Here are some great pictures from the last 3 months. Eliza and her cousin Faith are ecstatic to see each other.

It's been forever since I have blogged. I guess life has been moving too fast. Really, right now, all of my thoughts are centered around this little baby boy that is soon to make his apprearance into this world - Shana and Justin's little baby. He is due on December 23rd, but weighs over 6 lbs right now. We find out this week when Shana will be induced, probably 2 weeks early, due to her previous pregnancy and loss, sweet angel Lily, who was "stillborn" at 35 1/2 weeks along. So anyone who reads this and wants to add their collective prayers to ours, we would love it and appreciate them. She is doing well, excited and anxious and all I can say is how proud I am of those two for having trust and faith in the Lord to try it all over again. We'll let everyone know asap when he arrives. The hospitals are really cracking down on visitors, so I may not even get in. The swine flu has got the hospitals all concerned about visitors - and they are not allowing anyone in to visit, in some cases, only one person, like the husband. YIKES!!! I may storm the doors. :)

Love you all and take care and have a wonderful week and Thanksgiving. We are having my folks up and some of their grandkids who are here at BYU. Mary and Baden are coming for Christmas, so except for Synthia, we will have everyone here!!!!!!!

YEAH! HUGS and KISSES,
Laura

Whoever Said That Missionaries Don't Have Any Fun, Obviously Didn't Know Synthia

I thought you might want to see what I was talking about!!! :)

ELIZA TURNS THREE TODAY! YEAH!

Today is Eliza's birthday! We love that cutie so much!

WOW, WAS I EVER DUPED!!!

Okay, so I have to confess that I have been pretty hooked on a blog that Shana told me about called Little April Rose. It was basically about a 20-something year old girl who is Christian, got pregnant out of wedlock, found out that her baby had Trisomy 13, a fatal illness, etc.... Anyway, I followed it for about 2 months until the baby was supposedly born and lived. Then the blog shut down and accusations flew. Well, IT WAS A TOTAL FAKE! Here is a summary from another blogger called "Spellbound by the Davises":

She writes: "I have become a fan to many blogs, some happy situations and some not so happy. One in particular I have followed since the beginning is the baby Little April Rose blog... Supposedly this single 20 something woman who was the "daughter of the Lord" got pregnant and during pregnancy the baby was diagnosed with Trisomy 13 and HPE. Both of which are lethal to the baby.


Now she never exposed herself with pictures like most normal bloggers and called herself "B" throughout her blog. She claimed that she didn't want to expose herself or "D" the baby's father. She would always sign off as "April's mom". Which I and many, many people respected. She was a beautiful writer and her words made you want to hear more and more. She was well respected and liked from both Christians and non Christians. She hoped to be forgiven from God for her sinful act of sex outside of marriage which made her see the light and become closer to Him. To most, she was a young, brave, strong soul that lost her way for a while and was on a tough journey back to the arms of God. She had people hooked. What's going to happen next to this young girl and her sick baby?

Throughout her journey, "April's mom" made friends with very well known bloggers who not only gave her words of encouragement, but put her "Pray for April Rose" button on their blog. They asked their fans to pray and continually pray for April Rose. "April's mom" had a friend, Raechel, who is also a blogger as well as an old friend from college that lives several states away. Last year Raechel lost a baby girl to Trisomy 9 and did everything in her power to help this mom, "April's mom", through this as a "Christian sister" should. Raechel's husband even made rose crested t-shirts that was sold to "April mom's" fans and proceeds supposedly were forwarded to PASS Pregnancy Center in Illinois. "April's mom" also did His Will Wednesday which is asking for prayers to other families in difficult situations. And April's mom did this so beautifully, sometimes asking for as many as 50 hurting people for your prayers. She would always ask for prayers for these lovely families but to please also pray for April who she so desparately wanted to live and feared the idea of losing.

"April's mom" claimed that people were always asking if they could give donations. She mentioned many times that her blog was not for that purpose. She claimed that certain people were emailing her with accusations that her blog was a lie and was using it to make money. She even called the emails out and posted them with a detailed, God-oriented answer. She denied it all and said that the only purpose of her blog was to document the beautiful moments she had with "my girl". However, it was later discovered that she did open a P.O. Box.


"April's mom" decided on a home birth for her terminally ill child. She claimed that she had a midwife that agreed to this homebirth ......and a doctor who agreed to come to her home to check out the baby. And if anything went wrong, "April's mom" said that they were just "a short ride away" from the hospital. She claimed that she wanted to spend one on one time with April if she was going to leave this world so soon. She didn't want medical intervention. She justed wanted to be with her baby when or if it was her time to meet Jesus in heaven. After all, the doctors did tell her that there was not much hope for little April Rose. According to the doctors, April would NOT make it to 25 week, then 35 weeks. It was a miracle that she made it to 41 weeks. Then "April's mom" was told that April would not make it through labor and delivery. Some readers diagreed with this homebirth decision for such an ill baby, and some like myself, felt it was her choice to decide what was best for her and her baby. However, it is common knowledge that a doctor making a home visit these days, especially to a very ill newborn, is a huge lawsuit waiting to happen. I was confused on this, but thought that maybe they do things differently in Illinois.

So.....we all waited. Anxious about what was going to happen to this child. Was she going to live...was she going to die? People was praying from all over the world!

Another miracle, April Rose made it alive through labor and delivery. She was 4 pounds 8 ounces. I read from people all over dropping to their knees thanking Him. Raechel updated everyone of this joyous occasion.

Raechel was making constant updated posts on the condition of baby April such as "April's perfect(?), they are bathing her, they are dressing her at this moment, they are moving to a comfortable room, the photographer is here, etc. Everyone seemed to rejoice that April was 1 hour old, 6 hours old, etc. However, some updates to many didn't not sound correct. One example is if born alive, Trisomy babies have certain disabilities and feeding is one of them. They have to be feed by a feeding tube. According to an update, the midwives decided that this baby needed to eat within an hour after April was born! Not to go to the hospital but need to eat? "April's mom" was breastfeeding? Not sounding right. People along with the ones that has always been suspicious of this woman started to ask questions.

Sometime between the photographer's visit and the doctor's visit, they posted up some pictures of April Rose. This was the beginning of the end for her. April Rose looked too healthy for a 4 pound 8 ounce baby that had Trisomy 13 much less HPE! Most of these babies have some sort of deformity. This baby looked too good to be true!

More and more people started catching on and questioning and accusing. April's dad "D" then decided to step in when someone took the first posted picture of April and put devil ears and a tail on it. "D" claimed that this was not the time and they were just trying to "live their lives". He claimed that this was real, they were not out to make money and God himself knows the truth. Funny how he mentioned God when "April's mom" stated in her blog that April's dad "D" was an atheist! They deleted all the pictures and previous posts and said that they would update soon on Baby April.

Hours and hours went by. People in the internet world was going crazy over this wondering what happened. Posts and new April Rose is a Fake blogs were popping up everywhere! A lot of people still stood by "April's mom" claiming that this blog was real and to leave her alone. This went on and on for hours back and forth with believers and non believers.

Later that night, Raechel posted that "D" was defending his family and she was giving him room to do so. That April was still alive but her health was deteriorating and both baby and mom was in the hospitals. The doctors were doing tests on the baby including a blood test. Raechel signed off and.................

To the fury of hundreds of people, the blog was completely removed sometime during the night.
And the truth finally comes out. Investigations were done! The result to this LOOOONG story. "B" now known as Beccah was never pregnant, never had a baby. This whole thing was a hoax! Except for what she had Raechel input from miles and miles away, everything, including the angry post from daddy was from her. The pictures she took of "April" was a Reborn doll. I had to check into these dolls and you wouldn't beleive how real they look!

Beccah was accepting money and gifts through her P.O. Box and she had ads on her blog page that was paying her 2 cents a hit. She had over 600,000 hits. So can you imagine the money she has made? She even did a contest of whoever hit the 500,000 mark won a prize! I wonder how many times her fans hit the refresh button to get to that mark, meanwhile making this "B" person money!? Doing the His Will Wednesday was a lot of work for her but so totally worth it if her fans go to the blogspot in need of prayer only to return back to her site to continue reading. More hits means more money! I remember the amount of times I went back and forth to different blogs back to hers to continue reading!

Even though, in a way, I am relieved that there is really no "April Rose" which means that there is no baby dying or about to die involved. But to take advantage of people's emotions as well as their pocketbook due to sympathy is totally disgusting to me. I didn't realize that people can be so mean. Image how hurtful it is to Raechel when she found out that this was all made up when she really did lose a beautiful baby girl to this condition. And the support of the other's moms as well who have been down the road of losing a precious child. Horrible. It has been written by all the well known bloggers as well as Raechel that this hoax was not known by them and they are just as hurt as everyone else.

I just say that I hope "B" or Beccah, gets what is coming to her!"

So that's what I've been up to for the last few days while I've laid in bed sick as a dog with the flu, throw ups and more. :) Life just keeps coming at me!!! Things are good!!!

"Mamas, Don't Let Your Boys Grow Up to be Cowboys"

So Skylar turned 16 years old on Tuesday and now he's decided he wants to be a cowboy. LOOKIN' GOOD SKY! (By the way, this is one good "heck of a kid.")

Shayla turns 21 overnight!

Unbelievable, I know, but I went to bed one night and the next day, Shay had completely grown up! It just goes to show that miracles do still happen!

Actually, I thought this was a pretty cute shot of her, at age 13, all dress up for "Night of the Notables", as Princess Diana! :) She did a great job on her class project!

Miracles Happening in Uruguay

This is such a wonderful letter from Synthia and her companion, Hermana Stokes. It's a must read - 2 stories of miracles!

Hola Familia!> Okay, so we're going to try something new and we´ll both send you our letters...so you can have the Stokes-Smoot Piriapolis letter....my companion is really funny and so you´ll be able to see a bit of her personality! We really feel like we were friends in heaven before and know that God needed us to be together here. So i´m going to tell you all one of the biggest miracles that we´ve seen on the mission. On the mission I´ve started a prayer journal. Before I pray, I write down a list of things that I want to consult the Lord on, (see Alma 37), and people that I want to pray for. Then after, I wait for impressions and listen to the Spirit. I´ve recieved some of the most beautiful and spiritual inspiration from these moments when I´ve been open to the whispers of the spirit. I´ve learned that if I feel negative feelings they are from Satan, and the encouraging feelings are from God. Anways...so I received specific revelation that I needed to start praying with Hermana Becar for a ¨family that would continue on as missionaries after we leave.¨ We began praying for this ¨family who would become missionaries¨and then Saturday morning prayed specifically for this family to come to Stake conference with us. 5 min after leaving our house we made that contact with Gustavo Alfonso in the street and Hermana Becar happened to remeber his name after talking to him 2 months ago in the street. He said he and his family would love to come to the conference and later his wife Maria and son, Pio, came with us. Then a few weeks passed and we couldn´t get a hold of them and then came our good luck charm, Hermana Stokes. Meanwhile, Gustavo had become friends with one of the less active members who we know and he´s invited him to come to church. So we visit them and they came to church last week and then Maria came to the relief socitey activity and Gustavo was starting to encourage his son to search out the truth....like a natural Stake President would do! We were so excited and returned Saturday with the intent and hope of inviting them to be baptized! We showed up with our 74 recent convert Fulgencio and he boldly testified that his baptism in the true church had changed his life! Then Gustavo, our INVESTIGATOR, proceeded to share his testimony and teach us and his son, Pio, the first lesson! Wow! We were stunned. He had read the Restoration pamphlet 3 times and him and Maria have been studying the Book of Mormon every day since we gave it to them. Gustavo totally reminds me of Dad with his multi-level marketing, entrepreneurial spirit and sweaters and he loves to be a host! Pio is 18 and doesn´t drink, smoke or do anythig "out of the commandments"! GOLDEN and Prepared! The Lord is so so so merciful and good to us. Gustavo is so precious and so excited to be BAPTIZED with Maria on the 13th of June! I´ve never met anyone so prepared. He loves every part of the church: callings, tithing, word of wisdom, self reliance and as we sat> down to eat some delicous pizza that they made us, (he used to own a Pizzeria,) he cried as he shared with us the hope that has come into his life in these past few weeks. He thanked us and told us that we are now his daughters and knows that the gospel of Christ has been restored to the Earth again, the same Gospel that Christ had when he was on the Earth! He said, ¨Now it is our turn to share this message with everyone else around us... we must continue on with this work so that all our brothers and sisters have this gospel. I was so choked up and amazed and read to him a letter I had just written him 5 minutes before in the front of his Book of Mormon....it said, ¨we´d been praying for a family of future missionaries¨and I know that God had them prepared way before! Yay!

Okay, this is now Hna Stokes, Hi Smoot family and my family. I'm going to tell you a little story about palta, or avacodos. Hna Smoot and I love avacodos, and have been desperately looking for a tree her in Piriapoles so we can have some more. Hna Becar, the missionary whose place> I took, told us of one in Barrio Country, a really big part of our area that Hna Smoot isn't really familiar with, and last Tuesday, we decided to go find it. It had been a really hard day for me, I was really down and struggling with the day, so Hna Smoot decided we would take a detour to our next apt. to find this palta. I thought she knew where she was going, but> after a few minutes it was obvious that we were both lost, and had no clue where we were. we just kept riding around, turning here and there, when we saw a women walking down the road. we stopped her and told her that we had a question that was a little weird. We then proceeded to tell her about our love for palta, and asked her if she knew of a tree that was near by. She> said no, and after we talked to her for a little bit, invited her to church, we went on our way. Without knowing it, right after she left, Hna Smoot and I both said a prayer in our hearts that we would find this palta tree. My prayer was something to the affect of "por favor Father, let us find this tree. I know it is something not very important, but it would sure help my day right now." Hna Smoot´s prayer was something like, por favor Father, help us find this tree so my companion can feel happy and we can continue to work." Right after our prayers, Hna Smoot looked across the road, and there was a palta tree! Seriously right there! we went and knocked on the door, but it was obvious no one was living there. There were bricks blocking the door and like five bills sticking out, so we went over to the neighbor's house and asked them if we could have the palta. The lady said sure, and sent her son out to help us. He climbed the tree and got three for us, then left. We were about to leave, but there was so much more palta in the tree we couldn´t settle for just three. We first tried jumping to reach it, then found a long metal bar in the back yard and tried to smack the palta down, but that didnt work either. I then kneeled down on all fours while Hna Smoot stood on my back to see if she could reach the palta, but that still didnt work, so then, Hna Smoot, in her skirt, climbed up the palta tree, and to make a longer story shorter, we now have nine palta ripining in our kitchen! it was quite a fun experience, and the rest of the day was really great! It also was such an answer to prayers, as simple as it was and as unimportant, Heavenly Father showed us his love by helping us find that palta tree.

Love, Hermana Stokes Love you all! Hermana Smoot

Easter with Eliza

Grandma and Lizzy bonding time - pure joy

This week Mary and Baden went to London and France for a long awaited trip. They came to Centerville first though to drop off my Easter gift - our little Lizzy, (Eliza), who is 2, but almost 3. They took William, our chunky 9 month old grandbaby with them. He's still nursing!!! They had a great time, but believe me when I say, I had the greatest time of all of us. I got to know my absolutely precious Eliza at 2 years old. They live in Spokane, Washington and so we get to see them about every 3 to 4 months, which is wonderful, but not as wonderful as everyday would be.

This little girl has huge brown eyes that pop right our of her head, naturally curly hair, can talk like a 5 year old and is extremely expressive in her words and facial expessions. She celebrates all the smallest parts of a day - what she wears, the color pink & being a ballerina, each book we read together, (which were a zillion), how patient she noticed that she was at a meeting I went to, her chocolate milk, even her naps. We would read a bunch of books together and then when I finally said, okay, time for a nap, she would lay down with the sweetest smile on her face and tuck both hands up by her face and close her huge eyes and go to sleep. Sometimes she would grab my neck and stick her face close to mine, so that if I opened my eyes, I could see her beautiful face right there, in all it's pureness. I knew I loved her from the moment I saw her, but to have 10 days with her and really get to experience her absolute innocent and sweet personality was the best gift ever.

When I asked her if she needed to go potty, she would always say, "no, I went last year". :) We laughed at her hysterical comments over and over. A two year old can rarely speak what goes on in their heads and it comes out so cute. It was so sweet to see how much she loves William and how much she missed him. When Grandma and Grandpa Smoot came for Sunday lunch, she launched into an hour conversation with them about how she was going to be baptized by her dad, because he had the priesthood. She knew everyone who had the priesthood and everyone that didn't. She remember, after I told her once, that Sam didn't have it, because he had to be twelve. I couldn't believe she remember that so many hours after I told her why.

I made her a little scrapbook of our time together and I think she really liked it. Before she left, she helped me add some pictures. It was such a treat and I miss her. She reminds me so much of Mary's adorable little personality, sweet and without guile, just wanting to do what she should. (Thanks Mary and Baden for being such amazing parents to our 2 little ones. We appreciate the chance to be with Eliza!)

Smoot News Update: Meet Sawyer

We got a dog!!! I know, I know, you can't believe it. Neither can I, but he is Skylar's. He's border collie and golden retriever and adorable. He's 4 months old now. Our neighbor had him and their son couldn't really take care of him like he thought he could, so they asked us if we wanted him, at the exact time we were looking, so it was perfect. His name is Sawyer and he is so sweet.

I love having a missionary out!

Synthia sent these pictures this week. I absolutely love reading her letters every week. She seems to always say just what I need to hear. This week she said that she's trying to remember to pray when she's not so tired at night so that she can really have good communication. I think I'll give that a try. :) Enjoy the photos! (I sure miss this cute girl!)

How could I be more blessed than to have these two as my mom and dad! (You're the best!)

I am continuing to work on my personal history and this page will be a part of it. I've written about 12 pages so far. I'm sure one day it will likely be an "Oprah Book Club" pick. I'll send you all autographed copies. It's lots of fun to document my life when I can add photos to go along. "A picture is worth a thousand words." :) I've been teaching classes in Digital Scrapbooking, (Photoshop Elements), for RS Enrichment. I'm getting better at it, so if you need advice, call Natalie. She's my teacher! :)

Shayla turned 13 on Friday!!! I love this page that I asked Natalie to do for her! Shay loves it too! What do you think? GREAT JOB NAT!

Nie Nie Dialogues

So last night Sharm and I went to a dinner/dance at BYU. Long story as to why we were even there, but that doesn't even matter. A man, about 28 years old, came over to greet our friend who we were sitting by and explained that he had just resigned from his job in Arizona, because of an accident. When he turned and sat down at the table I could see that one side of his face and neck were severely burned. He explained that he and his wife had been in an airplane crash. It was a small plane that went down in Eastern Arizona and the pilot was killed. His name is Christian Nielson and he was burned over 40% of his body and his wife, Stephanie Nielson was burned over 80% of her body. They have 4 small children between the ages of 2 and 7, who were cared for by family members. The accident happened in August and they were in a medically induced coma for 3 months. He was such a gracious young man, so curtious and kind. We asked questions about it and basically he and his wife are looking at about 20 more surgeries between the two of them. Their little kids have had a hard time because they don't fully recognize "Mommy" and "Daddy" now. Wow, I thought my life was rough sometimes. He told us that at present, his medical bills were in the millions!
His wife wrote a blog called Nie Nie Dialogues that was followed by over 1000 people prior to her accident and now, since the accident, there are over 20,000 people following it. After 3 months in a coma, she woke up to celebrity"ville". Matt Lauer wanted an interview as well as others. Her blog is popular because she talks in a very positive light about being a mom and wife, even though it's tough.
Take a look at the blog and read the story. It will put your life in perspective!

Love to all,
Laura

Lizzy First "Tea Party"

This one's for you Mary! :) Enjoy

Here are a couple of layouts of Will and the fam! :) Enjoy!

Hi all, Valentines Day 2009

Just wanted to add an update. Today I attended the funeral of my sweet friend Kim Madsen, who has been battling ovarian cancer now for 4 years. She was such a remarkable example of living life to its fullest. She was a master gardening, and very talented in directing, acting and choreographing theatre productions of all kinds. She loved dance, computers, writing and to read, but most of all she loved people. At her funeral, she was given special permission to do a video of her testimony and a say final goodbye. Her words truly touched me as she talked with such courage and wisdom about what she knew would be certain aspects of her life after death. I was especially touched by two things that she said. First, "People are so much more important than things and nothing in our lives is worth withholding forgiveness". She chose forgiveness in her life and it made a world of difference. She also said something like, "We don't want to look back and see one day that we could have had more in this life, had we just made different choices." She was the kind of person that created magic wherever she went. She was an incredible gardner and found peace and rest there. She also remarked, "You can always find beauty among the thorns." I'm so grateful I was able to know and learn from such a beautiful person.

Here's a quick little layout of Lizzy!