Family Home Evening

One of my favorite things to do is to turn on the Mormon Channel while I fold laundry and listen to a series called Gospel Solutions for Families.  As I was preparing to fold my laundry today I was sorting through the different options of conversation and decided Family Home Evening would be appropriate since it was Monday.

I had to pull out my notebook and pen in the middle of folding because I thought this quote was so good.

"If the Saints obey this counsel, we promise that great blessings will result. Love at home and obedience to parents will increase. Faith will be developed in the hearts of the youth of Israel, and they will gain power to combat the evil influence and temptations which beset them."

(First Presidency letter, 27 April 1915 — Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, Charles W. Penrose)

Something I need to read every Monday.  We have been pretty good at holding family home evening, but these promises make me want to better commit.  I love that they say, WE PROMISE. 

So tonight for Family Home Evening Ella was in charge of the game.  It was amazing how she came up with it off the top of her head.  She wanted to play hide and seek in a marco polo version so the seeker had to wear a blindfold and would say, "Ding, dong" like church bells. When the seeker yells out "ding dong" the hiders all reply "ding dong" and the seeker follows their voice to find them or the church as Ella said. :)  Oh boy, we had a good time laughing our heads off.  

I am so grateful for inspired prophets and leaders who give us this direction to unite our families in righteousness and center our home on the gospel.  I am so thankful for my cute little family that I love so very much!  They bring so much joy and purpose to life.

Job Offer

For the past 4 years Dustin has pretty much disliked his job.  Sadly he is not doing what he wishes he was doing and feels like he is becoming obsolete because he is doing work that isn't relevant outside nuclear facilities.  He is not challenged nearly enough.  The work environment is harsh with coworkers with foul mouths and different values.  And to top it off he spends close to 3 hours on a bus every day commuting out to the desert.

I on the other hand love his job.  He is always home at the same time, it is a secure job, they have good pay, great benefits (90/10), good retirement and we figured close to 7 weeks of time off every year!!

However, I want him to be happy.  After talking with my brother for a few minutes one night, he realized he knew somebody hiring and got the information to Dustin.  He sent his resume in on Sunday had a call by Monday and interviewed on Friday.  The following Monday he had a job offer.  It was a $12000 annual pay decrease but we decided to pray on it and try to find every possible way we might could make it work out.  The business is about 7 minutes from our house, great guys and environment - it was very intriguing.  After I about had a nervous break down about taking such a decrease in pay and benefits we decided we needed to turn it down.  We greatly missed his dad.  He always had such great council in times like this.

It was tough.  If Dustin was a bachelor he said he would have taken it in a heartbeat, but he is a responsible dad and husband and was looking after our needs before his own.

2 weeks passed and he received an email to call the guy back.  He called him and he offered to give him the pay Dustin originally asked for which was still a $5000 annual pay decrease.  But with potential bonuses.  We were excited and thought for sure it would work out and we would change jobs.  Again we prayed and attended the temple and studied it and studied it and studied it some more.  Dustin even went and counseled with the bishop.  My conclusion was to trust my husband would make the correct decision for our family.  It was making him crazy because he was having a hard time receiving an answer.  We thought maybe the Lord was letting us make the decision because either one was good. 

Truthfully I was a little hung up on the fact that the insurance had a much higher premium, 75/25 coverage and only 2 weeks total time off through the year.  I knew I had received an answer to have a baby for the last few months and was waiting on Dustin to get this answer.  After we were talking one night I realized maybe I was praying against him.  I was praying he would make the correct decision but would also keep in mind the baby. I also realized that possibly we would have a separate deductible for maternity and looked it up.  Sure enough, $7500 maternity deductible.  It was as though we had found our answer.  We also studied that night stuper of though because his mom had counceled him of this and I had read it in D&C 9 that morning.  As we reviewed what this means we realized we knew what we had to do.  It was painful but we followed our heart in faith that all things would work out.

I've been watching you dad...

 Of all the girls.. this one is a daddy's girl.  She thinks being with him is so great!  She got to spend the weekend with him while we were at Disney on Ice and neither one had a single problem.  I found them in the bathroom a week or two ago like this...

 

 

 

 

Hopefully she doesn't get a hold of that thing. I remember cutting my lip when I was a little girl, trying to shave my face like my dad. ;)

Disney on Ice

Farrah and I decided we wanted to take the girls to Disney on Ice Dreams come True because it was a Princesses show.  The boys opted to stay home so we just took my 2 older girls and Sage. 

 

We picked the girls up right from school on Thursday and drove to SLC.  After a quick dinner we headed to the Energy Solutions Arena for the show.  The girls sat really well and had a great time!

 

They got to see Tiana - Princess & the Frog 

 

Cinderella 

 

Rapunzel and for a minute they saw all the Princesses with their Prince and Mickey, Minnie and the other main Disney characters.  So exciting!

 

We stayed in a motel in Layton and went swimming the next morning before our lunch at Olive Garden, stop at Farrah's sisters house and heading for home.  As always, it was a fun time!

Heidi Events

The last few weeks have been pretty much a whirlwind of events which is fun, but I am happy to have only a few things on the schedule this week.  :)

 

February 27th we had Heidi's bridal shower at my parents house.  We interviewed Kenny a few weeks back and had Heidi answer them before we played his answer on the TV.  Heidi got to eat bubble gum for every wrong answer and by the picture you can tell how accurate she was.   Ha..  She is a good sport.  

 

 

My dad's sisters - Aunt Peggy & Diane.

 

Great Grandma Bitton 

 

Emma, Melissa & Jessica (cousins) and grandma Bateman.

 

Mom and her good friends Max & Ann. 

 

Heidi and her clan of friends. 

 

Ella even chose to go to the shower over her Barnes and Noble night with her class.  Dustin took the other 2 girls to McDonalds and got them Happy Meals so they were lucky too.

 

Mom and I spent hours putting together multiple baskets of household items as Heidi's gift so we could keep Grandma Wheeler's tradition of the story using names of the items. I finally had to call a babysitter because it was taking us HOURS in town we weren't getting finished.

 

Here are a few pictures I took from the photographers website from her sealing day - February 1st.  I love them!  It's crazy to see us all so grown up.  Mom and Dad are looking little. :)

 

Her reception was lots of fun.  Wish we had some photographers pictures, but for now just mine.  The girls looked so cute in their matching dresses.

 

They danced and played around the gym while we were waiting for pictures.

 

Kylie and Lilly - Cody's other half.

 

Great Grandma Bitton 

 

Dustin and I (no I am not pregnant) 

 

Grandma Bateman (trying not to go crazy with stress) Jay & Grandpa Bateman

 

Dad 

 

Heidi learned a couple Hawaiian dances that she performed.  This one was the money dance which is traditional I guess - these boys danced behind her while she was dancing and people would come up and put money in her dress.  Kenny joined the boys dancing behind her.  They were Polynesian Dancers from BYU-I.  His Aunt, his mom and their family did music on the stage. 

 

 

Clean up time - Dad and the girls dancing. :)  We loved our real flower Leis and Dustin and the other boys had these cool shell necklaces.  We were all festive.  So happy for Kenny and Heidi! 

Spring Bucket List

We are only 3 days away from March which has me so very anxious for Spring.  Today I decided to write up our Spring Bucket List.  I hope to do much more than what I have listed, but I figure it will give us a pretty good start.

Disney on Ice
Carosel Museum
Movies
Picnic
Rollerskating
Plant a Garden
Color Easter Eggs
Play at the Park
Family Movie Night
Make a Bird Feeder
Fruit Loop Necklace
Do a show with friends & dress ups
Tea Party
Science Project
Make garden stones
Spring Cleaning
Ella's baptism
Photo shoot for all the kids & family
Library

Count on Me

Ella has been learning this song at school and her class sang it for a fundraiser this past week which we missed because it conflicted with my sisters bridal shower.  I convinced her to sing it to the computer and use the webcam to record it so that when she is 9 we can look back and see how small she once was.  It makes me cry to watch it and see how BIG she is!  Sure do love this girl and her cute little singing voice. :)

Sunday Morning

I was thinking this morning as my girls were getting ready for church - I think they love Sunday.  I know they love getting all dressed up with their pretty dresses and bows.  They love their Primary teachers and seem to love the routine of getting ready for church.

 

I was feeling so much love for them this morning I made them stop and have a picture.

It's one of those moments where I just want to freeze time.  I want to remember what it was like to watch them twirl in their pretty dresses and dance to the opening hymn.   I wanted to remember having them stick their hair in my face and ask me if they smell pretty from their bath.  I want to remember the magnetic pull to the drinking fountain.  The big smiles because they just felt the love of the Savior through good Primary Teachers who taught them.    

 

I had to laugh this morning as Ella was walking into the church in her high heels.  Dustin looked at her and looked away and I realized he is getting used to the growing up girly things.  It's all been so foreign to him and so often he gives me a confused look and I have to give him back a reassuring - "It is normal" look.  We are so blessed to have these three beautiful babies.  They make life so much fun and so meaningful.