Madelyn is 6!

Well I have needed to do this post for a couple of weeks,but life is busy.Madelyn turned 6 on January 13th.She had such a fun week.First she started the week with celebrating her birthday with her grandparents and family,then she had a friend party on her actually birthday party,which was so fun!She wanted all her friends to come in their p.j.'s and have a pillow fight and hot chocolate and princess crown cookies.We opened presents and finished the party with watching"cloudy with a chance of meatballs".Fun was had by all.Later that week she went to two friends birthday parties who had birthdays all within days of each other.Needless to say she had a fun week!Happy Birthday Maddie!Hope you have a wonderful year being 6!

My poem for my Heavenly Father....

A lady in our ward asked my to say a few things of what testify's to me there is a God. I came up with this poem.I am so grateful for her,for letting me giving myself a chance to really ponder this question.


You Have been there from the beginning
Always by my side
To love and to teach
Forever be thine
You raise me up when I am feeling sad
You tell me everthing will be fine
You bless me immensely
With the gospel's truth,Family,friends
safety,Earth beauty,Spirit to help guide me
I can go on and on and on
You carry me through life's burden's
Your reassurance is clear
You fill my heart with emotion
So I know that you are there
You sacrificed your son
so that all your children
can be free to live life's eternal
You give us your example of pure love
So that we your children can be happy
and can bring happiness to others
Please know dear Heavenly Father
I know you are here
I will try and do what you want me to do
So that one day when I return to thee
I can wrap my arms around you
and you will know I always knew you were there.

What a wonderful Vacation!

We had such a great time going down to California this past December and Jan. We stayed for a while, 12 days!! I think that is the longest vacation we have taken.The dates just matched up perfectly with James's vacation days.With a couple days off in between we got to stay a while.=) The kids did a great job driving to and from,although I wish they would sleep longer and at the same time.=)We stayed most of the time at Grandma and Grandpa Dastrup's home.We also got to stay at my sister Karen's new home in San diego and go to Sea world the next day,which we all loved!Grandma Dastrup and Aunt Tara and Unkie Hans and their two kids even made the trek up there to come with us and ofcourse Karen and baby Leah joined us. It was a great time. I had not been there since high school.And fancy that it was with James.Man we have been together for a long time.I sure love that guy.=)
We are so happy that James's brother Hans and his wife Tara have moved back to southern California next to his parents home. We had so much fun with them. Our kids got along so great!They had moved back from New york so we did get to see them very often. Now we will be able to see them whenever we go down. Which is usually 3x a year and they will hopefully visit us up here.=) We also enjoyed spending time with his other brothers and their wifes. Its so nice that for now everyone is close together so we can visit with them all at once.We are also excited for the new additions coming to the Dastrup Family this year.We are pretty sure one is a neice and we will find out soon what the other one will be.Here's a few pics from our vacation....