A full circle moment

One of the BEST DECISIONS I've ever made was to serve a mission for my church. 18 months of selfless service spreading the gospel of my Savior Jesus Christ to the hispanic population of Houston Texas. I taught many people and was blessed so much by my experiences with them. But one thing I NEVER saw was a full circle conversion of someone, from beginning to "end".

This past weekend I participated in one. One of the most amazing people I've ever met is my good friend Arhely. Almost 2 years ago she started attending church with her husband Joe who was already a member. I was assigned to be her visiting teacher because she spoke only a little english. We made an immediate connection. We visited her monthly and during our visits she began to ask good questions about the gospel and we always shared the message and tried to teach basic gospel principles. She continued to attend church and before too long we noticed she wanted to read more and we gladly gave her the Liahona and got her her own subscription. After about 5 months or so of this I had a frank talk with her that it was time for her to become a member, to take the lessons from the missionaries (just a formality really because she had already learned the principles through attending church). She was baptized April 8, 2007.



She has continued to grow so much. She serves in Primary and is so good with the children. Our friendship has continued to grow and she is now my visiting teaching companion! She's demonstrated such faith and courage in this journey of hers, I am so proud of her!


This past Thursday and Saturday Arhely was able to go through the temple for the first time and I was able to be there with her. It was very emotional for me and her. She was sealed to her sweetheart of a husband Joe and now they can be a forever family!! She is glowing!! She is so happy and I am too! I feel on such a high! I have a forever friend. We decided that if we can choose our neighbors in heaven, we want to live next door to each other! I sure hope we can eat in heaven because I LOVE her cooking!! Felicitaciones mi amiga querdida!

Some Summer Fun!

Did you know that this past Thursday the 21st of August marked 50 years since Hawaii became part of the United States? And that this past Wednesday was Lemonade Day?

Neither did we but I have become bored of our normal hum drum days at home and decided to spice things up by finding some activities online to keep us busy. I found this great website, referred to me by my friend Alyson J, that had all these preschool type activities for every day of the year. So we've been having some fun.

On Lemonade Day I bought some lemons. We took the time to measure them, scratch off some of their skin and smell them, we assessed that they were smooth and round. Then we cut them open, we saw that they have triangle shaped sections. We licked them and WOW! That's what "sour" tastes like. Then we juiced them and used the rinds as boats in bowls of water on the back porch. We tried to see how many beads it would take to sink our "boats". Then we mixed ingredients to make homemade lemonade that we enjoyed with our dinner! It was fun!

Then our Hawaii Holiday! We started the morning by reading a couple story books with a Hawaii theme. Then we turned on some Hawaii Luau music and just danced around. Later we created "grass skirts" by combining newspaper with slits cut and crepe paper over them. Sam was not amused and wouldn't wear his, but Kaitlyn did and loved dancing. I showed her my best immitation of a hula and she mimicked me. If I can figure out how to turn the video image I'll upload it, but for the time being this is a still shot of it (the video is much cuter!)

For ideas for some of your own activities check out "Learning through the days of the year" on www.universalpreschool.com

A Gymnastic Champion

Well our area has done it again. There must be something in the water. 4 years ago Carly Patterson put our town of Allen, Texas on the map with her Olympic Gold Medal in Women's Gymnastics. Last night Parker,Texas which borders Allen and is less than a mile up the road produced Gold Medal Winner #2, Nastia Liukin. She was spectacular!

The competition was wonderful to watch but went a bit late for me. So I was catching up on the part I missed this afternoon with Kaitlyn by my side. In a matter of minutes she was tumbling (attempting to) off the couch and rolling around. After she got bored with that, she laid out blankets and started her floor routine. Then that graduated into getting the proper attire of her ballerina leotard (because every girl must look her best) and she got out pillows to jump on and just had a ball! I told Stephen we should have already enrolled her in Gymnastics prior to last night because all the gyms in the area just raised their rates!

A Rain Dance

It has been SOOOOO HOT this summer and very little has cooled us off. So imagine our delight when last night a line of rain storms rolled through. It was still raining steadily this morning so after breakfast I suggested we get on our swimming suits and dance outside in the rain and splash in the puddles! Oh the joys! Kaitlyn was way into it. She LOVED being allowed to splash in the puddles. It was such a learning experience for her as she exclaimed, "It's like being in the shower Mom!" We then went down to the street where there was a small stream running through the gutters. Sam, not into it so much, didn't like all the water dripping on his head but it was a great thing for him to learn about too! Here they are all bundled up drying off.

We LOVE books

I think my MOST Favorite thing to do with my kids is read books. We have a very worn Library card and our own growing library of childrens books. I love that my children love to read. They learn so much and I feel so close to them when we have reading time--it's true quality time! So I really appreciate that every summer our local library has a summer reading program for children aged 2 and up. We completed reading our 25 books and we went today to collect our prizes. Here are Kaitlyn and Sam sitting on the statue bench of the boy and his dog. They have their reading logs.

For our treats we got:

A free ice cream treat at Chick-fil-a which was really yummy!

And a free book. Kaitlyn chose Clifford and Sam chose Daisy the Firecow.

While these prizes are fun for them, the real treat was all the time and snuggles and moments we shared while reading! Can't wait until next summer!

Guess who can get around?

Lindsey is doing so many new things! She waves, claps and even says "Hi-ee" in a high pitched sigh type voice. And when she combines the "Hi" with a wave, it's quite precious! Oh, yeah and she's crawling--or just starting to. Catch this video!

POOR GUY!

Here's a shout out for some boy dress-up clothes! We need some, ya think? Poor kid doesn't have much to choose from. This was his choice this week for dancing! I love the bracelet just above his elbow. Maybe he's a future polynesian dancer!