Spaghetti Dinner

Don't you just love it when they start feeding themselves!

Birthday at the Beach

For Daniel's birthday we spend the night at Newport Beach. It was beautiful! It was also a much needed break. Daniel and I realized that it has been over 4 years, possibly even 6 years, since we have spend a night away without the kids. As you can see in the pictures, we weren't completely without kids this time either, but it was still amazing to have some close time together, even if we did have a tag along.

This was the view from our hotel window



Michael and I outside our hotel



Michael in the wind



Daniel and I thought this was the coolest log



Daniel and I on the beach

Do I really think I can do it all?

Things have been pretty crazy in our household these past few weeks. Thus, why I haven't posted for awhile. Since my last post we have had a school over night field trip, 2 birthdays, attended a navy retirement, Mother's day, a visit from Grandma Marilyn, Memorial day, the last week of school, our big father/daughter activity for Activity Days. Those are the bigger calendar events.

Of course I have to also mention some of the little "to do" items. For example: being without a furnace for a week (still don't have one yet), dentist appointments, teaching primary, getting paperwork for scout camps turned in and collecting paperwork for Activity Days Day Camp, running an average of 18 miles a week, figuring out our budget, retraining a baby to sleep through the night, planning a garden, conquering the weeds (yeah right), working on being a supportive daughter, research papers, etc, etc, etc.

Needless to say blogging has become lower on my priority list. And I'm sorry to say that my post will probably become even more infrequent, because starting Monday I am going to Real Estate School. That's right, I'm going for my real estate license. I have 150 hours of class time to complete and then I will take all the exams. After that I hope to start working for Re max.

Daniel and I both feel like me becoming an agent is the best option for our family right now. Please keep us in your prayers as we undertake this new adventure. I will try and post when I can.

I am a Warrior!

I did it!

I took the Hinckley Challenge and succeeded!

In memory of President Hinckley I read the Book of Mormon in 97 days (he was 97 when he died). It was so great to take part in this experience. Over 30,000 others took the challenge as well.

In order to complete the goal, I needed to read about 5 1/2 pages a day. I think I only missed reading three days total. There were many days that I read more pages because I was enjoying reading so much. Isn't that cool!

I have never had an experience like this before. I have always admired those people who say they love reading the scriptures and that they have a hard time putting them down. Honestly, there was a part of me that doubted them though. But now I know what they were talking about. It has been amazing.

I am really proud to have done something so worthwhile to honor President Hinckley. That is also something new for me. I have felt a great sense of purpose during this whole time. I am very grateful to the Brother who put this who program together. It has been fun seeing my progress and the progress of the group as a whole. Because of this challenge my view of scripture reading has changed. My life has been blessed because I took the time to feast upon the word.

Day of Firsts

Today Kira bore her testimony for the 1st time! And it was completely her idea! We haven't even talked about bearing our testimonies lately as a family. About half way through the meeting you could tell that she was being touched by the spirit because she started to get a little fidgety and then she moved to the end of the bench. She then asked Daniel what time testimony ended and she started eyeing the clock. A few minutes late she was at the pulpit. Her testimony was short and sweet. I am so proud of her! It was a big feet for her to over come her shyness and follow teh prompting of the spirit.

Another 1st is that Michael started crawling today! He has been close for weeks but today it is official (of course I missed when it first happened because I was asleep). He is up on all fours moving across the floor!

What a great day!