Date Night

Bowling with Tanner and Cherylyn Neilson! Super Fun! Tanner kicked all our butts. But since the stakes were on couples...Mike and I pulled through as the ultimate team winners! Oh ya!!
Tanner and Cherylyn...we'll be waiting for the movie date...mwahaha!

Interesting thoughts

I was reading the first chapter of the book of Alma today in the Book of Mormon, during this part in the book, the Nephites (ancient inhabitants of Central America) have just lost their King, a just and holy man, greatly loved by his people named King Mosiah. When he died, none of his sons wanted the throne, they wanted to spend their lives bringing the souls of men unto God, preaching His word, so King Mosiah left the people with judges, higher judges, and a chief judge, chosen by the people. Sound kind of familiar? Anyway, just 2 years after the establishment of judges, there began to be much wickedness among the people and this is the verse that I read today that made me ponder: "Nevertheless, they (wicked men) durst not lie, if it were known, for fear of the law, for liars were punished; therefore they pretended to preach according to their belief; and now the law could have no power on any man for his belief." We, in our world today, have reached a point similar to that of the Nephites, where those deceived by Satan use the word "beliefs" to spread lies, wickedness, and untruth. Where right and wrong (as far as the laws of the land) have become contingent upon wicked and lying people, claiming beliefs in choice for abortion and gay marriage. And, as in this book of history, the law can have to claim on what deceivers claim are 'beliefs'. I'm grateful to know that yes, we are given agency, the ability to make our own choices, but we are not free to choose the consequences. And that their must be a right and wrong, a good and evil, just as there is light and dark, sweet and sour. You cannot appreciate one without the other. And without them, there would be no agency or justice.

I hope that my thoughts here are clear. As I reread this, I don't know that what I felt today and thought about have come across in the writing of it. I was thinking so much of the gay/lesbian issue that is plaguing the USA right now and how people are being led into thinking this is a matter of beliefs versus what is truth and lies. The truth is, man and woman were put on this earth to create families, to learn and to grow, to prove that we would follow God's plan, to experience joy and sadness, that through this we could become more like our Father, and prepared for what is to come after this life. This is truth. And unfortunately our laws today can have no claim on those who lie and deceive calling it 'beliefs', though they lead many astray with their cunning and seemingly educated words.

Maybe no one else will understand this as I did today, but I love when I feel real personal revelation, when the scriptures of old reach out to me, written for our day to speak to me of troubles we face now, that they knew would come. May we hold fast to that which is true.

Water Bom!

We had a 5 day weekend and we went with a bunch of friends to a water park called Water Bom. We had a really great time with our friends, and watching our kids play together. Poor Eden was not feeling well while we were there and didn't participate much, in fact she took a nice long nap in the middle of the day on some pool mats. Below is a picture of Neil Prendergast and Tanner Neilson with Andrew, the Neilson's son. Also Marion and Emma sliding, we couldn't keep them away from the water slides.

Below left, Maria Rosa's family with children Ian and Zoe, center picture is all the children minus 4 that left earlier in the day. Marion playing with Grace and Kathlyn Prendergast.

The last picture below is the Keys family, Sam, Christy, Ella, and Cooper. And I'm ready to throw this laptop into the swimming pool after trying to make my text and pictures line up right and being completely unsuccessful!! Arghh! So, it's a mess, but it's here, now you can see us and our new friends.

The Tooth Fairy

At 7 1/2 years, and in the 2nd grade, Eden finally lost her first tooth!! About 3 weeks ago, Eden told me that her front teeth really hurt. Turns out all of her front teeth are lose at the same time! So just 6 days ago her first tooth came out during school (it was the big excitement in her class that day). I don't know who was more excited, Eden or me! In our house, the tooth fairy leaves a small gift for the very first tooth and for every other tooth she leaves a dollar (or in our case 10,000 rupiah). For her first tooth, Eden received a very pretty fairy necklace that she absolutely loves!

Only 2 days later, Eden's 2nd tooth pops out at a water park during a birthday party. Chowin' on pizza, the crust will getcha everytime! Give her another month and all 4 front teeth will be gone...maybe I should start thinking about our annual family picture sooner rather than later!