Rachelle's Birthday Party!

Ani and Rachelle

Rachelle's birthday present from me. These cool socks have really big bells on the top and they jingle every time you walk. One day I went to Rachelle's house and she was wearing them. I told her "cool socks!" and she said "yeah, but they are annoying after a while". I thought that was quite funny.

We did not have cake for Rachelle's birthday but we did have brownies! Yum!

SoRrY!

I really like this pic, it's a Kodak moment!


We had Rachelle take a couple family pics and this was one of the few that I liked.

Ani, Kai, and Rachelle having fun.

Kai being Kai


These last couple of months have been kinda rough, I have been soo busy, or not busy at all; either way I have not had the energy to blog and so hopefully I can start again. Here are some pics that i really like, they have been taken over the last couple months. Oh, by the way I cut my hair.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying." In challenging times when ethics are more important than ever before, make sure you set a good example for everyone you work and live with.

"Honest hearts produce honest actions"- Brigham Young

Robert L. Kimball-Honesty is a characteristic of people who are truly converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Savior compared the seed, or word of God, that falls on good ground as "they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience" (Luke 8:15). The Book of Mormon states that the Lamanites who were converted through the efforts of Ammon and his brothers were "perfectly honest and upright in all things" (Alma 27:27).

Elder J. Golden Kimball, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy a century ago, taught the importance of honesty with his characteristic dry wit: "What can God do for a man who is not honest? You may baptize him every 15 minutes, but if he does not repent, he will come up out of the water just as dishonest as ever. What can God do for a liar who refuses to repent? Can the Lord save him? He can't claim salvation. Baptizing him in water will not settle the trouble, unless you keep him under" (Conference Report, April 1909, 37, emphasis added).

The Emperor's Seed

by: Author Unknown, Source Unknown

Once there was an emperor in the Far East who was growing old and knew it was coming time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or one of his own children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It has come time for me to step down and to choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today. One seed. It is a very special seed. I want you to go home, plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring to me, and the one I choose will be the next emperor of the kingdom!" There was one boy named Ling who was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the whole story. She helped him get a pot and some planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept going home and checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by. Still nothing. By now others were talking about their plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by, still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she encouraged him to go, and to take his pot, and to be honest about what happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by all the other youths. They were beautiful, in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try." When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!" All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!" When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor? Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grown, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"

Life

School has started again. I am actually kinda happy, there were days when I didn't know what to do with myself b/c life at home was so boring, and I don't have anyone to hang out with. Life has gotten stressful again, but it is ok.
We will be getting sealed to Aniseth the end of this month (January 30). I am very excited and I know Dan is too. I wish I could get a hold of someone who would take really good family pics for us that is not so expensive.