Serving in Primary

"No calling is beneath us. Every calling provides an opportunity to serve and to grow. The Lord organized the Church in a way that offers each member an opportunity for service, which, in turn, leads to personal spiritual growth. Whatever your calling, I urge you to see it as an opportunity not only to strengthen and bless others but also to become what Heavenly Father wants you to become." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf "Lift Where You Stand"

The majority of my callings have been in Primary. I have served as a teacher and I am currently serving in my third Primary presidency. I LOVE IT!!! I have learned more about myself and the Gospel through my callings in Primary than at any other time in my life. A sad event occurred recently that made me realize once again how near and dear to my heart my calling and the Primary children I have served are to me.

This is Allison. She was one of nearly 100 children that were in the Primary in which I served in my first 2 presidencies. While she was riding her bike with her dad and little sister, she was hit by a car and killed. (For full story go here) When I heard this news I immediately recalled several personal memories that revolved around Allison. Different comments she made during Sharing Time, teaching her and the other girls her age a descant to "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" for the Easter program, and other memories that are too special for me to put in words. It made me realize that although I have done my best to impart some of my knowledge and testimony to the now closer to 200 children I have come in contact with in my callings, each and every one of them, including Allison, have impacted and continue to impact my life in ways they'll never comprehend.

My heart aches and goes out to Allison's sweet family. May the Lord comfort you in your loss and grant you peace.

"Families can be together forever, through Heavenly Father's plan. I always want to be with my own family, and the Lord can show me how I can. The Lord can show me how I can." Children's Songbook #188

Mr. T

This is Mr. T.. This is one of our Thanksgiving month traditions. For family home evening the first Monday in November we color a picture of a turkey and fill in the tail feathers with things we are thankful for and tape it up on the front door. Then there's another one that we fill in throughout the month.

I love this month and the rest of the holidays!! I'm thankful for being thankful!

"My Daughter Ate My Homework"

Yep, Lydia ate Robert's homework. It all happened so fast. One second she was on one side of the room. The next second she was on the other side of the room eating Robert's homework, and before I could get to her, there was a bite size chunk gone and I couldn't find it anywhere.

We got a big kick out of it. Robert had to redo it on a different paper, but he still also took the eaten one to school just so he could tell his teacher, "My daughter ate my homework."

Three Thankful Thursday Thoughts

That's right! Don't you feel lucky? Today you get three thankful Thursday thoughts in honor of the month of Thanksgiving. Today I am thankful for my sweet, generous, and beautiful mother-in-law, Cathy. This is long overdue and last week was her birthday so I figure now is as good a time as any. She is wonderful. Between my married friends and my siblings I have witnessed a fair share of, let's say, interesting mothers-in-law. I lucked out. Cathy is wonderful. She would give a stranger on the street the shirt off of her back if you'd let her. Since even before Robert and I were dating officially, she treated me as if I was one of her own daughters. She has never been anything but loving, understanding, and generous to me. I couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law. I love her! A few examples of her greatness lead me to the 2 other things I'm thankful for. First--

My washer and dryer!!! The first few days that we had Lydia at home after she was born Cathy came and stayed with us to help me out with the transition. We had moved into our apartment only 2 weeks before. Our new apartment had washer/dryer hookups, but we didn't have a washer or dryer yet. We figured we would get them eventually when we had a little more money and found a good deal on Craigslist or something. The day before Cathy was leaving, Robert was at school and Cathy said, "What do you think about me getting you guys a washer and dryer before I leave?" I said, "That would be too generous of you, but I know you better than to think I could talk you out of it. I'll text Robert and see if he has anything to say about it." Robert immediately called and talked to her. Sure enough, she had decided she was getting us a washer and dryer and there was no talking her out of it. The way she put it was that SHE wouldn't feel at ease going home until she took care of this for us. So Robert and Mom went to a secondhand appliance store and got a great deal on our washer and dryer. It's been a MAJOR blessing in our home. Every load of laundry I do I think of how much easier it is to be able to do laundry right in our apartment, and how much harder it would have been to do laundry in the complex laundromat with Lydia around. I'm SOOOOOOOOO thankful for our washer and dryer!!!
Second--

I am thankful for the wonderful mother and example she was to this boy. (This is Robert's seventh grade picture. There's no particular reason why I chose this one other than that it's one of my all time favorite pictures of Robert :) Just look at that cheeky grin!) I could go on and on about this. I will say that I think that all of the sweetness, love, and generosity Robert shows to me as my best friend and husband and now as Lydia's daddy, he learned from his mom. I'm sure he learned some of it from his dad too, but we're focusing on Mom today ;) Words cannot express my gratitude for the examples Robert has had in his life.

And there you have it. I'm thankful for my washer and dryer, the example Robert had/has in his mom, and I am thankful for Cathy, my second Mom.

We love you Mom!!!

2 Years Ago

Today is the 2nd anniversary of the day Robert proposed to me :) The story goes like this...

Robert and I did the whole long distance relationship thing practically our whole courting experience. Robert was up here at BYU and I was still living at home in Mesa. We did our best, either by me going up to Provo or Robert coming down to Mesa, to see each other every 6 weeks or so. Robert came down to visit the weekend of Halloween, which happened to be the same weekend as my stake conference. People kept asking if I thought Robert would propose that weekend and I said that I knew he wouldn't because I knew for a fact that he hadn’t talked to my dad yet to ask for my hand and what not. I picked him up from the airport Friday night at about 7:00pm. That Saturday, November 1st, we went out to lunch with all of my married siblings and then Robert and I went and saw “High School Musical 3” (we are both High School Musical fans, it’s a guilty pleasure) and on our way home Robert said “Hey do you want to go an hour or so early to the stake center for the adult session [of stake conference] tonight and just play the piano again like we did on our first date?” (For our first date we went to Build-A-Bear, dinner at Chili's, then after dinner we went to our stake center to use the piano in the Relief Society room to play and sing songs together. He’s a talented pianist and we sang all sorts of stuff, mainly jazz, Billy Joel, and songs from musicals. This is something we still enjoy doing.) I said that sounded like fun. So we went, and since it was just before the adult session, we thought it would be more appropriate to just sing and play Primary songs. The last song that we played was “I Love to See the Temple” which is my favorite Primary song. After we finished that song Robert said, “Well we should probably head in soon but first I have to give you something.” Then he pulled up his pant leg and got the ring box out of his sock and got down on one knee and said, “and I want to give this to you because I love you and want to be with you for forever.” And he asked me to marry him and I said yes!! It was so perfect! His one goal was to surprise me, and boy did he ever!! It turns out that he had actually flown in on Friday at about 2:00pm and talked to my dad and my mom and then his mom took him back to the airport in time for me to pick him up that night. Sneaky I know!

I thank Heavenly Father every day for giving me this wonderful man in my life. He has never been anything but loving, caring, and wonderful to me. We have yet to have an argument that's lasted more than a few minutes. He is my best friend. I love him. I LOVE ROBERT!!

Our Entertainer

Just having some laughs with our baby. She's our main source of entertainment now days.

Halloween Fun

Well, we didn't get better pictures of Lydia in her costume. The above picture is the best one we got on Halloween (Observed) Day, but I think the ones we got before were good enough. We had a great Halloween this year. Last Halloween, I was pregnant sick with Lydia and getting over Swine Flu. Needless to say, Halloween fun got pushed aside last year. However I feel this year we made up for it. We went up to Salt Lake and partied with Katie and Mike and friends. We carved pumpkins and went Trick-or-Treating. It was a grand ol' time :)

We made our Jack-O-Lantern have a mustache like Lydia. Robert says it's the best Jack-O-Lantern he's ever been a part of.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

First Snow

Two weeks earlier than last year, we had our first snow. We woke up yesterday to this...

(View out small bedroom window)

(View from front steps)

Tuesday night when it started snowing, Robert and I mixed up some hot chocolate and stood on our porch to watch and drink. The ceremony lasted a total of 2 minutes before we were too cold and wanted to go back inside, but it was fun :)

I can hardly contain my excitement for the Christmas season. I have had to force myself to not listen to Christmas music. I think it comes from 10 years of starting to rehearse holiday music in school choirs in October. Anyway, this snow has only intensified that excitement. It melted by noon yesterday, but the temperature is still what I'd be used to Arizona weather being on Christmas Day (if not colder than that). The day after Thanksgiving Carpenters Christmas Portrait will be blaring out of any music player device I can find!

Halloween Preview - Poncho "Villa" Lydia

We dressed Lydia up in her costume for our ward Trunk-or-Treat last night. We snapped a couple quick pictures before we left. We'll try to take some better ones on Saturday, along with mine and Robert's costumes, but in the mean time, enjoy!!! She was definitely a big hit at the trunk-or-treat. I think her "deer in the headlights" look just adds to the hilarity of the first picture :)


And yes that is Hannah Montana on the TV in the background and we're proud of it!

Mobility Rocks!!!

Lydia is officially mobile. It's not a full out crawl yet. It's more of a scoot and crawl hybrid: a scawl... or a croot, you pick. Anyway, she loves it, which isn't surprising. She's always been an active baby, and this just gives her the ability to be more active. Here's photo proof of the abundance of joy that this baby has moving around on the ground. Also, the best video footage we've been able to get of her scawling :)

SOLIDS...DUN Dun dun!

Well so far solids have been... Messy. As I've mentioned before, Lydia likes to spit. Putting food in her mouth just gives her more to spit, and therefore a mess. Also she's not grasping the whole eating from a spoon scenario. She likes to lick from it as if she were a dog/cat, so I have to maneuver around her licking tongue to get the spoon in her mouth in the first place, and then the spitting begins. I'm debating whether or not I should keep trying to fight it and force her to learn to eat from the spoon, or if I should buy some food bottle things and feed her that way. I hesitate to get the bottles because she needs to learn how to eat from a spoon eventually so I fear that the bottles would just be an easy temporary way out. Some people have suggested waiting and trying again in a week or two, but I don't think that's necessary because what she does eat she enjoys, I don't feel like she spits because she doesn't like the taste, she's just spitting because she likes to spit. Also it hasn't done anything crazy with her digestive system or anything. All you moms out there let me know what you think.

Anyway, here are some pictures and video from the monumental first meal. We took more than 10 minutes of video, but I'll just give you all the first 2 and a half minutes :)

The Alders Came for a Visit!!!

My oldest sister Christi, her husband Ryan, and these yay-hoots...

...came up to Utah for the last part of their October break, the 15th and 16th. Friday night we met up with them and Katie, Mike, and Alena in Salt Lake for dinner at The Pie and desert at a yogurt place. Here's a few pictures of the fun times.

Saturday they drove down to Provo. Ryan did his Master's at BYU, so they have several sentimental things they like to do when they come to Provo. First we went to BYU to buy a ton of candy from the bookstore. Chocolate covered cinnamon gummy bears and sour watermelon gummies to name a couple favorites. We then took a break in the grass on the steep hill that is between the administration building and the library. The kids rolled down the hill over and over until they were so dizzy they were falling over and everyone that could see them through the window in the library was watching and laughing hysterically. I set Lydia down and let her experience grass for the first time. She was quite intrigued by it.

This picture makes me laugh :) I think she looks like a mini monster about to eat something.

After BYU we drove up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. The water was freezing, but the scenery as always was AMAZING!!!

And close up :)

As always, it was so great to have family visit. I love them all and miss them already, and all of my other family and friends too! I can't wait for Thanksgiving!!! Less than a month til the Bavarian Cream Dunkin Donuts folks!!!

Our New Pet

Once upon a time Robert felt like he should reward me with something because he thought I had been working really hard and doing a marvelous job as the housekeeper/ homemaker of the family. He asked me what I wanted and I said the first thing that came to my mind, "A fish, and we'll name it Buttercup so that every time we see it we can sing 'My little Buttercup has the sweetest smile...'." His response was, "I'd be totally fine with that as long as we didn't care if it died." We decided to get a fish with the pretense that we didn't care whether it lived or died was not the greatest idea and that was that. Then a few days later Robert gave me this...

It made me smile. We keep it on our entertainment center with pride, and yes, we do sing the song fairly often.

The Deed is Done

I love it, Robert loves it, and Lydia can't eat it. It's a win-win-win! :)