My name is Carly, and I'm a Christian

I realize that this isn't my typical, "hey look, my kids are cute and I love them" kind of post, but I just feel a need to shout this at the top of my lungs right now.

Living in the south, I've never been so frustrated about what others have to say about this subject (whether or not I'm a Christian) than the last 6 years! I remember the first time I was ever introduced to the idea that other people claimed the right to say who is and who is not a Christian.  I remember it was like somebody stabbed me in the gut to suggest that because I am a Mormon I'm not a Christian.  How could anybody think I'm not Christian?  It makes me so sad to think that even one person might not know that I know and love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and that he lives.  And that I know that he atoned for my sins, and that following him is the reason for all of my happiness.  I recently read an article that I love which addresses this topic, by Daniel C. Peterson. This is the last few paragraphs from it and it is exactly what I've been feeling and trying to figure out how to say (especially the last line): 

"Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints easily meet the definition of a Christian as implicitly defined in the New Testament: they believe that ancient prophets foretold Christ's coming, that Jesus Christ suffered for our transgressions, that he was put to death but rose from the dead, that through him we may obtain forgiveness of our sins, and that he will come again in glory.

"The doctrinal reasons some Christians give for excluding the Latter-day Saints from Christianity make little sense, because many of the doctrines used by traditional Christianity are late developments, reflective of creeds formulated in the fourth and fifth century or developed during the Reformation.

"Given the wide variety of beliefs among the various Christian churches, it is better to take persons claiming to be Christians at their word and to let the Lord be the judge."

(Emphasis added)  The link below leads to the full article, which addresses some of these reasons that some Christians use to try to exlude me from Christianity. (Yes, me.  I take it quite personally.)
 http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/transcripts/?id=93

Smiles:)

Um...my baby smiles.  And it's cute.  Based on the last post you wouldn't know it, because it's hard to get a picture of since the camera distracts him.  But he does do it...

See?  I told you.  Cute.  

(Also a cute nephew.)  That's all I really had to say.  Thanks for listening.

Jaxon's Blessing

So....I wrote this 3 weeks ago, seriously like 20 minutes after my family left.  Then I thought to myself, "I'll have to wait until I put my pictures on the computer to put it up."  And here we are 3 weeks later.  Oops.  Here it is:

Well my family that was here just left us (tear)  We had a really fun and completely exhausting week with them.  So we were very very sad to see them go, and then had a giant nap.

We were outside all week, most days in 107 degree weather, so we were wasted.  The first day we went to Dallas to meet them, and went swimming outside in our hotel.  Then the next day we went and spent the entire day at Six Flags (best roller coasters ever by the way).  It was a good day for it, there were almost no lines, because it was a weekday and probably because it was ridiculously hot and everybody else had the good sense to stay home.  But you don't come from Canada to go to Six Flags and then let a little heat get you down (107 is about 41 degrees Celsius, for all of my Canadians out there.)

TJ didn't want to leave that bunny.

Isn't my mom super cute?

Then on Friday we went to Splash Kingdom in Canton, Texas, and it again was crazy hot.  I know for sure at least Lily and her cousin Champ had a lot of fun there.  TJ had fun for a little while, but he was in desperate need of a nap, so he was pretty grumpy.  Jaxon had his first swim (for the 15 minutes that we dared take him out from under a giant umbrella.)  I think he enjoyed it. 

At Chuck E. Cheese's that night.

We had planned to go to Natchidoches on Saturday but we were all totally wasted, so we just relaxed in the hotel in the morning, went shopping a bit in the afternoon, and headed home.  On Sunday we blessed Jaxon, which was awesome, and it was so nice to have his Uncle Ryan be able to join in the circle for the blessing.  Jaxon looked so handsome in his little blessing clothes.  We had a nice family dinner that afternoon.

Blessing Morning (July 17) TJ. and Jaxon had matching suits.

Auntie Lanni

Grandma and Grandpa D.

We said, "Smile Mike".  Awesome.

Uncle Ryan

Nana & Papa

Then on Monday we went to Natchidoches to the Alligator Park, and to a plantation, which were kind of cool to see.

I was a little worried that it would be a hard week with Jaxon, but he did really well.  He was very patient at Six Flags as we tried to keep him in his hat, and always under something to keep the sun off of him.  We were so blessed to have things go as smoothly as they did, and it was so nice to have family here for his blessing!  This was definetely the highlight of our summer!