Christ can lift our Burdens

Hope

Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained: "This is a gospel of grand expectations, but God's grace is sufficient for each of us if we remember there are no instant Christians....the Lord has clearly promised to succor us in the midst of our temptations...Such divine, close-in support as is promised in the scriptures means that God's grace will be sufficient for us if we are humble.  However, we must turn ourselves over to the Lord, so that we can be succored by Him and so that our weaknesses can even become strengths...thus we are to keep everlastingly at it, being nourished by these great promises, knowing that our journey is not the journey of one day but of a lifetime...in so far as we are proceeding we are succeeding."



This gives me the courage I need to keep trying, and the hope in a better tomorrow.

Best Buddies

I have to admit that some days I wonder "what on earth were we thinking having these 2 so close together?!?"  But most of the time, I am SO glad.  They are best buddies.  If Logan can't find Mara he wanders around with his hands up saying Wara?  Wara?  and I'm pretty sure that Mara's favorite time of day is when Logan gets up from his nap!  She is always so excited to run in the bedroom and see him again.  I don't know what I do without these 2!  I love them so much!  It so fun seeing them play.  Just today they made themselves into a choo choo train.  Love it.

Church History Museum

I had heard that the Church History Museum in Salt Lake had a pretty cool children's exhibit, so we decided to go check it out!  Of course, any outing is made better when the cousins come along!  Mara would live with Kayden and Maddux if I let her.  She absolutely adores them, and lucky for her they seem to like her too!  By the way, the Children's Exhibit was SO cute.  We of course picked a pretty crappy day to be running around Salt Lake, but the kids loved it.  Logan's favorite part was the TRAX ride up.  He kept yelling go!  and choo choo!  It was pretty fun!

 Mara loved dressing up a dancing to the music

 Mara and her best friends.  The other day the boys were fighting over who got to marry her.  Poor kids, I didn't have the heart to tell them that they can't.  They'll figure it out one day!

 Dylan really did love the train, just not getting his picture taken

 I kept finding Mara back at this station "abridging" the plates.

 Of course, this was Logan's favorite spot!

Aquarium

We had so much fun at the Aquarium this year.  Logan kept running around yelling "ishies!  Ishies!"  Mara loved it a lot too.  It was worth every penny!  

 This picture totally cracks me up.  Her face is hilarious!  As is Logan's right below.  They are such hams!

 Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?

Blowing kisses at the camera never gets old!  

Logan loves Mara

I've been praying for help with my weaknesses lately.  The biggest one is a lack of patience.  I see some moms out there who can see the joy in the little moments, and laugh through the hard stuff!  I wish I was one of those moms!  I get way too caught up in the bedtime routine to enjoy the cuddles.  I feel overwhelmed with 2 littles climbing all over me all day long that I don't realize it's just because they love me.

Tonight shortly after I tucked the kids in bed I heard giggles.  I went to investigate.  I found Mara in Logan's crib.  Normally I would've taken her out, spanked her bottom, and told her not to do it again and left the room with both kids crying.  Instead, I saw how darn cute they looked all cuddled up together.  Their little heads peeking out from under the blankets.  Instead of immediately picking Mara up, I asked her why she got in the crib.  She told me, "Logan was sad, and wanted Mara.  He even said Mara."  How can you get mad at that?  I decided to get out the camera and record that cute brother sister moment instead.  After the pictures we cuddled some more, I told her that she shouldn't do that again, or next time she would get a spanking (judge me, I don't care),  tucked them both back in, and left the room feeling better than I did before I went in there.  Wasn't that the better choice?  I'm so grateful I was able to enjoy the moment!  I've still got a looooong way to go, but hey-it's progress!

Pearls

I recently had the opportunity to write a couple of articles for this blog: LDS Pearls.  It has been such a great experience.  Alicia (the founder of the blog, & my good friend) asked me to be a more permanent part of the blog, and I couldn't be more excited!  Go check it out and let me know what you think!

"The purpose of Pearls for Latter-Day Saint Women is to uplift, edify and strengthen women to live our lives in harmony with what Heavenly Father expects of us. Life is not intended to be easy, and every circumstance is different, but women have always been an incredible source of support and encouragement. As a group of women with the same eternal goals, I really believe Pearls for Latter-Day Saint Women is something that will benefit women temporally and spiritually." -Alicia, founder of Pearls


The only way Pearls works is if women just like you and me submit articles.  You don't have to be an amazing writer, all you need is a testimony.  If you're like me, standing up during Testimony Meeting is probably the last thing you'll ever see me do.  Standing up in front of people makes me physically ill!  However, I do have a strong desire to share my testimony with others.  Mostly because I know that it strengthens my own testimony when I share.  So if you feel the desire to contribute, please do!  You can email me or go to the contact page on Pearls.  I hope to hear from all of you soon!!