While the whole family was home for Christmas we secretly put together a little recording of our family singing "The Family Is Of God" and reciting "The Family: A Proclamation To The World" to give to my parents as a gift. Now when I say "we put together" I mean Shane and Jake. They headed the whole operation. Just wait till you hear it. 

It's totally legit...perks to having a professional sound designer in the family :) 

Shane Rocks! 

Seriously. You would never imagine this was put together in our downstairs recording studio...AKA Tayler's bedroom closet. ;) Haha

What is THE FAMILY: A Proclamation To The World? I thought you might never ask :)

Well, 10 years ago The first Presidency of the The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints shared with us this incredible proclamation to the entire world on families. 

Family standards, doctrines, and practices relative to the family. 

Now let's be honest here. Is there anything more important to you than your family? Yeah, that's what I figured. So if you have a spare minute...which you probably do if you have made it through all of my ramblings so far. Listen to this recording on families. You will love it. For one, because it is awesome. And for two, because it has almost every person in my family in it (Even Ryan from the mission field. They recorded him during our Christmas phone call) and yes, the little tiny ones too. So it's quite adorable to hear them try to say such profound words. 

Ok Here it is. Click on our family picture above or the Steel Family link below and ENJOY!

And if you want to follow along, here are the words. They might be helpful when trying to decide what the little kids are actually saying :) 

Such a bittersweet moment in our family. Feels mostly bitter right now but so very sweet will be the reunion of our sweet grandparents. Just picture the cutest most in love couple you can ever imagine reunited after such a long time apart. Something Grandma had been looking forward to for 7 l.o.n.g. years.

The knowledge we have of the plan of salvations is such an incredible thing. To know that we will be reunited with our family again brings so much light into what could be such a dark time.

Over the last couple of years Grandma suffered from Alzheimer's. It was so heartbreaking to watch Grandma forget such simple things. Her long term memory was still very good and she loved to tell stories about her and Grandpa. Her eyes would glow and her smile would just beam when she talked about her sweet husband.

If you asked any grandkid the one thing Grandma said the most I can almost guarantee they would all say...

"YOU CHARACTER"

Grandma called every body a character. 

In her sweet little laugh..."You character you!"

Grandma loved her little grand babies. We were so very lucky to live in Rexburg when Preston was born. Any moment Grandma got she would hold onto him for as long as she could. She would just gaze into his eyes and talk to him about Grandpa. I very vividly remember her Asking {baby} Preston, "You and Grandpa were buddies up there weren't you? He sent you down here to take care of us."

The year before we left Idaho, Preston and I were able to go into her home and spend time with just her every morning for a couple of months. We loved that time we spent with her and will cherish those memories forever.

As time went on the harder it got for Grandma to remember things. But something Grandma never forgot was her testimony of the gospel. She was always such an example to us of the importance of the gospel in her life. Grandma {LOVED} missionary work and loved telling stories from her mission in Africa. She frequently reminded us that Grandpa was up in heaven busy doing lots of missionary work. Her love for the gospel is something we will always remember.

You could always count on Grandma to put a smile on your face. We were all so{very}blessed to have such a sweet lady in our lives.