25th Birthday

Yesterday was my 25th birthday!  CRAZY!  

It was actually a pretty low-key day.  Mark actually missed his first class EVER from school that morning because he had to go to the doctor.  He was hurting - but luckily, he got the help that he needed and is on the mend.  But he was gone the whole morning dealing with that.  He got home while I was putting Jacob down for his nap and he had some lunch and took a nap too.  So I just went about my normal everyday things.  

Once both my boys got up we went down to get Mark's prescription filled and then headed off to dinner.  We COMPLETELY splurged and went out to eat at Macaroni Grill.  I love this place and we recently discovered that there is a location that is actually pretty close to us.  I was excited!  Plus, I am definitely in the stage where any meal I don't have to make is a complete WIN!  

So we stuffed ourselves silly with yummy food and I swear Jacob ate an entire loaf of their bread.  The kid could not get it into his mouth fast enough.  And I can't blame him - it is AMAZING!  

We came home and opened cards and presents.  I am very blessed to have such a wonderful family.  It always just means a lot to be remembered.  I was loaded with LOTS of new books and even some new movies.  Thank you everyone.  

My official birthday helper.

 We got Jacob all tucked into bed and then we dived into some frozen yogurt.  YUM!

Also, I just want it on the record that I did NOT eat this by myself!

 

Of course, my birthday was made especially wonderful because of my two boys.  I love them so much and am grateful for all that they do for me.  

"I Will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee"

I love General Conference!  And I am so happy to have my go-to guidance for the next six months.  WOOT WOOT!

Come, Join with Us
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Those who join this Church love the Savior Jesus Christ and they wish to follow Him.  They rejoice in the knowledge that God speaks to mankind again.  When they receive sacred priesthood ordinances and make covenants with God, they can feel His power in their lives.  When they enter the holy temple, they sense they are in His presence.  When they read the holy scriptures and live the teachings of His prophets, they grow closer to the Savior they love so much.

The Church provides opportunities for doing good.

We see assignments not as burdens but as opportunities to fulfill covenants we gladly make to serve God and His children.

Our daily walk with Jesus Christ leads to peace and purpose in this life and profound joy and eternal salvation in the world to come. 

Doubt you doubts before your doubt your faith.  We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Regardless of your circumstances, your personal history, or the strength of your testimony, there is room for you in this Church."


The Moral Force of Women
By Elder D. Todd Christofferson

"Women bring with them into the world a certain virtue, a divine gift that makes them adept at instilling such qualities as faith, courage, empathy, and refinement in relationships and in cultures.

A woman's moral influence is nowhere more powerfully felt or more beneficially employed than in the home.  There is no better setting for rearing the rising generation than the traditional family, where a father and a mother work in harmony to provide for, teach, and nurture their children.

A mother can exert an influence unequaled by any other person in any other relationship.  By the power of her example and teaching, her sons learn to respect womanhood and to incorporate discipline and high moral standards in their own lives.  A mother's love and high expectations lead her children to act responsibly without excuses, to be serious about education and personal development, and to make ongoing contributions to the well-being of all around them.   

Whether you are single or married, whether you have borne children or not, whether you are old, young, or in between, your moral authority is vital. 

Former Young Women general president Margaret D. Nadauld taught: "The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender.  There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind.  There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined.  We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith.  We have enough greed; we need more goodness.  We have enough vanity; we need more virtue.  We have enough popularity; we need more purity."

My please to women and girls today is to protect and cultivate the moral force that is within you.  Preserve that innate virtue and the unique gifts you bring with you into the world.  Your intuition is to do good and to be good, and as you follow the Holy Spirit, your moral authority and influence will grow.

Sisters, of all your associations, it is your relationship with God, your Heavenly Father, who is the source of your moral power, that you must always put first in you life."   


To My Grandchildren
By President Henry B. Eyring

"A loving Heavenly Father has set the same path to happiness for all of His children.  Whatever our personal characteristics or whatever will be our experiences, there is but one plan of happiness.  That plan is to follow all the commandments of God.

There is one overarching commandment that will help us to meet the challenges and lead to the heart of a happy family life.

"...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind...Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

"What choices have led me toward loving the Lord with all my heart and soul and with all my mind?"  For me it has been to choose to put myself where I felt the joy of forgiveness through the Lord's Atonement. 

While serving others, we are most likely to plead for the companionship of the Holy Ghost.  Success in the Lord's service always produces miracles beyond our own powers.

It is only with the companionship of the Holy Ghost that we can hope to be equally yoked in a marriage free from discord.  I have seen how that companionship is crucial for felicity in a marriage.  The miracle of becoming one requires the help of heaven, and it takes time.  Our goal is to live together forever in the presence of Heavenly Father and our Savior. 

Heavenly Father has perfect foresight, knows each of us, and knows our future.  He knows what difficulties we will pass through.  He sent His Son to suffer so that He would know how to succor us in all our trials."


No Other Gods
By Elder Dallin H. Oaks

"The question posed by the second commandment is "What is our ultimate priority?"  Are we serving priorities or gods ahead of the God we profess to worship?

Knowledge of God's plan for His children gives Latter-day Saints a unique perspective on marriage and family.  We are correctly known as a family-centered church.  Our theology begins with heavenly parents, and our highest aspiration is to attain the fulness of eternal exaltation.  We know this is possible only in a family relationship.  We know that the marriage of a man and a a woman is necessary for the accomplishment of God's plan.  Only this marriage will provide the approved setting for mortal birth and to prepare family members for eternal life.  We look on marriage and the bearing and nurturing of children as part of God's plan and a sacred duty of those given the opportunity to do so.  We believe that the ultimate treasures on earth an din heaven are our children and our posterity. 

We are conscious that God's plan is for all of His children and that God loves all of His children, everywhere.  The scriptures teach that we are responsible to be compassionate and charitable (loving) toward all men. 

...Man's laws cannot make moral what God has declared immoral.  Commitment to our highest priority - to love and serve God - requires that we look to His law for our standard of behavior. 

President Thomas S. Monson...declared: "Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle.  Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval.  Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but as the determination to live decently.  A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh.  Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well." "


"I Will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee"
By President Thomas S. Monson

"The difficulties which come to us present us with the real test of our ability to endure.  A fundamental question remains to be answered by each of us: Shall I falter, or shall I finish?

Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome.

Our Heavenly Father...knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass.  We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits.  However, such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were - better than we were, more understand than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before. 

This should be our purpose - to persevere and endure, yes, but also to become more spiritually refined as we make our way through sunshine and sorrow. 

Whether it is the best of times or the worst of times, He is with us.  He has promised that this will never change. 

My brothers and sisters, may we have a commitment to our Heavenly Father that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives.  We should not need to experience difficulties for us to remember Him, and we should not be driven to humility before giving Him our faith and trust.

May we ever strive to be close to our Heavenly Father.  To do so, we must pray to Him and listen to Him every day.  We truly need Him every hour, whether they be hours of sunshine or of rain.  May His promise ever be our watchword: "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." "

We Never Walk Alone

This time of the year just makes me giddy.  I love General Conference!  Last Saturday was the Relief Society broadcast and I loved it.  I came away feeling so uplifted.  I loved each of the talks.  But it was so wonderful to hear what our sweet Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson had to say to us women. 

"Wherever we are in life, there are times when all of us have challenges and struggles.  Although they are different for each, they are common to all.  

 Peace is that which we seek, that for which we yearn.  

We were not placed on this earth to walk alone.  What an amazing source of power, of strength, and of comfort is available to each of us.  He who knows us better than we know ourselves, He who sees the larger picture and who knows the end from the beginning, has assured us that He will be there for us to provide help if we but ask.  We have the promise: "Pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good."

 As we remember prayer and take time to turn to the scriptures, our lives will be infinitely more blessed and our burdens will be made lighter.

My dear sisters, your Heavenly Father loves you - each of you.  That love never changes.  It is simply there.  It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful.  God's love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love.  It is simply always there.  

As we seek our Heavenly Father through fervent, sincere prayer and earnest, dedicated scripture study, our testimonies will become strong and deeply rooted.  We will know of God's love for us.  We will understand that we do not ever walk alone.  I promise you that you will one day stand aside and look at your difficult times, and you will realize that He was always there beside you."

Apartment 424

I have been meaning to do a post about our apartment...oh...since last MAY when we moved!  Oh geez, it dawned on me that I have never taken pictures of this apartment.  Now, I know this is definitely a post that is probably more for me than for anyone else but I want to remember the place we lived when our family grew from two to three.

Little storytime.  When we found out that we were going to have little Jacob we knew we wanted to move into a bigger apartment.  We really liked the apartment complex that we were in and so started investigating into their two-bedroom apartments.  Our lease on our one-bedroom went until the end of July of 2012 and Jacob was due at the beginning of July.  We thought, "hey, we can definitely make it work for a couple of weeks."  Although, moving with a newborn didn't thrill my soul, we knew we could make it work.

However, we were watching online to see when various apartments became available and a two-bedroom in the same building was available starting in the end of May.  That was perfect!  (Also, I guess I should note, there are 22 buildings in our apartment "community" so we felt so lucky that one was opening up in the same building we were already in!)  So we moved before we had Jacob into this apartment.  It was so nice to be able to kind of have everything set up before he got here and feel a little more settled.

So here is the grand tour (it's not really that grand, but that's sounds WAY more exciting!)

We are the top one!

Our doorway of...doors.  Lots of doors greet you when you enter.  Across from the front door is the half bathroom.

Our itty-bitty half bathroom.

Jacob's room!  This is where all of the fun happens :)

You round the corner and you enter our living room/family room/dining room...etc.

Next to the fridge is the door to our laundry room - I am SO glad we have a washer and dryer in our apartment!

Our bedroom.

Our bathroom.

Our balcony.

The view from our balcony - we really do love living by our little "lake."

Well that's it!  Nothing too fancy but it's ours for right now and for that I am very grateful.  I must admit when I first looked at these pictures I was a little embarrassed.  I kept thinking how plain it was and not very put together everything is.  But then something unexpected happened.  I thought of this quote by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.  I read this talk...a lot.  I know I have quoted it before and I will probably quote it again, but it gives me comfort and makes me feel good.  You can read the whole thing here.

He is talking about being a young mother and he says,

"The apartment is usually decorated in one of two smart designs - Deseret Industries provincial or early Mother Hubbard." 

It made me smile when I thought of this because it made me feel like I am exactly where I am supposed to be in my life.  Looking at these pictures I think of all of the things we have been given by such kind and generous family members.  Pretty much everything we have has been given to us and we are extremely grateful.  Life is good.  

Who would have thought writing about my little home would make me feel so good?!  I definitely wasn't expecting that.  Tender mercy.  Plus, tonight was the General Relief Society meeting and I am just feeling good everyone, feeling good.  

Also, just because pictures of people are fun, here are some of us from the last week :)

Roxborough State Park

FAMILY FUN!  To enjoy the last day of summer we went to Roxborough State Park.  It was beautiful.  We went and hiked down the Fountain Valley Trail.  It was beautiful and a perfect morning to do it.  I love this area of Colorado for the red rocks nestled in a green setting.  It makes for a beautiful contrast. 

The trail started out in one direction and then splits to go into a loop.  At the far end of the loop is this house built by Henry Persse in the early 1900s.  He had meant to build a resort there - kind of interesting.  The resort never happened and we were grateful because it's such a beautiful area. 

Shortly after we had left the house we had a little bit of excitement.  We turned a corner and a small group told us that they had just seen a black bear up ahead and to be on the lookout.  I must say, at first I just wanted to turn around and go back up the loop the way we had come.  But we kept going forward and I quickly asked Mark what I was supposed to do if I saw a bear - act big or be quiet?  Well, I'll tell you this much, my eyes were scanning the brush like crazy! 


I think what was making me the most anxious was that the area we were hiking in had this deep brush on both sides and it was just hard to see and I just didn't want to come along it and startle it.  We walked a little ways and didn't see anything and started to relax a little bit and then saw some very fresh "remains" left by a bear.  We walked further and we got to a little grove and Mark and I are positive there was a bear in there.  We could definitely hear the bear.  It was a little creepy.  Not being able to see anything but know that it's there.  Uggg...Mark was a little disappointed because he had never seen a bear in the wild before but I was just fine. 

Jacob was unaffected by the bear walking around :)

Anyway, it was a great morning hike and we enjoyed being out in some beautiful nature.

Project: Get Healthy

So, I don't mean to "toot our own horn" but I am pretty darn proud of Mark and I.

Let me go back in time just a little bit though.  I debated within myself to even write about this but it's been a big part of our life the last couple of months and so should be documented.

It all started back when I was pregnant with Jacob.  I wish I could say that I was one of those women that feels the "pregnancy glow" but I am just not.  I didn't love the way that I looked and in all honesty, I knew that it would probably be difficult to get back into shape.  I've never been a super "skinny" girl and it definitely just doesn't happen naturally for me - I just don't have that body type and I accepted that a couple years ago.

However, that didn't and doesn't mean that I don't want and need to be healthy.  Now, I really don't feel like Mark and I were eating "bad" we ate lots of fruits and veggies but our biggest problem was snacking and overeating.  The result was that we just weren't really happy about our bodies.

I was beginning to feel pretty bad about it.  I was trying to make changes in our diet and exercise and literally nothing was changing.  After months and months of this I finally went to the doctor to see if there was something wrong.  I literally hadn't lost a single pound (other than the weight of Jacob) from when I was pregnant!  Seriously.  It was frustrating to say the least.  And I was actually really hesitant to even go see the doctor because I didn't want it to seem like I was just trying to find some quick fix, I just didn't understand how it was possible.  But it was possible.  The tests all came back fine and I was (other than my weight) totally healthy.

Mark wasn't totally exempt from this, he was beginning to lose weight, but not as much as he would have liked either.  So, we decided that we needed to make a lifestyle change.  And, oh my goodness, I am so glad that we did!  The last two months our lives really have changed in a lot of ways, and like I said at the beginning, I am pretty proud of us.

For the first time in my life we started counting calories.  And it has been such an eye-opening experience.  We have become so much more aware of what and how much we eat.  It has also even changed how I view food.  We have even changed how we work out.  We are now consistently working out in the ways that work best for us.  We feel great.  Really great.  And even though we hope to continue slimming down in some areas, we feel like we are behaving and eating healthier than we ever have.

Now for the real kicker.  So, in the last couple months Mark has lost 45 pounds.  That's right.  I have lost 25 pounds.  So, to wrap it up, we are just really happy with the choices we are making right now with regards to our health.  Things are good.

Also, Mark teased me about whether or not I was going to put up before and after pictures of us.  The answer is no.  But hopefully you'll be able to notice more and more as the months progress in our regular pictures.

But what's a post without pictures?!  You get Jacob! :)

For All Seasons

As I sat down tonight to write a blog post - I realized I had quite a bit on my mind.  A couple paragraphs in I realized that I was getting far to personal to be sharing with the whole wide world (even though there is really only a handful of people that read our blog regularly, but you know what I mean).

But with all of that said, I still want to share a little something to remember my feelings of this week (after all, that's the purpose of this blog).  The other day I was reading this article about the different seasons of our lives.

I have been very blessed to have the life that I have.  It's been a very happy one.  I hope it continues that way :)  I've definitely had my share of trials and hard times, just like anyone, and I know that there are more in store for me.  But nevertheless, my life has been a happy one.

I love the seasons.  All of them - except for maybe summer (ugg...I hate the heat), which is maybe a little ironic because of the comparison of seasons I am trying to make right now...but moving on!

"We have seasons in our lives as well.  Some are warm and pleasant.  Others are not.  Some of the days in our lives are as beautiful as pictures in a calendar.  And yet there are days and circumstances that cause heartache and may bring into our lives deep feelings of despair, resentment, and bitterness."

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I have been blessed with many "warm and pleasant" days.  But sometimes things can get rough.  I wouldn't say I am feeling any "deep feelings of despair, resentment, [or] bitterness" (I promise this isn't a cry for help!) but sometimes things are not very warm and fuzzy either.

But one thing is definitely pretty certain if you ask me.  Every year, no matter how hard the winter has been, spring always comes.  I completely believe that to be true with our lives as well.  And I am actually grateful that I see things that way.  That I still have hope for things to get better.

Especially, though, I am grateful for my little family that helps me remember this important truth.  On the side of our blog I have this quote by Elder Richard G. Scott.  He is speaking of marriage, but I believe it also just speaks of life.  "...You have times when you are extremely happy, times of testing, and times of trial, but the Lord guides you through all of those growth experiences together."

I realize that this post may not make any sense.  I guess I just hope that we can all find happiness in our lives.  And if it's hard to find happiness in an aspect of your life right now, know that spring will come, and with that comes happiness.  

Now, enough serious talk.  I will end on someone that makes me super happy!  Seriously, how can you look at this face and not be happy?! 

This is totally my life right now.  Jacob and I had come home from a walk (yep, sometimes I take Jacob on walks when he's still in his pjs - we HAVE to beat the heat!) and I went to put my shoes away, I come back and this is what's happened.  He LOVES his books!!!  And apparently, likes to have a wide variety of books to choose from at all times :)

And this is the smiling face I get to wake up and see every morning - yep, I am a blessed woman.  ***I also get to see Mark's cute face every morning but I am not sure if he would have appreciated the close-up as much as Jacob did!***