Temple Night

Earlier this month my sister, Shauna, called and asked if I could watch her a few of her kids while she took two of her daughters with another sister, Mindy, and a couple of her boys to do baptisms.  I, of course, said yes. That got us all started!  Mindy has been doing a lot of family history work and was excited to get a bunch of family names done.  Once the baptisms were done, she asked if Shauna and I would be willing to go do some more work for them.  Wednesday morning (the 20th), after the kids were all in school, we met up at the temple and spent the morning doing temple work. Then, to top off the month, we all met together tonight with our husbands and Mom & Dad to do sealings before we met up with a bunch of my aunts, uncles and cousins to do a session together!  It was amazing!

While Mindy was doing some research, she looked at my grandma's family and wondered why my great-uncle's work hadn't been done.  She called my mom and found out that, although he was baptized, he hadn't really attended church.  He passed away last year and was the last sibling of my grandma's family.  Because his wife is still living, Mindy contacted her and asked if she would give permission for his temple work to be done.  After a brief hesitation, she gave her permission!  So, tonight, with many family members, my Uncle Barry was able to take Uncle Lawrence's name through and have his work done.  It was such a wonderful experience.  I'm sure my grandma was right beside her twin brother helping him learn about why this work is so important.  What a wonderful opportunity for us to be able to give him the choice to accept his temple work.

In attendance:  Aunt Mary, Vicky & Jace, Deanna, Aunt Louise & Uncle Jack, Jackie, Louisa & Chad, Mom & Dad, Lennard and me, Shauna & Matt, Mindy & Dan, Rachel & Cub, Uncle Barry & Aunt Laura, Cindy & Steve, Karen & Randy, and Cass & Nat.

Yard Work

We haven't had a garden for a while and our garden boxes were starting to rot and fall apart, so we decided to pull them out.  We thought we'd be able to use some of the soil, but it all came out in one solid slab of sod!  Yikes!  We're hoping to get new top soil put in on Monday and then we'll start planting fairly soon.

We even cleaned out the ugly hump of weeds and dirt that were left after our add on (5 years ago)!  It takes us a while, but we get there eventually!  We've got lupins started to fill in the bed!  We figured Grandma Nichols would look down and like seeing them!

Spring Time

Every year when our tulips bloom I absolutely love these multi-color ones.  It just feels so good to have beautiful Spring weather to enjoy being outside.

Sunday Afternoon Drive

After we got home from church and had something to eat, we decided to load up and head out to Waterton for the afternoon.  The kids were thrilled to get to throw rocks in the water.  Of course, it was windier than at home, so the kids got a bit chilly.  We didn't stay very long down by the water as they were getting cold.

The falls were pretty today.  We walked up to the observation point up top and the kids were thrilled to 'hike' up to the top!  They wanted to hike more, but since it was Sunday we tried to keep it a bit tamer than they were wanting.

 It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.  I sure love this little family of mine!

Children's Festival

Lennard went to an Aviation conference in Lethbridge this morning with my Dad.  It was supposed to end at 2:00, so I drove in with the kids to pick him up then.  The conference went longer than planned, so he missed out on the last speaker, but he really enjoyed all the other presenters.  

We decided to take the kids to the Children's Festival.  The kids loved it (we thought it ended up being a big waste of money).  There was a bike rodeo that the kids were excited to ride around.

Then they saw a track with these bikes and were determined that they had to ride them... of course it was $5 per kid to ride!  Ridiculous!  Of course, daddy can't say no... so they got to ride them!

We stood in line for a ridiculous amount of time for them to get a 2 minute turn in the bouncy castle and then they checked out the petting zoo.

 They loved how soft the bunnies were.

 There were so many baby lambs!  Too cute!

After that... we called it quits.  It was really quite pathetic.  Very few things for the kids to do, so there were huge lines.  A few vendor booths and food booths, but that was about it.  Not worth the money to go in our opinion.  We managed to keep our opinion of the event from the kids and they thought it was all good.  I guess that's all that is important!

French Braids

Ever since Emma was a baby people have made comments about her hair.  She's always had such amazing hair... and I haven't had a clue what to do with it!  I've managed to learn a few things, but french braids have always seemed too hard.  I've never french braided anyone else's hair before.  I've braided my own, but had a hard time switching and doing Emma's hair.  I finally consulted YouTube!  I found a tutorial that went super slow and showed an easy way to hold the strands.  Amazingly it worked!  Emma wasn't overly happy to sit that long, but we managed.  I can definitely improve, but it's a good first try!  

Picnic at the Park

Yesterday and today we've had to bring vehicles in to Lethbridge to get recall work done at the dealership.  Yesterday, we sat at the dealership all morning while the truck was being worked on.  Today, I decided that it wouldn't be the best idea to expect the kids to sit for hours again, so we took the dealership shuttle to Mindy's for the morning!  They had a blast playing with Spencer and I enjoyed getting to visit with my sister.  It only took about an hour and a half to finish the work on the van and the shuttle was back to get us.  

The recall work being done required a whole new ignition to be installed and I was happy to discover that it included two new keys!  We'd been wanting new keys, but they are about $300 each to replace them.  Hooray for not having to put out any money and getting what we needed!  Lennard's key was literally falling apart, so he was thrilled to have a key that actually works.

The kids have been so patient with driving in and waiting for work to be done that I decided to surprise them with a picnic at the park.  We picked up KFC and went to Henderson Lake park.  It was quite breezy, so it made eating a little more of an adventure... trying to keep plates from flying away and taking the food with them!  Emma was quite concerned about the gulls eyeing our food.

 As soon as they were done eating they were off to play on the playground!  They loved all the different things to do at a new park.  I was kept busy watching them climb, swing, jump, etc.

At least they can say that we did something fun during their Spring Break!

Testimony

We had a proud parent moment today in Sacrament meeting when Emma decided that she wanted to bear her testimony.  She wanted to last month, but by the time she decided that she could do it by herself, the meeting ended and she missed out.  We have told our kids that if they want to stand in testimony meeting, that it needs to come from them - not have us whisper things in their ear.  We want them to do it by themselves.  It's a scary thing to stand and have the entire congregation look at you.  So today, Emma asked again if she could bear her testimony.  I told her she could, but that I wouldn't be helping her.  It took her a few minutes to decide that she really did want to do it, but wanted to stand by me and hold my hand.  I agreed and when we finally got the microphone, she froze.  She started to cry and just couldn't make herself do it.  I finally stood up and bore my testimony (aka: bawled in front of everyone) of how thankful I am to be a mom and that Emma's desire to bear her testimony helped me stand up and express my gratitude for our Savior.  As I was talking, Emma stood by me, hiding her face in my side and crying.  As I sat down, I turned to her and asked if she wanted to bear her testimony now... and she did!  She did such a good job - all by herself!  I'm so proud of her overcoming her fears and doing something that she thought she couldn't do.  She has such a sweet spirit and a strong desire to do what is right.  I can't imagine what our lives would be like without her.

Road Trip

It was my nephew Zachary's baptism today in Cranbrook, so we got to go on a road trip!  For some reason the twisty turny roads really bothered me, so when we got to Sparwood, I was ready to get out and get some fresh air.  The kids were thrilled to run around and check out the mining equipment and huge truck.

 The last time we were here, the kids didn't want anything to do with the big truck... they were scared it would start moving!

We got to Cranbrook with just enough time to change into our good clothes, get a super speed tour of Rachel's house and get to the church to help set up.  I was really touched by how choked up Cub got as he got to baptize his first child.  It was so neat to be able to be there to experience it.  The kids loved getting to play with their cousins.  We wish we could have stayed longer and explored the area. As it was, we had to leave pretty soon after the dinner so that we could get home at a decent hour. Thankfully, the kids slept part of the way home.

Congratulations, Zach!  (Thanks for the pic - Rachel!)

So Creative!

We haven't gone to Stay and Play for a long time... months... but today, Ben decided he really wanted to go!  So we went.  It helped that Shannon and Dina came with their kids too! 

Ben loves these magnetic tiles and spent almost the entire time playing and creating with them.  He was so proud of his creation that he pulled almost every adult in the room (that he knew) over to see what he'd built.  

 Each car had it's own room and if it 'wanted alone time' the bridge across could move up and close the room off.

 Then, if bad guys were coming, the front moved out and blocked them from coming in!

I love watching his mind work and figure things out.  I just want to freeze time and enjoy all the snuggles and enthusiasm over the little things in life.

Wings

My parents were building a RV-10 (4-seat airplane) for themselves, when they had someone inquire if they knew of anyone wanting to sell one.  They thought about the pros and cons and ended up selling their own plane to the guy.  He then hired them to finish the plane for him!  They have been working LOTS on trying to get it done before they leave for Nauvoo this summer.  It's getting so close! 

They had the wings built and put upstairs in the garage for storage, but now they needed them moved down so that they could get put on the plane.  They asked if we would come out and help tonight, so we headed out as soon as Lennard was off work.  The kids were the 'supervisors'.  Ben was more than happy to operate the hoist for us and Emma took pictures with my phone.

 The wings are quite heavy and it took all four of us to get them safely moved out of the room upstairs and onto the truck so that we could lower them down and get them into the rack.

 It went really smoothly and they are ready to get put on the plane now!

After everything was secured, we headed over to the house and had dinner together.  Mom had leftovers from our Sunday meal yesterday that we had during General Conference sessions, so we got a turkey dinner two days in a row!  Yum!  Before we headed home, the kids begged Grandma for a quad ride... which they got!  My mom is a softy!  Thanks, Mom!

Keep Dreaming!

I spent most of the day in bed yesterday feeling horrible and today isn't much better, so while I hung out at home sleeping, Lennard took the kids in to Lethbridge to a trade show with all kinds of outdoor 'things' to climb on and look at.  The kids had a blast!  

After playing on every type of quad, boat, motorbike, truck, etc., Lennard took them to Burger King for lunch and let them play there.

I literally slept the entire morning and missed both sessions of conference.  Thankfully, I can listen to them later on-line.