Tuesday, February 24, 2009

des six

So, Amy just tagged me. I usually ignore tags but thought this was fast and fun and didn't require me to divulge deep dark secrets!

This is how it works: go to the pictures folder on your computer, go to the sixth file, go to the sixth picture, post it, then tag 6 people.


I don't know if you can tell what this picture is but it is of our jack-o-lanterns a few years ago.

I tag: Melissa C., Melissa S., Chassie, Rachel, Kristol, Heather

Monday, February 23, 2009

Updates

Yesterday marked the end of one of my "busy seasons" with Young Womens. The last 2 months I have been attending Ward Conferences to visit the Young Womens classes. My counselors and I have been teaching the lesson so I only had to teach twice. We decided to use the talk from Elaine Dalton entitiled "A Return to Virtue". I feel like this call is so timely as our world actually looks down on virtuous women and we are being bombarded on all sides to abandon our virtue.

A few thoughts that stuck out to me were:


"What could be more deceptive than to entice women, young and old, you and me, to be so involved in ourselves, our looks, our clothes, our body shape and size that we lose sight of our divine identity and our ability to change the world through our virtuous influence?"


"I truly believe that one virtuous young woman or young man, led by the Spirit, can change the world, but in order to do so, we must return to virtue."


We talked about standing in holy places and where those holy places are. One of the leaders yesterday said that our holy place can be inside of us and as we live a virtuous life people will be drawn to us. I realized that this greatly applies to motherhood that as we make every aspect of our lives a holy place, we will always be prepared to teach our children by the Spirit in any situation.


Our Stake President spoke about the Lord being mindful of each of us. One of the quotes that struck me yesterday was by President Ezra Taft Benson: "men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life in the service of God will find eternal life."


I love that but sometimes forget it. As I work diligently as a wife, mother, and Young Women's President, I will be blessed now and eternally. Sometimes I can only focus on the stress and busy-ness of now and not realize the blessings that are in store for me. I just need to remember that the Lord will make up the difference when I have done my best.


In other news: I finally got Sam to go to Ikea with me. For the year that Ikea has been here, he has wanted nothing to do with it. So, I was a little shocked on Saturday when he actually agreed to go. When we got there he was a little intimidated by the amount of cars in the parking lot ( he generally avoids big crowds) but as we started looking around, he realized what all the fuss was about. He actually admitted to me that he thought it was an awesome place! We ended up buying two shelving units to hold the myriad of Legos that our boys have accumulated. We needed a better storage solution (or ANY storage solution, for that matter). Curtis actually put both shelves together by himself, well, Sam had to step in a few times by for the most part, it was all Curtis!
Check him out with his completed shelf! I think this kid has a future as an architect or engineer. he loves to figure out how things work and how to put them together. He's a pretty cool kid!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Super Nanny update

Wanted to let you know how successful the sleep tactic is. If Lucy cries at all, it is usually less than 5 minutes. I really don't even have to stay in her room anymore. It took some time the first few nights but let me tell you, totally worth it!!!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

9 YEARS!


Because of this sweet boy, I have now been a mother for 9 years! I can't believe how fast 9 years has gone by. It seems like just yesterday we were preparing to bring our first baby home. Now, we have a young man who is almost as tall as me! The last 9 years haven't always been easy but my life is better because of Curtis.
Here are 9 things I love about my Curtis:

1. He is my first born baby.
2. He is a great big brother to Noah and Lucy.
3. He loves being a Cub Scout.
4. He is a friend to everyone.
5. He is a great Lego builder and will spend hours working on creations.
6. He loves learning and is especially enjoying Cursive right now.
7. He has overcome some hardships the last few years and is thriving.
8. He is so affectionate and loving.
9. He has great curly hair that totally fits his personality!

Happy Birthday, my big boy! I love you more than everything!