Cheaper by the dozen......(well half)

Family

“Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities”
(“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”).


THE START



The family started when Bret met Kristi at BYU-I. They fell in love and were married in the Logan Temple, together they raised six CRAZY children who each have different talents and abilities. I am so grateful that my parents honored the sacredness of marriage and chose to raise their children to understand that they are children of God.

THE FUN STUFF

There is one thing that I absolutely LOVE in this world, FAMILY DINNERS. Sunday's were the only days that every single person could sit down for at least an hour and enjoy each other. Most dinners would break out into long debates, sometimes tears, and my favorite, FOOD FIGHTS. My favorite memory is when my Mom handed my dad his roll that was leftover from the boating trip the day before. Instead of eating it he launched is across the table it at Max and pegged him right in the head. After that we all loaded up on ammo. The dinner ended with all of us running around the house throwing rolls at each other. It was so fun to not have any worries of a mess but to just play together as a family.

THE QUALITY TIME

My mom would ALWAYS read to us. I think we would spend at least an hour of quality time together listening to my mom reading. I love to see her read to the grand kids now and understand how it uplifts them to have the one on one attention that kids LOVE. I am so lucky to have a mom that read me the classics Harry Potter, The Great Brain, Cheaper By the Dozen, Little House of the Prairie, Box Car Kids, Junie B. Jones, and even The Princess Bride.

THE TRADITIONS


In the FOR THE STRENGTH OF THE YOUTH phamplet it says to participate in ttraditions. I love family traditions. Christmas is a pretty big deal at my house. We started the tradition of an UGLY Pj's contest that is judged before the big sleep over. All six of us would sleep in the basement and keep the movie Christmas Story on all night on replay.  In the morning Mom and Dad would read the Christmas Story from the the Bible and pray! Then we would all line up on the stairs and go down one by one to see what Santa had brought us. To finish Christmas Day off we go to Golden Star a Chinese Restaurant and enjoy a nice "Christmas Story" meal. Traditions have changed over the years but you can see we still participate as adults and that we still enjoy them!

THE SIBLINGS

Emily, Me, Alex, Mitch, LauriAnn, Max

I grew up lucky. I always had a brother or sister around to play with. There were many times when we would fight and maybe even bite! I remember there were times when I absolutely could not stand my siblings through my teenage years. That is something I wish I could change. As well all got older we became best freinds. Through many "sibling dates" I have been able to get to know each of them to see their strengths and their weaknesses. I have been able to grow to love them and to have them as my best freinds. It is so important to build these relationships young, its going to happen eventually you might as well do it now!

THE SPIRITUAL STUFF

Joe (best brother-in-law), LauriAnn,Alex, Me, Emily, Mitch, Max

I grew up with a loving Father and a kind Mother. I am so grateful because they took the time to raise us each differently according to our needs and our understanding. They strived with all of their might to get all six of their rascals to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every morning my Mother would DRAG us out of bed to read the Book of Mormon. Max, my younger brother, would lay on the couch and would yell out his infamous statement "Mom make me some waffles." We rarely made it through a morning with out many comments about how we could have had another 15 minutes of sleep. Even though it was always a fight to get us there, and I still could not tell you every story in the Book of Mormon, but I can tell you that we did read together and we did pray together, these mornings unified my family. I love my family more than anything. It has not always been fun, but when there are PEACEMAKERS families get along alot better and have the spirit in their homes. Like my Mother always said.....

 "Who wants to be the PEACEMAKER?"

Through the Window...Through the Door

So easy :]

As a Sister Missionary one of the BLESSINGS that we RECIEVE is the ability to study the scriptures for an hour a day, called Personal Study. So every morning from 8 to 9 we get to DIVE into things like the King James version of the Bible, The Book of Mormon (Another testiment of Jesus Christ), and Ensigns (Church Magazines). It is seriously like CHRISTMAS every day, to just sit down and read and have no other cares in the world.

The creen would not come out!

Today I was reading in the Bible in St. John chapter 10  http://lds.org/scriptures/nt/john/10?lang=eng (if you want to read it :), and it just HIT me. It was talking about how we need to enter through the DOOR and not the WINDOW. After reading that my first thoughts where how do I usualy enter a house, the answer was the DOOR. I thought of times when I have had to use WINDOWS and those have not always been the ideal situations. Seriously think about times you have had to use the WINDOW....Some may because you got locked out, your keys are lost, it may or may not be your apartment, or maybe you SNEEKING out. In all of those situations it is a solution but not the easiest and even the cleanest. Think about how easy it would be if we could just use the DOOR.

Dont get Stuck in the window!

I started to think about my favorite people in the world the YOUTH. They have so many things comming up against them. So many times they are pressured into drinking, drugs, and things with chasity. I remember how hard it was to say no to things like that because I wanted to do what my freinds were doing, I wanted to fit in. However as I watched people "CLIMB IN THROUGH THE WINDOW," I saw how much harder life was for them. I had many freinds who would choose the "DOOR," and I was able to see how happy their lives were. I now have a new perspective when it comes to making decisions that will impact my life and the lives of others.... Am I using the DOOR or am I climing through WINDOWS. Another way to look at it is how would my parents react if they caught me climbing out the WINDOW late at night, my guess is not good.

In John it talked about how Jesus Christ is the door, I thought that if Jesus was inviting me into his house I would want to use the DOOR and would not be sneeking in through the WINDOW.

Now the DOOR and WINDOW can represent MANY different things, that is something I LOVE about reading the scriptures we can relate it to our lives....Feel free to COMMENT and give your thoughts or if you have questions!