We Remember...

"I'd thank my lucky stars to be living here today.

'Cuz this FLAG still stands for Freedom. 

And they CAN'T take that away..."

☆America's Birthday Party☆

For the 4th of July this year, we celebrated all weekend long. 

☆Saturday we had fun swimming & having a BBQ with the Curtis Clan. Grandma Kathy always has the most scrumptious food.

☆Sunday of course were Ryler's Blessing Festivities & then Spence spent the night at the Simas' & Kaylea was off to the Arizona Grande Resort with the Check's. 

☆Then Monday began with seeing the add in the paper for $9000 off of a Truck! Having had gone 6months or so with only 1 vehicle we hopped on this offer. We spent the afternoon picking out a truck & getting the deal done. We had the 3 little boys with us &...

Tim chose RED since that's all his boys favorite color. Daylan thought he had the coolest Dad in town. Plus it showed our Patriotism being that it was the 4th!

Then we rewarded the boys for good behavior by going to the Dollar Theatre & seeing "Rio", a movie about a BLUE bird. (was feeling so festive) It was surprisingly very entertaining!

☆That evening we met up with Lonnie, Lace & Ash to watch some good ol' Queen Creek fireworks. We all piled in to the new RED truck! These Californians had to admit they were impressed & pleasantly surprised with the show. I caught this pic of a firework & didn't notice the detail of each star in the flame till later.

Jax was blown away by the fireworks show & would let out a squeal with each one.

After the show we drove a whole 3 minutes (I ♥ our little town!) back to the McCleve's & did our own fireworks. The 1st ones my kids had ever done here in AZ since it's now legal. They loved it! 

look at the Stars in Spence's eyes...

TIm & Lonnie put on some much bigger fireworks in the yard that were loud & a little on the crazy side. The kids loved it!!...but not as much as Tim. :)

Lucky Kaylea got to spend the day swimming at the Arizona Grande Resort with cousins Ava, Sophie & Elsie. She had a blast swimming & even got to watch fireworks show out the window as they ate dinner. She got dropped off late that night & we did a couple more little fireworks in the backyard that we had saved for her.

☆WE LOVE AMERICA!☆

Story of the Year....

*There is the cutest little African man in our ward. He is a husband & daddy of 4 children that had not seen his family in 6 years. Every Fast/Testimony meeting he would get up bearing his testimony (in the greatest accent ever) of the Gospel giving me goosebumps every time. He'd usually sing a Hymn which brought in such an instant, sweet spirit. One time he sang "Count Your Many Blessings" & I had to leave the chapel because I was crying so much. Click on the link to read his amazing story & see him reunited with his family at the Airport. 

{Photo by: trevordayleyphotography}

The youngest daughter on the left is in Kaylea's school & church class. 

*Grab a box of tissue....no really -a whole box. 

Read:  Roy's Story

Mayor Spence

Spencer was chosen to be Mayor out of a large group of 5th Grade Middle School Kids as they took a Field Trip to a place called Biz-Town. Each 5th grader gets a "job" in the made-up town of Biz Town. They get paychecks, pay taxes & have duties they must perform that full day according to their individual jobs. There's even news reporters, a big screen & tv's across the town. Mayor Spencer was interviewed a number of times on "TV" & also had to give a few speeches and answer impromptu questions at Town Hall meetings. I want to be like him some day when I grow up.

A Dad of one of the boys from our ward went as a chaperone & reported back to us that Mayor Spencer did a great job. Now that would have been fun to see! We never went on Field Trips like this back in my day but I think it's a GREAT IDEA that the kids get to see what grown ups really do to keep America running each day. Spencer said it was fun but a lot more work than he thought it would be. ☺

We will always remember...

The beginning of this last week at school, Kaylea's teacher asked the class if they knew what happened to our Country on September 11th, 2001. Kaylea was the only one to raise her hand. The teacher had Kaylea then explain to the class what had occurred. When she told me at first I was proud, but then I really became sad about it. Have we already forgotten? Why do our children not know the story. Are we simply taking our freedoms & our Country for granted?

Later in the week I was asked (Because I am a local Cub Scout leader) to teach all the 4th grade boys in their School how to raise & lower the flag, show how to fold it & talk about its importance. I did this along with the Primary President & Principal. These boys will now be taking on that responsibility each week  and I think it will help them to feel pride for their Country.

The following day, Friday, the Principal held a special outdoor assembly in front of the school. It was rewarding for me to see those same boys doing this flag ceremony in their Scout uniforms. They showed pride in doing it & the flag never looked better as it blew in the September wind. The whole school sang Patriotic songs that brought chills and were all dressed in Red, White & Blue.

I had to get a picture of Daylan, his teacher {Ms. A} & his Kindergarten buddies all in their Red shirts.

Look closely at Daylan & his buddy Riggs-holding hands. :)

The remembrance of Patriot Day continued early this morning about 6:30 as my husband gathered up the 16-17 year old boys in our ward and placed flags in all of the members yards.

*I also thought this video about a 9/11 survivor was inspirational*

My 2 cents on Glenn Beck & our Country...

You either love him or hate him. I happen to love him.
He is NOT perfect & will be the first to tell you that each time he speaks. {And Yes sometimes I cringe when he says things-but this just verifies to me that he is REAL.} Honestly though, I believe that he is being used as a tool by God. I think the ticket is his personality combined with his talent of preparing his thoughts & words in a powerful way. He is simply a church-going husband & father, who believes that Jesus Christ is his Savior and happens to have a job where he can share publicly his political & personal views.

In recent days before & after Becks' Restoring Honor Rally in D.C., I read & heard various "Evangelical Christians" thoughts about him. Many Christians are behind Beck, although many are frightened by him fearing the fact that he is a "Mormon." I don't know why that is. He believes in Jesus Christ as they do and yet because of "other" points of doctrine, they get scared and upset when he refers to himself as a Christian man. I think it's funny that Beck is saying 'This is what I believe' and people are saying: 'No you don't.'  {But this is all besides the point anyways.}

I read this article and appreciated this man for agreeing to disagree on theological points but also seeing the BIG picture & coming together to focus on what we all DO believe. We believe so many of the same values & concepts, but in order to fight the War we have to unite for the battle...(figuritively speaking of course.)  No matter your beliefs, you gotta give it to Glenn Beck for putting himself out there. Most conservatives are not near brave enough to do that in this Liberal-Media Controlled World we live in.

Conservative values is something our Country 
substantially lacks

-in a frightening way! 

The Common Goal: Being Good & Honest people, Living by the Golden Rule, Working hard, Remaining as free citizens & not puppets of the Government, Serving & Protecting our fellow men, Respecting not Hating, Living the Dream that our forefathers worked so hard to provide for us & Keeping it that way for our Children. Believing that Family is the fundamental unit of society. Relying on our Churches for Answers/Guidance & not our Government; Our Government is to oversee, not to overrule. Honoring those who have gone before us & provided us our freedoms, and Honoring those who go out now to battle doing the same.

Here are about half a million people who attended  (8/28/10)

United We Stand, Divided We Fall- is a true statement. Why waste time arguing points of doctrine when that's not the issue. Nobody is convincing anybody to change their belief system, only to unite in what we all believe together. Hoping to be One Nation Under God; Indivisible with Liberty & Justice for all. -just as our founding fathers had planned it for us.

~I vow to teach my children about the history & promise of this Country. America is great. It is led by imperfect people but was instituted by God-{just as Christ's Church is today.} This Country WAS founded upon Christian principles. Those who created it were led by the hand of God and those men would be ashamed if we ever thought otherwise.

*So there's your 2 or maybe 10 cents from me.

4th of July

The weekend of the 4th we celebrated with...you guessed it...our 8am church. {which will be changing to 11:00  soon!} Actually BEFORE church we found this on our Kitchen Table:

Kaylea had set her alarm clock for 6 am on Saturday night & awoke early to make us this 4th of July sign. She drew bubble letters, cute them out & then colored each one red, white & blue. Then she decorated with anything patriotic she could find & made a starburst/chocolate creation as well. It melted my heart that she would get up early to make this SURPRISE for our family.

It happened to be Fast & Testimony Meeting that Sunday. It was neat to hear so many stories & testimonies from other people who love our Country...And to remember that God truly did create this country so that the Gospel could again be restored on it...What other place could it ever occur? I even walked up to the stand & bore my testimony of the Holy Ghost (to the large crowd that day) & told of one special experience that had happened to me recently. It was a wonderful meeting that day.

Later that evening we had Dinner at my parents, Watched a Movie, Gabbed & Played a little Foos-ball:

Here are some cute giggles from Jax: 

On our way home back to QC, we thought we'd find some fireworks as we drove. We pulled over for a while trying to find the best spots, but as we pulled into our own driveway we realized we just might never again have to go any further than our own backyard!

Being that the 4th was on the Sabbath, we waited till Monday to Par-tay. We swam for a few hours & the kids had a blast with their Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles. Then it was back to house for a BBQ & later on we went to see Toy Story 3!

Grandpa can always get Jax smiling

Gotta love that one is sound asleep & one is being Mr. Grumpy-Gills
Can't they ever just all cooperate at the same time??
(Tim was not there as he was taking advantage of the holiday to work hard for our family.)

in deep thought as he squats......uh oh-you know what that means!

Dramatic!

The kids loved getting thrown by Uncle Tommy

A lil' Corn on the Cob & Our lil' Firecracker

Sweet Land of Liberty

"When we safeguard the Heavenly virtue of FREEDOM, when we honor it, when we protect it, we will walk with Washington, we will pray with Patriots, and we shall have peace on earth, good will to men." ~Thomas S. Monson

~George Washington at Valley Forge~

(The Artist that painted this picture, Arnold Friberg, died just 3 days ago at the age of 96.)

*Happy Birthday to the Country I LOVE so much!*
....because Freedom is REALLY what it is ALL about! ~Watch This!*

*Memorial Day

More than a day off work & a Backyard BBQ:

....although mine is smelling pretty good at the moment.

*Remembering today all those who have served our Country & fought to protect our freedoms. May WE continue to stand up for those freedoms that those who have gone before us have fought SO HARD to protect.

To not take lightly....

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."  ~Thomas Jefferson~ In 1961, Ronald Reagan joined the American Medical Association in opposing the Democratic Party's attempt to force socialized medicine on the American people. President Reagan's advice is just as relevant today as it was then. In part, he warned: "One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. . . . Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it." -Ronald Reagan

Celebrating the U. S. A...

Family, Food, Fireworks & Fun!

God Bless America...please!

Latter Day Prophets words on our Country's Beginnings & our Founding Fathers:

"The signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution were inspired from on high to do that work." ~Brigham Young

"Next to being one in worshipping God, there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States!" ~David O. McKay

"The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it is to all those who are privileged with the sweets of its liberty..." ~Joseph Smith

"I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document. To me its words are akin to the revelations of God." ~Ezra Taft Benson

"It is pleasing indeed, to me, that the Lord not only inspired men to prepare the Constitution but that he made record of the fact that he did raise them up for that purpose. In that particular we are peculiar as a people, for we believe that the Constitution was inspired by our Heavenly Father." ~George Albert Smith

"This restoration was preceded by a long period of preparation. The Pilgrims and other Europeans were inspired to find this American haven of refuge and thus people this land with honest and God-fearing citizens. Washington and his fellows were inspired to revolt from England and bring political liberty to this land, along with the more valuable treasure of religious liberty so that the soil might be prepared for the seed of the truth when it should again be sown.

~Spencer W. Kimball

*The Prophesies:

"Even THIS nation will be on the verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground and when the Constitution is on the brink of ruin this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean ad they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction." ~Joseph Smith (1844)

On Independence Day in 1854 President Brigham Young declared: "Will the Constitution be destroyed? No: It will be held inviolate by this people: and, as Joseph Smith said, 'The time will come when the destiny of the nation will hang upon a single thread. AT that critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.' It will be so."

(My thoughts: Think about the recent issues affecting our society & government & how members of the church have stepped up. Interesting.)

"And I tell you further, Elders of Israel, that you do not know the day of your visitation,

neither do you understand the signs of the times, for if you did you would be awake to these things. Every organization of our government, the best government of the world is crumbling to pieces. Those who have it in their hands are the ones who are destroying it. How long will it be before the words of the prophet Joseph will be fulfilled? He said if the Constitution of the Untited States were saved at all it must be done by this people." ~Brigham Young (1868)

"We encourage all members, as citizens of the nation, to be actively involved in the political process, and to support those measures which will strengthen the community, state, and nation—morally, economically, and culturally." ~Spencer W. Kimball

(My thoughts: notice the call for members to act as individuals...the Church remains neutral in political issues giving agency to the members to act upon what they believe to be true...sound familiar?)

"I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph Smith. It will be saved by the righteous citizens of this nation who love and cherish freedom. It will be saved by enlightened members of this church -among others- men and women who understand and abide the principles of the Constitution." ..."We are fast approaching that moment prophesied by Joseph Smith." ~Ezra Taft Benson (1987)

"I am going to bear my testimony to this assembly, if I never do it again in my life, that those men who laid the foundation of this American government and signed the Declaration of Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits, not wicked men. General Washington and all the men that labored for the purpose were inspired of the Lord. Another thing I am going to say here, because I have a right to say it. Every one of those men that signed the Declaration of Independence, with General Washington, called upon me, as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Temple at St. George, two consecutive nights, and demanded at my hands that I should go forth and attend to the ordinances of the House of God for them. Would those spirits have called upon me, as an elder in Israel, to perform that work if they had not been noble spirits before God?" ~Wilford Woodruff (1898)

(Pres. Woodruff performed the founding fathers temple ordinances)

I enjoyed watching this YouTube video. It touched upon the fact that freedom & agency was such an intricate part of our Father's Plan that this new country's freedom was so IMPORTANT that the Father had to make his hand such a part of it.

*May we remember the importance of FREEDOM & do all we can to keep THIS country "free" based off the values it was formed upon.*

*HAPPY Independence Day!*

Click here for: *Previous Post on Founding Fathers & Quotes from them.*

Inauguration of Obama

Good Bye to Mr. & Mrs. Bush...

~Today at the Inauguration, I was saddened that Aretha Franklin received more applause after her singing performance than President Bush received after his 8 years of service. Although this President perhaps made many mistakes and ill decisions, let us not forget he achieved his greatest goal. That being to keep Our Country safe. He focused on mine & your safety-and that he achieved. I believe in the years to come we will then realize how grateful we are to him for this and maybe then might see and hear of possible calamities that are now still classified. 

*On September 12, 2001, there was not one American citizen who thought we'd be completely safe and free of attacks here on our home ground of America. But with this imperfect man leading this country, one who believed in God, we were blessed. We were blessed that he called upon God each day on our behalf and our country's. So let us give our thanks for his service.

*Continuing now with our "New" Theme...

...we begin our New Year with a New President...And for how much our society sure believes in this man, I hope he can walk behind his talk! If anything though, peoples' "hope" for "change" will at least play on our psyches for now as we battle out this economy. So here's to HOPE & CHANGE! (Hopefully only changing bad policies and not good ones.) May we support our new President and pray for him that he can have the Heavenly guidance he will so greatly need!

*Church Leaders Invited & Represented at Inauguration by Elder Uchtdorf & Elder Ballard

I'll leave you with a little humor:

Help Preserve Innocent Life!

Dear Friend,

I'm writing to let you know about a terrible piece of legislation called "The Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA). FOCA would establish the right to abortion as a fundamental right to anyone! (like the right to free speech) and would wipe away every restriction on abortion nationwide. It will eradicate state and federal abortion laws that the majority of Americans support and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future. Please read the expert analysis by Americans United for Life (AUL) and 

PLEASE SIGN the Fight FOCA petition at: http://www.fightfoca.com/

Thank you!

*Click on link to view video of Obama speaking about his agenda.

~We must act quickly! This is one of the first things "President" Obama has pledged to do this coming week as he takes office. We do know that he does not fully oppose partial birth abortion & supports a "woman's choice" more than the babies' choice to come here! 

~This is something that is hard for me to swallow right now being that I am at the stage of pregnancy right now that He and others agree it's still ok to abort the baby at! --After I just saw my baby sucking his fingers, blinking his eyes, kicking his legs!...I don't think so! I believe in free agency but not to the point of harming another innocent human being.

~Gettysburg Address~

I finally was able to get this little video on of Spencer reciting the first bit of the 

Gettsburg Address on our Trip last month:

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal".....  

        

  

Protecting Our Religious Freedoms!!!

...and Saving the Family!

If you live in California I'm sure you know all about this! Voting YES on Proposition 8 is going to be a HUGE deal!

Less than a month from now on NOVEMBER 4th, Arizona is going to be voting on this similar issue as well on a lower scale with Proposition 102. To me this is more important than who becomes President. Our judges often have more power than the President!

**ARIZONA PLEASE VOTE YES ON Proposition 102!** This will basically protect Arizona from having judges overturn law as they did to get California in the Prop 8 predicament.

So back to the basics. We learn in our church in the prophet's Proclamation to the Family stating that "Marriage is to be between a Man & a Woman" and are of course taught in the Bible this same concept. But is this propositionJUST about Marriage or Gay Rights...NO! Well IF only that was ALL it was about...and it's not! Read on:

**Proposition 8 will appear in California on the November ballot that states, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in the state of California." I tell you this because if this does in fact fail, it could spread across the country. But if in AZ we can pass this prop 102, our chances become much more slim of turning into a California. There are many people who say, "Well why do i care if two gay people get married, it doesn't affect me and if they truly love each other, then what is wrong with it!" This is NOT really even about two gay people getting married or even their visiting rights. Satan is very tricky my friends!!! This is so much more a battle of religious freedom than anything else! *Religious people of EVERY denomination will lose countless numbers of freedoms, you can't even begin to imagine!* 

~There are hundreds of lawsuits (click on link here or below) going on right now for this very reason. One, for example, in Massachusetts right now, the Catholic church was forced to shut down their *ADOPTION agency because two gay people wanted to adopt a child and they wouldn't allow it. Well, they sued and won.  A gay couple walked into a *PHOTOGRAPHY company and wanted to get their wedding pictures taken by them. The company said sorry we don't photograph homosexual couples but we can refer you to a place that does. Well the couple sued and won. 7 out of 9 judges say that if this fails, every lawsuit to do with gays against religion, the gays will win every single time. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of examples happening right now!

 *In England right now, Mormons have to get Married CIVILY first with a state representative present and cannot get married in the temple because it is "discriminating" against homosexuals. The mayor of San Francisco actually said that "Christians have no place there." This just shows how sick our society is becoming and how their ultimate goal is to make the United States become a secular society. Also I haven't yet mentioned about what the *SCHOOLS will be teaching our children! The prince can marry the prince or the princess. *Right now, they are taking out the word "mother" and "father" out of text books in school because it discriminates against homosexuals. This is definitely in the works people! 

*Doctors will be forced to perform in-vitro fertilization procedures on gay and lesbian couples or they will lose their licenses. *Bishops and pastors could be arrested or sued if they mention that homosexuality is an abomination to God, it would be considered "hate speech". (Can you say Uh... Freedom of Speech??) And the saddest thing, Temples could eventually be shut down because when gay people can't get married in there, they will sue and win! And the church could be forced to shut them down and we would have to get married civily. The separation of CHURCH & STATE will not be honored in these situations!! This is what I call the "Constitution hanging by a thread!"*It just makes you sick to think of everything that will happen, things you can't even begin to imagine. The more you research about this, the more it becomes very scary. *President Monson has actually asked that we do everything we can to donate to this cause. I have many family and friends who have made phone calls, gone door to door and donated to the cause. The outcome of this vote will truly affect our society! We need to do everything we can to protect what God has commanded us to protect: Our Families (marriage) & The Gospel (separation of church/state). Whether or not you approve of homosexuality, as for me I will look to the Our Prophet, the mouthpiece of the Lord and will follow his counsel. I believe we should be Christlike and love everyone but also to KEEP SACRED THINGS SACRED! Remember this! What did Jesus do (John 2: 14-16) when there were people in the Temple doing things that we're unacceptable? 

Coming off my soapbox now...

So VOTE

(if you haven't already by mail) 

YES on 102!

**Read this article entitled: When Gay Rights & Religious Freedoms collide

**An article from the 1st Presidency: The Divinity of Marriage:

**Video clip of how this will affect Our Schools: They Will Teach Our Children This!
**Click on this link to DONATE or learn more!: PROTECT MARRIAGE!