Where it all started...

We started in Palmyra. We went to the Visitors Center first. And then to the Hill Cummorah. We saw the statue for the Angel Moroni. It was raining but cleared up for us to have a nice momement ont he hill Cummorah. The Spirit was amazing there, and there was such a reverence.



Little Man took this picture of Randy and I.

And this is what was behind us. From the top of the Hill Cummorah this is what I imagine Moroni saw when he buried the plates.. minus the roads, power lines, and modern stuff.
And then we went to the Smith Family Farm. I was beyond excited.

The Smith Family log cabin.. plus a Sister Missionary. This was so small, and it was just amazing that they all lived there.
The well.. you get a double shot.. because I really like the black and white picture also.



I posted this fence before.. but I still love it... a lot.

I don't have a single shot of the Smith's home without people. But this is it. It is the original home they lived in. It was humbling to be there. Where the gold plates were, where the Prophet lived.
And a few shots of the inside. Much of this is how it was when they lived there.





Their kitchen sink.

This is where they made their barrels.

And their barn.. which Randy gets credit for these last two shots. Doesn't he rock?

Going into the Sacred Grove.
At this time we had a serious storm brewing. Thunder, lightning, rain and it was nasty. I was trying to not be worried.. but it made me nervous. And my hopes were slowly being diminished on finding the perfect shot in the Sacred Grove. And I proved to be right. It was too dark, and the amount of lightning made me nervous to be in a large grove of trees.
Now a little about the Sacred Grove, I expected it to be smallish. But it wasn't. It was quite large, bigger than I expected. I had no way of knowing which place it was that Joseph knelt and saw God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. But, I did feel the most sweet Spirit and a great reverence for the place I stood. It was amazing. The gratitude I felt for a young boy kneeling and praying to our Father in Heaven was overwhelming. The peace was wonderful, and the Spirit testified of the truthfulness, that he saw what he said he saw.



Our Little Family pictures in the Sacred Grove. Do you see how dark it is? I was quite bummed, but the Spirit was just wonderful.

But I did make everyone go back the next day. The sun was shining, and my heart was in need of this picture. The one I had in my head. The one that I would always look and say I was there. Right there. And thankfully my family obliged to my crazy obessession and we went back. And the sun came through and my picture was made.

This is being blown up huge for my home. I am in love with it. It is what I had envisioned. And I am forever grateful that my family would be drug over 90 minutes out of the way, so I could have my picture. And if you are interested I am selling prints of it.

And on our way out of the Sacred Grove. Isn't it pretty.
It was beautiful and peaceful, and I felt even more at peace enjoying the Spirit without being worried I was going to be struck by lightning.

Back to the Palmyra day...
We hit the Peter Whitmer farm next. It was pretty awesome. How is that for details. :) This was the home where the Church was officially organized. I was humbled at the size of this building where so many Saints gathered, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored. Joseph Smith also received 20 revelations there, and did a lot of translating there. What a great place to visit. So many great things happened there, it was so peaceful and amazing.
Okay.. the pictures.


The room they gathered in to orgainze The Church.

And where Joseph resided in the Whitmer home, and received revelations.
And then we went back to the Palmyra visitors center to view the movie Joseph. But before we could go in I was getting out of the van and heard a voice. A voice I hadn't heard in 10 years. A voice I loved. A voice that changed me. I heard Ed.
Now many of you might not know the significance of this.. but you get to learn about me. I moved to a small town my Sophomore year of High School, where I was the ONLY LDS kid. I went to Seminary my Freshman year.. and my Sophomore year I had home study.. that I kinda did. But not really. And then my Junior and Senior year I didn't do it at all. Shocker huh? Especially since my Dad was Bishop half the time. Now you know my deep dark secrets. Anyway.. I was going to UVSC, because let's face it BYU wouldn't take me.. I didn't even apply. I had agreed to go to Institute, but basically I was going to go.. it wouldn't work with my schedule and I would go about my life without any worries and life would be all good. I signed up for class, figuring this Ed guy would be boring and I could easily justify working at that time and not going to Institute. And then I went, Book of Mormon.. we started and this guy came in and he was different. He wasn't uptight and stuffy. He wasn't boring. He actually could spend a FULL hour talking about 1st Nephi, chapter 1, verse 1. I was shocked. I was entertained, I was enthralled and I was hooked. So I stayed. I had many interesting conversations with him. And Ed J. Pinegar changed me. I fell in love with the Book of Mormon. My testimony grew leaps and bounds in just a short amount of time. I even signed up for another Institute class. It prepared me for so much in my life, and really changed me for the better.
Okay.. that was a long explanation but you have to get it to understand. I heard his voice.. I haven't seen him in nearly 10 years.. and I melted. I ran over to him, (really I RAN) and I was like ED!! How are you? Do you remember me? You taught me institute! You are here! How cool! (firing this all at once.. those who know me know I talk way too fast!) I was giddy, I hugged him, we talked, he remembered me! I introduced my husband and kids to him, and then I was able to thank him. Thank him for the change he helped to bring in me. I still don't think he knows how important he is in my life. I am so incredibly grateful for this man, and for his inspiration to say all of the things I needed to hear.. and for his love of the Gospel.. for his willingness to serve the Lord. He is currently serving a mission in Palmyra, New York. Cool huh?

See I look totally excited!
We watched the Jospeh Movie.. which was great.. and I hope to get to watch it without my kids sometime, because parts of it scared them, and it was harder to watch knowing it was hard for them.
Then we went to the Book of Mormon Publishing Site. It was awesome.






All of those are pictures of stuff that was used to do the first book. It was pretty amazing.

And the outside of the building.. it was beautiful!


And the last pictures of Palmyra.
It was awesome. We loved it.
And stay tuned for Kirtland.. and Niagra Falls.

Stupid Wal-Mart

Today.. August 2nd, Breaking Dawn comes out. Barnes and Nobles is selling it at midnight. Borders is selling it at midnight. Wal-Mart said they were selling it at midnight. So I went to Wal-Mart, even though I totally hate that store, but no party=less of a line. I am giddy to get my book, ready. And I go.. and guess what. They aren't putting it out until 5AM. Yeah you read that right. Stupid Wal-Mart. Stupid Stupid Stupid Wal-Mart. And I am not dealing with the crazy lines, so I will go after some rest. But until then, repeat with me Stupid Wal-Mart.

Said at my House..

My kids have been capturing caterpillars and keeping them in their bug jars. They have caught over 20, but killed probably half.

Today while Sara was over Little Miss came in and said, "Mom, have you seen a caterpillar go by?" Now who can be mad at that? Not me.. but I giggled. And now we are on the lookout for the missing caterpillar in my house. If you see one go by, please let me know.

Exhaustion

I am tired. DEAD TIRED. We got up at 3AM to drive to Chicago this morning and drop my parents off of the O'Hare airport. They are on a flight home, and I am here in the Midwest. We had a terrific trip and wonderful moments just spending time together. I took over 1000 pictures, so I will be posting more when I am feeling more caught up.

I loved shooting for myself, and what I wanted. I don't take the time as much as I would like. Here is one I just love. I fell in love with the split rail fences on the Smith Family farm. In the background you can see Joseph Smith's home in Palmyra.

And the rest is yet to come.

3 Weeks

And my kids will both be in school. I am not the Mom that is overjoyed at this thought. I am the Mom that tries to figure out if I put my kids in a shrinky-dink oven if I can take them back a few years. Little Man will be in first grade, and Little Miss in Kindergarten. I am thankful for my sake that she is only in half day. I think if it were all day it would be much harder.

For the next three weeks we will be having great memory making times. This week we are going to Palmyra, New York. While there we will see the Martin Harris Farm, Book of Mormon Historic Publication Site: Grandin Building, Smith Family Farm, Peter Whitmer Farm, Hill Cumorah Visitors' Center, and the one I am most excited about the Sacred Grove. We will see Niagra Falls while we are there, and then we are going to Kirtland, Ohio to see Historic Kirtland Visitors' Center, Newel K. Whitney Store, John Johnson Inn Resource Center, Historic Johnson Home, Isaac Morley Farm, Newel K. and Elizabeth Ann Whitney Home, Ashery, Sawmill, and the Schoolhouse. I am excited to see all of the Church History, but I am also excited to share this with my children. Little Man is especially excited about our adventure! And even better we get to do it with my parents and sister.

Three weeks.. it's not very long. It will pass quickly.. but we will make the best of it!

Washington in Pictures..

And Little Miss turns 5! I am not a full month late on blogging her birthday. She is 5. Do you get it my BABY is 5. How crazy is that!!!!!

Do you see the excitement? That is the look she had after opening every present!! Does it get much better?

My WONDERFUL sister. I miss seeing her more often. But it was so fun to see how big she is getting and just to see her! I am not sure who was more excited.. me or her!

Little Miss with her only Great Grandma on my side of the family.

Little Miss had a cake made by her WONDERFUL Aunt Jenni.. who is missing from pictures, but we were grateful that she would make a Princess Castle Cake. Thanks Aunt Jenni! You're the best!

Little Miss feeding the ducks!

Little Man with his BEST FRIEND! They were so excited to see each other after two months of being apart!


My Mom, sister, and my kiddos. I miss seeing them all together. But did I mention.. that I get to see my parents and sister on TUESDAY!!! The kids don't know but I am just so excited!!!

The ONLY picture where we all have our eyes open and I am in it. And well.. Little Miss is ALWAYS Kissing me.

Multnomah Falls. I haven't been there in YEARS!!! It is still just as beautiful.

The kids want to paint a picture of the sun setting. They have been begging forever. So I snapped a picture on my way to Portland while we were driving down the freeway. I think this will do.

It was so fun to see everyone. I enjoyed every minute of it. But it was nice to come home.. to my house where I have my stuff my bed. I miss all of my family and my 'home' state. But Indy is treating us good. And you know you all want to come visit!

Little Manisms

Last night Little Man came downstairs and informed us.

-I tucked Little Miss in bed.. she wanted to be covered up. So I did that. And then she wanted snuggles.. so I did that for a little bit. About 1 minute and 27 seconds. Yeah.. that's right.

I about died laughing. I am glad he knew 'about' how long he snuggled her.

Moments Like This..

Melt my heart. Little Miss was sad, and Little Man came to her rescue to hug her, help her, wipe away her tears and make her feel okay.

She went from this:

To This:Little Man, you are the BEST Big Brother! Thank you from Little Miss and Your Momma.

Psst...

In case you don't check out my Photo Blog.. you should. I finally blogged a new wedding.. or a 3 week ago wedding.

Little Miss is Rocking!!

This has been an awesome week for Little Miss. She learned to ride a bike. Which she is so very proud of, and you all saw pictures of.

And now she can swim. She says she doesn't swim very well though, but she can swim! I am so proud of her. She goes under and moves her arms, and legs. I am just so excited for her. And she is just thrilled with herself. She has been in swimming lessons and trying all summer, but she is finally getting brave enough!!!

And Little Man, he is swimming like a champ. He is now doing the crawl, backstroke, breast stroke, and the butterfly. He is also learning a swimmers dive.. but right now it is more of a flop. But he is getting it. We are going to be putting him on a swim team.

Sorry no pictures, but I will get some.

Have you heard..

The I Kissed a Girl song? By Katy Perry.
I heard a piece of it and was floored. I read the lyrics and was even more floored.

This part of the song
Hard to resist so touchable
Too good to deny it
Ain't no big deal, it's innocent
Excuse me.. innocent? What kind of message are they trying to send my kids? Seriously. I hate that things that are so against God our played to a cute beat and have everybody dancing and singing to. It makes me sad. And I realize even more how much of I stand I have to take to raise my children righteously, knowing right from wrong, and doing good.

I need a bubble to live in, to get away from stuff like this. I don't want my kids even having a chance of hearing crap like this. I am one voice, but I taking a stand. I don't support this, and I am speaking out. I want crap like this off of the radio.

No Blood

Little Miss learned a new trick today.

She didn't even bleed one bit.

Not a scrape on her.

And she did it with the Best Dad in the World's (aka Randy) help.







Look how Happy she is!!!!!!

In just 5 minutes of Daddy teaching her she could do it! We are so proud of her, and she didn't get hurt at all!! WOO HOO!!

And the kids today decided they should go for a jog with Mom. They did 1/2 a mile no problem. I am taking them out for a one miler soon.

Oh yeah.. and to answer the questions we bought the Swingset from Costco.com.. I love COSTCO!!

The Before and After:

We have done all but the concrete in the past 12 days!! We have been BUSY! Working hard in the yard and making this home ours. Putting our stamp on it, and making it feel like home.

This is a shot from March.. Look at the yucky bushes in front of the porch.. I hated all of it. So out it came!!

Now we have hostas, shasta daises, lilies, and dwarf rhododendrons. Next year I think it will be BEAUTIFUL!! And the porch is much more noticeable now.

The back yard. Nothing done. And the concrete stoop was like 2X5 or something lame. Check out the swing set.. the kids are in HEAVEN!!
And more of the back yard.
And the after a 14X20 concrete patio. We added flower beds, lots of pretty plants and we are loving it.

And check out my awesome garden boxes. Tomatoes, Yellow peppers, and cucumbers.

And look this one has lettuce, spinach, and carrots! We did it last Tuesday and they are already sprouting!!!! WOO HOO!!

We All Chose This Plan

This has been on my mind a lot. And I keep wanting to blog it.. but I don't. But it matters to me, it is important, and it needs to be shared.

A long time ago we had our great Council in Heaven. We lost one third of our brothers and sisters, they followed Satan's plan. As a Mother it makes me so very sad to think that one third of God's children left. So with that I have come to realize that one third of the host of heaven is constantly trying to get us to not follow the plan of Salvation to return to live with Jesus Christ. And when you think about that, that is a lot of people working on each of us, all of the time.

And then I have thought some more. Every person on this Earth chose to follow Jesus Christ. Each of them knew this would be hard, it would be a test, and it wasn't going to be easy. But we knew it was right. We loved our Brother, Jesus Christ, and we had a great desire to follow Him. When I was in the Chicago Airport I was looking around with my kids at all of the people passing by and I wondered, do they know the truthfulness of the Gospel? Have they had an opportunity to learn? Do they know someone who has it? Am I being the type of example that I need to be? Will people know I am LDS by the way I act? I hope they do. I hope I treat others in such a way that there isn't a doubt. And I know I can ALWAYS do better. But I pondered this.

And I sat at a table with the kids for some "healthy" McDonald's for dinner and we had a few cookies and a kind older gentleman had offered us seats at his table, and Little Man gave him a cookie and we talked for a brief moment. I wished as he walked away that I had a Book of Mormon or a pass along card. I sat there looking around and thought I have the most precious wonderful gift in the World.. Am I sharing it with people enough? I don't think I am. I have had fear that people would feel I was a religious fanatic, or people would think if they weren't interested in the Church, I wasn't interested in them. But these fears are lessening. I want my friends, my neighbors, everyone I meet to know about our Savior Jesus Christ. I want people to know the blessings that His Gospel will bring to you. Eternal families, the Atonement, the plan of Salvation. These are all so very important. And when I stand in front of my Father, I want to tell Him I did my best. I shared with all I could. I lived my best. I tried my hardest.

I feel like the time is now to share this Gospel. I feel it more urgently than I ever have. We all chose this plan. We all believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Somewhere our Spirits recognize the Spirit, we have to push aside the Natural Man and let Him in though.

I am going to step out of my comfort level, out of my box, and do what I know I need to do. I will do my best to live the Gospel, to share the Gospel, and be the best example that I can be.

If you want to learn more about what I hold so dear, please go here, here, or here.

Yet Another Reason To Like Indy

Concerts. I don't have drive hours to attend concerts anymore. Not that I have really attended many concerts, but now I can. And yesterday, the 4th, I decided to check out the John Mayer, Colbie Caillat concert and see what kind of tickets were left for the concert tonight. They had seats left.. so Randy and I decided we had to go. Had to! In our married life we have never went to a concert together, and we both thought this was the way to kick it off.

Our seats were AWESOME! 10th row, dead in the middle. Do you see how close we are?? ANd do you see I am in more than one picture!!!! Seriously could we have planned it better?? The only bummer is I wasn't allowed to bring my nice camera in.. But I could bring the point and shoot, that I realized tonight definitely needs replacing.. but it worked.

I love the venue, just minutes from my house, an outdoor music center. It totally rocks!!

They had a band that opened for them.. they were okay. I was anxious for Colbie and John!!

Colbie totally rocked it. Seriously it was just awesome to hear her sing. It was wonderful!! She puts on quite the performance, and I was wishing I could hear more from her!!! And one of her guitarist looked an awful lot like Randy. He wasn't quite as cute.. but close! :)

And then John Mayer came out. He is an awesome guitarist. Oh my goodness. I had no idea, and he was just amazing. I love his music, the sound, the feel all of it. This is a concert I would HIGHLY recommend to people. Randy and I enjoyed every minute.. and I have a few short clips that we took, I haven't even seen them yet. But it was totally rad. And now off to bed!

Not Dead

Just busy. I am planning a post to show all of wonderful work we have been doing in our yard. In one week it has changed a lot.
I am almost all caught up on my editing. Well except for the last wedding from almost two weeks ago.
I am finally getting back to Eastern Time. Bouncing around the Country makes it hard to get a real schedule. Also bouncing around makes my allergies worse. A lot worse. The kids.. well we are finally going to bed before 11:00 PM.. YAY! Hopefully an 8:00 bedtime is in the near future.
I am still running!! YIPPEE! I am doing about 3.5 miles now. I am so excited. I had no idea that in such a short time I could do this. WOO HOO! And maybe.. just maybe I will be able to run a lot longer distance and do a race. We'll see.
Now back to being busy.