Can I Go See Him?

This morning we had our family Easter devotional. It started with a song (He is Risen) and then Zack told a condensed story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection:

"Jesus was crucified. See, here's a picture of Jesus on the cross.

He died and they put him in a tomb.

Look at this picture here. This is the tomb where they put his body.

And then, 3 days later, he was resurrected. That means that his body and his spirit came back together.

He came back to life! He was resurrected!

And because he died and was resurrected, we will be resurrected, too!

Daddy will be resurrected.

Caleb will be resurrected!

Noah will be resurrected!

Mommy will be resurrected!

Grandpa will be resurrected!"

...and so on.

"Jesus did this for us because he loves us!"

Then Caleb, with his hands outstretched in a cupping shape, said, "Can I go see him?"

I've thought about that question all day today. Because of the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made for us, the answer is a resounding Yes.

Because of his atonement, we can live with him again. We CAN go see him.

Yesterday marks the 5th anniversary of my brother, Jeff's, death. I've often wished Caleb's question for Jeff. "Can I go see him?"

Because of the Savior's atonement and resurrection, the answer to that is a resounding yes.

I will see him again.

Lately I've been very aware of the mistakes and sins I make every day. I make so many. And, as a mom, I hurt my little ones when I do it. Never before have I wanted so badly to make those sins go away. Sometimes I don't feel worthy to be with my own family let alone be with Christ. But because Christ conquered death, because he conquered sin, because he sacrificed all -for me- I can repent. I can become better. I can give up my sins and be the mom, wife, sister, daughter and friend that I want to be.

Because of Christ's atonement and resurrection I will see Christ again and I will see Jeff again.

For this I am truly grateful.

"Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!

Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!

Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!

Where they victory, O grave? Alleluia!"

-Charles Wesley, "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today"

Fingerpainting- Cabin Style

What better way to usher in Spring than to post about Christmas goings on?! I know! There's no better way!

For Christmas, the boys got some finger paints. Being the wise parents that we are, and not wanting to get our OWN house messy, we decided the best time to break out the paints would be at the cabin! And it so was the best time! And we didn't even get paint on anything! We think.
Here's the pre-paint picture with the boys all dressed up pretty-like in their "smocks" aka Zack and Carrie's old t-shirts.

Here we are, starting the adventure.

Ah, the joys of paint.

Yes. He tried to eat it.

And we're done! Here's one of Noah smiling...

And here's one of Caleb smiling...

And here's how it ended...

Noah's Video

Noah's video finally made it to the top of the "to do" list. It only took a year to get it done.

The goal was to get it done before he was no longer the baby. Mission accomplished.

And yay for Noah!

Videos are better than writing stuff, right?

Things haven't been that busy around here. I really have no excuse not to be writing more blogs. When I have free time it's not like I'm exhausted and just want a break.

The truth is I'd rather be reading someone else's writing than creating my own. Plus I'm lazy. Writing takes work, people.

But you know what doesn't take much work? Posting videos!

So without further ado:

Caleb, Zack and Noah gettin' jiggy wit' it down at Noodles & Co. This was last Tuesday. If a restaurant has good music, Caleb is always good for a chair dance or two.

Here's one of Caleb doing his "faces". These were always fun to entertain people at church, the store, relatives, friends, people on the street, etc. This video was taken in May I think. He looks so little... Sadly, as of this month, he has stopped doing the faces on command. :(

And here's Noah enjoying his birthday cake. He turned one on Tuesday. Yay for turning one!

What If? A Blog about those Mormons

Mormons have been in the media a whole lot lately. By now I'm sure almost everyone has at least heard of Mormons and have an opinion of them, however great or small, bad or good.

Most of you know that I'm a Mormon. In fact, most of you who read my blog are Mormons also. Most of you are family and friends and that's who I typically think of when I write a blog.

But today I'm writing for any of you reading my blog who are not Mormons.

Today I'm posing the "What if" question:

What if the Mormons really do have the truth?

Those of you who believe in Christ and love Him with all your heart (and there are so many of you good, amazing, wonderful people out there), what if this really was His church on earth?

What if the gospel He established when He was on the earth really did fall to apostasy?

What if he came to earth in the early 1820's and re-established his gospel?

What if he truly does stand at the head of His church today?

What if that church was the Mormon church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?

Wouldn't you want to know that? Better yet, wouldn't He want you to know that?

Today I give my testimony that Jesus Christ really did come to earth and re-establish His gospel in it's fullness. He stands at the head of His church today: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I know this to be true for myself and you can know it, too.

If you read this book, The Book of Mormon, and pray about it, you will know for yourself if it is true.

Really, what do you have to lose? It's just a book, right? If you read it and feel nothing, then you go along with your life as normal, but maybe knowing a bit more about those Mormons.

But if you read it and you feel something tell you, deep in your heart and mind, that it is truth, then well, your life changes. Then you start to learn more about who you are, where you came from, what the purpose of this life is, and where you are going after it's over.

So, if you want to read it, here's what you do. Just go to the website mormon.org and request a book. Near the bottom there's a link under "I Want To:". Click on "Order a free Book of Mormon". Then read it and see for yourself.

Because, what if it's true?

The Boy's Room

This weekend we decided to get babygirl's room ready since we have no good idea when she's coming and we decided we don't want to be finishing her room when she's actually here. We're not sure, but we think it will be easier to paint without a newborn in the house.

In order to get her room ready we had to kick Caleb out of it. So, this weekend, Caleb moved in with Noah and the Boy's Room was born. Since Caleb hasn't figured out how to climb out of his crib yet and Noah is, obviously, still in a crib that means we have two cribs in the boys room right now. When you add the crib in the girl's room that makes for 3 cribs in our house right now. I'm pretty sure we're not insane.

Anyway, back to the Boy's Room....

We were pretty nervous, but curious, to find out how the boys would sleep in the same room. They've only slept in the same room once before, up at my parent's cabin. Let's just say, it wasn't very fun.

We started painting on Saturday so that afternoon Caleb was officially "moved" and we got to see if they would take an afternoon nap together. We put the boys in their cribs and then went back to work on our painting. What followed was roughly 1 1/2 hours of the sounds of two boys having a very good time: Funny noises from Caleb followed by chuckling from Noah, yelling, banging, etc. We'd check in on them and find Caleb walking around his crib and Noah doing his best to poke his head over the bumper to watch him. They seemed to be having fun and we were getting lots of painting done. Naps, however, were definitely not happening.

Luckily, that hasn't been the norm.

They've been in the same room for almost 4 days now and they seem to love it. For the most part, they've been able to take their naps together, they've been able to go to bed at the same time, and if one of them wakes the other up in the middle of the night they are able to go back to sleep without too much trouble.

I actually really like having them in the same room. It seems to have made them better friends (they play more with each other during the day) and there's nothing I'd want more for them. So when I put them down for a nap and for over an hour all I hear is the sound of playing and laughing, I don't mind....that much.

Project: Yard

*I hate blogger and it's spacing issues. I really don't choose to have one inch spaces between paragraphs. I really don't. But blogger thinks I do. I give up. Enjoy the spaciousness.

Let me start off by saying I love a nice yard. Love love love it.

Let me also say that my yard is not a nice yard. It's just not. I need to say right up front that I'm not talking about the lawn. Zack takes care of the lawn and it looks just fine. I'm talking about the flower beds. Or, in my case, dirt beds with the occasional plant that hasn't died yet.

Since moving into our house 7 1/2 years ago I have only managed to create two flower beds that actually look decent. Here's one of them:

I love this little area. I know it only really looks good part of the year since most of these plants die down to nothing, but I really like it. Not only does it look nice, but all of the plants come back every year. I don't have to plant anything! They just keep coming back! I especially like it when the lilies in the front bloom bright red. (There is that spot in the left-hand corner that needs something, but other than that, it's FANtastic.) I also have a stretch in the back yard planted with a row of rose bushes. I like that area, too.

But I'm struggling with the other flower beds. I really am. It's a shame that they are the biggest and one of them is the main one in the front yard. It looks pretty crappy despite that fact that over the years we've planted numerous bushes and my mom, the talented Gardener that she is, even tried to help me with it. It just doesn't look good.

I am happy to say, though, that his year it is weed-free and it's been weed-free for a month! That's because I've implemented a genius plan for doing yard work. Here it is: Weed every week. Brilliant, right? And here's the kicker. It actually WORKS! I've been following this plan for a month now and my yard is weed free! It could be weed free for the entire summer if I just follow my super plan. Weed-free is great but, sadly, it still doesn't make my yard look good. It just keeps it from looking trashy.

My problem is I haven't figured out what I want my flower beds to look like. So instead of maintaining a beautiful space, I'm just doing weed control year after year for some sad looking patches of dirt.

This year, however, I think I've figured out what to do with THIS tasty spot in the backyard:

Nice, huh? Two pitiful plants, a maple tree (the third one we've planted there because they all keep dieing) and a hearty aspen.

Let me unfold to you my master plan for this space.

First I'll start off by planting some more flowers and bushes:

Big bushes up against the fence, sunflowers with semi-tall purply flowers in front of them, a butterfly bush (that isn't dead), another peony bush, and a few assorted flower bushes next to it. Then I'll make it look nice by adding some good dirt. Ooooo, diiiirt!
Then I'll add some stepping stones and a few more flowers.

It's starting to look good, huh? Well, wait until you see the final touch!A bench! Benches make everything better.

Then, someday when the maple tree grows big and tall (and doesn't die) I can sit under the bench and enjoy nature. That's the plan. Problem is now that we have kids (and adoption fees) I can't justify spending the money it would take to actually implement the plan. But I consider it a great step that I've finally figured out what to do in the backyard corner. And hey, it only took 7 years!

And now we come to the final flower bed. The one that everyone sees when they drive past the house:

The only reason there are actually green things growing in it right now is because they are things that don't really need care to grow: daffodils and daisies. The aspen tree looks like it might actually survive this year (it's the third of it's kind) and the lilac bush and Rose of Sharon bush must like where they are because they've been there for 7 years.

I honestly don't know what to do with this space. Any ideas? Suggestions? What can I plant that will actually look good year round? What do you think I should do? So far, all I've come up with is this:

And then this guy can figure out what to do.