Family Home Evenings

Family Home Evenings have been very good at our house lately. Not because Vaughn and I have done anything spectacular, but because our kids have.

Josh taught a couple of great lessons, on service and gratitude, complete with scriptures to look up and read, and his testimony. Ashley prepared and presented a touching Easter message.
And Noelle spent the Sunday afternoon before her lesson on the Word of Wisdom, preparing visual aides while everyone else in our household over 8 napped.

Living the Word of Wisdom helps you to be healthy and happy.


Breaking the Word of Wisdom will make us unhealthy and unhappy.

(See Doctrine and Covenants 89)

A Wise Principle For Dealing With Difficult People

A friend of mine on Facebook posted a link today that I found to be quite useful:
How to Stop Difficult People from Zapping Your Energy and Happiness . Fortunately, I do not have to deal with too many difficult people in my life but for those times when I do run across a porcupine I will now be prepared! Well, at least in theory! (There is the minor detail of actually applying this new info.)

I recommend you read the original post but in a nutshell, this is what I learned from Brian Vaszily:

What zaps our energy and happiness more powerfully and rapidly than anything else is our reaction to difficult people. Difficult people are not responsible for zapping our energy and happiness. We are in control of ourselves. We have a choice in how we respond.

He recommends that we make a list of the difficult people in our lives and then think, of all things: What about this person is worth emulating?!

Vaszily goes on to say: "It is our reactionary egos that are prone to completely trash those who seem to have a negative influence in some way on us. Our egos are primitive; if somebody strokes them, that somebody is good, and if somebody kicks them, that somebody is bad.

This lingering reaction creates the notion of “dislike,” or hate, which blocks our eyes, mind and heart from focusing on anything but the negative. But by focusing on the negative in anyone – “I really don’t like that person” -- we are doing by far the most damage to ourselves.

Honing in on what we don’t like in people (or in situations for that matter) won’t change them, but it does make our lives considerably less peaceful and sucks away our energy and happiness. It becomes a habit that perpetuates the self-damage. Plus it makes us considerably less attractive to others."

So there you have it. Now we know what to do, lets just do it!

I overdosed on caffeine a few hours ago and now I can't sleep! I haven't done this since my high school days when I worked at a restaurant and I could drink all the diet coke I wanted for free. Rather than wasting my time in bed I decided to make use of this jittery energy and do something? Anything? to save my blog!?!

The perfectionist in me has been stressed out by all of life that I didn't chronicle last year; the overwhelmed me realizes there is no way I will ever adequately "catch up"; the aspiring blogger in me does not want to abandon ship; and so I'm doing the only thing I can do. I'm letting bygones be bygones and moving forward.

I'll just say that 2008 was a year of many afflictions that culminated in the great blessing of receiving sweet little Faith. Would I do it again? Whole heartedly I say YES!!! But I am grateful, very grateful that I don't have to.

Sweet Little Faith when she was 1 month old.

2009 has so far been a little kinder and yet... Heavenly Father has not seen fit to lift all of the heavy burdens. I am trying now to more fully"Come unto Christ" for I truly need His rest!

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matt: 11:28-30

Time to Catch Up!

Christmas 2008

Santa Came!



The stockings weren't exactly hung by the
chimney but Santa filled them anyways!

Ashley always takes good care of Enoch.
Bekah wants to help too!

What did Santa bring Josh?

Hurry Noelle!

It's a barbie!

Noelle gave Rachel the coveted golden ball!
Rachel also gave one to Noelle. How tricky!

Santa knew Cami likes to exercise!

A Rubiks Cube was on Xiaoyi's list!

Enoch got a new outfit!

Bekah enjoying Christmas!

The only thing that would have made our Christmas better would have been to have sweet little Faith at home with us. She was having difficulties breathing and so she had to stay in the hospital for one more day. I went back to the hospital Christmas afternoon to be with her. Cami came with me to keep me company.

When I first started this blog I was so excited and had high hopes of keeping an online family journal and I was doing quite well but then the sickness that accompanies my pregnancies hit and I fell into a black hole.

When Faith arrived I emerged from the black hole!! And it has been such a joy to have her as part of our family! But it has taken me awhile to figure out how to add one more person's needs into my already busy life and stay balanced. I still don't have it figured out?! I am beginning to think that I will never figure it out!

So even though life is chaotic and at times I feel like I don't even have time to breathe I am going to start blogging again! Soon...

Announcing the arrival of

Holly Faith Spendlove

December 22, 2008

1:54 p.m.

7 lbs 3 0z

19 in

American Fork, Utah

It had been a long hard 9 months and I must admit I was thrilled my blood pressure was high and I needed to be induced!

Vaughn had to wear a mask and gown.

The baby was breech so I had my first c-section.

Noelle thinks "Dad looks like a lunch lady!"

I was sad I couldn't hold my baby right away.

Finally!

It was all so worth it!

The weather outside was frightful the day Faith was born so by the time the Vaughn was able to bring the kids to the hospital to see their new little sister they were unable to see her up close because she had been moved to the NICU.

Our Family Welcomes Xiaoyi!

On August 14 Vaughn, Ashley, Cami, and I went to Maeser's Back to School Night. While Ashley and Cami socialized and I waited in the long lines to pay fees and get schedules, Vaughn wandered around the school. He came across a stack of papers that contained profiles of students from around the world who wanted to be foreign exchange students but still needed host families. A cute girl from China, Xiaoyi, really grabbed his attention. He brought me her profile and told me, "I really think we should do this!" It didn't seem very feasible. Sure it would be fun BUT...We have 7 children already! I am expecting in January! and we aren't exactly made of money! How could we host a foreign exchange student!?!

We called the phone number of the Nacel Open Door Representaive anyways "just to see" what it all entailed and ... it sounded like a lot of work... forms to fill out, a home visit, a background check.... Vaughn and I AVOID extra work so we decided not to bother, "We had enough on our plate already and besides, on Nacel's website it didn't even look like Xiaoyi still needed a host family and if we were going to do this we had our hearts set on her!"

The Rep didn't give up like we had. She somehow managed to get us excited enough to at least fill out the forms. Then she invited herself on over to do the home visit. I had to beg for a day to clean! She wanted to come in an hour! We must have passed the background check because on August 26, Vaughn received an e-mail from Xiaoyi thanking us for being her host family!

We picked Xiaoyi up at the airport on Thursday, August 28 (only 2 weeks after first looking at her profile)!

And I must say it has been a WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE to have Xiaoyi as part of our family! I stongly feel Heavenly Father has had a hand in this arrangement. I am very grateful to Him for making it all work out so well.