Dear Nate, how many baptisms have you had? I am going to be happy when you come home. I've gotten a ton stronger and I will beat you in every single wrestling match you try to throw at me. My Jr. Jazz basketball team got second place in Salt Lake County in a tournment. We lost by a bucket. We got a shirt that says Jr. Jazz basketball with a tiger claw scratching, it's pretty cool.

Hi Precious brother! We love you, pray for you, think of you, cheer at your letters, hope for your success, and miss you! The time is FLYING by for you it sounds like. What a wonderful mission. I am so grateful I have the opportunity to read your letters to my children, and have them share in your joy. It has been so incredibly awesome!



I had a really neat experience yesterday. I was feeling quite anxious, actually freaked out, because of some of the financial things we're going through, but also overwhelming responsibilities and opportunities of motherhood. I poured out my soul to Heavenly Father in Coy and Mckay's closet (I didn't think the kids would look for me there even though they were yelling for me the whole time). I expressed my heartfelt plea from the depths of my soul for His precious and merciful help to calm my troubled soul. He did! He did! He blessed me so much. Also. through the spirit, I was given a formula to overcome anxiety (which is a frequent visitor for me with our situation right now). I felt so clearly that when I began to feel the feelings of panic I can 1. Think of everything for which I can express gratitude, and 2. Ponder and Discover how the atonement meets me in that moment. I am so grateful for prayer. I get to teach a lesson on prayer on Sunday, and I fear I won't get a word out for the emotion that so easily comes. I am just so touched by the fact that we can approach Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere, and he invites us to counsel with him in ALL of our doings, never asking us to make it quick because he is so busy . I love this SO MUCH. I bet I pray 100 times a day, and never once has he said, "Jana, I am just too busy for you today." I testify of the sweet and tender love of our FAther and our Savior, and express my deepest gratitude for their constant care.

Okay, the fam... great and fun. I am so proud of Coy. We just did a huge cookie project where we had nearly 300 boxes of cookies donated by Lofthouse foods, the pink sugar cookies, and we tracted Bluffdale exchanging them for donations for this sweet family that lives where Whites used to live. Her stomach isn't working and she needs to get to the Mayo Clinic. It makes me cry whenever I talk about this, but Coy said "Mom, you know how hard this is for me", but then he squared his shoulders and knocked doors for hours, doing something very hard tob less someone else. I love that kid. He is so fun. He keeps us laughing, he just did a huge culture fair project on Italy, he's trying to decide what to do for his Eagle project, right now he is carrying around his salt baby for his middle school class, he brings a current event to dinner every night, and he is nearly finished with the Book of Mormon, reading it again this year for Seminary. He has loved Seminary so much this year. He often shares what he learns. Blessed are great seminary teachers! The other day in the temple they looked at Coy and asked him if he was baptizing Mckay. He is so funny. We were talking about appropriate explatives and the kids asked about Holy Cow. I told them holy wasn't really appropriate, and Coy said, "so we can't say 'all powerful bovine'? That 's Coy for you, sometimes I have to look up what he says. I can't believe that tree is going to high school. He was asked in a class if he dressed like his friends and he said "I don't know!"

Mooks is a crazy head. He dressed up like a rock star and pretended to be his own cousin, and played his air guitar for his student body office skit. He said he was Mckay's cousin Peirce and that everyone should vote for Mckay because he goes to school "unlike me", has grades, "unlike me", and has no police record "unlike me" (bet you didn't see that last phrase comin ). He wore gnarly black hair to his waist, bandana, leather diamond studded belt and leather vest, thrasher jeans, it was pretty sweet. He won. he is so so funny. I asked him what we should get Dad for his birthday and he said " a t-shirt cannon!" Coy and his friends were talking about the Zombie uprising recently, and I could have sworn they were talking about Mckay. He has grown three inches in three and a half months. Sometimes he's too tired to even put the consonants with his vowels. I don't even know if he'll remember the last few months of his life. We'll have to fill him in later. Maybe he'll freak out when he finds out what he did for student body office. I heard that the average 8th grader learns nothing, so even though he has straight A's, the zombie look might tell us that there isn't a lot goin on upstairs. Grandpa Walker asked him if he was kissing the pretty girls. When he said "No" he said, "so you're kissing the ugly ones?"He was sweet when we gave the money to Meg from the cookies, he got in the car and said "that was so worth every single bit of work".

Spen is so stinkin' awesome. He is getting so funny. The other night he put tennis balls in the bottom of both of my tights and he was doing all this funny stuff with it on his head. He is a sweet sweet boy. He is always with Tanner and Parker in the trees building treehouses and secret huts, and I hope just having a fantastic childhood. He is such a good student and gets really stressed out if anything is out of order. He loves art, and he is the resident artist if anyone needs anything done. Cherelle asked the boys to sing at Tyler's farewell, so Mckay, Spen, Joseph and Parker sang "We'll bring the World His truth". He was so scared, but he got up there and sang SO LOUD AND SO STRONG! I am so proud of him. The chapel was full to the back of the gym. I want my children to be able to do hard things.

Joseph, Mack as Seth affectionately calls him, is so so funny. It has been so crazy to have him be rich. He often buys gifts, and buys things for everyone, but it is very often junk food. We say no 9 times out of 10, and we have made him save nearly ninety percent of his money, but that still leaves him with a little green burning a hole in his pocket. We're wrapping up homeschool, and he is memorizing a Shakespeare part where he decides to love Beatrice. It's pretty funny. When he took his end of year CRT's I was quizzing him on parts of speech on the way. After his test he said "they didn't even ask me about the proverbs and adverbs and all that stuff!" He does three back flips in a row after jumping out of the tree onto the tramp. He needs NATE! He wrestles his friends and they cry like little babies. That kid is tight. The other day he was sitting at the counter and he said "It's fun living like this (dirt poor), because it makes you grateful for everything. He says some very darling things inbetween his fights with Annie. You'll appreciate this. He found a picture of himself in one of Annie's dresses when he was little on a calendar at Jello's, and his brothers didn't help as they offered more than a hearty chuckle. He was so mad I thougth he was going to blow a gasket. He was bawling and yelling. The only thing that finally settled him down was the plan to find pictures of the brothers in dresses and blow them up poster size and put them up at school.

Annie girl is a funny one. She got her backhandspring down, and lost her first tooth. She and Joseph go at it often enough to keep my eye twitch active. She came in the other day bawling because Joseph did something to her and I said "what did you do to him?" She answered, "I called him Bob and told him I was hungry". Later we learned how MANY times she did that. She can come up with the most amazing unmatching outfits. She loves to make Seth squeal like a little piggy, which makes me sing "I'm trying to be like Jesus" in my mind multiple times a day. She was watching conference and she said "Poor prophets, they have to wake up, get their clothes on and be right on time. Jesus does, too, but he'll be there in a snap." She is getting a fun sense of humor. I asked her what we should give Dad for his birthday, and she said "Asian bologna!"

Last night I was reading Seth "The Great Cookie Theif" and he stopped me and said "Jesus in the temple!" When he sings I love to see the temple he sings, "I'll prepare myelf while I am 'yum', A few weeks ago he said "I George" and pointed to himself and we had to call him George all day. He is so so funny. He's getting very silly, and knows what to do to make us laugh. He loves to play computer, Starfall.com, and the boys have taught him how to beat box. He loves to strip down to his disposable loin cloth and dance. I hope he overcomes that before 7th grade.

Our dog got a haircut and we did find there was a dog in there, our cat had kittens, we got two new hives of bees, 10 baby chickens that we've had in the kitchen, then the garage, then outside, and we still have our 60.000 redworms eating our kitchen cut offs. Other than that we've done the cookie thing, Arbor Day celebration, Miss Bluffdale workshop, the Republican caucus (I found a new way to clothe my children, we took the whole family and nearly everyone came home with 3 new t-shirts) the gardening merit badge, end of year testing, Tree Board meetings, still starting our business and starting our garden. Life is luney with all the things we want to do, the only problem is that they are all going on at the same time, and life is crazy with the joy of blessings, we are just trying to keep track of them. Annie and Joseph discovered a waterfall and a swimming hole behind Pembertons and Joseph was in it before I even knew about it.

We've had so many blessings, one huge one this week is that Jeff has been able to do some consulting. Western Petroleum is considering a purchase of the Flying J refinery, and he is in on a lot of the negotiotions at a fee of $400 per hour. I am so grateful.

Also, some incredibly beautiful generous person dropped off about $700 of food at our door. It was overwhelming. It took me hours just to sort it. I want to BE that person.

We are having a very cool experience in our family, after Elder Bednar gave his second wonderful family talk, he felt strongly that the little kids need to beef it up, and that we all need to write down questions to bring to family night from our scripture reading. We haven't processed the questions yet, but all of us are doing more intent scripture study, and we are trying for a time of reverence in the morning when we all read at the same time. We are trying to add that to devotional. It is pretty awesome.



I read the most amazing book, Yearning for the Living God by F. Enzio Busche. He told the story of German missionaries who tracted out a Korean man, and prayed for someone to be able to talk to him. A Korean member businessman was suddenly there, met Elder Busche, and had nothing to do on the day that Elder Busche woudl be going to the exact place this Korean investigator was. The Korean member had nothing to do because his company "accidentally" flew him to the wrong country, and he had three free days...... I love this book, I love this church.

I was able to attend women's conference, and one thing I absolutely loved was the story of a man who felt inspired to call his patriarch 20 years post blessing, and ask him what he had learned about God in 20 years of his calling. The patriarch responded that he has learned that God is positive! He has never once in 20 years laid hands on a head and said "It doesn't look good!" He always talks about love and glorious possibilities. Sounds like our Dad. The speaker said "Can you imagine what Heavenly Father could say to a teenager if he wanted to?"

Please tell me, what is the best way to get my 5 boys ready for missions?



I love you!

I rejoice in the Lord's love for us, and I am so grateful you are sharing the beautiful message of hope, personal and detailed love and care and salvation through Jesus Christ. I love this gospel and I love you SO MUCH!