Christmas in Utah

Merry Merry Merry Christmas! This was our winter pose and our summer pose for our Christmas card since our family is split between Utah and California. Kyle and I love this time of year when we get to spend so much time with family and friends. This is Ben's first Christmas home from his mission and the first time in 4 years our family has all been together for Christmas so we are spending it here in Utah with my family. We did Christmas on Monday night with Kyle's parents over the web cam. That was so much fun and we loved being able to share christmas with them still. We hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday and knows how much we love and appreciate each of you.

Moving In His Majesty and Power

SO I just finished reading this book called, "Moving in His Majesty & Power" by Neal A. Maxwell and it was wonderful. It was a very, very quick read. It's a really small book but the insight and knowledge that come from that man are anything but small. I wanted to share a few quotes from one of his chapters.

"We must not quite trying. If we do, then the natural man has won another battle, and we are, in effect acknowledging that the doctrine of hope does not amount to much... Refraining from giving up on others is, therfore, a special form of giving."

I hope during this season of giving and year around that we can give the gift of hope to our friends, family and to ourselves by not giving up on each other during times of struggle.

"Do we, therefore, really seek to assess the various forms of bondage that we have allowed to afflict us? These chains may not by visible, but they are there and are experienced, such as chronic grumpiness and untamed egos, etc. Drugs and pornography now enslave millions more than were physically enslaved in the American South before and during the Civil War. It is very difficult to leave the bondage of these "plantations."

I've never thought that we could be in bondage to a character trait like grumpiness but it's so true. Now that I think about it it's totally obvious. I also thought it interesting to process the fact that more people are enslaved to drugs and pornography now than were people in the Civil War!. This is truly a spiritual war we are fighting in the last days. So many people are so horrified by the enslavement of blacks (and rightfully so) but how many of us are just as horrified by the bonds satan has placed on all of mankind. How do we prevent and protect ourselves from being enslaved? The television has become increasingly worse. Are we offended or do we change the channel when a commercial, show or movie comes on that has sexual content or may cause us to not have pure thoughts? Slavery begins by being casual. I hope that we all can fight the War against Satan for our freedom just as we fought for it physically during the Civil War. And just as we won the Civil War we will win this spiritual battle as well.

This was an excellent book! Every chapter was on a different subject and like I said it was a quick read. You could get through it in 2 hours if you were to sit down and read straight through.

Sweden!

Maybe it's the cold weather returning but for some reason I have been thinking a lot about Sweden lately and how beautiful of a country it truly is. If you ever go to Europe on vacation it would be a tragedy to miss out on the beauty of Sweden and Norway. I hope I can make it back there someday and take my family, I miss it. Here are a few pictures that I took on my mission of the landscape and buildings. Hope you enjoy.

Those who know me know I love the sky so there will be a few of these. THere is something about the clouds and sky there that is amazing. Because your on top of the world literally, the sky felt so much bigger, almost as if you could see it moving around the world.

A view from my bike as we were riding up a hill. Probably biked 40 miles that day

Road from a bus stop

Field of flowers

Can you believe the colors in the sky. (Katrineholm) This picture was not enhanced.

Trail we walked daily in Västerås

Im blurry cuz I was running but wow it was beautiful

A typical sunset in Katrineholm in the winter

Fall in the kyrkogård (graveyard)

Stockholm is covered in water, Its made of small islands


Stockholm Temple


Stockholm, part of the Palace


Just to prove it was freezing. We were waiting for the bus

A little Slot (castle) in one of my areas.

A tribute to Grandparents and Family

Last week, Kyle's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Sherman came to visit. They stayed with us for 5 days and it was so much fun. We had a great time visiting and spending some quality time together. Steve got to go to his first BYU game and Lynda came with me to Trey's 6 month doctors visit. He got shots :( They enjoyed seeing Trey and playing with him as much as possible. They were so kind and respectful of Trey's schedule. I really appreciated that. After they left Kyle and I were really sad and wished that they lived closer. We were talking about how much we appreciate our families and all of the love and support they give us. We have so many parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles that love us and our new baby. We wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you and let you know how much we appreciate each one of you. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of Trey with everyone but hopefully we'll get them soon (especially one with Grandma Jan and Sherman aunts and uncles :) We love you all!

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Lynda

Great Grandma Shirley..... Great Grandma Karma

Great-Great Grandma Dahle (5 Generations)

Grandpa Brad .....................Uncle Brad & Aunt Malia

Uncle Ben & Aunt Kristen............. Aunt Kallie

Tag: 5 weird things about me

1. My favorite foods are vegetables. I have been this way from the beginning. Most little kids say pizza or ice cream, something along those lines. Me, I said vegetables when I was 5. MMMM!

2. I hate the bed sheets being tucked in around my feet when I go to bed. Truth be told, my feet are claustrophobic no matter what. Kyle always gets a good laugh at my reaction when something is on my feet.

3. When I was serving in Sweden I ate rotten fish... on purpose! It's called surströmming or fermented herring. The family we ate with accidentally left one of the windows open in the house and no joke there were flies swarming around the dinner table. YUCK! I would never eat it again, but am very glad I tried this northern delicacy.

4. I don't care for popcorn. Growing up, my dad popped a bag of popcorn every night and I grew to hate the smell of popcorn. I don't mind the taste so much but the smell just turns me off. Oh, and caramel popcorn, NO THANKS.

5. I'm afraid of the dark. I'm 25 years old and I'm still afraid of the dark. :( I think most of the reason is because my eye sight is horrible in the dark so I can't see anything. Kyle always turns the lights off at night before I'm out of a room and then has to come walk me out of the room so that I don't run into anything. You'd think I'd know my own house but with baby stuff everywhere it's easy to trip. :)

Halloween '08

We had a good Halloween this year. Grandma Sherman sent Trey a puppy costume so we decided that he could be Todo, I would be Dorothy and Kyle was the Scarecrow. I was so proud of our costumes. I made them myself. My costume cost $5.21 and Kyle's costume cost $2.78. Dani Andre helped me sew my apron. It was a lot of fun to use our creative juices. Neither of us really sew, so we were very proud of the way it turned out. I just sewed some patches on Kyles jeans, and we stuffed him with some straw. We also went to dinner on Halloween and then carved pumpkins with the Andre's.

Fall Fun!

Trey at the Duck pond on BYU Campus. He was fascinated by them, especially the noises they made.

Playing in the leaves. He also liked how these sounded when he crushed them in his fingers. It was fun to see him discover and explore new things.

I've been tagged :)

My sister-in-law tagged me. :) This one should be fun. I am supposed to open my picture folder, go to the 6th folder and the 6th picture, publish it and tell it's story. I haven't looked to see which picture it is yet so I'm a little nervous. I'm looking it up now............

Haha, so the folder was my mission folder. In this picture I had been in Sweden about 14 months. I was in Kungsbacka, which is right outside of Göteborg or the english version Gothenberg. I made breakfast one P-day, but it looked rather disgusting. It was fried eggs and potatoes. If I remember right they didn't taste too bad.

I will tag: Dani Andre, Lynda Sherman (now you have to put something on your blog:), Stefanie Delorey, and Malia Call. I'm excited to see your posts :)!!!!

The Newly Weds

The nephews. So cute in suits and pink ties!

Ben and Kristen's wedding was beautiful! The weather was gorgeous as were the bride and groom. I love going to sealings and remembering what that day was like for me and Kyle. We wish that they could live closer to us but they are both attending BYU-I right now. Kristen will be done this year with her student teaching so they might move after that. Here are just a few pictures of their special day.

Not So Cute Post

So this is definitely not a cute post but has become the daily life of mommy since trey started experimenting with other foods besides breastmilk. Just thought I would share the joys :p





His cute, little, innocent face before I pulled him out of his bumbo.

Brush em, Brush em, Brush em

No, Trey does not have any teeth yet, thank goodness! But every time I brushed my teeth he was so intrigued by it that I decided to buy him his own toothbrush. As you can see he learns quickly :) It's his new favorite toy. What a sweetie!

Rise and Shout the Cougars are Out!

Hey everyone I got into BYU. I will be done up in Salt Lake at the LDS Business College this semester with my Associates. I start at BYU this winter semester. I plan on studying Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations. We are both very excited, especially that we won't have to pay the $20 intramural fee anymore. :P

Only One Week left!!!

For those of you who haven't heard, Benjamin is getting married.

We are so excited for him. His fiance's name is Kristen Hudson.

She is from Lakeshore, UT. WE love her! They are getting married on Oct. 18th in the Salt Lake Temple.

Kyle and I just wanted to say how excited we are for them. Congrats Ben and Kristen and welcome to the family. :)

Zzzzzz Nap Time

OUR SWEET SWEET BOY




Kyle just loves to take these embarrassing pictures so I tried to get him back, too bad he actually looks good :)

Rice Cereal

Trey does really well at eating his cereal. He's a pretty good swallower despite the lack of evidence in this picture. :) He watches me eat every day and acts like he's chewing as I'm eating. I think he'll love eating solid foods.