Sunday January 13

I am really loving Sundays.

I mean, we were all a bit rushed this morning getting to church in time.

But we got there on time :)

We had a great sacrament meeting with talks about Hope and trusting in the Lord.

And about how important we are in his plan.

Then it tied right into our Beehive lesson, which was about who we are and what we can become.

We had all the new girls coming from primary today.

There are 6 of them that are brand new, with a total of 13 girls!

I am so excited for this year.

These girls we have are stellar girls!

After church, I stuck around while our new Beehive presidency was set apart.

Since I didn't come home with the family, dad took the picture of the kids for me :)

I now I am weird, but I love that he did that for me ❤

That's love!!!

I came home and the three younger kids were at choir.

Back at home Dad, I and Madi all had some very nice quiet time where we could read and study scriptures and write in our journals.

It was really nice :)

Then they came home and we got stuff for dinner ready.

Cassi has her first paid guitar lesson this Wednesday, so she is trying her lessons out on Porter.

It went pretty well today.

We did our Come Follow Me together.

Talking today about Christ's birth.....but more about Christ's mission on Earth to do his Father's business.

We talked about how we can do our Father's business as a family.

We talked about being humble, doing temple work, keeping the commandments, pray...have courage to be an example, to be patient and understand that it is his will, not ours, that need to be done.

I just love the discussions we have together.

We also talked about the two verses that say that Mary didn't understand what the shepherds were saying or what Christ said when he spoke of doing his Father's business, but she felt it in her heart, the spirit told her what was being said was true.

So still not understanding what she was told, she trusted the Lord and she 'kept these things in her heart'.

We may not understand the things that the Lord asks of us.

But we trust in his plan, we trust in his love for us and we keep that feeling that it is true, that feeling the Holy Ghost gives to us, close to our hearts until we can understand.

So Madi had a meeting at 4, so we wrapped things up in enough time for her to go to that.

We had dinner then I had to leave to go to the Priesthood/Temple prep night for the kids turning 12 this year.

We started together and had Madi and another youth bear testimony of the temple.

The bishop spoke and gave the kids challenges to read the scriptures, to come up with a daily routine of when you will read and then also make a plan to attend the temple regularly.

After that, we broke off into Beehives and Deacons.

We talked to the girls about Personal Progress and then about going to the temple.

We had the parents tell us some Christlike qualities the girls have.

These really are great girls we are getting!!!!!

Then Sister Beaufort bore her testimony about YW and the personal progress program.

She does such a great job with those girls and brings the spirit with her.

Then we had some refreshments and headed home.

It was a nice evening.....plus I got to hold baby Audra most of the night :)

Tonight we started a new Book of Mormon scripture study.

We have been doing the same thing the same way for a few years and it was time to change it up.

When Dad and I went to Deseret Book and got a Book of Mormon family study guide thing.

It has all kind of question prompts and I think it will be a fun way to read through the Book of Mormon again.

I look forward to all we will learn together this year!

Saturday January 12

This morning Porter had a basketball clinic at the high school.

All the neighborhood boys went :)

Dad and I went and helped the Tibbets move into their new home.

It was a big job, but lots of helpers came.

Got home a little after lunchtime.

I got a workout in and then Dad and I went to Deseret Book so I couple get some new Personal Progress books for the new Beehives.

We stopped by Café Rio to get dinner for us and the little kiddos, even though it was early.

We had to get home because Madi had a date and Cassi had a babysitting job.

So this evening, I gave the boys a haircut.

Then after Elsie got showered, and the boys played some Wii, we watched the last episode of Lost in Space.

It was a good one.

Now Madi is still on her date.

Cassi babysat, but is now at a stake dance.

I hope they don't make it too late of a night....

We have early church :)

Friday January 11

Man, I had another headache this morning.

I think it is just that I am not getting enough sleep.

So I took a little nap before going for a run and that helped.

I worked on making a birthday sign for our Beehive birthdays.

And then tonight, Dad and I went on a little pre-anniversary date.

We went to eat at Carino's.

Then we went to see 'The Upside'.

We both loved the movie.

So much of it as funny but also so much is heartfelt.

We enjoyed it a lot.

Then we went to Kneaders for some dessert.

It was a fun night.

In a couple days we will celebrate our 19 year anniversary!

Pretty cool :)

Thursday January 10

I got to go and help in Porter's art smart today.

During the class, we had a fire drill.

The kids are all so good and organized!

It was done real quick.

Then back to art.

The kids took the face of Mona Lisa and changed what she was doing.

Porter had her on a skateboard :)

The lady who taught the class (we take turns) just wanted to do markers.

But she wanted a thicker paper.

She said, why don't we use this stuff......and I said, that's watercolor paper.

Kind of expensive to use markers on!!!!

But the I suggested that they use the markers, then we can give them paintbrushes with just water and then use that on the marker ink and it spreads like watercolor.

One of my favorite art hacks!!!!

So I think they turned out really fun!

Then I took Madi to her consultation appointment for her wisdom teeth.

They will be coming out the day after Valentines day!!!

She has one that is sitting right on the nerve, so she is nervous about that, but all will be good.

We want to get them out before they mess up her really nice teeth that never needed braces!!!!!

This evening, Madi gave my hair a chop :)

I have been wanting to cut it, but it always seems to take forever to get in to a place to cut it...and it takes forever to sit there and wait and then the cut.

I guess I am just impatient.....

So I got Madi to do it for me :)

I am happy with it and excited to see what it looks like when I do it!

Wednesday January 9 (add pictures)

I helped in the office today.

When I got home, I made my dinner menu list and then grocery shopping.

I got home in time to make it to my Beehive Presidency meeting.

Then after the meeting, the kids came home.

I made a yummy dinner tonight that all the kiddos really liked, it is called black bean and sweet potato flautas :)

I got the recipe from Stacia.

She is helping me be a better meal planner.

I really want to be good at making good healthy meals for my family, but I am so bad at it!!!!

But practice makes perfect, right?!?!?

Tonight we had a fun YW activity.

We did a little get-to-know you of the new little Beehives coming in.

Then we made little clipboards for them to put little reminders each week of what their challenge for YW is.

Since we go two weeks between YW, we will for sure forget without a reminder!!!!

Anyway, I think they turned out cute.

Then I had a YW board meeting and just got home from that.

Fun stuff ahead for these YW!!!!!

Tuesday January 8

It was a very lovely day today :)

Dad and I went to the gym.

Then we got showered and headed to the temple.

We have been excited to get to the temple to experience the changes that have happened there.

I am very pleased with the changes.

It was packed full and it was pretty fun because I got to sit on the males side of the room and I got to sit right by Brent.

I loved it.

I had a thought.

You know how we have been told things ahead of time to prepare us for these changes that happen.

For example, being told to keep the sabbath day holy, and now we see if was to be able to do this Come Follow Me program.

Or when we were given the Proclamation to the Family, not knowing why that was such a big deal then.

And now we see the importance of that document.

Well, I was thinking about the push for Family History work.

And I thought today that there will come a point that, unless we come with our own names to the temple, we might not be able to attend.

Because there will be so much work done, there won't be as many names provided for us.

So right now, if we prepare and get names, then we will always be able to attend the temple.

I can't wait to start being better at that!

We got home and Dad got to work cutting some stuff for me for our YW activity tomorrow.

I had to leave and got to a YW leader meeting.

Lots of changes and lots to talk about.

But all good and exciting!

By the time I got home, all the kids were home from school.

Dad took the little ones to Piano and Madi was at work.

I took Cassi to the high school for the basketball games, which Madi went to after work as well.

This evening, Elsie is deciding to work better on her PT home exercises.

She did some walking on the treadmill and then I stretched her out.

This will be so great for her if I can get her to continue working on it.

Porter got some reading done, he has some book reports due soon.

Elsie has been a rock star with reading her scriptures.

She read her Come, Follow Me stuff and then she got her B of M reading done just now.

She has been wanting to read more and more herself, and it is pretty dang cool!!!!

Monday January 7

The kids all went back to school today.

I guess I didn't realize how exhausted I was from the break until I sat down after they all left.

And I fell asleep for a couple hours!!!!!

So not a lot got done this morning :)

But then I did get the kitchen cleaned and got a run in.

I didn't have to pick Elsie up early because her speech therapist was sick and had to cancel, but I did take her to PT.

Boy was she worn out and tired!

She got some good stretches, then it was hard to get her to do other stuff.

But she did play a obstacle game, so that worked out.

When we came home, the roads were packed with backed up cars.

We got to sit for a bit in line right in front of the temple :)

When we came home, Dad made a yummy taco dinner.

We all cleaned up and then had FHE.

We talked about how we can eat better and take care of our bodies better...…

Still working with our families theme this year.

Fortify and conquer.

You can't win a war with a weak body!!!!

And a strong healthy body will also help it be easier to have a strong mind and strong heart and strong spirit.

After that talk, we played Cover your Assets :)

Sunday January 6

What a nice day we had.

9:00 church makes for a long day and lots of time to spend as a family!!!!!

We all got up and ready and to church on time.

It was fast Sunday today and we had some good testimonies shared.

Stacia and I delivered some invites to the new Beehives that will be coming to the activity this week.

Then I went to Sunday school and it was filled to the brim.

There was great discussion about the Come Follow Me lesson this past week.

I see that there will be so much value we can gain from each other when we have this discussion type thing.

We do have an old guy in the ward who wants everyone to stand when they comment, which might deter some people from commenting...……

We will see how it goes.

We talked about how we can gain and nurture our own testimonies.

In this day, we must know why we believe what we believe.

Just blindly believing won't be enough.

Now is the time.

Reading through the scriptures.....it is all stuff we have read before.

But now is the time to be DOER'S!

We need to ASK.

We need to SEARCH.

We need to allow God to GUIDE us.

Our minds need to be READY to receive truths.

Listen to the SPIRIT to help us know what is wrong and what is right.

We must FAST and PRAY.

All the primary answers, but now we need ACTION!!!!

I am so excited about the personal study I have been able to do so far.

We have to be responsible for our own learning.

I am excited to learn and grow and do what I can to FORTIFY my testimony.

I have loved the discussions we have had together as a family.

These big kids have so much to say and such great thoughts.

The little ones have great questions and I love that they are participating in our discussions.

Another great thing that is happening, they are having a chance to read out loud.

For our family scripture study, I just read to them all.

Well, now we are doing it all together.

They all follow along and we share the reading.

Some great things are happening and will continue to happen as we do it.

First, Elsie does not like to read, especially out loud.

But by giving her smaller verses to read, she is getting more and more excited and wanting to read more and more.

Tonight when I took her to bed, she wanted to read her scriptures on her own.

Usually at night, I have been having the scriptures read to the little ones from the Gospel App.

But tonight, she wanted to read.

She would stop me when she wanted to read a verse, she would read as much as she wanted and then we would keep going like that.

It was great, and she was so excited!

With Porter, he is getting a great chance to work on his T and TH sounds.

He is doing a great job recognizing the letters and pronouncing it correctly.

It really is great, and will continue to be great.

Dad made a great dinner, a full chicken on the Traeger grill, and it was juicy!

After dinner and clean up we did some Come, Follow Me together.

We read about how Heavenly Father made it possible for Elisabeth to have John the Baptist.

He made it possible for Christ to be born of Mary, a virgin.

Both things seemed impossible…...but he did it.

Think of all the things in our lives that seem impossible or too hard.

How can we not KNOW that Heavenly Father can move mountains for us.

We must TRUST in him.

Trust in his plan.

Because 'With God nothing shall be impossible' (Luke 1:37)

Then tonight, we went to the Morgans for some brownies and Ice cream.

Sydney goes back to Hawaii tomorrow.

She is putting her papers in soon.

School ends in April and she could be on her mission as soon as May.

Pretty exciting!!!!

We just love the Morgan family.

Saturday January 5 (add pictures)

No internet.

After our workouts, dad and I went shopping.

I got him.... Or told him.... That his Christmas gift is a gun safe.

So today, that's what we went shopping for.

Well..... We ended up coming home with a new kitchen table.

So that's fun.

Cassi has friends over tonight, so it ended up being a late night.

Hopefully everyone is happy and chipper for 9 a.m. church!!!!!

Friday January 4

We are running out of days to sleep in!!!!

Today the boys, my boys, Dad and Port, played some games together.

Then they headed out after lunch to build Port's work bench.

That was part of his birthday gift.....to build a bench with Dad.

It turned out pretty great, and the boy is very excited!

Elsie hung out with Sierra for a few hours today.

Madi hung out with Kara.

Cassi spent time with some of her friends before babysitting this evening.

I got the Christmas stuff packed up and put away and the basement cleaned up.

Now I am ready to get the classroom thing put together downstairs!!!!