Monday, December 24, 2012

2012 in Review!

Wow 2012 has gone by quickly!

Dan has kept busy with his job, he did have to travel a few times this year including going to Alaska for the 1st time.

Annette has been busy as a stay at home mom, babysitting  and in July started delivering newspapers.  She was glad to finally quite when we got ready to move to our new home.

Dillon lost his 1st two teeth this year.  He is now in 1st grade and is 7 years old.  He is getting tall and is usually kind to his sisters most of the time.

Jennilyn started Kindergarten this year and is loving to learn!   Both her and Dillon are starting to read, and are doing really well.

Ruth and Irene have been busy this year.  They both finally potty-trained (yes no more diapers).  They are learning their letters and learning to write.

The biggest news we have is that the end of Sept we decided to start looking for a home thinking it would take us a while to get into one.  By the end of Oct we had an offer in and we closed on Dec 9th.
We moved our things in on Dec 15th and we finally got to sleep in the house on Dec 21st.  We are loving the space that we have as it is a  2 story home with a basement.  There are things that we are learning to fix as we go, and we are still getting settled in, but we are loving the home and it feels like it is our place.  Everything moved so fast that we felt like it was a dream in some ways.


We hope all of you have a great holiday and that the Lord will bless you this next year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Happy 7th Birthday Dillon!

Dillon's 1st Christmas Eve with Great-Grandma Burke~ This was Grandma's 1st time meeting Dillon.



Happy 7th Birthday Dillon Archibald!

7 years ago we welcomed our first child!  Dillon has been such a joy to have in our family!

Dillon, you got your name from mom's maiden name and your middle name is after your Great-Grandpa Archibald who is the inventor of Scotch tape.

You are so loving with your sisters and share so nice.  You are the big brother mommy always wished she had!
We love you and we hope today is a good day for you!
Love,
Mom


Dillon's 1st grade picture

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Updated Family Pictures 2012

In September we had some updated family pictures done by a family friend's daughter who is studing to be a photographer     I thought she did a great job and  we will have to try and do one more setting with her before she leaves on her mission next summer.

Most of the people who read this will have seen the pictures on Facebook, but since my blog is also emailed to family and friends there are some of my favorites for you to enjoy!  A big shot out to Savanna Skinner for doing these for us!  (Yes Grandma and Grandpa this is Jean Skinner's granddaughter).


Dan, Dillon, Jennilyn, Ruth, Irene and Annette

Irene, Dillon, Ruth and Jennilyn


Ruth



Dillon



Irene



Jennilyn



Jennilyn and Irene


Jennilyn



Jennilyn, Ruth and Irene...I am going to blow this one up for their bedroom!



Our Family


Irene having fun with Mommy

Kids being kids

Irene


Ruth


Dillon


Jennilyn not wanting to do pictures anymore!

The kids were done by now!




Sunday, October 21, 2012

Pumpkin Patch 2012

This year we decided to take the kids to a pumpkin patch and let them pick out their own pumpkin.  We went to Petersen Family Farm's in Riverton, UT.  We had a fun time and the kids picked out their pumpkins and we got some fresh dug potato's and some fresh local honey.

We had a great time and on Saturday we spent time carving our pumpkins.  I know it is early, but we had fun as a family doing it.




At the pumpkin farm 


Starting to carve our pumpkins



Cousin Steven came and helped us carve our pumpkins


Dillon designed his pumpkin



Our pumpkins


Ruth's carving of a kitten


Dillon's own design


Jennilyn's Spider Pumpkin


Irene's Bat pumpkin

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

1st Day of School

Well I am behind getting this posted.

The kids started school the end of Aug and beginning of Sept.

At the end of the year last year we found out we belonged in another school district then were we thought we belonged.

So far we are loving our new classes and are enjoying the teachers.  The kids walk across the bridge to Red Robin's to catch their bus.  Dillon and Jennilyn love going to school together.






Jennilyn getting on the bus for the 1st time!

I Love To See The Temple

I love to see the temple I'm going there someday to feel the Holy Spirit to listen and obey.


On Labor Day we had tickets to go to the open house of the new Brigham City Temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  You can learn more about the temples here. 

It turned out a lot of people came that day since they didn't have work or school. This is a special time to come and take a tour of the temple before it is closed to the public and only those worthy members with special recommends can go inside.

We took our friend Janet and the kids and we all stood in line for 3 1/2 hours before we were able to go inside and see the temple.  The kids did so well for having to wait so long in the hot sun.  Afterwards we took the kids to Pizza Hut for dinner before we made the drive home.

Dan and I went to the Temple Dedication on Sept 16 with my mom.  It was so wonderful to attend that.

We are looking forward to the Ogden, Payson, and new Provo Tabernacle Temples in the next few years!

Here are some of the pictures we took.

The start of our waiting


Janet

Brigham City Temple


Cooling off




Monday, August 06, 2012

Seeing things come to pass

This morning after returning from my paper route I decided I was not tired to go back to bed, so I would do my scripture study.  After reading from the Book of Mormon, I decided to read the RS/Priesthood Lesson for next Sunday as we are encouraged to read it ahead of time.  It is Chapter 15- Advancing the Work of the Lord~ From the book Teaching of the Prophet George Albert Smith.

The 1st thing that stood out to me was when Pres. Smith first became a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles  in 1903 there was only 300,000 members of the Church.  In 1950, One year before he died the church had surpassed 1 million member.  As of April 2012 there is almost 14,500,000 members.

The next thing that stood out to me was Pres. Smith supported Avation as a way for him to get to his different locations more quickly and see more members of the church, were before they had to travel, by car, train, and boat.  Today Our current Prophet Thomas S Monson, travels  by a privet jet that was donated.

Also he welcomed and supported the change in technology that allowed the church the use of radio and television to take the word of the Lord to a much broader audience.

He said "We out to regard these [inventions] as a blessing from the lord, they will greatly enlarge our abilities  They can indeed become blessing if we utilize them in righteousness for the dissemination of truth and the furtherance of the work of the Lord among men.  The great challenge facing the world today lies in the use we make of many of these inventions.  We can use them to destroy, as we have sometimes done in the past, or we can utilize them in enlighten and blessing mankind, as our Heavenly Father would have us do."

In a 1946 general conference President Smith prophesied about the use of such technologies:  "It will not be long until from this pulpit and other places that will be provided, the servants of the Lord will be able to deliver messages to isolated groups who are so far away they cannot be reached.  In that way and other ways the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord, the only power of God unto salvation in preparations for the celestial Kingdom, will be heard in all parts of the world, and many of you who are here will live to see that day!"

When I read this I thought, how my grandparents have lived to see this happen!  I don't have TV channels in my home, but I do have the internet and every conference and other events it is amazing how I can go to the church website and watch the event live right in my home.  And yet others across the world can also watch it in their own home as well.  How amazing!

Also I found some distant family members that had been looking for my side of the family by sharing an article from the Children's Friend (a church magazine) on Facebook, one of my friends on Facebook saw the article and knew it was from her family too...they had been looking for my side of the family and they shared a lot of valuable family history for that side of the family that my family did not have.  Technology helped us reconnect a lot sooner then probably would have happened before!

Pres Smith goes on to talk about how each of us as members need to participate in the work of the Lord.  We can not just leave it to the missionaries, or the quorum of the 12 to do all the work.  We each need to do our part in being closer to the Lord and helping him move his work along.

This hit home to me as in our local ward and stake we are part of a brand new mission in Salt Lake City, UT.  And it seems a lot of our talks and lessons are on how we can reach out to our neighbors who are less active or not members with out offending them.  It seems that a lot of complaints here are that Utah neighbors are too pushy, but that if we treated them like if they are our friends and pray for the Lords help we can by example further the work of the Lord.

Remember that Opposition will not stop the progress of the Church, because it is the work of God not man.

If we pray for the Lords help he will adjusts the conditions so that his work can spread.

There is a lot of meat to this lesson and if you want to read it you can go here to read it.

I am so grateful for this lesson, I think it has allowed me to think and ponder how much the world has changed in my life time that makes it easier in some ways to share the gospel, but also that as I prayerfully ponder for ways to help share the gospel, that the Lord will help me.

Our world is changing but as we choose to use the good, we can further the ways of the Lord and help all of us come unto Christ.

Until next time,
Annette





Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Summer 2012 so far

Well the summer has been going by really fast!  We have gone to Seven Peaks Water Park a few times and played at the park, and we have been walking to the school for free lunch, but other then that it has been a quite summer.

On the 4th of July we just hung out at home and the kids could see the city fireworks from their bedroom window so we let them watch them and then go to bed.  It was nice no traffic to fight to get home!

We meet up with my sister Jaclyn and her family this last Saturday and had fun at the water park again.  Today is the 24th of July which is a State holiday in Utah to celebrate the day and year that the Pioneers came to Utah.  We watched a little bit of the parade online and then this afternoon I took the kids to a movie at the $1.50 theater, and they all did great!

We also got Dillon registered for 1st grade last week. We have a few fun things coming up in a few weeks before school starts.  I am starting to think it will be wired to have only two kids at home during the day once school starts.

Also I started a new job delivering newspapers.  So far it is going pretty well (but I have only been there a week) but it does have early hours.  We show up at the warehouse to pick up our papers at 2am and then deliver them by 6am.  I am usually home by 5am and go back to bed for a few more hours until the kids get up.  That will change a little bit once school starts as I will have to get two kids off to the bus in the morning as well.

So it has been a pretty boring summer, but that is all right, we are looking forward to seeing all of our cousins on the Dillon side of the family very soon !

Until next time!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

End of May Activities

In May the school district had a district wide sports day.  Dillon who had 1/2 day kindergarten got to go to school all day and participate.  He even got a school sack lunch for the day.  He was so excited to show me his ribbon's when he got home!





We bought Pass of All Passes to Seven Peaks owned places.  This allows us the fun of bowling, bumper cars, laser tagging, miniature golf, and also going swimming at Seven Peaks Water Park. 

The water park opened Memorial Day Weekend.  We decided since Dan was off on Monday we would go.  It wasn't too crowded and we had a great time!










 A random picture that was on my camra of the girls all asleep on the couch.  Dillon saw me taking the picture and he smiled for it!  

Homemade Greek Yogurt

I decided to make homemade yogurt to save some money.  A friend shared with me a website that once I
understood the instructions I had great yogurt.


This is my mixture before I put it in the oven overnight.


This is my plain Yogurt this morning!






It made up 4 small mason jars and two small food storage.  All with Plain yogurt this morning.



After church we came home and I dished some up added a little vanilla and some blueberries and it tasted good.  I enjoyed it very much.


I followed a website to make this.  Here is the link: 




Give it a try and you can make regular yogurt or Greek yogurt!