Merry, Merry Christmas!!!

Dear friends & family---

Apparently there was some issues with the arrival of some of our Christmas cards (if they arrived at all). :( Some envelopes didn't hold and you got just the envelope... but no card. Arg! BUT, despite the mounting stress and whatnot, to maintain the Spirit of the Season, I'll keep my head and throw it off with a laugh (right... haha...) and reassure you I did send a very cute card and it was meant to share our love and Christmas wishes.

And I will post it right here to still be enjoyed.

So, Merry Christmas! To all who just got an envelope from us for Christmas-- and our countless WONDERFUL friends and family we love and appreciate SO much!!!

PS: We're leaving in just a couple of short days. The list is gradually getting checked off. Thank you for all the love, support, and help offered and given to enable us to be prepared for our big trip. I am blessed to be surrounded by amazing people and wonderful friends. I'll post sometime about our Holiday experiences (SO excited!!!) and trip (sooner than later....maybe ;) ).

In the words of dear old St. Nick & sweet Tiny Tim....

"Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night!!

God bless us... every one."

Much love,

your Higgins fam

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

And CRAZIEST! Especially attempting to stay within both our financial (and my emotional) budget... and especially with our big 6 week trip coming up... leavin' FRIDAY! Whew! So...

Checked Off:
Piano Recital (Way to go, everyone! It was a very fun and festive event. I'm sure proud of my students!)
Nursery responsibilities passed off (to my very lucky asst. leader--- have fun! ;) )
Christmas shopping (it's a miracle, honestly)
Clean Toaster
Visiting Teaching (I LOVE my ladies!!!!)
Christmas cards
As of 12/17....
Piano Lessons, + write out 6 weeks worth of "assignments" (WHEW!!)
Visit our friends Bill & Sheila at the nursing home
Clean the microwave (Tara, you're unbelievable-- thanks, my angel friend-- I needed that. :) )
Family Home Evening

Still to Do...
Mend a couple of Benjamin's Superhero costumes he will be getting for Christmas
Make ornaments and gifts for family with Benjamin (and Jonathan, IF he cooperates... not likely)
Go to my Neuro Dr. appointment
Pick up Jonathan's glasses (pray they'll arrive before we leave!)

Clean everything else... maybe.... sigh....
Pack up Christmas :(
PACK for 6 WEEKS.. i yi yi.
Clean out the car for a 3-day road trip (yes, we're driving to MO...)

Not to mention...
Laundry
Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners
Grocery shopping for road trip
Pay off all those Christmas purchases on the credit card
Keeping the kiddos happy and safe (and out of trouble...) through it all

We're so excited to be with my family for Christmas and January. Getting to that point is a whole other story, but I'm sure it will work out.
Hope y'all stay sane pre-Christmas and enjoy this truly wonderful, special time of year. :)

Remembering...

We have the remarkable Church leaders. I am so grateful for their example, dedication, counsel, and tremendous service.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is organized as Jesus organized His Church during His mortal ministry with Jesus Christ at the head, leading the Church through His Prophet (currently President Thomas S. Monson). The President of the Church (Prophet) has two counselors (currently President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf). Together they are the First Presidency and work closely with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Each of these valiant, humble men hold the Priesthood keys necessary to fulfill their sacred calling as special witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Throughout my life, as I have carefully listened to their words and powerful testimonies, obeyed their counsel, and experienced the fulfillment of the blessings promised, I have come to respect, admire, and love each of them dearly, though I haven't met them personally. When they are called to be a General Authority (such as an Apostle), they serve humbly and faithfully for the continuation of their lives.

One exceptional Apostle, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, passed away a few days ago. He was the oldest living apostle (age 91), so I suppose, in a way, it is a glorious time, as he has moved forward after such a full, long life of love and dedicated service, especially to reunite with his sweet wife who died two years before. I am sad for myself, though, and those he left behind. He will be missed so much! Though I never met Elder Wirthlin personally, I grew to love his wit and humor, his profound insight, his simple, gentle encouragement, and his sincere, earnest testimony. His most recent talk in General Conference truly reflects who he was and what kind of life he lived. It is called Come What May, and Love It-- I encourage you to read it... I guarantee you will feel happier and stonger as a result. That's the effect Elder Wirthlin had on people, at least for me. I always looked forward to what stories he would tell, what wisdom he would offer, what counsel he would give, what testimony he would share. I am grateful to have loved and learned from this good man. He has truly helped me to be better, happier, stronger... to more fully live the important, joyful counsel, "Come What May---- and Love it!"

Fabulous Photography!

We've got some serious photography talent on this side of the Valley!

My awesome neighbor, Sara, did a family photoshoot for us. We went to a scenic park nearby and she took some truly beautiful shots. She is so sweet-- really a beautiful person and pleasure to work with. She is very kind and accommodating and worked well with our family. I loved the opportunity to get to know her better and we are so grateful she shared her time and talent with us! Here's some of my favorites (the other pics posted on the title and sidebar are also from her photoshoot). You can check more of her fabulous work on her website or her blog.

The boys and I also did a photoshoot with our friend, Steve, in his home studio. I wanted to photographically capture Benjamin's "Superman phase" and threw in Jonathan and I while we were at it. Steve did a wonderful job and got some fabulous shots. He's a great family man and awesome with the kids. We're very happy with our pictures! You can see more on his website. We appreciate him taking time to share with us his "super" skills. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be grateful for!

More blessings than we could ever fit on our little turkey. :)

Life certainly has its bumps in the road, but, man, we've got it SO good and, especially during this holiday season, we feel so THANKFUL.

We hope you all have a wonderful day of fun and feasting.

We consider our friends and family some of our choicest blessings.

Thanks for all your love and support!

And happy Thanksgiving!

The Day After Elections

So, the voting is over-- it's all said and done. Obama is our new president. I guess we'll see what happens. It sure was one crazy election year.

I am deeply grateful the marriage protection ammendments passed in all states (especially ours) of which it was proposed. I am so sad that this issue is so controversial--- that some are so hurt by the passing of these propositions. Yet, with a personal testimony of the divinity of marriage and family, I feel it important to stand up for what I believe in. I wish we could all agree to disagree, as I also have a strong testimony of agency, and respect one another's beliefs-- that convictions wouldn't clash so harshly. Though I haven't personally been confronted about my personal stand on this issue, I know many have been challenged and aggressively opposed. I commend all, on both sides, for courage to stand up for what they truly believe to be right while at the same time remaining respectful and compassionate for those who believe differently. I received a well-said email from a Prop 102 supporter, who's sentiments I echo. After all this, I am all the more aware and grateful for the freedoms this country offers me and my family. God Bless America!

"Dear Marriage Supporter,

You made it happen! To see all the hard work, dedication, patience, persistence, and heart put into this campaign was inspiring and humbling. All Marriage Protection Ammendments throughout the country have passed!!! We were slandered, persecuted and maligned. Our signs were stolen, defaced and destroyed along with some of our houses of worship and even some treasured relationships. But we did not shrink from the duty we felt in our hearts to an institution that has served us and our nation for generations. In whatever capacity you contributed to this cause, you are to be congratulated in your victory.Now as you and I go our separate ways I hope you take with you a sense of humility in victory. I hope that you have come to know those who’s views you have disagreed with and opposed and can offer them the olive branch of love and compassion in their loss in a manner that will be meaningful to them. All men and women of every belief are my and your brothers and sisters and deserve the respect of human dignity for whatever beliefs they have espoused. We all walk the road of life together and can always make the journey easier for those we walk it with. Good luck to you on our journey."

Halloween Fun!

Kids make holidays so much more fun-- especially Halloween. We had a very busy month full of fun festive activities!

Halloween Decorations

We have a big box of Halloween decorations we've collected over the past few years (thanks, Mom!). We really enjoyed having a festive home with some pumpkins, cute witches, autumn leaves, and bats hanging from the ceiling. The boys especially enjoyed the new decor and Halloween toys and books that had been stored the past year.

Carving Pumpkins

What would Halloween be without the traditional Jack-o-Lanterns? Benjamin, with his blossoming artistic talent, drew three faces on his pumpkin, and Dustin carved all three. Pretty funky looking pumpkin, but cute nonetheless. Jonathan was more fascinated by the seeds and guts of his pumpkin. He really got a kick out of pulling out the guts and putting them back in. Eventually we finished our masterpieces and they lasted just long enough through trick-or-treating.

Baking Halloween Cookies

I grew up baking Halloween cookies with my mom and siblings. My mom gave me the cookie cutters we used as kids. I suppose they're not really superior quality cutters, but there is so much sentimentality attached to that screaming ghost, hissing kitty, spooky owl, jolly pumpkin, and broken bat. It was so fun to use them with my own child. We even frosted them the same that my mom used to. Seeing them all set out brought back a flood of sweet nostalgia. Benjamin was my little helper since the only time of day available to us for accomplishing our baking palooza was durning Jonathan's naptime (I'm sure next year he'll be a very eager participant). Benjamin loved being so involved in the process and did a great job mixing, cutting, and frosting. When all was baked, decorated, and cleaned up, we (including Jonathan ;) ) walked down the street deliving plates of treats to our neighbors.

Halloween Parties
We had several Halloween parties, including the ward Trunk-or-Treat and Benjamin's pre-school party. Our whole family dressed up for the Trunk-or-Treat. I was having a hard time deciding what to dress us all up as, so I finally just asked Benjamin, who as-a-matter-of-factly told me, "Daddy will be a ghost, Mommy with be a princess, Benjamin will be Superman, and Jonathan will be a Jack-o-Lantern". So that's what we did. :) We had fun chatting, eating chile, and, of course, the kids enjoyed gathering more candy than they should ever eat.
One of the gals in our pre-school group hosted a Halloween party for our kids. It was so fun, with festive games, a craft, and snacks. Since I remembered my camera (amazingly enough), I was the photographer, so, Pre-school Moms-- the rest of the pics are linked "here" if you'd like to download them. Thanks for the Halloween fun! :)

Halloween Dinner

My mom made Dead Man's Meatloaf for Halloween dinner, which I always liked, but with Benjamin in the middle of his superhero phase and trying to wean him from the word "kill" (which I'm still not sure where he picked up... what can ya do?), I decided to stick to the cutesy side of Halloween and made "pumpkin pizzas". They're a work in progress... a nice attempt to establish a holiday tradition. ;)

Trick-or-Treating

We did double trick-or-treating with one go around Halloween afternoon at the offices at Dustin's school. They host an annual Halloween carnival with bouncers, games (like a cake walk, fishing, etc.), crafts, and, of course, trick-or-treating when the faculty decorate and hand out candy. It's fun to see a ususally so intense atmosphere transformed into a casual, fun-filled ambience. We love that the school goes all out each year and have enjoyed going these past few Halloweens.We also trick-or-treated up and down our neighborhood street--- not because we needed more candy, to be sure, but rather because we were curious who our neighbors were that seem to only come out during this time of year. We actually ended up chatting quite awhile with a couple neighbors we had only met a couple times. They are awesome people and we're glad to have gotten to know them better. I wish we would've had more trick-or-treaters come by our house though. Anyone want some extra candy? Lots of it? ;)

So that's our Halloween fun for the year! We've packed our Halloween-y decor, bought a little bit more 70% off, and look forward to another bundle of sugary, spooky fun next year. Now, I think we'll pig out on our loot. Mmmmm... which chocolate to choose???

The Joy of Motherhood

Over the past couple months, Benjamin has become obsessed with superheroes. It all started with Spiderman and gradually escalated from there. He hasn't seen any of the movies or books or had any other significant exposure to superheroes, but just seems to naturally know that they are super cool and loves to have his superheroes "save" people and "stop" the bad guys. His collection has grown from just Spiderman to Batman and Superman joining the gang. Benjamin is eagerly awaiting Ironman for Christmas. Superman is currently his top pick, which explains his determined desire to be Superman for Halloween. Since the costumes at the store were made for winter trick-or-treating, I knew I needed to make (or assemble) his Superman garb (it stayed in the 90s most of October). We got a t-shirt (a little big, but works) and Dustin found his Superman cape his older sister made him when he was a kid. Perfect! Knowing Benjamin would be estactic, I gave him his shirt and cape about 2 1/2 weeks before Halloween. He's worn them every day since. He's only takes off his cape for potty, bed, and church. Since Halloween night, he's insistent he must wear the pants we got, too. I actually love this. He feels so special, so confident, so superhero-ish with his Superman stuff. As long as I can wash the outfit occasionally, I don't mind that it's his preference of daily attire. I love that he loves to be a superhero.

The best part of all of this ,though, is one morning he smiled at me, hugged my leg and said,

"Mommy is my favorite superhero."

How I love my little son! The pure joy of that moment, his adoring eyes full of love confirming his declaration with all the conviction of his little heart, is one I will cherish forever. If I am a superhero in the eyes of my child, I feel I can do anything.

Tags!

I've been tagged twice and finally followed through. Here's to you, Jenny & Tera, a tribute to your patience. :) Check out our other blog.

Have a wonderful weekend!

And We're Off to the Fair!

This past Friday was the first day of the State Fair--- and Dollar Day! So, after Dustin got off work, we packed a picnic dinner and made our way downtown. It was quite a little adventure. (On her blog, a friend of mine (who also went) sums up very well what I mean by "adventure". ;) ) All in all, though, it was a whole lot of fun and we're glad we went. It reminded me of the fun we had last year when the boys and I went with my mom. I can't believe it's been a year. Good memories!!

We figured since we saved a bundle on admission, we could spluge a little on the rides. Benjamin, of course, thought the *rides were the absolute coolest thing ever. My favorite is always the big *ferris *wheel. We went after it was dark and it was awesome to see a bird's-eye view of all the lights. There's also tons and tons of fun kiddie areas, which both boys loved. Even though we ended up staying until 10pm, Jonathan was a trooper and just *played and *played and PLAYED. The boys especially loved the petting zoo, which included some fun exotic animals like a zebra, camel, ostrich, emu, and giraff. Our little guys were sure pooped by the end, but I think it was some good family memory-making. :)

PS: Hey, Mom&Co! Here's more pics. Enjoy! :) And Benjamin loved his stickers from Grammy (see *here). Love & miss y'all!

YES on Prop 102

This is another video clip which offers more understanding why Prop 102, and others like it, are so very important. Over half the U.S. has passed similar propositions.
Spread the word! Let's protect our right, as parents, to teach our children the moral standards and values we know to be true and right as opposed to being forced to support and uphold what we know to be wrong. Thanks!!!

Prop 102 (California Prop 8) and great articles on the subject

I support the state proposals to define marriage as one man and one woman.

Here is a great article expressing the position of our Church, of which we support whole-heartedly.
This proposition is about preserving God's divine establishment of marriage and the family. It's about preserving the rights of children to be raised by both a mother and a father. It's about preserving the religious right to voice one's own beliefs, which may be in jeopardy. And, perhaps most importantly, it is about preserving the acceptance of traditional family values in our already demoralized society.

For another great article see protectmarriage.com,also www.preservingmarriage.org for more good info.
-Dustin

A Moment at Our House

We were just having a regular afternoon-- the boys dancing around to music and showing off their silly exuberance. As I watched them play, I found myself feeling that sweet, warm surge of gratitude and contentment that quietly comes in those moments of motherhood. My boys are so sweet, if very boyish and a bit wound up ;), and I sure love them!




PS: This is for you, GRAMMY & GRAMPA & UNCLE BRYCE & Co.--- here's some more fun moments, including Benjamin drawing and Jonathan's current monkey noises. :)

Benjamin's Art Gallery

Benjamin loves to draw and color. He's actually pretty good at it, too... or at least I, his appropriately biased and adoring mother, certainly thinks so! His artistic skill has really progressed a lot in the past year, especially in the past month. Benjamin has an awesome imagination and it shows in his drawings-- his artwork also totally cracks us up. It's clever, cute, fun, and quite creative. We're pretty impressed, actually.

Yesterday morning he showed me these drawings:

Interesting. But then Benjamin explained what each drawing was and I became really impressed!

No kidding, this is exactly what he told me. I have no idea why there's an orange and pear in outer space (I'm thinking he meant something else, but couldn't think of what how to say it), but everything else makes remarkable sense (but then, does it need to make sense?). And where did he learn about the Milky Way? Amazing. He's just amazing. :)

That same morning, he also showed me this:

I was pretty excited to hear him tell me about it, after hearing about "Outer Space". "It's my party, Mommy!", he said, "My birthday." And he went on to describe each drawing:

My GOODNESS! What a creative little guy! I'm just amazed.

So, after enjoying these little pieces of artwork so much, I felt motivated to scan in my favorites of Benjamin's art the past year (as we think they're worthy of permanent record). I know my family will get a big kick out of them, so here's a Benjamin Art Gallery. Enjoy! :)






Check out some of the details-- a cowboy hat, holding a outer space thing, ears, eyebrows, hair, etc... Benjamin's the coolest...


LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE THIS ONE!! Makes me so happy. :)








I asked Benjamin what the horn-things were and he said, "Mommy, it's a Viking." Wow. Okay then.


Heee-larious. Don't ask me about the "baby". No it's not some sort of announcement. But it is funny that Benjamin would think about something like that. In this picture he gave us all fingers. I love that he circled himself a bunch of times. And that I'm the privileged one to get a neck... and a nice round "body". Right.

I'm very excited to see what my little boy will come up with next! With his new pre-school routine, daily life, and a crazy active mind, he is learning so much so fast. It's so fun and exciting for all of us. I'm must admit, I'm a pretty proud parent. But in a good way, I think. :)

Have a great week! See ya!