/frusterated that I am not closer and able to help. That's always been my job...and it has been killing me to not get to be there and help out and visit her in the hospital and such. (If my boys weren't in school we would have jumped in the car and made the trip) We fasted for her on Sunday {K} didn't complain about being hungry even once. :) and we have been praying for her every day. The boys have been very concerned for her so we decided to put together a care package for her.

They both drew super cute pictures to cheer her up.

Click here for a look at what we sent.

I've been feeling a little bumbed out and totally worried the last few day. I have found a lot of peace in reading and studying about Hope today.

In the Preach my Gospel Handbook it gives an excellent definition of hope,“Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to you”.It goes on to say…“Hope is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance. It is believing and expecting that something will occur. When you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for your good. Hope helps you conquer discouragement”.

I LOVE that.

Sometimes we must make a courageous decision to hope even when circumstances around us seem bleak and depressing. We all know how things are right now with the economy. It’s not looking to good. Unemployment is on the rise. It’s basically just depressing to watch the news. And I get super scared when I think how {R} has to deal with so much of the evils of this world. Sometimes it may be hard to not allow the despair and gloom that is all around us, (espeically in a profession like his) to overcome us and bring us down. We really have to make a conscious effort to look on the bright side of life and realize why we are here and what really matters in life. {R} is such a good example of that to me. He is able to leave the things he see's behind and stay close to our Heavenly Father. We have the wonderful opportunity to help prepare for the second coming of our Savior, who can bring hope to all.

In times of distress, we can hold tightly to the hope that things will “work together” for our good, and we need to trust that God is in charge. I find great hope in this, for God knows us best, He knows the end from the beginning. And it’s important to remember that, nothing will occur in our lives that He does not understand. Hope truely does sustain us through despair.

Who knew so much planning was involved?

{K} just got home from school and we had the following conversation:
{K}-Tyler wants me to call him today at 4:00
me-okay, why? (thinking it has to do with shooting hoops or something)
{K}- because we are chasing girls and have to come up with a plan.
me- you need plan to chase girls? Don't you just run and get em?
{K}- yes but we want to make it so Lily has to chase me back so three boys will surround Lily, Shae and Samantha when they run back they will let Lily through and I'll pop out from behind the slide and she'll start chasing me.

He went on a little more about how it all works. It was so cute. I just sat here smiling listening to his excitement and wonder where my baby has gone!?

Day 89, 3-30-09

I love Panda Express and I love Mandarin Chicken so I was way excited when my friend called and said she had the recipe. I just had to try it and it was YUMMY! I had a take out box from Micheals and served it in that. The kids thought that was great.

Here's the recipe

Mandarin Chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

½ tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon of garlic powder

Mandarin Sauce-

2/3 cup sugar

¼ cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon fresh garlic (minced)

1 teaspoon fresh ginger (minced)

¼ cup water

4 teaspoons cornstarch

Pound chicken breasts with a mallet to an even thickness and season both sides with sugar, salt, and garlic powder.

Grill chicken 4-6 minutes on each side or until no longer pink inside. (I used my George Foreman cause {R} was gone) Remove from grill and cut into bit sized strips. Set aside.In a bowl combine sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic and ginger. Pour into a wok or sauce pan. Heat the mixture until almost at a boil. Combine cornstarch and water. Once the sauce starts to boil add the cornstarch mixture and stir until thickened.Add grilled chicken to the wok and coat with the sauce. Simmer until heated thoroughly. I served it over cooked rice.

I also made these yummy egg roll to go with it. MmmMmm....

Egg Rolls

1 C. Carrots grated
1 to 2 green onions chopped
1 C. cabbage
1 T oil

Add & Stir in:

¼ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. salt
1/8 C sugar or less

Add:

2 cups cooked shredded chicken breast

Roll into egg roll and wrap and fry on each side. Use a bowl of water and your finger to have the last corner stick to the egg roll after adding 2 heaping tablespoons of mixture to the egg roll wrap to stick the last corner. Fry in hot oil. Enjoy.

Day 88, 3-29-09 Recommended Sabbath Day Reading.

I absolutely LOVE these "Scripture Power Stories" as my kids call them. They read them over and over all day on Sundays and are the best little quiet book at church.

The kids love them so much and I do too, it makes teaching the gospel to them so much easier. The wording is so simple to understand and the illustrations are just beautiful!
One of my very favorite things about Sunday afternoon is hearing the boys read these stories to {B}, makes for a happy Sunday all around.

Day 87, 3-28-09 That can't be comfortable

I went to check on the kids one last time before I went to bed and here is how I found {B}

Day 86, 3-27-09 Birthday Festivities

I can think of no better way to start a birthday than a phone call from your very best buds. Justin, Dallin and Isaac (who recently moved to Utah) called and sang Happy Birthday to Jaden before he even went to school. He was grinning from ear to ear and said "Did you tell Amy when I leave for school?" He thought it was AWESOME to have a b-day call so early.

We had his favorite, German Pankcakes for breakfast and let him open one present before school because he needed to take it to school with him. It was a back pack. His other one was very worn out. Seriously I don't know what the kids does to them, this is his third one this year. :)

{R} and I picked him up from school and took him to Dairy Queen for lunch. Then we bought some cupcakes for him to take back to his class.

Jaden loved opening ALL of his presents. He gets sooooo excited and was so fun to watch.

He LOVES his new Spiderman sleeping bag from Christy, along with everything else that he got.

{R}'s Uncle Ken and Aunt Sherri were in town and we go to go to Red Robin {Jaden's all time favorite resturaunt} with them.

They arrived before us and Sherri had the balloons and everything arranged for Jaden. He LOVED it!

We had a great visit with them. They are such fun people. I wish we lived closer. It totally made my day to get to spend some time with family on such a special day. I've been super homesick for our family and this was just the pick me up I needed.

Becca sat with Uncle Ken for most of the meal. She didn't say much, but she gave lots of smiles and colored with him and took french fries from him. She has always been quite found of Uncle Ken.

At the end of our meal they brought out some Ice cream for the birthday boy. (Again Sherri's doing) and he LOVED it.

We officially decided we want to go on vacation to Seatlle and visit them. I've always wanted to go and Kyle loved all the things they told him about it. We had so much fun and will cherish our time with Uncle Ken and Aunt Sherri. It was cute to hear all the fun memories Ryan has about his Uncle Ken. They boys especially liked hearing about the Jazz games they use to go to when he was just a boy.

By the time we got home we were all too stuffed for cake, but {j} at least had to blow out his candles to make it official. We will be having cake and icecream tonight it looks like.

Thanks everybody for making it such a special day. Your thoughtfulness was exactly what made his day GREAT!

Day 85, 3-26-09 Not a baby anymore!

Sweet little {J} how did you go from this...

to this in the blink of an eye.

I can not believe how quickly you have grown up. You are such a sweet little boy and make Daddy and I so happy.

here's a few fun things about you right now:*
*you love LOVE star wars and Ben 10
*Right now you are obsessed with being like dad. lately he has been asking, can I do such and such when I grow up AND still be a dad. :) example have been a basket ball player, a missionary in Africa (so he can feed the elephants) and drive a tractor.
*you love to play games on the computer
*you are super sweet with your lil sis and keep her very entertained
*you love to wrestle with Daddy
*you are my little monkey and can climb ANYTHING
*you have my most favorite laugh in the whole wide world

you are so WONDERFUL and we LOVE you to PIECES.

Happy Birthday Son!

Day 84, 3-25-09 What have we done???

Tonight {R} turned {B}'s crib into a big girl bed.

She was SO excited and it started off great and then...

slowly

but surely...

she escaped!

This was like her 5th time out of bed. She would knock on the door and laugh and giggle.

Day 83, 3-24-09 One HAPPY kid.

{J}'s package for his birthday arrived yesterday and boy was there excitement here!

He was so excited about the "Ben 10" wrapping paper. And went on and on about how awesome it is and kept reading it over and over. He thought it was SOOOOO cool that Ben 10 say's Happy Birthday to him. :)

Typically when gifts are wrapped or packages arrive we put them in our China Hutch to keep them "safe" from curious bodies. This package does not fit in there so we set it up on top.

After Jaden had been in the Living Room for the 100th time he came up to me and said

{J}: Do you know why I keep going in there?

me: Why?

{J}: I can't keep my eyes off of it, It's soooooo AWEEESOME!

Thank you Aunt Christy. You sure know my boys and what makes them happy and I'm sure from the message he left you, you know how happy you made him. Wish you were here to celebrate with us! We ALL miss you so much.

Day 82-3-23-09 Trying something new.

I have never had a green thumb. Seriously every plant I have ever had sadly has never lasted very long. Well every time I read my friends blog here I totally get inspired and motivated to try an AZ garden too.

We took the family to Lowe's and got some supplies

And a couple of rides were had too.

Then {R} made some garden boxes. {J} was a great little helper

It was fun to have the whole family involved. The boys picked what they wanted to plant.

Here's to hoping we can actually grow something.

Day 81, 3-22-09 Scripture Study

{B} was jabber-reading her scriptures this morning. It was the cutest thing to listen to.

She loves to stop and look at each and every picture.

She loves to search each page trying to find Jesus or Nephi.

When she finally finds them she gets really excited and repeats their name over and over.

It is so amazing to me how much kids can pick up at such a tiny age. I see the starts of such a sweet little testimony in my girl. Make me happy!

Day 80, 3-21-09 She's too little...

I was a little surprised when I looked out the kitchen window and saw little miss independence doing this.

I had no clue she had figured out how to go UP the slide too.

She seems too small to be able to go up, but I guess not.

She did this over and over for quite some time.

She is such a fun little busy body and does so good at keeping up with her brothers.

Day 79, 3-20-09 Fun with friends.

For our fun "spring break outing" today the kids each invited one friend over to play.

After a couple of hours of playing we ate some lunch boy were they all silly. It's so fun to listen to all the excitement and fun things they talk about.

After lunch everybody paired up with their buddy as we made our way to the mall.

little {B} had her buddy wrapped around her little finger. Seriously she is such a daddy's girl and I think it is the cutest thing ever!

The kids had fun playing in the sand pit for a little while.

Here they are excitedly waiting to go in.

We watched bolt and the kids were excellent. They all loved it but {B} was way more entertaining than the show. She LOVED it. She was really into it and kept clapping and saying "puppy, puppy" over and over.

I was worried about going to the movies with 5 little kids, but they were soooo excited and cute and well behaved. It was a great way to spend the day!

*it was so cute, when we were getting in the car {J} opened the door for his little friend and she waited for him to get in and he put his hand out and said "Ladies first" and she smiled and said "WOW, your like a prince" :) Good job little {J} at being such a fine gentleman. You make my heart smile.