Unconditional Love

One of the many reason I love my dogs is because they teach me what

Unconditional Love means.

Love that is not tied to what I do or don't do for them.

Just a pure and total devotion.

Its very easy to tell someone you love them after they have done something

wonderful or unexpected, but how easy is it to tell the same person you love them just after they have hurt you very deeply. Not so easy anymore.

REAL Unconditional love has NOTHING to do with the person and everything to do with YOU.

Loving someone unconditionally means you choose to love them

EVEN when they do not deserve your love, and even when you do not FEEL like loving them.

So my personal opinion on dogs is.....

{God gives us dogs and cats to teach us what His love is like. Pure, Unconditional, Everlasting,and NEVER dependent on what we do or do not do}

So here is a day in the life of my dogs............

{sitting under my desk while I work}

{sitting under the kitchen table while I have coffee}

{watching a movie with the kids}

{waiting for me to get out of the shower}

After Christmas Project..

So the day after Christmas we left to Arizona for Grandpa Biel's funeral. And while we were there we made a stop at my favorite store......Anthropology!

Sabrina found these adorable hair clips and wanted me to buy her one.

But I thought $18 was a bit steep.

(these are from Anthro)

So I told her we could take a picture and I would help her make some when we got home. So yesterday, she and Sami and I made 6 hair clips.

This was the first one, and after it was done Sami asked me if I had bought it from Anthro.

This one was all Sami...

This was a fun project with my girls. Feel free to copy, we did!

Thoughts about Christmas....

So I have been thinking a lot this year about why this Christmas has felt so different to me.

I have struggled to shop, not done any baking, and put half of my ornaments and Christmas decor out. Regardless of how hard I tried I could NOT get into my normal

Christmas hustle and bustle mode.

So I became very introspective, searching for meaning to this new

Ba-Humbug mood I was experiencing.

And as I finally forced myself to shop, (which by the way is my love language-I show love by giving gifts) I could not shake the absolutely miserable way I

was feeling.

For the FIRST time in my life I was HaTinG shopping!!!

Can you even imagine?

I know, me neither. But this was the case. And as I was reading the next morning still plagued for the reason behind it all, the answer came flooding in.

I realized there was NO

gift I could possibly give my children or anyone that could even come close to the GreAtest GIFT that has already been given 2000 yrs ago!

And for the first time in my life, I hated every tradition about Christmas that

did not put the focus on Christ ALONE!

I cringed at the thought of Christmas morning and everyone clamoring

to be the first to see what they got.

When we should be basking in the TRIUMPH of a GIFT

so magnificent that it transcends this temporary existence we call earth, and carries you into an abundant life in our REAL home!

Heaven with our LORD

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God

is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

He came for one purpose....

to die on a cross, And offer us a restored relationship with God!

This is the "Reason for the Season"

We are celebrating the greatest Gift mankind has ever known,

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay his life down for his friends" John 15:13

So this Christmas I will not wrap any gifts, or put any presents under the tree.

But instead....I will make very effort to share with my children

what

Christmas is

REALLY about.

About a sacrifice of Love!

A Gift that cannot compare with any other.

A Gift that is undeserved, and cannot be earned.

A Gift that sits wrapped, just waiting to be received!

Praise God, for He is good and His love endures Forever!!

Merry Christmas!

Our 15th Anniversary

So I guess we are getting old, because we have NOW been married for 15 years!

Holy Cow....Thats a long time. But by the grace of God....I have never been more in LoVe

with GT! He truly is my other half.

In celebration of our 15th Anniversary we renewed our vows in September.

So I thought I would share with you our SpECiAl dAy!

Happy Anniversary My LoVe!

I cannot wait to see what the Next 15 years have in store.....

More catch up....Our Family Baptisms

This summer we had the opportunity to make a public profession of our inward commitment to Christ. We did that together as a family in the Provo River. We would love to share it with you!

Click on the link HERE

THE Year of 5 Surgeries!

So 4 days after we returned home from Mexico with the kids,

I had a back fusion of L5 S1 (the lower back)

Then about 3 months later Tyler had a granuloma cut out of his tongue.

Then the next week GT had his gall bladder removed,

followed by the 1st of Samanthas 2 surgeries on her legs.

So we just got home last night from the last surgery. We did spent Thanksgiving at Primary Children's Hospital. Their cafeteria leaves a LOT to be desired. But we got to be with family and it worked out better for Sami not to miss so much school if we did it over the holiday. So it made for a very memorable Thanksgiving!

This was 8 weeks ago when she had the Right leg done.

She did so much better the second time, she has almost had NO pain if you can believe it. Such a blessing, we had a lot to be greatful for!!

SO...I think we are done for the year. We have a lot of healing to do!

Playing catch up!

SO this summer we took the kids to Mexico because we knew our summer would be very boring as we waited for everyone to heal. But Mexico was very therapeutic for what was to come.