Stake, Ward, Primary

Two weeks ago our stake split. That means the church is growing and that is so exciting! For the last bunch of years there have been 16 wards in our stake. 6-8 is normal. So, yeah, it was time. Our poor stake presidencies…

Because the stake split, it meant all the ward boundaries changed. Half of our ward split off into their own ward in the new stake. We were combined with the rest of our immediate neighborhood. We are sad we lost so many great families but are excited to get to know a lot of new wonderful families.

Because the ward split, I got a new calling. Primary President. I would not be truthful if I said it was a total shock. I have actually had the feeling for some time now, maybe even a year, that this would be my next calling. I’m not sure why I was given that feeling but I’m glad I was! Because of that, I feel I was a lot more mentally prepared than I would have been otherwise. For the last two years I was the primary secretary and so I have been in training. I know all the kids and their parents, I’ve been in on all the planning, and I was there every Sunday watching. The women I worked with are amazing people. They have been nothing but loving, enthusiastic to serve, were always prepared, and have become my friends. I will miss working with them!

In other ways, though, I did feel a little like I was thrown under a bus! Our ward split on a Sunday, I got the call Tuesday night, and I had to be prepared to not only conduct and do sharing time 5 days later, but since half the ward was replaced so was most the primary! I had to organize all the kids (almost 100) into classes and we only had a handful of teachers. I had to pray about and choose counselors and a secretary. Not until Sunday morning was my 2nd counselor called and my secretary (who will be out with her newly born babe for a couple of months). I don’t have permanent music people yet, there is a baptism on Saturday (luckily this was previously taken care of), I don’t know any of the new kids’ birthdays, etc, etc, etc. I have a lot of ideas and plans I want to make but for now I’m basically in primary survival mode just trying to get the week-to-week organized and fill in all the empty calling slots.

One of the things I did last Sunday was brought balloons and played a get-to-know-you game. I realize a lot of these kids know each other from school and the neighborhood, but it can still be quite overwhelming and sad to see your other good friends leave and have everything change. I know, because I had to do it when our ward boundaries changed when I was 15. Granted, I’m sure it’s easier on little kids than teenagers, but I wanted to make sure the kids recognize this as a positive thing. Sunday was chaotic, but it was fun!

I’m not the most outgoing, gregarious, enthusiastic person out there. I have a lot of shortcomings. I tend to over think, stress, and just plain panic at times. But this last week I have felt more inspiration, patience, and love than I have for a while. I know the Lord is blessing me with those things. Hopefully He will continue to do so!

I’m excited to get to know all these new families and help teach the gospel to them. It’s such a beautiful message to learn and life to lead. Feeling the spirit wrap around you is the best feeling known to mankind. I have the strongest testimony that these little ones are children of God and He loves them. Just knowing that one thing can help get you through anything in this sometimes tumultuous life. I want them to gain that same testimony.

Wish me luck and say a prayer for me!

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

At least it was 2 months ago…You know how it is. Maybe you don’t. I recall seeing many Christmas posts in the week following the holiday. Ok, I guess it’s just me then.

It was fun seeing Nate in his Christmas Concert at school. He knew the songs really well and had a good performance.

My mom invited us and other family members to This is the Place Heritage Park’s Candlelight Christmas.

 

The kids really enjoyed going from building to building doing little crafts, hearing stories, learning a dance, seeing a live nativity, and getting a treat.

This video of us girls learning the dance is so cute! Video link

Bonus: After everyone’s admission, only $5 was due to get a year-long family pass. Score! We will be using this as soon as the weather gets nicer.

Christmas Eve finally came. Due to a snowstorm, we barely made it out of our neighborhood to dinner at my mom and dad’s. We also barely made it back in! That night, our girls received their princess pjs and they’ve barely taken them off since!

We did a white elephant exchange and the gifts I brought were expensive Twinkies I scored in the corner of the Walmart parking lot. I ate a couple, let the kid’s try their one and only Twinkie they will ever have, and then gave the rest away.

Christmas Day brought fun surprises for everyone. The big ticket items were a new bike for Nate and a vanity with makeup for the girls.

 

Here are the girls all dressed up. We’re in big trouble.

                              

One of the best surprises was when Madeleine opened a tin to find “cow”. Madeleine had lost cow in Denver over a year earlier and was still missing her. A few times since then I had looked online for a new one but never had any luck. Then, while in Denver again, I searched and finally found her! I posted this on FaceBook: “Dilemma: a year ago Madeleine lost her beloved stuffed "cow". She has mentioned missing it over and over again ever since. She still looks at pictures of it and wishes she still had her. After searching and searching I finally found cow's twin sister. She is on ebay...for $45! Do I splurge? Or just let madeleine learn the facts of life the hard way :)”  Pretty much everyone thought I should get it but a specific comment touched me. It said, “Teach her that sometimes life is good and full of miracles.” That answer touched me. Thanks, Trina! Even though it was exactly the same, including the flower, she knew it wasn’t the original. But Madeleine has loved having her cow again. Video Link

This ribbon wand in her stocking has continued to be a huge hit. Video link

Then we spent Christmas night at the Snow household and opened even more gifts.

 

Once again, we had a busy but truly wonderful Christmas season. We are more blessed (or at least realize it more) every year. We love our family and friends, and of course our Savior, Jesus Christ. We can’t wait until next year when we can do it all over again!

Home Decor: N&M’s Bedroom

Since I finished Caroline’s bedroom, I didn’t feel like I could leave Nate and Madeleine’s bedroom undone. Really, it just needed a couple of things and some fine tuning.

 

We had the beds as bunks, but just as Rob was hanging the last thing up, we decided that we needed to separate them. Caroline was just too rambunctious trying to scramble up the sides (after we took off the ladder to thwart her) and running across the top bed without any brakes.

I made some curtains. Isn’t this fabric fabulous?! I needed something that works for boy/girl and that went along with their blankets and other things we already had in the room. They keep the room a much more comfortable temperature and block morning light so they can sleep longer when they need to. They will move into Nate’s room later on.

 

I made their blankets a few years ago. They actually are looking worn, but will change those in a year or so anyway when the kids switch rooms. I did replace the sheets, pillow cases, and mattress pads. I’m in love with Walmart’s $5 twin sheet separates. However, I did pass by the Walmart mattress pads. I bought those last time and they were junk. This time I got them from Ikea for $2 more each and I like them much, much better. The blankets at the end of their beds were made by their Grandma Snow when they were each born.

The world map on the wall is my favorite thing. Rob bought this for me a long time ago and Nate has kind of claimed it for himself. He is always studying it, much to my pleasure.

The names are just painted wood letters I did for each of them when they were born.

I love the schoolhouse feel with the map and the clock above the door. The clock is there to always remind Nate not to leave his bed before 7am. He is still such a morning bug and wakes up the whole house. But most mornings he ignores the time and I get annoyed.

The nightstand came from my room. When we changed the beds, we swapped it with a bookshelf. The lamp was bought years ago as a desk lamp but it works perfectly in this spot…if only it worked. I looked at multiple stores for the correct bulb and finally found a two-pack for $8 for a teeny, tiny light bulb. It didn’t even work! So maybe it’s the lamp…but it looks so great…

 

These are some of their books. They are both big readers and love it when I send them to bed early so they have time to read in bed. I do too!!

The picture above Nate’s bed is his award-winning shot from last year’s school Reflections contest. He is proud to have it framed.

I finally got around to hanging a picture of Jesus in their room. This has needed to be done forever but it’s just one of those things that never got done. I already had a frame and looked amongst our bookshelves for a picture book of Christ we inherited in a box of random books that was given to us. The kids helped me choose this picture of Christ with a little boy and little girl.

Oh, the banner. Obviously I needed something on this wall now that the bunk beds weren’t taking up that space. I didn’t really feel like spending more money so I had the idea to make a banner out of the left over drapery fabric. I also already had the rope. Add a little hot glue and some cute thumbtacks from Target and you’ve got yourself a wall hanging for practically free

Madeleine was really, really excited about this stuffed animal hanger. She loves her animals and now they have a proper home. Poor girl had to wait a few weeks for us to get around to hanging it up, though. But it was $5 well spent.

I forgot to take a picture of the lego table. It used to be a train table but Nate has long grown out of that. Now it is a perfect landing spot for all his Star Wars space ships.

They have a few toys in the nightstand drawers (which are hard to open) and there are a few small bins under each bed for toy storage but most of their toys are downstairs. There just isn’t any room in here for a whole lotta play.

Madeleine actually also has a Minnie Mouse chair and a play vanity that I took out of the room for pictures. But they’re usually shoved up at the end of her bed.

Now, if only it looked this put together half the time. Even 30% of the time. 20%? Ok, I’d take 5%. And don’t look in their closet…

Zoo Lights

Back in the middle of December my company (URS) had a holiday party up at Utah’s Hogle Zoo. We had a fantastic time visiting with coworkers during dinner (Julie won a movie prize pack), and taking a short walk around the zoo. We captured a few images during our wanderings (hope you enjoy those). Not many animals were around so it was mostly just fun to be with my sweetheart and see the lights.

We captured a few fun images of the lights. We’ve done this before but it is still a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy these.

 

Always nice to stand next to one of these for a little while. It was so cold that night!!!

The blue cast from these lights accentuates the cold!

Loved the blue lights.

 

Some kind of strange creature in this shot.

More blue!

What was Julie’s idea? Time to get out of there!

Robert with a Softbox

I took these of Rob after his annual Christmas shave. I like to see his whole face every once in a while; after all, it’s the face I fell in love with! He prefers a beard (and honestly I do like it, too) but will shave it off once a year just for me.

I wanted to take all these similar pictures and edit them using various presets. They all have the same backdrop (our wall) and lighting. You can see how different each image feels depending on it’s temperature, the level of clarity, and whether it’s b&w or color.

Deciding which treatment is best for each photo is one of my favorite things about editing. I like to capture the “feel” we are going for. Playful? Subdued? Edgy? Romantic?

In this case, it’s more of a headshot with a plain background, so that limits the creativity slightly.

 

     

      

     

I think I prefer the top right or bottom right. Which is your favorite? 

#HASHTAGS, #HASHTAGS, #HASHTAAAAAGS

One of our favorite things to watch is Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night #HASHTAGS segments on Hulu. Belly laughs. Full on.

Jimmy puts a topic out on twitter and people tweet their true life responses. He then shares some of his favorites. Topics include #partyfail, #dadquotes, #myweirdgymstory, #dontjudgeme, and many others.

Hil- to the -arious.

So in honor of these clips, I thought I’d share some of our own submissions, had we submitted them.

#promdisaster: This wasn’t prom and it wasn’t exactly a disaster, but it was annoying. I was walking through Fred Meyer with a friend of mine and he walked me over to the helium tanks where they blow up balloons. He didn’t buy me a balloon, but he proceeded to suck on the nozzle and then ask me in a high-pitched, helium voice to the dance at school. Embarrassingly and reluctantly I said yes. Then after I spent a lot of time trying to look nice for the dance, he showed up wearing a t-shirt that was emblazoned, “She’s with Stupid”. Yes. I was.

#worstpickuplines: One time at a hostel in Seattle a British guy sat down next to me and whispered into my ear, “Would you mind if I stuck my tongue in your ear and twirl it around a little?” As a matter of fact, I WOULD mind!

#beachfail: I was trying to body board at a beach in Hawaii when I was 16. I wiped out and sand got all over inside my bathing suit. I went to the open shower at the top of the beach and was trying to subtly wash it out when an older foreign woman came up to me and offered to help. Even though I politely declined, she continued to pull my swimsuit away from my body, stick her hands inside, and brush away the sand front and back. My whole family was watching and dying with laughter.

#soembarrassing: I was sitting on the porch with a guy I really liked. He was opening up and telling me how much he liked me and wanted to pursue a relationship. My stomach had been bothering me all night and I was nervous. Right when he finished telling me his feelings and was waiting for my response, I let out a big, loud, smelly one.

#awkwarddate: One time I went and played some pool at the U with a guy. On the way back to his house to watch a movie, he wanted to stop at a convenience store for some snacks and drinks. While we were waiting in line to pay, he picked up and started perusing a filthy magazine in front of me. Obviously, I didn’t stay for the movie.

#awkwarddate: Here’s another one. I was on a date with a guy I’d been seeing and he told me that he was actually engaged to someone else.

#mydumbinjury: Rob was dating someone else and he and I were “friends”. He had asked the girl he was dating to join his indoor soccer team and she refused. I wanted to impress him by showing how fun and cool I was so I signed up. Keep in mind I had NEVER played soccer before let alone with older, bigger, indoor soccer league men. My first game I looked like a complete idiot trying to keep up and ended up cramping my thigh muscle. A couple of nights later we went ice skating with his girlfriend and some other people. I fell down and while trying to get back up, tore a small rip in that same muscle. Hurt like Hades. Rob and his girlfriend had to carry me off the ice and into the car. Weeks later after Rob broke up with his girlfriend and he and I were on our first official date, I was still limping.

#slapyourself: When Rob and I were dating, we drove down to St. George to visit his grandparents. We were almost there when he suddenly pulled over to side of the road and said, romantically, “I was planning on telling you later at a better time, but I just can’t wait. I need to tell you, I’m falling in love with you.” Collective “Awwwww!”.  I was caught off-guard by the whole thing so what was my response? “Well..that’s good...because I’m falling in love with you, too…and it would suck if you weren’t ‘cause that would be no fun.” Brilliant. I wanted, and still do, want to slap myself over that one. The funny thing is that he was so excited he  told me that he didn’t even hear my response and didn’t realize what I had actually said until I repeated it back to him later when I apologized for my lameness.

#mysuperpower: Just a couple of weeks ago, I had the super power ability to try on gloves for a man shopping for his 10-year-old daughter. Also, while walking by a group of 12-yr-old boys, one of them yelled out a pickup line to me. It was dark and I was turned away. When I looked at him, I don’t think he was expecting to see a 31-yr-old woman. Awesome…

 

And here are a few of Rob’s:

#iusedtothink: When I was very young and the priests would kneel to say the sacrament prayers into the hidden microphone, I was completely convinced that I was hearing the voice of Heavenly Father speaking down to us from heaven.

#mydumbinjury: In high school some friends and I built a large half pipe. Once, after riding hard and falling backwards onto my butt, a friend indicated to me that my shorts were ripped. Upon more careful inspection I found that I was bleeding. Turns out I was unlucky and landed and slid on a screw that was sticking out too far! Ouch! I still have a 2-inch scar in my butt crack.

#iadmitit: In high school I was approached by an acquaintance. She asked in a friendly way if I smoked. I replied, “not cigarettes!”

#awkwarddate: I made a date with a girl for Thursday night. An hour before I was to pick her up, I called to verify that we were still on. She confirmed the date so I said I’d see her in an hour. When I got to her door, her mother answered, looked embarrassed for me, and said, “Oh, I’m sorry. She just left with another guy.” This was before I had a cell phone so I drove across the street to Ream’s and called her. Twice. No answer. We never did go out. Oh, but I did run into her at church. Turns out I was friends with her brother. Awkward.

#awkwarddate: I was dating Julie, but my ex asked me out on a hike and I accepted. I told Julie and she was very upset and said she was finished putting up with me. The next morning (day of the hike), I decided I didn’t want anything to do with my ex and that I was going to win Julie back. I should have called my ex and told her over the phone, but instead I went on the date. She took me on a hike up to a waterfall, sat me down, and I let her pour out her feelings for me. Then she asked me if we could get back together. I promptly shattered her feelings by saying I wasn’t interested in dating her. Yeah, I’m a jerk. Afterwards, we still had to hike back down together and she had to drive me home.

 

We hope these made you laugh…even if they are at the expense of both our pride AND dignity!!!  I have a feeling no one is going to give us any respect after this…