Lily's Baptism Day

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  baptism days are some of the best days of parenthood.  Pay off days, as I like to call them.

Lily's big day was May the 4th, 2013.  She won't ever forget it, I'm sure, because it's Star Wars day (May the Fourth be with you -- haha!)!

Our stake holds baptisms at 9:00 in the morning, so we were especially thankful for the family and friends who sacrificed sleep to be there with Lily!

Only one other child in the stake had an April birthday, so Lil got to share it with just one other sweet little girl - Olivia H.  Her parents are friends of Stanton and mine, so that was a treat!

Sarah, Olivia's mom, gave such a fantastic talk about baptism.  She was engaging and had the girls involved in every part of the discussion.  She invited the Spirit in such a special way.

I got to speak on the Holy Ghost.  I was thankful for the opportunity to speak at Lily's baptism - I spoke on baptism at Chloe's, so this has been a fun, special tradition so far.  I was very appreciative of the opportunity to speak, as it forced me to think about more than getting the house clean enough for guests and what food to prepare, etc. I had to sit down and really ponder what it meant to have the gift of the Holy Ghost and how to live in such a way as to recognize his presence daily.  I loved preparing for it and was happy with the time spent speaking to those sweet girls.

I need to write down one experience I shared that I don't want to forget:

We have been reading the Book of Mormon as a family for a long time.  We have taken for.ev.er to get to 3rd Nephi.  I'm talking the "over a year" kind of forever.  Just last Thursday, we were finally at 3rd Nephi, chapter 11, my very favorite chapter of the Book of Mormon.  I have been anxiously awaiting this chapter for months!  It was later than usual Thursday night and we were all in a "mood."  Lily was goofing around with Henry, making him crazy.  Brigham was making weird noises and faces.  Chloe was off in the bathroom, and Cannon was crawling all over Stanton, who was looking at his phone.  And I was mad at everyone because they were ruining this lovely picture I had painted in my mind of how 3 Nephi 11 was going to happen in our home.
Two verses in, I asked everyone to kneel down and pray for the Spirit to be with us.  We asked for help to be reverent and to feel the truth of what we were about to read.
We still only made it about 9 verses into the chapter, but as I read aloud,

 3 And it came to pass that while they were thus conversing one with another, they heard a ^avoice as if it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes round about, for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a^bsmall voice it did ^cpierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that there was no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn.

 4 And it came to pass that again they heard the voice, and they^aunderstood it not.

 5 And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did ^aopentheir ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came.

 6 And behold, the third time they did understand the voice which they heard; and it said unto them:

 7 Behold my ^aBeloved Son, ^bin whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.

 8 And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they ^asaw a Man ^bdescendingout of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.

 9 And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:

 10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

 11 And behold, I am the ^alight and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter ^bcup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in ^ctaking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the ^dwill of the Father in all things from the beginning.

 12 And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude ^afell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been ^bprophesied among them that Christ should ^cshowhimself unto them after his ascension into heaven.

 13 And it came to pass that the ^aLord spake unto them saying:

 14 Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may ^athrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may ^bfeel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the ^cGod of Israel, and the God of the whole ^dearth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.

- there was a Spirit like we haven't felt in our home before.  I was in tears, Brigham was absolutely engaged and feeling the Spirit like he never has.  It was amazing.  I felt a witness from the Holy Ghost that night saying, "Julie, this is true.  Jesus is real.  He lived then and He lives now.  He really visited those people.  This isn't just a story - it is history and it means something for your family."  I have thought back to that night many times over the last several days.  I am thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

After the talks were given, we went back to the Relief Society room where our stake's new font is located!  Hooray!  Lily and Stanton entered the water and Lily made her first covenant with Heavenly Father.  She was radiant.  The Spirit was present.  It was absolutely beautiful.

After we got her dried off and into her beautiful white dress, we went to the Primary room where Stanton and I with our 5 kids sang, "Love is Spoken Here."  I say 5 because Henry was singing right along!  He was waving his arms like he was leading the music, too.  So sweet!

After our song, Stanton brought Lily to the front of the room where he confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and gave her the gift of the Holy Ghost.  In the blessing, Lily was promised some beautiful things.  I can't remember all of them (oh, how I wish I had recorded it!), but one that has continued to stay in my mind was that he encouraged her to memorize many passages of scripture.  He promised her that those scriptures would be a guide and comfort to her as she grew up.  I'm not sure why that has stayed with me so deeply, but I know it was straight from Heavenly Father's mouth to Stanton's mind to Lily that day.

My dad bore his testimony to end the meeting, followed by a prayer from Stanton's dad.  They were both so wonderful and full of the Spirit.  It was a really, truly, special day.

 I love these darling cousins!  Porter, Brigham, Cannon, and Kaleb (with Regan, Kamryn, and my dad in the background).

 Seriously, Cannon is my sugar.  He melts my heart and gives me the giggles all at once.

 What a great example Lily is setting for these younger cousins and brothers!

 Lil and Henry with sweet Kami!

 Chloe and Jordyn.  I love these two girls who love each other!

 I love this picture so much!  Could Lil be any more excited?!

 And how blessed to have a father who loves her, who is faithful to his priesthood duties, and serves his family in love and righteousness.

 Wonderful grandparents to support her!

And a special gift from Aunt Rachel.  She does that calligraphy all by hand.  It is so beautiful.

We had the family over for crepes afterward.  What a FUN brunch menu!  It was so simple and delicious.
Of course, I only took a handful of pictures the night before and none on the actual day.  Well, none of the food...not a big deal!

 I borrowed Judy's and Rachel's crepe makers that I could have three stations going.  It only took about 40 minutes to make 85 crepes!  Tools, man.  They're what separate us from the monkeys!

Mmmmmmm......crepes...  (why do I always go back to food??)

This was such a special day.  I love sweet Lily so much.  She is a wonderful little girl.  I know she'll grow so much over the next year.  We are so proud of her!

Some Very Disconnected Spirtual Thoughts From The Past Few Months

Sometimes I jot down thoughts during meetings or scripture study on the little Notes app on my phone.  I keep them all together, which is great, except that when I email them to myself, they appear very disjointed.  That's because they are, I suppose.  :)

Spiritual Thoughts

Partaking now is deed for word that I remember him, my Lord.

In word and deed he doth require my will to his, like son to sire, be made to bend, and I, as son, learn conduct from the Holy One.

Hymn 187, God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son

Doctrine & Covenants 50:23-25


And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness.
That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light, and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
And again, verily I say unto you, and I say it that you may know the truth, that you may chase darkness from among you.


Suzette Todd said, "Testimony is the soil our conversion grows in."
10/28/12
The most important thing parents can do for their children is to build pathways and connections to heaven. -

In raising our family, we decided that our most important goal would be to help our children establish their own connection to heaven. (2012 April General Conference, “Only upon the Principles of Righteousness”, Sun. Afternoon Session - Larry Y. Wilson)

He cannot help us remember things we have not labored to learn. - Elder Bednar

“Oh God of second chances and new beginnings, here I am again.”


Sent from my iPhone


Reading in 3 Nephi Chapter 3 today April 16, 2013

I think it's interesting that after Gidiannhi threatened the people they appointed a prophet, Gidgiddoni, to lead their armies.

They recognized that even though Gidiannhi was wrong in his reasons for threatening them, he was still capable of hurting them. They recommitted to living right (repentance) and built up fortifications to protect themselves.

It doesn't matter that Satan is completely unjustified in what he does. He'll still do it. I have to be ready.


Sent from my iPhone

April So Far

I was telling my good friend Jana this morning (by telling, I mean huffing and puffing and trying to spit it out while I did mean p90x push ups) that I used to watch movies and be frustrated at a certain scene that every single one of them had.  You know the one...the first half hour of the movie is the baby growing up till he's about 3 or 4 and then suddenly there's a 2 minute montage and the kid is 10 years old.  It drove me crazy!  Don't those movie makers know that those years go by so slowly?  That's when a kid really grows up!  Don't skip it!


Well, I stand corrected.  I feel like I'm living in that montage right now.  Life is passing by so quickly and I can hardly keep up with it long enough to write a few things down.  I snap pictures on my phone daily and I'm so grateful for that.  But I have these profound thoughts about motherhood and life and the gospel and they're gone before I can find a minute to sit down and write about them.

I will share one neat experience I had recently before I throw seven million pictures into this post.  I dictated it into my phone right after it happened and emailed it to myself.  That's as close to journal keeping as I've gotten lately.

"Living by the Spirit and listening to its promptings is a beautiful experience.
I was listening to Elder Neal a Anderson's talk about missionary work. I felt a prompting to call or to email a friend of mine Brooke simpson. I pray that I might know what to say and how to say it. I sent her a little message asking her to email me because I didn't have her email address. I haven't heard back from her yet. But in the meantime I received a phone call from a friend in our ward who asked if I and Stanton would participate in a baptism. She asked if we would provide the musical number and a talk on the Holy Ghost. Maybe she would've called me anyway. But feeling like I was praying and seeking a missionary opportunity gives me a little feeling that perhaps the Lord was answering my prayer and giving me an opportunity to share my testimony with someone who might need it."


Now for the pictures.

 We have been going to story time at the library lately and this week, Cannon got a surprise.  :)

 A throw together dinner (using random stuff from the fridge and pantry) that I Instagrammed.  Talapia and asparagus.  The topping on the talapia was olives, artichoke hearts, red peppers, olive oil, and italian seasoning.  It would have been much more delicious had I sauteed it before putting it on the talapia, then cooking.  Still darned edible, though!  :)

 The kids had friends over and what did they do?  An exercise video.  :)

 I Instagrammed my annual visit to the doctor.  I made a commitment 3 years ago to go while I was healthy so my doctor would recognize when I wasn't.  I hope all my friends will do the same.  A really neat gal that Stanton and I knew in Ohio just passed away from breast cancer - that had spread to her brain by the time she was finished with chemo and radiation and a mastectomy.  She was only 32.  Our health is SO precious!

 This one in a million shot pretty much made my life complete.  Henry is so stinking fun and adorable.

 I accidentally deleted the original of this pic off my phone, so I took a screen shot of it.  I bought new shoes in hopes that they would motivate me to work out (my old ones were getting pretty worn out).  The shoes have helped, but really it's working out with Jana every morning that has gotten me back on track.  We get up every morning to do p90x by 5:30.  It's crazy early, but makes all the difference in my day!

 Chloe with her best buddy Winston.  He is the sweetest kid.  They've been buddies since before Kindergarten.  I can't believe how big they're getting.

 Henry has the sharpest little fingernails ever.  He loves to grab Stanton's face with them.  :)

 Here was the Instagram caption for this picture:
After years of only allowing one pair if sneakers, one pair of boots, and one pair of church shoes per kid (just out of sheer desperation - one less thing to keep track of!), I've finally let the girls get some cute shoes to go with their outfits. I'm not sure who loves them more....me or them. Probably me! 👠🎀 #chloerose #lilyvirginia

 Cannon is my little artist lately.  I've been trying to wean him off Disney Jr. (the boy is addicted) and painting is one of his favorite activities.  In fact, after he ran out of paint, he spent his own allowance to buy more.  Score!

 Little Hank reminding me to look for the light.  Isn't he a precious little nugget?

 Henry was having a particularly adorable day that day.  Look at those chubby hands and feet.  This was his first time on grass and after a moment's hesitation, he was down with hit!

 We snuck over to the preschool to watch Cannon with his friends.  Fun!

 Looking at this larger, I realize that I over-edited his face, but darn it, it's still about the cutest little shot in history!

 We walked over to the park to pick Lily up from soccer practice.  Love this shot of Brigham deciding which path to take.

 Oops!  Did it again!  I've got to watch that.

 It's been glorious to enjoy some blue skies after a reaaaalllllly long and grey and inversionated Cache Valley winter. (PS, it's grey again today, 4/16/13...)

 I started to make my bed 5 different times this day and kept getting distracted.  It did finally get made, though.  :)

 I'm always up for a little proof that I'm an idiot.  This day I dropped my granola bar in an unfortunate spot.  :)

 A beautiful Friday afternoon spent with friends.  Chloe and Alice gave makeovers to Rylee and Lily.  Cute girls!

 Brigham and Kyler played in the sand box.

 Cannon and Charlie hung out under the trampoline.

 And Henry longed to be out there with them!!!

 Driving home from our sweet niece Sarah's baptism.  I liked my dress and shoes together and darn it, my legs were restless.

 

 Brigham spent his allowance on a new set of wooden blocks.  The kids have all loved them!

\

 Chloe discovered a fun little treat.  Microwaving a marshmallow for about 40 seconds perfectly toasts it!

 Henry sat at the sewing machine with me while I worked on a project.  It's fun to have him on my lap, but he is a maniac with buttons!  (He's doing it right now while I type, as a matter of fact!!)!

 I have the very fun privilege of sewing some clothing samples for a local quilt shop here in town.  Too fun!

Henry actually stuck the same two fingers (but on the opposite hand) that he sucks into Stanton's mouth to suck.  How funny is that?

So that I can exercise at Jana's house and Tyler can exercise here with Stanton, I get up at 5:00, wake Henry up to feed him & change his diaper, and put him back to bed before heading over to Jana's.  This way, Henry doesn't interrupt the guys exercising and Max (2 weeks older than Henry) is asleep where we are exercising.  Anyway, sometimes I'm done with all of that before I need to walk over, so I've had some time to read scriptures in the morning.  It's been wonderful to get back into that good habit.

 Sometimes life is so humorous. Stanton and I decided that we were going to drastically slash our spending and go to a cash budget (inspired by @rachlovesjimmy and a desire to put a huge down payment on our new home when we decide to build). What month does our garage door break? Of course the first month into the cash budget! I was tempted to just say, eh, this can come out of savings..., but we're committed- it's coming out of the cash and we're going to live tight to make up for it. The real irony isn't that this happened, it's that I feel a huge sense of freedom and pride that we are paying for it this way.
 We are halfway through our first month and still have half of our cash left -- and I've already payed all of our big expenses:  gym, preschool, piano, the garage repair...even the housekeepers.  I can't believe how easy it is to keep the spending down when we know exactly how much we have to spend.  We've had our very best year financially with the practice.  We made more than we really ever thought we would with this business -- I find it so interesting that Heavenly Father has really inspired both Stanton and I to, in spite of that financial success, really pay attention to our outflow and be wise stewards.  I'm thankful for Rachel & Jim who finally got us motivated enough to make the leap from just talking about doing it to actually putting it into practice.  I have been pondering lately on this concept of "trials" and I think Stanton is right.  The "trial" isn't the difficult situation...it's how we react to it.  We are on trial.  This has helped me to see that I don't have to constantly worry that some bad thing is going to happen (you know, because we are always taught that we will have trials in this life).  The trial is NOW.  Yes, there will certainly be difficult times ahead where we will be tried in different ways, but I'm in a trial right now.  When things are financially great, will we still follow the promptings God has given us to be wise stewards?  I'm grateful that, at least for now, we are rising up and accepting that challenge...passing the trial, as it were.  Of course we are only 2 weeks into it and consistency is one of the great challenges of mortality.  We'll have months where we struggle to keep our determination.  We'll fail sometimes.  But we're moving in the right direction and I'm so thankful for that.  (All this thought for a picture of an invoice- ha!)
 

Gosh this boy is sweet.  He has been fighting a really yucky virus for nearly 2 weeks now.  He hasn't slept as well because he can't breathe through his nose, which means he can't suck his fingers, which means he can't comfort himself.  In spite of the sickness, he's been the sweetest, most cheerful boy.  He's definitely cried more this week than he usually does, but he is just an angel.  Honestly.  We have just been blessed to have him in our family.  We love Henry!

Finally, here are my two babies playing while I worked on the blog all day (seriously...all day.  I didn't even look at the dishes until 3:45...well after the kids had gotten home from school).  Charlie is very patient with Henry, who loves to give him dental exams, pull on his paws, and pull his hair.  Henry is patient with Charlie who likes to lick him.  They are good buddies!

Easter Week Family Home Evening

We read the different events of Christ's last week on earth during the week leading up to Easter.  We watched the church's excellent Bible videos that corresponded and enjoyed some really great discussions.

On Monday, the day Jesus cleansed the temple, we visited the Logan temple and talked about what a sacred place it is.  That we should always be worthy to be there and visit it often. 

I snapped a few pictures of the kids while we were there.

 We stopped for Aggie Ice Cream for a treat and called it the best Family Night in a while.