Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago. It had been almost 3 yrs since our last pictures so I was very excited about it. I stressed over the clothes, the location, the weather, everyone's hair, etc....you know how it goes! All of those things came together just fine. The one thing I forget to stress about was Lauren. Turns out that should've been at the top of my list! To say she was difficult would be an understatment!

My sister in law's brother did our pictures. His name is Clay Hansen and I thought he did a wonderful job. We were not able to do many poses because Lauren was so difficult. He followed her around for quite a while trying to catch a good picture of her. I think he did a great job.

Here's the family

Tyler

Alex

Abby

Lauren

Me and Nate

These are a couple of my favorite pictures. It was the only time that Lu was being happy during the session.

Birthday!

Yesterday was my 34th birthday. That's right, I'm not afraid to say my age! I have a few good reasons to not be afraid of my age.

1) When I was younger most of my friends in my grade were a year older than me. Yes, it was sad when I didn't drive until I was Jr. in high school but my Mom always said "You'll love it when all your friends are turning 30 and you're still 29."! She was right.

2) I just happened to marry a great man who is 6 1/2 yrs older than me. I always feel young compared to him! He's a good sport about all the teasing I do!

3) I would much rather be 34 than 21 again. I love having more perspective, knowledge, and most of all PEACE. I love where I am in life. I love the ages of my kids. I love that Nate and I are at a great place in our marriage. I love where I live. I love the people that I get to associate with. I simply love where I am in life and I wouldn't trade it for the smaller waistline and fewer wrinkles that would come with a younger age.

There you have it! That's why I'm not afaid to say my age.

My birthday was a nice day. Since it was sunday, Nate was home and was able to take over with the kids and house and let me relax a little. I did have early morning meetings and a primary program practice and it was fast sunday. But other than those things it was a relaxing, enjoyable day.

Nate surprised me with a new camera. I've wanted a new one for a few months. It's just a point and shoot, nothing fancy but I'm excited about it. I spent some time in the afternoon playing around with it. Here are a few shots I took of the kids.

Do you love the close up?

Before you think they're all lovey dovey, please know that they were INSANE yesterday. The next picture is more realistic.

Here's Lu playing under a parachute.

Thanks to everyone for the nice birthday wishes. It was a great day.

General Conference

I'm not writing to brag but I am writing to share my success story!

Let me explain......to put it simply, our kids struggle with General Conference! It's not something that they look forward to. They do like skipping a week of regular church but they don't really like sitting, listening to speakers at home.

I signed up on Pinterest recently and saw an idea to help kids listen during conference. It suggested having 5 buckets with candy in them and a word posted on the front. Each time a child hears one of the words they get to pick a candy out of it. I loved the idea! Instead of using candy I decided to put dimes in the buckets. I put one roll of dimes in each bucket. It looked like this

The dimes were a big incentive to listen! Alex and Abby listened intently through the 2 Sunday sessions. I know it sounds like a bit of a bribe to pay my children to watch conference but I choose to see it a different way. As my sister-in-law said. It's a small price to pay to start building a testimony! I agree with her. Abby and Alex both made close to $10 a piece! It's the best $10 I've ever spent!