BOO

So, someone made our day a few days ago, by "BOO" ing us. They left a cute plate of treats for us, a festive poem and a cute picture of a pumpkin that says BOO! on it. My kids thought it was sooooo awesome to get Boo'd and were so excited to pass it along. It's a chain and each of us is supposed to carry on the game by Booing other people.

So, of course we started to make some Halloween cookies yesterday, to spread the cheer. When our cookies came out of the oven hot, the kids were leaning over and sticking a candy corn on top. Well, Brookie leaned too far forward and burned her lip on the cookie sheet. Yikes! Talk about a fright . . . . that it was. She has a scab on her lip now, but it's still very sensitive. Poor little princess.

But hey, we loved being booed and booing in return. It's a fun way to feel festive!

The desert

John just returned from a business trip in Arizona and of course, in his fashion, he always has silly things to tell the kids about where he's been and what he does on his trips.

Well, this time, it's worth sharing. Brooke had a phone conversation with John a couple days ago and it was so cute to listen in. John had told the kids that he was going to the desert, so of course, they pictured sand and camels, the whole bit. And of course, John loves it and totally feeds their imaginations. Brooke was on the phone with him when he first arrived and seriously asked if he had gotten a camel yet and how he was gonna get water in the desert. John played right along and told her all about his camel and how it tried to drink his water when it got really hot and the two humps it had to carry his suitcase on, etc. She really enjoyed the conversation and sat there and talked to him for a good 20 minutes, very maturely, about his travels in the desert. She asked all sorts of cute questions then passed the phone on to me when she was done.

Of course, I was chuckling to John on the other end of the line about how cute she was and the cute story about his adventure in the desert. Well, Brooke over heard me laughing and chimed in to me, "I know, isn't that sooo funny that his camel keeps trying to drink his water??" It was adorable!

Unicorns!!

I just have to say, if you haven't seen and ridden on a pony with painted colorful braids, purple sparkly hooves and a beautiful unicorn horn "headband" . . . you haven't lived! You'd come close if you got to paint your hand prints all over a cute little white pony. . . :-) That would be pretty awesome.

My kids have really lived, because they got to do both yesterday! Leave it to my fabulous friend Natalie to have a wonderful unicorn birthday party. Well, technically it was her little girl Maya that had a birthday, but hey, you know Natalie loved the unicorns too. What's not to love ???

Who knows, maybe there will be unicorns coming to a party near us sometime soon . . . it was the coolest birthday party idea I've seen in a long time! Well, second to camping, of course. Not even real live sparkly unicorns can beat that one, if you're a boy. :-)

Joy in the Journey

Lots of talks from the General Conference addresses this past weekend were great, but one in particular has really got me thinking a lot. It was the one by President Monson, and it was about finding Joy in the Journey. Every thing he said really hit home with me and I found myself sitting on the couch brought to tears while he spoke.

I sometimes struggle with finding Joy in the Journey, because I get caught up in the day to day challenges of life. There is so much joy to be found every day and I'm setting a goal to make a concerted effort to find joy in the journey each day. I love my family so much and don't want any more time to go by that I let distractions keep me from focusing on how much joy there is to be found in our life together.

Here's some joy from today . . .
Today, I enjoyed a hug from my husband, it was sincere and compassionate and heartfelt, and just because.

I found joy by watching the delight in my kids (Austin and Brooke) faces when we made cookies and set up Halloween decorations tonight. Such simple things that we took the time to do, made them very happy.

I find joy in watching Cameron grow and learn every day. Today, he crawled over and climbed onto my lap and said "mama" so sweetly, that I couldn't believe how fast he has grown up. I really enjoyed it though and will strive to cherish moments like that more often, because precious moments sure pass quickly along this journey of life.

Most EXCELLENT news . . .

Yesterday a friend called and gave me some news that was very wonderful. Although I didn't know her well, I have been deeply touched and concerned about a little girl, Brooke's age, that was diagnosed with cancer this past June. Her family attends church in our church building with friends of ours and through them, I have been following her struggle and we have been praying for her. Her struggle and her family's struggle has been very difficult, to say the least. She has endured 5 rounds of chemotherapy which was so hard on her little body.

However, yesterday her family received test results showing that the chemo therapy had worked and that our little friend is now cancer free. What better news could there be than that??? What happy day!

I have recently become friends with her mother and am so grateful that I was able to join my friends in celebrating with her and her girls on such a fabulous, memorable day! I have been reminded by her example, that our children are precious and we never know how long they will be entrusted to us, so we need to always treasure them. I'm so happy that she will have more time to treasure her little Grace.