Holidays
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Christmas Day, and the end of 2025
Ok, moving along to wrap December up… Christmas day came and went. Phew, it was a LOT. But I’m such a sucker for traditions.…
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Christmas Eve 2025
Before this turns into ancient history, let’s record how Christmas Eve went this year. We crammed a lot into this night, but it was…
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Merry Christmas 2025
Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We haven’t been together, all of us, since before Claire left on her mission. So Christmas for…
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Christmas Inspiration: My Favorite Ideas for Connection, Fun, Food & Gifts
I want to share some of my favorite Christmas inspiration in one post. My very favorite ideas I’ve gathered through all my years of…
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Jerusalem Supper on Christmas Eve: A Favorite Tradition
Over the years, our traditional Jerusalem Supper has always been part of my Christmas Eve recaps. But I feel like there needs to be…
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Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Weekend 2025
I lay in my bed late at night on the evening of Thanksgiving, after all the hoopla was over, finishing the reading of my…
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Ease Holiday Stress: 5 Ideas to Prepare and Enjoy
Ok, so I spoke at a Christmas dinner a week or so ago, and the topic was how to ease holiday stress and focus…
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November Gratitude: 7 Easy Ways to Practice Thankfulness
Oh man, I love November. Ok, to be honest, part of it scares me. Because how did we get here? And how in Heaven’s…
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A Halloween all Spread Out – 2025
Man alive, it’s so weird to have your kids all spread out in different places on Halloween. Especially after having them woven so tightly…
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“Moving to the Bleachers” For Easter – Easter 2025
We got lucky enough to celebrate with most of our kids this Easter. The weekend was filled up with kids, grand babies, long walks…
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The Miracle That Rescues Me – Happy Easter!
Welp, the sun is setting on the Easter celebrations of yet another year. Oh I’m so grateful to celebrate that miracle that rescues me…
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The Power of Love and Valentine’s Day this year
Oh gosh, I love Valentine’s Day. And I know it’s ancient history by now, but I love to reflect on the power of love.…
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How We Did Something Different for Christmas This Year
I mentioned before that we were going to do something different for Christmas this year. In lieu of gifts, we opted for a family…
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Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours – 2024
Sending so much love. And also, those promises I shared yesterday written in our Christmas card too. May you feel all the “Beauty for…
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“Oil of Joy for Mourning”
I sat in a class this Christmas season and was SO touched by these words from the scriptures: He has borne our griefs and…
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Thanksgiving 2024
Once the Turkey Trot was rolled up and put away, this crew (plus some extras) split up and scuttled home to make all their…
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Each Year We Gather for the Gilbert Turkey Trot…
…and it gets bigger and more complicated. And also more fun. With more money raised for our two charities. Yow. Preparation Oh there is…
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A Halloween Challenge to “Memorize the Moment”
If you are on my email list this “Halloween Challenge” post will be familiar. You see, I sent out this email to my subscribers…
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Feeling Patriotic at the MCO New England TOur
Lucy begged her way into having us join MCO (her choir) for the New England Tour this summer. And boy, there’s a lot to…
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Easter 2024
It was a strange Easter this year. Strange as in different, but also pretty awesome. Strange because first of all, it was rainy and…
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He is risen – three things to share This Easter Sunday
And then, after the darkness and the suffering, the anguish and the pain, the ashes…. …came the beauty. The stone was rolled back. He…
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How to make “Holy Week” more holy
For years I have worked to gather all the goodness I can for Holy Week. It is, after all, such a sacred opportunity to…
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Valentine’s Day 2024
I meant to get over here all day yesterday to add this new favorite love quote for Valentine’s Day: “We live in a world…
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How do you put your husband first? — Valentine’s edition
This question has been asked over and over in a variety of different ways over the years on this blog: How do you put…
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three ways to practice love leading up to Valentines day
With Valentine’s Day coming up this week, let’s talk about three ways to practice love. Because love IS practice, right? Love is finding the…
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Christmas Eve, a good fight, and Christmas Day 2023
Christmas Day was a good one. So was Christmas Eve…except for a good fight mixed in there. Does every couple get in fights on…
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Family festivities leading up to Christmas
Yow it feels like we crammed a boatload of stuff into December! As I’m sure you, dear reader, did too. How is it possible…
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two times the world stood still this Christmas
This year, in the midst of all the holiday hoopla, there were two times the world stood still for a bit. At least for…
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Merry Christmas from our family to yours
Merry Christmas! So grateful for this blogging community. For all I learn from you. For the beauty of connection through this space on the…
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sending Christmas love to all the mothers out there
Perhaps one of my favorite quotes from this Christmas was from my sister Charity on her Instagram account: “The Christmas birth story reminds us…
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fun Christmas family games that will get everyone involved
One part of Christmas I love the most is the opportunity to gather and connect with those I love. So I’ve been trying to…
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how to find stillness and “true meaning” at Christmas
I am forever and always on the lookout for how to find stillness and “true meaning” at Christmas. Oh how we want it! Am…
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“Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices” – Lucy’s concert
I don’t know that I will ever hear “O Holy Night” in the same way again after Lucy’s MCO Christmas concert. The words “Fall…
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gobs of goodness – how thanksgiving went down this year
We filled every inch of before and after Thanksgiving with some pretty great family togetherness, but that scarcely touched on the extended family togetherness…
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A full house, and pre and post thanksgiving happenings
We got our kids home for Thanksgiving in phases. We always love to fill up the house again, especially so quickly after we had…
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55 things I’m so grateful for before November wraps up
I am just coming up for air after some pretty hefty hosting and Turkey Trotting and velvety family togetherness. I told Dave I think…
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one powerful antidote for stress – thankful trees:)
I don’t know about anyone else, but stress alarms start pinging in my brain and heart on the first of November. Oh I love…
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Halloween Wrap-up 2023
Welp, let’s do a little Halloween wrap-up before we move on to all the gratitude stuff. OH I LOVE NOVEMBER! But I do love…
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A love-note to young moms on Halloween…
I cannot believe it’s Halloween. First of all, wasn’t it just July? And second of all, Lucy has decided she does not like this…
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Shifting Family Traditions on the 4th of July
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: life sure does keep on changing! It keeps morphing into new scenarios and configurations endlessly.…
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Thoughts about “Founders” who pave the way – happy 4th!
Welp, I’m a day late and a dollar short to post about the 4th. A whole post about what we did on that grand…
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How easter went down in 2023
It seems like there were so many things swirling around Easter this year. So many things on my heart, but also things on this…
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six things on my heart leading up to Easter
Phew! I am used to being here spilling my heart out around Easter. I’m so grateful for this space on the Internet to share…
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connecting with love on Valentine’s Day
Let’s talk about connecting with love on Valentine’s Day…even when you’re far away from some of your valentines. Because I’m telling you, it’s tricky…
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the holidays are over, what now?
Dave and I watched “Puss in Boots” with Lu over the three-day weekend. (It was a cute movie.) As Puss was grappling with how…
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Trying to keep the magic of Christmas when kids grow up — Christmas 2022
If you are ready to move on into 2023 without any more Christmas hullabaloo, maybe go ahead and skip this post. I don’t blame…
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a professional gingerbread making workshop
Ok, I know I’ve already written about making gingerbread making houses this year. But this year we happened to have THREE ROUNDS of it.…
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game ideas for New Years Eve
Grace and Claire put together a pretty fun game night for us the other night, so I’m here to share real quick since I…
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He came for us one by one. Merry Christmas Eve
I got to be the one to record the Come Follow Me devotional that airs today, Christmas Eve. (You can find it in the…
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a good story to cherish the gift of giving
I love a good motivational story about giving at Christmastime. There is this lady in my ward (church congregation) who texts me a little…
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Christmas gift ideas for MEN
The girls came up with a list of their favorite gift ideas at Thanksgiving, and I did a post on my own favorites, but…
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the best gingerbread house making
My parents don’t slow down. They are always on the go. Which makes me happy since sometimes that “go” is to visit us here…
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a good story to share at Christmastime
Remember when I talked about these gifts we were giving out to our women at church? Well, I wanted to save the story they…
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Giving Thanks with people I love
After the Turkey Trot we came to finish setting up everything at home for Thanksgiving dinner. We had 34 for dinner this year as…
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the best mass of humanity on Thanksgiving morning
Each year the turkey trot gets a little bigger. This year we were up to 4,800 signed up as runners (this means so many…
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how holiday traditions are powerful
First of all, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE yesterday with our big announcement. We are so excited. So much more on that coming…
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Looking for a great activity on Thanksgiving morning?
Come join us at the Gilbert Turkey Trot!! This is our 12th year at this sucker and every year is a new adventure. Sure,…
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How to increase November gratitude and ease holiday stress
My sisters and I recorded a podcast about holiday traditions, and it gave me a jump start as to how to increase November gratitude…
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Trunk-or Treat and Happy Halloween!
We are dwindling rapidly with the kids around here, but hey, Lucy is still semi-into the dress-up game. She dressed up as Tris Prior…
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celebrating all the dads out there changing trajectories
I love this day to celebrate the fathers who make the world go around. The ones who are handed a baby and wonder what…
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preparing and the lead-up for Easter
I wrote a little on Instagram about how “prepare” was my “one word” a few years back (although I can’t, for the life of…
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a bad start to a good finish — Easter 2022
Three of the five of us at home woke up on the WRONG side of the bed on Easter morning. It was grumpy city…
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He is Risen. Happy Easter with love.
I love that new video, but perhaps I love this one even more: Oh and this one: As they say in my beloved Romania:…
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grumpiness, Good Friday, and an Easter epiphany
I have been a little grumpy this week. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to wrangle these kids together for two minutes…
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love for the human race on Valentine’s Day
I love this day of love. It’s so good to have a day to stop and cherish those we love. Today I want to…
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adding our traditional Valentine’s love to the kitchen
Let’s talk about our traditional Valentine’s love that Lucy wouldn’t let us skip out on if the world was ending. She loves this stuff.…
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a hustle to get back in time for Christmas Eve
We left the hotel in Cancun in the wee hours of Christmas Eve morning to get home to Elle and Carson who were arriving…
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One of my favorite Christmas traditions has begun
Claire just told me today that this is her own favorite Christmas tradition too. We love that there is an outlined idea each day.…
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some Thanksgiving crowds and celebrations and love
It was a jam-packed Thanksgiving day, so bear with me on all these pictures to remember it all! You see, when you decide to…
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Happy Father’s Day
There is nothing like the power of a good dad. And today, as I ponder that (along with the thoughts I shared in the…
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Valentine’s Day 2021
Here’s what happened on Valentine’s Day around here. It was on Sunday and I had all kinds of meetings starting in the morning. So…
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our traditional heart attack
I pulled everyone together for our traditional valentine’s kitchen Heart Attack for Family Home Evening this week. (I made that sound like it was…
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we wish you a merry Christmas
Merry Christmas! So strange that only two of all those people will be with me and Dave today, but oh, how happy we are…
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leaves of gratitude
Our traditional Thanksgiving gratitude tree was looking a little measly on the leaf deal up until all the kids got home, and now it’s…
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#GiveThanks
Our prophet, President Nelson, gave the following short address yesterday. I re-listened to it this morning, as I was working on some odd jobs…
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the glory of dads
Gosh, I’m so nostalgic going through pictures of the dads in my life this morning! And I want to write a whole novel about…
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Easter weekend
We marched into Easter weekend right on the tail of the wedding, so I was kind of grasping at straws to be prepared (gosh,…
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Hristos a înviat! Adevărat a înviat!
That is how people greet each other in Romania on Easter morning. It is translated; “Christ is resurrected!” and the person being greeted responds,…
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What is so good about Good Friday?
Just sneaking this in in the nick of time before the day is done. Because it is Good Friday and it is Easter weekend.…
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How Valentine’s Day Went in 2020
Ok, so the big ol’ Valentine’s Day is all wrapped up. Gosh I sure tried to make it over here to send out some…
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Christmas (& Christmas Eve) 2019
It is overwhelming to be a mother at Christmas-time. So much to gather and prepare and so many thoughts to organize in my brain.…
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madonna & child, and a silent night
One of the things that rolls through my heart and mind at Christmas-time (when I stop long enough to let it), is from Luke…
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teaching children to give (a podcast and our Christmas Eve tradition) and a guest post from my parents
How’s that for a long title? Ha! But I wanted to take a minute to talk about my very favorite part of Christmas every…
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Valentine's Day 2019 and an invitation to some cool parenting things
Here’s how Valentine’s Day went down over in our neck of the woods. I stayed up late the night before (because I always procrastinate)…
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out with the envelopes, and three things that have brought in Christmas beauty
I feel like my weekends should be categorized somehow lately. They are somehow like a pause in the panic-mode. Ha! I feel like each…
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traditions that Make Easter Special
A while back a blog reader wrote asking about traditions that make Easter special in our family. She mentioned she noticed we have a…
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Easter Sunday 2018
We started off Easter by weaving our bodies through a few obstacles of yarn strung through the house (from the Easter bunny leading to…
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eggs and Easter prep
On Saturday we did our traditional Easter egg painting…something the girls and I all love. I only got Grace’s hand, not her cute face…
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Easter thoughts
I let St. Patrick’s Day fly by without so much as a pinch…no green, no fun…dang it! Am I just growing out of the…
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Easter 2016
It was a good, full day. Our traditional “strings-to-the-Easter-baskets” and my Dad helping Lucy: Elle spoke in church. She did a great job. Some…
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egg coloring and the Easter pageant
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but oh how I love Easter and all the prep. I talked about some of the things we…
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Valentine’s heart attack 2016
We whipped out our annual Valentine’s “heart attack” for Family Home Evening a few weeks before Max took off. Same old tradition, but all…
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temple lights
We waited for Max to go see the temple lights too. …and got some hot cocoa to keep us warm on the way. I…
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gingerbread houses
First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Oh how I love new beginnings. But I’m not really ready for the “new beginning” that…
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a white elephant gift idea…
I cannot believe my kids will be bounding in the door any minute with huge smiles across their faces DONE with their first semester.…
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reading under the Christmas tree
As soon as we pulled out the Christmas tree and lit it up for the first time, we all knew it was time: Time…
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Thanksgiving 2015
We hosted 52 at our house for Thanksgiving. So grateful for that opportunity, I love hosting. But since it was right after the Turkey…
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Mother’s Day 2015
Oh boy I forgot to hit “publish” this morning. Dang, over and over each day I wish I could sit down and write down…
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Easter 2015
Oh boy, I meant to post this earlier and here we are already in the afternoon. But here’s our Easter this year. We lucked…