After April comes May

After spring break it was hard to get back into school and work. Cynjyn had had enough and I found her sound asleep like this after school one day in between the couch and the ottoman.

We bought a brand new 2014 Honda Accord the weekend before Spring Break.  It had been along time since we bought a new car and we love it!!

Tanner and I got new IPhone's 5s's and I took Cynjyn to work on take your child to work day.

Cynjyn was so glad to have Tanner back home.  They sat at the table after dinner just talking for hours!

They also liked running errands with us.

We harvested yummy strawberries from our garden.  We have two different varieties and half of like one and half of us like the other, so it works out that we can all get our favorites.

 I made a quick notebook and took flowers to Rita who is the choir director that I play for to give her on her birthday. 

 Tanner got a random valentine in the mail from Ky that she had mailed in February, it went to Rexburg and got lost and finally made it to here.

 We played a lot of games when Grandma and Grandpa came down for a week to watch Taz.

 Cynjyn and I went out with Toni and Maggie to dinner at BJ's and then to the Thatcher's house to watch Austenland afterwards.  The boys were all at the Father's and Son's outing.  We stopped after dinner to get some slurpees for the movie.

 I had a great mother's day getting a card and flowers from Taz and a gift card to Olive Garden from the other kids. 

 It's nice to be remembered on Mother's Day, and I am blessed to be a mother to these four wonderful children.

 We had a family swim one night because the pool was heated.  Trey had accidentally left the heater on when he was here a few weeks ago and we couldn't figure out why the pool was so warm, but we sure enjoyed the family swim.

 I had my end of year piano recital and it was short and sweet with only 18 of my students playing one song.  It was very nice and they did exceptionally well.

 Tanner got me and Cynjyn excited about dying our hair.  Cynjyn didn't want to bleach hers and so she just put red tips on, but it was really hard to see.

 I did the bleaching route

 This is after the just pure bleach.

 I actually bought purple dye and it turned out more pink, that's why I'm not too happy, but I like it anyway

 I went to Disneyland with the choir and hung out with the other teacher's all day.  It was so hot and crowded. We only went on two rides and then to the Tiki room, but I actually had a good time!  We left early Saturday morning at 2:30am and got back a little after midnight Saturday night.

 Tanner, Taz and I have been playing a lot of pinochle.  At Cynjyn's end of year concert Mr. Nikoba always does an alumni and friends song and it's always Sound of Music.  We found three saxophones and Tanner, Taz and I played at it.  I was so surprised I could still get sound out and play after all these years.  It was a blast.

 
Yummy, yummy garden harvest. 

 Cynjyn had her end of year recital the day I went to Disneyland and so I went to dress rehearsal the night before to watch her dances.  I was sad to miss it as I heard from several people there how awesome she was and how much they love to watch her dance. 

Mikel's baptism

We got back from Spring Break on Easter Sunday, and the very next day Mikel was baptized.

It was a very special night and we were so happy for Mikel.  She asked Tanner to play the piano and me to lead the music. 

The elders gave the prayers.  Elder Farr and Elder Jensen who Mikel claims looks like her brother. 

Her grandmother came to support her.  Carmen has now been taking a few discussions herself.

Taz is trying to be the tallest brother, I think he thought you couldn't tell he was on his tipies.

We loved Elder Farr and Elder Jensen, they were quiet and shy and funny and Elder Farr taught us how to remember the 10 commandments.  Elder Jensen loved Fruit snacks. 

Cynjyn and Taz were asked to give the talks and they did such an awesome job.  The spirit was so strong!!
Here is Cynjyn's talk:

I am so grateful that Mikel has given me this opportunity to talk and reflect on the meaning of baptism. I was baptized when I turned 8, and I knew that this was a really big decision to make so I took a lot of time to think about it and I finally decided that I was going to get baptized. Now when I got baptized I became a full member of the church. And I also got to make a covenant that you are going to make. In that covenant we promised to take upon us the name of Christ and to keep his commandments and serve him until the end. Every week on Sunday when we take the sacrament we are renewing the covenant that we made and helping us to remember what we need to do. Now a covenant is a two way promise and this is one that we make between ourselves and our heavenly father. So if you keep you covenant then heavenly father has promised us that we will receive remission of our sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost (but Taz will touch on that later), and also the privilege of being spiritually reborn. Remission of sins means that you can use the atonement and be forgiven of your sins and eventually get to live with heavenly father again. Now once you are baptized you can now endure till the end. This basically means living the gospel as best you can until the day you leave this world and get to return to your heavenly father. Now baptism is a commandment from our heavenly father. Even Christ was baptized because he had to set the way for us. It says in Mathew 3:13-14 (READ) and so even though Christ was perfect he knew that this was a commandment form our heavenly father. But not just any one can baptize someone. They have to have the proper authority, which is the Priesthood. If just anyone were to want to baptize someone then it would be like my dad driving and seeing someone speeding pulling them over and trying to give them a ticket. Would that person pay the ticket? No, because my dad doesn’t have the authority to give a ticket. Baptism is the same way if someone without authority is doing it then it doesn’t really fully count.   One of the other things you are doing when you get baptized you is showing that you are willing to help one another. In Mosiah 18:8-10 it says (READ). So when you get baptized your saying not only will you follow god’s commandments but that you are also willing to love one another and be a witness of god. And if you do this then our reward is eternal life. (Bear testimony) 

Here is Taz's:

Good evening my name is Taz goon. I am grateful to Mikel for giving me this opportunity to learn more and teach you guys about the Holy Ghost. I’ll start my talk will a scripture to sum up what the holy ghost is … JOHN 26. The Holy Ghost is the 3^rd member of the godhead and is a spirit. Being a spirit allows him to abide with each of us, whenever we are worthy. The Holy Ghost can bless your life in many ways. Christ promised His Apostles that the Holy Ghost would “teach you all things” and “guide you into all truth” .He also said that the Holy Ghost “shall testify of me.” Not only does the Holy Ghost teach us and testify of Christ, the Holy Ghost can help our lives greatly. Through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, you can recognize and understand truth and make right choices and inspired decisions. The Holy Ghost can inspire you with thoughts and ideas, warn you, and comfort you in times of sorrow. Many of you have felt the Holy Ghost in your lives already. In GALATIONS 5:22 it says : 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is ^clove, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance. So his influence can include emotions. Almost everyone has felt the Holy Ghost at some time. But there is a difference between experiencing the occasional influence of the Holy Ghost and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Although the Holy Ghost may temporarily comfort someone or reveal truth to them, the gift of the Holy Ghost is reserved for those who have been baptized and confirmed into Christ’s Church. This gift is the privilege of enjoying the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost conditional upon keeping the commandments. The gift of the Holy Ghost is given when a person is confirmed a member of the Church after baptism by someone having priesthood authority from God. It is given by the person having authority laying their hands upon the head of the person who was baptized and giving them a blessing to receive the Holy Ghost Whether or not we then receive this great gift depends on our keeping the commandments of God.

READ FROM TRUE TO THE FAITH

OBJECT LESSION: Talk about how the music stand is the Holy Ghost and how it stays constant and then slowly move away from it as you do things that take you away from the spirit.  Point out how we lost the spirit, it didn't leave us.
TESTIMONY 

We went to Mikel's friend Jewel's house after the baptism and every room in her house was elaborately decorated and it was most amazing.   She fed us pizza and milk shakes and we ate outside by her pool.  Here is some pictures inside her house.

 Elder Farr liked the throne chair.

 Garry liked this crazy mosaic chair.

 Cynjyn liked the throne chair too.

 Taz preferred the grand piano

And I liked the red couch.  We were so proud of Mikel and know she will find happiness and blessings being a member of the church.

Spring Break 2014

Taz had a tournament the first two days of Spring Break.  We were anxious to get out of town and head to Boise.  Taz's team lost every game except the last one that qualified them to play Tuesday evening at 8pm.  I had booked a hotel in Ely and we were planing on leaving when he was done mid afternoon.  I cancelled and we left early Wednesday morning.  We arrived in Boise in time to catch Kresimir's baseball game.  Tanner had been there since Saturday when he got done with finals and so it was very nice to see him again!! He did a good job of playing with Beckham during the game. 

We were there to throw Krissy a baby shower.  It's always exciting when your baby sister is having her first baby and we were all beyond excited!  This was my first meeting of the cute little baby girl she will soon bring into this world!

Cynjyn and Kres and Beckham had no trouble entertaining themselves outside. 

Taz joined in when they decided to make a fort upstairs. 

We went to the party store to gather some decorations and supplies for the shower.  Cynjyn, Tanner and Taz had a great time entertaining themselves.

We spent a whole day preparing for the shower.  Mom had come up with a lot of finger food recipes that everyone helped her make.

We managed to find time to go out to dinner as a family after the shower because we were all beat.  Cynjyn had a huge plate of fajitas.

Luckily, we were able to attend Beckham's 5th birthday party.  It was a week early, but Ky planned it for us to be able to attend.  Tanner and I threw together this large monster mouth to use as a photo booth backdrop.  Ky and Clay made some props for it. 

Cynjyn hand drew these monster silhouettes for the window to great the kids as they came in. 

The teeth kept falling off the mouth and Tanner had about had it with keeping them on.  He put this last one up just as the party started and they lasted the whole evening!

We all arrived early to help Ky decorate.

I was the official photographer, so I took pictures for her of the decorations and events.

The theme was how to train your monster and these monsters were cousins of Gizmo the Gremlin because Beckham is obsessed with the movie Gremlins.

So, these cute monsters were the centerpieces on each table.

The dessert table held some bases of eyeballs and the cupcakes.

And Beckhams special cake.

It looked really cute with the photo props and eating ware.

The games were fun.  The monster's could only eat donuts, so they trainers ate them.

They danced in the dark, so everyone got several glow sticks and they danced to some gnarly monster tunes.  It was dark, so they had weird faces as the flash went off.

Beckham blew out his candle and everyone sang to him.

Kres added some frosting war paint and looked adorable.

Beckham opened his presents.  We had gotten him a Gizmo and Stripe and when he opened them,

He ran to Tanner and gave him a big hug!

All in all, it was a successful night.  One party down, one to go!

The very next day, we had Krissy's shower.  I am into photo booths right now, so Cynj and I tried out some props.

We decided to move it into the hall and Taz helped me get the camera correct.

I was in charge of decorations, Ky made the invite and sent out the invitations, mom did the food.  I made these signs for the people as they drove up and walked into the house.

This was the drink table. And below was the food table.  I mixed homemade decorations with some store bought and it turned out cute.  The theme was Mad Hatter shower, so I brought Cynjyn's tea pots also. 

Mom went all out on the finger foods and tried a bunch of new stuff.  It was all good, we had some cream cheese sandwiches and ham and cream cheese stuffed with pickles and three different olives and fruit kabobs, cucumbers with humus and some little filo cups filled with a spicy sour cream/taco sauce, baguettes with nutella and bananas

Jodi was the only other family member from our side there.  Mom was throwing her a family shower in La Grande the next weekend.

Krissy's sister in law Alisa made the topsy turvy cake and it turned out really cute.  Every part of it was edible.  The tea pots and cups were made of chocolate.

This is Alisa and Krissy's two nieces Kylie and Ella.

She scored on the gifts.  One lady gave her 25! outfits!

She was very pleased I think with how it turned out.

We were so happy to have made the trek iup there for two parties in the short amount of time we had.  We came back on Easter Sunday, so we basically had no Easter, but it was worth it!  Love my family.