Spa Night

For our Young Women's activity last night we had a spa night! It was heavenly! I love being in Young Women's with these girls and working with a great friend of mine, Chelsea Hansen. And when Ryan was called into the Bishopric, I was scared to lose my calling as Ryan would need to be with the young men as well, so how could we both go with our kids. So I begged Bishop to let me stay in Young Womens, it was not too hard to convince him however, as he knew how much I loved my calling (I tell him every week) and because of his sweet wife, Debbie, who volunteered to come over and watch our kids every Wednesday night so Ryan and I could both attend mutual. SO grateful for her in allowing me to keep my calling. I would have cried for months if I couldn't be with my Beehives! They are amazing girls. They know far more than I did at their age. They are so strong in the gospel and several of them go to the temple once a week at 4:30 in the morning! It's quite inspiring. They make me want to be a better person all the time.

These young girls also remind me of how strong my own girls are. Madisen, Avery and Emily are so compassionate and so strong in their testimonies even at this young age. They are constantly sticking up for the right at school, at the store, anywhere we go. They stand up for truth and righteousness, and as a mom that is a little intimidating raising kids that are better than myself. When Madisen prays, she prays a lot of time that she will be obedient and listen to her parents. That she will choose the right and always be kind to others. She prays to learn the gospel and be a good person. She prays and thanks Heavenly Father for so many things and really thinks about things with a sincere heart. 

When I was her age, I am pretty sure my prayers were not as heart-felt. I am pretty sure I just wanted to say the fastest prayer possible so I could eat, not caring what I said. 

One of the most important ways we can have humility was taught by Jesus Christ:

"And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

"Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:2-4).

The Lord really held onto these valiant spirits for last because they are so spiritually strong!!!

Anyway enough of my ramblings here are some fun pictures from our spa night!

Lauren and Hailey

Chelsea and Michelle

me being a dork, like usual!

Anna and Emma

work it Tessa!

Anna and Zoey

Valentine's 2013

For Valentine's Day this year, we thought we would start a new tradition: Love potions!

Mom mixed together some juices and some fruits and then threw in some secret love potion so that we would love each other when we drank it even more than ever.  So we all counted to three and then drank our love potions and this is what happened: Emily started hugging Mommy, Madi and Avery gave each other a love high-five, Mom gave Dad a love wink, and Dad started kissing his own arm.

Mom made a juicy steak dinner!

The next day we all powdered our noses and got dressed up for a Stake Family Dance!  I (Dad) was lucky that I got to take not one, but four girls to the ball this year!

Here's us getting ready to go boogy.

What cute girls!  I'm going to have to buy another shotgun in about 10 years to fend off the boys...

Suddenly, the love potion wore off!  We hurriedly drank some more. 

Check out the decorations!  They did a fantastic job setting up the mood.

Dad and the girls showing everybody how it's done on the dance floor.  They were all calling our names...

Mom and the girls shaking their booties.

We stopped and posed in front of the castle.

 A perfect night...Well, almost. Madisen had a stalker all night, and we just couldn't get her away from the boy! He followed and stared at her all night. It made her and us as parents, very uncomfortable! Watch out kid, we have a nice new shot gun at home. Just sayin'. Nevertheless, it was a fun time to be had with the family.

 Madisen's crown slipped down right as the picture was taken. Poor girl!

Christy and Emily posing together after church.  Emily gave her first talk in Primary.  She was awesome!

1000 Springs Resort

Some friends of ours in the ward invited us and 3 other families to go with them to a hot springs resort last week and we had such a great time. It was little Caleb's 2nd Birthday too. So we celebrated with cupcakes and presents. 1000 Springs Resort is only about a 30 minute drive outside of Twin Falls and fairly cheap, so we packed up the kids and the gear and headed out. We swam for almost 3 hours! We were (almost) turned into raisins by the time we left. 

I don't know if our girls can sometimes make normal faces?? haha! 

Thanks for the great time!

Girls Night Out

Last Friday I went out with some friends of mine for a girls night out.  Since Ryan knew about my girls night out, he decided to drop by the store pick up the movie, Princess and the Popstar and surprise the girls with a  daddy daughter date night! What a fun dad he is! It was so cute that he thought of them and wanted to spend  spend time with them doing something they would like. The girls love this movie! They would watch it everyday-twice a day if I let them! (Avery has now declared she wants to be a Popstar when she grows up. So she has been singing all over the house since. She memorized the words to one of the songs, and even performed it with all the dance moves in front of my whole family! I would have never done that as a kid! She is a lot braver than me).

Ryan doesn't look too sure about this movie... :) 

Secretly though, I am sure he loved it! ;) haha!

Thanks honey for the night out with the girls! 

And I am glad you had fun on your night out with our girls!