Not Yet

We have had a month of busy Monday nights. So Family Home Evening has been mostly in the car while driving somewhere.

Tonight on the way home from the piano recital (Teague chose to wear a shark costume), I said, "We need a gospel message. Anyone?" Nothing very gospel-ish came up so Kenyon suggested we talk about Stake Conference. But I missed the whole thing chasing Quinn in the halls (can you tell that I really need Love and Logic again?). He asked the kids to retell a story about the oxen. Apparently one of the speakers told the story of a pioneer woman who had lost her oxen and her prayers were answered clearly. She knew where to find her oxen.

Kenyon asked what the lesson was from this talk. We had quite a variety of answers before we got to the real one. But then Kenyon explained to the kids that the speakers in conference were trying to teach that our prayers are answered - sometimes with a yes and sometimes a no. But he pointed out that the speakers missed the most common answer - "Not Yet." I replied that that might be my least favorite answer.

I wish I could remember quite how it went from there but Teague and Elise both made comments referring to Kenyon's knee. It was so interesting to listen to these kids describing the MANY prayers for Kenyon's recovery have resulted in "not yet" answers. Elise said "there must be some reason." The kids are so consistent to remember Kenyon and his knees in every prayer. I am grateful they have the faith and commitment to his healing.

A New Scripture Bag

Look what came in the mail today from my sister-in-law Lindsey. She made this for Elise for her scriptures. I am in love with it and so is Elise. 

The last 3 days...

Life has been kind of crazy since we got back. But we have filled our time with some pretty good things. We got to go with Teague to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. That was a great experience. We could definitely feel the Spirit. Hopefully, Teague will always remember it and have the desire to go back as soon as he can. We are so excited to have this temple just up the street.
New FAVORITE family night treat (at least for the summer). Sorry Yogurt Vibe - we will be back to you but probably not on a Monday night. I know frozen yogurt is so much better for you but you can't beat the deal or the flavors. $3 for our whole family to have a snow cone. Seriously? It is buy 1 get 1 free on Mondays at the place on 90th and 1300 West (in the Stock parking lot).
Flavor Selections:
Teague and Elise: Sour Watermelon, Apple Pie and Toxic Waste (eww? but they loved it)
Gavin: Banana and Apricot
Annie and Kenyon: Tiger's Blood (strawberry and coconut)

and next time...Quinn needs her own. Or at least she thinks he does. She LOVED it (almost as much as she loves sand).

A little walk at Cascade Springs (it is way the heck up American Fork canyon). It is a beautiful drive and the springs are pretty. It is a paved, nature walk and just perfect for us. (Reminder to the brain dead moms like me: take food for the baby. It is way too far to go without being prepared.) **Courtney - thanks for the fun idea!!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Obviously there isn't anything good about having cancer but people are so super thoughtful and sometimes we get do something special. Last week the Oquirrh Mountain temple (just a minute away from our house - we can see it from our bedroom window) started doing special tours for church and community leaders. There was a slow day, so our friends the Wrights and Morley's invited us in to a special tour. It was AMAZING! All temples are amazing. The workmanship is incredible and every detail is perfect. I love that even though the temples throughout the world are the same in purpose, they are unique in their looks and design.

I loved being able to walk through without the crowds. It allowed us to take our time as well as have our friends, who serve on the temple open house committee, explain a few things to us an the kids.

If you are in the area, come to the open house. It is open to the public for free tours during June and July. After it is dedicated in August, it will be open only to worthy members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who hold temple recommends. You can get tickets here.

If you want to know why Mormon's build temples - watch this youtube video. We feel so blessed to have this temple so close to our home.

True Meaning of Easter

I love this video from Elder Holland's recent conference talk. It was the perfect to watch with kids after church today.

General Conference Packets

Once again this lady saves the day. She has updated her General Conference activity packet. Check it out here. Gavin's favorite part of the packet is cutting out all the ties. But, hey - whatever keeps him busy and relatively quiet. And hopefully - they get a little bit out of it as well. Can't wait for General Conference (April 4th and 5th).

You can also check out another General Conference packet here.

She Couldn't Handle it

So it is Stake Conference weekend. I know for some people it is a week off of church. I actually like Stake Conference. However, our stake does not broadcast to other buildings so it means you have to get their EARLY to get a seat and you will still be on the hard chairs in the back.

The thought of going early, by myself with 4 kids caused a little panic. Remember my last experience at Stake Conference? Plus, the potential sickness all around me stresses me out with the baby. Then what happens if I have to go out with Quinn. Could the 3 kids handle being left alone? I don't think so. How would we survive? Would Quinn get sick? I am anxious for the threat of RSV to be gone. A couple more weeks, I hope. Anyway, I decided that we wouldn't go. We would have primary at home.

Primary actually went quite well. We spent a little over an hour doing Sunday Stations. The kids really liked it. Their favorite part was doing fun activities on the computer. It is new feature on the Friend Magazine site. Check it out. It is the perfect Sunday computer solution. I also had them write letters to Kenyon about visiting the Draper Temple. We also watched Nephi and Laban (from the Liken the Scriptures series). It was a pretty good Sabbath day, I think.

My sisters came over for dinner and asked about church. The kids quickly responded that we didn't go to church. Shock! Kristine asked why and Elise said, "My mom couldn't handle it." Nice! Really? I didn't mean for them to get that message. But, I suppose it is true.

But, I am so sad that I missed out on the messages of Stake Conference. Anyone take notes?

I did get to attend the adult session on Saturday night. We were taught about self-reliance, repentance, and missionary work. Plenty for me to work on!

A bunch of stuff

This week at preschool GCrew learned about March weather. Lion weather and Lamb weather. He made this cute little visual that he likes to show us. So yesterday when we woke up to the covering of snow, we had a breakfast discussion about if the snow was Lion or Lamb weather. Quite a difference of opinion.

As for the run - I am TOTALLY out of shape. It is killing me not to get to the gym. Wii Fit is fun but it is not cutting it. Anyway, last year a couple of Kenyon's family members participated in the Rex Lee Run in Provo. Rex Lee was president of BYU when I entered as a freshman. He died of cancer. There is a run every year in Provo to support cancer research at BYU. I thought it was so cool and touching that they would run with Kenyon in mind (and others that they know fighting cancer). I told myself last year that I would FOR SURE do that run. Yeah well, I kind of thought I would be prepared. I did a little search today and realized that the Rex Lee Run 5K/10K is NEXT WEEKEND. Shoot. That doesn't leave much prep time. But, I think I should do it anyway. A 5K - Anyone can do that, right? I might (quite likely) have to walk some of it (all of it) but that is ok. Anyone want to join me?

Today my sister Jane and I took the kids to the Draper Temple Open House. What a gorgeous temple! The kids were particularly interested in the crystals (or diamonds as they called them) on the chandeliers. I loved the Spirit and the furniture, fabric and Minerva Teichert paintings.

This is one of my favorites from the temple. It is not one that I was familiar with. It looked so beautiful. I WANT IT!
I really missed having Kenyon at the temple with us. I was sure that I was safe picking March 6th. I never would have thought he would be in the hospital. Hopefully, by June he will be able to join us at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It is such a cool thing that my kids have 2 opportunities to tour the temple.

Speaking of Kenyon - he is trying a new med and a small decrease in steroids. We'll see if that does that trick.

Read This

My friend Heather sent me this talk by Elder Holland. I remember the story he tells at the end but I had forgotten some of the important principles he teaches in the talk. It is short and really good if you are looking for a little uplift.

"An High Priest of Good Things To Come" Elder Holland, October 1999 General Conference

"Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better. Moroni spoke of it in the Book of Mormon as "hope for a better world."2 For emotional health and spiritual stamina, everyone needs to be able to look forward to some respite, to something pleasant and renewing and hopeful, whether that blessing be near at hand or still some distance ahead. It is enough just to know we can get there, that however measured or far away, there is the promise of "good things to come."

Raise the Bar

Today we had Stake Conference. I was feeling pretty good about getting all three kids out of the house 30 minutes early to go get seats. Apparently everyone was doing pretty well today because the first row of seats available was pretty far back. It put us right behind two families of 6 kids. One family with 5 boys and one girl. They didn't have any bag of tricks and all of them sat there the entire 2 hours. The other family had 5 girls and one boy and the youngest two were baby girl twins (about 4 months old). And the dad is a bishop. (Just like my family.) They also all sat without any entertainment except for their youngest two children. The moms looked totally together and calm and appeared to have listened to the whole conference without any interruptions from children.

Geesh! I had my 3 kids and a bag full of stuff and we couldn't be reverent. Then watching those twin babies and all their needs, I started feeling a little overwhelmed about adding a 4th. What were we thinking? Well, we need to raise the bar at our house. The kids and I need to do a little work. My kids might freak out when they go to church without a church bag but apparently it can be done.

On a positive note - I was very impressed with all the stories that my kids were able to recite from conference. Apparently they actually were listening. It wasn't a total waste of 2 hours for them, after all.

Our visiting general authority was Elder Marcos A. Aidukaitis. He is from Brazil but serving in Argentina area. He was fabulous. He reminded me so much of my grandpa Cannon. He had a great sense of humor, excellent at telling stories, and had great messages for the youth and the adults.

The Stake President's message was to encourage us to commit our families to the stake goals: 1 - meaningful daily prayer, 2 - daily scriptures study, and 3 - weekly family home evening with a gospel message.

We had a little extra time today, so took a drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Kenyon has been wanting to go up the canyon since Labor Day and we just haven't been able to make it happen. It was gorgeous and the perfect little family outing.

It was a good sabbath day! (plus it ended with homemade chocolate cake - thanks Kristine and warm apple crisp).

General Conference Packet

Last Conference, I received several emails with link to this awesome General Conference activity packet. The lady who created this has updated it with a new packet for this October Conference. From what I have read - she wants anyone to feel free to use this. It was great to have so many activities in one place and it really helped the kids make it through some General Conference.

General Conference 2008 Packet

There is also a link on her blog to an Apostle matching game that you might like for FHE.

Enjoy!

For my friends who are not familiar with General Conference - it is a worldwide meeting that is held twice a year (April/October). Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) listen or attend General Conference where we are taught and instructed by our Prophet Thomas S. Monson and other church leaders. They are the best meetings of the year - inspiring and uplifting. Anyone is welcome to listen - check it out here.

'hold on thy way, fear not, god shall be with you forever and ever.'

A couple of weeks ago, Elder Holland gave a CES fireside for the young adults of our church. http://www.lds.org/move/index.html#lang=english My sisters attended this fireside and then sent the family an email encouraging us to watch/listen to his talk. I love Elder Holland's talks and I finally got around to taking the 44 minutes to watch it on my laptop. It is fantastic and I thought I would put it out there for all of you. Take 44 minutes and listen to Elder Holland. It is definitely applicable for every one of my readers. We all face trials. Elder Holland describes Joseph Smith's experience in Liberty Jail and the lessons that we can learn from this experience.

Bring on the Drugs!!

Thanks to Jenni - I found out that the Angel Moroni statue was being placed on our temple this morning. We piled in the car at 7:15 am. By noon we finally saw the Angel Moroni placed on the temple. It was a long wait (and I left twice), but it was worth it. It was a windy morning so it looked like they might have some problems. We are so excited to have that temple right there on the hill.

Medical Marijuana is coming Kenyon's way. Lucky guy! :) Actually it isn't quite that but something like that. I had to leave before he got a dose. They are hoping it will settle his stomach, relax him and give him the munchies. We'll see. He needs something to work because the constant queasiness is driving him crazy. On a good note, we are seeing small but positive numbers on his blood counts. The goal count we are looking for (ANC) is 500. He is at 100. There is hope we will get there.

How Lazy Can I Be?

What is wrong with me? I can't even think of anything to blog about. I have spent entirely too much time reading all your blogs. That is fun. But, I have been very unproductive. Hmmm. That isn't true. I have done really boring things like clean my pantry, clean my fridge, laundry, carpools, and a lot of episodes of Lost (we are currently working our way through Season 3). Today I took a spinning classes and a barbell strength class. My legs are killing me. I am dying to work on a project - I have a new bag pattern that I want to try and a two new quilt patterns. But that will be in a week. My sister is coming up from Cali and my mom is coming in from Seattle. I can't wait. It will be fun to have some family around. The kids can't wait to have their cousins right here in our house.

I do have a question - I have to teach an Enrichment lesson next week about Family Home Evening. Help? How do you do that? Do you have any good ideas? Successful family home evenings? Tips that make it work for you and yours? What motivates you? I will take anything. Or a creative way to present it? I want it to be fun - not boring like my Sunday lessons.

There you have it folks...I promise to be better.