A-S-P-I-R-E

To have a great ambition or ultimate goal; desire strongly: aspired to stardom.
2. To strive toward an end: aspiring to great knowledge.
3. To soar.

That is my word for 2012! I am going to soar to greater heights with my relationships with my friends, family, and my Father in Heaven and Savior. I am going to learn more about myself and the things that the Lord would have me do. I am aspiring to be His hands more and lift others and help them to soar :)

I have many ultimate goals for which I am aspiring this coming year! I want to show my gratitude each day for my blessings. I want to always be found in favor of my God. I want to always have His spirit with me and share it with others that they may feel His love for them. I want to see others as God sees them and love them as He loves them.

I want to accomplish a major goal that I still won't share on here...this one is most personal importance. I know that I can accomplish this goal with the Lords help.

I am aspiring to greater health for myself and my family. I am going to share this blessing with all that I can, that their families may also be blessed :)

One word

Last year, my word for the year that I decided to focus on was FORTIFY.... I focused my efforts in everything on fortifying myself, my family, my relationships....

The Lord has truly blessed our family this year... I believe that FORTIFY was the perfect word and so much has been fortified, just like a castle :) We have grown closer together as a family and enjoyed so many wonderful, strengthening times.

We have been so blessed to attend the temple regularly, even though, since July, we have been going to Twin Falls temple. The longer drive deffinately takes more determination and faith that everything will be alright. Before the Boise temple closed, we were promised that, if we made it a goal and a point to attend the temple each month, we would financially be able to attend. There have been some months where we prayed to know what to do. We set the date to go and relied on the Lord to make it possible for us. The Lord truly does hear and answer prayers and allows us to accomplish our righteous goals. By attending the temple, we've been able to fortify our relationship with our Father in Heaven, fortify our relationship with one another, and our family.

I am working on my word for next year.... This one will be just right for 2012

A very merry Christmas

What a sweet sweet Christmas this has been! We had sacrament meeting only for church today. The program was so sweet and simple, the spirit was there. We really enjoyed the service!

Before church today, I told the boys that all I want for Christmas is to have a quiet peaceful Christmas with no fighting and arguing :) YAY!!!! It has happened so far :) The boys have all had such good attitudes and have been so helpful :)

After church, we had the opening of the stockings and gifts :) Before Christmas, Kyler had brought home some gifts for everyone from school. As we were opening the gifts that Kyler had "bought" for everyone, he explained to us how he aquired these sweet gifts. Kyler had earned points during school and saved them up. On a particular friday, they had the "point store" where Kyler had the opportunity to spend his points. He told us that he spent his points on buying these gifts for us instead of buying something for himself! How sweet!!!!! It was so touching to hear Kyler's story of love and to see the boys open these gifts that Kyler had thought to get them. He really put a lot of thought into these gifts as well. He knew just what everyone would want. What a blessing Kyler is! He has truly had the Christmas spirit this year :)

The boys also got scarves from their Aunt Sonia :) Blue and gold Middleton vikings colors :) They totally love them :) Kyler has been wearing it since he opened it :)

This Christmas has been so peaceful and so precious! There has been so much love and goodness! I pray that it continues and that the boys have felt the spirit of this Christmas and will desire to have these same feelings throughout the rest of the year and next year :)

Wedding cake!!!

My newest creation!!!! This cake was made for a family friend's daughter :) I just love this family!!!! Joann Perza's sister Kathleen Frazier asked me to make her daughter's wedding cake :) I had so much fun with this one and enjoyed every minute of making and decorating it :)

All of these cake creations could not and would not be possible if it weren't for my Heavenly Father blessing me and my hands!!! I am so thankful for this talent. Everytime I make a wedding cake, I say a prayer and ask that Heavenly Father's love for the bride and groom shine through the cake. I am His hands, and it truly does take a touch of the Master's hands to create such wonderful, beautiful works of art.

Another blog

I decided that I want to blog about all of the things I'm learning and experiencing with doTERRA essential oils. I have added another blog :) The title of the blog is "Adventures in oil" the website for it is.... www.oilsbygina.blogspot.com I have so much in just one short week to share, I can't imagine how much more i will learn and have to share, so I want to make a special blog just for it :) Happy reading and learning :)

A blessing in the making

The other day I was invited by a friend to attend a class. I had been asking about some essential oils that may be able to help Brandon with his blood condition. She was in the area and doing a class on tuesday evening, therefore invited me to attend and learn more about these oils.

The class was wonderful! I learned a lot about these essential oils and the benefits and blessings of these particular oils. doTerra is the name of the company that manufactures these oils...they are harvested from their native origin (lemon in italy, lavendar in france). By harvesting in the native home, you receive the most pure oil that our bodies naturally know how to communicate with. Heavenly Father has blessed this earth with all that we need for our lives and health!

I signed up to try these oils and talked to a few of the ladies at the class. We decided that we needed to try a few different oils on Brandon to see how his body takes to them and how they help him. I bought grapefruit, zendocrine, and recieved a starter kit of lavendar, lemon and peppermint oils. Each of these oils does different things for our body's benefit and health.

Grapefruit helps with cancer, depression, liver disorders, migraines, stress, lymphatic system, and many other things.

Lemon helps with food poisoning, blood pressure, liver problems, arthritis, muscle aches and pains...it cleanses the air, disinfects, helps with colds, fever, infections, white blood cell formation, and many many more things.

Zendocrine helps with organ cleansing, healthy tissue function...this is a combination of clove, grapefruit, rosemary, and geranium

These three are the oils that I've been using for Brandon since tuesday when I got them. I use two drops of each on each foot and massage them onto his feet. I have also put 1-2 drops of lemon in a glass of water for him to drink.

So far, after massaging the oils onto Brandon's feet for 4 days, I have noticed that a rash that he had around his waist and arms is beginning to fade. The rash is almost gone from his waist, and is fading from his arms. His mood level is more positive and he seems to feel overall better :)

I want to document his progress and continue to do more documenting as I obtain more oils for my family and test them out. I am so grateful for the blessing of friends who are inspired and guided to help my family. I pray that I may be able to help others as these friends have done for me. If you are interested in checking out my website, I have made one and will post a link on the blog so you can check it out as often as you would like :)

I look forward to learning more about doTerra essential oils and how I can help my family and friends improve the quality of our lives!

My website is www.mydoterra.com/ginahallam