Peg leg Abbey

     The other day we saw a man walking that was missing a leg.  He had one of those sophisticated mechanical legs that looks like a machine rather than one made to look like person's leg.  Abbey responded by saying "That guy has a fake leg. That is so cool.  Somday I'm going  to have a fake leg."  We all had a good laugh over it.  Sorry Abbey, but I hope that dream never comes true.
     I'm not sure all the reasons why, but I am really enjoying this phase of my life.  Don't get me wrong, it's hard.  It's a lot of work and I'm still just as frustrasted when my kids do wrong things than I ever have been, and my kids are still doing as many things wrong as they ever have been before, but I feel like I'm enjoying my kids more than I ever have before.  Is it because Eric is serving as Bishop and the Lord is blessing our family so much because of it?  Is it because my girls are older and can help me more than they ever have before?   Is it because Eric and I are aren't making so many dumb mistakes in raising our kids now that we are older and more experienced?   Is it because Amelia has brought so much joy into our home?  I don't know, but I feel so blessed.  I think it may be a combination of all of these.  I feel closer to Eric, since he's been called as Bishop, than I ever have before.  That's a blessing the stake president specifically mentioned when Eric was set apart as Bishop.  We are so blessed.

Millie

      Amelia cut two teeth this last week.  She just wanted to be held  most of the time.  I didn't mind. 
     We call Amelia "Millie" sometimes as a nick name.  She hates taking a bath!  It's hard to understand why.  All my babies have loved baths.  Not her.  Wow!  You should hear her howl in protest.  She doesn't like showers either.  

     Eric's book wasn't accepted by Deseret Book.  So he published it on Amazon.   I still need to read it. 

     We will have three times as much garden this year, thanks to Eric.  He is so ambitious.  He has been watching a series where three families have to live like pioneers for 4 months.  It inspires him.

"Abbey does NOT know how to cook!"

     The other day, William made Bradley cry.  So I assigned William a chore.  William promptly asks Brad, who is still upset, to help him with his punishment chore.  Brad says ok and they head off together to go do the chore.  A scripture or two came to mind.
     "Except ye..... become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
     And "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of theHoly Spirit, and putteth off the naturalman and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
                          -Amber
     On Saturday, Abbey made barbecue chicken pizza for dinner.  While making the dough, she turned on the mixer and water flew out of the bowl, splashing everywhere. Bradley saw the whole fiasco. He laughed,  and promptly ran down the hall to William. "William," Abbey overheard him say, "Abbey does NOT know how to cook!" In my humble opinion, I do know how to cook.  :) Anyway, the pizza and bread turned out great!
                        -Abbey

Surprise!

     Grandma Linda and Grandpa Steve surprised the kids with a visit this last weekend.  Everyone soaked up all the fun with bowling, going out for ice cream, hide and go seek, more games, going out for pizza, babysitting,  movie night, and lots of visiting!  Grandpa Steve does a great impersination of Donald Duck.  They left  this morning and Bradley has been trying to talk like Donald Duck all day.  They sure do love grandma and grandpa.
     The boys start teeball and baseball this week. It should be fun.
    

Bleck! Splat!

     Last night, Eliza lifted Amelia above her super man style to make Amelia happy and Amelia spit up and it landed right on eliza's nose.  It was hilarious.  I should have taken a picture.  Liza was laughing as hard as anyone.  She has been pooped on before by Amelia also.  It hasn't slowed her down in the slightest in holding her baby sister.  Mothering comes so natural to her. 
     Eric has helped the girls learn how to find ancestors who need their temple work done.  Eliza sat down with him tonight for the first time and she found multiple names.  It has been fun to watch.  I'm going to have to sit down and have them teach me.  I'm excited for the promised blessing they will have for doing family history!!!!!!!!!!
     Eric is really a great dad and hubby!  Even though our family was apart for valentines day this year, he still did his tradition of buying a mug and small stuffed animal and throwing some candy in the cup too for the kids to wake up to on valentines day morning.  The kids love it!  William and Carson sleep with their small stuffed animals on a regular basis. 
 

RootsTech 2015

Eric received an email a few months ago announcing RootsTech 2015, the family history conference in Salt Lake City "where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connection."  There were going to be talks by a couple of apostles and other church leaders and other cool people.  As an added bonus, Studio C and David Archuleta would be performing there.  We talked about how cool it would be for Eric to take the girls (since it wouldn't be a very effective trip with Amelia and Bradley).  We weren't sure if it would work out, so we didn't tell them about it.
Well, Friday the 13th came and after an awesome advanced choir performance that Abbey was in, Amber took the boys home and Eric waited with Eliza for Abbey to come out.  Eric told the girls to go to the bathroom before they got in the car which started the questioning and their figuring that something was up.  Eric held out as long as he could, and told them, before they were even out of the parking lot, that they were going to RootsTech and all of the cool things that were there.  They were excited, to say the least.

Valentine's Day Sunrise

Most of the trip, however, was a bunch of driving.  We left Fallon and arrived in Elko at midnight.  After a snafu with reservations, we finally got to bed at 12:30.  We had a short nap and were back up at 5:30 to drive the rest of the way to SLC. 
We made it to the convention center and were walking down the hall, when we ran into a woman and her daughter from our ward.  Just after registering, we were walking toward our first class and heard someone else calling out to us; it was Amber's cousin Beth.  It's crazy how small the world is.
The first class was a discussion given by Elders L. Whitney Clayton, Allen F. Packer, and Kent F. Richards and Sister Marriott about performing family history work and common issues that come up.  One of the things that we were most excited about was when Elder Richards announced that all temples will begin "Family Priority Time" where families will be able to go in together and perform Baptisms and Confirmations.  We try to take Abbey every month and usually jump in with whatever group happens to be at that time, but the family priority time sounds like a great way to encourage more families to come and participate together.

Temple Selfie

After our first class we ran to get some lunch and then fast walked through temple square before running to get to the next speakers.  We were a little late to that one, but heard some great messages from Al Fox Carraway (The Tattooed Mormon blogger) and Noelle Pikus-Pace (The 2014 Silver Medalist in the skeleton), then Elder Andersen spoke, giving us a new challenge for family history.  A lot of the messages were based on the theme of Find, Take, Teach.  The challenge he gave was to "Prepare as many names for the temple as baptisms you perform in the temple and help someone else to do the same."  In other words: Find ancestors, Take their names to the temple, and Teach others how to do it.  There was an opportunity to get autographs from Studio C and David Arhculeta, but there were a ton of people and they shut down before we made it.  We then heard from Elder Cook and his family.  And last of all was the performance by Studio C and David Archuleta. 
We drove back to Elko for the night and then the rest of the way home Sunday morning to complete the whirlwind trip.  It was so much fun and we're hoping we'll be able to do it again another year.
Go to https://rootstech.org/video/4050134760001 for the videos (there were only a few as of this post, but they should have more up later).

That awkward moment when........

     I'm often surprised at how much joy Amelia gives me.  You might mistakingly think that her being my sixth child, that the funess of babies had lost it's enjoyment and gotten old, but not at all.  She makes me smile and laugh on a daily basis.  I love that she's such a happy baby.  She smiles at strangers and lights up their face.  We sure do love her. 
     So remember that young man Abbey heart attacked?  He's in our ward and he's adopted.  He and Abbey were at a mutual activity on family history and discovered his dad and I are related.  I so wish I could have been there and had a video camera recording everyone's reaction!  Abbey said it was extremly awkward!  Later when Abbey was recounting it to me and she said "that awkward moment when you realize you're related to your crush."  We've been laughing about it everytime we think about it.  So this video's for you Abbey. 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-ykfdmwxSG0