Sharing Time

Last Sunday, Lucy had the opportunity to give a talk in primary. The subject matter was: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He is a God of Miracles. We talked about her talk for a few days and then sat down to write it on Thursday. I sat with pen and paper in hand, and she basically dictated to me what she wanted to talk about. It started like this: "Lucy, you're talking about Jesus and his miracles, can you think of any of his miracles that you'd like to talk about?" "Well, my family is a miracle." "True, but can you think any of the miracles that he did while he lived on the earth?" "Oh! What about when he put mud on that blind man's eyes and made it so he can see again?!" "Yes, that would be good." So we sat to write and this is what she said, (it ended up being pretty much word for word what she wanted to say, with very little input from me)

Jesus met a man who was blind. He wanted to heal him. Jesus put mud on the blind man's eyes. He told him to go to a river and wash the mud out. When he washed the mud out, he could see. He wasn't blind anymore. The man was healed because he believed in Jesus Christ. This is called faith. If you trust in Jesus and believe Him and do what He says, you can have miracles too because you listened.
One night, I woke up and it was very dark in my room because my nightlight was missing. I said a prayer and Jesus helped me to not feel scared.
He has given me a family which makes me happier than I would be if I was alone.
I believe in Jesus Christ
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

She was so proud of herself as she sat at the front of the primary room waiting for her turn. She went up to the mic with her dad and basically read the talk herself. Before she got up her primary president sat beside her and asked if she was nervous, and she said, "NO, I'm so excited!"
The best part for me, is the fact that I don't remember ever telling her that story about Jesus, which means she must have learned it in primary, or somewhere similar, but she remembered it and understood it.
She's a great girl. Such a strong understanding and testimony in someone so young.

Grateful

I'm grateful today for a good Sabbath day. I had a lousy night last night and thought about not going to church...that would be justified wouldn't it? Instead I dragged my butt out, and I'm glad I did. Our Bishop shared a few thoughts with us during Priesthood/RS and they made me do a lot of thinking. And then after church, our home teachers came and shared a message about the temple with us. They told us that when their kids turn 12, they try to have some family names ready to take to the temple so their kids can have the experience of doing baptisms for family. I thought it was a great idea. As we were talking about temples, Max walked over to a bin in the kitchen that has some of his dad's young men's stuff and pulled out a Duty to God book with a picture of the Salt Lake Temple on it and showed it to us. I am grateful that the types of materials we happen to have laying around the house are wholesome. Satan would have us believe that someone so young probably isn't paying much attention to his surroundings, so we don't need to be worrying about being careful, but it is quite obvious that he does pay attention. That bin has been in our kitchen for about a week, and we've walked past it repeatedly, and I knew what was in it, but I never thought about the fact that my kids would be paying attention to what was in it. The Bishopric handed out pictures of the Calgary Temple today, and I'm looking forward to hanging them in my kid's rooms and around our house so they can see them often.

Highlights

Well, this has been an amazingly full, fabulous, and frenzied weekend. We have hit a moment of calm, so I thought I'd organize my thoughts a bit. I probably don't have enough time to make a commentary on everything, but I thought I'd at least record some of the high points, in case I don't get another chance for a while. Before I get to that, I will put up the disclaimer that the low point was the fact that my old camera is now also not working, so I didn't get many pictures from the weekend. Seriously! The weekend was celebrated with lots of laughter and tears...some of joy and some of sadness, but all in all, there were smiles around and warm hearts.
So here are a few of the highlights...at least for me:
-Watching Sarah and Tyson being sealed together for time and eternity. It always reminds me of my day, and that's a pretty awesome memory. The sealer had some pretty great words of advise and council for them. One thing he noted was how important the 'sealing' power was. He made it known that a member of the twelve come and sets them apart to the calling, but they always carry a 5x7 card that shows that they have the authority to do so...no questions I guess.
-Hanging in the hotel with Lucy and Max. They love staying in hotels. It's so exciting. It means a little bit less sleep usually, but a lot of fun and laughter.
-Dressing Max in his little 'ring-bearer' suit on Thursday morning. I have to admit I got teary. He looked like a miniature deacon and I loved it.
-Having a family photo outside the temple with my whole family (including Logan Alison! I'll post that picture as soon as I get it)
-chillin out at Valda's in preparation for the family dinner. Lucy, Max and Jacob had an awesome time playing with the balls on the pool table.
-watching Tyler and Jason perform their long awaited lipsynq and dance to the song "Sisters" from White Christmas. It had everyone in stitches, especially Sarah - which was the goal, so score for them.
-Dancing with my Max on the dance floor. He gave me a good long cuddle for about 20 minutes.
-Eating crepes. Seriously, they were delicious.
-Hanging with extended family that we only get to see at these types of events. It was so awesome. And exhausting. Sleep is a rare thing at these types of events.
-Having a good conversation with my husband on the way down to the temple. I like those ones. Talking about genetics verses creation. Deep stuff.
-Watching my kids dance together on the dance floor and Lucy planting a huge kiss on Max's lips half-way through a song.
-Tucking my exhausted kids into bed for the night...ah sleep, perchance to dream!
-Delicious breakfast this morning: oven-cooked bacon is the best.
-watching Sarah and Tyson open their gifts. They just kept coming and coming and coming! Lucy and Max loved being little helpers to carrying in all the presents.
(Our gift to them was a copy of the Proclamation to the World on the Family and the card read: Despite claims to the contrary, this proclamation is not written on the Family, but rather on paper - we are hilarious!)
-Coming home finally and unpacking our suitcase. I love living at home. My own bed, my own shower - which still has yet to welcome me - and no more suitcases!
The festivities went a little long and we missed my Grandma's 80th birthday party, which I was really disappointed about, but a SUPER fussy baby can only handle so much, so we opted for a nap instead. I hope she is forgiving and realizes how much I love her. The rest of the weekend will be spent helping Janeen get ready to leave on Monday for BYU. Tears are still pretty near the surface, so this will be tough.
I'm going to have to snag photos from someone's camera, because I just can't handle the no photo blog.

And they're off...

The week of wedding has begun. Last night was a family BBQ, today is laundry and packing and cleaning my house so I can come back to some form of organized life. Tomorrow is the trip to Cardston. There will be lots to blog about, but when I'll actually find the time, who knows. And how is it my nice new camera could be not working at such a crucial time as this?!

Those 3 Dreaded Words

That time is fast approaching. The time that I have been trying desperately to not think about over the past 5 years, but it's getting pretty hard to ignore. The time where I will have to follow someone else's schedule, besides my own. I will have places to be and people to see on a regular basis (boy this sounds hermit-like). I will have to socialize with people who only have one thing in common with me...my child and their child being in the same class. I will have to start getting my children up at 7:30 in the morning everyday to accommodate the two days a week when it will actually be necessary. But most dreaded of all: I will have to send my beautiful daughter off for two FULL days a week and trust that the person who is teaching her, and comforting her, and acknowledging her existence feels that she is as important as I do...which I know they won't. They can try, but they won't. And I will have to hope and PRAY that she will want to come home and share everything with us so I can be involved. I am her protector. I am her confidante. I am the one who GETS her. And no one else does, quite the same way. I know when to be firm with her, and when to be squishy. I have to pretend that it's exciting and not scary on the first day, so she'll be excited and not scared. On the days she comes home and has had a bad day, I will have to be strong and encourage her to go back and try again, instead of retreating into our own world, like I want. She is the best girl in the world! What if kids tease her? What if they don't like her? What if no one wants to play with her? How do I help her to be ok with that? How do I teach her to be confident but respectful? What if all the kids want to be her friend and then all of a sudden she wants to spend more time with them than me? How do I deal with someone who might have a different teaching approach than I do? What if they don't tailor it to her needs? How can I miss her 'ah-ha' moments when she learns something new and can't come and share her excitement with me right away? How do I explain to her brother that he has to wait 2 years before it's his turn. That's more than half his lifetime.
In a few weeks, my life is going to change forever. Kindergarten.
It's 'Back-To-School' time. blah.
I am excited, however, about back-to-school shopping. That's something I never mind doing. We did a bit today, and I think she's going to be one awesome fashionista. Pictures to come soon.

Fabulous Mother

On Thursday evening, before what was expected to be a very stressful weekend taking 3 kids down to Southern Alberta and living in hotel rooms for 3 days (mostly stressful because of the youngest of the 3) - my sweet and fabulous mother offered to come out and watch my kids for me so I could have a date with my husband...something that hasn't happened in a very long time. Janeen's grad was the last time, I believe - middle of May. So she came by and watched the kids while we went on a awesome and cheap date. Bought some donairs in town, got the movie Clash of the Titans on Blue-ray and then headed to the Kerr's house to watch it on their awesome big-screen. They're on vacation right now and we're house-sitting for them. We also used their massage chair and tanning bed and were home by 9:30...oh what a wonderful mother!

Happy Weekend

We spent the weekend down in Southern Alberta, participating in a full weekend of family events. On Friday evening, we were able to go to the temple with Sarah for the first time and enjoyed watching her participate in that. Janeen, Kari and Barrett were on babysitting duty back at the hotel, and everything went very well...life savers!
On Saturday morning, we got up and checked out of our hotel and headed to the park and a car show before we made the drive to Lethbridge for the remainder of the weekend.

The kids had a blast racing down the slides and checking out the bumblebee car, the Doc Hudson and the mini jeep. There were some pretty sweet cars, and some pretty sweet owners.


Then we headed over to the temple to get a few pictures with the kids and stop at the distribution center.

We also noticed that our owl friend is still making the temple window his home.

We then made the trip to Lethbridge. Upon arriving, we stopped to get gas and didn't realize that we would be stopping for good. The van wouldn't start. We finally diagnosed that it was the starter, and Tyler, Barrett and Scott set out to fix it, while the kids and I jumped into Kari and Barrett's van to get to the hotel and check in. Pain in the butt, but it worked out that it happened on the day when nothing else was going on, so that was a blessing.
The kids went for a dip in the hotel pool and gained a lot of confidence in their swimming skills there, thanks again to Auntie Janeen. With waterwings on, they practiced their floating and swimming, to the point where it was hard to get them out of the pool at 10pm. But they slept gloriously!

Logan even enjoyed a dip in the pool after dinner.

On Sunday, we went to church with Kari and Barrett and enjoyed participating in the blessing of their new baby, Luke. It was a pretty great day. We were all so happy that this miracle baby had finally arrived and is so healthy. Kari is loving being a mom, of course, and can't help but cuddle her baby constantly. Then we had a quick bite to eat back at Kari and Barrett's, before the drive home. And of course, we took the opportunity to take a picture of all the grandkids. We couldn't get them all to look at one camera at once, but at least no one is crying.

(Jacob, Max, Logan, Lucy, Luke, and Sarah)
Driving with a baby is never fun, but the weekend went surprisingly well. Everyone slept well and behaved as well as could be expected. So it was actually a stress relief to me, rather than a stress causer.