Family pictures and a new church calling...

Christmas is almost here!   I'm so excited!  It's starting to feel very Christmasy at our house.  I love having a fireplace this year, not only for the fire, but to hang the stockings from.  It is a must.  Jarom and I got our real Christmas tree again this year, I've decided it's the only way to go. (I  have loved starting our own family traditions. Last year and this coming year we plan to have our own Christmas morning together before getting together with our families.  I really enjoyed that last year, just the two of us.  It's been a fun memory of mine of our own "little family."

Back to the tree...I love walking into a pine smelling home.  I'm also going to put in another plug real quick about how amazing my new found love the candle "leaves" is from Bath and Body Works.  Put the two together and it's like heaven. (I wish I could enter a smell here...wouldn't that be fantastic). I love the Pandora Christmas Station, it has been playing reguarly. And, I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping!  Yay!

Jarom recieved a new calling in church to serve as Secretary in the Young Men's Presidency.  He's really excited that he'll be involved with the Young Men's Program and that he'll be able to teach and be more involved with Scouting.  He's also about to finish up another gruling semester, and is hoping to obtain his Multi-Engine Pilot certificate in between semesters.  We are shopping around to try to find the most affordable program.  It's only a 4-day program, but those things are not cheap!  Jarom's been working really hard so we could save up and pay cash for it.   I'm a proud wife :)

We recently had family pictures taken.  We have pictures back from the Brown family. I was pretty dissapointed with how most of them turned out, but I thought I would at least post one of the whole group and my cute nieces and nephews...

How lucky am I that I went from having 0 nieces and nephews to 9 within a year or so...?  Aren't they the cutest!  It's crazy to me how different each of their personalities are, but I love having these cute kids to love. 

And lastly, I realize I may be biased, but Jarom is so great.  Typically Men leave it to their wives to sign up for things at church, or service opportunities, but not Jarom.  A few months ago we had a ward chili cook-off, (Yay!) and Jarom, knowing I would be working that day and wouldn't be able to go, signed up not only to attend with my sweet Mom, but signed up to make and bring one of our favorite salads.  Cute right?  Then for Thanksgiving he signed up for the food drive to donate certain food items, and for Chirstmas he grabbed an ornament for Sub-for-Santa...He is such a great example to me, and is always quick to think of others.

When we lived in Pleasant Grove, we had a Stake President talk to us about paying Fast Offerings and giving service.  He taught us that paying our fast offerings should be a true sacrafice, and challenged each of us to double what we had been paying for our fast offereings in order to help all of those in need.  He promised if we did, not only would our faith be increased, but our blessings would be significantly multiplied.  I hadn't had much experience personally paying fast offereings, and I remember feeling hesitant knowing how tight things already were, and that what he was asking was a "hard" thing, but Jarom was immediately onboard.   He offered a suggestion as to what we should pay, and ever since then every month as I write the check he  just smiles and asks me "Is it a sacrafice?"  Since then, my testimony of paying tithing and fast offerings has grown tremendously and with Jarom's help I now know that it's not so much about how much we pay, but about the principle and our willingness to obey.  All in all, it has been some great advice and a great blessing in our lives and in our marriage and I'm grateful everyday for Jarom's example...