It has been my dream to decorate and donate a tree to the festival of the trees. I have always wanted to do this because Christmas is my favorite time of the year; I feel so thankful to have 5 healthy children; I love people and I love to create.  I started this journey two years ago, buying and collecting ornaments and getting ideas for this project.
 I choose a 9" tree, as started decorating it, It was daunting to realize the  many ornaments a tree that tall requires. So we had to ask, ask and ask for donations to dress "that giant". It has been fun and very stressful. With several nights sleeping only 3 hours. Many, many, many trips to Tai Pan Trading; several miles driven collecting donations. But in the end I ended up with a beautiful tree, worth several thousand dollars and even a billboard advertising the festival in Utah County.
As I have been reflecting on my experience doing this project, I have asked myself, what was I learning from this? Many lessons I have gotten, first of all, do NOT start with a 9" tree for your first time:).I have reflected about my children, and back on the days my son Isaac was having seizures, and how hard that was for my family, there was a time I was riding in the ambulance with my sweet boy struggling to breathe, I wondered if I was ready to loose a child. Those were hard times, with no sleep, and much worries. How thankful I am that he is now doing well, how thankful I am to have my sweetheart support in all I do and how mercifully God has been with. I thought about the many mothers and fathers with their sick children. I felt so fortunate to be able to run, be stressed and ask for donations, put many hours into this tree, so that  those in need will receive a small aid in their time of need. I feel so privileged to do this for someone that needs it.
In my sight there is beauty when I see the power of people loving each other. I personally believe that in the world there are many needs, so that the hearts of many, perhaps all, maybe touched through compassion.
I want live my live in such a way that those around me will feel God's love. I want to be a carrier of his love.
As I look back on my childhood and Christmas time, I have good memories. I was born in very VERY humble home,; my parents did the best they could to love and educate us and I honor them for that. I remember decorating a humble Christmas trees made out of tree branches that we collected and painted in white. I remember wrapping many boxes in pretty paper and putting them under our tree, I thought they made the tree prettier!!!!  I wasn't until I was in my 20's that I realized that those empty boxes were part of a tradition of people receiving presents at Christmas time. That was a moment of discovery for me! But I am grateful that I didn't need to discover the power of love and the meaning of Christmas, because in that humbled home that I grew up, love was our force and respect to God was a priority. I honor my mother for teaching me to have faith. I honor my father for showing me the beauty of a loving father in the life a little girl. I honor my God for guiding my life to happiness.
Christmas time is a special time. A time to take the opportunity to reflect about life, to examine how my life is doing and how I am taking what life gives me. Now that I am a mother, I love to cultivate traditions that strengthen family bonds. When it comes to the part of getting presents, I am very conservative; I purposely want to keep empty "boxes under" my tree. Boxes that can only be filled with what money cannot buy. Life is what I want to make out it.
I would invite anyone that could read this, to remember that somewhere in the world, perhaps next door, there are people with "empty boxes" . I hope we remember the savior's example and give more and want less.

I want to thank all those that have donated time and resources to make this dream come true.

To God, He is the fuel of my life.

My husband, for supporting me in everything I do!

Iris Douglas, for decorating the tree with me! I appreciate her artistic eye and the many hours she spent away from her loved family; there were many days we worked until 1:00 am. I have met very few people like her. She is an example of the pure love of Christ!

My children, for making news paper balls, to be covered with burlap to put on the tree and for helping me collect pine cones that turned out to be awesome ornaments. I appreciate their understanding when I wasn't able to help them because I had to work on the tree to meet deadlines. My sweet Ben (7 years old) made dinner twice for his siblings, Jared (6 years old) was my little errand boy, with a "yes Mom, I will do that". Jelise (5 years old) happily tended the baby when I needed it. My little Isaac (3 years old) for keeping his little playful hands away from the tempting construction toys that were donated to put under the tree. Annalise (1 year old, for being my baby)

Jamie Evans, for funding this adventure; donating a billboard to advertise the Festival, purchasing 100 tickets and taking me to the opening night so that i could see how much our tree sold for. I admire his good heart.

Circle Graphics, for donating the vinyl to put on the billboard.

Kathy Racine, Keith and Marianne Evans, for providing the truck and trailer to transport the tree to the South Town Expo Center.

Jody Evans for interrupting his family time to bring the shrink-wrap to prepare the tree to be transported.

To my neighbors for helping load the "giant" tree into the trailer.

This has been truly a dream come true. Our tree sold very high, among the top 5%. AND ALL OF THAT IS FOR THOSE PRECIOUS CHILDREN.

As I sent my children to school today, I felt so grateful to have them, I sent them off with peace because of the hope that they will come back to me at the end of the day. I thought of their teachers, wonderful men and women that have chosen to give their best and even working away from their homes so that All our children could have the gift of aducation. I Express My Gratitude and Admiration to All the Teachres. ESTOY AGRADECIDA POR TODOS LOS MAESTROS Y MAESTRAS QUE DEDICAN SUS VIDAS PARA QUE TODOS TENGAMOS EDUCACION

Date with the girls. I find it a priority to develop a close relationship with each one of my children. Even if it is only 10 minutes, one-on-one moments every day. The value of a relationship is based, NO in the things we get them, BUT where is the TIME best invested. 0.59 cents ice cream gives a good ending.

DE CITA CON MIS MUNEQUITAS. PARA MI, EL PASAR TIEMPO CON MIS HIJOS, UNO POR UNO, ES UNA PRIORIDAD. UNA BUENA RELACION NO ESTA BASADA EN LAS COSAS QUE LE DAMOS A LOS HIJOS, SINO EN DONDE INVERTIMOS MEJOR NUESTRO TIEMPO

My very feminine daughter. Can't forget to put on lipstick before going to school. I mentioned to her that her necklace was a bit too long to go to school with, and she gave a firm explanation " in my school there is a not touching rule, so no one will pull on my necklace".... I better get ready for teenage years. I love her!

Mi hija, muy femenina. Antes muerta que sencilla, no se puede ir a la escuela sin brilla labios. Yo le dije que su collar estaba un poco largo y que seria no buena idea llevarlo a la escuela, ella me me dijo " en mi escuela hay una regla de no tocar a otros niños y por eso nadie va a halar mi collar".... Podre de sus padres cuando llegue la adolescencia, YO LA ADORO!

 — withEsterlin Martinez.

Jelise began reading when she was about 4 1/2 years old. O love to teach my children everything that is good knowledge. We came up with this easy idea that has helped her a lot. When she was given her start kindergarten assessment her teacher said she was the first student thus far to brake up the words by letters and then read them.  

      I made the alphabet in flash cards. Then took a binder and inserted a paper with the spaces for het to assemble the words and bellow, has the lines to write the words she forms. I use tree letters words of about  9 different letters. I dictate the word and the child forms the word and practice writing.

Annalise is growing so fast, she is 9 months now. She said her first words about 6 weeks ago. BA BA Ba. and she began crawling about the same time, 

We found this good recipe on how to make clay in YouTube. So we made clay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx0YufAcjcU

Note, if you double the recipe, it will take more time in the microwave to dry

Cleaning our Lot!

About 6 months ago Jesse and I decided to purchase a piece of land where one day we will build a home. Our little farm

I feel it is so important to teach our children the value of work. Our children ages are 7, 6, 5, 3 and 10 months. We start giving them readabilities to do chores as early as one year of age.

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)

lucky I'm in love with my best friend, Jesse D. Busker

Jesse is my sweet love, he is kind and a true gentleman.  I love the way he cares and disciplines our children. He is selfless, he does anything he can to make me happy. I love him and  I always want to tace care of him.

Reading corner. The kids love to seat in their little reading corner and snugle in a blanket and read or be read to.

I think childhood is a magical time is a person's life and reading is essential to oping the door to knowledge and discovery, as often I find a special place in the house where I put decorations and books, with personalized reading pillows, etc. Just a cozy place to snuggle with a book, ..Hey! I want to be there too!

The Reading Corner

  I find that if I keep changing the decorations and the books to go with the season, it adds more interest and keep the magic in the children glowing. I ask the children to help me make the decorations. As you can see several hearts hanging from the ceiling. Each heart has writings in them. That particular months was February.. Valentines!!!!!, as the month began,  we counseled as a family to work on being more kind to each other. Topically, during the months of winter, my children get a little more restless because they can't go outside to play as much. So they become less tolerant of each other. We work on doing, speaking, secretly serving with acts of love, we write down in those hearts those good deeds. At the end of the month, because of the good work the kids and parents have done, I throw a Valentines Party, where the children can invite their friends and CELEBRATE VALENTINE'S.