We waited a little long to send out Christmas cards (I made them all up, but I just never got around to printing and sending them) So consider this our card this year!
(i wish...)
I personally think just some(maybe a lot) of this would be beyond perfect... 
"Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings.""This is a wonderful time to be on earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach. Our lives are blessed in countless ways. We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”'
As the prophet Lehi said, because of Christ and His Atonement, we are “free forever, knowing good from evil,” able to act for ourselves rather than be acted upon, “free to choose liberty and eternal life … or to choose captivity and death."
The choices we make in media can be symbolic of the choices we make in life. Choosing the trendy, the titillating, the tawdry in the TV programs or movies we watch can cause us to end up, if we’re not careful, choosing the same things in the lives we live.
If we do not make good choices, the media can devastate our families and pull our children away from the narrow gospel path. In the virtual reality and the perceived reality of large and small screens, family-destructive viewpoints and behavior are regularly portrayed as pleasurable, as stylish, as exciting, and as normal. Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up. Immorality and sexual innuendo are everywhere, causing some to believe that because everyone is doing it, it must be all right. This pernicious evil is not out in the street somewhere; it is coming right into our homes, right into the heart of our families.
Let me say again that the family is the main target of evil’s attack and must therefore be the main point of our protection and defense. As I said once before, when you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense to Satan. When he wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church’s missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn’t send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O and casseroles. When evil wants to strike out and disrupt the essence of God’s work, it attacks the family. It does so by attempting to disregard the law of chastity, to confuse gender, to desensitize violence, to make crude and blasphemous language the norm, and to make immoral and deviant behavior seem like the rule rather than the exception.
We need to remember Edmund Burke’s statement: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We need to raise our voices with other concerned citizens throughout the world in opposition to current trends. We need to tell the sponsors of offensive media that we have had enough. We need to support programs and products that are positive and uplifting.
M. Russell Ballard
Stu and I had decided to make some changes in what we watch on Tuesday nights. Reading this, I have no regrets and am more confident that our decision was the right one.
one happy boy.
I love that we can enjoy so many things together. Of course with anything we're doing, as long as we're together, it's always fun. I love this guy. And I reallllly love making him happy :)
Our pick for the Cards starting quarterback! Still waiting for Leinhart to show up...
sure do love this little girl.
mmm look at that form!
Here's a picture of stu after his big-time slide into home. He scored the winning point with this run! (please excuse the messy apartment, it's not always like that.. )
right before our canoe got tipped and we ended up in the lake..
All of these YW are incredible and I have had the best experience working with them. They have taught me so much. I am really going to miss them! Love you girls!
