Biblical Thoughs by Lila

So I teach Sunday School for the Young Singles (18-30) in my congregation. I love them, they are so so smart and funny and good great people. We have a lot of change (attendance) since they are mostly students and they move to our college town then home for summer etc but still, I have a great group for the summer. They make me want to be a better teacher every week and keep me on my toes. As a result, I learn a lot myself even though I'm teaching. Anyway, this year, I have the privilege to teach from the New Testament inspired lesson manual. Each lesson and subject gets better and better and I am growing in my own understanding of Heavenly Father's Plan for us, as I teach. This week I just really loved the inspiration I felt and even had a little lesson in putting to work what I was teaching.

Imagine two gift boxes and the gifts you'd like to receive.

Box One represents one of the greatest gifts we can receive in this life. The 2nd box represents what the Lord called "the greatest of all the gifts of God". I don't know about you but I want them already :). The lesson was # 24 and roughly encompassed John chapters 14-17 when Jesus Christ was preparing his Apostles for his departure. It is definitely a compelling part of the mortal ministry of Christ-full of doctrines and advice for his disciples then and us today.

One thing the Savior left the Apostles with was "The Comforter" or the Holy Ghost. Before his death they had received Manifestations of the Spirit but not until his death did he leave them with the "gift" of the Holy Ghost to testify of God's plans for us on earth. Here is the described mission of the Holy Ghost: Comforts, Teaches, Brings truths to our remembrance, Testifies of the Savior, Guides us into all truth, shows us things to come and Glorifies the Savior. Ok so again, I think I could dig following that guy, right? :)

Box ONE: Gift of the Holy Ghost. check.

We talked about now that we've received this gift (after baptism), how we can remain worthy of it and how can we recognize it. I also want to ask, how do we help ourselves feel worthy of guidance of the H.G.. Galatians 5: 22-23 describes perfectly what I try to remember when I feel discouraged or even down. 22. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23. Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. In other words, Satan cannot influence or effect us if we have these attributes in our hearts and actions. I know I constantly feel inadequate and could use this encouragement and was grateful for this reminder.

The Apostles were further prepared for Jesus' death and resurrection by the Savior when he said "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). I cannot tell you how many insecurities and frustrations in my life have been or could have been alleviated by following this council. Either way, it impressed me to study and teach this too and I had to share it.

Finally, in what I consider a poetic and touching conversation with the Father, Jesus stood between us and and Him to plead for our salvation in John chapter 17. ("the great intercessory prayer) In it He said "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (john 17:3)

Box 2: Eternal Life

The lesson teaches that in the first part of his prayer, Jesus described the things he had done toward fulfilling his mission that the Father sent him to do. The lesson then asks how we report on our efforts to Heavenly Father and in that, I know I could improve greatly. If at the end of our day, we reported our efforts to serve him during the day, we'd have a lot less time to complain about anything wouldn't we. :) Note taken lesson... another thing I am happy to put on my long list of things I will work on.

I wanted to journal this for myself to read later but also felt it is motivating for others ready to hear it so I was determined to share it on the blog. I hope you are inspired by these scriptures (however scatterbrained it was portrayed) and by the sacrifice our Savior made for us. His final days were filled with work to do. He never gave up on his purpose on earth to the very end and that inspires me that I have time to improve and become my best self, mother, wife, sister, daughter etc every moment of my life. Be patient with me. I'm a little stubborn and defensive at first with somethings but I can really come around if you let me. :) God bless!

The Daddy of our home...

My Dad hymn

My Dad

Merrily

35395, Children’s Songbook, Home and Family, My Dad, 211

My daddy is my fav’rite pal,
And I help him ev’ry day.
It’s plain to see I want to be
Like him in ev’ry way.
He teaches me that honesty
Is best in all I do.
I’m very glad that he’s my dad,
And I know he loves me too.

Words and music: Carol Graff Gunn, b. 1929. © 1957 IRI

1 Nephi 1:1

Proverbs 4:1

Our Michael is a great Dad. These are some of the reasons we love him:

He has many gifts and one is humor and he needs one with us kids.

He laughs at us whether we are good or bad.

Even though he wants to sleep or even nap, he still feeds us, plays and hugs us. :)

Dad is the best diaper bag packer of ALL TIME.

He loves our Mommy and does nice stuff for her.

He works hard for our family.

He reads to me all the time -Evan

He lets me treat him like a jungle gym during church then nap on him in Sunday School. - Cora Grace

He's a great lawn mower, trash taker outer, bathroom cleaning, bed making, dish washer and laundry folder.

We love you so much Daddy. Mom forgot to take our picture together today so we will do it this week sometime. Thank you for loving us and taking such good care of us.

Love, Evan and Cora Grace

Poop strikes AGAIN!!!

everyone needs a potty blackmail shot for their future wife, right? :)

That kid... you gotta love him, I tell ya. He's about to be the death of me US with all his pooping outside his potty or diaper! :) One reason I have not been blogging is because we are having a shed built in our back yard by friends so they are doing the labor when they can. I was waiting to blog about it. It is looking beautiful and I will post on it when it's finished. So excited. The other reason is... that Evan is seemingly begging to be potty trained. This kid is outrageous with his removal of his own diaper EVERY day, at least once. 9 times out of 10, he follows this up with peeing on his floor. (yes, my house smells like urine) I really think he does it cause we invite him to go potty in his potty but he's confused with how we ask (and many times, he can't cause he's in his closed door room). I also believe it is possibly attention he enjoys and some how doesn't get enough??? With all his antics and energy, our son gets plenty of 'attention'. :) Seriously, we try to be very patient with his training but it's getting hard. Tonight I put he and Cora in her room to play while I made them a snack and when I went in to get them, I lost it. There was Cora Grace with poop all over her cute outfit, hands, face and she was EATING it again. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG!!! I almost wanted to cry with frustration. I felt defeated and the kids, soon surely felt deaf from my yelling at Cora to stop, then calling to Mike to help me. Evan was jumping up and down happy, she was happy and I... was not. I was so mad. My eyeballs were hot and I couldn't even look at Evan as I scrubbed C.G. down in the sink while he sweetly and patiently awaited his fate of a quick cold shower, standing in the bathtub. (Mike was now in the bedroom, taking a turn at trying to clean up poop from carpet) I could hear Evan asking lots of questions and talking, oblivious of what turmoil he has caused. I felt bad for him that we were so upset. I just feel like I'm failing him in potty training and we haven't officially started yet! :/ So, seriously, I'm not asking for advice. I will figure it out but do feel sorry for Evan that his parents don't always know what to do but will figure it out as we can. I'm pretty sure we'll all survive potty training but till then, pray for us. :)

Evan Poops

Oh yes he does. It has become apparent that I will have to document this in full color. :) I would like to back track and say that at Easter, I felt like I should prepare Evan for potty training this summer so in his basket went Yo Gabba Gabba and Thomas Train underwear. I was definately of the school that I wouldn't start him till he was ready. Still, I wanted him to think about it and would ask him if he wan't to use the big potty like Mommy and Daddy etc. Eventually he was interested, wouldn't you know it. I started him out on the big potty then "Evan's, little potty" and we'd cheer him on any time he pee pee'd (he's yet to go #2 in the potty as of this post). He loves it and is very encouraged. Still, I feel all this is considered 'training' untill I can get a training manual. ha ha ha. So, on to the "poop" part. I know I've already talked about this a little in a few posts but I'm trying to condence and add to the story here. A few weeks ago, Evan romoved his own diaper when he was alone in his room and it had #2 in it. He dumped it out on the carpet and (myself still unaware...) realizing his folly decided to 'clean' it up. Oh no. He got his wipes down from his dresser and proceeded to clean up his mess. Well... needless to say he made it so much worse and even got it on himself. GROOOOOOOOSSS. gag. This is when I walked in and eventually cleaned it up the best I could. The next week we rented a Rug Doctor from the super market so I could clean both kids grimy floors. It worked like a DREAM and I was sooooo happy with it... for a week. Evan did it again, in Cora's room only he didn't mess with it. I was able to get it up much easier but my clean carpet was now.. not. The next week, he and Cora were playing unsupervised in her room when I heard silence... suspicion set in. As I came around the corner, I saw sweet Cora Grace put something in her mouth, simultaniously I realized Evan was standing to the side, no diaper on and poo poo pellets on the ground. OH MY GOSH! I yelled NO! to Cora and hit her hand from her mouth as she spit out the object in her mouth. POOP!!! ugh!!!!! Yes I wanted to die and yes I'm gagging again as I think about it even though it was 2 weeks ago. I grabbed both babies, threw Evan in the bath tub and stearnly told him to 'stay there'. :) Little C.G. got a double tooth brushing/mouth cleaning and a hand and foot wash. Evan was given a cold bath (so he can remember doing this isn't good. He sees baths/showers as a reward, so poop wash offs are cold water showers.). I was resolved to be more attentive that he's done this when I've let him play alone, something in the past he was very good at. eh hum... I didn't learn my lesson. :( I blew up a new pool for the back yard yesterday as it has been well into the 90's and even said 100+ in my car the other day. Given Evan's love of the backyard and all things water, I knew he'd love it. WRONG. It's a dinosaur one and when you hook it up to do it's magic extra things, it sends a shower out its mouth and a 'volcano' of water spurts in the air. Two things normally that would make him elated only the dino head moves back and forth when the water is turned on high. He literally ran away from it screaming and later that hyperventalating cry kids do. ;( I thought maybe he was just tired so I tried again a few hours later, even going in with Cora myself to coerce him. He would have none of it. Today, I planned on all of us going in the pooled water part without turning on the volcano or the dino head going on but Evan not only said no, he refused to go in the back yard. I was shocked, sad and bummed cause I thought now C.G. and I couldn't get our swim on without him with us. Light bulb. I decided, he could stay in his room playing with his toys but could see us from his window and she and I would still go 'swimming'. He did not fight me cause he did NOT want to go outside. We were out there for about 20- 30min max and I could see him in the window pretty much the entire time. The last 5 min he wasn't at the window but we were getting out anyway so I figured, he was just playing cars. Oh now my friends, he wasn't playing cars. I came in his room to find him naked and sitting on his changing pad that is on top of his dresser, 'wiping' poop off his legs, crotch and changing pad with his wipes. I scour the room with my eyes to see where the 'bulk' of the mess has landed. MUCH to my disappointment I find a very clean, slightly wet diaper on the floor but no poop. I'm scared at this point and watch my every step. I found a smear on a stuffed animal, on the floor and a second on the same stuffed animal but no 'bulk'. I was really worried now so, from the mouth of babes... I asked Evan where his poop was. He said, "I pooped in the book" and pointed to his Thomas book at my feet, I slowly opened it and found the 'evidence'. gross. So I recorded this for my mom and Mike. Lucky for you all, I found it important to also share with you. ;)....

There are a few 'half glass full' moments from this. I'm glad he realizes poop feels bad and needs to be somewhere else (now if I could only teach him to put it in the potty! ha ha ha). I feel encouraged that any day, he'll go poop in the potty and we'll be on our way to being trained. So, send all your laughs, sympathy and prayers, it is needed. :)

Evan's Studly Photo shoot. he he he

Here they are! Evan's photos taken after Cora's, directly after I put her down for her nap.

I went in his room, layed on his bed and commenced tickling him with my feet. :D We had a great time for a few minutes till I realized, he needed a photo shoot. I grabbed my camera, tickled him some more while taking pictures then threw an awesome outfit on him, styled his hair and before you know it, we were out the door...

We went to the 'forest' behind our house and property line and had a ball...

This wide eyed look he gives is a result of me asking him to 'look at mommy'. All the better to see me with I guess. ha ha ha.

In his defense, I choose the vest to make him sort of GQ then rolled his sleeves to toughen him up then instructed the poor guy to put a hand in one pocket. He's adorable no matter what I did to him but I admit, it's not the best set up. :) Thankfully Mike said he looks awesome so that's all the matters at my house. :) Thanks honey!



"Hey, what you talkin' about? You wanna piece of me?" he he he





their's our house...





He's such a little stud muffin. :) xoxo

These next ones were at our fence for a change of venue. I love that he's giving us "the face" again lately, it's basically amazing. :) We love you so much little guy!



ending with a little "pull the wings off a dead cicada", activity. whoo hoo!

Birthday Twins :)

Cora Grace's 1 Year Photo Shoot

Let's start off the photo shoot post by saying how Cora's Birthday started. Soon after the family waking her up to singing "Happy Birthday", Mike left for work then both children decided to bounce off the walls. Pictured here at the top is both kids in Time Out. ha ha ha. Evan's t.o. is for what else... CLIMBING THE CUPBOARDS!! He's obsessed! Cora Grace keeps getting into the new trash can so she got BUSTED! :) It's totally adorable though cause she totally just sat there :).

On to the shoot! I coordinated with my sister in law Jen to take photos of her daughter in the same outfits for their shared 1st birthday. One was the good ol' pink tutu from their 6 month shoot together and the second outfit was a just a fun romper with pearls. Cora wasn't feeling her pearls today :( but we still caught some great moments. :) I took the outside pictures, where else, my back yard but the 'forest' pictures are what is beyond my property fence. Our first time venturing there (and we only went 5 feet in, lol) and it was worth it. They are wonderful pictures of a sweet baby in the dark 'forest'. She is pretty serious in all those pictures because the cicadas are still out and singing all around her. I hoped to capture one flying to her or on her but they weren't as active as usual (probably dying off soon). I loved the forest so much that after taking Cora in and putting her down for her nap, I got Evan dressed, moussed his hair and gave him his own shoot, to be posted later this week/end. Enjoy these!



wow! a real ballarina :).



these out of focus pictures are not always a throw away to me. with the help of the editor, i feel like this one is art now.

it is done. :)