Bringing in the new year!

So here it is, 2012, and I am really ready to make some new big changes in my life. So far we are doing great! We've hardly missed a night this month of family scripture study, family prayer and we haven't missed doing one Family Home Evening! The reading is tremendously helping our kids learn how to be faster readers and even Jordan (age 3) wants to get in on it every night. They are comprehending so much and that makes me so happy! Since the beginning of the year, I have prayed and read a chapter in the scriptures each morning and wrote in my journal each night. For 2 weeks now, I have done a vigorous 10 minute workout each day of the week along with an extra 10 minutes of warm up, cool down and stretching.

I've always had a hard time finding out how to live a balanced life, as with all of us. I always make up excuses that there isn't enough time in the day. But I have really begun to grasp the idea that there are 24 hours in a day for a reason. I can honestly say that I highly doubt we'd do any better at accomplishing more if there were 34 hours in a day instead. We'd just have another 10 hours to goof off and procrastinate. My goal is to accomplish my life long goals every day before anything else and since I have began to practice this goal, life just seems easier.

"Give us this day our daily bread......" Matthew 6:11. As I read in January's issue of the Ensign my eyes were really open to the simplicity of life. It doesn't say...."Give us this month our monthly bread" or "yearly" or even "weekly", it says "daily". ONE STEP AT A TIME! Editing pictures, facebooking, mopping the floors, doing laundry, scrubbing toilets, grocery shopping, paying bills, etc are NOT daily tasks! They may be frequent tasks, but they aren't something I want to do everyday for the rest of my life. BUT there are a few things that I can say I'd like to do almost everyday if not everyday for the the rest of my life. Those things for me would be: Morning prayer, morning scriptures, making my bed, quick exercise, being of service to someone, nightly family scripture study, nightly family prayers, nightly journal writing & nightly personal prayers. For some reason when I focus on just completing these morning and nightly routines, everything else falls into place. My house stays cleaner, my work gets done, my errands get done, my social life is still active, my brain is more clear, I'm happier, I feel better all together, my marriage is stronger than ever and my kids are behaving better. Its pretty miraculous! My morning prayers are focused more on the day I have in front of me and my nightly prayer is focused more on giving thanks for the day I got through and asking for guidance on how to do things better tomorrow. Stress seems to be almost entirely alleviated because all I have to do is get through today.

The moral of my story today is that yes, we can and should plan for the future. Get those goals and tasks down on a paper. Know where you want to be in the future and have that in your head, but today, live as if you were being tested on today and today only. Past issues will begin to be resolved and the future will begin to smoothly unfold with the grace intended. I cant say that I will always be able to take this advise myself, but I CAN say with a surety from past experiences, that this is the best way to live.

Tony- 10, AJ- 7, Jordan- 3
Taken December 26th 2011

Doggy Tales

I know that it has been ages since I have written but tonight I figured I would start up again with my unexpected turn of events. I had just gotten done with a photo shoot and I headed home. Home is not very close to the bank so I decided to stop on the way. As I left the bank, I noticed a very worried lady starring towards the busy street in a panic. When I asked her if she was ok, she pointed to 3 stray dogs running around, a big, a medium and a little. They came back over towards the Vons parking lot and weaved in and out of cars to get through. A couple of us followed behind trying to herd them into safe areas while I called animal patrol. They circled around several times in and out of the parking lot acting like this was the last place they saw their owner. So sad :(. They were all nice and fairly well behaved but the midsize one seemed very friendly but scared. I ran into Baskin Robins and asked for some bowls of water which they kindly provided for me and I got all 3 of them to drink. The big one and the little one ended up wandering off but the middle fella, or gal was sticking around. The other sweet lady with me had to leave, so there I was...a parking lot away from my car, sitting on the curb in front of a nail salon sitting with a stray dog. Then I had the idea of asking if someone would grab me a leash from target or Vons so that I could actually walk with him and keep him with me, so I began to ask..... "excuse me, could you help me with the stray dog....." I truly expected someone would quickly help. I mean, I'm on an iPhone, I'm in nice clothes, my hair is done ok, I don't look threatening, but instead of helpful hands, I got several people glancing over and completely walking past me. Tears actually filled up in my eyes realizing how so many people do the same thing every day of their lives, but not in the same situation as me. Unfortunately their situation is a lot worse. Finally I got up the courage to ask another couple who gladly came over and pet the dog and went to the store to get a leash. Great! Now they're really gonna think I'm nuts cause their Christ like generosity made all the tears start fallin. At this point I had already called animal patrol again because 45 min had passed. They again told me someone would come as soon as possible. This same nice couple went in to get their ice-cream and when they came out they said that they would like to bring it home for the night and bring him to the shelter tomorrow to see if he has a micro-chip. Im obviously being a total big baby today because when they said that, i totally started crying again! We exchanged phone numbers and will both make sure that it gets taken care of.....possibly take him myself :). I hope those others have found their way somewhere safe too.

Dream Morning of March 16 2011- Finding Christ...

The past 5 mornings I have woken up around 6:30 am or before to study the scriptures. A wonderful friend of mine inspired me to do so....along with Heavenly Father obviously. After reading yesterday, I visited several other scriptures relating to riches and money. I often battle with this in my head because I don't ever want greed to be part of me, but during this day and age, saving, planning, living, etc. requires money. So how do I find the balance in desiring wealth and financial abundance while still maintaining my humility.

In Psalms 62:10 it reads: "Trust not in oppression and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your hearts upon them."
Ecclesiastes 5:19: Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God" 
And in the Book of Mormon...Jacob 2:18: "Before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom."


Trust me...this is leading into my dream, I promise!

So I can see here that yes, many times in the scriptures, money and riches caused a lot of problems, but they have also been used for good and have been given as gifts from God.

In my dream, I was taken to this underground excavation of what looked like a VERY wealthy ancient society that had been buried underground over time. It was the largest collection of gold ever found. there were golden statues and tons of other things made of pure gold. This women (I have no idea who) secretly led me to a path that had a secret, off limits gate at the end. We went in and it was like a shopping mall, but there was artwork everywhere. Most of this artwork was ancient and special drawings or paintings of Christ. I looked around in amazement and with a small but humble feeling of pride and honor to be in the presence of something so sacred. The collection of gold had left my mind as I entered into the presence of something worth more than anything else.

Preserved, more than the largest collections of fine gold & riches ever found, was Christ. He took first priority over all else.

When I woke up and was review and journalling this dream, I felt as if I had subliminally passed a test. I felt like Heavenly Father testes me in my weakest, most revealing, unhindered and truthful state.....(dream land). Was I going to be able to look past all the gold, and blindly follow someone I didn't even know to the real sacred treasure? Yes. I did. I truly know that God heard my question and revealed to me my own personal answer.

Dream- Night of nov 6th

I had a dream that I came outside to a beautiful sunset. On the horizon was what appeared to be a large hand imprint in the sky. We all gazed in wonder as we spoke among ourselves wondering if it was a sign that Christ was coming! People started coming out of their houses bringing their cameras wanting to capture this moment. All of the sudden under this handprint in the sky, a huge cross lit up on a hill. We again thought this must be it! A man stood near by the cross and with a microphone began to preach. My heart was all of the sudden filled with fear. While he was talking, he was walking around almost flirting with the women including me. I quickly realized that he was a false priest trying to sway believers before the coming of Christ. I woke up pretty quickly after.....

The Ducks from the Block (by Kira Sanoja)

I wanted to once again give a little book shout out! The Ducks from the Block is for sale!!!

PLEASE support it and buy a copy for yourself, friends, family, teacher, co-worker, etc!

I would be happy to come read it to your child's class or share it at their school's book fair!

You can find my book at www.authorhouse.com

Author Preview:"Betty and Chuck have it made hanging out in this beautiful neighborhood. Fun kids to play with, green grass to rest in, and refreshing sprinklers to cool off in. Take a walk with Betty and Chuck in this real life picture book as they explore and share our block with us."

Dream of the Attack of the killer hotdog!

Dream September 6 2010

Ok so this one totally blows my mind. Usually I have some sort of philosophical explanation for my dreams, but this one...I don't know! Please have at it if you have a clue :-)

The earliest part of the dream I can remember is standing in my kitchen talking to someone. There were others around and someone yelled that there was a mouse by my feet. I could feel it run over my foot and then my foot began to burn in pain. I picked up my foot and saw that there were these nasty blister looking welts on them and another person told me that the sores were not from the mouse. We went looking around and found the big cracked open rotten wiggling hotdog, hiding. Yes, I said hiding. We grabbed it with a kitchen towel and I begin to remember that we had put a bag of trash in the attic to keep the smell out and it must have falling out and due to the attic temperatures, its cells began to multiply and it had began to come alive! I remember thinking in my dream that I could understand evolution a little more if an old hotdog could have intelligence. [OH!!! as I am writing this, I think I have figured out why I dreamed this! I will explain at the end!!! FHEW! I thought I was totally crazy!...I guess I still am a bit :-)]. ANYWAY... My mom realized that if I were to eat this nasty, rotten, old, smelly, living hotdog, it would heal the venomous bites it had left on me. So....she prepared it for me (like a good mother would) in a bun with ketchup and mustered and I reluctantly took and bite! The taste was the most horrific taste I've ever tasted and I gagged it out of my mouth. I figured I would rather live with these bites and have to be rushed to the hospital than eat it....and that was the end!

WTH ('what the heck')!!!! So the boys have been watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. At the end of the movie, some of the food has become "superfood" that can think for its self. This is the only explanation I can come up with, but I'll take it!

Dream of a New York rumble

Dream September 3rd 2010

I was walking around in New York I think, where there was a lot of big buildings. Not like Las Vegas (they were not hotels, the were tall office like buildings) I had my camera with me and I went with this person (don't remember who) up to one of the buildings were there was very artistic photography going on. Lots of models, some dressed, some painted, just kinda weird. It was almost like they were going to try me out as their photographer. As I was explaining to the boss lady what kind of equipment I had, the building began to shake. All the girls started to scream as the building began to tip. I remember thinking that there was no way of surviving a fall like that, but I calmly asked the girls if they believed in the power of prayer and they kind of looked at me like they didn't know what I was talking about so I began to pray. One of the girls cut in and began to pray with me. The building stopped shaking and tipping and Im pretty sure that was the end, or all I can remember at least....weird...

Things I wanna do...

in no particular order....

1] Right now I have a big desire to witness the northern lights with my family and get it on camera! Hope that will happen when we go to Canada in December!

2] Stay in the Treetops Hotel in Kenya Africa with my family. Your room is high above the ground and they have different animal feeding times so you get to see all of the exotic animals out your balcony!

3] Go on a cruise pretty much anywhere at this point one with kids...one without

4] Photography in magazines (fashion/ photojournalistic)

5] A couple Cd's in stores (Christian music)

6] Couples mission for church with Andrew (anywhere Heavenly Father takes us)

7] Go on a Safari with family

8] Sky diving with Andrew

9] More books in stores

10] Go to Antelope Canyon, Az.

11] Visit Fiji (hopefully where our friend went on his mission)

12] Go to Ireland (the beautiful greeeeeeeeennnnn everywhere and castles and stuff!)

13] pretty much a lot of traveling....Visit somewhere in every continent even in Antarctica (Ice Hotel!)

14] Visit Temples all over the world

15] Go on a helicopter ride

16] Walk in as many places as Jesus walked (while on earth)

17] Own a lake house in the mountains...with boats, sea-doos and stuff

18] See the pyramids in Egypt

19] Cancun with my family

20] Send ANYONE in my family (parents, siblings, in-laws, etc.) on there dream vacation

21] have a paid off dream house....Dream house: master bedroom, room for each kids, kid play room, office, nice kitchen, studio (photography), beautiful 2 level backyard (top level with pool and big tree with treehouse, slides, swings from it) (bottom level with club house, garden, fruit trees)

22] have extra money to give whenever

23] Cadillac STS V

24] buy Andrew the motorcycle of his dreams

Im gonna have to get back to you on the rest.....I want to list 100!

When dreams become realities....

Maybe Im being a little dramatic, but the recent flood in Northwest Pakistan leaves me feeling a little sick to my stomach. If you remember in my last blog post about my dream, I say...."I talked about it like it was Las Vegas though, saying that I needed to go Northeast to get to safety (we are Northwest Vegas right now)."

Then, to make things even more strange, I was looking up more information about the flood and found this picture which sent chills down my spine, because of this sentence..."we made a stop at this little place that was very populated. It was kind of in a valley surrounded in mountains with a bunch of little shops along the mountain side." This place below is located in northern Pakistan

I know that my dream was actually about Mexico...but this still freaks me out a little bit....

Dream that Waves were raging

Morning of July 30th, 2010

I have had some dreams since the last one I wrote, and I just haven't been writing them down....oops :-), but my dream last night really stood out and I thought I would share it while it was fresh in my memory.

Me and Andrew were at this house were there were dogs up for adoption. there were a lot of people around and the caretaker let all the dogs out to mingle with the people. 2 dogs in particular took a really huge liking to us. They were so sweet and loving to each other too (like they were married). They seemed kinda worried about something though. For some reason, we couldn't take them at that moment so we left. This is where the dream gets really interesting...

We were on the road about to go under an over pass when we notice that it was pretty flooded. We hesitated to drive through, but we did anyway. We continued driving and as I looked to my right, I saw that the ocean was over flowing pretty much. I could see houses underwater and people struggling all around. The waves were out of control and the entire freeway was a couple inches deep. For some reason, even though I was living there, it was in Mexico. I talked about it like it was Las vegas though, saying that I needed to go Northeast to get to safety (we are Northwest Vegas right now).

We tried to get back to our house (in Mexico) but we made a stop at this little place that was very populated. It was kind of in a valley surrounded in mountains with a bunch of little shops along the mountain side. I was telling everyone to get to safety, pointing up to the mountain above showing them that the ocean was now at the top of those mountains and that another wave could flood the whole valley. No one was listening to us. We left and as I looked back, water started to splash a little bit over the mountains and the people finally started getting up.

We drove to this place, I don't know why we went there, but it was completely tipping over. We were on the second story with the rock band that was trying to set up for something and no one could stand straight because it was sinking. Although it sounds scary, I knew that at least we were going to get to safety, but I was sad for everyone else...i think I woke up at this point. Ummmm pretty weird huh!

The Ducks from the Block (by Kira Sanoja)

So, I am really excited about the debut of my new little children's book called The Ducks from the Block! (by Kira Sanoja). It all started back in the summer of 2009 when these cute ducks made our street their home for a while. On the first day they arrived, me, Tony, Aj, & Jordan followed them around and took pictures of their journey around our block. I will keep you posted on when it is ready for retail. If you know anyone with kiddos, please share the link with them if you would like!

xoxo

Kira

by the way...I only use my name for search engine purposes...Im not just trying to sound all vain :-)

Again...click here for the link

Don't give up on me!

Don't give up on me! I really promise that I have been continuing to read the scriptures! I haven't been very diligent about journalling everything and I know I need to.

My amazingly incredible husband set up an entire new computer system for me for my birthday coming up! Aint he the freakin bomb!!! Anywho...all of my word documents are on the other computer that seemed to have taken a dump the day after the new one was set up....Doesn't that just make you feel like....@$%&$%%&^$*%^&(*$%#^&^^&*^. :-). So Im hoping that we can get that back to "normal" so I can at least retrieve some of those things and get on a roll again.

xoxo