The small things...

July 29, 2010

There's been a lot of trials for my family lately. I've had a reoccurring thought all summer and this months visiting teaching hit on it too. It was called "Strengthening at every Oppurtunity".

It talks about strengthening your family by doing all the small things!! Family prayer, family home evening, scripture study, church attendance, etc. Could it really be that easy!! The inspirations I've been feeling confirm it. It's a layer of protection for us and our families! I don't want to forget the small stuff no matter how tired or busy we are.

The spirit was thick...

July 4th, 2010

This year the 4th of July happened to be on a Sunday (yesterday in fact). We were fortunate in many ways... 1) Jordan's parents came out to spend the 4th with us 2) we happen to live in Kansas City where many of the church history sites are and 3) we got to visit the Independence visitors center!

I'm always so incredibly impressed by the church visitors centers. They are so wonderfully organized and functional and informational in a simple way and most of all, they are FILLED with the spirit. This was Jordan's first time attending this particular visitors center and it was the best! They have a little exhibit about the family, a lot based on The Family Proclamation and the plan of Salvation. Within the first minute my eyes were filled with tears. I chalked it up to the pregnancy hormones. But then I looked at Olive and she was sitting quietly (RARE!) and taking it all in. Then we reached a certain point and Jordan looked at me and said, "the spirit is SO THICK!" I knew we'd get to the end and the sister missionaries would say, "so what did you think...." What do you say? We were speechless. The spirit testified of the truthfulness of the message of the family. It brought such joy to our hearts.

When we got home that night, Jordan wanted to make sure we talked about it! He said it was like he just couldn't hold it back. The spirit was almost suffocating. And I knew just what he meant! I knew that I was a crying mess but I didn't realize he felt it as strongly as I did. I think we were all just completely bombarded by the spirit. It was amazing.

It wasn't anything new. It wasn't something we haven't heard a million times. It wasn't that the acting was AMAZING nor was the music and presentation (though it was VERY well done). It was the TRUTH. And right now in our lives, we are feeling so blessed to be living it! I'm so grateful for my little family. I can't wait for our new addition and I feel like she is adding to the spirit already.

good day. Our testimonies were grown!

a birthday to me...

Tuesday May 11, 2010

Today was Olive's 2nd Birthday and I was just so in love with her today! I've spent every single day with her since the day I had her 2 years ago. What a life transforming opportunity to be a parent. As Olive went to sleep tonight we overheard her singing to herself...

"...a birthday to me
...a birthday to you, no me...
... a birthday to me"

Jordan and I just melted!! She's turned into such a funny little person. She has the sweetest little spirit there ever was. She's such a little goof. She is SO creative with such a huge imagination already. She is a little chatter box, so much more than her peers. She has been such a blessing in our lives. Our lives these past two years have been so full and so enriching for us as parents. I've learned service and love like I've never known.

I love our little Olive Grace for all she is, and also for who she makes me!

Happy Birthday Ninny:)

Missionary "erk"...

Tuesday April 20, 2010

This Sunday is a "Come and See" Sunday, which means to invite your friends to an investigator friendly meeting. I've had some names in mind, which I almost hate... you know if you thought about who you could invite and NO ONE came in mind, then you'd be off the hook! Right?

Well I finally got up the courage to deliver two invites to my neighbors tonight. Olive came with me and it was kind of neat. A week ago for Family Home Evening we talked about being a "good friend" and learned about one way to do that is to bring your friends to church. So I reminded her about how we are good friends by inviting our friends to church and asked if she wanted to come with me to invite our friends. She said yes (probably because I said we were going somewhere) and we said a little prayer for the spirit to be with us and went off. That was probably the coolest part really. Olive held the invitations and it was pretty uneventful, yet great. They were both gracious and gave a sure-fast "we'll have to see"... But I hope they come. And if not this time, maybe something in the future.

I grew today. I don't have many missionary opportunities anymore because I have so many member friends. But our neighbors are really great... and after all.. they did come into my mind!

I'm grateful Heavenly Father cares about all of His children enough to ask us to stretch ourselves, not even that much, and make an invitation so that He might open the doors to the happiness we feel and enjoy everyday!

You are wonderfully normal...

Saturday April 17th, 2010

Before my Grandpa Jack passed away I would send him links to my blog to that he and my grandma could stay in touch with us and see our little Olive because we weren't able to see them much. He was a wise man, but of little words, especially in emails. After getting an email link to our blog he would respond with something like:

Thank you for sharing. You are a wonderfully normal family.

to some that may seem an odd thing to say (well it is odd) but coming from my grandpa it is a compliment. It is a blessing to be able to be "normal" and functioning in social ways. To be able to go to ward activities or travel AND have fun at the same time... something that I think was a struggle for some of my extended family.

Tonight we went to our ward's SPRING FLING. It was an open mic night and dance! (I know! A dance for a married ward with children!?... so fun!) At the open mic night every time someone was done, Olive said, "My turn!!" I kept asking, "you want to go sing a song too??"... trying to clarify what she really meant. And she would say yes. So Olive and I got us to the microphone and sang (ok.. she got shy and I sang it) 'On Top of Spaghetti.' It was her first debut at a microphone in front of a large crowd. She didn't sing a word. But she thought she did!

Then the dance started and she was a MANIAC. In the middle of EVERYONE twirling and dancing, kicking her feet... she loved it. She danced all night long. She reminds me of me a lot sometimes. I was a proud parent as I saw a fun trait get passed to my little one. She is going to LOVE church dances! Any dance for that matter.

I'm grateful tonight to have a normal and functioning family! I'm grateful that we can be dorks, go to a church dance with our babe and pregnant belly, and dance the night away, and never wish we were somewhere else!

I guess we are wonderfully normal.

Olive's Prayers

Saturday April 10th, 2010

mostly by herself... I filled in the important words, she filled in what she is grateful for!


Thank you ...a church
thank you...a Ana (adam)
thank you...a church
thank you... a shamu
thank you...a milk
thank you... a daddy
thank you a mommy
thank you a puppy
thank you a house
bless me.... sleep

amen

We're so grateful she is learning to pray so early! It touches our heart to hear what she comes up with. And, Adam, you are always in our prayers!!

iphones

Friday April 9th, 2010

I was able to catch a few talks that I missed from General Conference on my iphone! I listened to 2 talks while I went running and 2 more while I did dishes. I Elder Todd Christofferson's talk he talked about how in todays world we have so many ways to get words of the Lord through the prophets and apostles! And YES we do! I want to take more advantage of that. I know technology can be used for evil, so I want to use mine for good. I felt the spirit yesterday and learned so much. It motivated me all day and I got so much accomplished. That's right... I'm grateful for my iphone.

check out the mormon radio app on our iphones

It's been awhile...

I haven't been up to date because we were on vacation in Florida.

I saw the Lord's hand in my life every day we were there. It was our very first exclusive family trip, just me, the Mr. and lil' Olive. We were blessed every step of the way. We traveled safely, got our underage fee waved on the rental car, returned it without harm, got to spend every waking moment together and loved every second of it. I'm so grateful for the family unit and that it is ordained of God. I KNOW it is. Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of the days (or the mundane tasks of the days) I forget how wonderful and secure it is to be in a family. I'm so grateful for our little growing family!

And NOW we add another little GIRL in the mix!

Ok...I know I should be grateful for whatever the Lord sends me (and I'm sure I would be) BUT I'm so excited it's another little girl. What a blessing!!

The Spirit of Elijah

Friday March 26, 2010

Tonight I know the spirit of Elijah really exists. That is, we really are connected to our families that have come before and who will come after us.

I JUST started doing family history on new.familysearch.org.

It's been hanging over me for some reason. I got on and there is TONS of work to be done.

Jordan and I were able to do work for 8 of our family members tonight in the temple.

5 children were sealed for time and all eternity to their parents on Jordan's side

Baptisms, confirmations and initiatories were done for one man and one women and one man on my side

and we got the privilege to seal a married couple together FOREVER and remember our marriage covenant again.

They always say that when you do family history the temple becomes more meaningful... and well.... it does.

"ing..." on everyth..ing

Thursday March 25, 2010


Today I'm grateful to be a mom. I fear that it will be a lot of times that I'm grateful for that. I want to be more creative, or more exciting maybe. Maybe I'm feeling that pressure because I've decided to write on the web (not that anyone is keeping up)... but today I caught myself standing on the corner of the street thinking... well I guess that car could have swerved and hit us, but we were protected! But, I don't really think that car was ever going to swerve.

So today I'm grateful to be a mom, and a stay at home mom. I know there are many that are not as fortunate, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know I'm her mom but I think her speaking patterns are VERY advanced:) Lately she's been adding ING on everything. Which usually works.

For example:

I walkING
I eatING
I dancING
You runnING mom?

she's VERY into it.... and that includes

It's stuck....ing mom! It's stuck...ing.

Whenever anything is stuck:) Why not right?

I'm glad I get to witness this cuteness because it doesn't last long before they figure out the REAL and BORING way to say it.

Olive is learning to pray

Wednesday March 24, 2010

Olive wanted to say a prayer before her nap today, which we usually only pray before bedtime.

Olive's Prayer:
Dear....ter
tank you... Stella
tank you....Cole
tank you... church
tank you... Mommy... No WAY
tank you ...Daddy.... No Way (giggle giggle)
tank you... books
byess meeeeeee
byess meee
amen

"He dies..."

Tuesday March 23, 2010

(I don't mean this to be irreverent, you know how kids are)

We've had a hard time doing Family Home Evening on Mondays because the Mr. doesn't get home until 9pm. I've felt really inspired lately to make sure we include Olive and make FHEs for her now that she is old enough to understand. We decided to do FHE on a different night, Friday.. but we keep forgetting. It'll take awhile to establish a pattern that we remember I think. So you can see we had it on Tuesday.

I wanted to do an Easter Lesson and threw it together really quickly thanks to the blogs "A Little Off the Top" and "The Family Home Evening Spot" (check it out! SO quick and fast! Mormon bloggers... the best.) I threw it together and as we started I wondered if Olive would really get it. I've been talking about the Easter Bunny and candy, but haven't even mentioned Jesus Christ and the resurrection. This was the first time she would be hearing it. Also, the story involves things like... death. Does she even know what that means?

Well to my surprise she listened and participated very intently (thanks for the visual aids bloggers!) and after I went through the story I thought we'd review to see what she learned. I said (with my aid) "Here is Jesus, and what happens?"

Olive, with a very sad and concerned face (possible the face I made while telling the story) says, "awwww... he dies"

I guess she got it! As for the "He is Risen part"... maybe not so much

The Mr.

Monday March 22, 2010

After three years of marriage I get this email:

Dear love of my life,

I wanted to take a pause out of my day and tell you how much I love and appreciate you. You are like a rose petal on a clear warm spring California day. You blow me away with your excellence and grace every day. I'm so glad you are my wife!
I love you so much.

your Jord.

so I respond

Dear prince of my dreams,

You are weird. I guess that's why I love you:) you are like a soft whisper on a cold winter day. I'm glad I married you out of all the other missionaries I was waiting for.

Love,
Your ers

Sent from my iPhone

I'm grateful for a husband who is so poetic, in the sense that he'd never get published
I'm grateful for iphones
I'm grateful that I see the Lord's hand in my life every time I wake up in the morning... he usually says either, "you get her" or "lets get up together"

I'm grateful for you sweetie!

1st Timer

Sunday March 21, 2010

So I read over Elder Eyring's talk and it was good to know that it took practice even for him at first. I don't know if it's that I'm looking too hard for BIG things, or if I think the small things are insignificant and not really the Lord's hand, but I think this is going to be a challenge. This one is a little all encompassing, but I feel so blessed in this particular regard.

I'm so grateful for my Ward Family. I don't think it a coincidence that we live here, in this neighborhood at this time. It took a lot to get us to be in NYC (back story) and when we decided on living here and starting a family here, I thought it was "right" for different reasons than what I believe today. Our Ward, the Inwood 1st Ward in the Manhattan Stake, is on fire! I feel humbled by the wisdom and intellect of the members. I'm shocked at their drive to do ANYTHING whether they be a performer, finance, med school, major research scientist, scholar, musician, etc. When you are surrounded by a bunch of people striving for such heights it does something to you.... well to us. I'm grateful for two aspects in particular:

1) I've never felt judged or felt like I have to keep up with the "Jones'" .. thank Heavens! I never could!
I could easily feel inadequate by comparing myself to others who are so much smarter and more talented than I. But I've never felt that way! It's such a welcoming place where I can just go get inspired. That brings me to...

2) As a young married couple, I feel like this was the perfect place for us to start. We had nothing set in stone, only a starting place. By being surrounded by these outstanding people we've realized our potential in so many ways. How we can be better and expect more professionally (especially my husband). We are inspired to be better parents, be more creative and really enjoy the city we are in. We feel inspired not to sit back and waste time, but to get out there and DO something, whether it be for work, school, family, church callings, etc. Anything is possible, and now we REALLY know that because we see others around us striving and achieving the impossible all the time. This started our family off right!! We will be a different family because of our ward family!

I know this is the Lord's hand in our lives. It is no coincidence that we've made such wonderful friends and learned so many great lessons here. When you live in a Jungle, a concrete jungle, you have to rely on the ward as your strength and family. We have each other. Thanks for making us feel apart of you. Thanks for being brave and bringing your families to NYC too. Thanks for inspiring us every day. I know it is our Heavenly Father that brought us all together.

AND.. on a personal note, I NEVER want to leave!