July 13, 2013

Welcome home Brandon!  He had a great week up at Timberline Scout Camp.  He talked about it for a long time.  He had kept a journal, so he was able to tell us in detail all of the things that he had done.  It was fun to have him share so much with us.  It was fun for him to have Ryan up there with him.  Look at these handsome boys!

Brandon spilled some pretzels on the floor and made a mess.  He got out the broom and swept them up.  He said, "Timberline made me do that."  It's funny because I really don't think that he would have done that before.  He's a good kid, we love him!

Snow Cones

Last night we took the kids out to get a snow cone at a new place - Hokulia.  They were massive - and we just got the smalls.  They were very delicious too.  Brandon is at Scout Camp this week so he missed out, but we'll make up for it when he gets back.

Cub Scout Day Camp

Ethan had a great time today.  He had to get up early.  He had to be at the church at 6:30am, but he didn't mind.  He popped right up when I woke him up.  He was excited to go.  He came home with lots of stories about what he did.  He had a fun day!

Shoes and Bugs

We were cleaning upstairs, which wasn't really that messy.  I had all of the kids get their things.  Daniela had six pairs of shoes upstairs.  She has a bad habit of leaving things all over the house.

We found this bug behind the screen of the TV.  We have no idea how it got there.  It was gone later in the day.  We wanted to smash it, but we just couldn't get to it.

July 8, 2013

This morning we dropped Brandon and Ryan off at Timberline Scout Camp.  It is a Youth Leadership Training Camp.  I am so excited for Brandon to go.  I thought that it would be hard to leave him, but it wasn't.  He seemed excited and we know a couple of the leaders up there this week.  I hope that he has a great week!

July 7, 2013

I did something today that I seriously have not done in a long time.  I got up and bore my testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting.  I had decided a long time ago that I had to big of a fear to get up there. This had caused me to be “past feeling” of any promptings of the Spirit.  I knew I wasn't going to go up, so I never felt any promptings to go up.

A challenge from our Stake President at Youth Conference helped me to change. He challenged us to go home from Youth Conference and pick one thing to work on, some way that we could improve ourselves. I thought about it and I really want to work on recognizing how the Spirit speaks to me. I want to work on recognizing the Spirit and acting on the promptings that I receive. I think that the more that we follow the promptings of the Spirit, Heavenly Father knows that He can rely on us and we are blessed with more personal revelation. We need this in our lives. I just read a quote by President Packer that says, “ You won't survive spiritually, unless you know how to receive revelation.” I want this revelation in my life because I need it. The Spirit will prompt me about things that I can change and do better for myself and for my kids. I love my children and I want to do all I can to help them to grow spiritually. I need the help of the Spirit.

It is because of this goal that I bore my testimony. I was “past feeling” but because I wanted to make this change, Heavenly Father was already testing me. After many years, I felt the prompting of the Spirit to share my testimony. Actually I had felt it for a few days.  I had to do it.  I wanted to show Heavenly Father that this may not be easy for me, it is scary, but I love Him and I want to do what I need to, to receive this blessing.

July 6, 2013

We rarely go see movies in the theater, but this week we happened to see three movies in four days. We saw...

I liked them all.  I probably would not see The Lone Ranger again, but it was good one time.  I don't think that I would take the kids to see it.  The whole family went to see Epic and Despicable Me 2.  We liked them both.