Come Follow Me Teachings/Still Small Voice

Good Afternoon universe,

How are you doing? Well this weekend was winging it beyond anything, which is how Zaq and I like to do things. Anytime we've tried to plan something anything, a date, an adventure, a trip, anything really. If we plan it, something will deter us from going. So we've learned to wing most of our adventures. So as we started thinking about things to do on our Sunday, which is one of Zaq's only days off during the week. We decided that if we had time we could venture out to Six Flags.

Now I know everything knows Mormons don't break the sabbath. But lets be serious, we do. Emergencies happen, life happens and sometimes Sundays are the days that stuff gets done rather than "a day of rest" Besides if you "rested"  (The act of sleeping or relaxing in order to rejuvenate. ) It would be really boring for kids. Because I grew up in a house of people that didn't believe in keeping the Sabbath day as holy as lets say the Prophet I often broke the Sabbath to join them in a brunch or family dinner. But something wise men/women have taught me is that, if given the opportunity to spend time with family, it should always be taken. Spending time with our families is important. To be reunited with our families and loved ones is our end goal in this life. Why not spend as much time with family as possible.

So as we went to bed Saturday night we were planning on attending our church service 9:00 am to 11:00 am (the best time ever) then jaunting down to six flags for food and rides. But we forgot that we planned on having the missionaries over for dinner which meant that we would have to leave six flags by 4:00. Something still doable.

I am currently a Primary Teacher for children that our age 9. A blessing in my life that keeps me young and hip all at the same time. Not really, but I absolutely LOVE my calling. So as I thought about my lesson which was the lesson of the good Samaritan and Forgiveness I realized that my life is in essence this two principles. I live my life watching out for opportunities that I can help people that are injured along the road of life. I did it in December when my best friend broke her rib, I did it again the Sunday prior when as we were approaching church a guy fell off his bike and I told my husband we should make sure he is okay, he got back on his bike, but I still wanted to go out of way to offer him a ride to his destination, but he was already back on his bike with a determination for his destination so I didn't dwell on his well being. But I love to serve people. Surprisingly enough it even says in my personal blessing that I will act as assistant to those in need. It was awesome to have the 9 year olds tell me ideas what they we could do to help people. Their first suggestion was give shelter to homeless people, but I proposed the question that if they showed up on their door step with a complete stranger what their parents reaction would be to "Mom, Dad please can the homeless person sleep in our house?" they realized that they at their tender age couldn't provide shelter, but they could offer to take them to a shelter in the local area which I thought was very sweet.

Another part of my lesson was teaching about forgiveness. Which I being the person I am have learned this lesson the hard way. I recently saw the movie "I Can Only Imagine" which is a great spiritual movie, but it made me realize that although I no longer hold anger and malice towards my biological father, I denied him peace of mind at his time of passing. Which was wrong of me to do. Had I known he was dying things might have gone differently. If I had listening the counsel of my husband then fiancee things would have be different, but I didn't. He asked me to forgive him, he warned me not to do this to myself, but I didn't listen. I never forgave him for leaving me. I do now of course, because I know the whole situation now. But then (10 years ago) I couldn't and wouldn't. But surprisingly enough the children I teach understood what that meant. That we should forgive those that trespass against us, even if they never ask for forgiveness.

So as our day transpired we found out that the missionaries cancelled on us, but that another family in our ward wanted to spend some time with us. So we made arrangements to have their family join us for dinner. Me in my infinite wisdom said lets make enchiladas. Lets also make mac and cheese for the wee ones. There were going to be about 6 six kids and five adults from my calculations. As I began cooking dinner I cooked everything in perfect timing. As the noodles were cooking for the mac and cheese I heard a voice in my head said fruit would be fun. Since we went crazy trying to get our pickiest of eaters to eat wiser and healthier. So I cut up some strawberries, then I thought how much fun would it be to make a rainbow of fruit. So I cut up strawberries, drained two cans of mandarin oranges, sliced up three bananas, and pulled some grapes off the vine. As our guests arrived two adults and one baby cancelled on me which was fine by me, it's always better to have too much food, than to have too little. Surprisingly enough the only left overs we had, 13 enchiladas made 2 enchiladas for left overs, 1 box of mac and cheese only one serving was actually eaten by my daughter. One carton of strawberrries, leftover was maybe 8 quarter pieces. 3 bananas sliced, leftover was maybe 10 slices. 2 cans of mandarin oranges gone. 3/4 of a vine of grapes, leftover maybe 10 grapes. I was telling my husband before our guests arrived that my imagination went wild for dinner, but that I had fun making everything. Come to find out as our guests arrived, a father and his two sons, that all the boys would be willing to eat was the fruit. Their boys, like my son, was a picky eater and only enjoyed eating fruit. So I am happy that went and listen to the voice in my head.

The still small voice that scriptures talk about doesn't have to some speaker phone in your head, it just has be a thought one single little thought or feeling in your heart to listen to, to follow.

With that being said we never did make it to six flags, but our apartment got cleaned and vacuumed which was perfect since I was given the opportunity again to babysit a little crawler that loves to eat things on the floor, so everything happens for a reason and in a round about way.

Got to get back to the grind, hope you all enjoyed my stories from the my weekend.

Catching up .... Christmas

Hello Universe of my blog,

How are you all? Well life is chugging on like no one would imagine.

I took a look at the last time I wrote in this blog and thought I last posted December 6th. That's not that long ago I thought. I seriously thought eh not much has happened since I've written you, but then I stopped and truly thought about the things that have been going on recently. So we'll play the catch up game and tell you all the stories that have been happening in the world of Happily Ever After Wife.

Well lets see shortly after December 6th a close friend of mine broke her rib. I couldn't believe it I felt so bad for her, because it's not like they can body cast you and send you home to heal. The doctors DON'T DO anything for a broken rib. They tell you "Well you've got a broken rib, don't lift anything for the next 4-6 weeks." Now my friend has a 10 month old baby at home. Anyone know who you're suppose to live your daily mom/wife life with a broken rib? I wouldn't be able to do it. I'd be sitting there crying everyday while my child sits next to me doing the exact same thing. HOLY COW. It would not be a pretty picture. So I did what every other friend would do. I offered my services to help her. I worded it in such a way as to get a little money out of it, which benefited me greatly since Christmas was just around the corner, but even if my friend was broke like me I still would have offered the same amount of care to her even if I wasn't getting paid. We need to remember to take care of one another. We're all fragile human beings, we can all break at one point or another. We need to watch out for those that are in our charge. Whether its to bring a new mom some dinner because she's learning how to be a new mom and hasn't figured out when dinner time is going to happen. Or if a new widow just can't bring herself to make dinner for one anymore. We need to find people to care for. That's something I really wish people could focus on more. Sure there are those individuals that work really hard in other countries to bring about a better world I.E. Princess Diana, Mother Teresa (I'm pretty sure the list could go on and on) but I think we as individuals with limited means could look to our local community to find opportunities to care for people. I've always wanted to get Aiden to volunteer somewhere, like read to the elderly or just visit with someone that has family far away. He's a sweet kid that I think people would enjoy speaking with because he's just so out there sometimes lol.

Progressing on. So I spent the next two weeks with my friend helping her keep her castle clean, and her baby happy while taking care of my own kids and cleaning my house, which lets be honest I would much prefer to clean someone else's house rather than my house lol. But luckily my friend mended quickly and efficiently so I didn't have to worry to much about her after the Christmas.

Our fort covering two queen size air mattresses

Our fort also covering two couches, to provide Aiden with a little fort

Christmas came and went at our house. I really love Christmas Eve at our house. We build a huge fort this year I used binder clips to hold blankets from our stair railings and draped them to the other side of the wall. I think 9 bed sheets fitted and straight were used to erect our massive fort. I LOVE OUR FORTS. Then on Christmas Eve we have a seafood dinner which crab, salmon, or shrimp, with some biscuits, and mashed potatoes are served for dinner. Then after dinner we start our movie marathon usually kids movies to begin with then moving on into adult movies after the kiddies have fallen asleep usually on our list of movies to watch is Kubo and the two strings (A must see if you haven't seen it yet) then How the Grinch stole Christmas (I am slightly interested in seeing the new Grinch with Benedict Cumberpatch only because of him) then moving onto other cult classics such as Die Hard marathon. I truly can't wait for my children to be a little older so that they can sit and watch nerdy movies with Zaq and me such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings.

Fort covering the other couch leading up the stairs

This is the one night of the year we let everyone sleep on couch or air mattress and sleep under the light of the Christmas Tree. Although it makes it harder for Santa to come, it's totally worth it. Surprisingly enough with the fort being built I was able to put all the presents under the tree around 11:00 and none of the children were any the wiser. It was awesome. When Aiden was 4 we couldn't get him to sit with Santa and I really felt bad that I had destroyed his faith in Santa with our habits of returning all their toys that had gotten taken away in the prior year, but this year we got him really excited for Santa and we even went to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa and get our picture taken with him.




Totally LOVE Bass Pro Shop for the offer of Virtual Line and First Print Free 3x5 picture. Totally worth it, we went at like 6:00 checked in with the elves, they said come back at 7:30 to wait in a line that lasted maybe 45 minutes but during that hour and a half we went to the grocery store to get some shopping done. But my son totally believes in Santa again. Santa brought nerf guns for Christmas. We haven't done any really hunting yet, but that's a story for the future.

Zaq, Me and Hyrum with our family haul for Christmas

Fortunately we were blessed to be someone's secret santa from our ward and we were gifted several gifts that we all loved and appreciated so much. Our secret santa knew to call my friend to find our what we really needed this holiday season. Aiden got megformers (which are magnetic blocks that we can build with) Layoni got Shopkins (I didn't think she liked shopkins that much, but she loved them) and Aiden got a new truck which he truly loves. The Guys got T-shirts and chocolates. And me? well I got a hand blender and a hot glue gun, along with my lovely arts and crafts which have been fun to pull out. My friend also got me a brand new Instant Pot, she knew I'd been eyeing hers and we joked that since I was helping her with broken rib that she could pay in electronics (from Fun with Dick and Jane) but ever since then I've been more inclined to eat at home which has been fun to research more recipes and actually start writing some of these things down.

Aiden's haul for Christmas after this was taken
I instantly felt he got WAY to many things for
Christmas lol

Aiden in his fun Christmas glasses

Layoni close up with her glasses

Layoni and her Christmas haul

Hyrum and his Christmas gifts

Me and my gifts

Zaq and his Christmas gifts

Zaq got Viking Beard Beads. I enjoyed putting them
in his beard, gives me practice to play with hair,
I am afraid of hurting Layoni when I do her hair.

Alexander and I just after he got sick

"But I love opening presents"

So this was Christmas morning after we all woke up, we opened our presents and Alexander got some yogurt treats for Christmas and because he was so hungry for breakfast he went to town on those suckers. But unfortunately he got sick and threw up, luckily we had tissue paper laying all over the place and it didn't make too much of a mess. He got sleepy before we got finished opening all his presents so he had to take a nap while I finished opening his presents. Aiden had a little bit of melt down over his presents, and helping his sibblings open their presents.

"They are getting into my toys"

Alexander loved getting into tissue paper fights. We didn't do any wrapping paper fights, but tissue paper he loved to see it fly around his head and then try and catch it.


























So while going grocery shopping at Costco I fell prey to the idea of walking around to see "what they have" and ended up getting suckered into buying a few new outfits for the kids. Aiden got the last new suit in his size that they had. I loved it, although the pants are just a bit too big for him. Layoni got a cute little girly outfit a pink striped with a kitty face on it and blue jeans. Alexander got this cute coat outfit that has a husky on the shirt. I love Costco clothes I feel that you get a good deal and their clothes feel to last a bit longer than shopping at Kid to Kid, which I do all the time. I feel that because children grow so quickly you might as well go shopping at the second hand store for their clothes, but I'm noticing more holes in the jeans. But it doesn't help Aiden and Layoni crawl all over the floor to chase Alexander around the house. I just remember my mom getting mad at me as a teenager chasing my smaller cousins around the house and making holes in my jeans.  There are so many times I reflect upon my children and see myself and see what I had to put my parents though.
So Aiden really wanted Nerf Guns for Christmas and you can't just buy one Nerf gun without allowing everyone to defend themselves. So everyone in our house got Nerf Guns and we were able to have an epic battle. Although they came in handy for Aiden's birthday the following month. Spoilers. Post to follow soon.

Layoni and I in our matching Christmas glasses.
The Boys Hyrum and Aiden got reindeer looking ones.
The big Kahuna Zaq got Santa looking glasses

Christmas Pajamas 2017

Christmas Pajamas 2018

So it's our Christmas Eve tradition to buy the children new Christmas Pajamas. Last year they all kind of matched and they looked incredible and I loved all the pictures from last year. They looked adorable. Not saying that they don't look adorable this year, because individually they look amazing, but they just don't coordinate like last year aside from the plaid that they have in common. I went to Target at first to buy their new pajamas and at first I found these AMAZING ones that were white/off white with a different pattern for boys vs. girls, and I totally loved them till I had them rung up and realized for 3 pajamas it was going to cost me 50.00. I just couldn't do it. I like spending only 10.00 at most for the pajamas. Call me a cheapskate, but seriously pajamas get outgrown within the year their is no point in spending a ton of money just to have them look good for one picture. But the pajamas that Layoni got this year wasn't too bad, but they just didn't have any 4T so I had to go with 3T which fit just fine, but with the dress pajamas she just can't sit right without flashing some minnie mouse underwear with it. And Aiden slouched to get this picture to make the camera momma happy.

So this was our Christmas. I love the holidays, but my favorite time of year is the day/week after Christmas when EVERYTHING goes on sale, the toys go on clearance, the wrapping paper goes on sale, I recently went the grocery store and saw that they selling wrapping paper and christmas cards for 70 cents I was so surprised. I also do my future Christmas shopping the day after Christmas. It's tradition that we buy my mother in laws Christmas gift for the following year the day/week after Christmas. We buy her something new every year for her little Christmas Village.

Anyway got to jet out of here and write another new post soon.
Much Love
Chris