Sunday December 30 (add pictures of CFM night)

I was hoping no one would notice that I forgot to blog last night...….

But Gramps called me out on it :)

Sorry!!!!

I blame the stress I felt over giving the dang talk in Sacrament meeting!!!!!

So it's over, I did it and I survived.

I didn't think I would....my hands started to cramp up, I could barely pick up the sacrament cup!!!!

Brent told me not to look right at the people and I told him that the darkness moving on from the sides was helping to block the people out :)

Ha ha…

He was great though, helping me focus on breathing.

Not sure why I get myself all worked up!!!!

Anyway, I will share it at the end.

I also recorded Brent, he did so well.

He is great at the public speaking thing.

Anyway, then we went to Sunday school and had a good lesson about the second coming.

For the last hour we were combined with the Youth and we talked about the new Come Follow Me program for individuals and families.

I cannot express how excited I am for this.

In my talk I used an analogy about how I feel about it.

This really is a protection for the future storms that come our way.

A protection for our testimonies, our Faith.

I am just so excited.

Back at home, we made dinner to take to the bishops family.

Their poor little 4 month old was just hospitalized with RSV :(

He is back home now, but still so sad to see him not feeling well!

Then we had our own dinner.

After dinner, we wanted to go over the Come Follow Me for this first week of the program.

It was great, we talked about planting our seed in nice good soil so the roots can grow and we can produce good fruit.

Then we talked about how we can create good soil in our home for our testimonies to grow.

We talked about things to improve on and  it was a really great evening.

I really look forward to this in the new year!

My kids ask such good questions and have such great insight!

When we were done, I got a text from Vern letting us know that an ambulance was picking up GG.

She's not doing well, not eating, still coughing a lot and sleeping most the day.

Poor Vern has been exhausted caring for her.

I don't know many details, but prayers for them both.

Consecrating our time to the Lord

I have a favorite quote that has been on my mind on and off for years.

But even more recently with all the things that we have been asked to do or that have changed in the most recent conferences and broadcasts.

This quote comes from President Russell M Nelson given at a worldwide devotional held at BYU Hawaii in 2016.

I promise you that as you consistently give the Lord a generous portion of your time, He will multiply the remainder.

When I think of TIME, I get a little knot in my stomach. Actually a big knot.

I don't know if it is because my Madi will be leaving to college next year.

Or maybe it is because I feel like there is so much to do but just not enough time.

Or the fact that each year seems to speed by faster and faster.

But TIME has been stressing me out.

So I am looking for ways that I can give the Lord a generous amount of my time, so he can multiply the remainder.

As I said before, there have been many changes that have come to us by revelation over the last little while.

All of those things will require us to consecrate more of our time to the Lord.

Lets start with the changes made with how we minister.

Sister Jean B Bingham shared in her April 2018 talk 'Ministering as the Savior does' That we are being prepared for our Saviors second coming. And what better way to prepare to meet him than to strive to become like him through lovingly ministering to one another.

Now the new holier way of ministering requires more than a quick visit and a check marked done.

It will take our time.

Time for the Elders quorum and RS leaders to prayerfully counsel about who to assign to who.

Time taken out of our day to go for a walk with someone who just needs to get out, or planning a family game night.

Time to find out what is truly needed by those we minister to.

It takes time to become a part of someone's life and truly care about him or her and to know what their needs might be.

In March 2015, we were in the middle of our home remodel and living in our very small basement.

We had to get railing on our entry stairs in order to gain occupancy to the house.

While we were out of town for Spring Break, our family was in a rollover accident in which Brent broke his back.

Yep, he is a walking miracle!

We had many ministering angels during that time, many of them here today.

But one really sticks out to me, and that was our then home teacher.

He knew us, he had taken time out of his life to really know us as a family.

And since he knew us before the accident, he knew how he could help lighten our load without even asking.

He was able to arrange to get the railing finished on our stairs so that we could get occupancy and move out of the tiny cooped up basement.

Consecrating our time to the Lord by ministering to his children, that is what Ministering is all about.

Let's talk about other ways we can consecrate our time to the Lord.

When our prophet spoke to the sisters in the Woman's session in this last general conference, he said that he prays that we can understand our spiritual gifts – to cultivate, use, and expand them, even more than we ever have. He adds that we will change the world as we do so.

I am pretty sure changing the world will take a significant amount of our time as we dedicate it to the work of the Lord.

President Nelson further invited the Woman of the church to do 4 things to help gather scattered Israel, along with the Youth, which he called the greatest challenge, the greatest cause and the greatest work on earth today.

His first invitation was to participate in a 10 day social media fast and then to pay close attention after the fast to what we want to change when it comes to how we spend our time and energy.

I think we are all guilty at some point of wasting time on social media, TV, or other things that waist precious time.

I was grateful for the opportunity I had to accept the Prophet's challenge.

And I am for sure not perfect, but I am making a better effort to do more meaningful things with my time.

Second, he invited us to read the Book Of Mormon between then, which was in October, and the end of the year.....that's tomorrow!

When he said that, I remember thinking, how in the world can I fit that in?????

But the prophet promised if we accept this invitation with a full purpose of heart, the Lord will help us find a way to achieve it.

Now, I am not a reader......so I listen. I started listening to the B of M while making my kids lunches in the mornings.

After a little bit of time I realized I wasn't doing it right, as we were also asked to mark verses that speak or refers to Christ.

So I had to reevaluate how I did it.

I started setting my alarm for 30 minutes earlier than I had been.

This allowed me to sit down and open my scriptures and, while still listening, I could mark the verses which spoke of Christ.

Which....is a lot.

I don't have one page that doesn't have some kind of highlighter marking on it!

Taking that time in the morning, usually before the kiddos were awake, allowed me to have a deeper connection to what I was reading.

A better understanding of my Savior and his love for me.

The third invitation also requires us to set a significant amount of time aside for the Lord.

We were asked to establish a pattern of regular temple attendance.

We all know that going to the temple takes time.

And we also know that Satan tries really hard to use that as a deterrent.

Whether it be the youth who take the time in the early morning to accomplish this before they go to school, gathering with your ministering brothers or sisters to plan a time together in the temple, or using a temple date night in place of a movie date night, we are promised that more regular time in the temple will allow the Lord to teach us how to draw upon His priesthood power with which we have been endowed with in his temple.

The last invitation he gave the woman of the church was to fully participate in Relief Society and read the RS purpose statement and declaration.

He says it may guide us in developing our own purpose statement for our own lives....this is where we can incorporate our spiritual gifts that he spoke of earlier.

To cultivate, use, and expand them, even more than we ever have.

The very last chapter of the B of M speaks of these spiritual gifts, and I don't find it a coincidence that our Prophet asked us, woman of the church, to finish the B of M by the end of the year and that the very last chapter speaks about the spiritual gifts that we can use to change the world!!!!!

Making our own purpose statement and using our spiritual gifts as a guide sounds like a great way to start a New Year to me!

Another small, but very significant way we have been asked to consecrate our time to the Lord is using the correct name of the church.

Man it is way faster to just say LDS or Mormon......but as our Prophet pointed out that it is our Savior who named the church and when we omit his name from His church, we are removing Him as the central focus of our lives.

Pres Nelson adds that if we are patient and do our part, the Lord will lead us through this important task.

We know the Lord helps those that seek to do his will.....so even though it will take more time on our part to say the full name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints.....When we do so ' He whose church this is will pour down His power and blessings upon the heads of those who follow him, the likes of which we have never seen.

We will have the knowledge and power of God to help us take the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation kindred tongue and people and to prepare the world for the second coming of the Lord.

Wow! That is quite a promise for just dedicating a little bit more of our time to say the correct name of our church!!!

The last point, the last change that I will talk about are the changes in the church times......

I don't take it lightly that our Prophet said that the adversary is increasing his attacks on Faith and upon us and our families at an exponential rate!

And...To survive spiritually we need counter strategies and proactive plans!

There is no doubt in my mind that this is just the start of that proactive plan.

I know that when it was first announced that church would go from 3 hours to 2 hours, there was rejoicing!

We felt like we were getting time back :)

But really, the more we have learned about the new Come Follow Me for individuals and families, this is going to require much more of our time.

Much more time in prayer to ask what is best for yourself or your family, more time in personal scripture study, personal time learning and growing, and figuring out schedules to get family together.

The pre-planning that will go into this Home-centered gospel study program will not be an easy task, nor one we should take lightly.

I, for one, want to use this pro-active plan to keep the adversary at bay.

I am grateful for this chance to dedicate, to consecrate, more of my time to the Lord in order to give my family that extra barrier from Satan who, I know for a fact, wants to destroy my family.

Since it is a big part of our lives....I will give you another house remodel story :)

We have this beautiful wrap around porch.

We started painting it by hand a couple years ago, and it took forever.

Actually, we never finished it by hand.

Then Winter would come and warp the stuff we had not yet painted.

So this Fall we decided to fix that.

We knew it would take a big chunk of time, but we needed to get the warped pieces replaced and get it painted before this winter hit and damaged more.

We decided the only way it would get all done before winter would be to spray it.

Since the house is already painted, we needed to tape plastic all around to protect it from over-spray.

That took a lot of time and hassle to get the large sheets of plastic hung up.....and then even after we had a couple sides hung, a wind came overnight and blew it all down. But we didn't give up, we hung it again and started spraying it.

The thing about spraying is it puts on a really good coat.

Better than putting it on with a brush.

So you go through more paint, but in the end, it is a better protection for the wood.

How does this apply to my talk, you ask?

Church as it was, has been great.

It has done many great things for our family, but it wasn't enough.

Like the hand painting of the railing, it's not getting the job done to protect it from the winter storms.

Now with this new home-centered, church supported revealed plan, we are laying on an extra thick coat of paint to help withstand that harsh winter weather.

Like I said earlier, it will take more time to plan and prepare.

And just like hanging the plastic, it might not go as planned and the wind might blow it down.

But we just put it back up, we keep on going and we keep working, and we keep trying. We want that extra thick coat of paint as a protection!!!!!

We want that porch, we want our families, we want our testimonies to last.

To be protected.

I am grateful for these new improved opportunities to consecrate my time to the Lord. As I look to the New Year, these things I have talked about will play a significant role in what I choose to spend my time doing.

I want to go back to that quote from President Nelson :

He said: I promise you that as you consistently give the Lord a generous portion of your time, He will multiply the remainder.

Let me say that again.......in case you want to write it down.....

I promise you that as you consistently give the Lord a generous portion of your time, He will multiply the remainder.

We have been asked to do a lot of things with our time, but we have been promised so much more.

I know we will have enough time to get done what we want if we just consecrate that time to the Lord.

I know with the Lord's help, we can accomplish the tasks he has asked of us, and much more.

And in return, we will be blessed.

I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I am grateful to be living in this time when we are given such great tools to strengthen each other.

I am grateful that I have taken the challenge to immerse myself in the B of M the last couple of months and I know that book talks of true things that happened and testifies of Christ.

I know we have a living prophet today, President Russel M Nelson, who I know receives direct revelation from God.

We are being guided, we are being given the to-do book on how we can return to him.

It is up to us to give of our time to the Lord so we can receive those blessings.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Saturday December 29 (add pictures)

I totally forgot to post last night!!!!

All is well, just have had this talk on my mind!

I had a YW meeting with Stacia this morning, and Port went over to hang with Cannon.

Then I ran.

Elsie had her friend Carley over for a few hours.

Both these girls have been so excited to have this play-date!

They had fun together, and Cassi painted their fingernails for them.

I worked on laundry all day and went over my talk over and over...….

Madi had to work too....

Not a crazy busy day around here.

Friday December 28

The boys hung out here all day with Port, he's maybe had too much time with his sisters lately :)

Some cleaning got done around the house, but mostly the kiddos played and hung out.

I spent my day, first running, then working on my talk for Sunday.

I think I got most of it written down.

I hope it makes sense...….

Madi went to lunch today with Jason.

Then she came home and cleaned the kitchen and front room for me.

Cass hung out with some friends tonight.

I needed to take back the Redbox movie and went in to Walmart to get some laundry detergent and ended up finding some good 75% off Christmas stuff for next year :)

The kids made fun of me, but I did save a lot of money that I would have spent next year!

I just need to remember I got it!

I will pack it away with the Christmas when I put that away...which might be tomorrow!

I am ready for a fresh clean non-Christmas house!

Thursday December 27

So we got up and got all packed up this morning.

There was some snow overnight, but not bad.

Em was so great to let us bring our tornado to her house for one night 😊

We went and got gas and some food and then hit the road about noontime.

The roads were wet and slushy, but we had a pretty good drive home.

It's always good to get home!

The internet is out, I guess it's out for a lot of places with Century Link.

So blogging from my phone 👍🏻

It's good to be home and now I'm ready to get the house clean and put away Christmas!

But first I gotta finish planning my talk!!!!!!!

Wednesday December 26 (add pictures)

We slept in a little this morning before getting up and getting things packed up.

The boys shoveled more snow because it snowed more overnight.

It sure was beautiful.

Got packed up and spent some time with Gramps.

He is a great story teller and the kids love listening to him.

We also cleaned up the house for Gramps because we were like a tornado there!!!!

I told him that we most likely left stuff there, because we had stuff sprawled out everywhere!!!!!

We are glad we got to spend Christmas with Gramps. 

It made for a very special day.

Anyway, we got driving towards Utah.

Stopped to see Grandma, and wipe the snow from her gravestone.

Then of course we had to see the buffalos.

We had a nice drive through the canyon.

We got to Em's house with about an hour before we needed to head to the family party.

So we got unpacked and chilled out before we headed out to the church for our family party.

We started the night with eating pizza and salad.

Then we made some gingerbread houses with the kiddos.

That was fun.

Cassi lost her phone at some point, and before she could find it, Madi built a gingerbread house around it!!!!

No one would tell Cassi where the phone was.

After gingerbread houses, we all sat down and did a fun gift exchange, then we called Cassi's phone :)

She walked up to it and smashed the house to get the phone.

It was pretty funny!

Then we went on with the gift exchange and had a fun time doing that.

Emmy had some gifts to give all the little kiddos too, so they all opened those, which was fun.

Em has been working many many hours to make some amazing quilts for my parents!

And when I say amazing, that doesn't even cover it!

My Dad's quilt was a bow tie quilt pattern filled with fabrics that remind us of our childhood.

Books he read to us, animals we had growing up, computer and library related fabrics because that was his field of work.

It was amazing!

She also included a fabric swatch from each of the Emmy blankets she has made for us siblings, both in Mom's and Dad's quilts.

Then for Mom's quilt, Em made the most amazing giant quilt block of the 508 house, Grandma Beardall's house.

That block alone took 20 hours to make!!!!!

Then it included bees stitched in the quilting.

Just amazing!

She put so much thought and time....and then more time into these quilts!

She has a gift for sure!

And she is just the sweetest to share it with us the way she does!

After all that and clean up, we headed back to Em's.

We got here about 10.

So now they are all in bed, hoping to get some good sleep, and then we head home tomorrow.

It has been a whirlwind of excitement these last few days.

Oh, update on Shane, they will be releasing him soon.

He will need to take time to recover, but no surgery needed.

Prayers work!!!!

Tuesday December 25 (add pictures)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It was a wonderful day.

The kids slept good, and we all got up around 7.

It was the perfect Christmas morning with beautiful fresh snow falling, Gramps happily watching to kiddos open gifts.

It was a nice morning.

After opening gifts, we had some breakfast together.

Then played with all the new fun things they got.

We had Dani, Clint, Morgan and Taylor with Lexi stop by for a bit and chat.

Then we went to the movies.

We almost talked Gramps into going with us, but he ended up staying home.

We went and saw the movie Mary Poppins Returns.

It was such a great movie and the kids loved it.

While there, we found out that Grandpa's neighbors, and Elsie's pen pal's (Kallie) Dad was in a sledding accident.

He was sledding on a snowboard behind a four-wheeler/mule and something went wrong.

He was flown to U of U with a head injury.

He ended up fracturing his skull behind his ear and there is bleeding from his ear.

He has lost some memory and thinks it is Saturday.

They will have the Neurosurgeon look at his CT scans and see if he needs surgery.

Breaks my heart for them to go through this!

Especially on Christmas day!!!!!

Our prayers are with their family.

When we got back home, Nancy and Russ came back by with Heather and Lauren along with Miley and Haisley.

We started playing games, but then we moved the games up to Dave and Cindy's house.

It was a fun night.

Then we got a little concert when Cassi and Andy sang a few songs together :)

They sounded so good together!!!!

It was a nice evening with family.

There was a little layer of snow that fell all day long and it was beautiful!

We have had such a nice time here in Evanston with so much family close by.

Tomorrow we will head to Utah to spend some time with my family with a family party

That will be a fun time too!

Monday December 24 (add pictrues)

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

We had a fun day.

The day started out slow, but we had plans to go ice skating with Nancy, Russ, Heather and Lauren.

BUT......we found out that the lake wasn't frozen enough.

So then we thought we would go bowling.

Well, bowling ally was closed.

Then we thought maybe we could go to the movies, but we couldn't decide on one that we all wanted to see, that someone hadn't already seen.

SOOOO....we opted for games here at Gramps.

Then the big girls ditched us, and went caroling to Dough/Sandra's and Dave/Cindy's.

It was not beautiful caroling!!!!!

But they had a lot of fun doing it :)

Nancy played many rounds of connect 4 with Elsie bug.

Oh, and the boys went to the store to get some stuff we needed for the next couple days!

Then we all got ready and headed to Dave and Cindy's for a yummy Fondue Christmas Eve dinner.

Yummy food, entertainment, fun and treats!

It was a fun evening.

We talked about our favorite Christmas memories.

Lots of feel good stories and lots of touching stories.

The spirit was felt for sure.

When we got back to Gramps house, the kiddos opened their Christmas jammies and now they are all jammed in the same room and hopefully they will all get some good sleep tonight!!!!

I can't believe that the day comes tomorrow!!!!!!

Better get myself to bed!!!!!

Sunday December 23

We had a nice day today.

Got up and got ready for church.

Before church, Brittney McCoy and her boys came by to visit.

We haven't seen them for a while and it was nice to see them for a bit.

We went to church.

Today it was just one hour.

It was a nice day with music and the spirit.

We came home and the kids got changed into snow clothes right away!

This is what they have been waiting for, playing in the snow!!!!!

They were out there for a long time!!!!!

And they had a really fun time!

Snow ball fights, snow caves dug, lots of fun!

Then we had about a 2 hour game of Phase 10!!!!!

We had some up's and down's playing the game.....but I think in the end, everyone had fun.

Before dinner, Dani, Clint, Morgan, Taylor, Dussy boy, Doug and Sandra came over to chat for a bit.

That was a fun time :)

Then we ate dinner and wound ourselves down watching some Christmas shows on TV.

Everyone is exhausted, so the kids all got to bed really early!

Can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve!!!!!

I think the plan is to ice skate with Nance and the girls.

Fun time with family!

Saturday December 22

We got up and got going on the packing and the cleaning up.

I got a load of laundry done, but then ended up just taking what we needed washed with us in a bag to wash at Gramps house.

We left about noon.

We were packed to the gills!!!!

Hopefully we can fit on the way home!!!!!!!!

We stopped in Burley and we went to the Walmart there.

The kids each drew a name of who they give to this Christmas, and we split up to find the perfect gift :)

It has been a fun tradition that the kiddos really like.

So that put up behind a little on the drive.

It wasn't the most pleasant trip, I won't lie.

We were all pretty grumpy.

But, I think we will all try harder and really enjoy our time here!

When we got to Evanston, we stopped back at the Walmart here and got some groceries for tomorrow and for Christmas eve and Christmas day :)

We have a fun few days ahead of us!!!!!

Friday December 21

Today I planned to get all the laundry done.....

Then it stopped working.

So Dad worked the whole day to get it fixed for me.

And he fixed it :)

If course.

Dang thing!

It was a different problem than what he fixed last time!

How many times do you fix something before getting a new one?!?!?!?!

Anyway, I dipped more pretzels, and then went and helped in Porter's class party.

This evening we all went out to dinner and then delivered our neighbor gifts :)

Besides NOT having laundry done, presents wrapped, or luggage packed, I would say we are all set to go tomorrow :)

Thursday December 20

After Dad and I got out workout in this morning, we headed to the temple.

It was a great little day date to have.

We keep meaning to get there, but something always comes up.

And right now, with so much to do and get ready for, it did not seem like the best time!!!!!

BUT, I am so glad we did!!!!

I saw a couple sweet ladies that were in our previous wards :)

Always fun to see a familiar faces there.

We came home and got some more Christmas prep stuff done.
I got some more pretzels made, Dad got some stuff painted and cut for me to finish some stuff :)

Tomorrow we will deliver the neighbor gifts. 

Nothing like last minute!!!!

Still feels like there is lots to do, but also, I am feeling a little less stressed :)

Wednesday December 19 (add pictures)

I helped in the office today.

I steamed the Santa and Mrs. Clause suits for the class parties on Friday :)

Should be a fun time.

Dad took Cassi to get a bracket put back on her teeth.

As soon as she got in the school, she texted him and said it fell off AGAIN!

So, I called and made another appointment for just after lunch.

He took her to that and then brought her home.

He had to leave for a meeting for work, for the special ops teams.

So I took Cassi back to school on my way to the store.

I had a few more errands to run.

Man oh man, I love amazon shopping so much better than actual store shopping this time of year!!!!!

But some things you just can't get on Amazon!

Anyway, I got my stuff accomplished.

Max and Graham went to scouts with Porter

GG came home today, they are watching her close and hopefully she can kick the virus.

Then for YW tonight, Elsie invited her cute friend from school, Carly, to come with us.

They are sweet girls together.

I had a hard time understanding Carly, but Elsie was really good at it.

Just like with Sierra.

Sometimes I can't tell what she is saying, and Elsie can get it right away.

She has a gift for it, I guess you could say :)

Sierra knows her too from school, so they all had a fun time together.

We decorated cookies and then delivered them to friends.

Anyway, it was a fun night!

While we were gone, Dad took Porter to the movies!

They went and saw the new Spiderman one.

They both really enjoyed themselves and I know Porter really loves spending time with Dad!!!!

Tuesday December 18

Dad got home this morning ❤

After the kids went off to school, we took a little wind down time watching news etc. before heading to the gym and getting a workout.

After that, I got more chocolate pretzels made for the teachers and neighbors.

When the kiddos got home, I took Elsie to Mary Mac and delivered some cards and treats to Ms. Dynka, Mrs. Murdoch, etc.

Then I took her to piano.

The Edwards boys came over after school again for a bit until Bob, their Grandpa, came and got them.

So I let Porter hang with them until they left before I took him to piano.

Luckily it worked out with the time, it was just a little more driving around :)

Then this evening I went with Stacia to the RS Christmas dinner.

It was a nice evening.

I can't believe Christmas is only a week away!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday December 17

We started out the morning with a scare.

I drove Elsie to the bus and behind the bus pulls up a firetruck.

The bus pulled forward and the firetruck turned down Mary Lane.

And pulled up in front of Vern's house.

Porter was home alone so when I drove up to the house, he was running out in the rain in his socks to see what was going on.

A couple weeks ago, Vern brought her Grandma, GG, back with her from Florida when they visited.

So I knew it had something to do with her.

She is 100!

I immediately called Brent at the station to see if he could see what the call was, I didn't wand to bug Vern.

The call was for chest pain.

Then I called Bubble to see if she knew anything.....she hadn't even seen the firetruck yet.

Then I tried calling Vern, with no answer.

Brent suggested I go over and grab the boys so they wouldn't have to be there.

So I went over and grabbed the boys.

GG was conscious and breathing, but she had a bad cough and heaviness in her chest.

Poor Vern, she was trying to hold it together for her boys.

So I took the boys and got them ready and off to school.

Vern let me know later on that they had given her some breathing treatments and that helped.

She has fluid in her lungs and it is causing strain on her heart.

She got an echo done later this evening, I don't know what the results of that are.

They were unsure if she had a virus, pneumonia, or just old hearty failure.

Vern is staying the night with her tonight and we will see how things are tomorrow.

Today at home I pulled out all the Christmas stuff to see if we look 'even' enough :)

The I had to do a return and also take a box to UPS.

Then I stopped in to Payless because Elsie needs snow boots before we head to Wyoming.

I scored and found some awesome boots with a hard rubber toe...which is really important, because she tends to drag her toes and wear them out in her shoes.

So this is perfect....and the best part was they were 40% off!!!!!

So I got $50 boots for $30!

Very cool!

I came home and made some dipped pretzels for Elsie to give to her speech therapist and also Katie :)

We went to speech and she rocked it!

She is doing so well with the exercises and stuff she is supposed to be doing.

We got home and had dinner.

Then we had a little FHE, kind of secret without Dad, because he is at work.

But this weeks "Light the World" is about lighting your family.

Each of the kids wrote notes to Dad to tell him how much they love him :)

So I think he will forgive us for having FHE without him tonight....

I took this picture of Vern and GG this last Saturday :)

Sunday December 16

It was a pretty great day today.

I slept a little bit longer after Dad left for work.

I didn't get great sleep because I was a bit worried about how my lesson would go today.

When I woke up, Porter had gotten up.

Last night, Madi had a work party where she got a cute mug.

Well, as she was leaving the party, the bag ripped and her mug fell and broke.

Well, Porter saw that this morning and he did his best to get it all taped up.

Isn't that just the cutest thing ever?????

It was so sweet of him!

Anyway, we slowly got everyone ready while I tried to tie up the loose ends on my lesson.

It still didn't feel quite right, but I didn't have time to figure out what it needed!

Anyway....the kids and I chatted.

I talked to Madi and told her that Dad wished the kid she went on a date with last night would have come talked to him.

He was out checking/adding oil to her car.

Anyway, she said "But he is so intimidating to people!"

I told her that is what I said :)

But then we all started talking about what a big huge softy he is.

With animals and little kiddos...…..then we talked about how awesome he's gonna be as a grandpa :)

Someday...…….

It was a fun conversation with the kids :)

Then Cassi, Porter and Elsie went to choir practice.

Dang it...I thought they would sing this week, but they sing next week, when we will be in Wyoming.

I told them that the choir will probably sing in Wyoming, and they can just join them :)

We went to church and there were some great speakers for sacrament....talking about light and leading others to Christ, which was just what my lesson was about.

I took some notes and added it to my lesson and it was pretty cool that it seemed to fill the missing piece I thought I had in my lesson.
Isn't that cool how things work like that?!?

I forgot part of my display at home, so I cut out for the first part of Sunday School to run home.

But when I got to class we were talking about Daniel when he was younger and not partaking of them extravagant food.

Again, kind of cool because that was a story I used in my lesson as well.

I am happy with how my lesson went.

Of course I would have loved a little more input form the kiddos...….but they did good.

I took a lot of my lesson from a talk given by Sister Eubank by the name of Turn on Your Light.

Now this wasn't a Christmas lesson, but the theme the presidency came up with for the lesson was being like the star of Bethlehem and leading others to Christ.

She had 5 points in her talk, which actually came form a talk written by President Kimball in 1979!

Anyway.....I read this talk and then it hit me.....5 points.....stars have 5 points!!!!

It was perfect!

So the lesson was bout these 5 points, 5 things we can do to let our light shine and lead others to Christ.

For each think I had it written on a strip of paper and put it up on the board in the shape of a star :)

I am a sucker for a good theme :)

The first point was to be righteous.

Now being righteous doesn't mean being perfect all the time and never making mistakes.

It is about repenting of our sins and mistakes and freely helping others.

Then we talked about examples in the scriptures.

Alma the Younger and his whole story.

Aminidab when Lehi and Nephi were in the prison and the walls came down.

They both were wicked, then they repented and did all they could to lead others towards Christ.

Then I talked about a story about Pres Uctdorf's mother in law.

She was a young single widow in a rough time.

She read the Book of Mormon in a couple days and was baptized.

The missionary's asked her to write her testimony down and they used that in their missionary work.

So here is a woman that changed her life by accepting the gospel and then led others to Christ with her testimony.

The second point was to be articulate.

Meaning to clearly express how you feel about something and why.

We talked about the think that we have become more articulate about lately....and that is the name of the church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Seems to me that this has become a very important thing we need to articulate.

Then I asked them these questions.

How do you feel about Jesus Christ?

Why do you stay in the church?

Why do you believe the Book or Mormon is Scripture?

Where do you get your peace?

Why does it matter that the Prophet has something to say in these days?

How do you know he is a real prophet?

I wanted the girls to thin about these things.

How can we be articulate about what we believe if we never sit down and figure out what we do believe?

The third point, be different.

I like to think of it as thinking outside the box.

Like Samuel the Lamenite, he couldn't get in through the door, so he climbed the wall.

By doing so, he led many to Christ.

And this is where I talked about Daniel and him not partaking of the food....he was blessed for it in physical strength as well as spiritual strength.

And this is what I got from the sacrament meeting speaker (Melissa Johnson) that I added.....

She used an acronym for STARS.

S- reading your scriptures

T- attending the Temple

A- Always Pray

R- Remember Him

S- Service

I loved this because if we remember to do these things, then we will be blessed with the spirit.

And the Spirit will be there to guide us and help us THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!

Fourth point, be distinct.

That is more than being different.

That is being recognizably well -defined!

We read in Helaman 5:12 about building a foundation of rock.

We must build our foundation before it is needed.

It will do no good to wait for the storm and then build the foundation!

I talked about a story from Sister Eubanks talk.

Some kids were stuck out in the tide.

People on the beach tried to help and just got stuck there too.

So there were 9 people out there.

A woman named Jessica Simmons had the idea to have people on the beach link arms to form a line out to where people were stuck.

This is where she was DIFFERENT from what others though to do, but what made her DISTINCT was the fact that she was a very good swimmer.

She knew she could get those people out of the tide.

So she swam down the line and go the people one by one and handed them to the human line that passed them all to safety.

Now if Jessica had not practiced her skill of swimming, she would not have been able to do what she did.

I like to think of this as our spiritual gifts as well.

Spiritual gifts we are given can be used to build that rock as our foundation.

But we can't wait until the time we need it, we need to figure out our gifts and we need to use them so they are there when we need them.

These spiritual gifts will be a light for others, to help guide them to Christ.

I talked about Grandma Ene.

About her gift of compassion and empathy.

How she had an amazing ability to know what others needed.

There wasn't a person that knew her that didn't feel God's love when they were around her.

The last point, was to do all those, happily :)

Who doesn't love being around someone who is genuinely happy.

I'm not talking fake happy....but real happy.

But if we are keeping the laws of God and helping and uplifting others, we will automatically be happy!

And what better way to shine than by being happy!!!!

Anyway, that was the lesson.

Then for the gift that we gave as YW leaders, they got some hand stamped (by my helper, Brent) bracelets with little stars on them.

They are pretty cute.

Hopefully it will be a reminder for them to shine like the Star of Bethlehem  so they can lead others to Christ!!!!!'

Once we got home and got changed, the Morgna's came over.

We have been planning a Hallmark movie night.....a new tradition we are starting.

The Morgan's and Matthew's Merry Magical Movie night.....we may change it to a Marathon next year, but we only had time for one movie tonight.

Anyway, we had dinner together and sent Port and Cannon to go hang out while us girls watched the cheesy Christmas movie :)

Fun times!!!!