General Confrence

Conference gave me a surge of energy and motivation this time. I loved the talk by Julie B Beck. It gave me confidence and reminded me of the importance of our jobs as stay-at-home-mothers. "that is influence, that is power" was her theme. Every mother should listen to this.

Also, the talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks helped me remember that my time and choices are so important. "Some choices are good, but some are better". I hope I always choose the better or the best!

And the message from our latter day Prophet, President Gordan B. Hinckley, is wonderful and uplifting. The bearing of his testimony on Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ reconfirms my own testimony. I feel the spirit strongly when I hear him speak. I know he is the true latter day prophet.

C's favorite movie is "The Restoration". She loves to watch Joseph's younger brother get stuck in the mud because she once got stuck herself. Her favorite part is where Joseph's prayer was answered in the grove and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ visited him with an answer. She always asks me to sing along with the choir during that part. I am so glad she prefers this movie over Scamper the penguin! Thanks again mom ;/

Photo Gallery Questions

Does anyone know of a good way to make a photo gallery available to view by invited guests only? I want to have my family view my pictures and choose to take the ones they want instead of me sending the pics to them individually. I don't want the whole bloggosphere to see it though. I would appreciate any advice! thanks!

Frogs and Fun

C has figured out how to play a few games on the computer. She really enjoys it. Even though her attention span is short she loves pointing and clicking on things. One time she hadn't come out of the room for awhile, longer that usual. I came to find her asleep at the computer desk! She is so silly.
She must have been deep in thought.

If you have spoken to C on the phone recently then you would know that her favorite thing to do is catch and play with the frogs in our back yard. I bought her a little bug cage and she has been putting frogs in that thing every day since. We have made some rules so they don't die. No leaving them in the cage for too long, cage and frogs stay outside (that rule was made after this picture was taken!), and don't throw bricks at the frogs! You have to be specific with a 3 year old. My proud frog catcher!

Compost

C's job is to take the compost out. She isn't always happy to do so. She does it anyway though. I wish I had more jobs for her. She takes pride in her job and feels proud of herself after it is done. She is my big helper. Oh, her other job is to pick up J and put him in the playroom when he gets into the fireplace. Good Girl!

Here she looks like a farm girl in the early 1800's. You know, the ones who don't smile and look like they have had sorrow their whole life. (She is usually a happy girl)

Do you like the Boots? Oh yea!

Studio One Dancers

I am joining the Studio One Dancers team and teaching a pre-ballet class. I am so excited to be teaching again. This woman and I met at church and she had an extra long waiting list so she asked if I was interested in teaching and now here I am! She made her garage into a dance studio (remember we don't have basements where I live) with hard wood floors and put mirrors and bars up. It is beautiful. Take a look! studioonedancers.com I'll have fun with the 3 and 4 year olds; the only thing I am worried about is how C will do in my class!?!

Rain Rain Rain

We have been getting amazing rain storms. They just down pour all of the sudden and the thunder and lightning is loud and actually shakes the house. Scary! M doesn't like that I tell C that thunder is just the clouds bumping into one another. Tornado's are spotted just 20 min away from us. I know. It is too close. We can't go swimming because there is thunder almost every day. It has been kind of crazy. M loves the storms. He could sit through a horrendous rain and thunder storm and be very content. Yes, he is a little strange. Surprisingly enough we haven't had too much heat. Yes, the heat index is sometimes up to 103, but not as much as I would have expected in July! I am so glad that I will be gone for most of August!

One Year Anniversary

I just realized that in the month of June was my one year mark for blogging!!! It doesn't seem like I have been doing it for that long. I hope it has been enjoyable for those of you that read. I have loved your comments and emails. It makes me feel like there are people that still care about us even though we are so far away from family and friends. We love you all. Thanks for reading!!

Love Melanie

Things we do

C and I have fun going to the library every other Tuesday. We go for story time so she can sit and I can grab books like a mad dog so I can get out of the building with out someone screaming and crying! I do! I grab books so fast while C sits and listens to the stories. I don't even look at the books very much. I just check if they have short sentences or long paragraphs. And yes, I pick the short sentenced ones. C is very well behaved during story time. I am so proud. She is always so concerned about all the kids not keeping the teacher's rules. . . mmm. . . that sounds a lot like some one we all know. Well any way, we have fun going and we love having new books to read at home. J is pleasant, but now that he is crawling he wants to get down and pull all the books off the shelf. Very typical.




We all went to visit M a long time ago at his work. We ate lunch in the cafeteria and met some of his coworkers. We had fun. I couldn't believe how close to downtown we actually live! I was there in no time (with no traffic of course). M didn't want me to take pictures, but as you can see I did anyway. J was hanging on me in the BJorn so he isn't in the picture. Isn't my family so cute?