where there is great responsibility

Last week was the most beautiful weekend of fall. Not because of the changing leaves or the cool breezy weather or the smell of fall (though all of that was wonderful too), but because it was general conference for my church. I write about it every 6 months because it is always so inspiring to me, but if you are not familiar with general conference, it is 2 days (4 sessions + 1 for men only) of talks by leaders of our church giving us guidance, hope and tools to strengthen us in our resolve to live our religion more fully. The talks, as they always are, were inspiring and uplifting and beautiful.

Over the past week, 2 things have weighed hevily on my mind. First, because of teachings shared in one talk from general conference, my religion has been attacked publicly, very personally, and even by those of my own faith. I have tossed and turned at night, read countless articles and information and stewed about the attacks. While I do not want to get into the details of the debate here on my blog and feed any more controversy, I feel a deep responsibility to proclaim my feelings. I am proud to be an American! I am grateful for freedom of speach and freedom of religion. To those who feel differently from me, I am so grateful that I live in a country where that is respected/tolerated/appreciated! Sadly, I feel that this very controversy is threatening MY right as an American to listen to a conference for my own religion and be taught principles that are key to that religion. I have a right to learn my own faith, I have a right to teach my own faith to my children, and I have a right to live my religion (which happens to teach love and tolerance and respect for people who do not agree with it). I live this religion to the best of my abilities: I am not perfect, but I teach my children what is right. I teach them to have faith in God. I teach them that the scriptures hold eternal truths and that they should read and study them. I teach them that every person on this earth is a child of God and that he loves them. I teach them to respect differences and to love people - whether or not they believe as we do. I wish that people could respect my right to do so without applying a degrading label (which is completely unfounded, should you care to actually study our beliefs) to me or my church leaders. Disagreement and respect can and should cooexist and I will defend that! I will defend my right to learn and practice religion as I so choose. I will defend the right of every human being to be treated with love and respect - and not just those of the minority, but those of the "majority" as well. That is all I have to say about this, for now. I, of course, have strong opinions regarding the issue on debate, so if you want to hear them, feel free to send me an email, and I will be happy to share! ;)

Second, I feel an overwhelming responsibility to teach my children what is right! This world we live in has so much good, and I am quick to look for the good and ignore the bad, but I feel such a need to teach my children how to seek out the good and stay far from the bad! Their minds are little sponges that soak up everything around them...and while that has been wonderful as they have spent their days in the safety of my home, it scares me to death as they venture out into the world of school and making friends and making choices. I worry for them, I pray for them and I hope that what I have taught them stays with them. I want to swoop in and protect them from influences that can change the course of their whole lives, I want to swoop in and guide them to be kind to everyone. I want to swoop in and remind them to show respect and appreciation to their teachers. But I know that they must make these decisions on their own. It is a great responsibility to teach children to avoid evil in our society (particularly when society readily accepts so much of what I think is evil), but I will do it, because I know that where there is great responsibility, there are great rewards!

apple picking

i'm pretty happy with my little family...

tonight, when daddy got home, we headed out for some apple picking

he was all about picking apples.

she was all about filling that basket...bet happy to let dad do the picking.

sneaking an apple...look at that guilty face!

could she be more beautiful?

they ate about this many apples on the drive home

a momma's delight!

Then it was off to carl's jr...because the one in sandy has a playland

our dinner conversation went like this...

Morgan: "i want to keep my dad, but i want a different mom."

mom: "oh yeah? what kind of mom do you want?"

Morgan: "i want a mom with short hair."

mom: "i have short hair."

Morgan: "no, short hair like grandma becky's."

mom: "what else do you want in a new mom?"

Morgan: "she needs to have one brother and 2 sisters."

hmmm....which brother could I get rid of? anyone want to be my sister?

halloween photo booth...a little business

A few people have asked if I will be doing halloween mini-sessions to get pictures of kids in costume.
The answer is no - I do not have any more mini-sessions scheduled until 2011,
however, I am in the process of planning a date for a

Halloween Photo Booth!

I am still working out the details, but they will be

about 15 minutes,

costumes (or halloween outfits required),

and around $30.

Before I set all the details in stone, though, I wanted to feel out the interest in a session like this to determine how many days to schedule. So, let me know if you are interested.

If you have any questions or want to send me a message privately, contact me here.

P.S. On the subject of mini-sessions - there are a couple of people who couldn't make the dates work, but would still like to do a mini-session. I am willing to add another day of Fall mini-sessions in October if there are at least 3 people who want to book so let me know if you are interested in that as well.

(and I will make sure it is a dog friendly place as I know that has been of interest)

Why are you posting this here, Jen?

A lot of friends don't check the smileabunch photography blog and are bummed when they

miss out, so I post specials here so nobody has to be sad! :)

If you want to be the first to know about deals and specials, though,

I usually post them on the facebook fan page first!

lollipops

today we got the kids lolipops

(and I didn't take any pictures...crazy I know)

chloe: "what are lolipops made of, mom?"

me: "sugar mostly"

chloe: "SUGAR??!! I knew it!"

morgan: "Yep, lolipops are made of sugar and hard gravel"

there you have it folks...lolipops are made of sugar and hard gravel

my kids have it all figured out!

picking tomatoes

we have a lot of tomato plants (24 to be exact)

on them are many green tomatoes...and if we happen to be faster than the kids - who eat tomatoes like candy - we pick lots of red ones too

today, I noticed that a lot of them had turned red, so as Morgan was carrying around a bucket for me to put them in as we picked them I said, "Wow - we have a LOT of red tomatoes and a lot more that will be ready tomorrow!"

"Well, my prayer worked."

"huh?"

"My prayer worked...when I prayed that our tomatoes would grow...it worked.

It is a good thing I prayed for our tomatoes to grow...now you can make salsa!"

Yes my sweet little boy so full of faith, it worked!
(And thank you for not cutting your own hair until after last night's pictures)
xoxo
- Mom

today was high tea...

I guess I'm not technically sure what high tea is, but working under the assumption that it is

tea at high noon a.k.a. "tea party lunch"

the combination of

pj's

tea sets

tuna and cucumber "tea sandwiches"

pink lemonade

carrots with ranch dip

mini marshamallows on toothpicks



And yes..I think this is some kind of record:
2 posts in the same day and same day pictures!

overheard...

yesterday while eating breakfast...

"Morgan do you want to be Raja and I will be Jasmine?"

"I have to go to school, but I will when I get home."

today while choosing a movie...

"Chloe, do you want to watch 101 Dalmations?

...there's a princess in it...do you know who it is?"

Just the simplest little exchanges between Morgan and Chloe make me so happy!

I love that they love to play with each other.

I love that they know each other so well that they know how to "sell" anything to the other.

I love that they know how to talk through things to find something that makes both of them happy.

I love the sibling relationship.

First day(s) of school

Chloe has been anxiously awaiting the beginning of preschool. After watcher her big brother do the preschool thing for 2 years, she has had her backpack ready and her outfit picked out for weeks!

Since we went back to school shopping she has been asking every day

"Do I get to wear the dress that looks like pants?"

It took us a while to figure out that she was talking about her new denim dress for back to school!

So, the day finally came for the preschool open house.

Backpack on, dress that looks like pants on, and a few quick pictures

and we were off to school!

When you make faces like this...
you need to know they will end up on the blog!

Princess backpack, of course!

She made her placemat...

Played pretend...and took ownership of a baby doll...

She didn't want to leave and was so excited to go back the next day for her official first day,
I told her that mommy would not be staying with her but that I would be back to get her...
"Ok, bye mom!"

Little sister missed her...

And big brother wished her luck...
"You don't need to be nervous Chloe, school is fun!"

Not sure that I am ready for all of this growing up,
but so happy that she loves school so much!