Sean's coming HOME!

Hey all, Sean is coming home in 15 (count them!) days! He'll be flying into Boise on the 4th of November. The next day (November 5th) is Easton's baptism, so we'll be having a fun few days!

Just so you know Sean's homecoming is November 13th at 12:30 in American Falls Stake. The meeting will be held in the Rockland building in Rockland (they are renovating AF3rd ward building). Anyway...we'd love to see you there! Not sure what will be happening afterward; I'll let you know if I get something together or not.

Happy Fall!

Sealed!

So these last couple months, we have been working towards being sealed as a family for time and all eternity. On September 30, 2011, Stephen and I were able to attend the Idaho Falls Temple and receive our endowments. It was such a special day and we were so happy to see all of you that came! Conference came and went and we were able to be sealed as a family on October 8, 2011. Again, we were so grateful for all of you that were able to make it and share such a happy day with our family. Here are a few family pictures we were able to get thanks to a great friend who came!

Hello!

I know alot of you only see the babies on this blog. So they are 7 months now and getting soo big!! :)

Worth Seeing

Hey all - I just heard about this new TC Christensen film about the Willie and Martin Handcart Company, due to be released on June 3rd......based on actual events taken from journals, etc. Looks like it will be a really good one. Check out the trailer at:

http://youtu.be/SResQFe35S8

We're Havin a Party!

Hey all,

'Just want to let you know when the Woodland Family Reunion will be this summer....This party will be the DeVon and Dean Woodland Reunion. We hve it scheduled for August 12-13. That's a Friday and Saturday. The yard is open for pitching tents if anyone wants to come and sleep out on Friday night. We'll barbeque and play on Saturday. Please put this date on your calendar!

Have a great week....month!

Twins are 3 months old!!

Be Thou Not Ashamed

Thought I'd share a little missionary experience I had a few weeks ago....

It was an unusually busy Saturday for me. I had so much I needed to accomplish and nothing seemed to be going right. As I drove back to the copy store for the 3^rd time that day, I was feeling frustrated and harried. I was working on a RS project and needed to have the copies printed and cut just right in order for the testimonies to fit perfectly in the front of the Book of Mormon. This time I decided to take a copy in with me so I could show the clerk exactly what I needed…..he was not thrilled to see me again, but was determined to deliver satisfaction this time, probably more for his benefit than mine. The clerk went to the back of the store and began working on my project.

Several people came and went, helping themselves to the self serve copiers available in the store, however, one young man lingered behind me waiting for the clerk’s help. He was a short little guy….a foreigner, probably attending Utah State and had a project of his own. As I stood at the counter waiting, I began to feel uncomfortable that my project was monopolizing the clerk’s time and delaying others. I made several apologies and decided that not everyone in the store needed to know that I was working on a church thing…..a Book of Mormon thing, so I discreetly covered the book with some scratch paper that was close by. Immediately, a scripture came to my mind with great force and absolute clarity….Be thou not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is that what I just did? He who sees everything just saw what I did and what was in my heart! I felt the sting of shame and embarrassment and quietly uncovered the lettering.

There in the quiet evening hours of the store, the bright lights glistened off the gold lettering of the Book of Mormon and I ran my fingers gently across the cover as I thought about the experience I just had. Still waiting for the clerk, the thought came to my mind….you have this book in your hands. You should give it to the young man behind you and I knew immediately that I had been provided with an opportunity and the spirit was prompting me to act.

My first reaction was, I can’t do that! If this doesn’t turn out well, it will be embarrassing and the woman using the copy machine will be witness the whole thing, what if he asks me questions I can’t answer, I’ve never done this before, what if he rejects me and, well, I had many excuses and thoughts race through my mind, one being, if you wait too long, you’ll never do it.

I slowly turned to the young man and asked, have you ever read this book? He said no. If you’d like to, it is yours to keep. I handed him the Book of Mormon, something I had never done in my life. He graciously took it and thanked me. He thumbed through the pages and said it’s like the bible? Yes, it’s a second witness, another testament of Jesus Christ. Does it conflict with the bible – no it doesn’t. Oh, this is Joseph Smith and all that – yes it is….at that moment, I thought it was over, but he just nodded and smiled. A few moments later he thanked me again and said, I read the bible every day and the bible is life…you have given me life. I will read this. I thought how profound – you have no idea how right you are. The Book of Mormon contains the words of life….Treasure up in your minds continually the “words of life”. I wanted to say, if you’ll read it and act on it, you will know just how right you are.

I finished up my business and said good bye….my heartfelt prayer is that he will open the book and feel of the spirit. I know it is a good seed and that it was planted on good ground and pray it will grow into something wonderful for this young man. I know that the spirit led me there that day, perhaps three times because maybe he was having as busy of a day as I was and was running late. ~~~Jan :)

my little happy place

Hey all, here are a few photos of my place in Kuna. It's a small house that sits on a corner, is one level, just right for me, with a porch and a nice little fenced yard more of a cottage I think, and I like it a bunch. Here is an open invite for anyone willing or wanting to make the trip to a nicer part of Idaho (it's at least 25º warmer here-on any given day-than it is in Blackfoot).

The dining room opens onto the patio in the back, off to the right is ...

... the kitchen, it's twice as big as it looks and a nice layout, lots of light ... I love that;

Master bedroom has a full bath and walk in closet (messy of course, no pic, LOL);

'bedroom even has room for a chair and there's lots of light too, 'door opens onto the back patio;

'living room, is a little larger than it looks in this photo and everything I have fits, barely; 'fireplace makes it cozy;

'view from the living room to the hall where the office is off to the right (another messy spot, no pic) and a guest gedroom straight ahead *hint hint*;

'guest bedroom isn't huge, but plenty of room for you!

Love is in the air.....

Okay...so I guess I better post this out there; in case some of you haven't heard yet, Wes and Rebecca are getting married on March 19th (yes, that is March 19th of THIS year) in Logan. Here's a snap of the happy couple.

Apologies

Hey all,

So so sorry for "missing" December and most of January! Today I finally found my password for logging on to make changes and I'll try to do better from here on out.

Loves to all, C.

Christmas Memories

Just thought I'd share....this was Christmas Eve. Steph and her husband, Andy, stopped by on their way through town. We had a great visit! By the way - the pretty girl in purple is Wes' sweetie pie.