Personal Blog

Hi. Elise here. Let me share with you a few things that you may or may not know about me. I am a wife and a mother of 5 children. I met my husband, Jason, in April of 2003 and we were married in June of 2004.

We had our first child, Jordan, in June 2006

had our second child, Kori, in February 2008

our third child, Caden, in February 2009

our 4th child, Braelyn, in April 2011

and our 5th child, Tyson, in July 2013 If you didn't know about Kori, she had a chromosome abnormality which led to Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (a hole in her diaphragm)which led to some of her organs pushing up through that hole, which led to her lungs not developing correctly (http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site476/mainpageS476P0.html). She lived for only 3 days and it was the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life. I love and miss her terribly.

I love to exercise, collect and cook healthy recipes, bake (which I know is very contradictory to the first two "hobbies" I just mentioned), and spend time with my husband and kids. I bite my nails, overuse commas, quotation marks and ellipsis (you know. . . these. . .), and talk about diet/exercise/weight loss/weight gain way too much. I hope someday to know how to sew really well (like my mom), be an avid reader of good books, know how to seriously maim someone if they dare physically attack me or my children, and be the type of mom that my kids will say something like this: "I couldn't have asked for a better mom. She taught us so well and I felt nothing but LOVE in our home."

I am also Mormon, or a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (see www.mormon.org for more info about our basic beliefs). I grew up Mormon. I have good parents who taught me about Jesus, about how the scriptures are important to read, and they taught me how to find out for myself whether or not something is true. I am so grateful for that.

Before I got married I went to BYU and then served a mission for the church in Charlotte, North Carolina for 1.5 years. I already had a strong testimony of the gospel before I left, and when I served a mission in NC it grew even more. I shared with others what is most precious to me--the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some rejected the message and some accepted it, but my beliefs did not waiver.


I have found that I don't talk about the gospel as much as I would like to, or should. It bothers me. It is, afterall, the foundation of my life. Jesus Christ is my Savior and He is real. No doubt about that AT ALL. Striving to live the gospel of Jesus Christ to the best of my ability is what makes me truly happy. I feel peace, I feel hope, and I know where I came from, why I am here, and where I am going--I have a grand purpose to life.

I am FAR from perfect, and I may even do things that are contrary to the Christ-like behavior I should be exhibiting. Let me rephrase that: I probably will. Rephrase again: I know I will. In fact, I already yelled at my son today. Pretty sure Christ wouldn't do that. See what I mean? Regardless, the gospel is still true and I will continue to press on and do the best that I can. I know I will be blessed if I do.

That is the main purpose of this blog. A spiritual outlet of sorts. Maybe I'll write about other things I'm passionate about--I don't know yet. You are welcome to read it if you want to, or not. It's up to you. One thing is for sure though, and that is that I must share what I am feeling. It is too important to keep to myself. I want others to feel the happiness that I feel. I felt very strongly about starting this blog. The idea came to me a few months ago, but I pushed it aside. I kept thinking and thinking about it, so now I'm following through.

One of my new year's resolutions is "no apologies." I don't mean that I'm not going to apologize to others if I hurt their feelings or do something wrong. I mean no apologies for being me. No apologies if I make someone else feel inadequate simply because I am doing my best (although I would hope that would never happen). No apologies for standing up for what I believe and know to be true and right.

So there you have it--an introduction to my new blog.