Meet the fam page!

I finally finished the "meet the fam" page! Check it out! You can find it just below McKenzie's emails:)

The most wonderful time of year

This is my favorite time of year! The temperatures cool down, the leaves change, everyone is back in school!  I haven't been able to enjoy any fall hikes as of yet, but who knows, maybe I'll sneak one this week;) I'm looking forward to going to the East Coast soon and enjoy some of the fall foliage back there and visit my daughter and her husband! 

SiSi went to Homecoming

Sierra and her blue lace dress.  She's been wanting one of these for so long but couldn't find one that she liked. So we made one. It worked out perfect for a homecoming dance:)

Logan being disgusting;)

Allie was home so she was able to do her hair. 

Sierra and her date. Super nice young man!

This was an "I love you" for Jessica

Dances are very different from when I was going to dances. It literally is a whole day event! For their day activity, they went "skittles bowling",  they then had dinner ( made and served by the parents of the young men) at Farmington City Hall. She said her night was a lot of fun!

A Day in the Life of a Boobah

As you know, one of my daughters and her family live with us. So I am always entertained by this guy right here. He does a lot of character impersonations. This one Saturday he was hunting for "white walkers." I don't know what they are-appartantely they are the bad guys from some video game....

Mr. America

Speaking of Logan.......

Logan was inducted in the National Honor Society this last week. (She's the one in the denim shirt with her hair up in the bun)

Logan can be pretty modest about a lot of her accomplishments. She is not only a super basketball player but she is also an excellent honor student.  She carries full loads with her honors and AP classes with a 3.9 GPA.  

Random Thoughts:

Last Sunday was the Ogden Temple Dedication. There were 3 sessions. We attended the first one. Elder Bednar and Elder Eyring spoke as well as President Monson. Elder Bednar spoke about why the temple was important to him. I wanted to write down why the temple is important to me. 

• A lot of Christians  like to debate whether or not Mormons are Christians. I don't think you could question whether or not we follow Jesus Christ.  From the proper name of the church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) to our worship services, Jesus Christ is the center of all that we do. Now, we may have members of the church that don't act like Christians, but you know what? I know a lot of members of many faiths that don't act like Christians either. In the words of our last prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley "I think there are many good people everywhere. And our appeal is to those people. We don’t down grade any Church. We don’t speak disparagingly of any Church. We simply say to people of other Churches, bring all the good that you have and come and let us see if they if we can add to it. Now that’s all there is to it."    That being said- I know of no other place on the planet where you can feel the spirit of God closer than in the Temple. 
• We, as Latter Day Saints, are covenant making people. We make regular covenants with our Savior. He in turn, delivers promised blessings to us as we are obedient. We make covenants in the temple.  They are sacred. Read the Beattitudes (Matthew 5-6), they are a great text to help us understand our covenants. 
• Temples seal families together....forever. When we are married here we're married "til death do you part" That sounds like hell to me! I've worked too hard on this relationship to have it only last while here on earth. The temple provides opportunities for us to seal relationships eternally. I love Family History work because of the chance it has given me to seal familial relationships eternally. 
• Being a convert to the church has allowed me the experience of being with my entire family in the temple. I was sealed to my family (parents and siblings) when I was 21. It was a neat experience.  I've also been proxy to many family members who have since gone on before me. They are experiences that I won't forget and a testament of the truthfulness of the work that is done. 
• I love the temple. I love attending the temple. I have a deep and abiding commitment to this gospel of Christ. I'm grateful for the sealing power of the temple and I'm grateful for the covenants that I make that help me stay on the path to return to our Heavenly Father. 

Also.....

General Conference is this weekend!! (Oct 4-5) You can catch all sessions (Saturday, 10-12 & 2-4 MST and Sunday 10-12 & 2-4 MST) on lds.org. 

Here's a link to lds.org that has some great stuff on preparing for conference:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/prepare-for?cid=HPFR100314460&lang=eng

You can also catch the General Womens Meeting. There are some great talks there as well. 

Have a great week all!!

Change, Change and more Change...

Shag or Berber???

What do you do when your kids move back in with you? You spice things up a bit and get new carpet! Our basement carpet is old (23 years old to be exact) and the bedroom carpets down there-well...even older.  With everything out of the basement, I'm thinking to myself, this would be a good time to get carpet. I approached Chet about it and he said "really? Why don't wait until those kids are out?" (buying himself some time, which by the way he already bought himself time when we added on to our house 12 years ago and he decided to use carpet from a lady in our ward who was getting rid of her 25 year old carpet because "it was still in great shape" when he really didn't want to spend the money on getting carpet) "Now would be the best time" I say- He said, "OK" but then said, "If you're going to do the basement, we really should do the rest of the house, because it looks so bad" I say, "Ok"  A win for me, don't think I would call it a win for Chet, but he's a good sport.  My neighbors across the street who have done carpet for years are installing it and have been able to get me top of line carpet and padding for a killer deal. It's not cheap, but for what I'm getting, what a bargain! Oh-I went with the Berber in my common areas, shag in the bedrooms..

guess there was linoleum on this floor prior to the last carpeting

I'll post pictures next week when they finish, they're working on it as I type.....I can't do anything else.

First Home Game

Rise and shout, the Cougars are out
along the trail to fame and glory.
Rise and shout, our cheers will ring out,
As you unfold your vict'ry story.
On you go to vanquish the foe For Alma Mater's sons and daughters.
As we join in song, in praise of you, our faith is strong.
We'll raise our colors high in the blue
And cheer our Cougars of BYU.

We played and we won..We had a great time with Rachel and Brenden and our friends and fellow season ticket holders, The Terrills. We also got to hang out with The Dodsons. I'm not a huge football fan, but I do enjoy hanging with Chet, Rachel, Brenden and The Terrills. Fun Times!

Since the first game was on 9/11 they put together a beautiful tribute to those who were lost to us on that day. 

Random Thoughts:

• Another change this week was that our stake presidency changed.  They are good men, our stake will continue to be in good hands. Our new presidency is
• Jeff Anderson (President)
• Dave Prows (1st Counselor)
• Craig Smith (2nd Counselor) 
• We had a couple of General Authorities come and speak. Elder Dewsnip and Elder Cardon. Now I don't get into the oohhhs and aahhs of GA's but man, these guys were legit. We had great lessons on the Work of Salvation which is a 5 part process:
• Member Missionary Work
• Retention
• Activation
• Family History/Temple Work
• Sharing the Gospel
• In a nutshell people: We need to do our part in spreading the gospel.  It helps the full-time missionaries not have knock on doors but work with referrals. In Utah, we need to look outside of our neighbors. I love my neighbors so much! They are the best. But you know, we can also be influences for good in our communities, state, nation and world. So get out there and get your discipleship on!

Memory Lane....

Waxing nostalgic and philosophical.....

I've been going down memory lane this week. That's what happens when you have to go through many years of "stuff" and decide if you throw it away, take it to the DI or keep it. I found many old photos of my kids when they were little. Those were the days!! Would I go back? Probably not. But they were the days. They were the days of Chet coming home from work by 5, playing in the backyard and spending weekends doing fun, simple little things like going to the zoo, Antelope Island or to the DI looking for some treasure. I took a couple of pictures, because I wanted to show Rachel how much Zoey looked like her....Here you go; just for fun...

Our first date....a dance at Heritage Halls, February 1986

Rachel

Chet and Rachel

Rachel, Allie & Jessica

Rachel & Jessica

Sierra (the Go-Go Girl) has a birthday today!!

Life is fun with the go-go girl! When she was little I wasn't sure if she would make it to her 3rd birthday. She was the one always running into the street (butt-naked quite often), running into the pool from the deep end, running, running, running. That's where she got her nickname the go-go girl. She has turned into a quiet, reflective soul. Her adventourous spirit is still there but manifests itself in a more quiet way now. She does things at her pace which has also earned her a nickname of sloth. She's a good sport in putting up with that, but only from her siblings.  She will put her all into anything that interests her.  She loves to draw, create, play her flute and has a beautiful voice. We are blessed to have her. She's a great, patient child. We love her so much! Happy Birthday SiSi!!

Random Thoughts......

• Elder Cardon is speaking at Stake Conference this next weekend, so we spent FHE listening to a talk he gave in General Conference in 2013.  It was on the Lord's forgiveness (The Savior Wants to Forgive, April 2013).
• "Providing an opportunity for the Savior to enlighten our understanding, "ether once inquired how many time he should forgive his brother and then asked, Till seven times? Surely that would be more than enough. But the Savior's response opened wide the door to His merciful heart: I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." 
• I've always known my responsibility to forgive and that is that we always forgive, but I've never looked at it as the Lord being merciful to us, that he too, will always forgive. Even many, many times for the same things, if we are faithful and will not sin on purpose thinking the Lord will forgive us no matter what. 
• I know our Savior loves each and every one of us, individually and collectively. There is a place for all of us in his kingdom. I really believe that:) 

Labor Day Weekend...and I cleaned.....

Well I'm late and behind....what's new! Apparently my blog is actually being read...even if its by my kids:) It was another fun, busy, chaotic week at the Loftis House.

BYU GAME

Last time I had a BYU flag, it was stolen!! I'm giving it a try again, but will take it down at night;) My UTE friends will probably appreciate that

The reluctant Cougar fan; he's likes the U- thanks Pope brothers

The Biggest Y fan EVER!!

Delicious, unhealthy eats

SiSi and Zoey

Rachel- the next biggest Y fan ever

Our first game with Chase in two years!!

Even Comanchi watches the game with us

Well Christmas is here folks! The first Y game was on. This is something that Chet really looks forward to! I mean, don't plan anything- I mean ANYTHING! I just planned my trip back east to see Jessica and we had to work around 2 games. Fun times, Rachel and Brenden brought over the ROKU so we can watch the game on ESPN (I know, how does such a fanatical football follower not have cable?)  Glad Rachel and Bren are moving in with us.......

Moving in with the Parentals

Rachel and Brenden are moving in with us. They want to save up for a house and we have an empty basement. We have spent the last few days emptying out the basement. Boxing things up, throwing things away, rearranging...My bedroom is a sort of family room....again.  I haven't had it this way since the kids were little. I also don't watch any TV, but the TV is in my room again. Should be interesting. The biggest bonus is being with these two:)

Random Thoughts of the Week:

• I was a sub in the 4 year old class last Sunday. What an experience.  It has been told that the spirits coming into the world have the strongest personalities. No kidding! Watch out world, these kiddos aren't afraid of anything. 
• I had a thought come to me today. When we are encircled about with things that we can't control; do something that you can control. It has felt so good to be cleaning out things. I have felt so accomplished. What an emotional bonus! Sometimes all we can do is hope for peace, comfort, respite and love. John 14:23-27 is a great lesson on peace....

Have a great week!