More Family Reunion Photos!

Just wanted to quickly let everyone know that Alisha and Jen have both uploaded family reunion photos to the Dropbox folder I shared with everyone. If you need me to send you the link again, let me know. You should all definitely check them out as soon as possible - there are lots of cute photos (and videos!) of the kids!

I Recommend........

I Recommend.....

Hiking in rubber boots. 

Hugging in a corn patch.

Being towed from the back of a boat.

Amazing firwork shows put on by an amazing uncle.

 Getting soaked in the fountains at Lagoon.

Riding a racing bike.

Having a pool in your backyard.

Building a fire in your garden plot.

 Fishing with Adam.

Surrounding yourself with geese. 

Riding an ATV in your pajamas.

Watching Old Faithful in the rain.

Riding scary rides in the city park.

Climbing the highest tree you can find.

Taking a kayak out on the lake.

 Wearing your Grandpa's shoes.

Taking a nap in the park.

Growing a garden.

Talking your Mom into having a bake sale.

Fishing coins out of the City water fountain.

Eating at Five Guys.

Hooking yourself up to these things at the fair.

Running a sack race with kids twice your age.

Dressing your cat up like an NBA star.

Wading out to get that shiny thing.

Playing Skee Ball at the mall arcade.

Sleeping together in your Grandpa's camper trailer.

Learning to play tennis with your family.

Watching a movie from the back of your truck.

Filling your pool full of water balloons.

Spending a summer with the Mattson's.

(Good by summer, now on to a wonderful fall and winter)

Recommendation - The Word of Wisdom

No, this post is not recommending the Word of Wisdom (although I do recommend the Word of Wisdom). I'm recommending an article by Hugh Nibley that has to do with the Word of Wisdom.
Here is a link to the article.

I found this article a while ago, and a few weeks ago Mike and I discussed it during FHE. I think it's incredibly interesting, and I love the depth he goes into. He discusses the Word of Wisdom point by point, expounds on the difference between the Word of Wisdom and more eternal commandments/covenants, and even explains how we can be living the letter of the law, but still be breaking the Word of Wisdom.

I'd love to have a discussion about this article in the comments below, as I think it was an absolutely fascinating read, and I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks!

Not my week for recommends, but here it is anyway.... Mitchell's Journey

This is Mitchell.
It may be only me, but I think he looks a lot like Brant.
Reading about him, he SOUNDS a lot like Brant. LDS, Loves his siblings, super touchy hug-y kind of kid, birthdays are only a couple of months apart.
Mitchell passed away last winter.

I stumbled into his parent's face book page last November when one of my friend's "liked" it, and I looked because I thought he reminded me of Brant.  And now I am hooked. 

His father is an AMAZING photographer, catching amazing angles and the spirit and action of life.  He is also a very good writer, and I have found myself sucked into Mitchell's family.  It's so easy to picture myself in their situation.  As they went through medical care for Mitchell, faced the end with him, and now as they try to put back their lives, I find myself praying for this family.

Reading their posts though has helped remind me everyday to appreciate all that I have.  To enjoy every fleeting moment with my children.  I admit, I can't read a single post with out crying- but it's such a good reminder of what an eternal family is, and to appreciate all that we have hear and now.

I Love All of you!

This is Cailey speaking

I just want to share my gratitude with the family. Jeff and I are so blessed to have so much support. I love this family so much. I just want to tell everyone, please dont be afraid to give us advice, tips, pointers - WE NEED IT! We will not be offended at all. Its been a learning curve for all of us. Thankfully Heavenly father has been helping us the entire time, it is such a comfort. I just want to let everyone know that we really are doing so well. I would never have guessed that we would end up with these girls, however we have noticed the blessings from having them.

The girls really are doing well adjusting. They are kids, so here and there it can be frustrating, but they really are good girls and they want to help us as much as we want to help them. Its been a learning curve for both me and Jeff to cook for more than one or two people, that and for it to be a nutritious meal! Thankfully they are pretty easy to please, as long as we feed them what they like. 

I can also understand as to why parents stay up so late... It takes a few hours to wind down and get the kids into bed. Then after getting the girls into bed, its the only quiet time we've had for part of the day... so I feel the need to stay up and enjoy the moments, and look at Facebook or Instagram. We are learning that routine's are definitely needed, however a bit difficult to get down, but hopefully we will get it down.

One thing that I have noticed that has been the biggest blessing is PRAYERS. First few nights when we tried to have prayers with the girls they felt it more obnoxious than anything and they wouldnt really be interested and try to do other things. But now that we do them every night Kylie will ask Jeff to give the prayer. I cannot explain into words how that makes me feel - comfort, warm, fuzzy, blessed, joy, tearful... I really cannot put it into words. They still sometimes goof off and laugh a little, however Kylie will ask us to make sure we will do prayers with her and Alyssa.

Our next goal is to start with scriptures, Jeff and I are already pretty bad with doing them ourselves but we realize that these girls need that in their lives too. I may have to invest in one of the kid version of the book of mormon, I remember that as a kid and liked reading that instead of the "real" scriptures. This past week has been a little bit crazy, especially with getting settled in but yet it has all gone so smoothly.

Alyssa has seemed to have forgotten a lot within the gospel and scriptures - we realize that it is our opportunity to help teach these girls, and to help them enjoy going to church. I am planning on doing some FHE lessons or activities for them to do tomorrow and hoping that they will enjoy that. (when I have the time to figure out FHE... hopefully sometime during work HAHA). Kylie was really good today. She woke up and wanted to play some music - however it is some hiphop that we dont really enjoy and its not something that should be played on a sunday. I asked her to not play regular music on her tablet - I explained it is sunday and that it is not something we should be doing on Sunday's. She at first was a bit frustrated with it. However, she was good and she looked up lds songs, and played that for most of the day. It just made me feel so good that she was enjoying it so much. She got excited when I told her some of the primary songs were some of my favorite songs, so she would play them just for me.

We finally got Kylie's room set up a bit, we will need to remove the rest of Coah's things into a different area (she is currently in our bathroom/bedroom.... not too excited about that However, I am glad that Kylie has her own room - girls go to bed much easier without so many problems, so honestly I'll be just fine!).

Alright well it is already way too late for me and Jeff and Poor Jeff is just waiting on  me to get done for us to both go to bed.

Love you all and thank you for your prayers, calls, advice, encouragement and responses. It really means a lot to us, and we are so thankful. We love you all so much and we really have gotten different perspectives in life, and respect all the parents so much more. We just hope we can be good examples to these girls and that they will be happy for the time they are with us, and we are hoping to introduce the gospel into their lives more, and that they will enjoy it as we enjoy it.

Family History Blog - Yes Indeed

Okay people, I love family history.  And I have talked with several people in the family that want to get involved, but aren't sure where to start.  I was so lucky to have had so many family history classes in college, but understand that it can be daunting and mind boggling.

With that in mind, I have started a blog (beanfamilyhistory.blogspot.com) that is intended to inform us of our family history and be a place that we can all go to collaborate, find new research projects, and learn more about our family.  Here are the main purposes of the blog:

1) Present ready made projects that people can complete
2) Have general informational tips and guides to completing family history
3) Post stories and fun facts about our family history

The best way to see how the blog works is to just go and cruise around.  The biggest tool is going to be the labels on the right hand side.  However, I will explain just what each part of the blog are and how I envision that they will be useful:

LABELS

I have four different types of labels: Project types, project locations, family names, guides

Project types

This I think will be the most useful tool for helping you find a research project that fits your liking.  I have five different project labels, as follows:

• Projects: All  - Clicking on this will list every single project, regardless of the type
• Projects: Documents - This deals with research where you will be analyzing actual documents, rather than purely online research; these may require you to order film from the family history library (or if you are in SLC, just go there); it may also involve general document collection (which could include some online research)
• Projects: Go and Do - These projects get you out of the house and exploring! You could be going to graveyards, old residences, work places, etc.  Bring your camera and a pad of paper!
• Projects: Online Research - These projects require only an internet connection and some idea of where to go poking around
• Projects: Temple Names - These projects are likely to produce names of individuals that do not have their temple work yet (note, however, that the purpose of all these projects is to find people to baptize; often you have to poke around what you already know to find hidden gems that were overlooked by others during original research)

Project locations

If there is a tag with a location, that means that it is a "Go and Do" project that will require you to travel to said location.  Right now, I just have Denver, but that should grow as we go along

Family Names

Click on a name to find projects regarding that surname and any stories, documents, or other blog posts about the family!

Guides

These are just little tips I think could be helpful in your search

LINKS

I have links to important websites as well as a link to the Excel File of my massive source log.

PLEASE CALL ME! I WOULD LOVE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THIS AND GET YOUR IDEAS! COMMENT! CRITICIZE! I WOULD LOVE THIS TO WORK, SO I WOULD LOVE YOURE FEEDBACK!

Family History

I am interested to know how the family feels about family history.  I am interested in:

1) Whether or not you are interested in family history (it's okay if you are not);

2) What kind of family history you are engaged in; and

3) What challenges you find in doing (or starting) family history work.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, through a phone call, an e-mail, whatever.

There are several types of family history one can be engaged in.  The most common type people think of is research, but there are many other avenues.  This is a list of types of family history I could think of:

1) Researching unknown information in your line

This can be done in multiple different says, from online records search to interviewing living family members to visiting grave yards.  This is probably the most immediately rewarding type of family history as you instantly gather data that no one has compiled before.  Additionally, when you find a certain amount of data, you can submit names for the temple.

2) Confirming information that doesn't have a source

Our line is littered with individuals and information that have not yet been confirmed in our line.  Our predecessors did a great deal of work.  Unfortunately, the record keeping was not completed.  This type of research involves looking at our online tree, finding unsourced information, and attempting to locate the documents from which that information came.  While it may feel useless, it is important for laying the groundwork for the first type of research.  Additionally, there are a number of times where I have been performing this type of family history and have unearthed an unknown sibling or some other person.  In fact, while doing this information, I found out that our great grandfather was illegitimate and that we had been using the completely wrong line for his mother.

3) Compiling data of already confirmed sources

I love this kind of work (mostly because I love lists and Excel sheets and data compilation), but it is incredibly tedious.  For years I have been compiling every original source of information I have into one giant log.  I am doing this so that I can correct inaccuracies and make doing the first two types of family history easier.  I have catalogued all of our ancestors through alphabetically through the letter G. Brian and Stephani have helped some in this process.

4) Collecting data from current generations

This type of family history is so important.  There is a wealth of knowledge that those living around us have that just cannot be found anywhere else.  This is also an easy way to do family history without having to know the inns and outs of the England Death Registry (or other obscure records).  The most obvious place to start would be to record and transcribe interviews with Mom and Dad, but other steps would be finding other individuals (aunts and uncles, for example), organizing interviews, gathering pictures, etc.