We are going to do a digital Christmas card this year again! It’s just easier and it simplifies our Christmas.
This year we welcome a little girl named Emily. 7 lbs even and 20 inches long. We love her so much!
Merry Christmas!!
Here’s our past years Christmas Cards:
This is the 2015 Christmas video from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called “A Savior is Born”.
The week before General Conference I’m usually feeling really down and I know it’s just Satan trying to make me sad right before a really spiritual General Conference.
General Conference is always a breath of fresh air for me!
Dallin’s research lab was going on a hike on Saturday morning of General Conference. At first Dallin really didn’t want to go and miss conference but then we decided to take a radio up the canyon.
It worked out great! We got to listen to conference and we got to participate in his lab hike. Here’s me with a little handheld radio we borrowed from our neighbors.
Micah, who just turned 3, walked 2 miles by himself! I was impressed.
During the hike I was surprise to hear the language of Cantonese being broadcast on the radio!!! I got so excited. I grew up speaking Cantonese and I thought it was so cool that the first foreign language talk was in Cantonese by Elder Chi Hong Wong.
There were so many good talks during conference!! I can’t wait to read all of them over the next six months.
Another great talk was by Elder Carlos A. Godoy, who spoke in Portuguese, called The Lord Has a Plan for Us. My husband speaks Portugues so it was one of his favorites too.
Elder Godoy asked us a question about our patriarchal blessings: “If we continue to live as we are living, will the promised blessings be fulfilled?”
He concluded by saying:
We are children of Almighty God. He is our Father, He loves us, and He has a plan for us. We are not here in this life just to waste our time, grow old, and die. God wants us to grow and achieve our potential.
In the words of President Thomas S. Monson: “Each of you, single or married, regardless of age, has the opportunity to learn and to grow. Expand your knowledge, both intellectual and spiritual, to the full stature of your divine potential”
This talk was very inspiring to me because I felt like I wasn’t living up to my full potential nor trying to achieve all the promised blessings in my patriarchal blessing.
The main reason why I don’t think I’m living up to my patriarchal blessing potential is because I have no idea where my patriarchal blessing is! I need to request a new copy!
What did you learn from General Conference?
It’s been awhile since I’ve consistently posted anything online. It’s been a rough busy couple of months. I haven’t been feeling good physically since March. I’ve been sick a lot since then and just plain not feeling good. My friends who know me know that it’s not the first I haven’t felt well in my life but I thought I was making it up in my mind or going crazy. Thankfully, through fasting and prayer I’ve been able to slowly discover what is wrong with me. I am so grateful for revelation from Heavenly Father that guides my daily life. I’m starting to feel better now and I hope the doctors can diagnose a problem soon!
Like I just said, I’ve had a real lack of desire to post online. I feel like no one reads it or no one really cares. It’s funny because I’ve had an real increase lack of desire ever since Elder Bednar told us to post more online and flood the internet with good things. I guess there has just been great opposition for me following an apostle’s request.
I’ve had the prompting to do the “WordPress LDS Ward” blog for six months now! I started templates but never got over the hump of publishing the site.
I’ve been reading my scriptures, attending the temple, going to the church and praying. What is wrong with me? Finally on Sunday I asked my husband for a priesthood blessing. I haven’t asked for one in a while. I feel like that blessing really helped me get back on my feet. The blessing counseled me to continue to share my testimony and photography online then my stress will go away. I have really felt power of the priesthood be pouring down into my life.
Another thing is that I’ve realized that I have a real problem with emotional eating and social media especially since I’ve been so stressed. I haven’t been posting very much but I’ve been wasting countless hours reading what other people are doing on social media… mainly Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading about your life but I’ve tried many times to put limits on my Facebook time and failed greatly. If I’m not on Facebook, I’m indulging myself on foods that make me sick. When I feel sick, I want to eat more food because I think it makes me feel better. I tried cutting things out cold turkey but I just realized my efforts wasn’t working!
Then I was chatting with my SIL online and she suggested that I start reading the LDS Addictions Recovery manual. It was the best advice I’ve gotten in a long time. After sincerely studying only the first two lessons, I feel so much more faith, hope and control in my life. I may even start attending the emotional eating meetings. The books also says writing is a good therapy. 🙂 I haven’t felt this good in a long time.
I testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ works and if anyone out there is feeling a lack of hope just call upon God and He will bless you. Ask for help. Prepare yourself to ask and receive priesthood blessings.
I know that I can’t change all by myself but the atonement can change me even if it’s something as silly as getting rid of food addictions or heal me from pain. I have felt an increase of control in my life ever since I’ve been humble enough to seek for more help. I know that God will always give me more help when I need it whether it be through the priesthood or professionals. Because of Jesus Christ, there is always someone out there to help us feel better.
Sorry I really have tried to keep this blog about my blessings not my trials but it’s enviable… We all have trials even when I don’t talk about them much!
Question: How have you witness the blessings of the atonement in the mist of your trials?
I’ve include pictures of me and my husband in this post from our 4th anniversary back in May. We took these pictures in Logan, Utah on Old Main Hill where we first met and dated. We used a tripod on self-timer. My husband has been a great help and companion in my life. I’m so grateful for his willingness to serve me and our little family!
Well January was kinda crazy. I was trying to get my life back together after the holidays. We went on vacation in October and November. Then Christmas came along and my birthday. I also spent all January trying to recover from being sick and my data disaster. Now it’s already mid February… Crazy! Good news! My computer is cleaned. The laundry is finally caught up and my apartment looks decent. I feel like I can actually sit down and write a nice blog post cause my kids are taking naps. So here we go!
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My old roommate Catherine came into town and she wanted an updated family picture.
Catherine and Dalton said they didn’t want another picture in front of fall colors nor did they want her pictures to look like engagement pictures. So this is what we came up with:
Theme: Urban
Location: 341 S. Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah – Alleyway Between Maxwell’s and Array Salon
Time: We did dusk/twilight but it didn’t really matter too much because this area is in between tall buildings that block the sun.
I wanted to point out how good they were at posing!!! They came up with a lot of creative husband and wife / couple poses.
So, I want to write a little more about Catherine. She was one of the seven girls I ended up rooming with during my first year of college. She is amazing! She has so many talents especially in writing and journalism. My favorite thing about Catherine is that she makes everyone feel genuinely loved.
Every guy loved Catherine and wanted to date her. She ended up waiting for Dalton while he was on his 2 year LDS mission. They got married in the Bountiful Utah Temple in December of 2011.
Catherine and Dalton have been married for a little over two years and it’s obvious that they are really happy.
So what’s their secret? Why are they so happy? How are they making their marriage work?
I asked her specifically about how has their decision of being married in a LDS temple has helped their marriage.
This is what Catherine said:
“Because we were married in the temple, we are able to connect every choice we make in our lives to our overall purpose and ultimate destiny. Our journey together is real. When we face trials and uncertainties in life, we can always find joy in knowing there is a purpose and a plan for us. The temple made us an eternal team, and we are always reminded of that when we go back to the temple. This encourages us to focus all of our attention on being the best supporter we can of our teammate’s goals and dreams.”
I had a vision of having our family pictures taken on the top of a snowy mountain so we drove up Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake City, Utah to take these pictures. I think they turned out OK for being impromptu! 🙂
Why is it called Emigration Canyon? Wikipedia says:
Emigration Canyon was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. It is significant in Utah history as the original route used by pioneers entering Utah. It was part of the Hastings Cutoff route used by the Donner Party in 1846, and where the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. As Brigham Young looked over the canyon, he declared, “This is the right place. Drive on.” These words have become famous in Utah history. The event is commemorated with This Is The Place Heritage Park at the mouth of the canyon. Throughout Emigration Canyon, there are several historic markers designating camps, trail markers and milestone where the Mormon Pioneers passed while on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. One example of these milestones is called Lost Creek Camp.
We used my brother’s Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Wide angle lens are great for landscape shots.
We took these with a tripod so that’s why my kids don’t always look at the camera. I’m going to create a device one day that will capture my kids attention while my camera is self timer on a tripod… lol!
Enjoy!
Here is my 4 months Quentin. His height is off the charts. He’s huge and has hair down to his shoulders!! He is our little hippie rock star! We love him!
I recently took pictures of this family. They have three cute little girls. We believe in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in families and that we can belong to an eternal family. “The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” –The Family Proclamation to the World
Of course in our imperfect world, we face hard things. “Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.” God does not expect us to go through these hard things by ourselves, this why we have The Church. This is why church has home teaching and visiting teaching. Everything we do in our church is to help each other to be happy even during the toughest parts of life. We invite everyone to come to our church meetings to learn more about eternal families! We invite you even if you don’t have a family of your own and we want you to meet your ward family.
My neighbor and friend, Heather has a sewing blog and I took her family pictures while they wore clothes that she made herself. How cool is that? Isn’t it such a unique idea? Here‘s the link to her post about making her clothes for the photo shoot. Also, don’t you think the cool big leaves they brought really added to the picture?
On a side note, I’ve taken pictures of a lot of little kids. Little kids are definitely my favorite to take pictures of. Here are some tips for taking family pictures with little kids.
First, use the first 10 minutes wisely because that is probably all the time you’ll have to get your little kids to pose for the picture. My best pictures always come from the beginning of the photo shoot such as the picture posted on the top. Also, before the shoot, make sure your camera is set to continuous shooting mode so you can snap pictures fast.
Second, go the direction the kid is looking at instead of making them turn to you.
Third, poses while holding the child is best if they won’t stand still for you.
Fourth, after the child/children get restless, just capture the moment as you and the parents play with the children. Bring something that will capture their attention like a whistle or toy. Tell the parents it’s ok if their kid doesn’t want to pose. Little kids gets really upset when they are forced to do something they don’t want to and that doesn’t make a happy family picture.
Fifth, don’t drag out the photo shoot. Once the kid is done the photo shoot is over! 🙂
What are your tips while photographing little children?
Now that we’ve had some time to ponder about our time in Ireland. I’m going to do a series of stories about miracles that happened on our adventure in Ireland. We feel like our trip to Ireland was one big miracle made up of a bunch of small miracles. The first miracle I blogged about happened within hours of our arrival in Ireland. You can read it here.
This post is about one of the final miracles that happened in Ireland and I’ll fill in the rest later. I felt like it was a miracle to have little Quentin in Ireland. He has been our favorite and best souvenir. You can see his newborn pictures here.
We initially didn’t plan on having the baby in Ireland. We thought we would just fly home during my last month of pregnancy…. but Irish airlines wouldn’t let pregnant women fly internationally after 28 weeks. That was a problem. Dallin wasn’t finish with his research assignment in Ireland when I was 28 weeks pregnant so we decided to stay. We changed our airplane tickets to July 25 which is one month after the guess “birthday” of the new baby. We thought since my first baby was 2 weeks early that it wouldn’t be a problem to fly home on July 25. Well, things didn’t go as plan and the baby didn’t arrive until July 4th which is 9 days after my “due date”.
At first we didn’t realize how much paper work and processing time it was going to take to get the baby home to the USA:
The total estimated time to get the baby’s passport was 10 weeks after birthday which would’ve put us to Sept 12th! We didn’t want to pay more money to change our flights and we really wanted to get back to Utah. So we prayed and I got a priesthood blessing. My husband and I both felt at peace that the Lord’s timing is always right.
We acted on faith after the baby finally arrived. We miraculous got an US embassy interview for July 11 (14 days before our flight date) but we still needed an Irish birth certificate. So we called and requested an emergency Irish birth certificate. The hospital faxed our information over to the government offices instead of waiting for the information to process in the system. We managed to get a copy of the baby’s Irish birth certificate on July 8th. We went to the interview and told the people at the US embassy that we want to fly on July 25 so they marked our application as “urgent” but they didn’t guarantee that it would happen by then. Our faith was indeed tested while we waited for the passport to arrive in the mail. I checked the mail everyday hoping that the passport have come.
I was in distress because we needed to change our flights at least 24 hours in advance! Well to make the story short, the passport arrived within 48 hours of our flight and we flew home on July 25th when our baby was shy of 3 weeks old.
Yep we made it home with a toddler and a newborn infant alive. How in the world did I just give birth and get on a plane to move our family across the ocean? I have no idea except that I felt the grace of God helping us every step of the way.
Well that’s it for now. We have many more miracles to post about!
My mother-in-law took these cute pictures of our family! She is learning how to use her new Canon 60D. She’s a great photographer!
Hubbard's Cupboard 