One Fine Day

My "Square Foot Garden" is full of dirt and ready for planting. This is one of three planting boxes scattered around my yard.

Kaitlyn swinging high!

Caleb & Daddy fighting with his Transformers. I should probably specify here that they are Caleb's Transformers - he just "shares" them with his dad :)

This will be the year that I start a new kind of garden. A "Square Foot Garden" that is. After being convinced by Chelsea and Maureen that this is THE way to garden, and after yet another dismal attempt at gardening last year, I've been all over the square foot garden thing. I spent the winter reading and obsessing over the book about the square foot gardening method. Then a few weeks ago Mike built my very own square foot gardening boxes. Today I finally mixed the very specific compost/vermiculite/peat moss mixture and shoveled it into the boxes. Mike helped me with the messy job - and now we have 3 garden boxes ready for planting. I am so excited, and honestly a little worried. I mean, what if my vegetable still don't grow after moving to this supposedly "fail proof" system? I guess it will officially mean that I was not meant to garden in this life. But at least I gave it a good try.

Working outside, watching my kids play in the sunshine & hang out with their dad, has turned today into one fine day. To finish things off, my mom (who lives with us until her condo is ready) made a delicious spagetti dinner with salad & garlic bread for all of us to enjoy. Our family tradition during dinner is for each person to share two things that were their favorite parts of the day. The kids favorites included playing with friends, watching basketball with dad, and jumping on the trampoline. When it came to be my turn I said, "My favorite part of today is right now eating dinner with my family, and doing dirt with dad." As soon as I said "doing dirt with dad" I started to blush & my mom started to laugh. Mike then said, "No Kristen, that's for later tonight".

Needless to say, we had a great evening, and it promises to only get better. So please excuse me now, I've got some dirt to go and take care of. :)

Spring Break, Caleb's Baptism, & Easter

Let me just start by saying that I've done something funky to my camera, so all of my pictures from Spring Break, Easter & Caleb's Baptism are messed up. But, it's the best I've got, so here they are. In a seven day period our little family drove to and from Las Vegas to spend a few days in the sun, then we made it home in time for Caleb's baptism and finally for Easter. It was a crazy, fun-filled week that left all of us smiling and exhausted. I meant to post the photos in chronological order, but ended up getting them backwards. I seem to do most things that way anyway, so I guess it's only appropriate.

I hope you can actually see Kaitlyn's face in this photo. She waited for a long time for this egg hunt on Easter Sunday. I was sorely tempted to ask the Easter Bunny to please NOT hide Easter eggs at our house this year. That was until Kaitlyn confided in me that the egg hunt is her favorite part of Easter, and she had been looking forward to it all year. Her face says it all. The bunny hid the eggs, and she thoroughly enjoyed finding them. Caleb & Kass enjoyed it as well, but Kaitlyn was absolutely thrilled to be chasing down those bright plastic eggs.

This is Mike and Caleb before Caleb was baptized. Caleb was so excited about his baptism that he couldn't stop grinning & jumping around. Caleb was baptized on the same day as one of his close friends. As they were walking to the baptism font with their dads, they jumped up in the air and gave each other a high five. I wish I had a picture of that one.

Caleb with his sisters right before his baptism. This is one of the only photos I have of them in their Easter dresses.


Caleb looking so darn cute!

Caleb & his daddy taking a gondola ride in Las Vegas.

Kaitlyn and Kassidy enjoying their gondola ride. You can tell that Kaitlyn in feeling shy because her fingers are stuck in her mouth.

Caleb chilling out in his daddy's office

The handsome birthday boy.

My little wild angel taking a much needed nap. It was one crazy & fun week.

Why Mormon's Build Temples

I've got a lot to blog about - with Easter, Spring Break, and Caleb's baptism all happening within a one week period. But, I'll have to save that for another day. Sometimes when I get an idea in my head for a post, I can't focus on anything else until I write about it.

My thoughts started a few weeks ago when I was made aware that the HBO "Big Love" would be airring an episode with a scene from a Mormon Temple. I didn't watch the episode, but apparently it was supposed to feature detailled depictions of our temple clothing, ordinance rooms, and temple ceremonies. Needless to say, I was TICKED at the idea of a movie/television studio using something incredibly sacred to me and millions of others in a way to sensationalize their programming, and hopefully lure in new viewers. I almost hate to admit it, but I was surprised as well. Call me naive, but I honestly was stunned to see my beliefs ridiculed and belittled in such a way.

My first innate response was to lash out. Like I said, I was TICKED! I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs at anyone and everyone involved in writing, producing, or marketing the episode. I wanted to throw a fit and let the world know how absolutely disgusting this was to me. I decided instead to allow myself a "cooling down" period before doing anything crazy like storming HBO Headquarters like a mad woman.

That brings me to today. I've been cleaning my house, trying to recover from the holiday, spring break, baptism week, and I was listening to General Conference at the same time. (Thank goodness for DVR that allows me to do this! Wow - what an amazing invention). For my non-Mormon friends, General Conference is a series of meetings held twice a year where the leadership of the Mormon church speaks to the church members. I wasn't home this year to listen to it, so I used the trusty DVR to record all sessions, so I could listen to and enjoy them later. Today happened to be one of those days. The talk from Elder David Bednar stopped me in my tracks. His entire talk was about temples and why they are so important to us. He said,

"We live in a great day of temple building around the world. And the adversary surely is mindful of the increasing number of temples that now dot the earth. As always, the building and dedicating of these sacred structures are accompanied by opposition from enemies of the Church as well as by ill-advised criticism from some within the Church.
Such antagonism is not new. In 1861, while the Salt Lake Temple was under construction, Brigham Young encouraged the Saints: “If you wish this Temple built, go to work and do all you can. . . . Some say, ‘I do not like to do it, for we never began to build a Temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring.’ I want to hear them ring again. All the tribes of hell will be on the move, . . . but what do you think it will amount to? You have all the time seen what it has amounted to” (Deseret News, Apr. 10, 1861, 41).
We as faithful Saints have been strengthened by adversity and are the recipients of the Lord’s tender mercies. We have moved forward under the promise of the Lord: “I will not suffer that [mine enemies] shall destroy my work; yea, I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil” (D&C 10:43).
We should not be surprised by Satan’s efforts to thwart or discredit temple worship and work. The devil despises the purity in and the power of the Lord’s house. And the protection available to each of us in and through temple ordinances and covenants stands as a great obstacle to the evil designs of Lucifer."

Well there was my answer. I shouldn't be surprised that temple of God is and will continue to be under attack from the adversary. Storming HBO headquarters obviously wasn't an appropriate action either. I don't need to act like a mad woman in defense of what I truly love and believe to be a precious gift from God. I just need to live the way I have promised to live in that very same temple I profess to love. AND - while living what I believe to the best of my ability, I need to be respectful towards all those who have differing beliefs concerning the nature of God and His purpose for them here on earth. I must show them the respect that I hope to receive in return.

For those of you who are interested in watching the video the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released about "Why Mormons Build Temples" I've include link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x_-TQivCx8-30,00.html