More Spiritual Insight

I have not always been very good at Visiting Teaching, as you could ask some of my companions from the past. I am trying to be better.
This past week my companion and I went out, and I had the opportunity to do the lesson. I am so grateful that I did, as it gave me the opportunity to review the talks from General Conference, which of course I used for VT, but I was also able to use it this week with my Sunday School class.

I told the ladies who we visit, I am not sure if it is that I am getting older and appreciate conference more, or if it was just so dang good this time, I truly enjoyed listening and learned so much.
I thought I would share some thought from what I learned and taught, from the different talks, yes more then one talk, I was unable to just choose one.

For me, conference was a lot about being prepared as hard times are to come. I started off with Elaine Daltons (link) talk and her quote "In the strength of the Lord, I can do all things." She goes on about temples and virtue.
What a great reminder that, it is only through the Lord that we can do all things. As I read her talk, it made me think about Temples and how we can go to the temple and find peace, but also we need to make our homes like the temple, were we can retreat to our homes when times are hard, and have that peace.

Elder Godoy, (link) his talk on Testimonies was excellent. I loved how he said "Great events are not a guarantee that our testimony will be strong." We are NOT guaranteed a strong testimony. A testimony is something that has to be worked on, on a daily basis.

“But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe [and I think that was my case as an investigator], let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words” (Alma 32:27).

If we just start with a particle of faith or desire to know, the Lord will bless us with a true knowledge and a strong testimony of the his gospel.

Elder Aidukaitis (link)talked about the Book of Mormon. Here is a quote from him that I loved.

“. . . Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts . . . the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God”

I love that he reminds each of us, if we prayerfully read the BOM, not just read it, we will have a stronger desire to be obedient and have a stronger testimony of the Savior.

Elder Cook (link) was the last talk that I quoted from.

...he gained comfort and then reassurance. Our prayers are that way when we go to our Father in Heaven. We know He cares for us in our time of need.

What a great reminder that our Heavenly Father loves and cares for us, and also is there to comfort us in our time of need, IF only we will seek him in prayer.

there will be lean years and plentiful years.²⁰ The Lord expects us to be prepared for many of the challenges that come. He proclaims, “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.”

How true is this today. How many times have we been told to get prepared. From talking with one of my dear friends a while ago, I was reminded that when we are told to be prepared, how much more that means then just our food storage. We must also be spiritually prepared. We never know when our testimonies are going to be challenged. It might be that we become ill and are unable to attend our church meetings, it might be through people we come in contact with who fight against the church and our beliefs. If we are not prepared spiritually, how will our testimonies withstand the trials.

“Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you.”

The Lord knows each of us personally, he knows what we are feeling and going through. We have been promised with the blessing, that if we are prepared, and are obedient to the comandments, we do not need to fear, as the Lord will helps us with whatever we may face.

Spiritual Insight

These past few weeks have been full of spiritual insight, which I am so grateful for.
Last weekend we had Stake Conference. In the adult session, Saturday evening, one of the talks was on Tolerance for others. This hit home, as the thought came that our children watch, listen and learn from our actions. I have noticed with with Miss P a lot lately.
Earlier that day, we had been out in the vehicle dropping some stuff off for donation. There was a line, and we had to wait a few minutes.
From the her car seat in the back, we hear Miss P chirp up to the car in front of us
" Get out of our way" and "Honk at it Mommy." (I am not the honker in the family.)
Oh yes, our three year old has slight road rage from watching mommy and daddies example. Needless to say, when I have the desire to express my thoughts on others peoples driving abilities, I remember the little ears in the back.

My Old Man

My Man turned the big 30 on November 19th. For the past year and a half he has pretended to be 30 so he could play on a soccer team for 30 and over, so we joked last year that he was going to turn 30 twice. He no longer needs to pretend.

Poor guy,I am sure when he woke up on the 19th, I had forgotten his birthday. Since he woke up to a half done cake, I told him it was going to be a carrot shaped cake, as it looked like an orange tear drop. I was having difficulties at 10:30pm coming up with the top, as I was exhausted. I am also sure he must have thought, why did we spend all this money on cake classes.
(Ha ha, he didn't know his surprise)

A few days ago, while he was outside, I had one of his friends at work send me pictures of his truck. Monday night, I baked the cake, then had to hide it outside (yes, it was completely covered so animals didn't get into it) so he wouldn't find it. Tuesday, I had to wait till he left for work, put the girls down for a nap, then I started to decorate the cake. When I finished it later that night, I had to hide it so he wouldn't see it, and ruin the surprise.

The afternoon of his birthday, just after he left for work, Miss P and I headed out and bought him some balloons, then headed to his work to drop off the cake. He had no clue what we were up to, so it was a great surprise when he walked out of the shop and we were standing there with balloons and his "real" cake.

Happy Birthday My Love!!

How do you not laugh...

This afternoon, Miss P and I had just gotten back from the store. She had opened the passengers side door, and then decided to climb out the drivers side. I went around the truck to shut the door, and she headed to the house door. All of a sudden I see her out of the corner of my eye, run around the front of the truck to meet me. She didn't make the turn and ran straight into our neighbors car and fell flat on her back.
While I was holding in laughter, making sure she was okay, I was totally thinking it was the funniest thing I have seen in a while.

Tooth Fairy

And We Get Upset When They Lie to Us...

When Uncle R and Aunt J were away, Cousin E had a loose tooth. There was some extra drama, as it was her first tooth to loose, and her parents had left her with her crazy aunt who tried really hard to talk her into to just letting us pull it out.

She was almost ready to let Daddy S pull it out one night. He was being so kind and patient. She was complaining that it hurt, so he got her the anbesol and put it on so it wouldn't hurt. He was about to pull, when she chickened out. The next morning, G-ma W being the genus that she is, gave each kid a chewing vitamin C, and that tooth came out within two bites.

I decided that it needed to be a little special as this seemed to be a traumatic time for her. So I made her a card with a picture of the Tooth Fairy and a personal note. I put the note in a zip lock with 4 quarters (even though we all joked around about putting $50, since Uncle R and Aunt J were gone, just to mess with future visits from the tooth fairy in their house.)

It was fun to watch her excitement. She was talking about how she got a picture of the tooth fairy, and that the tooth fairy left her a note.
Bad thing is, Miss P was watching all of this, and has talked about it since, "When the tooth fairy comes and leaves her a note." I am going to have to remember I did this for when Miss P looses her first one, as she has a really good memory.

Hanging Out with the Kids.....

Aunt J left melting chocolate, one afternoon we decided to let the kids each have a bowl of chocolate and let them dip away. Poor W, he missed out since he was napping.


One morning I woke up to find, W had taken off his PJ's and was playing dress up. He had the dress on upside down. That is the leg hole over his shoulder. Such a pretty boy.

One afternoon while the girls were napping, G-ma took the boys out back to play. Yes W put my mixing bowl on his head for a hat, and the purple bow goes to one of Miss P Mr. Potato head ride on toys.

It was such a blessing to have nice weather, so the kids could go out back and play. Thank you to My Man for letting me keep the sandbox and slide/swing and for not getting rid of it. And thank you so much G-ma and G-pa for the fence and making more room out back for the kids to play. It has been such a blessing to have.

Pumpkin Patch

J Feeding the goat. Then J licking the fence. YUCK!!!!

Miss P(yellow vest), W (Blue coat) and E(in pink) climbing the hey pyramid.


Me and Miss P on the hey ride to the pumpkin fields. Daddy S and Miss P with her pumpkin.
I guess the rule was the kids must be able to carry the pumpkin, they are not that strict as my child had to get the biggest one.

When my bro decided he needed to take his wife to Hawaii......

Uncle R and Aunt J planned a trip to Hawaii without kids in October. Uncle R, talked my mom into watching the kids, who then talked me into helping.
I was scared to death for them to leave their kids, as this was the first time that they had been away for this long, and the boys are really attached to their mommy and daddy, and usually end up in mommy and daddy's bed.

I am totally shocked how well the week went, and know that Heavenly Father was there answering prayers. We decided that instead of going to their place to watch the kids, we would just stay at our house.
I thought I would be all smart with sleeping arrangements. We put G-ma in the spare room on the futon, which is downstairs. Then we put R and J's three kids in Miss P's room, and Miss P with us on our floor. We had it all planned out that R and J would sleep downstairs the night before they left, as they had to leave early, and hopefully the kids would stay asleep, so there would be no freaking out that mommy and daddy were leaving them. That back fired, as their two year old woke up in the middle of the night, then their 5 year old went down, which woke up the the one year old. I didn't know this was all going on, so I went in and grabbed Cousin J who was crying, brought him into my room, trying to calm him down. Aunt J came up to get ready, and told me the rest of the kids were downstairs awake. Well that ended sleeping in, and of course then Miss P was awake, so they all went downstairs to hang out. I think Miss P had more of a melt down that I left with Grandpa to take Uncle R and Aunt J, then their kids were.

I changed the sleeping arrangements the first day, and put J (one year old) in our room, easier for naps, so the kids could still play in Miss P's room, plus if he woke up, he wouldn't wake up the rest of the kids.
After about four nights of being woken up in the middle of the night, one night sleeping on the couch because he wanted to play and not sleep and I didn't want to wake up My Man and Miss P. His pack in play very quickly ended up downstairs in the living room. Why I didn't think of that at the beginning.

We had some fun times. We tried to do activities to keep them from getting bored and killing each other. We visited the pumpkin patch, library for story time, McDonalds play land, shopping, we even had the tooth fairy come for a visit for E who lost her first tooth.

Over all it was a really fun week, with lots of memories made. We all survived, grateful for the beautiful weather, and were really excited to see Uncle R and Aunt J
We were all very impressed with My Man, he was very calm all week long with the kids, even when E (5 year old) started choking Miss P over a toy.

Uncle R and Aunt J, look out for when I get knocked up and have my septuplets.

Teenager

I think I am raising a teenager stuck in a three year old body.
Today has been full of interesting moments with Miss P, which have ended her up in time out, to give her time to think of these moments.

Daddy S: P, come help clean up your toys.
Miss P: No, You have to do it, I don't want to help.

*******
Mommy A: P, no you can not watch tv, we are cleaning, and you need to take this stuff to your room.
Miss P: Your so mean

*******
Mommy A: P, sit up to the table and eat your dinner please.
Miss P: I want to watch my movie. (She has a little DVD player we let her use to watch movies on.)
Mommy A: No P, leave the DVD player and come to the table.
Miss P: Your so mean. (Repeated a few times, yes it seems to be her favorite phrase today)

******
Mommy A: P, it is time for scriptures and bed, pick up your toys.
(Five minutes later, as she is playing with the toys, that she is suppose to be picking up, with me continually telling her to pick up)
Mommy A: P, just stop talking and put your toys away.
Miss P: You hurt my heart.
Mommy A: What? I hurt your heart.
Miss P: You hurt my heart, telling me that I can't talk.
Mommy A: If you don't talk you will focus on picking up and not playing.
Miss P: You hurt my feeling, you hurt my heart, you hurt my belt, you hurt my doll. (Yes, she starting telling me that I hurt every toy that was around her.)

Poor kid, she is getting over being sick and I am starting to get sick, so she really had no chance for sympathy or patience today with her attitude.

Cutest Little Equestrian

This year, I was having a hard time coming up with a costume idea until we saw a horse costume at Target, which Miss P loved, as she loves horses.

After some thought, I came up with an idea, asked our good friend K, and decided that Miss P would be "Aunt K" for Halloween. Thanks K for making it happen, the helmet cover made it extra cute and authentic.

It has been really fun, getting the costume together this year. Miss P was the cutest, telling everyone that she was going to be "K" for Halloween. She was so excited, when I showed her a picture of K, when she was in competition, that even though Miss P's horse was black and not brown, she was going to look just like K.

My Man had to work, so I dressed her up, and went out with our neighbor, her son and another boy in our complex.
We made it to about three houses before I decided that the poor horse was a little much for her to wear around, as she was not able to keep up.
Then about 45 minutes into it, as the other kids were shedding parts of their costumes, she didn't want to wear the helmet any more. So in the end, she ended up just wearing the coat, and getting a lot of candy.