My Heart be still

I have been trying to type all of the family history stories that I have so that I can share them with my cousins and sibblings. One of the pictures is of my Great Grandma Grace and one of her husbands. She had four husbands and out lived three of them. Drew saw me getting out my old suitcase and he said, "I want to see a picture of my Grandma. Is she in here?" When I showed him the picture he said, "She is so pretty."

If you are related to me and knew my Grandma very well you would know that there was nothing more that she loved then a compliment and a great gingerbread cookie. How delighted she would be if she knew that even her Great, Great grandchildren who didn't know her has not forgotten her. Her legacy of love lives on in their eyes and actions.

I love Drew for his tentiveness. He recognizes everything. I hope that he continues to be mindful of others. He is so thoughtful and sweet. I am truely blessed to have such a great son. I often ask him what I did to get so lucky to be his mommy.

Drew, you rock.

We Can and Will Endure

Below is a small history of some of the persecution that was endured by my Great, Great, Great Grandpa Keller. (I may have too many greats in there but hopefully you understand.) His name was Alva Keller. He joined the church on December 5, 1835 in New York. At one point he was a home teacher to Joseph Smith Sr.

This was written by his granddaughter, Alberta Hentzie. Oh how I would love to have his journal.

The Saints were put to the test as to the test as to what was best for them to do. About this time Alva found himself surrounded by a group of stern faced men, but his faith in the Lord never wavered as he heard one man say to him, “Are you Alva Keller?”
He answered, “I am.”
“Are you a Mormon?”
“I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”
“You can call them what you will. You came to Nauvoo and built yourself a good home and you are prospering. If you will renounce Joseph Smith for the cheat that he is, you will be allowed and stay and raise your family in peace and be one of us. If you refuse, you will be driven out and we will persecute you as we will all the Mormons.”
Without hesitation Alva answered, “Joseph Smith is a prophet of the living God. I would rather die than deny that which I know to be true.” That was the testimony of my grandfather and that testimony remained with him all his life and all down through these many years that testimony remains a challenge to us. What would have been our answer under similar conditions?

I hope that this will give us strength to handle what is a head of us. I have found strength in reading this history and a new hope. Though we are faced with persecution we have not had our lives threatened or has our families. We must remember that we are fighting for a worthy cause, our families and the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. As times get more difficult I want my posterity to know that I have never doubted my testimony of the gospel. I know that Heavenly Father loves all of his children and that we are here to show love to all of his children. And sometimes it is tough love but love is all the same. I hope that through my example I can emulate the love of God our Father. Please remember the love and faith of our ancestors who sacrificed beyond measure for us to practice our beliefs as we want.

Finally a Family Photo

Okay we waited so long for family photos. We are so excited to have a picture of all three of us. Today was a perfect day in paradise. Drew and I went to the beach and played on the very low tide. So Drew got to play in little pools that were warm. And for those of you reading this in an area that actually have seasons you did read it right, we went in the water and it wasn't to cold. We are actually going to have 80 degree weather this weekend.

Drew's Photos

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you handed a three year old the camera? You actually get some really cool abstract pictures. I love some of the pictures that Drew has taken with his camera. Some of them we took pictures of Drew with his camera.

A belated Halloween Song Just for You

Okay so this was suppose to be posted before Halloween. I didn't realize that it downloaded from my phone. Yah! I love my little singer. He does a great job when he is in the mood.

Halloween '08

Here is the scary skeleton. With that smile it was quite difficult to be scary, we didn't tell Drew that. We had a lot of fun on Halloween. We went to Keith's parent's house, his sister's house and a family friend's house. As we were headed for our party at the Dan's house he fell asleep. So when it was time to go trick-or-treating he was still a little tired. We went to about ten houses and they all had to be happy halloween houses. Nothing scary. Thank you Dan's for keeping up the Halloween tradition. It just wouldn't be halloween without all of the good friends and delicious food.

Can I fix it?

Okay there has been so much going on at our house with me doing nothing. I am healing very quickly from my surgery. I would like to thank everyone who has helped with Drew and feeding Keith. He will be expecting me to cook for him every night once I am feeling better. Keith has been doing a great job taking care of Drew. Keith is having a great time taking care of Drew, I am afraid that he will not want to go back to work. If he didn't I wouldn't blame him. I miss being Drew's mom. It really isn't fun laying on the couch all day without being able to bean bag brawl or being able to hug or kiss Drew when I want to.
Keith took Drew to Lowes and they got the cute little apron for building. They are now ready to fix up our house. He looked so cute.