Having it all and Having Nothing

At times in our lives things seem to go pretty smoothly. We feel financially stable and blessed with many things. Other times we struggle and have heartache. Through the years, we have experienced both. Christmas times seems to either strengthen this feeling or make it worse. We have had times when Dave has been deployed and we have felt like we didn't want to celebrate because we were apart. Then there have been times where finances didn't seem to pan out the way we wanted and so we had to have a "Creative" Christmas. We have also had nice Christmas's where things all seem to fit and fall right into place.

Just like the times and seasons that change we have times and seasons in life that change and I want to share with you our time and season of this year.

Christ's birth is the reason why we celebrate Christmas. He was a king, a ruler, the creator of the world, but when he came into the world he wasn't born into a palace he wasn't laid  in the finest crafted cradle, but his birth was a glorious event. He had nothing, and yet he had it all. All that was needed to fulfill his mission. He was born in the lowliest of circumstances and yet Angels we there, Joy and love filled the air.

This year I feel such a bond with our Savior. Most of you know we sold our house and have been living without our things for a few months now. We have been living out of suitcases and living in hotels and friends homes. We have hardly any toys, we have limited amounts of clothing and bedding. We don't even have our own pillows. We are down to basic necessities right now.  We can compare our lives right now to that of the Saviors. We have nothing, we just have our needs being met. Yet, Somehow, in someway we have it all.

We have wonderful friends who have provided love and support for us. Who have graciously opened up there homes. To Katie, I will be forever grateful. Your kindness and generosity and sacrifice will be greatly rewarded. (I'll talk to the big man upstairs and try to send extra blessings :) I know we can be difficult to live with because we have our own set of weaknesses and it seems they are magnified when stress is around. Thank you, thank you for your wiliness to help us out at this time.

Thank you to the family that supports us. I feel so blessed to have a family who loves us and supports us in our decisions. I always know I can count on them for anything I need. No matter how bad of mistakes we make I know I can turn to them and they will lift me up. There is no judgment or animosity for past choices. That is how God intended the family to be. To be a support and a help and I am ever so grateful for mine. I will dearly miss them when we leave and that I think is one of the hardest parts of leaving.

This Christmas season we decided to dedicate it more to the Savior, since Santa and some of our traditions are not possible. It has been an amazing experience. I am not going to talk about all the things we have done because the point is not to earn credit, but to honestly help those in need. I will share the message that me and my family are taking away from it all.

Christ is real, he dedicated his life to those around him. He dedicated his life to helping those in need. He looked, he opened his eyes and when he saw needs, he assistant in anyway that he could. As we have gone through these last few weeks we have enjoyed doing some fun things as a family and really bonding. Some we have done just for fun, but the things that have brought me the most joy have been the service for those in need. Getting rid of the extra things in our life has made it easy, not to cross of a Christmas check list that we fill we must get done, but to really focus on what is needed and who is in need.  I feel like Heavenly Father has been helping me to know who needs what and when they need it. It feels good to be his handpeace. (yes, I meant HAND-PEACE)

I hope I can continue to bring joy to those in need. Life is sometimes hard, sometimes we have nothing but at those times it is easier to see that we have it all. Family, friends, joy, love, and  becoming what God wants us to become his Hand-PEACE! 

Here are a few pictures from our holiday season.  Love you all and Merry Merry Christmas. You are my everything.

Good bye party for Dave's work. Papa john hosted and spoiled him with balloons and decoration a beautiful sign that said good luck in Japanese. He also received a beautiful award saying thank you for all his hard work. It is a beautiful Eagle "because he is an Eagle not a Duck"

 (that is a direct quote from one of the chaplains)  And we love our friends here is Kladnicki photoboming our picture 

Courtney turned 6. She is just a joy to be around. we made her favorite meal, Mac and Cheese, we had a Frozen themed party with blue and white balloons, olaf noses, a frozen cake and frozen presents. She loved her olaf balloon. She was one happy spoiled girl. She is such a joy.



She gets so excited opening her presents, look at those excited eyes.

We had a great time going down to boulder city to enjoy the trains this holiday season. This was a seam engine that was built in the late 1800's, after its hard work it retired to the movies and was in some john wayne movies. Then it was caught in a fire caused by lightning. It was pretty much destroyed and so a many dedicated time and rebuilt it. It is now used for multiple train shows and people come from all over the world to see it. We were honored to be able to take a ride on it. It was amazing.

  Here is the big train we road on. We sat in the open cart for fun and the kids loved it.

Santa even stopped in for a visit. How nice! Kids were pretty happy and surprised.

We made delicious ginger bread houses when my brother Aaron was in town. It was wonderful to spend a few hours with him. We love him so much. Thanks for all the fun! And we added at least a ton of candy on for decorations.

We were able to go and enjoy the lights at the cactus garden at Ethel M chocolates. It was beautiful and an enjoyable evening together with the family.