Counting Blessings 14 - 19

Blessing # 14
That i did NOT hit the handrail at the post office with my van.
So i went to the post office to mail something this morning when it was -3 outside (it was -12 when i got up this morning) Well i went to pull in and hit a sheet of ice and my van would not stop or turn and i was heading strait for the handrail. Then at the last minute my van turned and stopped. I Missed it that's my blessing for today.

Blessing # 15
A sled.
I think that our sled that we pull around behind our 4 wheeler is a blessing. Why? Because the smiles that we get from our kids is well worth the 1/2 hour of putting the snow gear on. Plus the kids think that I am the best mom when i take them out. I think its fun too. I never been on the sled but pulling the sled with the 4 wheeler is fun.

Blessing #16
Chores
Yes i know I'm on the crazy side for saying that. But if it wasn't for feeding our animals (cows, chickens, cat, dog wow we have a lot of animals that start with the letter C don't we any ways back to the story) I don't think i would ever leave the house. I would be stuck in my house for days at a time if i didn't HAVE to feed the animals. Its good to go out and get the fresh air.

Blessing #17
Friends that drive your kids to school.
This has been my biggest blessing the last few days. My well best friend has been taking Maccoy to school. I am very grateful to her and her husband. Its a big relief not to worry about Maccoy waiting for the bus at -12 degrees in the mornings and freezing and its nice not to pile up all 3 kids in the van and have to take them out to take Maccoy to school. I am also glad that i don't have to scrape my windows. Friends like that are awesome.

Blessing #18
a husband that fixes frozen hoses.
My husband is wonderful. He fixed 2 frozen hoses for me yesterday so that i didn't have to and so that i could do chores easier.

Blessing #19
Snow
Because it's fun to play in. It will help us this summer to have water. and I love to watch it fall. I think it is mystical and i LOVE IT.

The Knight's

So on Saturday I had the chance to go and take some pictures of the cutest family. I had a lot of fun in the freezing cold too. Here are just a few of the pictures. All the kids in this family were so much fun to take pictures of. They listen really well and they were quick about getting ware you wanted them to be.

This girl WOW is all i can say. I am glad i am not her parents they are going to be buying a lot of guns to keep the boys away from this one. She was a lot of fun. The camera loves LOVES LOVES her.

She is going to be a heart breaker too. I think she has her daddy and mommy wrap tightly around her little finger. I know i would be.

I will take this family's picture any day... So great to work with and so good to wait for the weather to work out. I don't know who was ready to cry more me or the mom!!! When we got to the place that we 1st wanted to take pictures at there was a snow flurry here and there but when we got out and about ready to go it started to snow hard. So we went and waited about 20 minutes or so. The snow let up and we hurried and got to a place that we wanted to take pictures. It turned out great. I think it was about 35* and there was a slight wind blowing. So it was on the cold side. But it was fun and it turned out great for every thing that could go wrong.

Counting Blessings 13

Blessing # 13
My Testimony
So I have never put my testimony on my blog. Not any part of it. Why? Because i was scared. I was scared that could offend some of my family or my friends. Then I realised that my testimony is me. I am kidding my self if i am scared because its me.
My testimony is who i am. Its what i believe its how i live my life or try to live my life every day.
So here we go. I am only going to share part of my testimony because if i shared the whole thing i would be here for weeks trying to type it and you would be here for a week reading it and i know you have better things to do with your time then to read my blog for a week.

My testimony:
I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS, Mormon is other names for it too) is the true Church. I have lived my life with out the church and with the church. I like my life 100 times better with the Church. I know the Book of Mormon to be true. It is another testament of Jesus. Just like the Bible. In fact the Book of Mormon and the Bible are a lot alike. I know that Joseph Smith Jr to be a true prophet. I know that he didn't write the Book of Mormon but he translated it by the hand of God. I know that Present Monson is our living Prophet for this day. I know that he talks with God and that he gets revelations for us. I know with all my heart the purpose and reason for temples and family history, also know as genealogy. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are separate beings. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus know who I AM, that they love me and that their Sprite is always with me. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus know and love everyone. They know what we like and what we don't like. I know that God (Heavenly Father) works in mysterious ways. I know that he knows what he is doing even if i don't. I know that things happen for a reason. I know if i walk by faith then everything will work out. I know that the children that i have are for Brady and I to love and take care of and for us to learn something from. I know that our Children were sent to us for us.
I have a testimony of prayer. It works. I know it works. I have had lots of payers answered. I also have had lots of prayers not answered. I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of us and that he will talk to us if we talk to him and then Shut up and listen. I think that some times Heavenly Father feels the same way with us as we do with our own kids. If only they would shut up and listen and do what we say then they would be so better off. I really think he feels that way with us.
I know Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. But some times i don't feel like laughing at the moment.

Well there is part of my testimony. Like i said i could take weeks and still not be done writing it. I didn't realise till the other day how my testimony was me, that it is who i am.

Counting Blessings 9, 10, 11, & 12

Blessing#9
HOT showers.
I LOVE HOT HOT HOT showers only in the winter though. I could stand in a hot shower all night if my water heater would let me. I have ran the water heater out more then once. I need to get a water heater like my sister has. She has one that is tank less and it never runs out of hot water. My hot showers are the only way that i can get warm on those cold winter days.

Blessing # 10
Coupons
I have never been a coupon clipper till this month and can i tell you i like walking out of the store saving $5 on stuff that i buy every month. It was great to save money on things that i always get. I just don't understand why i didn't do it sooner. I even scored me 2 bags of peanut M&M's for the price of one. Great day!!

Blessing # 11
Green Eggs.
Yep you heard me right one of my blessings are green eggs. Why well you cant get green eggs at the store and my kids think they are great. They get a lot of joy from having green eggs. Happy kids = happy mom. We have some hens that lay green eggs. The other part of green eggs means that we have eggs to eat that we don't have to "buy" I feel more self reliance on raising chickens.

Blessing # 12
Having the Christmas Spirit
The last few years i was the biggest bah humbug that you have seen. I was so not in the mood for the holidays at all. I am also married to the other biggest bah humbug. But this year is different I could not wait for the holidays i couldn't wait to put up my Christmas tree, Read and tell stories of Christ's birth, his life and death. I still don't want to do the shopping but i love the Christmas spirit. Yes my tree is up and decorated

1st horse ride.

Lets see this was the 1st horse ride for all three of them. Maccoy loved it LOVED it. She is now asking all the time to go and ride Uncle Danny's horse. Lindsay didn't like is so much. Lets just say she was on the back of the horse for about maybe 2 minutes. But she will tell you that she wants to ride the horse when YOU ask but she will not ask to go riding. Colt cried and screamed when we took him OFF the horse. He was laughing and smiling the whole time he was riding. All he wanted to do is ride. Its only time before Maccoy and Colt (when he starts talking) asks for a horse. Oh i can here it now!! It was fun. Thanks to Grandpa and Uncle Danny's horse.

Counting Blessings 5,6,7 &8

Blessing #5
Spending time with my Grandma Pectol
We went and had Thanksgiving at my Grandma Pectol's house this year. Before we left I (we) were able to spend time with just her and talk to her. I enjoy it so much. I know that she will not be around forever as much as i would love her to be. Life has already shown me that no one is around forever. My mom, dad and grandpa have already passed on. So it's a blessing for me to spend time with my Grandma.

Blessing #6
A husband that works hard.
My husband is out reading meters for the town right now in the cold on the day after Thanksgiving on his time off of his full time job. Why because he loves me and our kids and he wants us to have the best life has to offer. So that we can do things. I am grateful for him and all that he does for us so that we can keep our heads above water in this world.

Blessing #7
My Egg Lady :)
I am grateful for my egg lady. She knows who she is. We have chickens and they are starting to lay but they are being kind of slow about it. (It's Winter who would want to lay in the cold i wouldn't) So my egg lady has saved my bacon more then she knows. Her chickens are laying more then mine and she has an abundance of eggs so she lets me get some eggs from her.

Blessing #8
Kids that help
School has been out for Thanksgiving and i have had all my kids at home. Well we had to clean like we always have to clean. But it has been great because my kids have helped out. Well 2 of them have 1 just makes more messes. I didn't know how much it helps just to have someone do something little like pick up all the clothes. It has helped me so much I feel like i have more time to do fun things. So I am blessed for kids that help.

McQuade

I had the opportunity on Saturday to go and take some pictures of my cousin's little boy McQuade. He is so cute, a ham, and a little firecracker. Colt is a lot like him.

I think these pictures show how he is through and through. I had a fun time following after him. He was such a good boy to take pictures of.

Counting Blessings 2,3 & 4

Blessing #2
Kids Bed Time.
When my kids go to be i am ready for 2 reasons. Its my chance to snuggle with them rock them and love them. They do hold still for me when we do this. The second reason is i get to stop slow down and do something with out someone under foot. The girls are good but man that little boy of mine WOW hes a go getter.

Blessing #3
Warm weather.
I don't hang to well with the get to your bones cold. I love the snow but i don't like the bone cold. the kind with no snow on the ground and its just cold and the wind blows and it doesn't matter how much clothing you have on the cold still gets to your bones. As you can tell i had to go and water the calves and the hose was frozen, the wind was blowing and it was cold. It took me an hour to get thawed out and i still am cold.

Blessing #4
Dave Ramsey
Dave Ramsey is this money guru. Brady had told me about him a few times through the years. (OK i just made my self feel old) Any ways back to the story. I had heard him on the radio a time or two. Well Brady and I hit this money low. We just hated how we were handling money. So i went and bought one of Dave Ramsey's book and we started to fallow what he said. We have been on a written budget for the last 11 months we have told our money what to do instead of our money telling us what to do. I love it i love the feeling that i get when i do my budget. To know that i am doing a good thing. I still wish that we had a money tree out back but don't we all.

Halloween

I am so so so far behind in posting things oh well this is my life. Well this is Halloween. We went down to my grandmother Pectols house to trick or treat.

This is our picture Maccoy was a ballerina Lindsay was a Lion and Colton was a Bee. Great we now how Halloween over. Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I don't like it at all. I don't mind the kids dressing up and going trick or treating but that's about the only part of Halloween that I like.
Oh before we went trick or treating we went to the temple and then we went for a ride to see how things have changed. Boy have they changed. I cant believe how much they have changed in 8 years. OK that for a different post. After the ride we went to Costco and then we went to my grandmas and we had a great time there. At least i had a great time.

Counting Blessings

I was talking to one of my cousins and i got this idea from her. Well part of it. She was telling me about a blog that she had seen and how they were counting their blessings every day in the month of November and posting them on their blog. You know what your thankful for and why. Well I want to try to take it to the next level. I want to count my blessings for the whole year. So by the time I am done i will have counted 365 blessings. I want to do this in the hopes that it will help me to be more of a grateful person and maybe look at the world with a little more gratitude. There is a song called "Count your blessings" In this song it says "Count your many blessing; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done." I want to be surprised i want to see just how lucky i am. I know that i am lucky but i know that i forget and I get wishing that i had what someone else has. So this next year i don't want to be that way i want to know what i have been blessed with so i will name a blessing for each day.
Just to let you know I will try to post one every day but i know that i cant get on and post every day because i do have little kids, a husband that works long hours so when he is home i want to spend time with him and not on the computer. Life happens too. I will post 365 blessing by this time next year. So you might get 3 or 4 blessings all on one day but you'll be OK with that wont you.

Day 1
I am thankful for my bunt pan that my neighbor gave me some time ago. Why am i grateful for my bunt pan? Well today i was making banana bread and i had to much mix for 1 bread pan but i didn't feel that i had enough for 2 bread pans so i got out the bunt pan and it worked out just right. The kids got a kick out of banana bread looking like a cake. (me too). So there you have it on day one i am grateful for a BUNT PAN.

This is how our Fridays Go!!!

So on Friday the 13th Brady was trying to get home and he got stuck in this traffic. Some guy caused 3 accidents in about 10 miles. The last accident that he caused he lost his life and lots of people lost lots and lots of time. Brady said that he moved 1/2 mile in about 2 -3 hours. Brady had called me and told me what was going on so i got on to KSL's web site to look and see if they had any information on the crash. I was looking through the pictures when i came across this picture. I called Brady and asked him if he was next to a red-brown truck. He asked me how i knew and i told him that i could see him.

Can i tell you how bad i hated SLC traffic that day. Brady was going to be home so that we could go to the family movie night that they had at Maccoy's school. He didnt make it. I really didn't want to go with 3 kids and just me. I told the girls once that we were not going and i turned in to a mean mom. So i thought about it for a while and decide that it would be better for me to take them to something fun that didn't cost me anything then to stay home and be a mean mom. (Yes i was a mean mom). I am glad that we went it was a lot of fun. I had fun my self. It was good to get out and i was pleasantly surprised at how good my kids were. I still didn't get to see the whole movie like i would have liked too because i was chasing Colton around. But the girls enjoyed it and that was the main reason that i went. So that was my Friday the 13th not horrible but not great ether.

Aleah

This last Saturday I had an opportunity to take pictures of Aleah. I have so so so many favorites of Aleah that I had a hard time picking what photos to put on. Aleah was so good to work with she wasn't afraid to try new things and she hung in there with me why i asked her to do this and that.

This girl is tall and beautiful too. How old do you think she is? I bet she has boys that have crushes on her that she doesn't even know about. What do you think.

I love this picture because of the light and the smile.

I like how Aleah is just hanging out on the hay.

Ok I told you she was tall and I love it. I cant tell you what draws me to her being tall. So i will have to think about it and get back with you.

Aleah just seems to be so relaxed in front of the camera. It made it so great.

I think this is one of the first shots. We were fighting the wind too. I just love Aleah's look.

Thank you Aleah for the practice and the fun time.

Mackenzie

This last Friday I had the opportunity to take some pictures of Mackenzie.

Mackenzie was so awesome to take pictures of. She had a lot of fun and didn't mind playing around a bit. It made the photo shoot so much fun. Mackenzie is so beautiful and it shows in her great smile. I don't know how her parents keep the boys from beating down the door. I have so many favorite photos that it was hard for me to pick just a few and not put all of the pictures on here.

I love this one. OK I love them all but i like this one because it's all Mackenzie

Mackenzie Loves horses and this was taken by one of her horses. I like this one because of her smile and its just in her element.
Could anyone be any more kicked back and look so beautiful?


What can I say Cowgirl all the way.

I just love the old rustic look in this one and i do love the wild rose bushes even though they were a pain.

Thank you Mackenzie for the practice, the fun time, and the great opportunity.

Lighting

So i was out taking pictures. Can you imagine me out taking pictures that would NEVER happen. :) Well i wanted to try back lighting. So I played around and this is what i came up with. I thought it was a ton of fun. I want to go and do it again but it will have to be on a night when its not a school night. I got Maccoy in bed a little late because i was PLAYING. Moms have the right to play around sometimes don't they?

This one is my favorite.

The Winner Is

Here is the picture that got the most votes. Thanks for voting it helps me to decide what one i should put on the wall.

Blue Eyes

I can not get over the color of this kids' eyes. I just think he is soooo cute. I could just pick him up and love and kiss him all over. Even with the dirty face. I took this when we were fishing. He just woke up and we were finding something to do. So taking pictures is all ways a good option. Well at least for me it is.

A Girl and her fish.

Last Saturday we went fishing. Maccoy has wanted to go fishing so bad. So that's all it took for Brady to go fishing. It was a fun trip if I say so my self. When we got to the reservoir Colt and Linds were both fast asleep so I sat in the truck and read. Maccoy and Brady went fishing. They had a lot of fun and luck. Brady caught this one and Maccoy helped bring it in. She was so cute. She asked Brady if we could take it home and eat it. I told her have at it. When Brady was getting ready to clean the fish she asked if it was dead and Brady said it was. Then Maccoy asked why the fish was still glubben. I didn't know fish glubbed. I had to laugh. Glubbing. A new one on me.
When I was looking at the pictures to see what ones i wanted to put on it hit me like a ton of bricks how big she is getting. Wow i can not believe how big she looks and is.






Colt loves his sister and wanted to be by the fish too.

Photo of the week!

All I want to say, so i am going to say it, is
ROCK ON!! WOW that felt good. Let me tell
you the best way to start a morning is to get on your computer and log on to your class and see
that you landed an A or in my case another photo
of the week!!!! You should have seen the dancing going on in my living room this morning at 7:30 The kids thought that it was funny Brady thought that i was just wired. But i am glad that the curtains were closed!! I think this is my favorite photo of the week out of them all. I told Brady that we had to keep the cat because it has landed me such good reviews. Brady was not pleased. NOW he has to be nice to the cat its around for the long haul. Well now I am off to make brownies for the ward dinner tonight. That is if the brownies make it that far. Oh the brownies!!! Well have a good one
Steph~

Best Friends

So I think that I am safe to say that Maccoy has a best friend. Nikell took these pictures and they turned out so cute. So here are the partners in crime. I think they look like their 16. Oh my the boys are going to be pounding down the door for these two.

New Photos

We went out last Sunday with our friends to get some family photos. It was so much fun. My friend Nikell took our family photos and the pictures of Brady and I. Then I took her family pictures and her and her hubby's pictures. It was so much fun to get the practice. I cant believe how much i am enjoying photography. Here are some pictures of Brady and I don't we look so cute together ;)

It's what's for dinner!

Here is Bacon or sausage maybe it's ham I can't remember its one of the three. But it's going to be my dinner/breakfast here sometime soon. I cant wait ;)

Friends

I was out taking pictures for my class and i was able to get this one. I dont know what it is about it but something just draws me to it. What do you think?

Photo of the week!

I had an assignment in my photography class and this is one of the photo's that I turned in and I got Photo of the week.(I'm still jumping up and down) It makes me want to go out and take more pictures. I am going to run out of room on my memory card and out of batteries. If we have any more days like we had today (the power was off for 5 hours) I wont be able to charge my batteries.

Photo of the week!

I'm taking a photography class for those of you that may not know . Its been a blast and I love it. I have always loved photography but never had the camera or the money to take classes until now. Well this last week we had an assignment on movement. We had to show our interruption of movement with the new skills that we learned. well I took over a 100 pictures to get the right one and this is what i came up with. My teacher picked my picture for the photo of the week. I'm so excited.

That happiness has nothing to do with pleasure

You feel pleasure when you want something and you get it. Or when you don't want something and you remove it. Pleasure is always relative. Happiness is absolute. Happiness is the understanding and acceptance of life as it is in this very moment as completely perfect, because every creation of God is perfect. The degree to which you do not accept life in all of the Divine forms is the degree to which you suffer.


Wow I just came across this. All i can say is its the truth.

This is why I live here!

How many people have this sitting in their back yard. Ok well its not right in my back yard but its close enough. I had to get some pictures for my Photography class that i am taking so i took this one along with about 100 other pictures. This is one of my favorite picture out of the group.

As I was looking through all the pictures trying to find one for my class this one made me realize how lucky i am to live in such a beautiful, QUITE, no traffic, can i help you/are you ok place. Love IT.

Plus the kids and I had fun going and taking pictures. (they spent most of the time riding around in the back of the pick up) I think i am getting them taught right.

Have a great night. I am going to go to bed so that i can get up at 2 am with my little monster that i love soooooo much. I really do love him. I love him I love him I love him. Sorry i just had to get practiced up so that i can say that at 2 am when he is getting me up out of my nice warm bed ;)