Sunday, December 19, 2010

Sunday Naps

Sunday is the only day that James gets to really take a nap, and sometimes he doesn't even get to, but today he did.

In fact naps are not always on beds or couches. Just ask Emjae.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Bumps in the road

I swear I will get around to a new post with pictures and everything, but I just wanted to write for a minute or two.
All you women that are wives and mothers I think will know what I am talking about for these few short minutes.
You know those times when things are just "off" in your marriage. It's not like you are turned off but things just aren't right? Well James and I have had a few weeks of being off. It has become difficult for us to connect. We were trains and a train station. He had his work train, then make his stop at the station to catch his connecting train to being a Ward Mission Leader, then make a stop at the station for food and rest. While I am at the station all day and once or twice a week get on a train and leave him at home so I can fulfill my calling as Young Women's Secretary.
We talked about this last weekend and realized we need to try and find more us time, and then we had another few days that went down hill. Nothing terrible, but nothing great and grand either. We talked again last night and had our disagreements and our sad times and my tears time (I'm emotional). It finally hit me that we are both being so selfish!! The only things we were concerned about were what we wanted to do and didn't care if it was helping out the other or making things easier for the other. Besides that we are always focused on the kids and their needs. We have stopped doing those kind things for the other unless we are asked and the special anythings don't happen.
Talking last night helped us realize we still have work and where we need to turn some of our energy too, which isn't always the easiest to have extra energy after a full day of work (wether outside or inside the home), church callings, and children. Realizing and acknowledging is the first step. And we are taking that first step together.
Some may think, why are you posting this, but everyone goes through these times and its nice to know that you aren't the only one.
I am grateful that even though there were tears and sadness that we were able to come to a realization and a solution to fix the problem. I'm glad that I am in a marriage that still needs work, I think if we had this marriage thing down after less than 3 years than there would be no excitement or opportunity to grow.
I love my husband, and my kids!! I wouldn't trade them for the world!!

Monday, October 4, 2010

September

Oh how the month of September has flown by!!!

I have made a new goal to update my blog at least once a week. Usually it isn't a difficult thing, but my computer is hooked up to the tv. I mainly use the house computer that is not hooked up to the tv, but my pictures aren't on that one because once my parents leave then my pictures leave with them and that computer. SO it is difficult to use my computer that is hooked to the tv when I have little kids running around and or I just don't want to be patient with how slow this computer is. :)
Now the month of September was a pretty fun month. We went to the lake twice, and we had visitors. Stephanie and her fiance Jasper came down and visited us for a weekend. It was our first time meeting Jasper, and even though he seemed quiet at first, he started to warm up towards the end and we are so excited for the two of them to be sealed for all time and eternity. We went to Lake Mojave for the first time with them and Nate and Sarah.








A few days later my sis Helene came and visited us for a lot longer than what she was planning :) She was planning on staying the night one night and then leaving the next day, but I told her she could stay longer if she wanted and she took me up on the offer. She stayed about 3 days longer than she planned, but I sure did enjoy spending time with her. She got to spend more time with the girls and she even helped me with my painting project of the front room.


The only down side to that was that she skipped out on visiting with TJ and Dora for a longer time. Sorry we kept her longer than planned TJ and Dora.

The next weekend my Sister Amy and her little family came down for the weekend as well as my parents came home too and Erik. We went to the lake with Amy, Alex, baby Erick, Alex's Dad, Stepmom, Grandma, my Mom and Dad, Erik, Trevor, Kate, and the Togiola's (in our ward). We had fun again.










Amy ended up staying for the rest of the week after her husband and Erik headed back up to Utah for work. She left early Saturday morning. The same Saturday as the Relief Society Broadcast.
This is were I decided that I needed to make a few adjustments and changes in my life. The main thing that I felt inspired to do was to start writing a journal, an actual pen and paper journal. They talked about the history of Relief Society quite a bit in the beginning of the session and I felt that without journal writings from our beginning Relief Society Sisters that we wouldn't know much. Now I don't think that I will become someone of great church history, or even get called to a general authority position, but my thoughts and my struggles may help those of my family in later generations. I like to use this blog for giving updates, but I don't feel that I can always or that I should always put down my personal feeling, thoughts, inspirations, or even struggles all on here. Those are things that people can look at and read once I have died :)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Callings are a Blessing? Part 2

Also!!! I gave the fifth Sunday lesson. It was the first time that we were in Young Womens after being set apart. The lesson was holding to the standards. I did a great object lesson with string representing a flaxen cord and each sin was one more time around the wrist and some one else holding on to the scriptures and trying to get the same size loop onto their hand. Anyways latter on in the lesson we talked about repentance so that we can grab hold of the standards again. First acknowledging and being sorrowful. I cut the string from the spool to represent acknowledge and giving Satan no more power. Next is repentance. I asked who do we repent and ask for forgiveness from? I got the answers Jesus, the Lord. I also asked who else if it is a serious sin? someone said your parents? I said well you can if you want, but its not needed, but who is the father of this ward? they answered the bishop. I then continued to state some of the things that we need help with and what things we should talk to the bishop about, Drugs, Smoking, Alcohol, Sex, Oral Sex, Touching other people where there clothes are or them touching you, and Touching ourselves to please us. I then continued to cut the string from the wrist. It was still hanging there and so I asked what do we need to do since they are still sitting there. They responded to apologize. I thought the lesson was great! I taught by the spirit I had prayed for guidance and I felt I had gotten it. A few days later at a meeting that was held I was approached and asked not to use words like that. There were a few parents who called and said that there daughters weren't even thinking about that or boys and that I didn't need to say those things. I was also counseled to watch what I say since the young women all meet together and not in individual classes so some are to young to hear those things.
I came home frustrated and hurt. Frustrated because 1. we live in Vegas and if your child is in public school you can not tell me that your child does not hear certain things 2. there are 11 year old girls that are getting pregnant, so to say it is not relevant to your daughter you are naive 3. if you have a naive daughter that doesn't know these things she WILL be taken advantage of 4. if you only use words like staying chaste and morally clean they will use the excuse I never knew that was bad I only thought sex was. I was hurt though because if that is all that the girls remember from my lesson than I must have not done as good of a job as I had thought.
Because of this lesson I know have a few parents that will not even look at me. One use to say hi and ask how my Dad was doing and how we were doing and she will not even glance in my direction.
I went and discussed with the bishop the day after I had been counseled not to say certain things and I was reassured that I had not said anything inappropriate or out of line. I think I will go back to the Bishop (who is no longer my father so everyone knows) and ask him to hold a meeting of sorts or to hold a counsel with these parents or all the parents so that they may come to terms that I am not a bad person and that I don't just talk about sex.
It saddens me that so many people are afraid or embarrassed to discuss these things with their children. Yes there is a time a place for all things. But if I was getting puberty classes in 4th and 5th grade and being shown a picture of a penis than I think that a 12 yr old girl should also be talked to about sex and things that are accompanied with it. I am not saying be blunt and tell them everything, but be open to discuss it because if they are in public school chances are they have already heard things and who better to know the sacredness of these things than a parent.

Callings are a blessing? Part 1

Before you read this I want everyone to know that this is a frustration post and that I am venting. I truly am grateful for my calling and for the ladies that I work with. I love them and know that we as a Leadership want only the best for the girls in our Ward.
Now, I have been recently called into the Young Women's as a secretary. I was excited and glad to accept this calling. We had only been in the ward for 7 weeks or so and I was ready to be put to work. I was definitely glad that I wasn't called to Primary. I love kids, but I don't want to deal with others kids right now. Have you ever heard the saying "Sunday is a day of rest, UNLESS you have a calling in Primary." So, I knew coming into this calling that I would be learning, but I was not wanting to have to learn patience again! I swear I get this virtue down and then next thing you know I am right back learning it again. (but if I want to be as God then I guess I will learn patience a lot here on Earth)
I can say that I do love my presidency and that I want to do what I am suppose to do so I can support them and help them make their callings easier, but I am having difficulties with that. It's like trying to get along with that one sibling that just erks you. For me that is my brother Trevor and brother in law Alex. I love them to death, but we just don't see eye to eye on things and I have to learn how to approach things with them.
To start off with I have never been a secretary. I like to think I have good organizational skills, but I know that it takes more than organizational skills to be a secretary. Next I don't have a binder. The "Binder" is suppose to have all the role sheets, all the previous notes, all the young womens personal progress charts, all the girls phone numbers, all the girls birthdays, the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, the manual, and what I think is the most important a guideline as to the responsibilities of a secretary. I have no idea what I am suppose to be doing! I have gotten the roles and list of girls numbers and addresses, but that is it. I am trying to do the best note taking I can, and to follow up with the president, but it seems that she doesn't need me to even do that. Hopefully we are still just learning our rolls and that hopefully she and others will learn that they can rely on me.
Mainly I think my frustration is just stemming from the fact that I don't know what I am suppose to do! Do I give ideas or do I just sit and take notes, do I go to the activities or not, I am not assigned to a class so what do I do for that, am I suppose to be everyone's slave and make copies of class presidencies for each class along with personalized list of numbers for each class? I don't know where I fit in. I am the youngest of the leaders and am feel somewhat of an out cast. I am trying to find the balance were the girls accept me and yet the leaders accept me too. I think I am at a horrible stage in life right now when it comes to the number game and being in a family ward.

Monday, August 30, 2010

dance

Thank you Lion King! I got a good laugh. Emjae and her fast and slow dancing and Julie with her Irish jig dance.
And in case you didn't get a close look at Julie's feet the second one shows it much better.

Do you remember when......?


Do you remember when you would get in the dryer? :) Emjae decided to get in the dryer by herself without us knowing, and well I started hearing yelling for Mom. I went to go check on her and she was inside the dryer. Now all she needs is pillows and blankets inside with her and an older sister so they can turn each other around :) Good memories from my child hood.
And for any of you that say I am a horrible parent or that this is such a safety hazard. I know, but please relax. If you stop your children from every safety hazard there is then your child will never have any fun and be stuck at home doing nothing!

Princess Peach

After church Emjae got on her now favorite bike, which is actually Uncle Trevors and Aunt Kates soon to be little girls bike. Any ways the boys thought that there were some similarities between Emjae and Princess Peach. What do you think?

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Barefoot Park Day

My Mom had been working for the Census and so she would be gone pretty much all day. Which would leave me home and completely car-less, which is going to be normal pretty soon. However she has since finished working for them and last week she decided to take the girls to a park. It hadn't gotten too hot just yet, so we all got dressed and went to the park.
Emjae's favorite thing at the park is the swings. You would never guess that from her expression when she is on it :) but if you try to get her off, she will NOT have it! She loves swinging.

Julie however wants to do a little of both, swing and playground.

It was however starting to get a little hot in the sun so we went over to where the trees where. There was a slight breeze and it wasn't one of those heat breezes but a slight coolness to it when in the shade.
Now that we live in a house and an area where grass is pretty much nonexistent we had to have barefoot moment :)

I even got Emjae to wink by telling her to smile.

That's the only way she knows how to smile :)
Julie even did her mean/smile/kiss face :)

My girls love spending time with their Oma. Emjae for some reason has gotten into this stage where if she is outside and hears an airplane, she almost freaks out! She curls up and tries to hide.

She used to not do it, and just one day she freaked out about it. She can see them and point them out and be fine, but if she hears the noise they make she freaks out.
Julie of course loves Monkeys in the Tree, and even loves it more when it's with Oma.



We sure all do love Oma and I have decided when she leaves to go to Carson that there will be a lot more crying.

Night Night (HA HA HA HA)

Nap time and sleep time can be fun things around this house, not only because I get some quiet time but because I get a chance to laugh.


Emjae had been asleep for an hour and a half almost and we couldn't help ourselves. We wanted others to see our joy in making our sleeping kids smile. We were unable to get her to laugh like she did previously before we got the camera.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Family Home Evening

Lately we have been trying to do FHE every Monday. So far we have been doing pretty good. We start off with a song that Emjae sings in Nursery and have opening prayer then go into a short lesson. We finish with another song and then kneel to have closing and family prayer.
Most of the time our songs consist of either Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Monkeys Swinging in a Tree, Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and we are trying to introduce Hinges, and Book of Mormon Stories. Because of this, Julie will come running up to any grown person with her pointer and middle fingers together and start trying to make noises so you will start singing Itsy Bitsy Spider. She has most of the hand motions down. If she doesn't do that one she has one finger in the air swinging it side to side for Monkeys Swinging in the Tree and she's good with those motions too :)
Emjae now sees every Church building, even ones that aren't LDS and calls them Temples. At least she has the concept down.
We are enjoying our mini lessons and FHE. This last Monday however we didn't have a lesson. We made BROWNIES!!!!! YUM!!!!
Emjae did most of the mixing,

Julie helped spray the pan

and Julie ate most of the left over batter.


Emjae didn't want anything to do with the left over batter so James decided to put some on her arm which she tried to wipe off on my arm.

Little sneaky girl :)

This was after she tried to wipe it on me and she is laughing.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

New Design

So I decided as soon as I found out that my sister in law Kate was pregnant that I was going to do her cake for the baby shower. I really haven't done many different tasting cakes except for my one experiment with making a almond poppyseed cake. It didn't turn out to good and so I was afraid to try and find a new recipe and Lemon, none the less. I am not a lemon cake fan, but this new recipe I found isn't bad at all. Not to Lemony but just a hint. That of course is only from the small taste I took, true judgement will come later.
I didn't want to do a boring circle or square cake and so I pulled out a small purple and blue box that my mom had given me while she was packing some of her things.

Who knew that I could turn these flat tiny sheets of metal into a paisley shape.
I also wanted to try some new fondant recipes. I had seen some recipes for buttercream fondant and I found two different kinds. I did a small batch of both and "Ladies and Gentlemen (in my announcer voice), We have found a winner!" One of them taste so good and I much prefer the taste of it over the marshmallow fondant. However I need to figure out the right consistency. It falls apart very easy. I however am willing to work on that. It also is a more shiny fondant as well, so I can still use the marshmallow fondant for cakes that I don't want glowing :)



You can see the small tear on this bottom picture. But hey, its a practice cake and I enjoyed making it.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Julies Birthday

Our little chunks, isn't to much of a chunks anymore :( Of course we still call her chunks and she is still as gorgeous as ever and is now 1.

Her birthday was during the middle of the week and we wouldn't have been able to have a party with family there on her actual birthday so we waited until the weekend. My Aunt Brenda was kind enough to allow us to use her place for the birthday party. (Its the same spot we did Emjae's first birthday) She was suppose to be in town, but ended up leaving and my Uncle that lives here in Vegas was gone to the beach for a month. Amy and Alex had plans in Utah and purchased tickets that weekend for the rodeo and Erik...well he is poor, paying off debt and unable to come as well. So the only side of my family that was there was my parents, Trevor, his wonderful wife Kate, my brotha from anotha motha Nate, his wife Sarah and that was it. We were so pleased to have Monty and Kristin show up with the boys. They try to make it to as much as they can and we were so glad to see them since they have 5 boys and driving isn't fun and they were moving from California to Colorado on Wednesday. James' Mom also came, she likewise tries to make it to all that she can. We were told earlier in the week that Dad (James' Dad) wasn't going to be able to make it, but apparently plans changed and we were so glad to be able to see him! Helene and TJ and Dora (James' sister and brother) were going to try to make it, but we unable to. Helene was excited to come and planned on it, but a few days before the party informed us she would be unable to. TJ and Dora had told us they were coming and then things happened and well we were hurt that they didn't tell us they could come until the time we were expecting them to already be there.

Here are a few of the memories made that day. It all started with Trevor going to the diving board.

trying to make the biggest splash

Nate tried next

Then Kyle did. So did Tyler, I just wasn't able to get a picture of that fast guy.

Of course Monty couldn't be shown up by his sons :)

He wasn't to great at the splash, but he sure did a great flip!




This cute chunks of a nephew sure enjoyed his time in the water. So much he fell asleep and I am pretty sure he slept almost 90% of the time he was in there.


We truly did feel the love from family members and sure enjoyed spending most of the day in the pool! Some didn't even want to get out to eat cake and ice cream :)


And some didn't want to stop playing in the water even after they had their clothes on.