Happy Birthday America!

 Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,

Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land

Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Since the Fourth fell on a Wednesday this was our "summer theme day" for the week. And what a THEME day it was!!! We started the morning with a bike parade. The kids were all dressed in red, white, and blue in honor of our flag. Even Cale plodded along on his trike.

We lost Riley for a while ... it was kind of scary.  What was I going to tell the cops, "I'm missing my six year old."? When they asked for a description I would have said "He has a blond faux-hawk, a red, white and blue striped shirt, and is on a bike decorated for the Fourth of July." - That would have described about every six year old at the parade.  Thankfully the kid was smart enough to go back to the start of the parade and just stay there.  I was so happy to see him there and happier still that he knew to stay where he was. 

Saluting the flag. Hats off and right hands on our hearts.

 I even got into the spirit with fun hair decorations.

  

Teaching Cale to put his hand on his heart...He ended up putting his hand on Cyvanna's heart.

After the parade we hit the park with our cousins for free games and activities for the kids.

After the park we headed home and took naps. Then I got everything ready for our BBQ - which was really fun! We had lots of cousins and friends over  to celebrate with our yummy treats.

 Cake Balls!! The blue are chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, the white are lemon cake and frosting, the red are red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting.  MHHH!!!

 Patriotic bark - with red and blue M&M's and York bites.

 The rice crispy treat "fireworks" - the kids thought these were great!  I had fun making them.

 Patriotic dipped pretzels.

 Ribbon Jell-o: the kids didn't like the middle that had cool whip and cream cheese (which was MY favorite)

 Cousins galore - it was a really fun afternoon.

 We stayed up for fireworks.  My sister brought glow bracelets and you would never have known that there were fire works going off.  The kids LOVED them.  They were better than sparklers because we didn't have to worry about the kids getting burned.  After the show the kids were OUT like a light.  It was a wonderful day to remember, reflect and rejoice for our freedom. 

 Happy 236th birthday AMERICA!  

My Country "Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of LIBERTY"

My heart is heavy as we enter this Fourth of July season.  This is a time to celebrate, to remember, to enjoy our freedoms, to glory in our Constituion and the Founding Fathers. It is a time to relflect on what was and what is and what can be.

Yet this year I am in mourning. I mourn for the loss of lives that have been given as we struggle to bring freedom to the world.  I mourn for the ideals that have been tossed to the wayside as "we the people" become less involved in government and more involved in our own selfishness.  I mourn for the people who are "sleeping" as our great nation reduces itself into pieces.  I mourn for the Constituion. I mourn for the degradation of those great men who founded our country and fought long and hard to establish the best Consitution that they could.



 I mourn most of all for my children.  They will never know the great nation that I knew.  They will never see the freedoms that I grew up with.  They will be increasingly forced to live in a way that was not intended by the Founding Fathers. As I sat here wondering what I can do about this, what I can do to stop these freedoms from being lost, the thought slowly entered into my mind to go to Glennbeck.com.  I don't normally get involved very much with these things but I wanted to DO SOMETHING.  I couldn't just sit around and let my family loose their freedoms.  The following link is the program where Glenn talks about what we CAN DO.  You may not be a big fan of Glenn or agree with a lot of what he says but you have to agree that this decision on Obamacare cannot stand. 

Glenn Beck on the Supreme Courts Decision of Obamacare
On glenbeck.com you can find, on the right hand side a link that shows the following

http://www.glennbeck.com/fourthings . Here you can go to step 2 and find out if you are registered to vote.  To my shame, I was not.  I took the steps that I needed to get registered.  That is the FIRST thing that we need to do. "We the People" are the government, or we should be the government.  If we choose to stand idly by while our Constituion is destroyed then we will be held accountable for that.  We need to stand up and retain the freedoms that we HAVE!!!! We cannot lose anymore. 

For the Supreme Court to say that "We the People" can be TAXED (or in Obama's word) "penalized", for not purchasing something is ridiculous.  Not to mention all of the riders and hidden costs of Obamacare.
Yet there is optimism out there. There is hope.  Glenn said the following in his evening show from June 28, 2012.

"The left has awoken a sleeping giant.  This guy (Obama) woke us up. He threw hot coffee in our face and he is still doing it today.  LOOK OUT.  LOOK OUT PROGRESSIVES.  This is when America is at her best, and you'll never see us coming ---because you don't understand us.  When there are two minutes left in the game and we are behind that is when we come out and kick some ass.  And yes, I said it." 

So this Fourth of July - let us truly celebrate the freedoms that made us great.  Let us rally together, let us REGISTER TO VOTE, let us pray with a voice united, let us stand together as George Washington and his army did, let us fight this war in the way that "we the people" can.  We can win: IF we choose to be heard.  We can win: IF we do something.  We can win: IF we stand for something. We can win: IF we act.



As a final note I would like to include a quote from Rex E Lee. (who was president of Brigham Young University when this devotional address was given on 15 January 1991.) It is in regards to the statement that the Constituion would one day "hang by a thread".

"I am satisfied that whatever else may eventually hang in the constitutional balance, this much is clear: The continuation of the blessings of liberty depends finally on our spiritual righteousness. As the Lord told the Jaredites in the Book of Ether, this is a "land of promise." And "whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, . . . if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ." If the people fail to keep this covenant, they "shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity" (Ether 2:9–12)."

You may not be a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints and you may not understand the reference to the Book of Ether ... but I implore you to listen to the words

"The continuation of the blessings of liberty depends finally on our spiritual righteousness."

“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.”       -Frederick Smith

Cars Day

Our Car Day was SO much fun. We started by painting our cardboard boxes.  They don't look like much now but after the kids were done decorating them they were "auto-rly" fantastic! 

For lunch we had Hamburger Bun Buses and Apple Cars. There was quite the traffic jam at the table.

My friend and roommate from college, Hanna Bates joined us for our fabulous day.  Her three kids added so much fun to our day.  Here they are all are - watching Cars 2 while sitting in their "cars".

 Cecely, Cyvanna, Tyler, Alex, Riley and Cale.  There isn't a better movie than Cars 2 - action, intrigue and romance all rolled into one.

Cale, Tyler, Cyvanna and Cecely in the front ... Riley and Alex in the back. 

The kids enjoyed decorating their cars with pipe cleaner, stickers, pom-poms, wiggly eyes and paper plates for the tires and the steering wheels.  It isn't every day that you get to "soup up" your car just the way you want it.

We even enjoyed some majorly large Mater cupcakes.  They were quite easy to make (especially compared to the Phineas and Ferb cookies!)  You can find the directions and recipe here: Mater Cupcakes

The cupcakes were too big to eat all in one sitting so the kids ran back and forth from the living room to the kitchen to indulge in their treat.  It was a super treat for Mom to have a friend over too. It isn't often that I get some really good adult conversation in (even if that "adult" conversation focused mostly on our kids).  I am so glad that I can provide my kids with these memories. I hope that they will remember our fun Summer Theme days. 

Royalty Day

Our second Summer Theme day was originally going to be a Princess Day but as I only have one of those and two Princes' I decided to rename it Royalty Day. I wanted to really focus on the fact that our children have a royal heritage through their Heavenly Father.  In all the excitement of swords and crowns, teacups and magic wands, fruit loop jewelry and dressing up, the message got a little lost.  That is okay though - it was a fabulously fun day.

 Our "magic wands" and marshmallow "tea cups" - pretzel sticks dipped in white chocolate bark and coated in sprinkles - fudge stripe cookies with a marshmallw dipped into the bark, sprinkles added and a half of a fruit loop for a handle.  Lots of sugar baby!!!

 We invited our good friends Paige and Ryanne over to play with us today.  The girls got all dressed up in pretty princess dresses, put on their fruit-loop and twizzler necklaces and then they were attacked by the dragon. 

 Posing Pretty in all their finery.  Don't they ready to go to a ball?

 The Princes' and their swords -- ready to defend the princesses, their beliefs, and their lives!

 (rolled up newspaper, upside down dessert size paper plates and lots of tape)

 YUM!

 All five of the kids together - royaly at its extreme.  These are amazing young kids that will grow to do amazing things as they remember who they are - the Children of a King.

We made our crowns from paper plates that each child colored. Then Mom took the scissors and cut the points.  They turned out really fun.

Phineas and Ferb

My kids LOVE the show Phineas and Ferb (hereafter referred to as P and F) When I came up with the idea for our Summer Theme Days this one was a no brainer.  There are so many fun ideas out there.  We started out by making P and F cookies. (Well, MOM made the cookies!) Yes, they were quite a bit of work but they turned out so cute. The link for the directions is
Phineas and Ferb Cookies via Spoonful.com

There were no directions for Isabella so I had to "adlib" her! I think she turned out pretty good.

 My little "Isabella" - whenever the kids play P and F she is Isabella (never Candace, and with two little brothers you would think that she would want to be Candace so she could do the "busting")

 Riley is ALWAYS Phineas.  -- He's got the mischevious look about him, doesn't he?

Cale is always Ferb - kind of by default.  He doesn't get much say in the matter yet. I guess it comes from the fact the he didn't talk a whole lot until the last year or so.

Next we made puppets ( Phineas and Ferb puppet show from Spoonful.com ) and the kids played puppet show and made up stories about P and F.

There is an amazing amount of P and F food out there if you look for it.  We had Go-gurts and fruit snacks with our lunch and P and F macoroni and cheese for dinner. When that was all said and done we turned on P and F and watched a few episodes.  All in all .... a pretty fun day. 

And if you are wondering "Hey ...Where's Perry?"

He was out on assignment!

Casting your burdens on the Lord

The last few weeks have brought challenges, struggles, and worries.  As I have been contemplating the events and the reason for them I couldn't help but feel weighed down and frustrated.  On one particular day that I was really struggling with life - financially, faithfully, emotionally - the words of the hymn "How Gentle God's Commands" kept running through my mind. 

"Come, cast your burdens on the Lord And trust his constant care."

 I could not remember the title of the hymn, nor any other line in this beautiful, comforting song.  Over and over those words ran through my mind.  I came to the conclusion that I did not know how to cast my burdens onto the Lord. I began to ponder this simple phrase.  It couldn't be too complicated to give up my trials to Him and trust in His love and care could it? 

Over the past week I have come up with a few ideas on how to cast my burdens onto our Savior and to trust in His constant care.

Psalms 55:22 " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."

Isaiah 53:4 it says "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."

To cast our burdens on the Lord means to give up those things that weigh us down. He bore our griefs so that we don't have to. The question in my mind was "How?". 

The simple answer was to begin with prayer and ponder those things that I already knew.  As I prayed and pondered the overwhelming sense of loneliness was lifted.  This was the first step to casting these particular burdens at the feet of my Savior. Next I decided what I could do to lighten the anxiety that filled me. I would listen as the Lord guided my footsteps.

 I will give you an example.  I wanted to put my kids into swimming lessons this summer but financially the money was not there for us to do so.  I was so broken hearted at this that I cried one night into my pillow.  The fun things that I had planned for the summer would not be happening for my beautiful children.  As I prayed and pondered on what I could do to make their summer wonderful I was blessed with inspiration.  There are a lot of free activities in our area. Our Saturdays will be dedicated to these free activities and one day during the week we will be doing a theme day.  The kids are looking forward to these with a great anticipation.  I believe that the Lord blessed me to use my talents to overcome the weight of not being able to take them to the water parks or museums that I had planned on.  My children will benefit from the ingenuity that the Lord blessed me with.

Swim lessons may seem a trivial thing but they had been very important to me.  The Lord was aware of me and of my desires to provide a fun summer for my children. Another thing that I have been doing is taking into account the positive things in my life.  The things that make life so fun, enjoyable and wonderful. 2 Nephi 2:25 "Adam fell that men might be: and men are that they might have joy."

 

The Lord wants us to be joyful.  He wants us to give our struggles to Him.  Today I felt hope. And that is the culmination of casting our burdens to the Lord.  He gives us hope.  Whether it was the really good workout I had, the long shower I took, the kids pounding nails into the deck, or the positive thoughts that I have been focusing on, but my whole being was filled with hope. And I realized - these burdens have been cast upon the Lord.

How gentle God's commands!

How kind his precepts are!

Come, cast your burdens on the Lord

And trust his constant care.

Beneath his watchful eye,

His Saints securely dwell;

That hand which bears all nature up

Shall guard his children well.

Why would this anxious load

Press down your weary mind?

Haste to your Heav'nly Father's throne

And sweet refreshment find.

His goodness stands approved,

Unchanged from day to day;

I'll drop my burden at his feet

And bear a song away.

-Phillip Doddridge