Spring Break - Snow Fun

 While we were at the cabin for spring break we had one day where it was a super nice sunny day, and it had snowed the whole night before so there was fresh snow to play in. We had fun playing out in the sun and getting some Vitamin D at the same time.

This was about the only place they could sled, due to lack of snow, so it was quite the hike back up.

Paul started the snowball fight and had a great time, as you can tell from his smile :)

Taylor tried to retaliate.

Lots of Posts

There is a lot to catch up on for April and I'm going to try to do it all today - sinces its the end of the month and I kind of like to keep things in chronological order when i post.
And since blogger has updated how you can post pictures, I can put in a lot of pictures :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

My friend Paige just emailed me to find out if I'm okay and still alive, since I haven't done a blog post in a long time, too long really. I really mean to post more often but life is so crazy these days that some things have to go and unfortunately my blog has been one of them.

Here's some of what's been happening:

• Justin is doing great on his mission in France. We get letters from him early every Monday morning. Since he's 8 hours ahead of us we usually wake up to his letter. I am posting his letters on his mission site and so that takes a little time to keep up with.
• I have been participating in an 8 week health challenge that I actually found through Pinterest (and they found it from this website) We had 20 ladies sign up for the first challenge and I was basically heading it up, with one friend helping track points for one team. We just finished last week and it was a huge success. We are doing it again, starting next Monday - this time on an individual basis instead of teams and everyone is paying $10 to join and the winner gets all the money.
• Brooke is super busy with the end of high school - AP tests and finals and trying to stay motivated. She auditioned at Utah State, SUU and U of U for the piano programs. She was accepted at all 3 and has chosen to go to the U. So we are trying to help her figure out her future at the U - helped her figure out housing and was accepted to live in the Emma Eccles Fine Arts House. Now we're trying to figure out what classes she needs to take as a music major and stay on top of all that.
• We have 3 kids playing soccer so our Saturdays are filled with soccer and then of course there are the weekday practices too (thankfully those have been rained out this week).
• I am also training for the American Fork Canyon 1/2 Marathon.
• Due to doing this health challenge, training for the 1/2, and tracking my calories on an iPhone app called Lose It, I've lost 16 pounds!
• We had a great spring break get away at our cabin (have pictures from some of that to post).
• I've been subbing a lot but not too much. Mostly in Jared and Kamryn's class and in kindergarten, with a little 6th grade thrown in there recently. For the most part I enjoy it and its the greatest part-time job because it is so flexible.
• Helped on a committee for our ward fundraiser dinner.
• Gave a talk in church last week on how to healthy outlook about the trials in our lives and how we can teach our children to handle the trials that will come in their lives.
• I'm sure there's more for my list of excuses of why I haven't been blogging but can't think of them right now.

What's keeping you busy these days?

The Gift of Nurturing

Our RS Birthday dinner was tonight. The theme was "Christ's Gifts to Women", which was based on a new book at Deseret Book. The gifts listed are: mercy, experience, wholeness, nurturing, and seeing.

I was asked to give a 5 minute talk "about a woman or women in your life who exhibited a particular Christlike attribute, perhaps emphasizing how we can apply that to all women." Immediately when I was asked I thought about my mom. But I didn't think I could get up and talk about her and not cry through the whole thing. I tried to think of other women who I know that I could talk about (and there are many) but I knew I really wanted to talk about my mom. So to get through it, I wrote it down and read most of it (and still cried several times).

Gift of Nurturing

With all the gifts listed on the invitation I most identify with the gift of nurturing. I looked up on the church website and found these statements:

President Hinckley said “You are the guardians of the hearth,” he told the sisters.(at the General RS Meeting) “You are the bearers of the children. You are they who nurture them and establish within them the habits of their lives. No other work reaches so close to divinity as does the nurturing of the sons and daughters of God.”⁶

^{Julie Beck said:}

“The Family: A Proclamation to the World” states, “Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.” ¹ A good nurturer carries power and influence. The Latin word nutrire, from which the English wordnurture originates, means “to suckle or nourish,” or, in the full interpretation, “to feed, foster, care for, or rear.” True power is found in the hands of a worthy nurturer, especially at mealtimes.

Many significant events in the scriptures are centered around meals. To solidify important spiritual teachings, the Savior fed people physically. When teaching His higher law to 5,000 people, He filled them with loaves and fishes (see Matt. 14:15–21). Before His atoning sacrifice, He called His disciples not to a final meeting but to a last supper. There He taught them to “love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34). After His Resurrection, on the shores of Galilee, He bid His disciples to “come and dine. … Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. … So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me … ?” (John 21:12–13, 15). It was also at a meal that Jesus gave the earthshaking charge to the Apostles to “go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

The Lord knows that food and the circumstances in which we partake of it can help us remember some important things. We remember people we have shared a meal with, and we remember where we have eaten special meals. The children of Israel celebrated feasts to commemorate blessings of the Lord, such as the Passover. Each week we are nurtured by the Lord as we partake of the emblems of His atoning sacrifice, represented by bread and water—two essentials of life. The Savior taught, “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him” (John 6:55–56). Through nurturing emblems we promise to “always remember Him” (D&C 20:77, 79).

As I think of this gift of nurturing, of course I think of my own mother. As my sister said there is no one better to talk about than our mom when it comes to being Christ like and being an example of the gifts from Christ. My mom did a wonderful job of raising five children and she worked hard doing it. I think back about what she did for us and the list is long:

• she made us lunch every day to take to school – that’s five kids in school plus she made a lunch every day for my dad too. I can barely make a lunch for the twins to take once in awhile. At the time we probably didn’t appreciate it and sometimes wished we could have school lunch but now I realize how much effort that took.
• I’m pretty sure she made us dinner every night and we ate together as a family every night of the week. My dad’s job was very consistent and he was home at the same time every night and we had dinner every night. I cannot even imagine making dinner every night – I feel like I’m doing pretty good if I make dinner 3-4 times a week.
• my mom made sure we were all cared for – we had a nice home that she took care of and clothes – many that she made – to wear that were always clean. While growing up I never fully appreciated what all of that meant. Now that I am trying to manage my own home I understand all that she did and what she sacrificed personally for our family.
• My mom and dad did a wonderful job of teaching us the gospel and holding regular FHE. They taught us to write in our journals and even had us share what we had written. When I didn’t want to read what I’d written (because I’d written about some cute boy or something) it was a bit scandalous since I was the oldest and first to start breaking away from the family. Now that my first one is gone and the next soon to leave I understand how hard it is to let them go.
• Probably one of the greatest times my mother cared for me was when I had Taylor, our 3^rd child. We were living in Tucson at the time and he was born in Sept (and we were living in a house with no A/C). She flew down to help out with Justin and Brooke and the new baby. It turned out that she needed to do so much more because a few days after having taylor, I couldn’t walk. The swelling from the birth had gone down and my pelvis had separated because he was such a big baby. I couldn’t walk or do anything due to incredible pain. I ended up living in a rented recliner chair in the front room. My mom took over the household and did everything. All I did was feed Taylor, whom my mom brought to me, and she did the rest. It was the greatest act of love and service.
• My mom didn’t only serve her family but those around her – neighbors, friends, siblings, ward members, etc. She helped care for her neighbor who was dying from cancer. She has been a great friend to many and does so much, never complaining.

My greatest goal in life is to be like my mother.

St Patrick's Day

Yesterday was St Patrick's Day. Jared and Kamryn had talked about it all week at school and were determined that they were going to catch a leprechaun.

They woke up really early Saturday morning and

this is what they found on the kitchen table.

All sorts of "green treats"

Along with a magnifying glass and

some sort of cage. Inside was this note:

They couldn't decide if the L stood

for Leprechaun or

the leprechaun's name.

I suggested maybe his name was Larry and they laughed.

Kamryn said if it was a girl she thought

her name was Lucy.

They spent a lot of time on Saturday trying to catch that sneaky leprechaun. They even used the rainbow nerds to set a trap outside. By the end of the day, still no leprechaun. Jared wants him to leave clues next year.

Dinner Party

Our ward does dinner groups a few times during the year. Everyone who wants to go signs up and those that are willing to host put that down. Now that we've redone our living room and have a nice dining room table I like to host.

My favorite thing about hosting is setting the table. I like to set a nice table and its the first thing i do when I'm getting ready for a dinner party.

I even did cute little treat baskets at each plate :)

I decided to make a new recipe for homemade rolls

Why do I do that to myself

when we are hosting people for dinner?

Luckily they turned out really good and everyone loved them.

rolls setting out to raise

(photos are out of order, sorry)

New Freezer

I've been really wanting to get a freezer to put in our garage. When we cleaned out the garage last summer we even cleaned up a place to put a freezer someday. Paul really doesn't think we need one - but I can't find anything in our freezers - we have 2 fridges so just those freezers.

My sister got a new freezer and was getting rid of this freezer and gave it to me. Its perfect - just the right size for what we needed. So last Saturday I was so happy to clean out my freezers and get them all organized (little things make me happy).

This is my downstairs freezer

now the MEAT freezer.

This is the freezer in my kitchen -

with fruits, veggies, frozen fast foods for the kids, ice cream/popsicles

New freezer in the garage

all organized with the rest of the food

breads, cheeses, potatoes, misc

Project Update

Our downstairs project to convert 1/2 of the storage room into my office is really getting started now. Paul is motivated to prove me wrong - I said it would take a year to finish it. He's telling me it'll be done by the end of April.

He even has this schedule all written out for the work to be accomplished each week

(its written on a paper towel)

There's even a contingency week scheduled in (that's totally his real job coming in to play)

Justin's room that has been converted to a storage room

We're making progress on our basement project.

Paul and Taylor rebuilding some of the shelves so they can still be used

in what will remain of the storage room.

Paul is "teaching" Taylor how to do all of this stuff

(I have to remind Paul to not just do it all himself while Taylor watches)

Parent Teacher Conferences

Last week was Parent Teacher conferences at the elementary school. Both Jared and Kamryn got excellent reports from their teacher.

Conferences also mean Book Fair time. We let the kids each pick out a book for doing such a great job at school. They always to buy something with their own money - this year they decided to get posters.

Kamryn with her cute puppy poster.

Jared with his BYU poster

How did that happen, you ask? Very good question. He told me he was going to get the BYU poster and I teased him about that. Then when it was time to buy he said he wanted the Utes poster. I was working at the book fair at the time and I think he thought i was serious about my teasing. I told him he could get whatever poster he wanted and he chose BYU. He says he wanted that one because the animal is COOLER.

So, of course, I had to take a picture of him with it and I emailed it to Justin :)

I finally did it

I got all the equipment and supplies to make my own bread last summer. When school started I went to my friends to learn how to make bread from her, she's an expert. And then i never did it on my own - too busy getting a missionary ready to go, and then the holidays.

In January I put it on my list of things to do and every week it was still on there.

Finally yesterday a friend of mine asked me what I had planned for the day and I told her I was going to make bread. Did I just say that? Since I said it I figured I'd better really do it.

Here is the end result.

Not too bad for my first time on my own.

It smelled so good that Brooke waited around a few minutes and was a little late to work so she could have some before she left. We all enjoyed a warm slice of bread for a snack and then more for dinner.

PS I got this recipe from my friend Jill. She got it from the Deals to Meals blog.

Pinterest

Some people are afraid to get involved with Pinterest. It can be time consuming at the beginning while you're figuring it out and looking at all these new cool pictures and ideas. But after awhile the newness wears off and you can just check in for a few minutes a day and find another new cool idea, pin it to your board and you're good.

I got the idea pictured above from Pinterest and it came from this cute blog. I have a friend who is having a hard time and I thought "I'm going to make my own version of this and take it over to her."

Sunshine in a Bucket

This is how my version turned out and I love it. I just walked around Walmart and the Dollar Store looking for yellow "sunshine" It was super easy, didn't take very much time and would make anybody happy.

My Ute Kids

Justin gave these cute kids Utah shirts for Christmas (he couldn't stand seeing them in their blue AspenGrove/BYU shirts). He gave them long sleeve shirt and they wanted short sleeve shirts and its taken this long to get them exchanged.

I think this one will make Justin smile.

President's Day

I got these first 2 pictures from my sister's blog. She is very lucky to have this great exercise group in her ward. Amy is a personal trainer and holds these classes at their church on MWF and they are quite the challenge. I was able to go on Monday and participate in the 25 station interval training.

This is Amy with her daughter

After working out and getting something to eat

we took the kids sledding at a park near Susan's house

It took longer to get ready than we were there, I think.

I would have liked to take more pictures but my camera battery wasn't charged.

guess the kids had a fun time

this is how they looked on the ride home

Princess Party

Kamryn was invited to her cousin Yoel's 1st birthday party

It was a princess party for all the girl cousins

Kamryn had so much fun getting all dressed up for the party

All of the princesses

Kamryn getting her face painted

opening presents at the party

Rachel, Katie and Kamryn

3 beautiful princesses

my princess

Avignon, France

Justin arrived in Geneva Switzerland on Valentine's day

The mission president and his wife picked them up at the airport

and brought them to the mission home for lunch

Elder Justin Adams

in Geneva Switzerland

at the Mission Home/Office

Elder Adams with President and Sister Murdock

Finding out who his trainer/companion is

Elder Justin Adams with his trainer companion, Elder Wolfart

Having breakfast at the mission home

then training with the president and assistants.

Then at least a 4 hr train ride to his new area -

Avignon, France

Its pronounced like Avinhon (from wikipedia)

or as Brooke said it "avinyone"

Airport Call

Monday morning we were able to talk to Justin while he was waiting for the first of 3 flights he would take to get to his mission. Brooke, Jared and Kamryn all stayed home from school so they could talk to Justin (Taylor couldn't afford to miss school and figures he'll talk to Justin on Mother's Day :). Paul had to be at work but was conferenced in on the call. It was so great to hear his voice - sounds the same. We had him give of us some of the talk he gave the day before in his branch sacrament meeting - in French of course. His French sounds great to us. We were able to talk to him for about an hour before he had to get on his first flight to Chicago.

In Chicago he barely had any time at all before boarding his next flight to London. Luckily we'd sent him a pay as you go cell phone so he was able to text me when he was taking the shuttle from one terminal to the next. Their layover wasn't very long and they didn't even have time to get something to eat. Luckily they were flying on British Airways to London, which is a pretty swanky airlines. Justin said the plane was REALLY nice and the info online said they'd be getting a 3 course meal.

Hard Time

I'm having a really hard time keeping up with all the things that need to be posted on - this blog, Justin's mission photo blog, his mission letter website, facebook, my written journal, email and written letters to Justin. Don't misunderstand - I want and like to do all those things, just trying to keep up with all of them is sometimes a challenge. I can't even remember what I've been meaning to post on here.