Colton's birthday invitation

Today I spent some time working on Colton's birthday invitation that I will be sending out tomorrow! I'm so excited about it! With every birthday that comes around I get to have fun making invitations and planning out all the party details! I really enjoy doing this... I don't have much experience with Adobe photoshop but every time a birthday comes around I learn a few new things and get a little more comfortable with the program.

I can't believe Colton will be one year old in less than 2 weeks!  He's sure a sweet and handsome little guy! He's now holding onto furniture and walking around it. He's still to chickened to walk by himself, but he sure loves using his walker and pulling  himself up to get around! He's becoming quite the explorer... he gets into everything! Drawers, cupboards, garbage cans, anything he can reach, and he puts everything in his mouth so we have really had to keep yucky and small things out of his reach.  I sure love him though, even if he leaves me a messy trail everywhere he goes! He truly brings so much joy to our family! Love you Colton!! You are such a joy!

Frosty the snowman

I was really excited today because it snowed and I haven't been able to go out and build a snowman yet with my kids this year. So after woman's conference, I told the girls to go get their snow clothes on and that we would go build a snowman. The girls had such a good time! They named him Frosty of coarse, and I have to say he's one good lookin snowman! ;) When we were done building the snowman, Aubrey got cold and went in the house for a while and Marissa and I went across the street to help our neighbor Marilyn shovel her driveway and sidewalk.  Then we shoveled our driveway and went in the backyard and made a tubing hill. Aubrey came back out and we played on the hill the rest of the night. We sure had a good time!  We stayed outside till it got dark and then finally went in to make dinner! What a day!  I think my arms are going to be feeling it tomorrow, I've forgotten how enjoyable workouts can be when your having fun!

Woman's conference

I sure enjoy feeling uplifted, enriched and inspired with all the wonderful talks that we get to listen to each year at our stake woman's conference.  Here are a few notes I took while I was there today. We also worked on service projects to help children at the primary children's hospital.

The talk I listened to was given by Sister Prince. She talked about Strengthening Marriage and family relationships.

Romans 12:18
Everything is in our perspective. Heavenly father wants us to know How important we are. Do we treat our family members with the same respect we would give a general authority. We set the tone for our home. Put something on that invites the spirit and keeps peace in our homes. Look heaven ward, true self worth is found with his image in your countenance.

1.Show love: love wins all. Love is a daily decision.
2.Shower your family with praise and recognition, look for good ignore the bad. You increase what you praise. Learn the art of praise. Physical spiritual intellectual emotional and spiritual. Write down all the things about your husband and children that you love in all those areas. Be specific, and unconditional. Focus on the positive. Change our perspective.children want Attention, adult attention, immediately.
3.Seek God often, use the powers god has given you. The holy ghost will do the teaching. Character, ordinances, and family are the 3 things you can take with you when you die.
Pray about the best way to be a parent. Parent the way our father in heaven would parent: unconditional love, rules with rewards and consequences, forgiveness.

Scripture study and fervent prayer

Every night before we go to bed, Jeff and I read scriptures and listen to our children's personal prayers as well as have a family prayer. The kids have grown so accustomed to it, that they help us remember, which I am so grateful for  because they are setting an example for me, of how important it is to be steadfast in our scripture study and prayer.

We read from the Children's Book of Mormon, which has pictures to keep the kids more interested. Some thing we have really enjoyed is using the iPad  to listen to the scriptures and watch the pictures with a little bit of animation. We've been doing this for several years now... they always look forward to it!

Marissa has now gotten old enough to read on her own and so it has also been fun watching her learn and become more familiar with the stories as she reads. 

Aubrey is still pretty young, so it's harder for her to stay focused, but every once in a while you can tell that she is paying attention and being filled with the spirit.

It sure brings us a lot of joy watching them find joy in the lessons that are taught as we read! You know scripture study is paying off when they start asking more questions and praying more about what has been read.

Within the past week I have decided to start using the Institute study guide for the Book of Mormon. I feel that I could really use a guide to help me better understand the Scriptures and apply them in my life. Scripture study has never been one of my strengths, but I do know that when I dedicate myself to reading and praying it has truly blessed me and my family. Heavenly Father knows my efforts and I'm grateful that he knows me and my heart. He knows my desire to do what's right and set a good example.

Along with reading the scriptures, I have been trying to make an effort to pray morning and night and also make an effort to pray with Jeff as well. When I pray personally it helps me to think about things and ponder them and how much I have been blessed! When I pray with my husband I am able to listen to his needs and know what he is grateful for and vice versa. I feel that it helps our relationship it helps us feel like we are on the same page!

Something that I've been pondering today as I've been reading is that it is very easy to find excuses to not completely comply with what the Lord has asked us to do. We get so caught up in all of the things of the world all of the busyness and all of the things that sometimes can be good but that can also take away from things that could be even better. The study guide talks about Lamen and Lemuel and how they would murmur and complain about the things that they had been commanded to do. The study guide asks the question, is there anything that keeps you from completely complying with what the Lord has asked us to do because it feels too hard or inconvenient? Well, I know that I have many areas that I can improve in. One of the best places to start is with scripture study and fervent prayer. Anytime that I have complied with this commandment I have noticed less stress throughout my day and less contention. I feel like there is more love and more patience and more time for the things that matter most! It is a struggle because I make it a struggle, yet it is so simple! So, I would like to work on making scriptures and prayer something that I rely on for strength, understanding and knowledge of the things that will help me improve my life. If I liken the scriptures to my life and apply them in my life, I know that my testimony will grow stronger. I will have less excuses to murmur and complain about things that seem hard and they will become a joy in my life.

What's new?

These past few weeks of slipped away from me but there has been many things that I want to make sure I don't forget about.

My youngest brother Jared came home from his mission on December 16th. He served in the Charlotte North Carolina mission. His homecoming talk was on January 10th and he did an amazing job! I love listening to returned missionaries talk it is so fun to see how much they have changed and how much their testimony has grown. He brought the spirit into the room so quickly I'm so grateful that he decided to go on a mission and set a good example and serve our Heavenly Father and our Savior.

Also another thing that Jeff and I have decided to do is to take our kids on a date once a month. We switch off with each of our kids so this month I took Marissa out for dinner at Carl's Jr and then we went ice skating. We had a blast! Jeff took Aubrey to go see Hotel Transylvania 2 and out to dinner at Carl's junior as well. Our girls sure enjoyed the time that we spent one-on-one with each of them. It is such a great way for us to build up our relationship with them and let them know that we like spending time with them. Next month we will switch off I will take Aubrey to go do something and Jeff will take Marissa. They are really looking forward to it! Colton is too little still, but we look forward to taking him out when he's old enough!

Holiday fun!

Here are some pictures of some of the things that we did over the holidays. I wasn't able to write about everything everyday because it gets so busy but pictures can say a thousand words! We sure had a good couple weeks off of school enjoying Christmas and New Years!

New years goals

Today at church in Relief Society, we talked about setting goals and how important it is to keep in mind that Eternal Life is the ultimate goal over our lifetime. In order to get there we make smaller more accomplishable goals to progress and work on over time so that we can get there. It was stressed that we shouldn't beat ourselves up when fall short or we don't always meet our smaller goals. As long as we are making our best efforts to progress and move forward, that is what matters most.

I think it is so important to make goals in life. It gives us purpose, it helps us progress and become better people!

For family home evening, our family will be talking about what we would like to focus on this year personally and as a family.

In Relief Society they talked about how important it is that our family members are aware of our personal goals so that we can all support each other. I really love this idea and hope that we can become a very close family by thinking about each others needs and helping each other accomplish our goals.

Here are the things I'd like to do personally:

1. Says my prayers: morning and night personally and with my family
2. Study the scriptures: take an institute class and really actually study! Read scriptures as a family as well.
3. Register and take a few college classes: work on getting a bachelor's degree so I can help out my family with knowledge and financial well being.
4.Temple attendance: set aside a designated day for Jeff and I to go to the temple monthly. When we go, bring a family name to get the work done for.
5. Family time: set aside a half an hour or more each day of undivided family time. Plan a weekly FHE lesson as well. Come up with fun inexpensive activities that will build up our relationships and create fond memories.
6. One on one time: date nights with Jeff at least twice a month, as well as taking turns doing something one on one with each of our kids once a month for a couple hours.
7. Get organized: work on decluttering and planning ahead. Get better at prepping for meals and living on a budget.  Make a responsibility chart to help our kids learn how to help out and become more responsible. Along with teaching responsibility, pay a small allowance weekly to teach the importance of saving and paying tithing.
8. Set aside money for different categories that are important to us: missions, weddings, college, Christmas, rainy day funds, general savings, kids, retirement, cars, new home.
9. Service: think less about myself and more of others. Teach my kids about the importance of helping others and how much joy you can have doing good deeds for others. Do something monthly to serve someone.
10. Overall health: change bad habits and make new good habits. Have dinner ready no later than 6 and stop eating after dinner, no snacking!  Eat a fruit or vegetable or both at every meal, cut back on carbs and sugar, eat whole foods whenever possible. Exercise at least 30 min a day, 4-5 times or more a week.