Joy in our Journey

Whew! we have had a great last few months! I wrote little updates throughout here and there but here are some pictures and more stuff to go along!!

The biggest and most exciting thing happening is getting ready for Angela's baptism. I made this for her a little over a year ago and she has been using it to get ready. 

My heart has been so touched by 2 things that Angela has been doing to get ready:

1. Learning Scripture stories.

2. Trying to serve or do something every day that allows her to feel the spirit.

It has been amazing. I am reading in Moroni right now and I love that King Benjamin seems to teach his children to 1. keep the commandments and 2. read the scriptures. So happy that Angela is making these great choices!

My family made me an AWESOME birthday dinner!! And look at all those treats the girls gave up from their candy collection to give to me. I am one girl that felt VERY loved on her big day!!!

The beautiful cake my family made for me! BEST DAY EVER :) (I tend to say that about most days with the amazing family I have).

We have been talking about baptisms every week for Family Home Evening for the past 2 or 3 or more months. Emily gave a great lesson using footprints leading to a picture of Jesus. We talked about choices we make that lead us to our Savior. GREAT lesson! Emily was so excited to give it!

Emily is amazing at playing with Tommy. What in the world am I going to do when she goes to kindergarten?! She is my helper and my buddy. I love her!

He's a happy happy boy. And a good boy. The most common thing

Grandpa Ashton made Emily a BEAUTIFUL checkers box for her birthday! When he was here, he noticed a love of Emily's: PLAYING GAMES! He carved her name in this special box which has a wood set of checkers in it. What a treasure.

Basically, Carolyn and I have the most awesome thing ever we do together. It is one of my favorites. We have a "pillow talk" journal. We got it at a Activity Day activity and I hope (and I think it really will!! :) last a long time with her. It's been so fun to write back and forth. I love the questions we ask each other and how we share experiences we have had with feeling the spirit and reading in our scriptures ....I love that we have jokes in there (many inside jokes but also just some silly jokes - I love that Carolyn likes to laugh and be happy in life), we share our goods and bads of the days and struggles. It is amazing and I am so grateful for activity days and most especially for my sweet Carolyn Michelle! We put the journal on each other pillows when we are done writing. I LOVE seeing that pink journal on my pillow :) Maybe when she is in college, we'll have to send it in the mail back and forth :)

Angela gave a beautiful talk in Primary!

"thanks for noticing" FHE - we had an FHE lesson about the importance of noticing others. We were challenged to put on our spiritual eyes and notice someone each day that might need some noticing :)

Emily goes through waves of which game is her favorite and we have to play every day :) In March it was this game :)

Tommy sits nicely and lets us play :)

I LOVE THIS BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The girls making a trap to catch the leprechaun for

Although a clever trap, they didn't catch the leprechaun and he was very fishy.

The cute trap :)

Our GREEN dinner :) So happy Carolyn's good friend, Madeline came over for it.

Daddy making green Julius.

SPRING BREAK!! Day 1 - Make the hugest and coolest fort ever.

Playing inside with good friend, Addison.

Look at that snow below. Yes, a SNOW DAY!

Do you want to build a snow man?!

EASTER EGG decorating!

Carolyn and I went to General Conference for Women. Amazing. So fun. I had gotten a gift card from a friend at Chilis so we went out to eat and then and watched the amazing conference. It definitely inspired me to serve God's children. When we got home, this is what we saw:

Easter Day!!! We start Easter off by reading in the scriptures and discussing about why we have Easter. To celebrate our Savior. Because of Him we can overcome physical and spiritual death.

Because of Him I can be with these cuties forever. #BecauseofHim

My favorite one!!! I love these cuties!!

We love playing games together!! Mouse trap :)

Carolyn had a project on Mars!! She ROCKED it (get it, planets...rocks...hehehe :) Here she is making mars.

I loved the talk given in the Womens Conference about seeing ourselves in the mirror (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/see-yourself-in-the-temple?lang=eng) by Elder Cook. So we drew temples on the mirrors the girls and Andrew and I get ready each day with. This way we can look into the mirror and see ourselves in the temple before continuing our day. If we could just always keep this imagine in mind, what a difference it could make.

Emily gave a talk in primary about the atonement.

Angela gave a lesson at FHE about being baptized (yay!!) she did an object lesson with food coloring and bleech. She filled a cup with clean water in it and then squirted some food coloring in there to represent sin. Then, she took a cup full with bleech that represented the atonement of our Savior and repentance. When she poured it in, it was clean again!!

Here's more on Emily's talk. She spoke on the atonement. She shared the 3rd article of faith (we believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved. By obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel). She said her face got really messy while eating a treat.

She washed up and was clean again. Just as she was messy and washed up and got clean, when we make a bad choice, we can repent and be clean again because of Jesus and His atonement.

I got to replace my old broken vitamix with a new one. (nana sure helped with the costco card deal :) So happy to make some yummy smoothies and food with it!