Family Resemblance?

David has been so good lately at scanning pictures of both his side and mine. He's gone through baby books and old photos just lying around our parent's house. I was going through my baby pictures he'd scanned when I thought I'd do a little comparison between myself and my kiddies! Dave only scanned entire pages of his baby book so I didn't have a picture yet to compare him too. What do you think? Is there a family resemblance?

A Day like that...

Do you ever have a day where you question yourself? Of course you have, I guess everyone does. Tonight after fixing dinner, wrangling the kids in and out of the bath tub, lotions, jammies and a pass off to Dave for book reading duty, I sat down and just stared out the window. I wasn't looking at anything in particular, in fact, I think I was staring at our fence. This overwhelming sense of doubt came over me. I kept asking myself, "Am I a good person? Am I interesting? Am I fun? Am I a good mom? Am I a good wife? Am I a good daughter/sister? Am I a good friend? Am I using my time on this earth the best way I possibly can?" My answer to all is "eh." So I guess I'm having an eh day. I feel like I try. Is it noticed? Am I succeeding? I don't know. I guess all we can do is try. And pray. I think it's important to question these things in life. To re-evaluate. Take a step back and look at my life. So I guess this post is my self evaluation. In writing this I'm reminded of what President Hinckley said in the October conference in 1995, "Each of us can do a little better than we have been doing. We can be a little more kind. We can be a little more merciful. We can be a little more forgiving. We can live with respect and appreciation for those not of our faith. We can improve the world about us, in our homes and in our social activities. We can do it, if we will be prayerful and faithful."

I hope that when my children read this post someday they will be able to answer "yes, mom, you were a good mom that tried hard to raise us the best way you knew how." I hope that my family when reading this realizes how much I love you and look up to you. I do try to be there for you, but I will try harder. To my friends reading this, I hope you know what a blessing you are in my life and my family's. I hope you feel I'm there for you. To David, I hope you know how much I love you and couldn't imagine my life without you. I hope I'm everything to you that you are to me. And to myself, I promise to try a little harder to be happy with who I am.

Great Wall

I adore this picture of the men! If only the soldiers who walked this wall could see the Coleman men! They would be terrified, don't they look so fierce? :)
The whole family. Isn't the background so incredibly beautiful? The wall goes on and on and on...
Me and my honey. We were so excited to actually be standing on the GREAT WALL!
David and Matt at the top of this incredible climb. They went as far as they thought they could go until they saw this sign next to them saying you couldn't go past this point. Then they saw a french couple coming down the stairs behind them and were a little peeved they hadn't kept going. Apparently, past that point it wasn't secure - they hadn't started any restoration past that point.

I guess I'd better finish up the China trip before I forget our last couple of days. This was by far my favorite day in China! We had a guide pick us up (didn't speak a lick of English) and drove us to the Wall. As soon as we got out the downtown area we could see how different they lived in the more rural areas. They literally lived in run down hut looking things. It was like that until we got the Great Wall. Once we parked and got out of the van, we were bombarded with merchants selling all the typical souveniers. We made our way up a steep hill until we got to the gondola. the ride up was amazing. So green and lush! And hot!
It was so surreal being up there on the wall. To know that this ancient place was tromped on by soldiers that lived their whole lives on their section of the wall. Workers lived out their lives there and sometimes died building it. And now we can walk on it! It was just an incredible day - one that I won't ever forget!