Cali here we come!!!!

To blog or not to blog? That is the question. We are headed off to San Diego, San Fransisco, Bakersfield, all the cool spots in California until May 26th. I may blog in between we shall see how it goes... Until we meet again

Ha ha ha ha this is a snap shot from my phone. Aren't they BEEEAUTIFUL!!! The time has finally come for my braces to come off. It feels so nice not having food stuck in my teeth all the time. Now all I need is to get them cleaned and whitened and they will be good to go...

Sundays

She loves Daddy kisses... Mommy kisses...

Family pictures not as fun...

Not to mention being in the air...

Claire Bear

My friend Claire came to visit from California for 10 days. It was fun having her here. It feels like she makes it out to Hawaii every year so far since she left. She went to the beach, braided my hair and went shopping with me. We went to Ted's Bakery many times but were never early enough to get the fried chicken for breakfast. Sorry Jesse :(
Last Saturday we went to Tiki's and had a wonderful lunch. I had a burger with fries ( and ate the tomatoes on it! ) Jesse had fish tacos, Claire had tuna salad and Elizabeth had milk. It was good food I would recommend it.

Then we went to the Kokua Festival to see my favorite, JACK JOHNSON. Oh I love Jack. Mason Jennings, Dave Matthews, Tim Reynolds, Matt Costa and Jack were some of the musicians that were there. We had grass seats but I thought it was perfect.

This was the first concert of any type that I had been to.

Elizabeth had fun while we were there. From 4:30 - 9:30 she was awesome. She played and then at 8 went to bed on the middle of the blanket. She was a little sad that she slept threw Jack but she understands she was really tired.
Dave Matthews

Jack and the boys
I will miss you Claire but we will see each other soon...

Games

I love game nights. But mostly I love hanging out with my friends. Last weekend the Nortons, the Nortons, the Howards, the Pierces, the Rondos and the Prices all got together to hang out and play games. The night started out with J and Elizabeth playing. For some reason we always think it is funny every time Elizabeth rides J like a horse
We talked and laughed for a while then, we finally played musical catch phrase. It is such an awesome game where you can humm the song if you want. The lovely Erik and Kindsay modeling for the camera.

And of course it is not a real party unless the boys watch surfing on the computer!!!

Old?

I FOUND A GREY HAIR. My friend was braiding my hair the other night and she found this little thing. I can't believe it! My sisters are supposed to have these, NOT ME. I wonder if it is due to my child or if I have had it for a long time. Well since grey hair brings wisdom, you can all come to me for advice.

Ohhhh So Soft

Her new mattress is so comfy. It doesn't stop our nightly fights of getting to bed, but she enjoys this one more. She wakes up every morning now and will roll over to her back (yes she sleeps on her belly against Dr's orders) and play for 15-30 min before she wants to be picked up. Yay for Sealy mattress!!!

Shots

Elizabeth got her 4 month old shots today. She was a good sport and only cried until they put her band aids on. She weighs 12 lbs 12 ounces now!!! The doctor still says that her weight is small but its ok because she is tall. For her 4 month birthday she played with daddy all day long and went to class with him. She loved the college life. She was crying when I got home and Jesse said there was nothing he could do to console her, all I did was hold her and she stopped. I LOVE THAT I AM THE ONE SHE NEEDS AND LOVES!!!

Feet, feet and more feet

Hummmm. I wonder if you can guess who's foot belongs to who.....

So much hair on that one foot. I hear it brings character to the picture.

I love this little one

Will she change?

We FINALLY got a new crib mattress for Baby E. We were waiting because we thought there was going to be moving in our future but since that is not the issue anymore, we went ahead a bought her the mattress she desires. The one that we had before was used and who knows how old it was. This new one is the Sealy Baby Posturepedic Mattress it's plush and has 220 inner springs coils. Now I am wondering if this will make a difference with her sleeping habits. Don't get me wrong she is a good little sleeper but the problem lies in getting her to sleep. Every night and every nap is a fight in our home. She will fall asleep anywhere but as soon as she goes in the crib she wakes up yelling. We have grown accustom to this behavior so it doesn't bother us anymore. I am just wondering if this new mattress will help or will she Forever be a bedtime fighter?

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

“My Words . . . Never Cease”

In general conference last October, I said there were two principal reasons The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is accused, erroneously, of not being Christian. At that time I addressed one of those doctrinal issues—our scripturally based view of the Godhead. Today I would like to address the other major doctrine which characterizes our faith but which causes concern to some, namely the bold assertion that God continues to speak His word and reveal His truth, revelations which mandate an open canon of scripture.

Some Christians, in large measure because of their genuine love for the Bible, have declared that there can be no more authorized scripture beyond the Bible. In thus pronouncing the canon of revelation closed, our friends in some other faiths shut the door on divine expression that we in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hold dear: the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the ongoing guidance received by God’s anointed prophets and apostles. Imputing no ill will to those who take such a position, nevertheless we respectfully but resolutely reject such an unscriptural characterization of true Christianity.

One of the arguments often used in any defense of a closed canon is the New Testament passage recorded in Revelation 22:18: “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of . . . this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” However, there is now overwhelming consensus among virtually all biblical scholars that this verse applies only to the book of Revelation, not the whole Bible. Those scholars of our day acknowledge a number of New Testament “books” that were almost certainly written after John’s revelation on the Isle of Patmos was received. Included in this category are at least the books of Jude, the three Epistles of John, and probably the entire Gospel of John itself. Perhaps there are even more than these.

But there is a simpler answer as to why that passage in the final book of the current New Testament cannot apply to the whole Bible. That is because the whole Bible as we know it—one collection of texts bound in a single volume—did not exist when that verse was written. For centuries after John produced his writing, the individual books of the New Testament were in circulation singly or perhaps in combinations with a few other texts but almost never as a complete collection. Of the entire corpus of 5,366 known Greek New Testament manuscripts, only 35 contain the whole New Testament as we now know it, and 34 of those were compiled after A.D. 1000.

The fact of the matter is that virtually every prophet of the Old and New Testament has added scripture to that received by his predecessors. If the Old Testament words of Moses were sufficient, as some could have mistakenly thought them to be, then why, for example, the subsequent prophecies of Isaiah or of Jeremiah, who follows him? To say nothing of Ezekiel and Daniel, of Joel, Amos, and all the rest. If one revelation to one prophet in one moment of time is sufficient for all time, what justifies these many others? What justifies them was made clear by Jehovah Himself when He said to Moses, “My works are without end, and . . . my words . . . never cease.”

One Protestant scholar has inquired tellingly into the erroneous doctrine of a closed canon. He writes: “On what biblical or historical grounds has the inspiration of God been limited to the written documents that the church now calls its Bible? . . . If the Spirit inspired only the written documents of the first century, does that mean that the same Spirit does not speak today in the church about matters that are of significant concern?” We humbly ask those same questions.
Continuing revelation does not demean or discredit existing revelation. The Old Testament does not lose its value in our eyes when we are introduced to the New Testament, and the New Testament is only enhanced when we read the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In considering the additional scripture accepted by Latter-day Saints, we might ask: Were those early Christians who for decades had access only to the primitive Gospel of Mark (generally considered the first of the New Testament Gospels to be written)—were they offended to receive the more detailed accounts set forth later by Matthew and Luke, to say nothing of the unprecedented passages and revelatory emphasis offered later yet by John? Surely they must have rejoiced that ever more convincing evidence of the divinity of Christ kept coming. And so do we rejoice.

Please do not misunderstand. We love and revere the Bible, as Elder M. Russell Ballard taught so clearly from this pulpit just one year ago. The Bible is the word of God. It is always identified first in our canon, our “standard works.” Indeed, it was a divinely ordained encounter with the fifth verse of the first chapter of the book of James that led Joseph Smith to his vision of the Father and the Son, which gave birth to the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our time. But even then, Joseph knew the Bible alone could not be the answer to all of the religious questions he and others like him had. As he said in his own words, the ministers of his community were contending—sometimes angrily—over their doctrines. “Priest [was] contending against priest, and convert [was contending] against convert . . . in a strife of words and a contest about opinions,” he said. About the only thing these contending religions had in common was, ironically, a belief in the Bible, but, as Joseph wrote, “the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question [regarding which church was true] by an appeal to the Bible.” Clearly the Bible, so frequently described at that time as “common ground,” was nothing of the kind—unfortunately it was a battleground.

Thus one of the great purposes of continuing revelation through living prophets is to declare to the world through additional witnesses that the Bible is true. “This is written,” an ancient prophet said, speaking of the Book of Mormon, “for the intent that ye may believe that,” speaking of the Bible. In one of the earliest revelations received by Joseph Smith, the Lord said, “Behold, I do not bring [the Book of Mormon forth] to destroy [the Bible] but to build it up.”

One other point needs to be made. Since it is clear there were Christians long before there was a New Testament or even an accumulation of the sayings of Jesus, it cannot therefore be maintained that the Bible is what makes one a Christian. In the words of esteemed New Testament scholar N. T. Wright, “The risen Jesus, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, does not say, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth is given to the books you are all going to write,’ but ‘All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me.’ “ In other words, “Scripture itself points . . . away from itself and to the fact that final and true authority belongs to God himself.” So the scriptures are not the ultimate source of knowledge for Latter-day Saints. They are manifestations of the ultimate source. The ultimate source of knowledge and authority for a Latter-day Saint is the living God. The communication of those gifts comes from God as living, vibrant, divine revelation.

This doctrine lies at the very heart of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our message to the world. It dramatizes the significance of a solemn assembly yesterday, in which we sustained Thomas S. Monson as a prophet, a seer, and a revelator. We believe in a God who is engaged in our lives, who is not silent, nor is absent.” In this Church, even our young Primary children recite, “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”

In declaring new scripture and continuing revelation, we pray we will never be arrogant or insensitive. But after a sacred vision in a now sacred grove answered in the affirmative the question “Does God exist?” what Joseph Smith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints force us to face is the next interrogative, which necessarily follows: “Does He speak?” We bring the good news that He does and that He has. With a love and affection born of our Christianity, we invite all to inquire into the wonder of what God has said since biblical times and is saying even now.

God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake.

I testify that the heavens are open. I testify that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ, that Thomas S. Monson is God’s prophet, a modern apostle with the keys of the kingdom in his hands, a man upon whom I personally have seen the mantle fall. I testify that the presence of such authorized, prophetic voices and ongoing canonized revelations have been at the heart of the Christian message whenever the authorized ministry of Christ has been on the earth. I testify that such a ministry is on the earth again, and it is found in this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In our heartfelt devotion to Jesus of Nazareth as the very Son of God, the Savior of the world, we invite all to examine what we have received of Him, to join with us, drinking deeply at the “well of water springing up into everlasting life,” these constantly flowing reminders that God lives, that He loves us, and that He speaks. I express the deepest personal thanks that His works never end and His “words . . . never cease.” I bear witness of such divine loving attention and the recording of it, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I can do it myself

So after a few months of helping her, Elizabeth can pretty much hold the bottle on her own. We help her pick it up when it falls and it is REALLY messy but she is doing it. She is so into holding it on her own that she gets very mad when we try to help her. Just last night Jesse was helping her and she snatched it from him and grunted at him!!! AND it still falls hahaha

Can't Stop Us Now

Yes it is true, we finally got a car. It is a Toyota Tercel 1994 with only 79,000 miles on it. The best thing is this thing is so good on gas. We drove it around the island and it only used $7. The only reason we will use it is for pleasure only since we don't need to drive to work or school. Jesse loves this little car. Oh and it was super cheap too. It is small but it will do for our little family.

General Conference

This past weekend was the 178th Annual General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Every six months the leaders of the church get together and share messages with the 13 million + saints where we can receive via Internet, magazine, television or at the conference center in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is so wonderful to hear from the apostles of the Lord and the Prophet of the World. I love that Heavenly Father and the Savior, Jesus Christ, are living and still give revelation to us today. I love that no matter where I am in the world I can attend the same church and not have to worry about what is being taught. I am so grateful for the fullness of the gospel and the joy it brings to my life daily. There were many talks that I enjoyed but my favorite talk was from Jeffery R. Holland. The talk was about how "God does inspire men and call them to his holy work in this age and generation, as well as in generations of old." When the talk becomes available to read this week I will put it on here because I can not do it justice with a summary. If you missed conference I urge you to go to BYU TV and go to either Saturday 10am or 2pm OR Sunday 10am or 2pm and watch. The spirit was so strong this conference and it was so wonderful. Elizabeth even laid on the floor and watched some haha.

yummmm

On our little rock one of the major grocery stores is Foodland and every 150 you spend they give you a little reward coupon. Well this month the reward was ice cream!!! AND OH YES WE SAVED SIX COUPONS AND BOUGHT SIX ICE CREAMS. Obviously I have an addiction and ate the other three already with a tiny bit of help from Jesse but they sure are good. If you aren't careful you can eat one in a day. But I would never do that hahaha.

Eternal Friends

Happy Anniversary Chris & Taylor. It was at your reception three years ago that I fell in love with my sweet heart. We had known each other for 3 weeks exactly. He was one of the groomsmen and he smiled and winked at me from across the room. In that moment I said to myself "I LOVE HIM" and I knew that I was going to spend the rest of eternity with him. With his big dimples his smile was amazing and my daddy always smiles and winks at me so I couldn't resist. It was actually Taylor and Chris who had dragged Jesse to the party that we met at in the first place. If Chris hadn't been engaged we would have never met. Who would have guessed that when the three of them walked into the bedroom of that LAME party that we would be such great friends for life. Jesse and Chris have known each other since before Jesse was in kindergarten . Now we live so close together and our children are going to be friends as well. There are not many people who can have the privilege of such amazing relationships with people and KNOW that it is real. I love you guys and I am grateful everyday of my life that you found each other and became a part of my life. Happy Anniversary