May we all remember the true meaning of Christmas!

I love Christmas! This year has been a bit different than years past... I am not sure if I have been more busy or what but I have not been as excited about Christmas this year. I am usually the one that has it all together, I love searching for that perfect gift for my family and friends and can't wait to see the reaction to the gift that was given. I guess maybe it is because I don't feel like I accomplished the perfect gifts for everyone this year. I know it can't be perfect every year but I really like to try!

Here are some pictures of my cute parents and sister when we visited Temple Square last week. We had a great time and ended up at the Garden Room for dinner at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was a really fun night!









Ok.. I don't want to be a downer on Christmas Eve so let me share with you what helped me get into the Christmas spirit! At church yesterday we had the traditional Christmas program in Sacrament meeting, which was a great way to start the day. I love Christmas music so that
always helps me get in the mood! We were also fasting for a family in our ward that had their baby 3 months early, he has a hole in his heart and is fighting for his life. Then in laurel class, each of the girls prepared a 2-3 min lesson on their favorite talk from this past General Conference. It was such a neat experience seeing each of them share their testimonies about the gospel and Christ, and each of them had a unique experience to share. I left church feeling uplifted and excited for Christmas - remembering why we really celebrate this holiday, it is because of Christ. I love spending time with family and creating new lasting memories.



Here is the last picture we took after we ate dinner at the Garden Room overlooking Temple Square. Isn't it beautiful!!

"Without Christ there would be no Christmas, and without Christ there can be no fullness of joy."

~President Ezra Taft Benson Christmas Devotional December 1985

I hope we all remember the true meaning of Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to all of you!!

What would we do without wonderful friends and family?

"I don't know what would have become of me were it not for the kindness of the friends I have in my life. They have lifted my head and given me a cool drink of water when I was exhausted and thirsty. They have opened their homes to me as well as their hearts. Help me to bless them with kindness in return."

~Author Unknown

Brad had an unfortunate ATV accident on Tuesday the 18th. He was riding his ATV with a friend and as Brad was riding along he hit a jump in the dirt road that caused his handlebars to hit him just below his nose. Then as the front end came back down to meet the road he lost his balance and flipped over the front of the machine and landed on his tail bone. We spent 2 hours in the ER getting 11 stitches. The following day we headed to the dentist to get his tooth pulled back into place (ouch!), and then to the chiropractor to see what damage he may have done to his tail bone. Luckily for him he wore his helmet which helped him avoid a more serious injury. Overall, he is doing great! He is very stiff and the pain in his tail bone comes and goes, there was no fracture which is fabulous but it is tilted, which means lots of future visits to the Dr. (This is a picture of what I saw when I got home.)

We were touched by the many friends and family that called, emailed or stopped by to see how Brad was doing. Because of the timing of the accident I missed the YW activity that evening which was caroling around our neighborhood. I love to sing Christmas songs so I was a bit sad to have missed it. My cute leaders and girls stopped by to sing to us - they sounded beautiful, it was the perfect way to end a stressful evening.


We feel so blessed to have the wonderful friendships both in our ward and those we have had for years. The news spread throughout both our families and our ward. Our cute home teacher called to see how Brad was doing and he and a neighbor came over to give Brad a blessing. We are so grateful for his friendship and always being willing to help. (before stitches)



(Here is the new Brad with stitches)

We are so grateful for all our wonderful friends & family and pray that we will be as kind when needed to provide comfort to one of you!

Cutting our Christmas Tree

Ok.. so cutting a Christmas tree has been a tradition in the Bennett family for over 20 yrs. I was told in order to marry into the family I had to keep the tradition going. Of course, I said anything to get the man of my dreams and now 5 yrs later I still love the "experience" of cutting a tree. I just don't love the time it takes to put lights on every year. I would be happy with an artificial pre-lit tree but that would never fly with my sweet husband.

So a couple years ago we agreed that if we were to continue the tradition he alone would be in charge of the lights every year. He does a great job wrapping every branch and doesn't complain even though it usually takes several hours to complete. Last year was the first year in our new home and we have a 20 foot ceiling where we put our tree. Brad of course wanted to get the tallest tree possible, last year that was about 14 ft and this year it was 16 1/2 ft. It took him over 12 hours to put 3500 lights on our tree this year! Yikes! We had one partial strand burn out and he hasn't found the energy to get back on the ladder to fix them or add another strand. Hopefully, all lights will be functioning by Christmas. :)

Here are some fun pics from our adventure cutting the tree this year. We always go cut our tree with Brad's family the Friday after Thanksgiving. Usually, there is snow but this year we were lacking; we had to carry our tree out rather than drag it. It made for some fun hiking back to the truck. (FYI -If you click on the pictures you can see the larger version.)

Here are Monica and Chris' kids Lily, Emma, Alison & William and us with our dog Abby.

Here are the "boys" (Dave (Megan's hubby), Will, Paul (dad), Brad & Chris(Monica's hubby))
and the "girls" (Brad's sisters Nicole, Monica, me, Karen (mom), Megan and Monica's kids Lily, Emma and Alison)

Just some fun pics of the day..... not sure what Brad is doing?? Alison and Lily are having a staring contest... Emma just wanted to be in the picture!

I had this post written over a week ago but wanted to post pics of the final product.. so here is the fully decorated tree and mantel.

On Monday night Brad was working late and my sweet brother had dropped off a 16ft ladder (I had requested a 12 ft but he felt the 16ft would work best... until he came into the house and realized how GIGANTIC the ladder was!) Anyway, I only had 4 hours from when I got home from work to use this ladder before my brother would be picking it up the next morning. Originally, my mom was going to come up to help but something came up and she was unable to make it. I called around to find someone who could come over to help. Those that came were so kind to drop what they were doing and come over for 30-45min, before heading back to their families for FHE.

First I needed help to get the ladder into the house.. our neighbor Porter came over to assist me- we only hit the railing once.. oops! Then our friend Tasha and her son TJ came over to help decorate. She loved climbing up and down the ladder trying to scare me since I was balancing on the top attempting to get the star to stay put! TJ just laughed at us and would hand us beads to hang. Sonia also came over and helped with the ornaments. When she had to leave, I was left with Brad to finish -there was a Jazz game on so trying to get him to focus was not an easy task. I tried to get the final touches complete on my own but have been moving ornaments around all week to try and make it look balanced.

It has been an eventful couple weeks, filled with lots of memories!

It isn’t defeat, but rather your mental attitude toward it, that whips you.

Quote for the day.... I ran across this recently and thought it would be a perfect post for today!

"There are many things in life that you cannot control, but you can always control your attitude toward them. Defeat is never permanent unless you allow it to be so. When you have a positive attitude, you will recognize failure for the impostor that it is and realize that it is really a learning experience, a valuable lesson that will help you succeed with the next attempt. Ask yourself: What could I have done differently that would have altered the outcome? What can I do in the future to minimize problems and mistakes? What did I learn from this experience that I can put to good use next time? If you approach obstacles and setbacks with a positive attitude, you will be surprised how quickly you can turn defeat into victory. " -Napoleon Hill

I have been trying to have a more positive attitude lately and have noticed a big difference in how I react to even the smallest issues. It is not easy always looking at the positive side of things but it definitely takes less energy!

I have started asking myself... what am I supposed to learn from this experience? Sometimes it frustrates me not knowing what I should be learning right at that moment.. but occasionally you have to get through it first and yet the lesson still may not come for a while after that.

Most of you know we have been trying to start our family for close to 4 yrs now. We still have no idea what we are supposed to learn from this experience, but we sure have enjoyed the journey! Brad and I have had the opportunity to serve in various callings in our church that involve the youth and have been very blessed to develop the relationships we have with the other leaders and youth we have served. I am confident the Lord has a plan for us and he will allow us to grow emotionally and spiritually from this experience. I know after all we can do the Lord will provide a way!

Anyone else have times like this?

Thanksgiving

Wow, I can't believe Thanksgiving has past and now Christmas is upon us! I still haven't posted fun pictures from Halloween.. oh well. The past two weeks have flown by! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parents house, we had my parents (of course), Travis (bro)& Carly, my Grandma Weeks and us. Very small but soooo relaxing! As we were driving home, I realized I took NO pictures of our day. I was so bummed!

I can't pass up the opportunity to share our experience frying a turkey this year. I just wish I had taken a picture! Anyway, Brad and Travis had been wanting to deep fry a turkey, my mom agreed but decided to cook two turkeys. (Mainly because she wanted gravy and there is no way to get any juice from the turkey when you deep fry it.) We have deep fried turkeys in the past with great success so why would we think this year would be any different?! Well... it was! While getting the turkey ready to fry we asked Brad to figure out how many minutes it needed to cook based on the size. He is really good with math and so we trusted him....once again.. no problems with his math skills in the past. My mom and I with Brad's help cooked the side dishes, and Carly cooked her Tofurkey (she is vegetarian) and some yummy rice dish!

Meanwhile, Travis and my Dad were outside frying our turkey.. it takes a lot of skill to regulate the temperature for the turkey to cook evenly so they had to watch it the entire time. When it was time to take the turkey out we discovered it was still a bit undercooked, so we put it back in the fryer for a few more minutes.. we were not sure how long to leave it in so we all decided 20min would be safe. Well.. that was too long. When we pulled it out again it was burned on the outside which is how it should look but this was even worse. To make a long story longer.. we ended up only being able to eat half of it, the rest was too overcooked to eat. Luckily, my mom had cooked the 2nd turkey in the oven so we still had some wonderful turkey to enjoy. Usually the fried turkey is more moist and delicious - you should definitely try it sometime.

After discovering we had severely overcooked the bird, we asked Brad to recalculate the minutes.. I had told him to multiply 3 1/2 min and 17lbs to get the time.. apparently he only heard 3min and didn't calculate the additional 1/2 min. Oops! We should have only cooked it for another 8-9 min instead 20min. We learned a valuable lesson in communication that day - I can't ask Brad questions while he is watching football! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful turkeyday.. Anyone else have a good Thanksgiving story?

TOFW & Girls - Long Beach - Nov 3rd

I don't know about you but until about a year ago I had no idea what "Time Out For Women" was. Here is the link to Deseret Book so you learn more about it. http://deseretbook.com/time-out/schedule. We have the privilege to live in the same ward as one of the presenters and back in Sept I had the opportunity to attend a "Time Out For Women & Girls" event in Logan, UT - with a couple ladies and their daughters from our ward as well as my sister. It was great to have my sister there; she learned a great deal and enjoyed the experience. The day starts out at 9am and ends at 3pm, with remarks by the presenters and musical performances in between.

It was such a great experience! At the Women & Girls events, the presenters tailor their remarks to the young women and since I had just been called as YW president, I internalized everything they shared. Although I don't have a daughter, I still learned a lot of things that I could apply in my own life. I came away feeling uplifted and with a renewed desire to be a better wife, daughter, friend and leader for the YW in which I serve. Another highlight was seeing Hilary perform in person, she is amazing!

Ok.. so now I get to the "Long Beach" part of the story. I know you were wondering....why is she talking about Logan when the title is different?! Alright, maybe you didn't care. Anyway, a couple months ago I asked Hilary if she ever wanted a buddy to accompany her on one of these trips. She agreed, so I went online to see what events were coming up and which presenters would be at each event. In reviewing the list, I found that Sister Ardeth Kapp was going to be speaking in Long Beach and Dallas. I was a young beehive when the YW theme and 7 values were introduced, while Sister Kapp was serving as the YW General President. I will never forget the impact those values and theme had in my life. I also had the opportunity to meet Sister Kapp at a Regional YW camp in Nashville, TN when I was 14yrs old and had my picture taken with her. Needless to say, I was excited meet her again! After looking at the dates for each, I decided the Long Beach event would work best with my schedule. (Bad hair day or something, not loving the pic.. can I blame jet lag? :) )

I know that was a loooong intro to this weekend but I felt the background helped to make the story. We left on Friday afternoon and returned home late Saturday night. It was a quick trip but sooo worth it! We had Friday night open to do some tourist stuff, so after checking in to the hotel and unpacking, we headed off to the Long Beach pier which was about a mile away. We were able to see the ocean and even saw a large freight ship, which seemed massive from where we were standing.









Next, we needed food! As we looked around we saw popular restaurants from here in Utah, Outback, Chili's, California Pizza Kitchen, PF Chang's and the list goes on... we were hoping to find an original California restaurant or at least one we don't get to frequent back home. While trying to decide where we should go, we both mentioned a restaurant called Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.. and how fun the atmosphere was there. Wouldn't it be fun if we saw that restaurant down at the pier?! Since we didn't see anything that wasn't a chain (at least nothing that looked good) we decided on Outback. (They have an amazing dessert called the thunder from down under, you should try it sometime.) After dinner we decided to take the bus back to the hotel, the bus had to drive us in the opposite direction we had taken to get to the pier. As we drove by the many restaurants we had seen, lo and behold.. we drive right past a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company! We couldn't believe we were within 50 feet of seeing it but missed it all together. How disappointing!!

The next day was the Time Out Event.. what a blessing to be surrounded by several hundred other women and girls that believe exactly as I do! The event was fabulous! There were 2 different presenters from the Logan event Michael Wilcox and Ardeth Kapp, the others were the same, yet the messages touched me in a different way this time. It is amazing how the spirit helps you pick up on the things you need at that moment and then next time you hear it, you learn something entirely different. It was such a neat experience talking with Sister Kapp and the other presenters during the lunch break and on our way home. (The other presenters were Hilary Weeks, Abe Mills, Jenny Jordan Frogley, & John Hilton III - all amazing!)

I also told my friend Jenn from San Diego about the event and she drove up to Long Beach to attend. She is the YW president in her ward and brought 9 young women and 2 other leaders. (She was actually called that same week to be the 1st counselor in the Stake YW presidency, good luck Jenn!). It was sooo good to see you!

I was also able to meet a friend of Hilary's from other events like this, she is darling and I am glad I got to know her during the event.

I am grateful to Hilary for being willing to share her time with me, which allowed me to have this experience. She is such a fun, talented, and giving person and I am grateful to call her my friend! I look forward to having more adventures!

NEW YORK - Labor Day

Since we are just starting a blog, we HAVE to share pictures of our trip to New York! This was a very memorable adventure. Brad surprised me for our 5th year anniversary (July 17th) with a trip to see the US Open tennis tournament in New York City over Labor day weekend. It was such a surprise, especially because I have played tennis my entire life (or at least as long as I can remember) and have always dreamed of going to the US Open. I was soo excited!

Now... I have to give a little background. Brad does not love tennis like I do, so to be willing to spend our "anniversary trip" to go to New York (a place he wasn't that excited to visit) and also be willing to sit through 2 days of tennis meant so much to me. As we were planning our trip, we found out some friends from our ward (McKinley & Andrea) were headed to New York the same weekend for the US Open and wanted us to go to see Wicked on Broadway. I am still not sure how I talked Brad into seeing a musical along with tennis but he was such a trooper and actually ended up enjoying the entire weekend. I did throw in a Yankee game which sweetened the pot a bit!



We also had some fun adventures in pedi-taxis, one adventure resulted in the police coming to our hotel. We were discussing the fare for the ride to our hotel from Broadway, when our doorman at the hotel came up to ask what was going on. The pedi-taxi guy, let's call him "Bob", said everything was fine. We proceeded to tell the doorman that the fare he quoted was not was we were told. To make a long story short, the doorman told us to go to our room and he ended up calling the police to help "Bob" leave the property. Good times! The following day, based on a recommendation from Brad's sister, we ventured back into the world of the pedi-taxi to tour Central Park. Despite the events of the previous night, this adventure turned out to be a fabulous way to see the entire park without the view of a horses rear end! Thanks Natalie!






Brad enjoys baseball so going to a Yankee game seemed only fair, given the fact that he spent the majority of the weekend doing things that I enjoy. Yankee stadium and their fans definitely make the experience! Every fan was wearing Yankee apparel and there was always someone yelling at the players the entire game. We don't claim to be Yankee fans but started a tradition a few years ago, that whenever we are in a city with a pro team we will go to a game. We also buy a hat to remember the experience!

We couldn't have gone to New York without hitting Time Square, Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, and taking the subway -which is always an adventure! Brad loves to people watch so he was in heaven!















This is a self portrait of us in the pedi-taxi racing through Time Square.. we seriously thought we would die several times during this ride. "Bob" was dodging in and out of traffic and was barely missing cars! We even saw a pedi-taxi in front of us get hit by a cab! :)

It was such a great vacation, one that I will not forget! In fact, we are already planning a trip back to the US Open! Brad ACTUALLY enjoyed watching tennis! YEA!! He is also taking tennis lessons so that we can start to play together. Isn't he a great husband? I sure think so! Cute too!