More fun with baby Walt pictures

It is nice to see the kids thinking this little baby is so neat.....Especially since we have our next one due so soon. I think Mira will be in heaven her new little sibling.

Jana and Kris's New Gift from God

Well, Jana and Kris had there first child last night. For those of you that don't know this is my Brother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law. The new baby was a beautiful baby boy. I got to stop in and see him for the first time this morning. It was neat to see these 2 new parents so excited and so in love.

It made me think about a statement in "The Family: A Proclamation to the World"

"Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. "Children are an heritage of the Lord" (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations."

There is no doubt in my mind that Jana and Kris will be wonderful parents and fulfill their responsibilities as parents to this wonderful gift from God. It brings me joy to see another child born to this world to goodly parents who will love their child as much as they will. I feel lucky to just share a small portion of their new found joy with them.

Connecticut on Catholic Petitions

Here is an article about a Catholic Diocese in Connecticut that bused a group of it parishioners to a rally in Hartford to protest a bill. They then urged their parishioners to contact lawmakers about the same bill and another bill about same sex marriage. Now the state of Connecticut is investigating the Diocese actions, claiming that the organization is a lobbying group........???

What?...Is this confusing to anybody else? Are we as religious individuals just supposed to sit on the sidelines and watch? The whole purpose of the Church and State Rules was to keep government out of the churches. This way they would have have the right to express themselves and their views without government repercussions. This constitutional amendment was established because the ruling government (which at the time was a religion) was persecuting those who believed differently. There is a reason why the Founding Fathers chose this as the 1st amendment. It was that important.

Here we have a Connecticut law that is a loophole for striping a religious group's first amendment right to "petition the government" on issues that it holds dear.

PAYGO

I really like the recent Obama challange to congress to have a PayGo budget. That just makes more sense. This PAYGO would basically mean that congress would need to create a budgett that could only be spent if the money was there. This would effectively balance the budget. This makes sense to me. This was also used in the 90's and it helped to balance the budget.

My confusion comes from the previous Obama money pushes. The budget deficit has exploded to 1.8 trillion. This is four times higher than the previous record deficit. Obama acknowledged: "Entitlement increases and tax cuts need to be paid for, they're not free, and borrowing to finance them is not a sustainable long-term policy." We as tax payers have bailed out the banks, auto makers, and the are paying for the $787 billion dollar stimus package. Our government is creating a budget problem that our future generations are going to be paying for. Our deficit alone costs every man, woman, and child US citizen $6,000 a piece. How can this President support PayGo when he has championed so many opposite programs. This seems more to me like a statement used for politcal purposes and not based in his own world of reality.

Church Blessings

I have been feeling very lucky to be LDS lately. I have thought about all of the joy that it brings in life. There are so many ways this church blessed my life.

One inparticular one comes to mind....I got to hear Calan say the best prayer for dinner the other night. He never has a problem saying a prayer for dinner, but this one was really special. We had family over. When it was time to pray he said..." I would like to say this one." He started praying and you could tell he wasn't just repeating things that he had heard us say, or things he had said before. He was really praying. After he said A-men we all looked at him thinking the same thing. I was very proud of him. This little 5 year brought the spirit into our home that night.

I read a quote from Gordon Hinkley once that went something like "The greatest joy a man can have in life is to see his children grow up to be rightous and responsible adults."

I can understand this. I feel humbled by the task of being the father that I should be. Hopefully when they get older they will remember me as a good dad..and not remember some of the times that I was much less than a perfect father.

A lot has happened since my last post. We had a magical Christmas. Calan and Noah are at great ages for it. New Years Day we got to go visit family in Washington. My sister lives there. Here are a few picks.

We just had to go to the beach while we were there. It was COLD!!.. This was at Puget Sound.

Those babies were sure excited to see Grandma when we got there. We are blessed to have so many people in our lives that love us so much.

Since it rained just about the entire time we were there, but that is the Seattle area. We had to find indoor things to do. So this is a place called Charlie Safari. It was a pretty cool bouncing, climbing, hiding, exploring kid place.

It sure is nice being a part of such a nice family.

Separation of Church and State

The 1st Amendment of the United States of America reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This reads that government should not be able to have an influence on religion. Religious groups have every right to be involved in political process. This does not mean political candidates, but it means political stances on morality issues. When a church that is opposed to gambling, abortion, gay-rights, etc. Then that church has a right to try and influence its members to defend morality.

I have recently heard people complain, saying "If a religious group wants to get involved in governement then they should lose their tax exept status." Our country's religions should not be bullied when they are only trying to influence their members to do what they think is morally right. It is government that should stay out of religion, not religion that should stay out of government.

Our country was founded with freedom of religion. I stand by the 11th article of faith that says

"We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."