Alma 26:27

What Ammon and his fellow missionaries experienced:

Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

Personal translation for me, the wife and mother:

Now when your heart is depressed, and you are about to give up, behold, the Lord will comfort thee and say: Go amongst thy family, the Edwards-ites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

Just what I needed to get me going this morning!

It's Dance Season

This week the crazy schedule of Ballroom Dance officially begins. Erika will be performing almost weekly through the rest of January and most of February. There are 2 competitions (one in Rexburg, one in Provo), numerous half time shows, the adult Valentine dance, visits to schools and there's usually an enrichment night tossed in there somewhere.

At our ward Christmas party, Erika and her partner Derek spent extra hours choreographing a dance for the talent show. I recorded this at one of their practices. I love watching her dance. I'm not sure where she got those long legs or the coordination and grace, but I love watching it.

**Erika wants me to make sure and tell you that she wore black leggings, not the "hideous white ones" that she practiced in, and did her hair for the Christmas party.

My favorite night of the whole dance year is coming this Saturday. It is a big area wide recital held in Idaho Falls for all the ballroom dance teams ages pee-wee to adult. It is a night of talent, gorgeous costumes and musical energy! If anyone wants to go with me, or take your potential dancers, send me an e-mail and I'll give you more details. Or if anyone has a good digital video camera I could borrow, I'd take you up on that too.

Home Sweet Home

On my get-a-way noon ride to St. Anthony (taking lunch to Levi and LeRoy) I came upon this wonder of nature. When LeRoy gave me directions to the house they were working on it went something like, "you'll pass a herd of cows on the left, go over a bridge that has a huge eagle's nest on it, turn at the next left". With directions like that I knew I'd need a camera, and I was not dissappointed!

My first time driving out to this house was actually last fall. It was on that trip that the kids and I first saw the nest and we even got to see the eagle that nests there. It was gliding in a spiral pattern around the nest, looking majestic and graceful. Today I did not see the eagle but was still left in awe at the sight of this well constructed home. As you drive under it, you can see the twigs and twine that hold it all together. It looks really pokey, rough and a little like a ball of daggers from the outside. The kids and I were so interested in it that we looked up eagle nest contruction when we got home and found pictures of the inside of a nest. Home Sweet Comfy Home, as long as you're not afraid of heights.

I'm so amazed that it can withstand the winds that blow through this area.

Behold the wonder . . .

Faithful Friends

Trusty TV is the best babysitter I've ever had. She is so dependable, can put the kids to sleep, doesn't have hurt feelings when Nathan wants to switch videos in the middle of the show, and is good with all ages of kids, even LeRoy. I never have to pay her, she is always available and she has a perfect indoor voice. My downfall in our relationship is that I leave Nathan with her a little more than I should and she is not very good at telling him no, which usually makes me look like a mean mom when I split them up and tell them both no.


Dependable Dryer is a perfect match for Workaholic Washer and having the pair live with me relieves a bit of the burden that comes with laundering responsibilities for a family of 8. My life would be chaos, not to mention more expensive and a lot more work, without them. The two of them never whine when they are on the job. As a matter of fact they seem to hum the entire time they working. Occasionally Washer will get out of hand and start dancing across the floor but she has this wonderful built in sensor that shuts her down and puts her in place when she is too far out of control, kind of like an appliance time-out. Dryer is dedicated, steady and has a warm sense of timing. Only once has she hit burn out and it only took one visit with the repairman for her to get back on task. There are times when Dryer goes a bit beyond the humming and offers background music with the clanging of zippers and metal buttons and the rhythmic tossing of a variety of fabric.


Then there is Diva Dishwasher. She fills the night time silence with swooshing, splashing, swishing sounds that resemble waterfalls, fountains, a river and the wind. All in the name of clean dishes. My mornings are brightened when I open her door to witness a job well done with sparkling, squeaky clean kitchenware.

Overworked Oven is very even tempered. If I will put forth just a bit of effort in the afternoons, he will do the rest to provide a nutritious, hot meal for us. His work fills the house with the scents of a variety of meals but our family favorite is that of homemade bread.

If only I could get my trainer, Elliptical, to work and provide results without me standing over her the whole time. She's good at what she does, just can't seem to stay on task without me there.

Chef Nathan

One day last week I realized that my house was unusually quiet for having a 2 years old still awake. I had been holed up in the office for hours, just doing the minimum mothering necessary, when I went to check on Nathan and found him sitting on the kitchen island. "I'm making yooz lunch", he stated with independence.

He had taken a package of raman, put it in a pan and placed it on the stove (which thankfully, he doesn't know how to turn on), and was in the process of cutting a zucchini that he had managed to get out of the refrigerator. He had a small but sharp knife and would push down through the flesh of the zucchini until a chunk of it would pop off the counter, prompting giggles from the little chef.

The outcome was quite simple. We made raman for lunch with yogurt as a side dish, because yogurt is the obvious companion to raman, at least to Nathan. Oh, and he refused to share the remainder of the "baby zucchini", scolding me for wanting anything but the chunky green mess that was scattered on the floor.

Watching him munch down on his lunch reminded me of a picture we took when he stole his first zucchini out of our garden at the spunky age of 17 months. He's always had a sweet tooth for veggies!

Levi y yo vamos a Perú

WooHoo!! We're going on a trip!

Levi and I just couldn't get enough of Shawn, Kellie, Brendan, Jeremy, and Andie so off we go to Peru.

We will be leaving Feb. 28th and returning March 9th.

Monday we get Levi's passport taken care of.

Tuesday we get shots.

My Life is Complete

at least for this moment.

For the first time in 9 months I went to ward choir. The last time I attended was in our other ward the week before Hyrum was born. I didn't know that it was such a fulfilling thing to me but it felt like I had finally remembered to pray.

As we began the song "This is the Christ" I felt like I had just joined the Heavenly Choir. Not because we sounded that great, it was kind of an awful first try, but because my spirit recognized it as truth and I felt Jesus' love and sacrifice for me as we sang it.

I'm not a great singer but I certainly feel an abundance of loved wrapped around me as I participate in and listen to others sing words of praise. Hopefully my Heavenly Father hears what is in my heart and not all of the notes that I fumble through.

This is the Christ, the holy Son of God,
Our Savior, Lord, Redeemer of mankind.
This is the Christ, the healer of our souls
Who ransomed us with love divine.

Nathan's scripture

I decided that if Nathan could memorize lines from books and movies that maybe it was time to memorize something really important. He picked it up so quickly, but with one little glitch. He would always skip "Jesus Christ" after "in His son" so I would stop him and ask "who's his son?". He evidently thought that the question belonged in there. It took us about 2 weeks to break him of that habit and he says it perfectly but I still love to hear it this way.

Holiday Vacation

The past 2 weeks have been so full of fun but have gone so fast. My only regret is that I didn't have my camera out more. Luckily, Kellie took lots of pictures so I can get some from her, just not in time to get this post off my to-do list.

We had Shawn and Kellie and their family here for a week and it felt like we were on vacation in our own home. We had date nights, shared Christmas, played games and just had a really great time. I loved my time with Kellie learning more about her life in Peru. I have gained a new appreciation for my own ward (in English) and for a carpeted house that feels so cozy and it has renewed in me a gratitude for so many simple things that I have taken for granted.

Some of my favorite moments from that week were watching Nathan and Andie play together. Those two are ADORABLE!! Their imaginations and expressions kept us laughing and truly enjoying the 2-3 year stage. The only thing that comes close to matching the cuteness of Nathan and Andie is Andie's crush on Levi. Her tackling hugs were rewarded with adoring grins from Levi.

The four boys, (Derek, Justin, Brendan and Jeremy) seemed to spend every waking moment together, as well as the moments that they were supposed to be sleeping. They swapped remote control cars, boxing gloves, swords and gameboy systems around like best friends.

After Kellie's family left, Nathan kept moping around the house saying, "where's my Andie, I want Andie". Some of the other kids commented on how empty the house felt without them here. I felt very much the same way. Having them here made this one of our favorite Christmases ever!

Our Christmas was also blessed because we had mom and dad here for 2 days. It was great seeing their expressions when opening their gifts and letting them enjoy the expressions from the kids as they all opened their books and mentally disappeared from the gifting festivities to read, even though there were more gifts under the tree. Mom has certainly picked the best grandma tradition ever to give them books every year!

................

Dad's gift from Mom took him from Santa to Stylin'!

I think LeRoy had the most fun when the 3 Elders that were visiting us for the day finally finished their phone calls home and eating. Then they had hours to spend playing pool, foosball and Monopoly.

Once Christmas day was over we settled into a routine of sleeping in, cold cereal for breakfasts, lazing around with our new toys, reading, eating way to much sugar stuff, sledding, movies and staying up way past any normal bedtime routine.

We were having so much fun with Shawn and Kellie here that when they left on the 31st we had trouble coming up with a party for New Year's Eve. LeRoy took the boys to get treats and the best they could come up with was crackers, cheese and oreo's. I huddled in the office doing my own thing, Levi and Erika were at the stake party, the little boys went to bed a little early, and LeRoy, Derek and Justin stayed up until 2:30 am watching movies.

The only little bit of celebration to welcome in a new year happened when some of the families in the neighborhood went around the block banging pans with spoons and yelling "happy new year". My boys went to the door and cheered back with the intention of joining them but with the door open for that short time the freezing weather changed their minds and they headed for the tv once again.

Then I got a call from Josh and in one phone call the party began again. Josh, Trachelle, Samantha, Amberle and Matt showed up Friday afternoon and stayed through Sunday. Can I just say, Wii had fun!!

They brought their new Wii with them and we all played. The kids were great at Lego Star Wars and Mario, the older kids liked the sports pack and in every game that I did on the Wii fit I beat every high score that had been set during the last week. That made me feel great considering I was beginning to feel like a flobby, puffy, holiday mess having done nothing to stay fit during the past 2 weeks. Josh's comment was "it's like having Michael Jordan come to the house and show you know how crappy you are at what you thought you were doing good at". My only advantage is that I have done yoga and pilates and most of Wii fit is based on balance. Believe me, I wouldn't beat anyone at down hill ski jump or hoola hoop if it was to save my life! It was exciting to get 800+ rotations in 4 minutes in hoola hoop, and my hips paid for it the next day, though it was a tad embarrassing doing the hoola hoop with everyone watching.

WHY?

I found myself once again in the mother's room during sacrament meeting. I've started to wonder if I am the only one who uses the rocker in there and if it is going to have a permanent sit print from me. For some reason Hyrum is just more calm in the mother's room and will go to sleep before Sunday school if I spend a little time in there with him.

As I took my usual let's-see-if-we-can-get-this-kid-to-go-to-sleep-without-his-bed rocking position and attempted to tune myself to those speaking instead of the squealing cry that Hyrum was offering, I wondered to myself, "why do I do this every week?". I know the logical behind it of setting a good example for the kids, teaching the babies that we go to church and eventually they will be reverent, and it's where I'm supposed to be but sometimes it really just feels like body mauling and ear splitting torture.

Then, a child started to speak.

Hyrum nearly choked on his cry because he suddenly had an interest in the faceless voice that spoke so clearly in the room. It was the first child of about 8 to share their testimonies. At first I brushed it off as the usual memorized child testimony and sarcasm was winning in my mind. Nearly every child said the exact same thing and I wondered if they were all from the same primary class and had been coached on what to say when sharing a testimony. Then, I noticed Hyrum's reaction. He would fuss as an adult spoke and listen intently as a child spoke. Again the sarcasm: "it's just the voices he is interested in, not the words".

Then a voice gently spoke in my head: "listen to the words".

After listening to about 5 more children, I had their testimonies memorized. I realized that their simple testimonies were the answer to my question. I go every week because:

I know the church is true.
I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet.
I know that President Monson is a true prophet.
I know my family loves me.