i know that one day you are going to ask me, how do i know if “he’s the one?†this is a question that we have all asked, or will ask at some point in our lives. for some reason, i have been thinking about this lately. maybe because i have read the twilight books recently or i have been pondering my children growing up but, it has been on my mind. this is probably going to take me a long time to write but here it goes………….
when i was in high school and college i was a crazy romantic. i really think i was looking for something that wasn’t there. a mythical figure that would bring me kissing in the rain, surprise letters on my car and of course the star crossed romance that would never work out unless….i could work my magic. but when it came to reality, i don’t have any magic to wield. there have been times in my life that i kissed someone just because at the time, i new that if i didn’t, i would regret it for the rest of my life. i wanted the feeling that i felt when i watched pride & prejudice or sleepless in seattle but as i get older, no matter how much i want bella to be with edward, i realize that edward is not who i would choose in real life (twilight reference.)
i have had edwards in my life but in the end, it just wasn’t enough! i think the older you get the more you will realize that all of that stuff is important (and fun) but it doesn’t make up for the lack of a testimony of the savior. it is ok to desire those things but more importantly you should be looking for someone who honors his priesthood. someone who has served a mission and most of all, someone who loves the gospel. if he loves the gospel, most likely, everything else will be there.
when i met your father, we were friends for a long time. i had never dated someone that i was friends with first. i just didn’t think that i could do something like that. it didn’t seem romantic enough for me (silly as that might sound.) he was a great guy that i enjoyed spending time with but how can you be romantic with a friend. well it turns out you can and it was something i had never felt before. it was like coming home. i had never been so comfortable with anyone else. there was no pretense behind anything he did. he was my best friend and we could do anything together and i wasn’t to shy to be myself. he saw who i was and i saw who he was. that is not to say that there wasn’t any, as i like to call it, movie romance, but that wasn’t the most exciting part. he loved the savior, served a mission and was a faithful priesthood holder. HE LOVED THE GOSPEL.
you are a beautiful girl who loves her heavenly father and even though you are only four right now i can see that you are going to always feel this way. i hope that this will be helpful to you when you are old enough to have this question. i love you and HOPE that you will choose someone that is worthy of all that you have to give. thank you for being my daughter baby belle.
love mommy
jana's journal
happy birthday my little lily! i can’t believe that she is 4 years old. well by looking at the first picture i am sure you can tell that she loves princess stuff. she had a beautiful day. we went to chuck e cheese for the first time. all of the kids had a blast. it was a little crazy there and jackson wanted to run everywhere by himself. lily was so good and her favorite thing to do was anything that would get her tickets. she ended up with 50 and bought herself two rings, two bracelets and a sucker(which she devoured before we even got home.)
lily in her princess jammies and sitting on her new princess chair.
lily, maddie & sophie
lily about to blow our her candles which she blew out in one shot.
just after she blew them out. they were crayon candles and jackson kept asking me why there were crayons on her cake.
steven cutting the cake.
lily eating her yummy cake.
jackson in one of the many rides he loved.
ashy’s favorite part of the party was the pizza. he wanted down so bad but it was too crazy there for him to be crawling around. he was a good boy though and ate pizza and loved riding on the barney ride. it was a good day!
jana's journal
can anyone tell me what movie ends in zihuatanejo? well i am sure that mostly everyone can but this was our first stop on our mexican cruise. we loved this little quaint city. after our horse back riding adventure, we ate lunch in a little place that wasn’t so cheap and did a little shopping. here are some pictures of our time here.
we had to take boats or tenders from the ship to the shore so we were able to get some good shots of our boat the Star Princess. here is one of them.
zihuatanejo
one of the only picture of steven and i.
we went horseback riding here and this was me and my horse.
steven’s horse was a little crazy and actually jumped his hind legs off the ground and kicked the little old lady’s horse that was next to his. i was behind both of them so all i knew was i didn’t want to pass him at all.
jana's journal
well the weather is finally getting good enough for me to want to walk to the park. so, the other day we walked on over and since school was just getting out we were the only ones there. this park is really little but lily and jack had a really good time. lily even slid down the pole by herself she is not the biggest dare devil so it was huge for her to want to try. it seemed like she had fun but she didn’t want to do it again. obviously the picture of asher isn’t at the park but i had to throw it in there. i love his bum.
jack getting ready to head down the slide.
lily making her way down the slide
jackson just hanging around. (could i be any cornier?)
lily posing on the slide.
could there be a cuter body than this. ashy is just so big, i can’t believe that he is about to turn 1. he is the funniest little baby.
jana's journal
i have to admit that i saw jessica zimmerman’s blog where she got a piano and i thought, “we really need a piano.” well funny enough, that next sunday at church i over heard that someone was giving away their piano and i took it. we got it for free and it needs some work but i think it has some charm. it was made sometime in late 1800’s to the early 1900’s not really sure the actual year. all i know is that the company stopped making pianos in the 1930’s. when we get some money, we need to get it tuned and we would like to refinish it. someone had painted it black and that paint definitely needs some work. the previous owner let their children color on it with crayon but luckily most of that came out. well here it is.
jana's journal
i have been trying to take pictures of my children since we bought our new camera. i never realized how frustrating this could be. no one wants to sit still or pay attention at the same time. i have been able to get some good shots of them individually but not one good one of them all together. maybe someone can give me some hints. if one of them is actually looking at the camera and smiling, the 2nd is looking away and the 3rd is trying to crawl away. my camera takes fast pictures but not fast enough. here are some of the ones that i like.
i am not sure what lily is doing in this picture but i really like it.
asher trying to get away. now that he can get away, he will!
jackson and his best friend.
this is one of my favorite pictures of lily.
this picture completely captures jackson to me. he is the sweetest little boy. i only wish you could hear his squeaky little voice.
i don’t remember why he was crying but i think he has the saddest crying face and i wanted to remember it.
jana's journal
today we went to jamba juice because if you were there before 10am then you got free smoothies. so we also got a new camera and i took it with us to capture this event.
lily loving her juice!
jackson decided that he loved the blueberry one and didn’t want to share it with the rest of us. i think he actually thought he could drink it in one long drink so we couldn’t get any.
asher along for the ride. i actually got one of their new breakfast drinks that had peaches and granola on top. he loved it!
jana's journal
lily and jackson got these glasses for easter. she likes playing with them and steven thought that they looked pretty funny on her. she is definitely our little jokester. jackson wont put his on correctly so we haven’t been able to snap a good picture.
jana's journal
asher man was able to wear his corduroy blazer today. unfortunately he has not been feeling good so he wasn’t very thrilled with the idea. aside from his crying, steven and i thought he looked pretty swank. the turtle neck was an added touch i thought.
jana's journal
do you see it? what is happening to me? i guess this was my 31st birthday surprise. i saw this in my hair the other day and dug through the rest and found like 10 more of them. they were all exactly the same length so i know they start about two months ago when my hair started falling our after i stopped nursing (happens to me after every baby.) do you think these little monsters have anything to do with it? probably not, they are too cute to give me gray hair.
jackson likes saying cheese now when i take his picture.
it’s too bad this one is blurry because i think it is the cutest picture of him.
lily is not the easiest child to take her picture, unless someone else is taking it and she accepts that it is her time to perform. she just wont do it for me. this turned out pretty good though.
jana's journal
