Our Greatest Treasures

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Leaping Lizards

We have counted four different types of lizards that inhabit our yard. The kids love to go out side and try to catch them. They seem to be pretty friendly unless provoked, just kidding. :)Adam says they don't bite hard. The kids play with the lizards for hours and since there are at least fifty in our backyard when one gets away it isn't too hard for them to find another one.

We have had about five of these little creatures sneak into our house, thank heavens the kids are fast and very good at rushing them back out side. I really don't mind them, they are fun to watch running all around but I just don't want them in my house.

Thanksgiving

This years Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful!!! A couple years ago we made a tradition of inviting the missionaries over for holiday dinners. This year the kids quickly reminded me of our tradition and the missionaries happily excepted our invitation, they then asked if we wouldn't mind having a family join us that was investigating the Church. We of course said yes, the more the merrier has always been our motto. So the planning began, both Jennifer and Adam had there own things they had to have for Thanksgiving, chocolate eggnog and pumpkin cake was at the top of their list.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and as the kids get older I love it even more. This year we made everything from scratch just because I didn't want to brave the traffic. I was a little worried about getting everything done in time but it all worked out and I had so much fun cooking all that food.
Because the weather was so awesome we ate outside on our covered patio, we all had a great time. Then one of the elders asked if we could do something he has done for years, he went on to instruct us to each say something we were thankful for. It was really fun to hear what everyone was thankful for and to hear wonderful testimony born.
After dinner we all sat on our couch to let our food settle so we could have pie later. Our new friend, who is investigating the church, saw our Book of Mormon for latter-day-saint families on our coffee table she picked it up and started asking more questions about the people in it. She then opened the book asking the missionaries to read a couple verses. She had turned to the story of Ammon when he cut off all the soldiers arms and brought them to the king. We each took turns reading the story. The spirit was so strong as the missionaries reviewed one of the discussions they had given her just the day before using this story. We all had a wonderful time reading and discussing the truths of the Book of Mormon.
I saw my new friend at church today and she told me her and her daughter will be baptized in a couple weeks. I am so excited for her and we all look forward to attending her baptism.
I am truly thankful for this wonderful gospel and great missionaries who devote their time and effort to spreading the good news.

I Love These Trees.

This is a Banyan tree. They are so cool because many of their roots grow from their tall branches and eventually attach themselves to the ground below to add to the ever expanding trunk. You can actually go inside this tree because it's large trunk is made up of descending branches. The kids love to weave their way in and out of the branches.

Here is a picture of our house. It is pretty nice, all tile, four bedrooms. It suits our family very well but there is one thing we have a hard time with, the bars on all the windows. We noticed that many of the homes in our neighborhood, which is considered to be a very good neighborhood, have bars on their windows and some houses even have tall motorized cast iron fences to protect their properties.
When we first moved in it felt weird to look out the window just to see the bars that secured us tightly inside. But then we thought, it was less likely someone could harm us inside. I think the psychology of the whole thing messes with a persons mind, especially someone who has always lived in a bar free community. Eric and I both started to worry more about break ins and then we began to think about other problems that could arise with having a house with all but two of the exits barred securely shut. A fire was my biggest concern, how could we get five kids out, eek, sleepless nights ensued.
There is one barred exit, a sliding door, that we could get out of if we had a key but our land-lord had that key so we called and wrote letters asking for her to please send us the key. After waiting for two months she finally had someone bring it to us. I immediately opened the gate to see the outside world without bars obstructing my view.
It really is amazing how free that made me feel. I close and lock the gate at night, so we are safe from all the riff-raff of Miami and open it first thing in the morning so I can see outside without the bars closing me in. I now feel drawn to that door so I can see an unobstructed view of the outside world. I guess if I would have grow up in an area where the crime is higher the bars on windows would have helped me feel safer from the outside world. But I tend to like windows without bars.