Sweet is the Peace....

So far this year has felt like a whirlwind ... of activity, decisions and a few little trials in there as well. Then a couple of days ago I found a reason to pause and step back a minute to reflect. And to think about how blessed we really are.

We were putting Landon to bed and we asked if he wanted to say the prayer that night. Up until then he has always said no (probably because he didn't know exactly what we were asking him) but that night he said yes. And as he repeated what Jeff said so sweetly that I just sat there holding him as tight as I could. In that moment all was right in the world. What more did we possibly need that we had right then?

Who is this little person I have been entrusted with? I never cease to be amazed by the things he teaches me. Every time we get in the car he starts asking if we can listen to "Sunbeam" or "Temple" on the Primary CD. I'll be honest, sometimes I just want to listen to the radio. But my testimony of good music has grown so much from those CDs ... they have made many a negative moment in the car a good one and have soothed feelings (all of ours) in ways I never could have on my own.

Last night Jeff and I were preparing my Primary lesson for this week. We are studying the story of Lehi's family and the Liahona. Can I just tell you - I hate not knowing the future? I struggle so much with just having the faith to move forward and trust that everything will work out the way it is supposed to. It's a control issue thing. One of the scriptures we are reading as part of the lesson is Proverbs 3:5-6:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I turned and looked at Jeff and said "this lesson is for me, not those kids" and again, I was grateful. It's in those little moments, when I am being challenged, or when my faith is being tested ... or when I am asked to just believe and not rely on my own understanding when my testimony grows and I am reminded of the sweetness of the gospel. Because He doesn't leave us to figure it out on our own. Even though I am being asked to test my faith a bit, he has given me something to remind me that I will not be left alone ... and to just trust a bit longer.

Little Friends

Don't little friends just make your heart melt?
Today Landon was talking about his friends and naming them by name :)! So cute ... I love it!

A Busy 2012 ... Already!

Well, if the first week is any judge of how eventful a year can be then 2012 is stacking up to be busy!

Last Saturday Jeff was in a car accident. He was headed up to the Klondike Camp Out and slid on black ice ... right into a chain-link fence and a city light pole. Fortunately there were no other cars involved and he wasn't driving any of the scouts with him. He wasn't hurt ...but the car didn't fare so well. It'll be in the shop for at least another week. But we feel really blessed that nothing happened to Jeff. These things are scary and the last call I ever want to get!
This, however, didn't stop Landon and I from getting out and adventurous. We've made a trip to the BYU Bean Museum (which he loves ... when else are you going to see an elephant so close and standing so still?!), and Landon participated in a toddler art class at BYU's Museum of Art.

Oh my heck it was SO cute! He loves to color at home so this just made his whole day. The teacher is just the sweetest lady. She made all the kids feel very important and special. He was a little shy walking around the museum and held tight to my hand, but he listened so attentively as they talked about hot, cold and wind and tried so hard to find pictures that represented each.

Then they got to make some art of their own. First he painted with paint ice cubes to represent cold. He thought that was fantastic. Then they painted suns to represent hot. They also had a third table with markers at it to color on while they waited for their pictures to dry. He took full advantage of this one too! (He couldn't look at the camera at all ... he was much too busy working on his pictures!)

Painting with ice

A Sun
Markers! Which he loved, but we won't
be owning for a while :)!

It is such a fun way to teach kids and let them explore their talents. Landon talked about it for the rest of the day - seriously! I just loved watching him and helping him learn. We are already signed up for February's class. If you want to check it out click here. It's for 2-3 year olds, but Landon isn't quite two and did great!

Add all this on top of our normally hectic schedule ... and we are speaking and teaching this Sunday and it's been a busy few days!

Happy New Year 2012!

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's already 2012 ... it seems 2011 just flew by. We ended the year with a "Chinese New Year" and ate dinner at PF Chang's with my little sister Ale. (I promise she was there even though she isn't in the picture below ... the picture the waiter took of all of us turned out blurry. Landon was watching a movie and wasn't interested in smiling for the camera ... they were really slow with dinner!). Then the next day we got invited to a fun dinner party with friends.
Like most people we generally set some resolutions at the beginning of the year. Sometimes we do great all year ... sometimes not so much. This year we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. We read this article in the Ensign and loved the concept. I've seen something similar on a friend's blog as well and really liked the idea.

We kept President Monson's basic ABC's and came up with a statement that helps focus it for us for the year.

Attitude: Recognize that our attitudes effect everything we do. Watch them, learn to change them when needed and help each other!

Believe in Yourself: We believe we are Children of God and will act accordingly. We believe we are good people with good intentions. We will believe in ourselves and remember we can do hard things.

Courage: We will have courage to go forward in faith, no matter what.

Then we came up with our goals for the year. In the past we've always made them very specific. We decided to be more general this year so we can shape them as the year progresses.

* Spend less and save more! Prepare for the future.
* Take care of ourselves - physically, spiritually and emotionally!
* Parenting - work on our parenting skills and techniques.
* Ask ourselves: How will this decision effect our future?

We're looking forward to a great year and wish you the best in 2012!

Christmas at the Terry's

Christmas was wonderful this year! But let me rewind a bit. When Landon wrote to Santa he had dad help him draw a train as part of his letter. Luckily for him Santa was listening!! (But more on that a bit later)

We spent Christmas Eve assembling toys and cooking soup. My family came over for a big soup dinner and then we opened up our traditional jammies and read books around the Christmas tree. Landon got train jammies, which he loves, and a train coloring book. My mom even gets Jeff and I jammies still :)! (Which I love because I love pajamas!)
Then we hustled Landon up to bed and brought in his new train table to finish setting it up. Luckily my dad suggested he and Jeff do the hardest parts of assembly that morning ... it took forever! So I just got to help with the fun part - putting the track and buildings on. We set out the rest of the presents and called it a night.
The next morning we had church first thing. I loved it- shouldn't every Christmas have a church service on it to remind us why we are really celebrating? I think so. We covered Landon's head so he wouldn't realize what was going on ... so he had no idea what was waiting at home.

I love that Landon reacts to surprises like Jeff :)! When I brought him down stairs for our official "Christmas morning" he got a very intense and serious look on his face. Like he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. To say he loves his train table is the understatement of the year.

He didn't open another present at our house for the rest of the day. Seriously.
He played trains until we bribed him to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house to open presents there. They got him a chair to watch movies in and aunt Ale got him Finding Nemo. It's love. He was tickled pink to get to sit and watch it.
Landon got a quiet book from Grandma & Grandpa Terry. Landon loves his quiet book! He kept looking at it in church yesterday and saying "Sus" (Jesus) and "Bemple" (Temple) over and over again. Except when he saw the picture of Moroni ... which is when he shouted "Momi" out :)! That boy sure loves him some Moroni! I'm glad he loves it. Reverence is always a work in progress at our house :).

Over the next couple of days we convinced him to open the rest of his presents (mainly by telling him "there might be a fire truck in this one" to peak his interest). And we might have put a few away for his birthday in a couple of months. Who knew those trains would be such a hit that we wouldn't even need anything else?!!

It has been so, so much fun to watch him love something so much. He is always wanting us to play trains with him!
Jeff and I were really spoiled at Christmas as well ... Jeff had a ton of time off, which is always nice. We got dishes, money and some other really fun things from family.

Jeff spoiled me rotten with serving dishes (for parties), perfume (Lovestruck by Vera Wang ... amazing!), and TWO purses. Two beautiful, amazing purses! Oh, you just have to see them in person to believe how beautiful they are. I got Jeff a watch, golf accessories, headphones, clothes, etc. (nothing nearly as exciting as purses :)!)

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas. We're so blessed to have the opportunity to celebrate the Savior's birth, have family close by and to spend so much quality time together!! We hope your holiday was just as magical.