Miscellaneous May Photos

Max Ice Skating!

Max was invited to an ice skating party.  His friend, M helped him skate along.  Then he got a walker and was able to practice with more confidence.  

Evelyn is wearing Jase's sweatshirt.  She looks like my little jedi. :)

It's so cute to see Max skating along the wall in the first video.  Then he gets a walker and gets more confidence.  Then he skates with no assistance.  Go Max!  He tried to do something he was nervous to try!

It's Always Fun when Grandpa Comes! Hooray!

 Grandpa got to go to the park and see the kids play soccer. 

He also got to see Evelyn moving around a tiny bit.  So fun!

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.