Thornton Mom

Michael and I were leaving the grocery store.  I asked him, "Should we go get in the car?"  He replied, "Aunt Annelise's car."  Confused I said that Aunt Annelise was not here.  Then we walked outside and he pointed to a red car in the parking lot (the same color as Annelise's) and said again, "Aunt Annelise's car."  As we walked by and I tried to explain that it was not her car he wouldn't agree.  As we were pulling out there was a grandmother putting groceries in the red car.  Michael looked at the car and said, "Aunt Annelise's car?"  I am so glad that he loves Aunt Annelise.  My beautiful niece attended the temple for the first time this past weekend.  It was wonderful to see her in the temple surrounded by family and friends.  I am so proud of her for making that decision.  She is a wonderful example to all her nieces and nephews.  In a few months she will be off on her mission to Peru.  We are so blessed...

Samantha is a sweet heart.  She loves to help.  She and Maddie right now are best buds and love playing together.  They are really into Legos right now and have created quite a nice house in the playroom.  Samantha is helpful.  She will often come to me and ask if she can help.  Many times she sees a need and fills it. Samantha is responsible.  The is the one I can count on to get her chores done and do what I have asked.  I am grateful for the opportunity to be her mother.  I am looking forward to the woman that she will become.   Book of Mormon, Alma 32:27 "27  But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of ...

I cannot say it enough!  I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!!  He is truly amazing.  Last night he came home cheerful and upbeat.  And no matter what hit him he regrouped and continued to be positive and happy.  I went into full depression and we had several moody people but he kept his calm and worked with us.  Never criticizing only loving and helping.  He is so good.  I am so thankful for Him.  I am so grateful to a kind and loving Heavenly Father who gave this man to me.  Life is so much better because of Him.   I love these two pictures.  Michael wanted the kite and Derek could see that I was going to take a picture so he knelt down just for me and was helping Michael.  Right after I snapped this picture Michael let go of the kite and it went flying off.  All we could do was laugh.   Book of Mormon, Alma 32:23 "he imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only ...

 It was so good for me to see my kids having so much fun at the beach.  Sometimes it is nice to break away from the normal and everyday and just be a family.  I find we are kinder, more loving, more patient and more understanding.  I wish I could transfer that to home.  We have pockets of it here and there and those moments I treasure. New Testament, Hebrews 11:35 "and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:" April 2015 sacrifice,believe,jesus christ,faith I think that this shows a lot of faith. It must be difficult to face death knowing that if you just went against what you believed for a brief moment you would be spared. I am grateful for the examples of...

 At the beach I had the kids run through a flock of seagulls so I could take pictures.  Michael loved this idea and after everyone else finished he continued to run at every seagull he could find chasing them into flight.  Sometimes he would have a face of confusion when he would turn around and see the gulls back on the beach.  But he didn't give up and ran again.   Book of Mormon, Alma 17:3 "3  But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God." Things were not easy for Ammon and his brethren. They didn't just repent and change and then sit back and do nothing. They had to grow, they had to change, they had to work, they had to repent and they succeeded and w...

Last night I was able to go to the Temple with my husband.  All week I had been trying to get an appointment but several things kept preventing me from making it.  Saturday morning I tried again unsuccessfuly, and wondered if Satan was trying to prevent us from going.  What a blessing it was when my husband told me that he had made an appointment and we got the last two seats!  I am so grateful for his dedication to this gospel.   The Temple was wonderful.  I had had some very special experiences earlier in the day and was looking forward to sharing them with Derek in the Celestial room.  As we were in the temple I felt the Lord's peace so strongly.  My depression is very heavy right now and I don't view myself in the best light.  But as negative thoughts would enter my head they were immediately rebuffed by my Heavenly Father, comforting me and telling me it was "okay," or "that is not the case," or "don't worr...

We went to the beach for Spring Break.  One of my favorite things to do there is go crabbing.  I did a bunch of research and found a great spot that even has a playground next to it and we go crabbing.  When I was a child we would catch crayfish off the dock of Starvation Reservoir.  We kids LOVED it.  We would put a chicken leg attached to a string on the floor of the lake.  Then we would attach the string to the dock.  The water was shallow enough that we could see the leg through the water.  Then we would wait . . . in a few minutes crayfish would emerge from hiding and start eating the leg.  If we were quiet and careful we could slowly pull the leg up until we could reach a net underneath and scope the crabs up. We apply this same technique to catch blue crabs.  The biggest difference is that we are on a pier about 10-15 feet above the water.  We put the chicken leg in and here come the crabs....

Dressing up for Sunday!  Got to love my cute kiddos!! On another trying day a friend of mine reminded me of the Mormon Messages " Daily Bread ."  These three videos reminded me to take each day as all I have to do.  To not worry about tomorrow, to trust the Lord and ask for His help to get through today.  This is something I have to be reminded of almost daily as some of the trials get hard and the moments seem overwhelming.  But I am so grateful to a Father in Heaven who loves me so much that He has provided a Savior for me.  Someone who has suffered all I have suffered and knows my pain.  I know that I do not even come close to understanding the Atonement but I will continue to ask for His help, to use His Atonement, and to press forward one day at a time.

Maddie was feeling very alone and frustrated.  She is my girl who will keep everything below the surface.  She is usually very obedient and easy going.  Of late things have been hard.  I feel like she is at the bottom of the pile and everything else comes before her.  We decided to let her go up to Lake Gaston a day early with her grandparents.  She was so excited. I wish I had taken a picture but just picture this in your mind . . .  She ran down the stairs grabbed her pink bag ran outside and sat on the edge of the driveway waiting for her grandparents.  I brought out her pink car seat and she sat in it with her pink bag and waited for them to arrive.  She was so eager to go it was delightful.  I am grateful my Father in Heaven gave me that idea. The Brother in my ward who talked about "Turning Weaknesses into Strengths," said this, " In preparation for this talk I looked up Perfect on Wikipedia it had definitions you would expe...

Grandaddy got a new boat.  While at the lake Michael got to ride with me on the Jet Ski.  It was the first time he had not been afraid to ride on it.  The next day Derek took him on the new boat.  He loved it.  As we were saying his prayer that evening I prompted, "Thank you for the boat."  Michael repeated, "Thank you for the . . . little boat, thank you for the BIG boat!!" The other Sunday one of the speakers talked about "Turning Our Weaknesses into Strengths."  He did a wonderful job and I asked if he could send me the talk.  He took most of his talk from a talk Brother Wilcox gave at BYU entitled, His Grace is Sufficient.   This is an amazing talk and I loved it. One of the things that really stood out to me was his analogy of taking piano lessons.  He talks about how Christ is like the mother who pays for the piano lessons.  She does not expect repayment but does ask us to practice an the more we practice the better we ...

Tonight I was listening to "Enduring it Well" on the Mormon Channel, Episode 7 "One Step at a Time - Dale Hull."  Bro. Hall became paralyzed from a trampoline accident when he was an adult.  Two things that he said hit me today.  The first was that there are times that we are required to touch others, helping a child get dressed, disciplining, crossing the street, but the times that we voluntarily touch are the times that really let others know we love and care for them.  I hadn't ever thought of that before.   Right now I am changing my depression medication and I don't have a lot of patience.  I am pretty crabby.  To me everything is about getting the job done and doing it right.  There is no middle ground only right and wrong.  Because of this there is very little touching and very little mom time.  Tonight John Derek came up to me and asked me how I was doing.  I asked him why he wanted to know.  He said that I am ...

What a great week we had.  Our family was able to go up to the Lake House and enjoy extended family.  I will be sharing more about that later. Today I want to share a story of my sweet Samantha.  Samantha is know for her long beautiful and often wild hair.  A few weeks ago I got a message from my sister asking if I had ever thought of cutting Samantha's hair short like hers.  This got me thinking and I pondered on the subject for a long time, asking others, and even talking about it with Samantha.    My sister came to the lake Friday evening and the two of us spent the evening looking at hair cuts for Samantha.  The next morning my sister talked with Samantha and showed her the pictures.  She liked one of them but was still a little uneasy abut it.  We all talked about it and then she said, "I'm going to go talk to Heavenly Father about it."  She went downstairs and returned a few minutes later.  She said...