Great Day!!!!!

Lyd wants me to say Thank-you all so much. We were just sitting there talking and she said that she could really tell today that everyone was praying for her and that she could feel it and said to say thanks!! Just the difference in her is amazing to me! Night and day! We had a great day and talked a lot about she has left to do. She knows that she has a long way to go, but she also realizes that she has a powerful and tremendous family to support her. Keep those prayers a comin!! Thank you all so much, I love you guys and am very blessed to have you all!!!!

A Family Fast Tomorrow Works for Us!

My NYR's list included writing on, not just reading the blog. What an awesome means of sharing our lives with each other. Writing all the crazy fun and sometimes desperate things helps keep us sane. What a support system we have in each other!!!
Tomorrow Ellery and I will fast for you, Jack and Kev and Lydia. About 15 years ago a woman called to ask me if she could have her son come and live with us. I told her I would be happy to have him stay with us except for one thing--I didn't, and couldn't love him as much as she did. It took about an hour to convince her that I didn't have stewardship over her son. As long as she loved him and was willing to try she was the woman for the job.
I honestly believe that God carefully considers each family and each family member. He knows you love Lydia, will continue to love her and to prayerfully make decisions, sometimes hard decisions to help her. He has given Lyd the best big sisters in the world to help and love and be an example to her with their husbands and their sweet little babies. Lydia has the best family in the world to help her through this. And we are all here to back you up with our prayers and whatever else you need.
"All we can do is pray." Does not mean a last desperate attempt. I think how powerful and loving our Heavenly Father is and He lets us talk to Him. He listens to us and lets us ask Him for things and blessings He has the ability to give us. He loves us and wants what is best for us. So praying isn't "all" we can do. It is the "best" we can do. I don't know how people live without God in their lives. We will pray that she remembers what you have taught her about her Heavenly Father.

Pray!!!

I know that this blog will reach each of you faster then I would have time or the strength to do. I need you to pray for Lydia!!!! We checked her into the hospital last night, she is suicidal and is using again! She is in about as deep as one can get. Her only next step is to stay and get clean and get on an antidepressant or die. She has told me about 4 different ways that she plans on doing just that and we thought it better to get her in before rather then after the fact!!! The problem is that she is an adult and can check herself out whenever she wants, that is the bad news, the good news is that we have to say that we will take her in and care for her. We have taken a stand and have told her that if she leaves without getting the life saving care that she needs, she can not come home! We have also told her that she will be done with our family, and yes, that mean all of you! We know that this is a "Monster" that has a hold of our once beautiful, talented, sweet, kind and loving daughter, but we also know that girl is gone and this girl we do not know! We want her back and need all of your prayers to help make that happen. Lyd no longer believes that she has a "Higher Power" which is sad because I don't know how I would be getting through this without my Heavenly Father!!!! I will have to tell you all about the events that led up to this, but don't have time or the energy to do it now. I know that God was with us yesterday to get her where she needs to be, now if you will just pray to help her stay there!!! I love you all very much and am very thankful for all of you and I'm certain that with you all pulling for her and Mom and every one on the other side that we can get our Beautiful Lydia back!!! Thanks and love you ALL Aunt Jack

Happy Late Birthday!!!

Sorry I didn't get this on before your Birthday!!!! The 22nd of January Lyd my baby turned 24!!!!!Crazy!!!! We didn't see her much that day but she said that she had fun at the Park City Film Festival. Once again sorry this is late!!! Love you!!!

Missing

One much beloved "Robin" of the Batman and Robin duo variety. They do not have him at Target and a very sweet, earnest little two year old asks for him daily.

One Samsung phone charger. Jane is without a phone. She was charging it at her friend's house and then keeping it turned off most of the time. I need to know if it is time to break down and buy her a new one.

If anyone has seen these two items and would be willing to send them my way I would be eternally grateful.

Resolutions

Oh these are never fun... but... here are mine:

1. Stop slouching! After Violet was born, I realized that she was all that was holding me up.
2. Have family prayer. Because Brind goes to bed before me, we rarely get to pray together.
3. Get Violet on a schedule. The nights of staying up to 2, 3, 4 in the morning (and many times, beyond that) is wearing my sanity quite thin. Brind said this morning, "So Violet was really screaming last night."
Me: "(Sigh) Yeah..."
Brind: "Did I hear YOU scream?"
Me: "(Sigh) Yeah..."

Good luck everyone!

Julia :)

New Year's Resolution

I think my main resolution should be to remember what the rest of them are at least a week after I make them. I've never put much into them i guess but i do have some goals.
1. Spend more time on me. This may seem selfish but it's really not. If i took more time to work out, study my scriptures, and even paint my toenails i know it would make me a better wife and mother.
2. Blog
3. Get myself mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally prepared to get pregnant again. Yes i need that much preparation.

So here's to 2010!! It's gonna be a good year. I can feel it in my bones!
Love you all,
Ellynn

bglife

wow i really like that whole new years resolution thing.  i made the resolution a long time ago not to make any resolutions.  but if i did it would be things like less yelling, less swearing and more of the good stuff like scriptures and prayers etc.  in the last conference one of the first presidency said that anger never helped any situation—never.  so that is what i am working toward, and i am doing really well!  ok so it has only been a day and a half.  but hey it’s me and i’m pregnant and i haven’t slept in weeks so it really is impressive.  so there you go that is my view on resolutions.  i wish you all well.  and i know you will all continue to be the most amazing people i know who inspire me every day to be a better person.  thank you and i love you!!

VA Bennett's New Year will involve more kind words, less yelling, continued morning scriptures...and a cruise? Or a house of our own? (; We'll see.
A family in our ward spoke on Sunday about New Year resolutions and the mom mentioned an interesting statistic: only 5 percent (or less?) actually accomplish the goals they set for New Years. Makes setting goals a little intimidating...
Good luck! (wait, was the above comment kind of a downer..??)

NYR

Here are a few of our resolutions:

1. Write missionaries/soldiers more often (starting with Elder Bybee and my cousin in the Navy).

2. Mini morning devotionals. We chose D&C 121:41-42 for our family scripture this year. Pretty much it is a long list of qualities we need to work on around here (except Adam says he is exempt from using said qualities if he is dealing with children's insanity in the middle of the night).

New Year's Resolutions

Okay, I thought it might be fun to share just one or two New Year's Resolutions as a family. They don't have to be big or that specific. I'll start-

1. spend more time being creative
2. make my bedroom more beautiful (it's always the last place to get any attention)

love,
Brooke

So this is what Mike is doing in Monterey

Well, I get a lot of questions as to why and Army guy is going to a Navy school in California. Well here is an old History channel episode that highlights our institute here.

New Pictures

Sorry I am too lazy to put my pictures on here but you can go to http://jaclynne.winkflash.com/ and put in Jess' oldest name as the pass word and scroll to the bottom and see our newest pictures. Love you all Aunt Jack

BLOG dilemma

Brooke and Mike!! What a story. Absolutely crazy. Don't want to post too soon, but I'm having trouble with our family blog. I can't post any more pics on here or there since I've "exceeded my quota". Does that mean I have to purchase more space? Is someone footing the bill on Beechtree since I know we've posted a ton of pics (too many of mine, I'm sorry!!) and have had the blog for much longer, so what's the deal? OR, is it my own personal space on my computer that's stopping me. Okay, I just got the answer. Any answers on what I can do to NOT pay for the extra space??

Starting the New Year Out With a Bang...Or a Fire

New Year's resolution- buy a new car (it's already bought by the by, 2007 VW GTI).

Yeah, two fire trucks. It was exciting. Flames were leaping 12 feet into the air, I tried to take a picture from the house (where I was keeping Ellyn and Sawyer safe from our potentially explosive vehicle) but you can't see the flames through the foliage.

They think animals chewed the wires. It started smoking as Mike and Sawyer drove home from getting a haircut.

Goodbye White BMW. Thanks for not burning on the freeway, not exploding, not hurting my dear sweet son and my husband that I love.

The car is still sitting out in front of our house. Just keepin' it real in the Carmel hood. It had to be inspected by the appraiser where it burned and it should hopefully be towed by Monday. We know how to class things up.