Martin Luther King Day Sledding

We spent the whole morning getting things all picked up around the house, and I did some grocery shopping as well. The boys didn't have school because of the holiday and I wanted to take them to do an activity in the late afternoon. In my head I was thinking of a trampoline park or something like that. Well at the last minute my friend Jenny Noall text me with a picture of her truck all packed packed up with tubes, inviting us to go with her. We jumped on the invitation. Especially since it had snowed like crazy that whole day. So there was a ton of fresh snow. 

We met her over at  Eagle Ridge Golf Course. 

 We honestly had the best time making train out of the tubes. We went over and over again. I laughed the whole way down.

When we got to the bottom there was a lady that came up to us and said she got some pictures of us. She wanted to text them to us. What a thoughtful thing to do.

 You can't even see Ryker but he's under all those tubes trying to take them up all back up the hill by himself.

 Ryker and Fynn had a great time. Cyrus had spent 4 hours whining about getting his chores done, that he never got them done, so he wasn't able to join us. I was really sad that I had to follow through with this. Least favorite part of parenting is when I have to follow through with the punishments and consequences.

We were also dog-sitting for Heidi's friend. This Goldendoodle has won my heart over to having a dog. He's the sweetest most tender dog I've ever been around. I need him in my life. I even started to look around for what it would take to get a dog like this. I don't know when the right timing will be but I feel like we need a dog in our family. Not sure when, but it'll happen.

Sweetest Boys Around

How can you now feel loved from your boys when you find these notes on your mirror?

House Update

Our current condition is quite... um what the right word... Redneck maybe?

Now that we can park in the garage it's fantastic. Especially climbing the ladder everyday to get up to the main floor. We also don't have stairs to the front door yet, so anyone who comes to visit gets a choice to come inside of either...1) climbing the ladder through the garage or 2) climb the snowy/icy hill to enter through the side patio door (which enters a little room that is the combo of an entry way, deep freeze, piano and office room). We are real classy right now.

A blanket hangs in the doorway to block the cold air from the non-insulated addition. Its cutely decorated with basketballs, footballs and soccer balls.

My hallway has turned into the storage room. No longer need to walk all the way downstairs to get what I need, it's right here.

The outlet behind the entertainment center stopped working, so a long green extension cord runs across the living room to an outlet that works. My decorating style is on point right now.

I've been so busy with my job, calling as the YW 1st councilor,  and just life that the house has a lived in look and feel all the time. Scriptures are typically left out on the table everyday.

Fynn is usually cooking something, building train tracks or creating a beautiful mess.

It's normal to have laundry stay in the baskets after they are washed until the bakset is empty and everything needs to be washed again. And amidst all that, we sill jam to our music, eat delicious healthy meals, study the scriptures and love each other.

I have to also mention how much Jesse has sacrificed for the whole thing. His time, his body, sleep and health. He works harder than any man that I know. And he pushed himself everyday to get stuff done.

Forever My Little Buddy

Ya know, I'm going to be really sad when the time comes for this little buddy of mine to go to school. It's been fun to have him around while the older boys are in school. 

 The other day when I got home from work late at night, the boys were already in bed. But Fynnie heard me come in and met me half way down the stairs and wrapped his arms around my neck and said "I Wuv you For-eva".

Talk about a heart melting moment.

Come Follow Me

 2019 is the start of a New year, New us and New Church Curriculum. We now have 2 hour church. But what came with that is a the New Come Follow Program for Families and Individuals. The church is shifting From Church supported Church to a Home Supported Church. We are asked to have Family study leading up to the Sabbath Day. Coming prepared to discuss what we learned at home. The 3rd hour of church is suppose to be at home.

Our church is starting at 11:30am and so our little family decided that we would do our 3rd hour of church at 10:30am at home. All dressed ready for church.

Today was our first Sunday in this fashion. And I can tell you that I am really looking forward to watching our family grow in this new way of learning. I have established a good scripture study with the boys in the mornings, but we haven't always been the greatest with Monday Family Nights. So this will make us be really good at it. Introducing the topics of study for the week Monday nights, talking about it throughout the week, wrapping it up at the end of the week with our family hour of church and then going to the 2 hour block to top it all off.

This morning as Jesse was giving our first Sunday lesson I sat back as he taught the boys and was overwhelmed by the Spirit as Jesse testified to the boys how this new program is going to change our hearts and our family. As I watched our boys sitting there reverently and totally comfortable  to us gathering around the table for morning scripture study I had the Spiritual Impression that came to me "Because you listened to that prompting to study the scriptures with your boys 2 1/2 years ago and established that habit with them, that THIS is able to happen right now."

We were able to walk into church filled with the sweetest spirit.

That evening we went to the Smith home for a Monthly Family night. Every year Mike and Heidi will always come up with a theme to cover for the whole year. They decided to make our theme this year the Come Follow Me Curriculum.

Heidi taught this night about the Parable of the Sower. 

She had each of the kids dress up and act out the parable.

The boys just love dressing up for this stuff. And it such a great way to bring the scriptures to life.

I'll say it again, but I feel so in love with these changes. I feel this shift that is going to strengthen the faithful and sift out those that are idle. I feel so grateful that I get to raise my boys at this time and have been given this opportunity and way to teach them in our home.