Reminisce

When I was going to school at LDSBC in 2003, just before Ben left on his mission, he used to do a lot of this:

In his trusty 4Runner, he'd drive down every other weekend to spend time with me- I loved it so much! He always knows how to make me feel so loved and special :)

Here we are on a date at the Pie

 Followed by Ice Skating at the outdoor rink in downtown SLC 

I sure love my honey

I'm glad our love story has been as long as it has and I can't wait to live it out for the rest of eternity!

Incredible Faith

This is the story of a relative of a good friend of ours- I just wanted to share the link. She is an inspiration to all of us of faith and forgiveness. Take the time to read the article and visit her site.

Oh Yeah, And By The Way....

I'm going to this.

I know you're all jealous.

A Restful Sabbath

Our poor little sweet Brook has been down with the flu for a few days. She couldn't keep anything down for almost 24 hours and we were getting very worried about her. She just doesn't have any reserves, poor thing! Anyway, yesterday afternoon, we were considering taking her to a doctor to make sure she wasn't getting too dehydrated because she was throwing up about every 25 minutes for almost 12 hours and couldn't keep anything down at all. She couldn't even stay asleep because it would wake her up. Her face was as white as a sheet and she was getting big black circles under her eyes. We asked her if she wanted to have a priesthood blessing and she said she did. In the blessing, she was promised that she would get the rest she needed and be healed according to her faith and a few other neat things. After the blessing, we talked about how her having faith that Jesus could heal her would help her be healed. About 2 minutes later, she laid down on the bed and fell asleep for 2 hours. She didn't throw up at all for the rest of the day and dramatically improved. She slept clear through the night and woke up this morning a little tired, but completely recovered. What powerful faith my sweet little girl has! She knows that Jesus can heal her and that he did heal her, because she believed he would. It was a wonderful testimony builder for our whole family.

Today the family stayed home to make sure we didn't pass any germs on to our church friends, but I was able to catch the other ward's sacrament meeting. I swear the meeting was specifically for me! I felt the spirit so strong and was reminded of my many blessings and given several promptings of ways I can draw closer to Christ. During one talk, the speaker told of a time he was lost in the woods with his cousin as a child and it brought back a very specific memory I have from my childhood. One winter, my brother, Stan, my cousin, Dallin, and I were playing in the snow on a butte behind our house. It was a pretty big hill and we had been running all over it playing, not paying a lot of attention to where we were going. We were very familiar with the hill, as we played on it often, but it looked different in the snow. Well, one of us decided we had to go to the bathroom, so we started to head for home. It took about 5 minutes of wandering before we realized we were lost. We didn't recognize anything around us. I don't know if they did, but I started to feel really panicked and scared. There were coyotes out in those parts and we were just little kids. I started to cry and my cousin Dallin started to cry, but my brother Stan said "We need to pray guys." So there in the snow, we all three knelt down and said a simple, quick prayer that we could find our way home and not pee our pants. Immediately, we stood up and all three of us knew the exact way to go. It took us about 10 minutes to get home. I knew then and I know now the Lord answers our prayers and we can get answers no matter how young we are. Even when we make poor choices and find ourselves at odds with God, He still answers our prayers. I am so blessed to have this testimony. I want to make my testimony of daily prayer stronger and I was prompted today that to do so, I need to test the doctrine out. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." John 17:3

I hope you all had as wonderful a Sunday as I did :)

Final Post: Papa & Grammy's Visit

Brook made this sign awhile back for when any family comes to visit :)

Sunday:

 Brook was taking portraits-
we thought these made pretty good awkward family photos

 We tried a new recipe: Maple Glazed Stuffed Roast Pork

Ours didn't turn out as pretty as the recipe picture, but it was very good. 

 We had FHE early since Papa had to leave early Monday morning for a meeting in Chicago. Brook taught the lesson- we learned about Nephi building the ship 

 Monday & Tuesday:

Games & Sewing with Grammy 

 Taken at like midnight, so judge not! We made matching pencil skirts out of the nicest fabric I got at Denver Fabrics for like 2 dollars... for 3 yards :)
LOVE Denver Fabrics! 

 Brook & Ellie playing "Clifford"

Ellie is Clifford... she was a pretty lazy dog, I must say! 

 Wednesday:

 We picked up Papa from the airport to spend a few more cherished hours together before they headed back to Boise on a pretty much red-eye flight. It was a miracle they even got to leave- Denver was experiencing 65 mph wind gusts and all the flights were delayed by a few hours. While picking Papa up at the airport, we got stuck behind a light pole that had been blown over and blocked the entire road! Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive and no barricades! After leaving the airport, we went to Regis to show Papa & Grammy the campus and meet Ben after his lab.

 This is my view from the very BACK of the 4Runner while checking out Denver- we really need to get a seat installed back there- my legs fell asleep two times from being draped over luggage!

 We went to a bowling alley at the 16th street mall- not a very family friendly environment, but we made the best of it and had fun. 

Papa was missing his own bowling ball- he was having a hard time keeping these ones out of the gutter :) Which really is not like him

Brook's victory dance:

Ellie's favorite part was eating all my gum.... 

 The final scores- Brook & Ellie were on my team, and in defense of everyone else, we had bumpers on our turn :)

A Tetris building!!!

 Dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, a family favorite

We love you Papa & Grammy!!!! Thank you so much for coming!!!

Funny story about Papa's Hat:
After dinner, we started to head back the 4 blocks and bus ride to the car. About half a block out of the restaurant, Grammy and I realized we were not going to make it back because of the intense wind! It was also freezing and we didn't have good coats on. So we went back into the restaurant and waited for Papa & Ben to bring the car to us. They were walking just up the block and all the sudden a HUGE gust of wind came down the street and whipped Papa's hat off, sending it down an entire block in less than 2 seconds and behind a locked gate! Sorry Papa!

Baking With Grammy

One of the hardest parts of living in CO is my girls not getting to spend regular time with Grandparents. I have such fond memories of stopping over at both my grandparents' homes and doing everyday regular things with them.  I learned to quilt and tole paint with Neenaw and tinker around in the garage with Gran. I loved to do art and bake with Gramma Perry and build things with Papa Perry. I want my kids to be able to enjoy doing those things too. Brook and Grammy have had a lot of fun playing in the kitchen together (the real and the fake one :) and I happened to catch proof!

 Making Breadsticks together

I have a few more pics I'll post later of my parents' visit, but we didn't get a lot of photos because we were too busy having fun organizing, baking, cleaning, exercising, and sewing!!!

Fun With Grammy & Papa

My parents came to visit for a week and we have been having LOTS of fun. Mom has helped me get a few things organized better, we've been shopping, going for walks, playing with the kiddos outside and in, cooking, doing yoga videos, and hanging out. The girls just LOVE being with Papa and Grammy and it's been really nice to have them around. Tomorrow we build some shelves in the garage and Tuesday we'll go to the temple. Wednesday they have to leave :( We'll be sad to see them go!!!

Church was really wonderful today. It's so nice to feel the spirit in every meeting. We had ward conference and are blessed with a wonderful stake presidency. They talked about the Family: A Proclamation to the World, Marriage and what a blessed/difficult/important thing it is, and attending the temple.

Some highlights:
-realizing that a wholesome recreational activity can range from just spending time as a family playing games to family reunions to camping to skiing back to doing a puzzle together
-once you get married, you get to spend the rest of your lives just trying to make each other happy
-never participate in something (no matter how harmless it may seem) that could jeopardize the covenants I have made with my wonderful husband
-the more often I attend the temple, the greater a source of healing and power it will be for me

It's been a great Sabbath day!

Poor Ellie!!! (Graphic Photos!)

If you get queasy by gross injuries, probably don't look at these photos!

You do not want to know what this is.....

As best we can tell, she was sitting on a chair and started falling off and tried to catch herself. Ripped the poor little nail clean off. She was so tough! She only cried for about 45 seconds and then she let us bandage it and re-bandage it after her bath without even crying! The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach! Poor little girl!

A Valentine's Recap

For Valentine's Day, I made the girls matching pajama pants and found these really adorable fake glasses at Claire's for a buck.

 They loved it!

 Ben and I have frequently given each other a monkey for Valentine's day. I found this singing couple at the Arc and couldn't resist! "I Got You Babe!"

 Red roses are my favorite! He didn't forget :)

3 Red Roses:

Red Rose=Passionate Love

1 for our past, 1 for our present, 1 for our future

He is so sweet :)

I was going to recreate our first date ELEVEN years ago and make homemade heart shaped hamburgers and french fries (we went to Westside in Boise, ID), but I was a little worn out from our trip to Copper still, so we went to Red Robin instead. It was a lot of fun! Sure love my three Valentines!!!