Angela thought of how to serve today. And then wrote it in her journal.

 Our neighbor, Cole, in our sandbox :) We love the Crawfords.

 Carolyn making FHE Treats with her recipe from her book she read.

FHE is awesome. Carolyn helped Emily with the lesson. They created a game (below). THe game had cards for us to select. It gave us a situation where we had to decide what a good choice would be for the choice.

 Angela drew a beautiful picture for her part of FHE. She shared what a scripture meant to her through a picture. Here is a picture of her with the Savior. Beautiful testimony drawn in a picture.

• Today while getting in the car for church, Carolyn said, “Mom, I wished I would have invited Santa Clause to my baptism. How cool would it have been if he came.”
• Before bed tonight, the girls and I had a great conversation. I shared with them what I was reading about in Alma. Just pretty much reemphasized how the Lord told Alma in Alma 16 exactly where and what he needed to do. Carolyn then shared what she was learning. She shared about Jospeh and Mary not being able to find Jesus and then finding Him teaching the Doctors. That's how she explained it. Carolyn went on to say that she feels like one bad habit she has is that when she reads the scriptures she doesn't always stop and really think about what it is saying. She said she was working on really understanding and stopping to understand. Then she went on to compliment her sister, Angela. The conversation went something like this:
  • Angela told me that she was learning the 2^nd verse of “I love to see the temple” so we sung it together. I asked Angela what she was doing to get ready for the temple. Carolyn piped up and said, “Serving. Angela serves! That's one thing she is doing to get ready for the temple. “Angela is a good example of serving. I follow her example. Yesterday when I surprised you and washed the dishes that was because I saw Angela do that before. Angela's example of serving teaches me what I can do to serve.”

Yesterday Angela pulled out her little collection of money and giddily went around and put money under everyone's pillows. I think she left only pennies for herself. She was just elated as we all discovered the money under our pillows. She felt that joy that comes through serving. I love that girl. She announced to me that she was going to always use her money for giving to others and bubble gum.

2014 Ashton Family Reunion!

Grandpa made tshirts the kids all decorated.

 Uncle Richy is the popular guys around here. Here he is wowing the crowd with magic tricks :)

 Grandpa doing his tricks. The girls loved to copy his foot trick!

Candy Races!

 Grandpa's Crew :)

 After all left except us Kim Girls, we got busy and cleaned the whole Grandpa and Grandma's home.

 ....then the girls had some fun time with Grandma. Painting nails and coloring and talking and puzzles...great time with Grandma!

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I was listening to Elder Ballard's "Following Up" talk from this past conference this morning while running. He challenges us to invite at least 4 times for people to talk with the missionaries. I knew while I listened who I needed to call. Nicole. I was so nervous, but I picked up the phone this afternoon and invited her to my home to talk with the missionaries. She accepted! I am very excited. I share this with her a little bit today but I just feel so much joy and peace from the gospel of Jesus Christ - what joy comes in my heart to be able to share it with a dear friend. I am so happy for Nicole and pray she feels the spirit and love of our Heavenly Father and Savior.

The car ride to and from St. George went as follows...

Because of Andrew's job situation, there have been quite a few trips in the past almost 6 years we have been here in Colorado I have made out to visit my parents in the past on my own. Just the girls and me. A year and a half ago my parents moved to St. George. 11 hour drive with the girls. Last year on the road there with the girls, we broke down. There is a sign that comes just after Green River stated that there are no services for 100 miles. I broke down 45 miles into that last year :) If you read back on my journal entry, you can find that is was the best day of Angela's life and turned out to be a fun Girl Adventure together. Anyways, in the past the ride has been something I have just wanted to get over with. Just drive and hope the time goes as quick as possible. I always loved road trips in the past - just don't have a love of driving. Anyways, I decided that this time my roadtrip was going to be different. I didn't want the day to just be one I wanted over with. I wanted to enjoy the ride. It was hard. And to be honest - I constantly had to remind myself to enjoy the ride. To look around me - at the amazing beauty that surrounded us. The beautiful red rock near St. George and the beautiful green and gray mountains in Utah - truly breathtaking. On the way back home I enjoy listening to about 5 hours of "FableHaven" with my girls. Long story short - driving wouldn't be something I would pick to do but it was a great experience for me to be able to try to enjoy the ride - find joy in the journey. Enjoy my surroundings. It reminded me of Elder Uchdorf's talk from this past conference entitled "Grateful in any Circumstances."  He talks of the joy that can come with finding the blessings in trials. Not afterwards (although that is good) - but during the trial. In the past, driving to and back from St. George was just something to get through and something I wanted to be done quick. This time I tried my best to enjoy the ride. This reminded me of Elder Uchdorf's talk - how much more happy I was to enjoy the ride instead of just trying to get through it. If I can apply that to life always- to find joy in any circumstance - in any car ride - I can enjoy the blessings that Heavenly Father pours in my life (in the car ride one blessing was enjoying the beautiful earth). 

Love this girl.

 This was her journal entry today. "I read my Book of Mormon. I like my Book of Mormon." Love her testimony.

 Sometimes I call her my fishy. She loves being in the water and loves her swim lessons.

Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world!

Our 2014 Father's Day book! Girls did an awesome job. We love you, Andrew!

G