"The Lord giveth the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord"

The word of the Lord to Joseph Smith the Prophet, while he was a prisoner in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, March 1839.

Doctrine and Covenants 122:7-8

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the ^apit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the ^bdeep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to ^chedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of ^dhell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee ^eexperience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The ^aSon of Man hath ^bdescended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

Last week in Sunday School we talked about adversity and suffering. The one common thread that all humanity shares is having adversity in their lives and going through some sort of suffering. The discussion brought up that fact that when we go through adversity we learn something from it. Well if we all experience suffering and adversity and we all learn from it, than the world would have a bunch of enlightened people walking around. We know this isn't the case, so how do we learn something from our trials and not simply pass through them? Simple answer prayer.

We did not get our construction loan. We explained to our kids how we will be selling our land. It has been a rough year full of challenges. We wanted to learn from our experience and not just pass through it. I asked the kids (and hubby) to tell me something they had learned from living on the land.

Bella- "I think we became closer as a family, we had no walls to separate us. Also I now am BFF's with my cousin Sydney, because we lived out there we became real close."

Holman- "I learned that when you live in the desert, you can go pee anywhere."

Olivia- " I learned that when there is a peeing contest, you should never look." (Holman and cousin Jared J thought this was great fun, sorry Suzie if this is too much information).

Parkin- " I learned the best sleep is right between my mom and dad and I plan to sleep in between them until I am teenager". He didn't say anything, but I know he was thinking it.

Benjamin- " I learned that my wife and kids are tough and resilient, and can handle just about anything."

As for me, I learned, well too much to mention..... I do know this Heavenly Father does answer prayers, usually not how we expect.

I take comfort in the fact that my pioneer ancestors, settled in an area, layed down roots, planted a garden and before they could harvest it, they were driven from their homes (by a mob not unlike Flagstarr Bank, ok not even close) to start a new. And that is what we will do, lucky us we don't have to load a handcart and walk for miles, we get to settle in a double wide mansion.

Confessions of a Crappy Cook

As much as it seems I try, I am a crappy cook. I do not like the word crappy but find it in my vocabulary all too often, but when describing my cooking ability it really sums it up. As an example of my ability I will describe how today went. I summoned up the strength and will power to bake bread in this heat. The bread was looking good, after kneading it, it had risen beautifully gone into the oven, but when I finally heard the buzzer go off it was ruined. The tops were completely burnt. All that effort gone. I moved on to making dessert for our family night goodie, I totally misread the directions on how to layer the brownie recipe, even though I had literally read the directions several times that day. I am like a person who reads books on how to travel to foreign countries, but never leaves the country. I read recipes for fun but hardly ever do I execute those recipes. While I was morning the misread directions for dessert I managed to ruin dinner, it wasn't even a real dinner, I made spaghetti and burnt the sauce. I can't describe how many times I forget to add an egg, salt, put in baking soda instead of baking powder, you name it and I do it regularly. Despite all my follies Benjamin always says, "Good meal mama." He even added I like the sauce tonight. Are you kidding me it tasted like bad leftovers and it just came off the stove!!!! Sadly even if I didn't have little hands tugging at my skirt and asking me to open the glue bottle, I would still get distracted. I really don't enjoy cooking so lately I have been trying to make new things hoping that maybe it is because it becomes so mundane, but I have found most of these new recipes have the same problem, the cook. My only comfort is that I am preparing my sons to cleave unto their wives, cause they will praise their future wives for their cooking when reflecting on how there mother cooked. Man I am so self sacrificing...

Fast - Powerful - Vicious

Fast- Powerful- Vicious, the description of a barracuda.

The last meet of the season was a complete success. All the swimmers did every stroke, and did them well I might add. Liv did backstroke her least favorite stroke, she conquered her fear it was an awesome sight. Bella killed in Butterfly and continues to glide across the pool in backstroke, she finishes so fast she literally watches half the race from the other side of the pool (what can I say I am a proud mama). Our little team cheered everyone on, its been cool to watch the various age groups unite; I can't think of another sport where ages vary that much and they interact regularly enough to be friends.

The absolute highlight of the final meet was when Holman my four year swam the freestyle race. I had given him a goal or an incentive ( a bribe is when you are in the heat of the moment and are trying at all costs to have your child behave on demand) of a Transformer if he raced in the meet. He kept saying he couldn't, Benjamin kept telling him to say you don't want to, not that you can't because we know you can. Saturday morning came and he was determined not to compete. When the meet started he was chilling in his camping chair and cheering for his sisters. After the first event butterfly he turned to Benjamin and said, "I think I should go get my swimsuit." With two sets of Grandparents that have pools and swim team everyday we always have swimsuits in the car. Benjamin got the suit and he waited for the freestyle event. We kept telling him that he could have the outside lane closest to the wall, that we would be right there. Well another little boy really wanted that lane and was camping out there before the girls even raced (girls always go first). He had to pick a new lane, he was shaken but resolute. He was worried because he doesn't know how to dive, but i told him he could jump. The buzzer sounded and he went for it. Benjamin and I were holding our breath. But that little boy didn't stop once to hang onto the lane lines, he just kept trucking. When he was almost at the end he started to swim to the other lane that had the latter to exit the pool, but luckily he could hear us screaming to touch the wall. When i grabbed him out of the pool the timer was asking me his name I could barely answer i was all choked up over his performance. Holman was awesome! On the video it is fun to note Benjamin yelling at me to get to the other side of the pool to greet Holman, of course I would be there to meet him, I guess we all had nervous energy :) On the ride home Bella turns to me and says mom I prayed twice for Holman today that he would have the courage to do it, and he did.



The next video is of Olivia and Bella swimming side by side in Butterfly. I would like to point out Olivia's form. Her arms came completely out of the water and stretched out in front of her, her legs were together without scissor kicking (not all 8 and unders get the form, this is where I become a PE nazi, I guess).




The next video is of Bella and Olivia doing backstroke, go barracudas!




The meet ended with the kids doing relay races with giant inter tubes, they had a blast, I was tempted to run to the car and grab my swimsuit to join them. The season is over so now we can sleep in.... yeah right not with my kids.















Parkin wants to join the team for next year, he's working out.

Cheaper by the Coach

This memorable quote from one of my kids favorite movies "Cheaper by the Dozen" is what I am living right now......

Hank: It's gettin' so as I can hardly go out in public any more. I mean, really, between the autograph hounds and the paparazzi...
Kate: Autographs and everything? I mean, just the one commercial, and you have paparazzi?
Hank: Yeah. I've never actually seen them, but, you know, they hide in the bush and... they get their shot.

Click the link and you will understand!

Howe works to create Benson swim team

Kit Kat Wins Sorta

Today we had our sonogram appointment. I asked the girls what their favorite candy bar was and they came to a consensus that kit Kat was their favorite. I asked the boys (well just Holman) what candy bar he liked the best it was a pretty big toss up between M&M and Reese's, finally he went with M&M. Which ever sex the baby was the winning team got to distribute the winning candy bar. Our little baby is a shy one, back towards my tummy and legs crossed. So the doctor only gave us an 80% likelihood of the baby being a girl. I thought about eating one stick of each of the kids candy but that would symbolize 75% not 80%. My sister Lindsey said with a percentage as unsure as that she doesn't feel we should share, well we did and have. Next month the doctor will do another sonogram and hopefully she will cooperator better. Our baby guru ( Penny Hardt) has predicted all four of our kids correctly and she said girl, so girl it probably is. 20 more weeks till the end of this race and we shall know for sure.

Cowboy Up!

A Benson phrase that we have picked up that we love is Cowboy Up. When there is a job to be done that nobody wants to do its "Cowboy Up." It's similar to one of my favorite phrases "Bear Down" and not as crass as "Suck it up."

When I asked the kids to collect the eggs there was a lot of shifting responsibility. Quietly Holman got up went to his room and "got suited up" for his rodeo. He Cowboyed Up, put on his armor and walked out to the pen. He doesn't like his feet getting pecked at so he made sure to put on his sisters heels. We love our warrior!




Parkin is looking on very impressed with his big brother. Man those chicks look afraid.....

New York and DC with my fabulous sisters

The lady herself.












Central Park with two cute tourists :)














We always take pictures of our feet.....why?











Arlington was awesome specially on Sunday, there is a special feeling there.


















Who is that other girl in the photo, she is taking away from my moment with Honest Abe!
















I love my sisters! We had such a great time, up till 2:00 am every night, we were all exhausted but didn't want to waste a moment. Next time maybe Oprah or Finland :)