Heavenly Husband

Last night the kids and I attended a combined YM YW activity at Cascade Park (a church owned campground) where we roasted hot dogs and ate lots of cookies and other crap. (Make sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the photo page to view) They have a barrel swing, a big dirt mound plus there is a rocky beach next to the river that is pretty fun to play on. Needless to say we all had fun. Wrævn tasted quite a few rocks, and they both had a good time throwing rocks into the river. Ærowyn wanted to stay over night but that will just have to wait until the ward camp out in September. On the way home she said she wanted Jesus to talk to her. I explained that we can feel that Jesus is near by feeling the Holy Ghost in our hearts. I told her to say a little prayer and ask to know that Heavenly Father and Jesus were both there and then wait until she felt a warmth in her heart. She really wanted to hear him talk to her so she was a little disappointed, but she still felt good inside.

To my surprise, Brandon skipped Kung Fu last night came home early (after a trip to Bath and Body Works), cleaned the house, lit some candles, had relaxing music playing, and had drawn a hot bath with bath salts in it just for me. He got me all ready for the bath and then took the kids and let me relax. It was so amazing and just what I needed. It made me giggle, but he bought me some yummy chocolate to munch on while I was soaking as well. I was so relaxed the rest of the evening. For all of you husbands out there who know your wife needs a pick me up, that is definitely they way to go.

The house looks so nice that I've been trying really hard to keep the kids from destroying it today. We did make bread this afternoon, but the cleanup was easy. At least now we will have something to put the jam on. My bike is finally fixed so now we can ride around town. I should have done it earlier, but at least it didn't take me until Winter.

Two last things. Yesterday Ærowyn was saying the prayer over our lunch and she prayed that she wouldn't get any dipping sauce on her clothes. We were having leftover pork chops with BBQ sauce for dipping. I thought that was pretty sweet. Also, the following will be on Ærowyn's Artwork page soon, but I wanted to share it here too. Ærowyn made this train out of foam shapes and I thought it was pretty cool.

A Busy Bee Week

It seems I haven't had so many things to do in one week for a very long time, but we had lots of fun.

Monday: Pretty uneventful besides cleaning up my messy house after a Saturday of working on the house and a Sunday spent resting. It took me all day, but it got done.

Tuesday: Went to our church play group at the park. We have them once a week and I LOVE them. It took Wrævn about an hour to warm up to the playground and all the people, but once he did nothing could hold him back. I've discovered he just likes to feel comfortable with his surroundings before venturing out and that is a good thing. Ærowyn always has fun playing with other kids and of course didn't want to come home. That night we went to YW's and helped them make snack packs and little games for the primary activity next month. We are having a family temple day. The YW will be babysitting the little ones while the parents go through the temple. The kids get to go on a tour of the grounds which Ærowyn will love because she will get to see Moroni. After all that, the YW will get to do baptisms for the dead. It will be a great day.

Wednesday: I took my bike to get it fixed because I am ready to ride this year. It's been cooped up for a couple of years because Wrævn was too small to ride in it last year. We drove around Lake Stevens and discovered that there isn't much there but houses and a lake. After I got home I decided we'd better go pick some strawberries before the season ended so the kids and I put on our grubby clothes and off we went. I ended up getting an entire flat in an hour so I felt pretty good. They were trying to get rid of some tayberries that were a couple of year old, so they sold me 3 flats for the price of 1 and I couldn't resist that. I came home and made 2 batches of tayberry jam that night. Tayberries are a cross between a Scotland Raspberry and an Oregon Blackberry for those who haven't heard of them...I hadn't. The picture is of Ærowyn on the tractor we rode out to the fields.



Thursday: I played outside with the kids and then spent the rest of the day finishing my presentation for Enrichment. I taught a mini class on different ways to use the wheat in your food storage. I learned quite a bit and found it quite interesting. From using bulgur as a cereal to putting it in everyday foods, to popping it like popcorn on the stove or in an air popper, and even sprouting it and making sugar from the sprouts. You can even dry it and use it for a snack. For those of you out there that have wheat and don't have a grinder, there are so many things to do with the wheat berry itself. The other mini class was about being prepared for a disaster and it was very insightful. It was stated it's actually better to have a 5-7 day supply to leave with then a 3 day supply. I guess I better update our emergency kits a little bit. I just updated them about 3 months ago, so it shouldn't be hard just to add a little more food and water. The one thing we don't have is a neighborhood plan. We know quite a few of our neighbors, but it would be nice to get everyone together and just make a little plan and see what things people are good at so if something happened we would know what to do.

Friday: The beloved 1st Counselor in our Stake Presidency passed away on the 12th and Brandon and I were asked to sing in a group of 8 at the funeral. We went to a practice after he got off work.

Saturday: The funeral was wonderful and the spirit was very strong. What a wonderful life he lived and will continue to live teaching people about Christ on the other side. After the funeral we changed our clothes, packed up the kids, and went to a little beach and played for about 3 hours. (You'll have to scroll down to the bottom of the pics when you click on the link) I honestly didn't know if Wrævn would even get near the water, but after about 30 minutes of warming up to the area, he was right in there with Ærowyn and the ducks. He especially liked the little cleaning station that sprayed water to help you get the sand off your hand and feet. Ærowyn made quite a few new friends and helped build a couple of sand castles. After a nice relaxing afternoon, we came home and made the a batch and a half of strawberry jam and a tayberry pie. Even after all that jam and the pie, I have enough of both berries left over to freeze a couple of courts. Now I just have to wait until the blackberries are ripe. I probably won't make jam because I still have some from last fall, but I will freeze some to use in milkshakes and such. Plus, they are free!!

Sunday: After a spirit filled day at church we've just been relaxing today and it was nice. I even got a short nap believe it or not. Tomorrow will be another day full of cleaning, but first we get to go to the park for the play day. I can't think of a better way to start the day off.

It was a great week. I hope this week is a little less busy, but still full of lots of fun.

The Wise Man and the Foolish Man

Before we read scriptures last night Ærowyn wanted to sing "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man" song from Primary so we of course did. She sang the 1st verse, we sang the 1st verse together (after she told us to sing with her), and then we sang the 2nd verse. She asked us why the foolish man built his house on the sand if it was going to fall down. We talked about good choices and bad choices and explained that we don't always made good choices, that the foolish man just made a bad choice. She told us the wise man needed to go and help the foolish man make better choices and that they needed to work together. She said we needed to be like the wise man and help bad people make good choices. We told her that is what missionary work is all about and we need to be missionaries to everyone around us and teach them about Jesus and how to make good choices. I try so hard to teach her the right things, but sometimes I find I learn more from her and her pure sweet spirit.

This past week Wrævn learned how to open doors, open the child locks, and now dives off the coffee table. What a world, what a world!!! I guess he'll just learn things a lot faster with a big sister to show him things. Oh joy of joys.

New Cousin

A Congratulations goes out to Matt (my brother) and Sara who welcomed their first new little one into the world yesterday. His name is Lance. He was 7 lbs 5 oz - the perfect size - and as cute as a button.

Happy Birthday America with Sparklers and Snakes

Ok, so this is a week late, but it's here! We had a wonderful 4th of July. We had invited a few families over for a BBQ and some Rock Band, but only one was able to come so in a way we were bummed, but we had a great time with our Tapusoa friends. They brought a salad and some super amazing chicken for the grill, and we had pork chops, fruit, chips, Kool-Aid (which funny enough I had to call my sister and ask her how to combine 2 flavors), and veggies to munch on. Needless to say the food was amazing thanks to Delvin who is a grilling machine. For dessert I wanted to do something new this year so I made homemade vanilla ice cream-thank you Alton Brown-which was to die for. I'm pretty sure it was so amazing because of the vanilla bean. You have to use the vanilla bean. I also made homemade apple and cherry pies which turned out rather tasty. I even made the crusts from my white wheat so they were 100% goodness.

After stuffing our bellies and playing Rock Band was over we took our lawn chairs outside to sit on the street. It just happens we live in the most unique town where we get a huge fireworks show just by going outside. It's hard to believe how amazing it it until you see it for yourself. Not only do we get crazy stuff up and down both of our side streets, but we can see all over town and people here just love the 4th of July and spend way too much money. We spent a total of $11 on big sparklers and snakes. Our friends brought some fun colorful stuff and we just had a great time. We had some snap dragons from a couple of years ago we let the kids throw and Brandon set off some bottle rockets he bought when he was 17. He almost started our friend's mom on fire and blew up a truck, but it was all in good fun right? Note: don't light bottle rockets that are 14 years old because you never know where they are going to end up!!!

Oh yeah, the best part was singing Happy Birthday to America. It was Ærowyn's idea. Earlier that day I was talking to her about the 4th of July and told her it was kind of like America's birthday so she sang it. I thought it was so cute we did it at the party. I think we will make that a yearly tradition.

We are thankful for our country and our freedom's. Our country has it's problems, but we know it is a blessed land and are grateful we have been sent here to be surrounded by loving friends and family. Happy belated birthday America!

What were your real intentions?

So we were planning on having FHE tonight because we missed it last night (went on a nice family walk though), but Brandon had to take care of something so we missed it again. Bedtime arrived and we told Ærowyn it was time to go brush teeth and she said with a very sad look on her face, "But we need to have home evening." We explained that it was too late and we would have it tomorrow instead. Then came the reply of all replies..."But that means we don't get any ice cream," as the tears well up in her eyes. Brandon and I of course just start laughing and soon she is laughing with us.

When we joked with her about not wanting to hear the lesson but just wanting the ice cream, she said, "No. I want to learn about the temple," as she pointed to the activity from the Friend, "and then have ice cream." We thought we had a little angel who wanted to learn something new about Jesus, but instead she just wanted to get through the lesson so she could have the dessert. What a typical 4 year old.