It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Yes, I had my birthday. . . which also happens to fall the same week as Mother's Day. It's the best week of the entire year. Of course, if you were to ask Nathan, he would groan loudly and wish the week would never come. I can't imagine why seeing as he has the great privelage of serving me night and day for two whole days. :) This year I got an awesome present. A brand new sewing machine. Sadly, I haven't been able to use it yet but I will soon. School is almost out. I have plans and even material. Just need to get started.

I got a really big cake. . . eventually I had to throw away half of it. It was making me too fat. HAHAHA.



Oh, and check out this balloon. I told my family that it is my birthday until the balloon deflates. It's almost been a month and the balloon is still flying high. :)

Primary Talent Show

So, awhile back we had a primary talent show. I got this idea from my good friends blog about her primary talent show, which looked so fun. We have a small primary and about 15 of them came for the show. It was so cute. No body did anything fancy. We had jump ropers, somersaulters, recorder musicians and even a little guy who played his toy guitar rock star style (rocker jumps and everything). It was a fun night.
Here is Ben hoola hooping. Seriously, he is amazing and could keep going forever. We finally had to get him to stop. You can only watch the hoola hoop go around so many time.


Emily did a super magnificent somersault. So cute!


And finally, Rachel, who played a stirring rendition of . . . well, I really don't know what it is called. You know the one. . . dadada dada. . .dadada..dada. Oh forget it.

Floating?!

I feel like I am floating. . . such a strange time of life for us. We have a little bit of money for the first time ever. I have bought a few things, but I am scared of not using our money wisely now that we have it. I want to move into a bigger house and a neighborhood with more children. . . but I am scared that the things we suddenly have now won't last. We have looked at a few houses but nothing has really spoken to me yet. We probably won't buy for another year and it's hard to find a rental home that is what I want.
So, in short, I have no idea what we are doing. I haven't blogged lately, mostly because I have just gotten lazy. . . and I have been slightly busier than normal with some work related items. Right now I am just babbling.
Nate likes his job. That's good. My job is good. That is good. Ben will be out of school soon. That is good. It's all good.
oh, well, I will add this one funny story.
After Valentines Day Walmart clearanced these cute little mail boxes. I bought each of the kids one. Well, yesterday, Nate saw Ben taking a note down to put in the girls mailbox. He said he thought about how sweet that was that Ben wanted to give the girls a little note. Well, a little while later Ben was complaining about the girls being in his room. Then he revealed the contents of the note. "I told those girls to stay out of my room!"
Ah, darn, and we thought we had such precious and loving children. :)

Autoliv

Tommorrow marks a big day for Nate. He starts his new job. He will be working in Brigham City for Autoliv, a company that makes airbags. He will be doing a lot of designing and sitting at a computer.
This is all such a blessing. It is funny because his other job ended (they ran out of money) about 3 or 4 weeks ago. Obviously, it was kind of stressful. However, now we are grateful. He is going to get paid much better at this new job. I am having a little trouble not thinking of all the things I am going to buy now that we have money. Save girl. Save.
Really, we are so grateful. I give all the credit to Heavenly Father. By his sustaining power we made it through years of school and some rocks in the road as we tried to get to a good paying job. Many tears, prayers, and much patience has gone in to getting to this point. We have gone every step together and we are so much better for it.

Easter and Spring Break

Well, it is harder to sit down and blog now that I spend all day working on the computer. I have gotten behind. Things are going great though. We have had a bit of a hiccup in the job area because Nathan's contract job ended. . . but, he is doing fine and is getting some interviews so we are very hopeful that it will be a short term situation. As for me, I love my job. I couldn't ask for more. It is a great way to make money and I think I will be with this company for an indefinite period of time.
Anyway, on with the show. Easter. . what a blast. Here are some recap pics.



Spring Break was at Fat Cat's. . . not much but enough. We got $25 worth of tokens and the kids just went crazy. At the end we had 562 tickets to spend at the counter. Little kids are so easy to please.




Arrividerci!

As I Listened

Rachel and Emily were playing in their room while I cleaned. . . yes, I usually make them clean their own room, but no tonight. Anyway, that's beside the point. They had the pretend phone.
Emily says "I am calling my boyfriend. His name is bunny because I am a bunny."
Later I hear that some dramatic things have happened in their playtime. Rachel informs Emily "We are in the hospital because I broke my leg and you are having a baby." Oh my.
I thought back to my little girl days. The joy of playing, unembarrassed by your imagination. Anything can happen then. I have eavesdropped on a number of play sessions in which my children pretend that they are orphans because we died. This last Sunday they all suddenly arrived in our room wearing their Halloween costumes from two years ago. Well, Rachel was dressed in the transformer costume, which they all thought was just hilarious. And, really, they are hilarious. I hope they enjoy it and don't grow up too fast.

General Conference

Today was the close of the 180th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I took notes this time. I never do that, but I did this time. I thought I would share with you some of the highlights for me.
Wilford W. Anderson said " Hope is not a product of circumstance." (May not be an exact quote) This is a thought I have been pondering for some time now. I believe it. I feel it is one of the greatest gifts the gospel of Jesus Christ provides. . . the permission. . . the ability to be happy and hopeful always.

I really enjoyed D. Todd Christofferson's talk in which he told about William Tindel, the man who translated the Bible into English because he felt like the Bible should be available to read for all people. I thought he was a very courageous man and I would like to read a book about him. It made me more appreciative of the Bible sitting on my night stand.

My favorite talk on Sunday was President Dieter F. Ukdorf. I have a special place in my heart for him anyway because he was in the area presidency over Europe when I served my mission in Italy. I went to a zone conference once. He was there, speaking much more broken English, but just as filled with the spirit. But, his talked today about showing love and compassion to all and not looking down on them struck a cord with me. I want to do better with this.

Quentin L. Cook said something to the effect of If we want to have the inspiration of the Holy Ghost we must find a way to slow down, ponder, and pray. Last week I took a few minutes to go off to a quiet place and ponder. It was a very enlightening hour It was something I used to do a lot before marriage and children entered my life. It is something I obviously need to do more.

Many spoke about our responsibility to raise the rising generation. All good talks, but I especially liked what Elder Robert D. Hales said about "understanding the hearts" of our children.

So, those are a few of the highlights for me. I have all kinds of things to work on, but maybe I will just focus on one or two for now. :) Hope you all had a good Easter weekend. Our Savior lives.