Virtue

Tonight we had an amazing activity! I just need to document it.
It started in March I saw the idea posted on FB somewhere. It centered around virtue.  I always find it hard to find an activity for virtue so I jumped on this one!
I felt great about it,  I was excited.
So I decided to invite the bishopric's wife's to the activity to talk about their temple marriage and the guidance of the spirit.  For decoration I would invite them and the YW lagers to bring their wedding dresses and temple dresses, wedding pictures and other wedding memorabilia to display.  One of the YW leaders made a small wedding cake and we had a slush.

A few weeks went by and I hadn't asked the ladies yet. I just felt it wasn't right.  One Sunday, the Sunday I was gonna ask I found out one of the councilors wife was gonna be gone so I decided to think for another week and decide what to do.  I decided I wanted to ask the relief society president, and one of the bishop councilors wife but the third.  I wasn't sure. 
Everything was arranged,  slush was made and freezing.  I thought of the last person and felt great about it! 
We say in church and the sister wasn't there so I looked around thinking of someone else.  She finally walked it. I asked her, she said she was busy but would make the time. 
I have felt great about the activity for weeks.  But today,  today the doubt rolled in.  I think it was my depression and feeling inadequate.  It was Satan playing tricks on me again. 
I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I got there early to set up, a few of the other leaders helped. We had 9 dresses displayed, 4 albums and many pictures! Then the girls slowly started to come. I was a little disappointed in the low numbers but even if one was there it would have been worth it.
We sang I love to see the temple,  and then I invited the 3 sisters up and they began with their stories.  It was so fun to see them talk about their courting and engagement.  They each had different experiences and the spirit was so strong. I loved it.  Then we went in the other room and had the cake and slush.  Then the girls started trying on a couple of the dresses which was totally spontaneous and fun!
It turned out so great!

Spiritual Spring Cleaning

So I had a friend give me a call yesterday.  She was so excited she had received a job offer and she called to share the exciting news. We talked for a bit, in the conversation we started talking about our relief society meeting that evening.  She was in charge and shared some frustration with the fact her last speaker had just backed out. I tried to keep my mouth shut but eventually it opened and I offered to put something together.  She said she would think about it and get back with me.  So at 2:10 I get a message accepting the help. I had so much on my plate but thought I could put something quick together. I really think it turned out fabulous. I found an article online that I really liked but it didn't have an LDS theme. I added scriptures and lds apostle thoughts, quotes and used a book called 'Simplify'.

here is a link to the lesson/talk https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KeGbCFfEcO5YoBDt8cG6r3mymBLPhFFQ-jFNmMZc56g/edit?usp=sharing



and the link to where I got the idea is http://christianity.about.com/od/topicaldevotions/p/springcleaning.htm

Obviously I don't post much... haha! Well here we go again! We are going on TREK!!!!!

We had our first official meeting last night! As I drove the kids to school this morning I thought, it feels like I'm waiting for Christmas!! I am soo excited!
So I made a trek journal. I love journals and what a great way to keep my thoughts together!

I think it turned out fabulous, and the ones the young women will make to night will look much better than mine! lol! I used Don's spray adhesive and it is yellow so that left some ugly yellow smudges. Back to the store.... I was in Hobby Lobby debating between suede, a cute embossed felt and burlap. I walked back and forth between the three trying to decide for over an hour! I looked for premade cheap notebooks (which I finally found! $5.99/6 plus 40%off).

I finally decided to go with the suede. I splurged and went with the $9.99/yd embossed suede. Kept the hemp cord I'd been carrying around, grabbed some brads then went home to get to work. I made it pretty quickly and then got on the trek FB page and was able to print the trek logo and adhered it on the inside cover (the picture above). I also hope to get a picture of the person I walk for and also put it in my journal. I really like it and I think journals need pockets so I am sure I will add a pocket to it somehow! There is NOTHING like the spirit of trek! Our stake does a fabulous job in spreading that spirit as well! I feel soo blessed we have the opportunity to participate this year!

She was found!

I had an hour till work so I put lunch in the microwave, did some vacuuming while it cooked and decided to sit down and use the hour to do some indexing. I signed in, downloaded a batch, read the instructions and got to work. Today I did some passenger lists from the late 1800's. There were names from Germany, Russia, Prussia and one even from Holland. "I thought oh goody! an easy one!"
One reason I love to index is I love to think about the names I index, what their life was like. I especially love military records. Some times it is really sad though. I did some gravestone orders from WWI and it was sad to see these young men's death dates compared to their birth dates, they were so young. These men all fought for our country a great peaceful love over comes me when I do them!

Well, I finished the batch and looked at the clock, I had some time so I downloaded one more. I was overcome with tears! Holy COW! This has never happened before. I fought through the tears and when I was about a third of the way through I came to a name! She was soo happy to be found!! Her spirit was soo strong!! She was right here with me! She was WITH me! I couldn't hold them in, the tears flowed freely.




later in the day I wanted to finish this post but didn't want to start crying again because every time I thought about it I was overcome with emotion.
I was thinking about it again a while later and thought of a video our ward indexing leaders showed during a meeting. I thought about this sweet sister whom I helped today and got goosebumps and teared up again. Watch the video! It really DOES happen!! I have a testimony of that!

The Amazing Service Race!

A few months ago, right after the season ended for The Amazing Race (my favorite reality show) I told Cora we should do The Amazing Race for Young Women's. As we started talking how fun it would be we thought it would be fun to do it centered around service and include the young men. We got some paper and started brainstorming! I sent the YW president a text told her Cora and I came up with a fun idea for an activity. It could be short or long. I pretty much left it at that. Then at her next youth committee meeting Cora brought it up. The bishop was curious so I typed it up and sent him the Brainstorm session we had.
A few weeks later they were talking again and decided it would be fun for our big Youth activity this year. I told them yes and Cora and I got to work. I told her we would do it together for her Good Works Project! I got a tentative schedule down and then a few weeks out from the activity I sent sign ups around the Relief Society and Primary. The first week we only had one person sign up. I was worried. The second week I explained a little better and had a few more. The third week I was confident it could be pulled off.

So this past week we got everything made up, the clues and such and decided to do Bandana's to decipher the teams.

The last few nights were spent making phone calls getting stuff arranged with the neighbors who signed up for service.

For the most part there were very little kinks. I did change the Chute's and Ladders games for Candyland cuz I couldn't find but 1 C&L.

leaders Letter
Schedule

When we were finished we figured we had close to 130 hours of service for the day which is pretty amazing! The kids worked great together, we ended up with 4 teams of 4 youth. Mix and matched with the different personalities. I had one adult with each group. Even though Cora worked so hard and knew what was going on she was still able to be on a team and help when she could.
It is a nice pat on the shoulder when I hear "can we do this again next year" I love that!!!

It is funny how quickly time passes when you don't blog...
Here we sit on a cool Presidents Day. Although I think today might have been the highest temp of the year! I am excited for what this year will bring. I think in the month 2013 has been around it has been better than 2012. I do believe it was a crummy year. This year I plan to love higher, better.

A few weeks ago our ward was combined with another, something I have hoped for for a long time. I am excited to meet new friends and know more people in the neighborhood. I often feel on the outs, and it get discouraging. I just keep my little family together by creating experiences for them to grow.

Jacob turned 14 last week and became a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. He is excited to advance and all the fun things that come along with it! He is doing better in school with the help of a great teacher.

Cora start her second round of volleyball last week and hung out with a bunch of her friends at the school dance. She said it was the best dance yet! it was just the second one but she had a fun then they all came over for an after party.

Owen is still the trouble maker, teaser of the family, he knows how to push buttons but he is so cute I just can't help loving him to death!

Sadie is almost 7! I just can't believe it!! My baby isn't a baby any more but oh my do I still treat her like one!! ack!! she loves school and has a bunch of friends she loves to have playdates with!

I have a big surprise for my kids this spring and I can hardly wait for it! We are finally going on a family vacation! A real true family vacation, no tents, no trailers. I can't wait to give them this gift!

While you were away...

found this in my drafts...



So Jacob and Cora have been gone it seems like for months! However, they were only gone last week and then a few days this week. I have tried to do something fun with Owen and Sadie while they were gone so they didn't feel too left out. I know Sadie has missed Cora so much!
Last week while Jacob and Cora were off at camps I decided to take Owen and Sadie to Jungle Jim's It is an indoor amusement park geared toward younger kids. I don't think Sadie has been here at an age to enjoy it. She had a ton of fun!

We also took our weekly hike, to Bell Canyon. We only went to the lower lake. It was beautiful but it was also smelly! Lots of ducks swam around and we saw a few fish close to the bank. We did this hike with My mom, sister-Bridgette and her kids Tommy, Adam, Katrina, Kyle and Caleb, I also had a friends Daughter Lindsay.

Anna, my sister, flew in on Thursday to run a half Marathon with me on Friday night so here is a picture of us at the start line!

Saturday we went crawdad fishing. We took the little girl across the street, M.J. She was fun and loved being with the kids. She didn't like the crawdads at all and she fell asleep in the chair. She is adorable. :) Cora and Jacob were home for this!

Anna flew home on Monday morning. SO sad to see her go. This week seems like a blur. I have spent a lot of my time getting school stuff ready. I am on the parent organization board so I have had a lot to do!

Jacob and Cora left for the Super Activity on Thursday morning to Flaming Gorge. They were so excited, it meant another two days alone with Owen and Sadie though! Thursday we chilled around the house and also did a little shopping. Friday was the funnest day for me. I was volunteering at the school most of the morning and also registered the kids for Junior High!! ACK! Then we were gonna head downtown. I decided last minute to take tracks so I didn't have to worry about parking and road closures. We were going down the Tour of Utah Stage 4 finish line. The Tour of Utah is a 6 day race around northern Utah for elite cyclists! They had a big expo/carnival thing going on! The kids raced banana's:

Then we walked around and got tons of free stuff. Don was volunteering so he was also there and we saw him occasionally. There was a HUGE screen TV that they had a live feed on so we watched them ride through Magna, a small town West of Salt Lake. It was soo cool to see them ride and know exactly where they were. We slowly made our way through all the vendor booths and saw the finish was coming close so we went over to secure some finish lie spots. I noticed a TV across from us and we quickly figured out they were close. I watched the TV. a few pacer cars started to come through and the helicopter (we were watching the live feed through) came past us and started circling. finally watching the TV I saw them turn the corner to the street we were on!! It was soo exciting to se





Oh my goodness this post is full of fun pictures and that is only week 1!!! I am gonna close with that and will post again in a few days! Hopefully time doesn't escape me because the best is yet to come! School starts in 11 days and I still have so much I want to do. How sad huh? My kids are excited to go back! For me, it starts a new chapter. I am looking for employment. I hope I can find something fulfilling but flexible! I want something that is challenging but something I can enjoy and look forward doing. is that even possible?

Sunday Special

I feel an overwhelming desire to make my family strong in the gospel. I always have felt a little something. but now it is huge! The world gets scarier every day! My children need to be prepared!
I decided in the spring to read the Book of Mormon again. It has been a long time since I had. then in June I was issued a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 40 days. I said no because I was already toward the end of Alma and wanted to finish before I started over. But the challenge issuer said he would set up the reading challenge for me starting where I was. No getting out of it right? It was incredible to read the Book of Mormon so quickly. To spend hours a day in the words of our prophets of old. It comes down to about 7 chapters a day but if you get behind to catch up is extremely hard, but I did it!! I finished! And now I can finish it again and count it for reading it twice in 2012!

Yesterday at church, during Sacrament meeting. Well it was during the opening song, Owen said he wanted to bear is testimony. I told him We could go home and talk about it and he could do it next month but he insisted in doing it. I asked what he wanted to say so he told me. Then I asked if he wanted me to help him. He said no, so I asked if he wanted to write it down and read it and he said yes. I wrote it down for him and told him I would go up with him (part of my challenge was to bear my testimony on the Book of Mormon). As soon as the counselor sat down we went up. He was so good. It just warmed my heart.

So as I was reading about Moroni building walls up around his cities. I likened it to building up walls around my home/my family. but not real walls. I am talking their testimonies. I want to give them every spiritual experience I can. I will go out of my way to do something little. I took Cora to do baptisms for the dead the day after her birthday because she was gone the whole week after. She is so excited to go with her friends too!

Like I said when I started this the desire to keep my family strong in the gospel is so strong I can almost feel it. It makes me want to cry. Where is the boundary that I don't force it though? In the Lord's hands I can do anything! Whew!



Each step, each day of my journey should move me progressively closer to Him. He doesn't expect or even want me to "run faster" than I am able. In fact, there may be days when I can't run at all. I may just be able to walk, crawl, or scoot, but my job is to be diligent or faithful as I move forward—no matter how small my progression.

-Kris Belcher

A walk through the wild flowers!

Had to head back up to Cecret Lake for the wild flowers. They were soo beautiful! I wished I had a good camera!! AGG!! I really thought fairies and unicorns were gonna come out! It was so magical and mystical!! I can't even describe the beauty!! There was one part (where I swear there would be fairies) the pine trees the big black boulders, the cloudy black sky, the greenery speckled with red, orange, purple, pink and yellow flowers. It was amazing! I wanted to stay there and take it all in!

Forget me not!

When we came out of the meadows there was a few people stopped on the trail. and we hear a whispering of moose, there were in fact two bull moose!! and a cow came by a few minutes later. Aren't the mountains amazing??

what majestic animals they are!!

Well we had a smaller group yesterday! We ended up hiking just under 5 miles and it was all pretty hard. Mom, Dad and Justin did not come up to the lake. It is a pretty steep hike up! The snow was gone and the lake had more water it was so peaceful!

Beautiful lake!!

Cora-last day as an 11 year old!

I'm not sure where we are going next week but I don't think it will be in the deep forest like we have been going!

2000 Stripling Warriors!

So on Sunday Cora came home from Primary and and was telling me about a Parade the following Friday. She said there were gonna be a bunch of boys dressed as Helaman's Army. I got chills and knew we had to go. I know my mom loves parades so I invited her along. I talked to my neighbor about it and got all the info. She said she would save us a place, they were going up in the morning to save spots. Yesterday we spent most of the day with some school friends then headed up to the parade. It was so fun! And I haven't been to such a packed parade before!!

This picture was one of the first entries in the parade. As the band walked by I noticed the clarinet player was my cousin Mickey. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and tried to snap a picture, well I got the back of him!! lol

Awesome V-dub Bus!!

Kids loved the "origami" dragon out of money!

after many many floats, band and other things there was nothing. Like the parade was finished but the last cop cars didn't come by. For about 5 minutes the parade stopped. There was silence. Then, in the distance you could hear a soft pounding.

In the Book of Mormon the Nephites fought the Lamanites. Then the Nephites made a covenant with God that they would not shed blood any more and the buried their weapons of war. Years later the Lamanites came upon them to fight again but because of the covenant they had made, they wouldn't fight. The sons of the Nephites stood up and said they didn't make the covenant with God and that they would fight. Helaman took charge of this army. They fought a long time and after the war, not one of the sons had been killed. They are known as the Stripling Warriors or the Army of Helaman. (Alma 53)

So years ago a stake president who often dressed as Helaman and told the story thought it would be awesome to gather 2000 young men and dress them like warriors and do a march. His vision was coming to life. Every time I have thought about this event or told people about it this week I would get goosebumps! The moment was here. around the corner we saw Helaman and a few warriors, then came the Army! It was sooo neat!! There is a primary song call the Army of Helaman, I could not for the life of me think of how it started but I wanted to sing it and yell "my Hero!!" I sang the chorus over and over in my head. Honestly it has got to be my favorite primary song!


I had to wipe tears from my eyes as they walked by.

It was so sweet to see young men both strong and weak. There were a few in wheelchairs and others being helped along the way.

The last couple rows of young men were missionaries. It was so neat!!
I am so thankful I had this moment to look across the faces of these young boys and think about the other boys who thousands of years ago set off on their walk to war. They must have been so scared but the Lord protected them. He is an amazing God!



"We Will Not Doubt!"

Lake Mary, Martha and Dog

Oh How I love this trail! The first time I went I was snow shoeing when I was about 16 and thought it the most miserable thing in the world. BUT I have been dying to go back ever since, but I never knew where it was till a few years ago. we actually went up last year, in the summer. I just loved it!! It was definitely on my to do list for this summer. So today was the chosen day. We planned on going to Lake Mary but I kind of wanted to go on to Lake Martha and possibly Lake Catherine. So I said before we headed out if anyone was interested I would love to go on.

Beautiful Lake Mary

Me!

Owen

Cora

Jacob

Sadie

So after we had made it to Lake Mary we had our snacks/lunches and I asked if anyone wanted to go on. I had a few that did so we went on to Lake Martha. The hike was just beautiful and very easy. It said it was about a half a mile but I'm not sure it was really that far.
As we came upon it Wendy said "there's a moose!!" YAY!!! I love moose!! I think think they are so majestic!! I think it was a young bull or cow because it had no antlers and it wasn't very big, It was by itself unless mama was hiding.

Lake Martha with the awesome moose!

No one wanted to go on to Lake Catherine so we headed back to Lake Mary and caught up with our group that was just leaving. We started walking back and took a little detour to Dog Lake which was a tiny little thing!

Dog Lake

Sadie, Ian, Justin, Owen, Daniel and Katrina

I just love our weekly hikes!! I love to be out and take advantage of this beautiful place we have so close to us!! I think I say that every post don't I? I'm gonna look for snowshoes this winter. I really want to go back in the winter!!


I am so proud of my mom for making this hike!! She has been on a few of our easy hikes and although this is categorized as easy it really isn't it is an almost 800 foot elevation climb in 1 mile. She made it!!! We had a good sized group today!! My mom, dad, My sister Wendy and her boys, Wesley, Daniel and Justin, my sister Bridgette and her kids, Tommy, Adam, Katrina, Kyle and Caleb, My friend Debbie and two of her kids, Ellie and Ian and then me and my four kids.

Hidden Falls

So I started a hiking group on Facebook. This was our first official hike! It was by far the easiest and shortest!! haha! It was so pretty though!! It was about 100 feet off the road. It is crazy how many times I have drove past that spot and had no idea the beauty hiding behind the trees!!

Hidden Falls:

I have been trying to read my scriptures more and become closer to God this year and think it put me in a different mind set when I am with my family in the mountains. I just feel the love of God!


Melanie, Mary, Jacob

Sadie

My Mom Mary, Michelle an Jacob

Owen was with us also but I didn't get any pictures of him!! CRAZY!! We stayed for about an hour and played in the water. On our first trip I cut up cheese and meat and brought crackers. My mom now brings that and the kids love the yummy snacks!!

A Mother's Worst Nightmare

My heart is broken by eyes have run dry.....


Two weeks ago I turned on the TV to hear a little girl, 6 year old Sierra Newbold had been missing, then found a little while later by a canal. I prayed she had just wondered off and fell in but they didn't say either way. It was soooo close to my home.. Less than a mile, two streets away. I was terrified. I hugged my little 6 year old Sadie a little more that day. I was glued to the tv all day for more info. I talked to a lady in my ward who was somehow related say the families house ha been broken into a few times and they had a security camera and it showed someone leave the house with something. I didn't want to believe it.. I was in denial. Later on the news they showed her sweet little face. I went Visiting Teaching that night to find out it was one of our neighbor's best friends little sister. Don did work on her truck a couple years back. I knew Aubrey, she was always at the Howell's after school and she was always so cute when we would go to Sizzler, she works there. The later announce that Sierra had been assaulted and murdered.

I locked my doors and didn't sleep well that night as soon as I woke up in the morning I checked all the beds in the house for my kids, to my relief they were there. 10 days went on. I checked Twitter because I follow the West Jordan Police, every day the tweet was the same. "no new developments in the Sierra Newbold case" I was really getting frustrated. There is a child killer loose.

Finally after 2 weeks they announced at the noon news the police had an news conference scheduled at 3pm about the case. I didn't go anywhere waiting for 3pm to come along. They had found the monster that had done this evil act. I cried all through the news conference. Honestly there have been so many people praying for this to happen and hearing how it all went down it was definitely "divine intervention", just like the officer said. It is amazing to me!

Well, this has been so difficult for me. To have a child the same age. It pulls at the heart strings. My hear toes out to the Newbold family. My thoughts and prayers are for you. I am so sorry for the loss of your sweet angel.

My kids and I have talked a lot about this. Esp Sadie, she knows about it, she asks about her. I was so happy to tell her they had caught the man who hurt the little girl. I remember as a kid there was a little girl that was kidnapped and killed. Sadie will never forget this, she will always have a strange connection to it. What a cruel world we live in..

Last night I kissed my kids good night and when I woke up... I still checked their beds...

Donut Falls

Ok First off I just have to say I had heard that part of the structure that made this Donut Falls had fallen, but I wasn't prepared to be so sad to see it-or to NOT see it. See back in the old days there was a big almost cave like appearance. We would go in and there was a hole in the top and the water ran through. It is completely gone. So here are the pictures!

Jacob and Evan, I try to always invite extra friends to come with and this time Jacob's friend and his family came.

Owen and Adam

Cora and Kyle, Cora is Kyle's "Honey", he sticks to her like honey too! ;)

Way up there on the mountain are the Wright's; Debbie, Ellie and Ian

Bridgette (with Kaleb on her back) and Mom stayed down at the bottom while we all climbed up!

Owen and Adam again.

Cora and Mary

Sadie- she tries to be so brave. But really she is so scared to really climb around!

Yes I know I am a nerd!!

Ok I just loved this!! This was part of the portion that fell, You can see the moss on it and now the water runs over it. A lot of the moss was all dried up but it used to be on the top! Gosh Donut Falls used to be so mystical!!

Well the hike was easy. We got to the parking lot with another group. They started out a few minutes before us and we caught up with them on the trail. When we caught up we would wait for the rest of our group to catch up. There is a part where you climb down about 10 feet and that is where they thought they were on the wrong trail so they turned around. It has been years since I had been up there but I did remember it so I kept us going. I don't know how they could think they were in the wrong place since they climbed down. As soon as you climb down you walk around the corner and can see the falls. Perhaps they didn't know it had fallen. Well it is fine because like I said we had the place to ourselves for quite a while. When we climbed up I told the kids what it used to look like. I will have to find pictures!! I must have some somewhere!!


Ok this last picture is from Sunday! We went on a walk around Silver Lake. One of my favorite easy walks! The mosquitoes were out in full force so Don was saying let's go!