Our New Addition

She's here! So labor started about 6:30 Sun morning we got to the hospital with me dialated to a 7 and she was born at 12:53pm. She weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 20 in. long. She is absolutely perfect! She really likes to be made into a tight burrito and to be held. We get to go home this afternoon just after our steak and lobster lunch they feed us at the hospital. All are well, just a little tired. Oh yeah, her name, after much debating her name is Violet Dixie Land.

General Conference/Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Colin, Micheal and Lucy!

This General Conference Sunday and Duane and Jill's house.

Come for the Afternoon session of conference. with food to follow!

December Birthdays!

The December Birthday Party is Here!
Here are the Birthday People:
Nora
Duane
Dawnie
Luke
and one November Birthday for Ella (she is ONE YEAR OLD!)
This Sunday, at Darla's house, call her for details.

Happy 50th Mom and Dad!

We love you Mom and Dad! Thank you for giving us such a great reason to party!

It felt strange not to post something on this blog as well as my own. I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone. I think everything came off really well, and the end product was definitely worth it. Even with a sick Isaac, some picture mishaps, and a temporarily misplaced child, among other things, everything turned out just beautifully. What a great team we all make.

Pumpkin Time

For those who don't know:

We are visiting the Pumpkin Patch on Thursday at 2pm. We are carving pumpkins at Don and Donna's sometime after 6pm. Hope everyone can make it!

Letter from Darla

I hope that Darla doesn't mind me posting this letter, I thought that it was very well articulated. And I think we can all agree with what she says. Thank you Darla!

Dear Family and friends,
Tim and I have been working hard on the Yes on proposition 8 campaign along with thousands of other individuals, families, and churches in California. Whether you live in California or not, this proposition will affect you. Recent events have fueled my fire, and I wanted to share my opinion with all of you. I know that some of you may not agree, but I would feel like I was letting my cause down if I did not open my mouth. Election day is rapidly approaching and we need as much support (financial and/or otherwise) as we can get.
For those of you that are not familiar with Prop 8, it will add an amendment to our state constitution that says "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California". This may sound familiar to many of you. It should. Back in 2000 California voters approved these 14 words. But now, because 4 activist judges in San Fransisco wrongly overturned the vote of the people we need to pass this measure as a constitutional amendment to restore the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman. Do we or do we not live in a democracy? How is it OK that these judges were able to take away what we already voted for?
Below I have included some of the reasons why I am voting yes on Proposition 8. Please take the time to read them and study the issue on your own.
I want to make something else perfectly clear. We are not anti-gay. We are pro-marriage. You will find that this proposition is so much more than simply allowing same sex marriage. There are so many consequences. Please stand with us and help us restore marriage to what God intended it to be.
Here are just a few some of reasons why I have decided to vote Yes
Children
I’m concerned about the impact on children. I do not want school children taught that marriage is between any two adults regardless of gender. Teaching about marriage is the right of parents according to their own values and beliefs. Some people don’t think this would happen, but I did some research and it has already happened.
For example, after Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, second graders were taught about a prince marrying another prince. The parents sued the schools for the right to be notified and the right to pull their children out of such instruction. The court ruled that parents had no legal right to object, and the appeals court upheld it. This is what will happen in California unless we pass Proposition 8. [Parker v. Hurley]
It seems like our priorities are all wrong. A school nurse cannot give a child so much as an aspirin without parental permission, but the schools can teach alternative lifestyles and parents have no say.
I don’t know about you, but I feel that it is up to me, as the parent to decide when and how to teach my children about these things. It is not the right of the public school system.
Religious Rights
I do not believe government should overrule a person’s religious beliefs. A lesbian sued a doctor at a San Diego fertility clinic who refused to perform a requested artificial insemination because of the doctor’s Christian beliefs. Even though another doctor was willing to perform this elective procedure, the court ruled that anti-discrimination laws are more important than religious beliefs.
In Boston, after same-sex marriage was legalized, Catholic Charities was told by the government that their adoption agency had to place children with same-sex couples regardless of their beliefs. They ended up shutting down their adoption agency rather than violating their beliefs. All that this government coercion accomplished was to increase the number of children waiting to be adopted.
Free Speech
A California court held that municipal employees may not say “traditional marriage” or “family values” because these terms constitute hate speech. If same-sex marriage is permanently legalized, government will be obligated to create laws and regulations not to suggest tolerance, but to enforce societal acceptance, and that could lead to broader censorship of speech.
For example, the City of Oakland’s Gay-Straight Employees Alliance was openly allowed to attack the Bible and Christian beliefs in widespread city emails. When other employees attempted to refute this attack, they were threatened with immediate termination. [Good News Employees Association v. Hicks]
*****No Lost Rights******
I wanted to support traditional marriage, but was concerned that my vote might take away other peoples’ rights. I found that no one will lose any rights they had before the state supreme court overturned the traditional definition of marriage. Prop 8 will not take away from same-sex couples any rights they have under a legal civil union. This is stated in the California family Code
Before you make up your mind, please study this issue and think carefully about what will happen if courts are allowed to change the traditional definition of marriage.
It’s about more than marriage. There are bigger things at stake.
If you would like more information, please let me know. Believe it or not, I have edited this email to make it as short as I could. I have mountains of information and examples of what will happen if this does not pass. If you are interested in putting a sign in your yard, I can get you one. Please let me know. And if you are interested in donating financially to the cause, you can do so at http://www.protectmarriage.com/.
Thank you!

P.S. The recent events that have fueled my fire are the following:
“Yes on Prop 8” yard signs being stolen or destroyed and property being vandalized. Homes being egged and cars being damaged…right here in Temecula. If we are suppose to be so tolerant of their viewpoint, why are they not tolerant of ours? Do we not have freedom of speech on this country? You don’t see any of the “Yes” people out there vandalizing property.
Recently my niece went on a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance in LA. My sister was told that they would be learning about the Holocaust and Black Slavery. The very first seminar that the children were brought to was given by a homosexual man speaking about the discrimination he had suffered and he discussed many issues about homosexuality. The parents were not informed in advance that this would be in the curriculum.

Elder thomas Land, now in the MTC, has an E-mail address which will be good for his whole mission. It is Thomas.J.Land.NMM@myldsmail.net. You can E-mail him anytime although he cannot E-mail you back but he can write you snail mail back or I will forward his letters from time to time.