Fourth of July Children's Program

I think I will forever be behind with this blog, but I did want to post some things that have happened.

This past July Violatte and Annalee participated in a Children's Fourth of July program.  They had an amazing experience, and learned so much!!! (They still sing many of the songs.)

At the performance a friend of mine (Karen M.) took some incredible pictures of my girls.

Here is Violatte in her costume, hair, and makeup done for the performance.

 Here is Annalee in her costume, hair, and makeup for the performance.

 This is Beryer M. and Annalee.  Breyer is one of my girls' favorite friends.

 Here you can see more of Violatte's costume. So cute!

 I worked with these girls to teach them the Military Dance.  We all really struggled and had a lot to figure out with the dance.  But they did so great, and I LOVED working with them.  From left to right they are Diana, Donna Rose, Victoria, Mia, Kylie, and Lydia.  (I'm in the back.)

 Violatte with another shot of her costume.

 I really loved watching my girls dance and sing.  I have more pictures of the event that I will (hopefully) post later.

 

More Blessings -- A Vacuum and a VCR

The topic of blessings has been on my quite a bit lately (as I'm sure everyone has guessed).  Part of it probably comes from needing a positive outlook with the furlough looming over our heads.  The other part of it most likely comes from actively watching for blessings in my life.  After all, that which ye seek, ye shall surely find.  So, if I look for my blessings, I will be able to more easily recognize all that the Lord does for me in my life.

One of the biggest blessings that I saw actually happened a while ago.  At the time we had a very old, horrible vacuum.  I was always frustrated with it.  Well, one day, a Kirby vacuum salesman came to the door and did his little presentation. I wanted one SO badly.  I wanted a vacuum that I could use and make it really feel clean.  I was terribly tempted to buy it for $1100.  But, then, I thought about how it was more debt.  It would be another monthly payment and it would be more interest.  It was one of the more difficult things to do to turn that offer down.  I was very disappointed.  I really wanted a vacuum that would do a good job.

The very next day I saw that a friend of mine was selling her very nice Kirby with most of the attachments for $100.  A lot of people asked for it, but I was the lucky one that got it.  I truly felt that the Lord has blessed us because I did not go into debt and followed the counsel of the prophet.

A couple of months after that our DVD player died.  We didn't have the money to get one so we waited and waited for months until we could save up enough money.  It never happened, though, and I was wondering what to do.  Then, a friend of ours offered their DVD player in return for something.  We were so happy to have one that we didn't have to buy, and it works beautifully.  The man was happy to get it out of his garage, and overall, it worked out more perfectly than I could have pictures.

The Lord is so good. I love how He is always finding way to show us how much He loves us, and I am so grateful.

Blessings of Living Far Away from a Temple

One of the most difficult things for me about the town we live in is that our temple is about three and a half hours away.  Until now, the furthest that I've ever lived from a temple was an hour.  Now, it is an all-day trip if we want to go there.  I've complained about it and been frustrated by it many times.  But, something that a sister in our ward said once really has changed my perspective on this, and I thought I would share some of the blessings we have of living so far away from a temple.

1. A temple trip is an all-day experience.
When we go to the temple, it is an all-day experience rather than something that is done and over in a couple of hours.  What a blessing it is to be able to focus on something so spiritual and wonderful for an entire day!

2. We get to share the experience with our children.
Because it is such a long trip to the temple, we often take them with us.  Sometimes we will stay overnight in the temple apartments, and sometimes we'll go down and Jim and I will take turns doing a session while the other one watches the kids.  Either way, we our taking our children with us, so they get to share in the feelings and blessings of the temple grounds.

3. Our children witness our sacrifice.
Our children know that it is a sacrifice to take the entire day and spend the gas money and the money for apartments if we stay there.  They know that for us, taking that time away from projects we need to do, or other activities that we would like to do is a sacrifice.  But, when we sacrifice to go to the temple, it shows them how important it is to us.  That is a wonderful thing for a child to know.  Plus, it opens up the opportunity to talk about the temple.

4. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the blessing.
I truly believe that the Lord blesses us for each sacrifice that we make .  And if our sacrifice is great, then I believe that the blessing will be great.  The Lord is good, and if we follow the commandments and direction that He gives us, then he will happily bless us.

I am grateful for the better understanding that I received about the blessings of it being so far away. But, mostly, I am grateful that I have the opportunity to go to the temple.  I dearly love being there.

Updates and a Day at the Lake

I am back! It has been way too long since I have written. Our kids are growing up so much and I really want to be better about keeping some sort of journal about it. It'll be a slow process catching up, but I'll do what I can.

Yesterday we decided to go to Lake Diaz.  It's only about an hour away so it is a perfect day trip. Jim had been there with the scouts, but the kids and I had never been. It was wonderful! We had loaded up the canoe that is hanging in our garage and the kids looked forward to swimming. It was quite the adventure driving down the highway with the canoe strapped to the top of our van. We had to drive a little slower than usual, but a nice leisurely drive never hurt anyone.

I was glad we had gone there and gotten away from the intense heat of Ridgecrest.  It was about 10 degrees cooler there than at home. It was warm, but still pretty nice.

When we got there we started a fire and cooked up hot dogs for everybody. Then I made a chocolate zucchini cake in the dutch oven and put it on the coals.  We took the canoe out and went swimming for a little while as the cake cooked.  The kids really loved the water. It was a perfect temperature.

We took our two dogs, Freddy and Chloe, with us.  Freddy loved riding in the canoe.  He would stand up with his feet on the edge and his face in the wind.  He was in heaven! Chloe, is a bit of a scaredy-cat. :) She hid under my seat the whole time.  She is funny.  Freddy swam some, too. I think it was probably the first time they had ever gone swimming.

When the cake was done we all gathered back at the picnic table to eat.  It was AMAZING! I am really loving being able to cook with a dutch oven. I even had frosting to put on top and it melted into it.  So good!

We canoed again and swam some more.  Then we loaded up everything and came home.  The kids were so happy and excited.  I was tired, though, and fell asleep on the way home.

That evening, Jim and I were able to go on a double date with some good friends of ours, Larry and Marla Cosner. It was such a great evening! A wonderful day!

(And, because I know pictures are more interesting, I will have posts with pictures coming soon.)

Beautiful Cactus Flower

We went to go pick peaches at someone's house a couple of months ago.  While we were there we saw the most incredible flower blooming on a cactus.  It was stunning.  I asked the lady about it and she said that the flowers on that cactus bloom only at night, and only for one night.  It just amazed me how beautiful they were.  She gave me a piece of the cactus that she had cut off and told me to stick the end of it in some dirt and water it occasionally and it would grow.  She told me she thought it would be about a year before we got a flower, but just a couple of weeks later this flower bloomed.  

It's hard to explain how big the flower is, but if I spread my hand open, it would be about that size.

The flower has so many beautiful parts to it.  I just loved it. It is hard to get a good picture at night, though.  I'd like to find out what kind of cactus it is.  I can't wait until we get another bloom!

Lots of Awesome pictures

The kids are so funny! I've gotten lots of fun pictures of them lately. So, here are a bunch of random (but fantastic) pictures.

I found these little footprints in the dust on my desk.  A couple of shelves up I found some little fingerprints.  It made me laugh.  I guess I need to dust now that I know how the culprit was that was sneaky the markers off the top of my desk.

Violatte was playing with a magnet set at a friends' house and she made this.  I especially love how she put that taxes are 598%.  It made me laugh.

Luke LOVED going to the dentist.  This is a picture of him with the little suction tube.  He thought it was hilarious how it sucked up his lips when he closed his mouth around it.  He was so good there that the dentist and hygenists all loved him.  In fact, the very first thing the kids asked me as we were leaving was, "Mom, when do we get to go back to the dentist?"

When Mars passed in front of the moon we really wanted to see it, and have the kids look at it.  Jim had the wonderful idea of using his welding mask to look at the sun. It worked perfectly! We went outside and watched it -- one at a time -- wearing his mask.  Our neighbors came out to join us and all looked through it too. It was really fun!

Annalee looked so cute in her little dress with the big welding mask on. It made me giggle.

A few days later, Venus passed in front of the sun. We met Jim at work to look at it and used the welding mask again.  This time I got pictures of Luke wearing it.

This is a picture of Annalee and Chase, the little guy that I watch. She loves him so much and is always wanting to hold him. She is such a sweet girl!

I really loved this moment with Luke and Annalee.  They were playing a game on their Daddy's phone, and sharing so well! They are just too cute sitting together. I love this picture.

As I was going through my camera, I found this picture. Gee, I wonder who was playing with my camera . . . Luke . . .

Idaho Trip

I decided at very last minute to take a trip to Idaho with the kids. (And by last minute, I mean that I decided Friday night at 10 om and left the next morning at 10 am.)

We didn't make it very far.  We had gone about 25 miles when the girls had to go to the bathroom. *sigh* So, here are the kids at Randsburg, California.  Our first potty break.

We had quite a few more after that, but we were able to drive 11 hours that first day.  By the end of it, the kids and I were all so cranky and tired.  We had quite a few interesting things happen that day, also.  I looked out the side mirror and watched as the cover of the rear light fell off on the freeway and the car right behind me ran over it. (Oops).  So, on our trip we had to replace that.  My sister also backed into my van (which is a really funny story), so that as another adventure for us.

One of the things the kids liked the most from our trip was the spray park and the carousel that they have at Porter Park in Rexburg, Idaho.

I wish that I had gotten more pictures, but without Jim there, I was so busy chasing kids around. (Jim had to stay in California for work.)

We also went to a favorite place of mine, Mesa Falls.  We had an adventure driving up there, too.  The van kept overheating. I was afraid I was going to ruin the van before I could find a gas station to get some coolant.  Through a few miracles, we made it. filled up the coolant, and everything was fine.  I was so glad that my mom was with me on that trip! She kept the kids occupied while I worked on the van, and she had ice water for everyone. What a blessing!

So, we got to Mesa Falls, and the kids enjoyed it. It was beautiful as always.

We also had a picnic, had a barbeuce, played miniature gofl, and so many more fun things. I didn't get more pictures, though, because, again, I was chasing kids around. It was crazy.
We loved it, but we are so grateful to be home!!!!