I have been feeling very strongly lately that  I should keep a blog. I keep journals is writing and recording, but there is something to say bout telling a story and adding pictures.

I love to document the things my children do as they grow, so I am constantly taking pictures and short videos of the things they do, such as, events we go, and as they learn something new.

We have a family tradition since, our son first Ben was one year old. Every Christmas morning, after we open our few presents we watch The Busker Movie, it is a home made movie, usually an hour long, of all the highlights of our family from that year, the movie contains pictures with background music and the videos that we find special to remember.

As we watch our humble video, we are reminded of the greatest gift of all, LIFE, the life that Jesus bought for us,with His atoning sacrifice. We remember that the most important about Christmas are NOT the presents, BUT our lives, our lives as a family.

Jesse and I feel that we want to keep the meaning of Christmas based on feelings, instead of things. Because of that we limit the gifts we give the children to three per child, and  that includes the famous pair of PJ's given the night before Christmas. We try to do service to others and base our memories in making some one happy.

A while ago, an older couple shared in church , an idea that become part of our family pursuits. They called it  The Family Liahona, we call ours The Busker Family Liahona. It consists of a monthly family planner. The items are as follows.



Date

Parents Temple Visits ( when our children turn 12, we want to include a date to take them to the temple with us to do vicarious work)

Prayer Circle (we think of the people that are in need of a special blessing and we pray for them as a family)

Service and Missionary Work ( we discus ways to serve people out side and inside of our family, we seek for missionaries opportunity through service, we pick one or two activities and do our best to carry them through that month)

Family Recreational Activity ( we discus one or two activities to do as a family. besides FHE, usually includes  going to a museum, sledding, pool, hiking, skate park, etc)

Parents Date Night ( I have to admit that  Jesse and I are not very good at this one, maybe because, since we got married, there has been a new born in our home and I don't feel comfortable leaving my infant baby with a sitter, but the good thing is that just as one of our family goals says " HAPPY, SIMPLY BEING TOGETHER", just by being with each other, after we put the kids to bed and spending that quiet time every night and listening to each other's ideas, problems or dreams, we feel that we are connected with each other, I love that time when I have my sweet heart only for myself. i know that as the children grow we will be able to do more dates outside, I feel there is a time and a season for everything, and I perfectly OK with the way we are handling this stage of our family life)