Weeping may endure for a night...

...but joy cometh in the morning (Psalms 30:5).

I've been reminded recently that everything happens for a purpose, and sometimes hard times come in preparation for blessings that are to follow. And the blessings are worth all the challenges. I'm grateful that after sadness comes joy. I know God loves and remembers all of His children. He does have happy times in store, and He will help us through the sad times if we keep our faith and trust in Him.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In the spirit of Thanksgiving...click here for a sweet message about gratitude.

Love,
Us

An Evening with Joshua--for real this time :-)

John took Adam with him to a bike repair class in Tempe, Janie fell asleep early, and I got Joshua all to myself (or vice-versa) for the first time in a while. It was good.

Isn't he a cutie? I sure love him!

Thought for the Day

President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008):
“Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones. … Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones. Welcome them into your homes, and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in the years that come, some things you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried” (Ensign, October 2009, 69).

It helps me so much as a mother to know that God knows my children better than I do, and He can teach me who they are, what they need, and how to help them. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has said, "God will send aid to no one more readily than He will send it to a child—and to the parent of a child." (For the rest of that wonderful talk about children, go here.) I know that God hears and answers the prayers of parents for their children. I am so grateful for that.

More Janie

Janie's Grandpa Strickland was kind enough to come over and take some more pictures of Janie in her blessing dress. Here are a couple of my favorites. What a pretty girl!

Janie's Blessing Day

John blessed Janie in his Grandma and Grandpa Hiatts' home last Sunday, September 13. (We took the opportunity to bless her while Tyler and Sam were still in town after their reception.) It was a beautiful blessing. She is a special little girl and we are so grateful to have her in our family forever. We love her.

Janie's Grandma Brooksby made her beautiful blessing dress, and photos of the special day were taken by her Grandpa Strickland. Thanks so much, both of you!

Janie's announcement

The picture was taken by my dear friend Cosette (who also happens to be a photographer with Still Life Studios). We love it!

Good Car For Sale - SOLD!

Introducing Clarence, our trusty 2004 Chevy Malibu Classic. This reliable car has been a blessing to us for nearly five years, and now that we have outgrown him, we feel it is time to pass the blessing on to someone else. We're only listing it on our blog right now, so our friends and family have a chance at it first.

Details:
2.2 L 4-cyl engine, automatic transmission, cold a/c, fully automatic headlights, power windows and door locks, remote entry, AM/FM radio, CD player, new battery.

We bought this car with about 23,000 miles on it, and it now has almost 76,500 miles and gets (we've calculated) roughly 24 mpg city and closer to 29-30 mpg highway.

John has taken great care of this car, and changed the oil every 3,000 miles/3 months, rotated the tires, etc. The last oil change was just a couple of weeks ago. He has also cleaned it very thoroughly and it is so clean, we don't think you'd be able to find a cleaner used car anywhere. It shines!

Happy Day!

My (Anna's) favorite big brother, Tyler, got married this morning to his sweetheart, the lovely Samantha Wilcox, in the Orlando Florida Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We are so happy for them! For more information and lots of cute pictures, go here:

http://stricklandclan.com/

We love you, Tyler and Sam! We hope you have a perfect day. We are sad we couldn't come, but we are there in spirit, and we are so excited to see you next week. May God be with you as you begin your eternal family.

Sweet Janie Rose

Our sweet baby Janie is one month old today! She has grown quite a bit, and has started having more awake time and watching the world around her with wide eyes. And she has slept in her crib for two nights now! She still wakes up to eat, but she doesn't wake up every time we lay her down, which is an improvement. Her hair is still light brown, but the roots are coming in blond, like her brothers'. And so far her eyes are blue. She has a beautiful smile and she's just learning to use it on purpose, though she hasn't done it very much yet. We are looking forward to getting to know her better and all the fun times ahead. And we love her very much already.

These are some of my favorite pictures of her so far. You can see how much her brothers adore her. They are such sweet big brothers, and she is blessed to have them. I know they'll be a blessing to her throughout her life, as she will be to them. Isn't family the greatest? I love it.

This was her brothers' doing. Aren't they sweet? They love to take care of her...

...and look at her...

...and look at her some more, and hold her hand.

We love you baby Janie!

It's a Girl!

We knew that, but we're still so excited to welcome precious little Janie Rose Brooksby to our home and to our hearts. She was born on Saturday, 25 July 2009, at 5:42 pm. She was 6 lbs 6 oz. and 20 inches long. She's beautiful! We even have pictures to prove it.

Anna and Janie are both doing fine. Anna's happy to be home, and as far as we can tell, Janie is too. She hasn't complained about it yet.

Joshua's Birthday

Our little Joshua is now officially two years old! He's been acting like a two-year-old (in a good way) for so long, it's nice to have his age finally catch up with him. We went to Organ Stop Pizza (at Southern and Stapley in Mesa) for a fun birthday dinner on Saturday, then had Grandma and Grandpa Strickland over for cake and ice cream on Sunday. Joshua missed his nap on Sunday and was so tired he fell asleep before my parents got here, and slept through most of their visit! But he still had a good birthday.

At Organ Stop:

This was so fun for the boys. They thought the organ was so cool, and clapped with everyone else after all the songs. You'll notice we don't have any good pictures of Joshua looking at us...that's because he wouldn't look away from the organ long enough to get his picture taken. He loved it. And the pizza was good, too, of course.

On Sunday:

Adam blew out the candles for Joshua first. (Joshua was asleep, he couldn't exactly do it.) We all had our cake and then visited for a while, and then when Joshua woke up we sang to him (again) and put candles in his little piece of cake for him to blow out. It took him a few tries, because well-meaning family members kept trying to show him how to do it and accidently blowing out the candles, but eventually he got it.

We are so glad to have this sweet boy in our family! We love him more than we can say, and he brings such happiness into our home. Happy Birthday, Joshua! We love you!

Irrigation!

We got irrigation on Saturday, and the boys (all three of them) had a good ol' time playing in it. I was camerawoman. In this video, John was throwing baby oranges (that had fallen off the tree) up in the air and the boys thought it was so cool! We especially love Adam's laugh there. What a fun boy. Here are some more pictures:

That picture of Joshua is my favorite. What a cutie!

FYI- Adam's not chasing Joshua with that stick, he's running next to him. I think they're probably chasing John.

Good times, good times!

Finally!

Anna wanted to wait until I had a job so she could report all the good news at the same time. So, I'll start back on Monday where I was working before we went to Idaho. The difference now is that it'll feel more temporary, even if I stay longer than I did before. I have my degree and I'll eventually be able to leave. For now though, it's an income, with benefits, which is better than waiting until I find something better.

We need to appologize to all our Idaho friends that may have wondered if we even made it safely to AZ. We're here and we're happy and healthy. Anna and I are currently serving as Sunbeam Teachers in our ward. We loving being Adam's teachers. We got to be Joshua's teachers in Rexburg and we loved that too.

Anna also has good news for those who didn't already know. We will be welcoming our third child to our lives and hearts this coming July/August! We're so excited for our family to grow more. We don't know yet whether the child is a boy or girl, but perhaps we'll find out soon.

I wish I could think of more news, but it's late and I can't think strait right now. Maybe Anna will post something if she thinks of anything else.