Jareds Eagle Pictures

My Brother Jared is getting his Eagle award tomorrow night. I am way proud of how much he
has accomplished this year. These are some of my favorite shots of him that we did today.
I was in awe looking at this picture, because he looks so much like my dad when he was younger.
Congratulations Jared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pay check

So my son Landon and I were talking tonight and he asked me "mom why don't you get paid for all you do, you are always working so hard." I told him that " moms don't get paid to do what they do, that they do it because they love there children."
He then told me " mom I will pay you. " I told him that moms don't want money for what they do, but the way they are paid is when our children make good choices and our doing the things that we have tried to teach them ( the things that Heavenly Father would want them to do.), and when our children love us back.
He is such a deep thinker for a 6 year old, and wise beyond his years. Landon has always really been sensitive to my feelings and I love him so much.
He has also been learning to save his money. He wants to buy a skate board and I told him that he could do jobs around the house to earn the money. He now has $7.50 and the board he wants on e-bay is $10.00, there has been several times he has been tempted to spend some of it, but I remind him of his goal and he decides not to buy the smaller item.
The other day I told him that sometimes when we save for something better, it makes us feel good that we were able to save enough. He looked at me and said. " Yeah mom, I know exactly what you are talking about.
I just hope that as a mother I can teach him to value hard work and learn to save. I think so many kids today never learn to work hard and appreciate the things they earn. Everything is handed to them.
When I was a kid, my mom & dad made us work to earn money. Sometimes when I wanted something I would work at my Grandpa Norths apartments, and it was not easy work, but I appreciated the paycheck and what I bought with it much more because I earned it myself. I am grateful that she didn't just give me everything I wanted and taught me this valuable lesson. Thanks Mom and Dad for teaching me!

Family Reunion

We went to a special family reunion yesterday.
My husband had a cousin whom he had never met, that was finally found and united with her family. She is the daughter of Terry's late uncle Lloyd who unfortunately due to several circumstances, never had the privilege of meeting his daughter before he died.
My heart goes out to her for all that she has been through, but she is amazingly tough, and handling all of this new information with great class.
I think that so many of us take our families for granted! Through watching her I have had my eyes open to how greatly I am blessed to have my family in my life and what a blessing they are. I cannot imagine what it would be like to not have them, but I am truly glad that now this cousin has a family she can call her own.