Busy, busy, busy.....

Things around here have been, well BUSY!! We have TWO gardens to tend to, M just finished kindergarten ( tear) , been building shelves in our kitchen , and helping my brother with a remodel!! And when I say remodel, I mean he built an ENTIRE second story on his house!! My mom and older brother and his three kids will be living there. The second story is my brothers and his childrens and the bottom is my mom's. And the brother who built it is not the one living there!! He has a big heart and this is a tremendous undertaking!! He is giving up a house that he could be living in and helping his family out. He wanted to do it!! My mom was shocked!!

But that's whats happening around here!! I'm still alive, just barely, and hope to post pics of the house soon!!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Have a great day!!

Special Little Spirit

My Little A. I love this boy so very much! As I sit here, house quiet, kids sleeping, hubby workin', I wonder, "Did I get to do ANYTHING with Little A today?" And I realize that it didn't happen. When he asked me to read him a book, I said WAIT! I said wait because I was cleaning the living room. WOW! How lame is that! What would it have taken, 5 minutes of my time to pick him up, hold him and read. What could have been 5 precious, memory making minutes. I let them go to waste. It makes me sad.

I get to spend time with M, watching him grow and learn as we homeschool. I congratulate him and high-five him. Little A looks at us and joins the celebration! He is such a sweet boy. I need to make the time. I need to forget the things that will be there tomorrow and hold tight to the little boy who is growing up each day and will soon be leaving my protective arms. I want both of my boys to take with them wonderful memories of a mother who actually took the time to be with them and planned her day for them.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:21) I read this scripture and my heart dropped. Was my treasure truly the cleaning of my livingroom? At that moment, it was. That's crazy for me to think about. It actually hurts.

I turned 29 about two weeks ago and I set some goals that I would like to achieve or at least work on over the next year. They are things like read my scriptures for more than 5 minutes, lose weight, more righteously fullfill my calling at church, etc. NO WHERE on that list does it say, spend quality time with my kids daily. Well, that it changing tonight. It has to. As the only member of the church in my family, I constantly look for someone to help me raise my kids the way we are taught through the scriptures to raise them. I often feel like I am beating a dead horse. I am the chosen mother of the two special spirits I have. The Lord bestowed this awesome responsibility to ME.

Thanks for reading this and stopping by. I know it's personal, but I feel that if I share it, I will have support. I am grateful to the few who stop by and read. You are very encouraging and I am grateful for all of you.

Hope you had a wonderful day! (Excuse the picture! We were dying Easter eggs and it was a great memory so I posted it; even with me in it!!)

Atonement 101

I am the first couselor in our branches Primary which allows me the privlege of teaching music every Sunday and sharing time every other Sunday. So this past Sunday I taught a lesson on the Atonement. I was trying to be creative and decided to do a little Atonement 101 lesson. First, I made a "clean slate" which represents being baptized. On the back of the "clean slate" it reads,"When we are baptized, we are given a 'clean slate'. We are sinless and need to obey Heavenly Father's commandments in order to stay clean."

Second, I made the same "slate" and put added rip marks and dark spots representing the sins in our life. On the back of the "dirty slate" it reads," When we sin, we allow our 'clean slate' to become spotted. We let our sins 'dirty' our clean slate and need to repent to 'erase' our sins." I then asked how we are able to clean our slate once it is dirty. Most of the kids said by repenting, and I asked who died for us so we can repent. They said Jesus and I asked what this service was called and they said the Atonement.

Then I showed this pencil and had the 4 steps of repentence on the front. It's hard to see in the pic but the steps are:

1. Feel sorry

2. Ask forgiveness

3. right the wrong

4. don't do it again!

Then on the back of the pencil it reads," Heavenly Father sent His Son to sacrifice Himself for our sins. By doing that, we can repent and our Heavenly Father can "erase" our sins."

It was an awesome lesson and the kids may have even learned something along the way! =)

I made each of the kids their very own Atonement 101 kits and they got to take them home and use them to teach FHE for their families. They were very excited!

When I teach, I always try to make something we can reuse for FHE. The kids like the idea of being in charge of a lesson and to be able to teach about what they are learning in church!

I am truly grateful for my calling in Primary. I didn't join the church until I was 18 so I missed all of the good fun that comes from Primary. I am blessed to be a part of these kids lives and I hope they learn as much from me as I learn from them!

Hallway Re-do!!

Since little A's cyst diagnosis thing, we decided to start improving the safety of our home. One of the first places we thought of was our hallway. There were no carpets or runners and when little A would run and play, he would slip and slide all over the place! So we bought these runners at Walmart and put them down. They have rubber underneath to help them stay in place! Then we found the paint in the screw up bin and it was 50% off! That was good enough for me! I came home and went to work. Even found a pretty little border to go up! The reflection in the pic is bad but it's ssooo pretty! I love it! It's the only place in our home that feels complete! That's what I've been up to this week! Now I wanna do all the other rooms in our house! In due time, I guess. =) Hope everyone is having a great day! Looking forward to general conference this weekend!! yeah!!!

Giveaway over at Casa de Mask!

There is an amazing giveaway over at http://www.casamask.blogspot.com/! Go visit! It's an amazing giveaway from a wonderful lady!!

SCARY!!

Well, Sunday evening was scary. Little A fell off a stool and hit the back of his head and was rushed to the emergency room. They had to do a CAT scan and found that where he hit his head was fine. But the scan showed that he has a posterior fossa midline arachnoid cyst on his brain. I froze. I was scared out of my mind. The doctor at our local hospital says that it's fine and that he was born with it. I thought, OK. Now what? So they sent us to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh today to have a neurologist look over his scans. Let's just say that I didn't sleep last night. When we arrived, I was frantic. I felt foolish but I didn't know what to do. I met the doctor and he said that it's fine. Little A can be himself but he won't be allowed to play ANY contact sports like football or hockey. They want us to make sure he doesn't take too many hard hits to the head because it could cause bleeding that would be bad. I feel better knowing whats going on. The doctor says that most people live their lives not knowing they have anything like this because they've never had a CT scan. I feel blessed as a mom to know how to try to protect my son. I feel blessed for my husband having the priesthood and for my friends who helped comfort us and let us stay at their house and keep their kids up late just so my husband could be assisted in giving our son a blessing.

Thanks for reading and stopping by. Take a look around and count your blessings!

On a side note: we had a series of tornadoes that happened all around us today. Please pray for those who lost their homes and possesions in these storms. So far no lives were lost and that is something to be grateful for!

Loves of my Life!

Well, at least some of the loves in my life! As an early Mother's Day gift to my mom, my brothers and I got together and got all our kids pictures taken together. My mom has been asking for a while, so we figured why not! WOW was it hard to get all the kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time! At first it was just the kids and it wasn't working out! We spent an hour and a half trying to get a half-decent picture! Then my mom decided to sit with the kids and look what we got: AN AMAZING PICTURE!!


We put all the kids in rainbow colors and my mom just happened to have on black and white which I thought was perfect! In order of age it goes: in the yellow is Big B, in the red is Big K, in the blue is my M, in the green is Little B, in the purple is Big A, in the orange is my Little A and in the pink are my twin nieces Little K is on the right and S is on the left! I love these kids and I especially love my mom! She is such a strong lady and I'm glad that she is mine!

I'm grateful to a perfect plan put in place by our Heavenly Father that allows families to be together forever! I love the gospel and am so grateful for a prophet that leads and guides us today! To learn more visit : www.lds.org

When I started this blog, I wanted to have a way of expressing my feelings about the church and to share experiences with my family or anyone else who decided to stop by! I'm a nervous lady and this helps me to share what I love without having to verbally say anything!!

I appreicate anyone who stops by and value your friendships!

I feel so weird not being at church right now! The boys and I are SICK!!! The hubby went along without us! This is my way to have a little Sunday with me!!

Have a great day everyone!! =)