Bryan's Primary talk

Today Bryan gave his first talk in Senior Primary.  His topic was "There is safety in following the prophet."  He had most of his talk memorized and did a great job!  I'm sure I was more nervous than he was.  He practiced a lot during the week, though, and didn't break a sweat!  I'm proud of him for the effort he put into it.  

Click here if you'd like to see a video of him giving his talk here at home.

Who's got mail?

Well, not Bryan.  And he was so bummed after checking the mail yesterday that he came home and secretly wrote himself a pretend card from Aunt Bree. :)  He was embarrassed when I asked him what he was doing and didn't want to show me.  It melted my heart a little when I saw it.

Note to relatives:  Here's one little guy who would love to get some mail! :)

Our surprise guest

One afternoon this last week I came home from taking Bryan to the bus and found a little shih tzu on our doorstep.  She was well groomed with a pink flowered collar and a cute bow on one ear, so it was clear she wasn't a stray.  I waited on the step a few minutes to see if anyone came around the corner to claim her, but no one did, so I decided to bring her inside.  (It was a windy, kind of stormy day.)  Luckily she had a tag with her phone number on it, so I called and left a message for her owner.  He called me back a few minutes later and said his wife had left for Logan and he was up in Salt Lake and would I mind dog-sitting for a few hours!  He assured me the dog (Lola) was well-trained, so I agreed.  So for the next few hours she made herself at home!  Isn't she a cute little thing?  She reminded me of our old shih tzu, Pippin...

Ari liked her from a distance, but if the dog got close to her, Ari wasn't all that excited.  While she was eating lunch, she sat with her feet propped up on the table so the dog couldn't nibble her toes, like I'm sure she must have imagined would happen.

Matt really wanted to play fetch with Lola, and at one point he took her out into the backyard and then opened our back gate to find a good stick.  Of course, the dog took off, and for about 5 minutes I thought we'd lost her again!  I ran up and down our community of townhomes, but to my relief I found her close to our yard when I'd circled back around.  I would have hated to have to call her owner and tell her I didn't have her anymore!

After the initial excitement wore off for Matt and he'd discovered she wasn't much of a dog for playing fetch, he did his own thing and Lola decided to just take a little rest.  This is how I found her...  I didn't have the heart to tell her to move. :)

When her owner came to claim her, I was a little sad to see her go.  It was fun having a cute dog in the house again.  Of course, this was only for a few hours and I didn't have to do anything with her...  I think we'll have to wait until we have a bigger house and a real yard before we get one of our own.

Bowling with the kids

For FHE last week we decided to take the kids bowling.  (David and I had gone a few nights earlier, and for the record, I did beat him with a score of 125!  Not bad for my first time in years!)   It was the kids' first time at a real  bowling alley, though they had a pretty good understanding of the game from playing the Wii. :)  We used the little bumpers and they even had metal slope things to set the ball on and get rolling.  The boys ended up just using all the strength they could muster (I must say Matt mustered a bit more than Bry...) and chucking it down the lane.  Then it was just a matter of waiting to see how many would get knocked down.  They loved it!  Ari would have loved to play as well, I'm sure, but we just had her watch from her little bar seat.  Next time I think we'll try to avoid going on a Monday night, since it was insanely busy and a little too chaotic, but the kids didn't know any better and talked about it for days!

My good camera's still out of commission, but here are a few shots I got of the night...

Bryan slipped at one point, which made us all laugh, of course.  Here he is mid-fall...

 Waiting, waiting...

Recent pictures

I haven't been good about writing lately.  Things have been crazy with different things, and I'm usually too tired or busy at night to write much... I've got to figure out how to be better.

Here are a couple pictures, at least.  We've lost the charger for the battery for our good camera, so I haven't been able to use it lately.  My old camera doesn't take the best pics...

I love her little outfit here.  She picked the skirt and then I picked the shirt and she picked the sweater and so on. :)  She's definitely opinionated when it comes to what she wears, and she always insists now on putting things on herself!  She's kind of a mess, otherwise, but it's hard to keep her clean these days.

 She still loves to help unload the dishwasher, and now she even sorts the silverware!  I've realized with her and the boys that they're much more capable than I give them credit for.

We got to go to Cambria's 2nd birthday party this last week and the kids had a blast.  I mean, what's more fun that ring-around-the-rosie and a Sesame Street cake?  Not much, when you're 2, anyway.

 Ari had some silly faces...

 I'm still getting used to Bryan's new smile. :)

And here are the boys all dressed up in their new church clothes.  So handsome!  I love my little men.

Encircled in the arms of love

We had an awful thing happen to our neighbors this past week.  Their four-month-old baby boy stopped breathing during one of his naps and passed away.  I saw an ambulance rush past my house in the morning, but I never imagined that it would be for someone I actually knew.  Kalee is my visiting teacher and she lives directly behind us.  She and her husband, Kodey, have a two-year-old girl, and they had their baby, Crue, last October.  I was absolutely shocked to hear that he didn't make it.  I was sick to my stomach and my heart ached.  I didn't tell the kids what had happened, but I was near tears most of the day and just wanted to sit and hold them.  Kalee and Kodey both have their families nearby, so thankfully they had lots of support the day it happened and the days that followed.  They attended the temple and sought strength and comfort through the spirit.  Kalee started a blog where she's expressed her feelings, and it's been such an inspiration to read her thoughts and testimony.  She and Kodey have truly been encircled in the arms of the Savior, and His love has been the only thing that's carried them through this time.  After the funeral yesterday she said she wished she could bottle up the spirit since it was so strong and keep it with her like that all the time, since she knows in the future she'll have to work to feel it so much.  It's hard to look in from the outside and imagine the strength and comfort they're receiving.  It's the only explanation, though, to how they can get out of bed and smile and carry on.  They were at church today and stayed the whole time, despite the fact that seeing so many babies, several born the same time as their Crue, must have been heart-wrenching.  I feel like I've learned so much about the atonement and the plan of salvation in these past few days, just from watching them and seeing how uplifted they've been.  I know that I can't begin to comprehend the Savior's love or the peace we can feel during such trials, but it's such a comfort to know that He lives and He does love us and promise us that peace.  It's such a blessing to know that families are eternal, and that we'll get to be with all our loved ones one day, no matter how soon they're taken from us here on earth.  We sang a song in choir practice today that expresses much of what I've been pondering lately.  We've sung it several times before, but it never meant so much to me as it did today.

Because He lives, I can bear whatever burden may be mine
I am encircled in the arms of love divine because He lives
Because He lives, He will banish every shadow of my pain
Every sorrow will be swallowed up in Him
For in His hand is healing for the weary soul
This I know because He lives
(Because He Lives, Sally DeFord)


My heart still hurts every time I think of Kalee and her family, or every time I look out my window and see the window to what used to be Crue's room.  What a blessing it is, though, to know that Crue is alive and well, and that his family here on earth has not been left alone and without hope.  This is truly what the atonement is all about, and I'm so grateful for my testimony and how much it's been strengthened by their example this past week.

Sunday ramblings

I love that springtime is almost here.  I love that I can dress Ari in flowers and pastel colors and know that blossoms will be coming out on the trees before long!  This past week we've actually been able to take walks and go to the park and the boys have worn themselves out running around with neighborhood friends.  I even got out their short-sleeved t-shirts and shorts, which they were thrilled about.  Just wearing shorts around the house makes it seem like spring.  We even did some spring cleaning yesterday!  It wasn't planned, which made it easier, I think.  And David was in a big cleaning mood, which made it even better!

We're finally all healthy again (knock on wood), so today was the first day in a month that we were all able to go to church and stay the whole three hours.  Bryan bore his testimony in Sacrament mtg. for the first time in a long time.  He'd been planning on doing it all month, but then during the meeting he started feeling nervous and wasn't sure if he wanted to go after all.  I told him to say a prayer and ask for Heavenly Father to help him feel better, and so he did and then the next thing I new he was walking up to the stand with his hands in his pockets looking so big and brave!  I was so proud.  His testimony was short and sweet, but it was a good experience for him to overcome his fear and do something he knew was important.  He was one of about a dozen or more kids that bore their testimonies all at once, so it seemed a bit like a Primary program, but it was sweet.

I've been in a big baking mood lately.  It's my favorite thing to do while Ari's napping because I can involve Matthew and end up with a yummy treat!  I make wheat bread about once a week now.  It's one of my favorite things to make because I love that it's hearty and healthy and good for the kids and I can completely pass by the bread aisle at the grocery store.  I'm not a huge bread person myself, so I usually only have a bite or two to taste how it turned out, but it's been fun to learn how to make it and improve my technique.

(A loaf I made a couple weeks ago)

I've also been experimenting with agave nectar a little bit more.  I made a delicious carrot cake with agave for a friend that had gestational diabetes and ended up liking it about as much as my regular carrot cake recipe!  I also tried some vanilla cupcakes with agave, but I left out the almond extract, which I think was pretty key, and I didn't like them much.  They made for nice little snacks for the kids, though.  This coming week I think I'll try something chocolatey, with or without the agave...  I stumbled upon a recipe for chocolate sheet cake from the Pioneer Woman and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it!  Mmmmm.  Good thing David doesn't like baked goods, so I don't have to worry about throwing off his diet with all my baking.  He's lost 15 pounds already in the last few weeks!  I'm so proud of him!  Hopefully I won't start packing on the pounds now, especially with our cruise around the corner...  (Woo-hoo!)

I've also been reading a lot lately (big surprise).  Life's just better when I've got a good book to read.  I have been a little better at reading in moderation, though...  Mostly I wait until nighttime and the kids have gone to bed, or I sneak a chapter or two during the day while eating lunch or something.  I've been reading fantasy books from two of my favorite authors from my junior high teaching days - Robin McKinley and Shannon Hale.  They're fun reads, nothing too heavy or depressing.  I've also got a couple church books I'm trying to read, and I'm pushing to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of May.  I'm on track to do it, which feels really good.  And I have to say I've enjoyed reading the Book of Mormon more this time around than I have in a while!  I'm feeling it a lot more and gaining insights I've never had before.  I guess that's the beauty and promise of the Book of Mormon, though.  There's always different things that will jump out at you and new insights to be gained.