A Blessing and a Baptism in Wisconsin

Ken and I got home just before Thanksgiving from a wonderful trip to Wintery, windy Wisconsin.  We went to celebrate the baptism of Brielle and the blessing of baby Audrey.  We flew in on Monday afternoon and Kristen picked us up at the airport.  There in the car, Ken met baby Audrey.  She is so dang cute. 

We hit the ground running as we planned to do a pre-Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday evening.  So that evening, I made apple pie with Nathan and Key Lime Pie with  Brielle.

We learned about being thankful from Tom the Turkey at Family Home Evening.

Tuesday, we made more pies and lots of other delicious Thanksgiving foods and . . .

went to the school to read to Brielle's 2nd grade class.

Grandpa read to Jakie in the pre-game show.

I read "Ira Sleeps Over" (one of the best read-alouds ever) to the 2nd graders.

Jared met us at the school and then he and Ken and Nathan went for a hike.

They got home in time for our Thanksgiving feast.

Audrey really likes her siblings and they can really make her smile.

The pies.

One day, we let the kids stay home from school, and Grandpa and the boys went on a hike while the girls went shopping at a fun Christmas shop that was going out of business.  

On Friday, we were back at the school.  Grandpa helped make Cranberry Trail Mix and I served cranberry juice (cranberry  day) and read a story to the 1st graders in Nathan's class.  He felt like king of the hill having us there.  We enjoyed taking the kids to school each day and picking them up most days.  They go to a great school.  We were so impressed with the staff and their teachers.

In the evenings, we had rousing games of All.  It was really fun.

Jakie loves Mickey Mouse road rally.  I personally don't see the charm.

Saturday morning started with the kids scrubbing bathrooms.  I was impressed how diligently and well Brielle cleaned this bathroom.  Reminds me of her mother.
That evening, Carolyn and Mitch flew in from Denver.  We tended while Kristen and Jared attended the Saturday evening session of their stake conference.

Sunday afternoon was the big event.  Before we left for the church, we snapped a few pictures.  Good thing, because I completely forgot to take any pictures once we got to the church.

The baptism girl, Brielle.  Kristen and I made her dress when she was here last summer.  I found the pattern I had used to make Kristen's baptism dress on ebay and ordered it.  We found eyelet lace that was identical to that that I used on her baptism dress.  So Brielle's dress looks just like her mom's did.  Kristen got more material and Carolyn made a matching blessing dress for baby Audrey.  It turned out so beautiful.  

The girls with Grandpa and Grandma Mackrory.

Baby Audrey Elizabeth was blessed by her father at 3:30 at the church.  It was a special small meeting with just the bishop and his wife (his wife, Whitney, is Kristen's best friend), the grandparents and the family.
The baptismal was held at the church 1/2 hour later.  The family had invited many friends that are not members of our church.  I think most of the ward was there, too.  It was a beautiful program.  Ken gave a prayer and Grandpa Mackrory and Jared spoke.  Kristen and I sang a duet "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" and the Primary president and bishop also spoke.  There was a very special spirit there.  After, they served sundaes to remind us of how important "Sundays" are as we renew our baptismal covenants.  It truly was a celebration.

We had to leave on Monday afternoon.  Kristen prepared a nice brunch for us and the Mackrorys,  and then took us to the airport to fly home.  We noted as drove in our driveway that evening that from Kristen's door to our door was just 8 1/2 hours.  That is just amazing that we can go to Wisconsin to Vegas to home that quickly.  What a blessing!   Thank you Mackrorys for a wonderful, wintery week in Wisconsin.

Gratitude

What Did the Prophet Ask Us To Do?

October, 2013

Here's a list of "to dos" I gleaned from President Monson's five talks of this last conference:

Saturday Morning Session, Welcome to Conference

1.      “Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to work together, to labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls until Him.”

2.     Contribute, as you are able to your ward missionary fund or the general missionary fund of the church.

Priesthood Session, True Shepherds (Home Teaching)

1.     Let us reach out to those for whom we are responsible.

2.     The Aaronic Priesthood holder should take part in the teaching.

3.     Make  appointments to home teach.

Sunday Morning Session, I Will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee

1.     “May we have a commitment to our Heavenly Father that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives.  We should not need to experience difficulties for us to remember Him, and we should not be driven to humility before giving Him our faith and trust.”

Sunday Afternoon Session, Till We Meet Again

1.     May your homes be filled with love,  courtesy and with the spirit of the Lord.

2.     May you constantly nourish your testimonies.

3.     May the spirit we have felt here be and abide with us as we go about those things which occupy us each day. 

4.     May we show increased kindness toward one another.

5.     May be ever be found doing the work of the Lord.

General Relief Society Meeting, We Never Walk Alone

1.     We would do well to ask ourselves daily: “Did you think to pray?”

2.     Take time to read the scriptures.

April, 2013 Conference Report

“Let’s make sharing our faith online more a part of our daily life.  LDS.org, Mormon.org, Facebook, Twitter- all provide opportunities.”  Elder Neil L. Anderson

I am pleased to use my blog to share my faith.  This quote from Elder Anderson is similar to one from Elder Ballard, who said we must stand for truth and online is a great place to do it.  (That is not a direct quote, but is the essence of what he said in his Education Week talk.) 

I love General Conference.  I recently finished studying the talks from the April, 2013 general conference.  I found so many things that uplifted and inspired me.  I read all of the footnotes and look up all of the scriptural references.  For the first time this conference, I used my ipad rather than my paper scriptures to do this.  I was slow to convert, but I LOVED it!  It was so easy to just touch a reference and it would go there.  I could touch to tag it by subject or to write a note by that scripture.  I also referenced lots of scriptures back to the talks.  I have always written in the margins of my scriptures references to the conference talks, but now I can write as long of a note as I want.  There’s plenty of room.  Then, when I’m reading the scriptures, I can just touch the reference and it will take me back to the talk that enlightened me on that scripture.  I am so excited about that!   I thoroughly enjoyed studying. 

One gem I found in the footnotes was in Elder Quentin L. Cook’s talk.  Footnote 25 was from the Complete Poetical Works of Greenleaf Whittier:  “Heed how thou livest.  Do not act by day which from the night shall drive thy peace away.”   Is that not a great quote?

Some highlights of the conference talks:

I loved President Packer’s “Unfinished Composition.”  It included a beautiful testimony.  I hope he makes it to age 98 for the next addition to the poem.

Marriage: Watch and Learn was one of my favorite talks of the whole conference.  I loved it.  It was given by Elder L. Whitney Clayton.  I would love to teach that talk.

I always love Elder Holland’s talks.  “Lord I Believe” touched me deeply.  It’s okay not to know for sure.  Just keep trying and learning. 

Statistics

Here are the number of times each of the following were used in the references:

New Testament- the most with 228.  That is a remarkably high number- the most ever.  It was followed closely by

Doctrine and Covenants- 217.  This is something new- at least since I have been doing this.  Always The Book of Mormon and the New Testament are the two highest. 

Book of Mormon-131 ( it wasn’t that the Book of Mormon was quoted less, it was that the New Testament and Doctrine and Covenants were quoted way more than usual.)

Latter-day Apostles-66

Old Testament- 49

Pearl of Great Price-23

Church Handbooks- 9   I just started noticing as I was going through that they were quoting from the handbooks a lot, so I counted them.  I don’t know if I just didn’t notice before, or if this is a change.  They say that if you want to keep a secret, put it in a church handbook because no one ever reads them.  Maybe our leaders are trying to change that!

Hymns-13

World Literature-8

Proclamation on the Family-6

The speaker that used the most references was Elder Craig A. Cardon of the Seventy.  He had 154 references, including 71 from the Doctrine and Covenants and 41 from the New Testament.  So, he alone, made those numbers higher than usual.

As always, I express my gratitude for general conference. 

My Favorite Things- Frog Trouble

Though they all live far away, we've been blessed to see all of our grandchildren in the past month.  I gave each of the families this book/ CD as we've seen them.  I am a Sandra Boynton fan.  She writes and illustrates the cutest children's stories AND she writes music for children.  This book/ CD consists of some great songs that really appeal to children.  She has fabulous Nashville guest artists perform the songs on the CD and they are so well done.  I love  "Alligator Stroll."  The book teaches you how to do this simple line dance to the music.  I also love " Broken Piano" performed by Ben Folds (I'm a Ben Folds fan.  He is such a great musician.)  Blues-style "The Heartache Song" is another favorite as it so captures the heartaches of children.  It starts "They make me clean up my room . .. "  It was fun to sing and dance to these wonderful songs with my grandchildren(ages 2-8).  Each quickly developed a favorite song on the cd.  It was amazing how fast they knew their favorite.
Brielle, age 8 likes "The Heartache Song" the best.
Nathan, age 6 LOVES "Trucks."  He knows every word of the chorus and sings it will all his little heart.  It is so dang cute.
Gabbi, age 4 also has memorized every word of her favorite, "Copycat."  She had it completely memorized before she asked her mom, "What's a copycat?"  I hope Michelle's answer was, "What's a copycat?"
Caleb, age 3 loves "Trucks" and "Alligator Stroll."  He's intrigued with the picture of that one because with all of the alligators, there is one lone chicken.  He says he wants to be the chicken.
Jacob, age 3 fell in love with "Frog Trouble" the first time he heard it.  As soon as we'd get in the car, he'd ask for "Frog Trouble."  Frog trouble, bad, bad.   He also loves "Broken Piano."
Cute Lily, age 2, is so very polite.  When she gets in the car, she gently asks, "How 'bout we listen to to the Truck song.?"  When Mommy doesn't respond, she asks just a little louder, "How about we listen to the Truck song?"
And Jaron, age two, loves to look at the pictures in the book.  "They have a guitar."  He says over and over.  His dad has one, so he knows what that is.  "Trucks.  They driving, Mommy.  They going."
To hear short clips of the songs, click here.  You can order this great collection here.

Sandra Boynton's "Frog Trouble"- one of my favorite things!

To view more of my favorite things, click here.

My Favorite Things: Rubbermaid Food Storage Containers

We love these little rubbermaid food storage containers.  After we eat dinner, we divide the leftovers into them.  They are the perfect size for a little "t.v. dinner"  They have a vent in the lid that you can open and heat the meal in the microwave.  It works perfect for Ken to grab one out of the fridge in the morning to take to work for lunch.  He heats it and eats it right in the container.  I got them at Walmart.  This is the 27 oz. size.

We have one shelf in the fridge that is reserved for these little dinners.  When it starts to get empty, I know it's time to cook again!  

27 oz. plastic, microwavable food storage containers- one of my favorite things!
Click here to see more of my favorite things.

The Prince Family Comes For a Visit

Brian and Michelle and family came from Virginia for a short visit.  Brian's brother got married this weekend, so they came out early and spent a few days with us before.  It was so fun to have them in our home.  Michelle was thrilled to be home as it had been a couple of years since she had been here.

They arrived late Sunday night.  Both kids were asleep, so they woke up in a strange place the next morning. Early the next morning, two-year-old Jaron and four-year-old Gabbi went into the room in which their parents were sleeping.  Jaron was disoriented and said he wanted to go home.  Brian teased, "So what do you think Gabbi?  Should we just go home?"  Gabbi's response, "But I haven't even seen Grandpa and Grandma yet!"  We're so glad they stayed.  We had such a fun time.  Michelle went to my Aqua Zumba class with me and to my Keynote rehearsal.  The Keynotes loved her and were even joking about chipping in so she can come back and sing with us for our Christmas concert.  We are short a soprano this season, so I think it's a great idea.  We didn't get pictures, but we had a fun FHE with the kids.  On Tuesday, Ken took off some time from work and they went on a hike (Pictures below) while I made a nice dinner for everyone. Then Ken and Brian took the kids on another hike while Michelle and I were at Keynotes on Wednesday.  We went out for spicy authentic Mexican (the hotter the better for Brian) and we watched the video of old Hinton family memories put together by Ken's brother, Jim.  Michelle and Brian loved seeing that.  

Dancing is always on the agenda when Michelle's around!

Grandpa and Jaron have a special bond.  

Grandma and Gabbi read a lot of books together.  

And joy of joys!  The garbage truck came!!!  Does life get better than this?

Jaron wanted to hold a grasshopper.

For about one second.

I love this artistic shot!  Good job, Michelle!

The kids helped harvest the garden.  Simple pleasures are the best.

Just like old times with our girls:  I read stories while Grandpa brushed out Gabbi's hair.  

We loved having the Prince family!  Hurry back!!!