5 months old

I'm a little behind but since I'm catching up with blogging anyway here is Carissa at 5 months old. It is going by way to fast. The day that she turned five months she officially rolled over on her own and now she does it every time as soon as I layer her on the floor. The only problem is that she doesn't like laying on her stomache very much so she just screams until she wiggles her way back or someone comes and flips her back over. She's working on sitting up on her own and does it really well when she's on my lap but not so much otherwise. She has an adorable curl that sticks out by itself on the left side of her head and more curls are showing up on the top of her head. It makes me kind of excited for when the rest of her hair grows out. The other two girls have some waves but neither of them showed up this early. The comments we get from strangers in public are always about her BIG blue eyes and long eye lashes that just pop out at you. She is beautiful and we love her smile! The bigger kids all love helping to take care of her. Charly often gets her out of bed when she wakes up in the morning, Carter is always right there to do something silly like whack himself in the head to make her laugh and Caelyn will quietly walk up to her with a calming shhh and give her the binki when she's crying. So cute to watch! I love our little family!

Visiting Teaching

I've had some very new experiences recently with visiting teaching that have really opened my mind as to why we really do it and how good it can be when we actually do it and do it right. Visiting teaching really is more about getting out there and actually building a relationship with the people that you are assigned to teach. Actually getting out there and trying your hardest to be a friend and learning to love someone you may not otherwise love, including your companion, is a huge gift that teaches us more to be like Christ who truly does know and love all of us. It is also a way for us to provide and take care of each other. I was able to provide some service to someone I visit teach about a month ago and she told us today that when she needed help and thought about who to go to she wasn't really sure who to call at first. She said that she didn't feel like she knew anyone because she was new to the ward. Then she remembered that she did know her visiting teachers and we were able to help her. I could only imagine how she would have felt in her situation had we not made an effort to see her in the course of the two months previous. Visiting teaching doesn't have to be one awkward visit a month full of mediocre small talk. It can be significantly more meaningful, smaller acts of service with no time frame in which to have it done by. And in doing so we gain friendship and understanding and help when we need it as well.

Thoughts on Sunday 4/22

It felt good to get to go to church today.  The last two weeks I have not been able to attend because of other family events.

I had spent Easter weekend with my younger brother, Josh, as he was married to his sweetie Megan. It was a plus to get to be in the Mesa, AZ temple with them and to be reminded of the same things that I made promises to not so long ago to my fantastic husband. It is beautiful to see a new family unit created in the House of the Lord and to remember how I had felt on the day I was married, how I felt about my husband then and how I could have never imagined then that I would love him so much more now. I hope that Megan and Josh get the opportunity to go through struggles and hard times but then get through them with the help of the Lord and come out of them ever so much  more in love than they were before. But because of flights and what not on Sunday we missed Easter services.

Josh and Megan Bell (my mom made the dress, she's pretty amazing)

Mesa, AZ Temple (the grounds are huge and so gorgeous with the mix of spring flowers, grass, cactus, ponds and organge trees.)

Then last weekend we spent attending the Kansas City temple open house and then the visitors centers in Liberty and Independence. Independence had a great video they showed about the progression of a family that gave me big reminders on how fast time will fly and how I really needed to slow down a bit. There are lots of things that I could put aside to make time to play with my kids before they don't want to play and talk with me anymore. We also made a trip out to St. Louis so that Jason could run a marathon. Which, as most marathons go, was on a Sunday. So we missed church yet again to watch daddy run. We rode the Metrolink in order to catch him running at certain points in the race and I'm glad we did that instead of driving. So many of the roads were blocked it would have been stressful.

Kansas City Temple open to the public through April 28th



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Jason at mile 20.5 in the St Louis Marathon



So it was a good feeling to get ready for church today and to walk in on time. Though, like most Sundays, I spend more time at church wrestling with my kids than actually listening to the messages I was able to get some pearls out of what I did hear. In class the teacher talked about how Satan has two ways of getting us off the path to the Lord: he either puffs us up with pride and convices us that we are above the law or he tears us down and makes us feel like we are worthless. I think that I often feel the second one. Especially this week I have been feeling really negative like nobody really liked me or thought that I was cool or someone they could hangout with, confide in or trust. And that is likely all my own fault and I was having my own pitty party like I'm sure we all sometimes do. But there is so much to be grateful for and possitive if we just take time to look around and acknowledge it. I know that I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me so much that He gave His only Begotten Son. I have a wonderful husband. My kids are all healthy and happy. We have a home and a job. We aren't starving. And we do have some great friends. My goal for this week is to look around and be grateful for one new thing every day. "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprize you what the Lord has done." And then not worry about what anyone else does or thinks because that all really doesn't matter.

Blogging again

I've decided that I need to start doing this again. It's a good outlet for me and I think I spend too much time on facebook. Lots of people could probably say that. Besides, my last post was in Aug of 2010. WOW!!! So much has happened in our lives since then!!! Our family and everything is always changing and growing and I better start recording everything before it all slips away from me.