Mother's Day 2014!

There is something about having your birthday right before Mother's Day that makes a girl feel special.  Breakfast in bed, flowers from a friend, flowers from Tony and several handmade cards from the kids.  My heart was full.  I cherish my family and I love to spend time with them and feel their love.

My Birthday Fun!

It's always fun to have a reason to celebrate.  Going to Utah for Women's Conference was a little bit of my birthday.  Then I got to celebrate with my cute family.  Tony worked on the day and a sweet friend brought dinner over.  The next day he worked during the day and so we celebrated with a yummy strawberry cake.  I felt blessed by love from family and friends.  Then the finale was going to a Lindsey Sterling concert.  So fun!  Tony and I had seen her on America's Got Talent years back and she's gotten really popular.  She plays the violin in a way I would love to.

Here is a video that is really cool but it's also really cool to see her dancing while playing the violin.  She puts on a great show.

 These flowers were brought to me by the sweet friend who came and watched our kids so we could stay out late for the concert.  They are so beautiful.

BYU Women's Conference

I learned a lot at BYU Women's Conference and I'm so grateful I went.  I wanted to post about everything that I learned but I'm preparing for teaching and that is taking my scripture/gospel study time.  So I'm going to highlight the two lessons that stuck out to me the MOST.  

Sister Dew talked about the enabling power of the atonement, grace.  She also talked about being a disciple and how discipleship is not easy but it's easier than not being a disciple.  We are preparing the world for the return of Jesus Christ.  How will we make sure our loved ones are truly converted?

Sometimes, we get overwhelmed by the teaching of, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:48.  His grace is sufficient.  What we need to do is not about working through a feverish list of good works.  It is about a change of heart, yielding to the enticings of the spirit and holding to the rod.  Doing all that we can do is becoming and behaving like true disciples of Christ, but even then, it is only through grace that we are saved.   

The other lesson came from the second class I attended which was based on the talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, "Timing".  --Holding Ourselves in Readiness to Act on the Lord's Timing.--  
The second speaker, Ginny Smith talked about the time between when our prayer is asked and our prayer is answered.  This is "sacred space".  As we wait for the  Lord, what if we consecrated our sacred space.  We have patterns of waiting--when we're in the chapel at the temple, as we wait for the sacrament...what do we think about?  If we consecrated our time, we could say, "Here I am.  Tell me what to do."  We would move from passively waiting for our prayer to be answered to being the answer to someone else's prayer.  Elder Maxwell (one of my favorite speakers) talked about "Graceful Endurance" (I haven't been able to find where this is referenced yet.)  Even when Christ was on the cross, He consecrated his waiting--He thought about those who needed forgiveness and He thought about His mother.  

This is just a snippet of my notes and I still need to go back and read all of the talks that the session topics were taken from.  There was so much to learn. I'm very grateful I got to go.

Girl's Weekend Adventure in Utah--Part 2

Matt was kind enough to watch Evelyn for the full day on Friday so we drove her there and visited with Kim's family for a short bit.  They are some of my favorite people in the world.  Then we went to classes. During one short break I got to see Cynthia who was in my ward my senior year.  She served a mission in Denmark.  She's a pretty cool lady.

 After the day was over and we picked up Evelyn, we had dinner and ice cream at the BYU Creamery and then went to the BYU Museum of Art to see the Sacred Gifts exhibit.  We couldn't take pictures inside the exhibit but here are a few pictures in the opening of the museum.

My favorite painting was Franz Schwartz's "Agony in the Garden".  The lighting in real life was extraordinary and it is a very powerful piece.

After the exhibit we shopped at the bookstore and went home and played some games.

Saturday we took it easy which was so nice because the class load at the conference was intense.  We visited the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point.

 Then we visited a Glass Blowing Museum and saw them making a glass flower.  The art work was just incredible.

 Then we visited Rita's and had Gelatis.  These are a treat that Tony discovered while serving his mission on the East Coast.  He introduced me to them when we flew and visited his mission while we were dating.  Then when we stayed with my parents in D.C. for a few weeks we had them again.  So good.  Evelyn tried her first Gelati. :)

That night I got to spend time with a childhood friend of mine, Kim P.  After visiting with her and her family (and forgetting to take pics), she came back with me to Kaytie's and joined us for a fun game night where we laughed so hard it hurt.  And Kate and Geniel surprised Kaytie and I with a birthday treat since our birthdays were the next week. :)

This is Evelyn in the car seat on the drive home.  Beth, Lauren, Geniel, Evelyn and I drove back to Oregon together.  Evelyn was a trooper, only having a hard time within the last hour and a half and even then she was consolable.  What a doll.

 We picked lilacs at a rest area and Evelyn had fun holding one.  We played 2 truths and a lie with Kate and Stacey who were driving home to Vegas.  We sang, we talked.  I learned that Beth knows every word to the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat soundtrack.  Very fun times.  And it really was fun, but there's nothing like being reunited with your family when you've been away.  Seeing Tony and my boys made me so happy.  That's why I love getaways.  They're good for a mama's soul and getting to hug your family after being away is the best feeling ever.

Girl's Weekend Adventure in Utah--Part 1

Evelyn was an angel on her first airplane ride.  She smiled and flirted with the 8 month old boy in the seat in front of us.  She was easy and never cried.  I told her next time we would go to France. ; )

Planning on being gone for several days away from most of my family was daunting.  I was excited at the prospect of a girl's weekend but then it seemed overwhelming with all of my responsibilities.  It was at that point that I knew I had to go.  So I asked some friends to help out with the boys back home when Tony was at work for two of the days (he took off a couple of hours each day so they wouldn't stay too late).  He dropped the younger two off at 1:15 and then picked all three up at 9.  A friend picked Max up from school and took him over to where my other friend was watching the boys.  Then Tony took Friday off and drove the boys to Oregon to spend time with his Uncle Phil, cousin Seth and his kids.  They had their own sets of adventures while I was away.  

Kim picked us up at the airport and we saw her family, then went and saw Tami and her family and then met another freshman year roommate, Trenna, and went out for dinner.  We came to realize that this next August, it will be 19 years since we met as freshman year roommates.  That thought boggled our minds. :)  We had so much fun reminiscing.  I just love those ladies.  

Then Trenna drove me to Kaytie's house where I got there just minutes before the group driving from Oregon and maybe half an hour before my mother-in-law and sister-in-law who drove up from Vegas.  Tricia flew from Colorado and she got there first.  It was fun to hang out and see everyone.  

The next morning,

 we drove to Provo, parked at LaVell Edwards Stadium and walked to the Marriott Center.  We were about to see Sister Sheri Dew who is someone I greatly admire.  I think I'll do a separate post on the lessons I learned from Women's Conference because there were many. :)  I had Evelyn watched by a cousin's in-law.  After I picked her back up, I planned to eat lunch and then go to the classes at the Marriott Center because I figured that although children weren't allowed in the classes, I could just watch in the hallway with the small screens they make available in the hallway.  Well, I was politely informed that that wouldn't be allowed either, so Evelyn napped while I pushed her in the stroller.  I loved walking around campus and enjoying the sunshine, hearing the bell tower melody, listening to birds sing.  It was so refreshing to be away and alone, two things that don't happen very often.  I think the soul just needs peace sometimes and that is what I was able to feel as I walked around.  Here is the tunnel coming from the Marriott Center to the rest of campus.  On Sunday nights, when I lived on campus, we would go to "tunnel singing".  Hundreds of BYU students would gather with hymnals and sing together.  It was so fun to see friends, sing and feel the spirit.

 I love the Bell tower and the view of the "Y" on the mountain.  I loved my experience at BYU.  I feel very privileged that I was able to go there.  It's a unique opportunity and one that I can never forget.  My mom really wanted me to go and I was fairly ambivalent.  She prayerfully urged me to apply and so I did.  A mother knows best.  I met people who taught me and I learned from my classes and experiences.  This is where I was meant to be.

 I lived in Heritage Halls my freshman year in 187 Fugal hall.  It looked like Fox hall which is below.

 But now it looks like a hole in the ground where the crane is.  The buildings behind are the new Heritage halls where DT (Deseret Towers) used to be.  The new Heritage Halls are still cooking dorms but they're bigger. 

 I love lilacs and there were so many on campus.  I had to smell them. :)

 Walking up Maesar hill, I saw two deer.  It's really hard to see them in this picture but they were so beautiful and right there on campus.

 This sculpture, called, "The Tree of Wisdom" was always a favorite of mine. 

 And the Spencer W. Kimball Tower, SWKT (aka Swiket) still stands.  I had so many classes here being a Psych major with a Family Science minor. 

After my little break, I met up with Beth and then met up with everyone else for the last class.  Then we went to the service area and then to the Brick Oven.  We were starving.  

A late dinner and then relaxing at Kaytie's was the end to the day.