Superman

Like father

Like son
My "little" superman has been the cutest this week. This was our random conversation one day at lunch.

Alex: "Mommy, I love you."
Me: "Oh, Alex. That is so sweet. I love you too."
Alex: "Oh, Thank you."

And I do. I love this little guy. He is pure joy, pure entertainment. Every one should have an Alex in their family. It's too bad I get to keep him all to myself.

School is coming to an end

It's begun.

All the crazy end-of-school activities, reports, presentations, awards assemblies.

I will survive.

We started with Ash and a class puppet show. Cute puppets but those poor kids just could not enunciate very well, so I'm afraid I didn't understand anything going on. Please forgive the crazy eyes. But can you tell which eye was the droopy one that started all the crazy cancer stuff?

Her award assembly followed where she got every award EXCEPT perfect attendance. I don't believe in perfect attendance and I'm sure glad my kids don't either. She sure has expressive eyes today, doesn't she?

Then there was the award assembly for presidential fitness. Nathan invited me to come because he would be receiving an award. What I wasn't prepared to hear was Ashlyn's name announced also. To receive the presidential award, Nate and Ash had to score at or above the 85th percentile in the shuttle run, v-sit, curl-ups, endurance run and pull ups.

Our old neighbor in Stansbury was in charge this year and called us one weekend to let us know that Nathan was 3 seconds away in the endurance run of one mile from being able to get presidential. So she let us go to the track to try again. Erik paced him and Katie and I timed and cheered him on. He was able to beat it by 3 seconds and received his award.

Mother's Day

What a beautiful day! We left the windows open for the first time this year last night and got to listen to the crickets all night long. Definitely one of my favorite sounds. I love spring, summer, and fall. I could really do without winter, although it sure makes me appreciate the warmer months when they finally roll around again.

My family spoiled me with breakfast of a maple donut and homemade granola cereal (a new recipe I tried yesterday and loved). We all ate outside on the deck. I love taking advantage of the warm morning sun. It is my most favorite time of the day.

And then there are always the fun gifts. Ash gave me several things she had made. 

Nate gave me a card with a poem he had written.

I got a Willow Tree figurine of a mother and her son from Tyler.

Our primary presidency made these cute little bookmarks. I've seen them around and have thought about making one. Yep, thought about it. Crafts aren't my thing, so I'm so happy when someone does it for me. Thanks to our primary I have something I've been wanting and I don't have to do it. (I just grabbed one of the books I've been reading . . . Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Wendy Watson Nelson)

We also visited with Grandma Leary who had taken a tumble earlier in the week. My kids are incredibly blessed to have their great-grandma still around and doing so well. AND to have cousins who live right next door.
Dinner was fabulous and then I took a very long Sunday nap.

I love being a mom! and hope my kids loving having me as their mom.

Naptime and hiding

Alex and I have this little pre-naptime ritual.

I tell him its naptime and he runs to hide.

My job is act like I have no idea where he is while he giggles away under his blanket.

Wanna see?


The other day Tyler took over and I guess he fell asleep trying to find Alex.

Today . . .

Can you find him?

It sure looks suspicious.

 Yep. He fell asleep hiding from me.

Star students

Remember the email I sent to Erik's principal?

Well a couple of days later I got a letter in the mail informing me that Erik had been selected as Student of the Month by someone at school.

My first thought was the principal. Ha ha. Wouldn't that have been funny. I didn't really find out who it was until I attended the awards/breakfast assembly (and yes, the principal was there).

Apparently his CTE teacher thinks he's pretty much the bomb. This is what Mr. Peterson had to say about Erik:

Erik has acquired and exhibits all the good qualities teachers love to see in their students. He comes to class prepared and anxious to participate and learn. Erik set an example to other students in applying himself to the work at hand and setting a high standard for quality. He willingly and enthusiastically accepts a challenge and then goes about exceeding expectations. Erik has earned the respect of other students, teachers, and administrators. I enjoy Erik very much as a student.

Last week I got a call from Mrs. Young, the principal at the elementary, letting me know that Ashlyn was selected by her teacher to receive a Sunshine Note which is a note sent home and a call from the principal letting us know about the good things she has been doing at school. This is what Mrs. Clark had to say about Ash:

I have truly enjoyed spending this year with Ashlyn. She is brilliant in every sense of the word. She brings such a vibrant, positive energy to our class. She is incredibly intelligent and is always engaged and eager to learn more. I especially love her wonderful personality. She has a fun sense of humor and is friendly and helpful to everyone. Ashlyn is an absolute joy.

Even though Kiersten and Nate were happy for their siblings, they both had to lament that "I've never been Student of the Month" and "I've never received a Sunshine Note." I hope they know what equally smart, good students they are.

My faith-shaking experience talk

I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting last Sunday. However, I wasn't assigned a topic and I would also be speaking with a recently returned missionary from our ward.

So I came home and looked over my blog posts and journal entries and narrowed it down to two topics.

And then I prayed about it.

For the next couple of days thoughts kept coming to me regarding one of the two topics, so I went with it. I prayed to the Lord and told him how I was proceeding and that if it wasn't the right avenue, to please let me know.

Here's the notes to my talk. They are probably somewhat jumbled and random and scattered, but there is one thing I've learned from listening to talks and giving talks and that's to not ever read your talk. So I've really tried to not do that and therefore these are the notes I have. Again, they are also just notes. I don't really remember what I said other than the bishop afterwards was amazed I wasn't given a topic because it's exactly what he's been thinking about -- how to strengthen faith in moments of doubt. I also had so many people tell me what a great talk it was which kind of made me a little embarrassed. I just spoke from my heart and I'm sure the spirit did the rest. 

When Mormon was compiling the Book of Mormon he knew that The Book of Mormon was going to be for our day and he knew the challenges we would face and chose therefore to include 4 incidences with so-called Anti-Christs. The modern equivalent of an anti-Christ is anyone or anything meant to shake a person’s faith or cause doubt or concern. Michael Wilcox likes to calls them faith shakers. Jacob gets to deal with Sherem and Alma, who ironically was a faith shaker himself, gets to handle the other three. Although these faith shakers happened to be real people, life experiences can also be faith shakers.

There is one thing I do know and that is WE ALL WILL AT SOMETIME IN OUR LIFE ENCOUNTER A FAITH SHAKING EXPERIENCE.

7 ½ years ago, right about the time I turned 30, my own faith was challenged in a way that completely changed my life . . . at least the life I was used to living. It was challenged in a way I never expected and I wasn’t sure how I would make it through this faith shaking experience unscathed? It was the darkest time I have ever gone through in my life.

Looking back it is not something I ever want to go through again. But in hindsight I wouldn’t trade it for the blessings that have come from it and from the lessons I have learned.

Some things I’ve learned: 

• Faith is a conscious choice


• It made me really evaluate my own testimony and decide what is was I actually knew deep in my heart. Up until that time I had never on my own stood up to bear my testimony on Fast Sunday. But I got brave one day and did it and since then it has become easier. There is truth in the fact that your testimony grows in the bearing of it.


• As a family we became more diligent in our family scripture reading and FHE. I remember one morning I had gone outside to shovel the snow and when I came back in, ready to gather everyone up, there were my kids with their scriptures open and they had already made it through the first column. These were little kids – Kiersten might have been 6 or 7.


• Cling forever to the things you know when you’re surrounded by things you don’t know. The time to jump ship is not in the middle of the storm. STAY IN THE BOAT. STAY FAITHFUL. DON’T WALK AWAY.


• The Son always come up. In the darkest of nights, the Son is always on duty and when we need him, we can find him through prayer, through meditation, through the scriptures.


• Faith is an assurance that things will work out for my good. I may not know how, I may not know when, but I know they will because Heavenly Father is in charge.


• Faith is a real power. Some might think it's a crutch to lean on in times of difficulty, but I know otherwise.


• Light and darkness cannot occupy the same space. Same with fear. When I start to be fearful and worry, my faith is waning.


• One aspect of the atonement is there is no end to the Savior’s ability to succor us in our pains, afflictions, temptations. The atonement is as much for me who was hurting as for anyone who had ever committed a wrong.


• Sometimes when going through a difficult time we want to ask the Lord to take away the trial, the pain, the sorrow. Instead we should pray for the grit to continue, the willpower to hang tough, the strength to persevere.


• Instead of asking WHY questions . . . Why is this happening to me?, I learned instead to ask WHAT questions . . . what do I need to learn from this experience? What can I do to help those around me? What can I do for my family?


• Korihor asked Alma to show him a sign. He needed a sign to be convinced that there really was a God. But you know, he had signs all around him. I became more aware of the tender mercies the Lord gives us every day and began writing those down. When I consciously began looking for those divine signatures from the Lord, my faith was strengthened in him.


• There is unequivocally a God in heaven who knows me, knows exactly what I’m going through, and even knows my name.

Jacob tells us that upon encountering Sherem, Sherem  “had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken.”