A True Testimony Builder

I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I love when the spirit hits you so strong you feel like you could fall off your chair! I love the wonderful experience I've had the past three months participating in We Also Sing!
We Also Sing is an all female choir consisting of LDS women from all over Utah (about 360 of them). We had the opportunity to sing in the Tabernacle on Temple Square Saturday night to help kick off the holiday season. Although participating in the choir was fun, a chance to do something just for me, a chance to use my rusty talent of singing and to meet incredible people, it was also a great testimony builder.
We had rehearsals every Sunday night from September to November. Our Director, Merrilee Webb, is an incredible lady, very strong spiritually. There were several nights I was touched by the spirit. However, on one particular night she was talking to us about clearing out all the noise around us. The worldly noises such as cell phones and texting, Internet and chat sights, etc. She said the world is so noisy that it's hard for us to hear what our Heavenly Father is trying to tell us. This hit me so strong! I don't feel like I'm very worldly, but I do feel I let the everyday get in the way of really hearing what my Father in Heaven wants me to hear. I started to get emotional as I realized this was something she was telling ME!
Later that week Tom and I went to the temple with our stake. We had the chance to hear some messages from the Temple President and his wife. One of the things he talked about was being more in tune with the spirit or being a better listener at what Heavenly Father is trying to tell us. Again, I felt this was something I needed to hear. And I knew it was Heavenly Father telling me through these two people. There are so many times I've received a prompting to do something and have ignored it. I'm sure there are times that I've prayed for something and the Spirit was trying to tell me the answer, but I was too deaf to hear. I know it's hard to hear the "still small voice" sometimes.
That following Sunday I felt prompted to stand and bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. I shared these powerful stories with the ward. It became almost embarrassing as five or six people came up after me and said how touched they were by my testimony. I am so grateful I listened to the prompting of the spirit that day. And I have since tried listening more to what my Heavenly Father is telling me.
Other powerful testimony and faith builders happened because of this choir. For one thing, the songs we sang were very powerful. Another thing is I came down with a cough that made me lose my voice. It hit about a week before we would be recording our songs for a CD. I prayed that I would be able to sing, and I just knew I would be okay. That night, I didn't cough once during any of the songs. The very next day my cough was back. The day of the concert it was still lingering. I had Tom give me a priesthood blessing before my concert, and again my cough didn't bother me. I know it was through the power of faith and prayer that I was able to sing these two nights. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to sing in this choir. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and the wonderful companion it is to me. I know Heavenly Father is mindful of us, and loves each of us. He wants to help us be happy. This I know, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

My Mother-in-law and Sisters-in-law also sang with me.
Maren, Maxine, Me & Sara

Happy Thanksgiving

Thankful for my Healthy Children

I am so grateful for my three sweet, healthy children.

This morning Lily and Jefferson got up around 7:40am for the day. This is about their usual wake-up time, but usually Cedric is up before then. Thrilled that Cedric was still asleep, I turned a movie on for the older kids and went back to bed. At 8:20am Jeff came in to tell me his pull-up was still dry and woke me up. I was again thrilled that Cedric was still asleep. However, as I continued to lay there in my bed I started thinking how odd it was to still have Cedric asleep. He had gone to bed at his normal bedtime and the last few days was up shortly after 7am, so it actually started worrying me that I hadn't heard from him yet. In fact, I laid there for a few minutes and just thought "what would I do if something had happened to Cedric and he wasn't responding when I went in there". I know we've all had these scary "what if" thoughts, but I really let this one get to me. I started thinking about what I would do, who I would call, how it would affect our everyday commitments, etc. I started to get worried and even emotional. The anxiety was too much, I had to check on him. When I walked into his room and saw him sitting in his crib with a happy look on his face, I lost it! I picked him up and just hugged him and cried. I realize I had let my imagination get the best of me and it really was just a lucky chance he slept in, but it made me appreciate him so much more. As I sat there hugging him, he was giving me hugs right back, it was so sweet, I was so happy!

I am so grateful I have healthy children and I am so happy Cedric, Jefferson and Lily are a part of my life. I thank my Heavenly Father daily for them. I know this was not a real "close call", but I am grateful it opened my eyes more and helped me realized how precious these little children are.

Grandma's Face Lift

Last Sunday we were at my brothers house for a family get-together. My grandma (whom my kids call Grandma Great) was there too. When Lily saw her, she went to say hello then proceeded to flatten the wrinkles on Grandma's face by stretching them out with her hands. My sweet grandma said "do you think I need a face lift?" Which Lily responded "how much does that cost?"
Needless to say, Grandma does not need a face lift, she is a beautiful lady who does not need to change a single thing. I'm glad Grandma has the loving personality that is okay with her great-granddaughter stretching out her wrinkles.
Here is one-year-old Lily with Grandma & Grandpa Great.


The other day I was getting the boys dressed and it was a particularly cold day. When I realized Cedric no longer fits in most of his 12 month close I started looking through the 24 month box for something warm to wear. When I asked Jefferson what he wanted to wear that day he picked a 24 month sweat shirt out of Cedric's box. I put it on him to show him it was too small, but he still wanted to wear it anyway (actually it fit a lot better than I thought it would).
This is how he looked for school that day.

Bad Day at Walmart

So I needed to go to Walmart today. I had Lily at school, Jeff at a play date, so it was just me and Cedric. Simple, right? Right!?
Well I loaded Cedric in the shopping cart, seat belted him in, and the little Houdini turned around in the seat and started doing his little whiny screams. We were in the very back of the store, I already had some items in my cart when I heard on the speaker "attention shoppers, there's a blue Dodge Van in the parking lot with the trunk open". Two thoughts entered my mind. First, I have a blue Dodge van, please don't be mine. Second, if I was someone and saw a deserted vehicle with a trunk open, I'd just close it for them.
Anyway, I continued to try to shop with Houdini the screaming child and decided to put him in the back of the cart. Well, he thought it would be a fun game to throw things out of the cart. And what's the first item he picked? Why it was a glass jar of baby food. There it went, right out of the cart and onto the floor, glass and food everywhere! I quickly went to find a worker to tell them about the mess, and Cedric was back in the seat again.
Next Cedric decided to stand up in the seat WITH THE SEAT BELT ON and fell backwards, right into the cart full of groceries (luckily not on the floor), but still, it hurt him enough that he started screaming at the top of his lungs. So now I'm carrying the kid, pushing the cart and trying to shop all at the same time. When my arm started getting tired I put him back in the baby seat and tried distracting him with my pen. Well, it worked, until I poked him in the eye with the pen... Screaming again...
...Then my shopping list disappeared, Cedric probably threw it out, again...
We were almost done, so I put the bananas on top of the full basket, and the little Houdini turns around again in the seat and starts pulling all the bananas apart. I finally distract him with a sample of ham from the deli, but the whole time cringing that he's eating the ham with my unwashed, Walmart germed, sick (oh ya, 'cause I'm sick)hands.
... found the shopping list on the floor... forgot the light bulbs, oh well...
We finally make it to the check out and I let Cedric get out of the cart before he falls out, again. Of course the little toddler toddled over to the stuff on the side of the isle and just started unloading stuff. So I'm trying to unload the cart, and reload the shelves at the same time. Luckily there was another worker at my checkout who helped reload my cart with the bags.
So after a terrible hour and a half in Walmart I proceed to the parking lot to find my van. And of course, it was my van who had the opened trunk FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF! (There's a remote button for the trunk on the key chain I must have bumped.) I'm glad to report the stroller, car seats and other junk in the car were all still there, but it was so embarrassing to unload the car!
Next time Cedric is not invited, and I'll check the trunk before I walk away.

Walking, Talking and Cookie Monster Fur

Even though Cedric took his first steps at 11 months, he is now officially walking almost two months later! He's having so much fun walking from one thing to another and can go all the way across a room. I'm sure by the end of the week he'll be all walk and no crawl.

Cedric also said his first word yesterday! Although he loves to jabber, in fact it sounds like he's saying "jabber", he hasn't really said any real words in the proper content. However, yesterday at church he kept saying "uh-oh" (ah-uh) whenever he dropped something. He said it later in the highchair when he threw his food on the floor, and today when he knocked things into the bathtub. So I am counting uh-oh as his first word.
Jefferson helped me pick out the color for a lei I had to make for the choir I am singing in (We Also Sing). We are performing at the Tabernacle the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we are all wearing leis. Anyway, he picked an indigo blue color and when I showed him the finished product he said "does it have Cookie Monster inside?" It really looks like it was made from Cookie Monster fur.

Jeff also likes to pretend he's an animal (actually it's Lily that is always pretending to be an animal, he just copies what she's doing). So lately he's been picking girl names for his pretend name. When we tell him it's a girls name he says "I like girl names 'cause they're cute."

Somethings in the house!

So I'm downstairs in the preschool cleaning things up today when I hear Jefferson upstairs yelling something. He and Cedric had been playing in the back yard and I left the back door open so I could hear them. It sounded like Jeff was saying something was in the house, but I couldn't understand him. Thinking it was a fly, Cedric or some other no big deal I didn't hurry up too fast. However, when I did come up I was surprised to see this standing in my kitchen...



The feisty little kitten then went running into the back yard and was running and jumping all over the place. It would try to bat at Cedric, who was just totally curious about the whole thing, but never hurt him. We finally got the kitten to calm down and even held it for a minute.

Well, we went into the house and the cute little bugger just sat outside the back door and meowed. Jeff wants to keep it, and even named him Stripey. Unfortunately the thing wouldn't leave, it tried to come into the house whenever we opened the door and it just sat and meowed. When Jefferson and his two friends went outside, the cat was starting to get a little too playful and they were getting scared of him. So I threw him into the empty lot behind our house. Since he's too young to climb the fence I think we are done with the kitten for now. I wouldn't mind a kitten someday, but not today.

Halloween and Fall

The kids and I enjoyed going to see the witches at Gardner Village. I'd never done this before, but we decided to go check it out and the kids had a ball! They have witches all over and it was fun to look for all of them. At the end we went to a petting zoo. It was a fun afternoon.


With fall comes leaves, and lots of them at our house. Tom was nice enough to rake the leaves in a big pile and let the kids jump in them. (yes, Jeff is in a dress. He's dressed up as a witch while the kids were playing).

Halloween seemed to be a week-long holiday this year. The Saturday before, the older two kids went with some neighbors to the ward Halloween party, Cedric was home with a sitter and Tom and I were with my family making a scavenger hunt, haunted movie. It was sooo fun! Then, both kids dressed up for their school parties/parades. I even made a scarecrow costume for me to wear for the preschool parties. Then on Friday, Tom's work did a Halloween party for all the kids and families so we went down for that. Then finally it was the real deal. The kids loved trick-or-treating. Between all the parties and trick-or-treating they each had two buckets full of candy! I was worried their face paint was on permanently after the week-long celebration. I'm glad we have another year to go before I have to do costumes or make-up again. Happy Halloween!

Lily the Cat, Jefferson the Skeleton, Cedric the Dalmatian.

We love to say weee when we play Wii!

Jefferson has been really into the Nintendo Wii lately. Here he is playing Wii Sports, Cedric likes to just point the remote at the TV and think he's playing too.

These two brothers are starting to look more and more alike, and are starting to become good friends (when Jeff is not malling him to death).

Anyway, Jeff loves the Wii, but his favorite game is Mariokart. He has gotten over a dozen trophy's for first, second and third place. If you are not familiar with Mariokart, that is no easy task. Lets just say when he gets his drivers licence, he'll be one 16 year old I will not worry about on the road. Not only is he good, but he can beat most anyone he plays and he gets into the "trash talk". So if anyone is up for a little, competition, Jeff is always willing to play anyone at Mariokart.