a fun picture

A friend of mine took this picture of me and my girls at church for an enrichment activity.

I thought it was cute.

Thanks Liz!

We are party animals....couldn't resist 1 more!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas party

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Some interesting facts

In light of all the media attention that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been recieving concerning the passing of the propositions, I thought it would be interesting to pass along some info I recieved. I have not done research to verify all these facts, they seems faily acurate, but if you feel so inclined to look into it further feel free, let me know what turns up.

Interesting thing to me is all the people ralley AFTER it has already been voted on.

Some facts about the Mormon influence on Prop 8

1. Mormons make up less than 2% of the population of California . There are approximately 800,000 Latter-Day Saints (LDS) out of a total population of approximately 34 million.

2. Mormon voters comprised less than 5% of the yes vote. If one estimates that 250,000 LDS are registered voters (the rest being children), then LDS voters made up 4.6% of the Yes vote and 2.4% of the total Proposition 8 vote.

3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated no money to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right to free speech, donated whatever they felt like donating.

4. The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in the country.

5. Advertising messages for the Yes on 8 campaign are based on case law and real-life situations. The No on 8 supporters have insisted that the Yes on 8 messaging is based on lies. Every Yes on 8 claim is supported.

6. The majority of our friends and neighbors voted Yes on 8. Los Angeles County voted in favor of Yes on 8. Ventura County voted in favor of Yes on 8.

7. African Americans overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70% of black voters chose Yes on 8. This was interesting because the majority of these voters voted for President-elect Obama. No on 8 supporters had assumed that Obama voters would vote No on 8.


8. The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8 and cited religious beliefs (assumed to be primarily Catholic).

9. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California . Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members.

10. Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for himself or herself. Church leaders have asked members to treat other members with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.

11. The Church did not violate the principal of separation of church and state. This principle is derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The phrase "separation of church and state", which does not appear in the Constitution itself, is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, although it has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court in recent years. The LDS Church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process, to the extent permitted by law. U.S. Election law is very clear that Churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The Church has always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it feels to be of a moral nature.

12. Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support, and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair, and civil way. Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars, and worse. The fact is we simply did what Americans do: we spoke up, we campaigned, and we voted.

One Man and one Woman

Florida, Arizona, California defining marriage

Joining 27 other states in calling for 1-man-1-woman limits

California

This is a great day for marriage. The people of California stood up for traditional marriage and reclaimed this great institution. We are gratified that voters chose to protect traditional marriage and to enshrine its importance in the state constitution.
won 51.9 %to 48.1%

Arizona
For the second time in two years, Arizonans was asked to change the state Constitution to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman

56%

PROP 102 PASSES

Florida

After a fierce battle waged on TV airwaves, Amendment 2 was poised to comfortably clear the 60 percent threshold to become law, according to unofficial election results with most precincts reporting late Tuesday night. It defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

With most precincts reporting, the proposal

won 62.1% of the vote, to 37.9 % opposed, according to state officials.

Just thought I would share the news.

My Sweet Hubby!

Derek and my Brother, Shane secretly planned a get away for Celeste and I.

They packed a picnic and got a babysitter without us even knowing and took us up the mountian on the 4wheelers to watch the sunset and have dinner and smores.

It was beautiful and peaceful up there.

My Mom and Dad came along too. We had a great time. It was a bit chilly when the sun went down. Luckly the boys had brought warm blankets to wrap up in. I think they thought of everything!

Shane got a 4 wheeler. It was his maiden voyage. I think he is hooked! ;)

The sunset was amazing and the city lights were breathtaking.

Thanks guys for the great Date night. We apprecaite the time and thought you guys put into it.

Thanks for thinking of me Derek. I love you!

Holloween Fun!

So we had a great Holloween this year. We had a party at
Celeste's house and the kids had a blast.

They got all dressed up in their costumes

The Decorated their pumpkins with stickers and glaitter and all kinds of fun stuff

I think they each used a whole sheet of stickers on their pumpkins.

They went out side and blew bubbles and ran around before lunch.

Pretty little princess'

They had a bunch of leaves outside!

Tried to get a picture of them all together.....not so much!

Awe, time for cookies! Yumm!

She went a little crazy with the pumpkin candies. Funny thing was that she

took them all off before she would eat the cookie.

I think MyLee

may have eaten more cookies than anyone.

Time to decorate the doors for Trick-or-treating. They got to color some spooky

Holloween pictures and tape them on the doors.

Here they are checking out their loot. They had a ton of fun.

These are the sugar babies. They went right for the candy.

They got to watch a Holloween Movie and play with their stuff before heading home.

What a great time. Thanks Celeste, for the party!

Some new ones of Kate

I took Kates pictures this week. She is such a cutie. Thought I would share a few of them.

Good Job Celeste on the cute tutu!

I loved this one. She kept making this face. So silly.

I just threw one on of Linken. I did his too and he is such a funny little guy. This one was my favorite of him. He is 18 months now. Breanne and Justin have their hands full!