Must be Santa

The kiddos visited Santa today!  Now they're all tucked in their slumber party dreaming of him visiting them!

Christmas Letter 2019

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!

We can't believe 2019 is quickly coming to an end. Is it just us, or is time speeding up these days? We wanted to share a few highlights from our year with you.

Leonard got to travel to Austria in the spring and Poland in the fall for his work with the OSCE. He keeps checking countries off his bucket list, and the rest of us keep wanting to catch up with him.

Jennifer's dream of moving into a new home came true in October. She still wants to live on every continent, but she also never wants to move again.

Kaleb auditioned for his high school production, and landed a part in Disaster! a musical comedy filled with earthquakes, tidal waves, infernos, and the songs of the '70s.

Noé made her high school cheer team again and is excited to participate in competitions in their new uniforms.

Gavin is our first to go to middle school and he's started playing the electric bass guitar in his band class.

Teague was thrilled this year when his tenth birthday fell on his favorite holiday, Easter- the first time since 1957.

Hiram turned eight and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also received his first set of scriptures and is enjoying reading the New Testament with his family.

Ali is in senior kindergarten and is becoming quite the little artist. She is always drawing or coloring her darling creations.

Macy is getting stronger and can now sit completely on her own and claps her hands with pride. She is also a champ at army crawling. And- she loves to bounce, we swear she has a spring in her bum!

One of our favorite highlights every year is receiving your Christmas cards, letters, and photos. Thank you for remembering us! If we're not on your Christmas card list, please add us- we'd love to hear from you!

We hope you will receive all the love and beauty this magnificent time of year has to offer as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We also hope you have much health and happiness in 2020!

All our love,

Leonard, Jennifer, Kaleb, Noé, Gavin, Teague, Hiram, Ali, and Macy Reil

The Christ Child

A beautiful new telling of the story that's 2019 years old.  Watch it HERE.

Come Worship With Us!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is inviting the whole world to come to church with us today!  Click HERE to find a chapel near you!

Christmas Card Lane

This year after we decorated our Christmas tree (the Saturday after American Thanksgiving), Kaleb said, "That might have been the last time Noé and I help decorate the Christmas tree."  That simple statement broke my heart.  Even though they are both hoping to go away for university next fall, of course they will come home for Christmas (and for every year after for as long as they want!), so his statement caught me completely off guard.  But, he's probably right.  As much as I want them to be here next year when we decorate our tree again, it is our tradition to do it early in the season to enjoy it for as long as possible, and I don't think their break from school will be that long  :).  

I wanted to take a walk down Memory Lane, or Christmas Card Lane, if you will, to remember our Christmases with Kaleb and Noé.  I think I will do this post again as each little birdie is getting ready to leave the nest.  And even though I want them to soar, man it's going to be hard to watch them fly off and leave me behind.  Luckily, they will always be my babies and our home will always be their home!  ALWAYS!!

I hope we will have a family reunion every year complete with a family photo as children-in-law, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren... join our crew.  And I hope I send out our recent photo every year with our Christmas card!

Too Busy

At the beginning of each month I think, "today I'll start blogging again and just do one post a day until I'm caught up."  Yeah, that hasn't happened since April.  Life is too busy and it drives me crazy!  I want to give my all to my family and home, but it seems the only thing I can keep up with on a weekly basis is the laundry.  Here's to hoping I can give my all to my husband, to each and every one of our seven precious children, get my home unpacked, carve out time for my extended family and friends, and hopefully find some me time (I haven't shaved my legs since we moved into our new house, that's 44 days, gross!).

Power

"The godly power available to all who 
love and follow Jesus Christ is the 
power to heal us, strengthen us, cleanse
 us from sin, and magnify us to do 
things we could never do on our own.
 Our Savior is the Divine Exemplar
 who marked the path that we are to 
follow." 

~President Russell M. Nelson

Dealing with Uncertainty and Doubt

Good morning brothers and sisters. I'm grateful to be with you today and to share some thoughts from my heart. My patriarchal blessing tells me I have been given the gift of faith. I know this to be true. My mother tells me that when I was a little girl, before I started school, that I would ask her to take me to church. I can't remember a time that I did not believe in Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ. The gift of faith is a gift I cherish, but that doesn't mean my faith hasn't been sorely tested and tried. There have been a couple times in my life when my doubts and uncertainties were so strong, that I seriously considered walking away from the Church. Today I'd like to share some ideas on how we can deal with our doubts and uncertainties.

First, I'd like us to remember that the veil has been placed over our eyes. I remember a testimony shared in this ward years back. The brother said he didn't know that this church was true, but he had faith that it was. I have often pondered on that. I can't say that I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live, because in mortality, I have not seen Heavenly Father, I have not spoken with Jesus Christ, I have not been embraced by them. However, I believe the testimonies of those who say that they have seen God the Father, they have spoken with Jesus Christ, they have felt the wounds in our Savior's hands and knelt at His feet. And so I walk by faith believing that there is a God in Heaven that knows us and loves us. I have faith that Jesus Christ lives and is the Savior of the world who atoned for each and every one of us. I have faith that He knows me personally and loves me and can help me become the woman He knows I can be.

In my circle of loved ones, I know some people who have never experienced doubts or uncertainties, and I think they are very blessed. I have other dear family members and close friends whose doubts and uncertainties caused them to walk away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, taking a piece of my heart with them. I also know many people who do struggle with doubts and uncertainties about some of our church's doctrine or things that happened in our church's history. They may have doubts feeling the spirit, doubts that God really loves us when there is so much suffering in this world, or doubts that they are good enough to ever receive Celestial glory. Yet, they still do their best to come to church each week, keep the commandments, and live the gospel as best as they can. To those of you with doubts and uncertainties I say, you are not alone and you are in good company.

Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun from Macedonia who lived most of her life in Calcutta, India loving, serving, and blessing the lives of those who were unwanted by society and deemed untouchable. I've recently heard of a book entitled, “Come Be My Light” that is a compilation of letters she wrote over the span of 66 years that entail the sadness, loneliness, emptiness, and darkness that she felt as she tried so hard to feel God's spirit with her, but didn't. This makes me love her even more! She struggled to feel God's love for her, yet that didn't stop her from loving and serving others. She was a remarkable woman who also said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” So I'd like to say that loving others is a great way to help us deal with doubts and uncertainties.

I'm so grateful to have a prophet on the earth. Last year, when President Nelson spoke to us in Montreal about the 10 most important things he knows to be true, one of them really jumped out at me. He told us that, “Satan is allowed to flourish.” This touched my heart that is often overcome with worry and downright fear. I know many of my doubts come from fear. He asked, “Why would God allow this- allow Satan to tempt us, to torment us, to make us miserable?” He then answered, “God honors the principle of agency. He wants us to choose to follow him. Everyday we have to choose. Will we follow the Lord's way to eternal life or Satan's way to death and decay?” This reminds me of the scripture in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” We can deal with doubts and uncertainties by choosing to follow the Lord's way.

I'm also grateful for President Nelson's recent Conference talk, “We Can Do Better and Be Better.” He shares how repentance blesses us and how I believe it can help us with our doubts and uncertainties. He taught, “Nothing is more liberating, more ennobling, or more crucial to our individual progression than is a regular, daily focus on repentance. Repentance is not an event; it is a process. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind. When coupled with faith, repentance opens our access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” He also taught, “When we choose to repent, we choose to change! We allow the Savior to transform us into the best version of ourselves. We choose to grow spiritually and receive joy—the joy of redemption in Him. When we choose to repent, we choose to become more like Jesus Christ!”

Praying and receiving answers to our prayers is another way to deal with doubts and uncertainties. However, sometimes this can be the cause of our doubts or uncertainties. I know sometimes I wonder if the ideas I have are inspiration from the Spirit, temptation from the adversary, or just my own hopes or fears. This past year I've been keeping a gratitude journal and I've written down some of my favorite scriptures about prayer that I'd like to share with you now.

The first is Proverbs 3:5-6, which reads, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

The next in Matthew 21:22 says, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

A similar scripture is Mark 11:24 that says, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

Another similar one in John 14:13-14 tells us, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”

Christ says again in John 15:7-8, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

I love watching General Conference and studying the talks afterwards. There are two more addresses from last April I'd like to share from: “Answers to Prayer” by Elder Brook P. Hales and “Hearing His Voice” by Elder David P. Homer.

Elder Hales said, “The Father is aware of us, knows our needs, and will help us perfectly. Sometimes that help is given in the very moment or at least soon after we ask for divine help. Sometimes our most earnest and worthy desires are not answered in the way we hope, but we find that God has greater blessings in store. And sometimes our righteous desires are not granted in this life.”

Elder Hales shared three stories and one was about Pat, a woman who became completely blind at age 11. When Pat's nephew asked her to pray for new eyes, she responded, “Well, sometimes Heavenly Father doesn’t work like that. Sometimes He needs you to learn something, and so He doesn’t give you everything you want. Sometimes you have to wait. Heavenly Father and the Savior know best what is good for us and what we need. So They aren’t going to grant you everything you want in the moment you want it.”

Elder Homer's talk focused on hearing Heavenly Father's voice in a world with so many competing voices. He taught, “He makes it possible for us to hear His voice...through impressions given by the Holy Ghost...The Spirit speaks to different people in different ways, and He may speak to the same person in different ways at different times. As a result, learning the many ways He speaks to us is a lifelong quest. Sometimes, He speaks to our “mind and in [our] heart” in a voice that is small yet powerful, piercing “them that … hear to the center.” Other times His impressions “occupy [our] mind[s]” or “press … upon [our] feelings.” Other times our bosom will “burn within [us].” Still other times He fills our souls with joy, enlightens our minds, or speaks peace to our troubled hearts...We will find our Father’s voice in many places. We will find it when we pray, study the scriptures, attend church, engage in faithful discussions, or go to the temple...we will find it in (General) conference...”

After sharing the many ways we can hear Heavenly Father's voice, Elder Homer then shared that sometimes answers are slow to come, He said, “This can be because it is not the right time, because an answer is not needed, or because God trusts us to make the decision ourselves.” He quoted Elder Richard G. Scott “that we should be grateful for such times and made this promise: 'When you are living worthily and your choice is consistent with the Savior’s teachings and you need to act, proceed with trust. … God will not let you proceed too far without a warning impression if you have made the wrong decision.' ”

We can deal with our doubts and uncertainties by praying about them and listening to hear Heavenly Father's voice.

Another way to deal with our doubts and uncertainties is to keep the commandments joyfully and to have gratitude for our many blessings. Please listen to the power and promises in these scriptures:

Mosiah 2:41 says, “And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.”

Doctrine and Covenants 123:17, “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”

2 Nephi 31:20, “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”

I'd like to share one last scripture from John 6:66-69, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” Ultimately, we can deal with our doubts and uncertainties by focusing entirely on Jesus Christ and by choosing to walk with Him.

I say these things in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Summer highlights

No, I'm not blonde again (although I would like to be :).  I shared our top 10 summer adventures on Facebook and thought I'd do a little post here.  I still have all of spring to post about, but wanted to share some favorite memories from summer as the shortest season in Ottawa draws to a close.

1. Family camp at Lac Philippe (except for Macy's seizure, that was bad!)
2. Leonard, Kaleb, and Gavin attending Young Men's camp
3. Going to the Hill Cumorah Pageant with the Wilde's and seeing friends from Mumbai there
4. Noé attending Young Women's camp
5. Heading to Indiana to visit family (and saw Sara in Ohio and visited the Columbus Temple)
6. Kaleb and Noé attending Pioneer Trek
7. Kaleb heading to Toronto to go with friends to Canada's Wonderland
8. Noé heading to Montreal to go with friends to the Shawn Mendes and Alessia Cara concert
9. Our whole family going to Calypso (Kaleb and Noé also bought themselves season passes and Len and I also got a date there by ourselves)
10. Back-to-School shopping in upstate New York- we love Target!

This list didn't include the many adventures we had at home, so I thought I'd share them too:

The little kids playing with the sprinkler and water table in the backyard daily and eating popsicles; Kaleb and Noé having their wisdom teeth removed; watching Stranger Things 3 and eating USS Butterscotch ice cream at Baskin Robbins; saving up 6 months' of Little Passports so we could travel the world together, but let each child have their own project to make; the big kids getting their first jobs in the food service industry; the little kids having slumber parties in the basement every night and watching too much TV; the little kids painting the leftover magic wands from Gavin's "Harry Potter" birthday party (and painting the deck and back fence too, yikes!); Teague helping cook dinner and actually eating a bite of the spicy taco meat he helped cook (this is a huge step for my picky eater!); Hiram accidentally kicking Teague and chipping his front tooth; Hiram losing a tooth and then losing it (luckily his sister found it a couple of days later and the tooth fairy came for a visit); Ali getting her ears pierced; Macy slicing her heel open and having to get stitches which then got infected so we took another trip to the ER for the stitches to be removed and to receive 2 antibiotics (it's almost healed now); visiting a fertility doctor and meeting with an adoption practitioner (we have such a strong desire in our hearts to have one more little girl join our family, we are praying for one last miracle for our family); Leonard and I going on early morning walks; celebrating my 44th birthday; Kaleb and Noé getting gym memberships; selling our house and lots of our furniture; getting ready to move to our new house and buying some new furniture; starting the fight against the zone amendment to build 1,320 apartments on a 5 acre lot at the end of our little side street that connects to the main thoroughfare in our new neighborhood; watching my favorite Hayley Mills Disney movies (hopefully we can watch Summer Magic today!); and touring the kids' new schools so they're all feeling a little better to start at new schools yet again tomorrow.

Phew, just reading this list exhausts me!  No wonder I'm so tired (that and my stress-induced chronic sleep maintenance insomnia!).

September won't be any easier as we adjust to new schools and routines and getting up early for seminary; Len applies for a promotion with Foreign Affairs; having a garage sale; I'm speaking in church; Leonard's going to Poland for 2 weeks and during that time Macy's having eye surgery and possibly ear surgery and Hiram's having dental surgery; we get the keys to our house and have a carefully orchestrated dance that first week to get the painter in, appliances delivered, appliances installed, have our bedroom furniture moved over, and get our old house cleaned for it's new owners.

I think I might sleep for the first half of October, then it's on to Hiram's 8th birthday and baptism, Halloween, American Thanksgiving (which we haven't celebrated properly since 2015- so by golly we ARE celebrating it properly this year!), Gavin's 13th birthday, then it's our beloved Christmas and New Year's time.

There's NEVER  a dull moment around here, I just hope I can keep up!!

You are Loved!

I needed to hear this this week (and always).

(from the 320 Sycamore blog :)

URGENT! Dear Ottawa friends, we need your HELP by August 13, 2019!!

Our new neighborhood will hold 430 houses, and the end of its main street is zoned for 4-story apartment buildings. We knew this when we bought our new home and thought it would be great (hoping one day Macy might live in one of those apartments). There is now a proposal for a zone variance to turn those 4-story apartment buildings into 9, 12, and 16 story apartment buildings, creating a total of 1,320 apartments! That will make a total of 1,750 residences accessing their homes on one small street (De Lemarche Ave.) off of Innes. De Lemarche is not a through street and is located between Pagé Rd. and the U-Haul storage building. Most families have more than one car, so there could be at least 3,500 cars every morning and night trying to access Innes Rd. via this street. This will cause even more traffic congestion on Innes Rd. for everyone! And it will begin the urbanization of Orleans. If you live in Orleans, and/or drive on Innes Rd, please oppose this zoning amendment!

Please contact:
Michael Boughton (michael.boughton@ottawa.ca) 613-580-2424-27588;
Evode Rwagasore (evode.rwagasore@ottawa.ca) 613-580-2424-16483;
Laura Dudas (laura.dudas@ottawa.ca) 613-580-2472;
Stephen Blais (stephen.blais@ottawa.ca) 613-580-2489;
Mayor Jim Watson (jim.watson@ottawa.ca) 613-580-2496.

Please tell them you support the current zoning of the 2019 concept plan, and you oppose the zoning by-law amendment at 3484 & 3490 Innes Rd. File No. D02-02-19-0060.

Please sign the petition found HERE too!

Thank you dear friends!!

The listing is up! SOLD!!

Wowie, it's amazing what a little rental furniture, hiring a stager, and professional photos can do!  If I had 4 children I would buy this house!  Oh wait, that's what I did when I had 4 children.  Now I have 7 children, and it's time to leave our old friend and move on.  If you know anyone looking to buy a home, please send them our way!