It was a happy/sad day yesterday, yes it was. Elder Christiansen will be staying at the MTC till February, learning how to teach the gospel and all about a really difficult language. His farewell was so sweet! He even bore his testimony in Finnish, thanks to some great people who've been teaching him each week since he received his call. He is such a great Uncle and my girls will miss him, but we are so excited for missionary blessings! Elder Adam John Christiansen MTC Mailbox # 124 FIN-HEL 0213 2005 N 900 E Provo, UT 84604-1793
When this picture was shown to a few of my siblings, the comments went like this: Holy Serial Killer! Is that Borat? Why is that mexican robbing our house? Seriously, that is my AWESOME DAD! Scary what you find when you start digging through the photo box.
I feel like the month of November is flying by us, without my permission! Every weekend we've had a million things to do, which is unusual for us. This last weekend Cory was home. Cory was so sweet and took each girl on a special date. They each loved their special time with Dad. He made the dates a special teaching time to, as they each did a service for me. I was out of this world impressed by their sensitivity and love!
It was also the Primary Program. I was asked to substitute as the pianist, which I was thrilled by. I miss the Primary so much, and it was so fun to spend time in there practicing! Emory was asked to give a two minute talk and she was so AMAZING! Her words were so sweet and sincere. She is such a performer, because she read it just like she said it to me. Lot's of family came to hear her, so we decided to do Thanksgiving early. It was so delicious, and I'm relieved that we don't have to do it in two weeks! Here is her talk:
I will strengthen my family:
Through Family Home Evening, Family Prayer, and Missionary Work.
#1 - Family Home Evening
Monday night is my favorite night of the week.My family comes together to learn about many gospel principles like tithing, temples, prayer, prophets and lots of other things too.I am always in charge of the music.I like to choose songs that Sis. Messervy teaches us in primary.My favorite song is How Firm a Foundation.I sing it so often that my little sister even knows the words!By singing this song, we strengthen our family by inviting the Spirit to our Family Home Evening.
#2 – Family Prayer
Every night, before we go to bed, we kneel together and say family prayer.My dad has been all over the country, doing rotations, for the past 3 months!I miss him a lot, but sometimes he gets to say family prayer with us too!He calls on the web cam or phone and we say our family prayer together.This strengthens our family because even though we’re far apart, we know that Heavenly Father is watching over us.
#3 – Missionary Work
Did you know that we are all a part of an enormous family?Heavenly Father is our Father; Jesus is our Older Brother, and all of us are brothers and sisters!We have brothers and sisters all over the world who don’t know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.My best friend Adam is going on a mission to Finland.I am so excited for him to teach my brothers and sisters all the way across the world about the Restoration of the Gospel, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.I think this is one of the most important ways we can strengthen our family, so that we can ALL go back home to be with Father again!
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
She is such a special little girl, and I'm in love with her! The other day we were reading the scriptures and talking about where the Book of Mormon came from. We got to the part where Joseph Smith was praying in his room, 3 years after the First Vision, and an angel appereared. She looked up at me with eager eyes and said "Oh, I just HOPE it's Moroni!" What a testimony this little girl already has!
Tessa is such a great sister. At the end of the Primary Program she yelled, "They did it!" She puts up with almost all of Emory's antics including this crazy idea.
First things first, yes, her arms and legs are tied down. What I don't understand is where they got the crib bumper from!
I agree it's a little disturbing, but it was explained as Tessa being prepared as food to eat, which doesn't make it any less disturbing!
I loved Halloween on Saturday. We made pumpkin pancakes for everyone in the morning. Both of my girls still take a 2 hour nap and for some reason they were "too excited to sleep" the one night of the year they go to bed after 9pm! It turned out fine in the end, because we decorated sugar cookies right before we left, so they were running on a can and a half of frosting by then. I love how they came up with their own costumes this year and my amazing mom made them perfectly, again! Peter Pan and Pocahontas, although a few people thought that Em was Robin Hood and that totally annoyed her. Pocahontas played her part perfectly, even doing a Native American chant she learned from the Disney movie. We tagged along with our good friends Woody, Buz, Jessie, and their random cowboy friend! Good times! I also did a Monster Mash Musicale for my piano students to show off their Halloween piano skills. I LOVE my students and couldn't ask for better! This is only 4 of my 7.
This year Emory got to do a pumpkin patch field trip with her preschool class. A lot of the other parents brought their other kids with them, but I'm so glad I left Tessa home. Emory and I spent some quality time together looking for the coolest pumpkin, stumbling through the corn maze (which they assured me was not haunted; tell that to the rooster who attacked me halfway through!) climbing in the hay, and posing on tractors.She also had a Halloween Parade in front of her teachers house.They walked around and sang a cute song, short and sweet, just how I like it.Peter Pan and her best friend Adam.
Last weekend we finally got to see Cory! Every minute of it was heaven and we had such a good time. First off, we LOVE spending time with Cory's Uncle Mike, Aunt Sheila and Savannah. They are so good to us, always letting us crash at their house and feeding us and giving us fantastic Pink Princess TVs! They are the best! I love going to St. George because there is always something going on in the middle of town. This weekend there was a car show, fun carnival games for the kids, a scarecrow contest, and a chili cook off. We voted on the cars and the chili, the girls rode in a barrel train (Don't let this first picture fool you. As soon as the guy started his tractor, it back fired, and Tessa screamed for the first 1/2 of the ride as seen in the second picture.) played in the cold water, and went to a puppet making class. It was all around fun! We took the girls back for a nap and took off by ourselves for some shopping. Cory surprised me with some money he's been saving up, and wanted me to buy some new clothes. I didn't happen. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I still wear clothing from High School, on a regular basis. If it's not a sale, I don't even look at it, and I really don't like trying clothes on. That WILL change someday, but for now, I'm raggedy happy and enjoying the cowboy hat that we did buy! The next morning, we fooled around on this "filly" and had an AMAZING breakfast at the Bear Paw. We're so glad that we've almost reached the finish line. Cory left on August 24th and he'll be home for reals next weekend! Hooray for all my friends and family who helped me cope, and watched my kids during activities and such.
