christmas is two days away?!?!?

geezola. i cannot believe that christmas is only two days away. honestly, where did this year go? oh yeah, moving, giving life to two baby girls and then sustaining it too, travel, travel and more travel, and one of the best years of my life. i never thought life could be so good. i mean it's hard...life is just hard. i think i learned that early on in life :)...but i really never thought it could be this good.

and i'm not talking about material stuff either. don't get me wrong, i really appreciate the comfortable life that we live and sharing it with those we love is my favorite part about jon's success. but with everything that's happened this year i've come to understand and feel and cherish what's important.

jon is important. i never thought i'd be so happy being married. i always just thought i'd find a righteous (like obedient, not cool) dude and we'd marry in the temple and we'd have a righteous family and live a righteous life. but there's so much more to it and jon's really made me realize that. he'll keep me living longer and happier that i ever would have without him. we've only been married for three years and lots has happened. love evolves....it doesn't just grow, it evolves...exponentially. if you can evolve exponentially...whatever. but it's always changing and adapting and taking us along for the ride. jon makes me happy. maybe i never thought i deserved to be so happy, but now i know i do. i told catie once that everyone in this world deserves as much happiness as they can get. i think that's my new mantra. life is hard enough without us cheating ourselves of happiness.

family is important. i didn't realize how much i missed my happy family memories until mom and the girls moved out here. we've had some minor run-ins among different parties...what can you expect with so much estrogen and other hormones in the air? but overall we laugh and love and make memories that perpetuate that love.

faith is important. i've always felt like i know alot about faith. i've used it to prove things in my life and i've relied on it for miracles in my life. but the events of this year called upon more faith than i've used before. i've realized you can only have faith in something/Someone you understand....whose purposes and desires you're aware of. i can have faith in God and His Son now and have even more in the future because i know them a little more than i did before and i know what they want for me and for those i love....well everybody for that matter. i was talking with some ladies the other day and we came to the conclusion that it's all too often the simplest things in life that bring us the most lasting happiness. satan really wants us to think it's harder than it is...but it's not. i mean sometimes it's hard and i want to quit and sometimes i do. but i'm not supposed to be perfect here. nobody is. i'm supposed to be on the road back. He knew and we knew that we'd mess up...big stuff, not so big stuff, and even the tiniest stuff keeps us from going back, but that's why He came and that's why He and the Father are perfect, not us. one of isaac's signing DVD's song's teaches "try, try, try". that's why we're here...to try...and to learn that relying on Him is how we get better and make up for our mistakes and everywhere we fall short.

i'm too tired now to think about anything else that's important. i love my life...all the crap and all the joy. i love it all because it all works out in the end and life is good.