Anniversary Celebration, Brycie Birthday Boy, and Lizzie Patriarchal Blessing

 Bryce turned 12 (finally) on Wednesday, September 1st!  It seems like he's been 11 for fifteen years, ha ha, so it's about time he turned 12!  He seems to have really started maturing lately.  He is starting to really take care of his physical health lately.  He started lifting weights on his own.  He is taking care of his personal hygiene as well.  I'm very proud of the way that he is becoming more independent.  He wakes up on his own, packs his own lunch, etc. He is a very low-maintenance boy.  And he's still very respectful to me as well.  I am praying that this continues.  I have been very blessed thus far with children who are well behaved and continue to show me and our entire family respect.  It is a blessing being a mother in Israel.

Also on September 1st, Jon and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary!  I can't believe that it has been 15 years.  It flew by!  15 years, 5 moves (1 apartment, 1 town home, and 3 houses), 5 babies born to us, 1 miscarried baby in heaven, 1 blighted ovum, a few deaths in the family, countless trips to Utah, 1 gigantic camping trip in our trailer to Canada, camping trips, restaurant eating, food experimenting, sicknesses, hormones, a pandemic, friends/family get-togethers, holidays and traditions, numerous church callings, many heartfelt prayers, lessons learned, sleepless nights, doctor visits, tears shed, hours of laughter, deep conversations, spiritual moments, and on and on and on.  It's been such a incredible blessing and a dream come true to have had the opportunity be be married and sealed to the man of my dreams, living the life and building the family that I have dreamed about my entire life.  I am not quite the woman that I want to be yet.  I am still unfinished and under construction.  With the Savior's grace, I can continue to improve, change, and eventually become the kind of woman that I long to be.

I set a goal to read the Book of Mormon in 30 days.  I started on September 1st and plan on finishing it before the month is over.  It will be a challenge, but one that I need to achieve.  I am reading it with a "Youth Focus".  Each time I read something that I feel like would be really good for the youth to know, or that would really help out the youth...I mark it and place it in a "Youth Focus" file on my scripture app.  I've only been going for a few days and have nearly 200 verses/phrases in that file.  I have a feeling this will be a very beneficial exercise for me.  And I have a feeling I will receive an even stronger testimony of the truthfulness and the importance of the Book of Mormon in our lives.

Today was a very spiritual experience for Lizzie (and Jon and I).  Lizzie was able to receive her Patriarchal Blessing.  It was a wonderful and beautiful experience.  The spirit was very strong in the room.  The Patriarch asked Lizzie some questions before he offered the blessing as well as having her read a few verses from Alma 37.  Lizzie was overcome with the spirit to the point of tears a few times.  Particularly when she was testifying of the truthfulness of President Nelson as a living prophet of God as well as the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  Lizzie (and I) read every single one of President Nelson's general conference talks last year.  It was a good experience for us both.  Jon and I each had the opportunity to say a few words to Lizzie about her Patriarchal blessing the the importance of it.  I also said the prayer before the blessing.  Whew -- there were a lot of emotions, a lot of tears...but the spirit was present in that room and it was a beautiful feeling.  Lizzie's blessing was beautiful.  She is an amazing daughter of God who loves her.  She is very special.  I am looking forward to the wonderful things that she will accomplish in her life.  Jon and I have been extremely blessed with a daughter of Heavenly Father who is doing all that she can to strive to follow Jesus Christ.  I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Jon and I were able to attend the Los Angeles Temple on Friday!  For the first time since before the Pandemic.  It was wonderful to be back in the Lord's house again.  I felt as if I payed attention even more and cherished every single word, as I really don't know for certain when I will have the opportunity to attend again.  If there is anything that the pandemic taught me, it is that we need to cherish every single moment as nothing in life is promised.

There was something pretty funny that happened at the temple...although it may not be funny to anyone else but me and Nana!  This is what I emailed her:

"The strangest thing happened at the temple yesterday!  During initiatories, I felt like my temple shoes (which have been in my temple bag in my closet since before Covid) we're sticking to the carpet. So I went in the bathroom and got wet paper towels to wipe them off. Then when I left the bathroom they still felt sticky so I wiped them on the carpet and chunks of the shoe soul came off, sticky chunks like gum!  Luckily I had an extra pair of temple slippers in my bag so I switched to those. 

Then when I met up with Jon for the endowment I told him about my shoes and he said that his shoes were feeling sticky too. We hurried and went to the session. We were asked to be the witness couple...and Jon's shoes were coming off in big chunks the whole time!  Every time we would walk from the alter to our seats he would leave a trail of his disintegrating shoe soul! He went to the temple hoping to have a spiritual experience but ended up stressing the whole time because everywhere he walked he was leaving chunks of his shoe!  By the end of the session his shoes were shot and he tossed them in the trash. The funny thing is that we weren't the only one with disintegrating temple shoes!  Jon talked to another patron who had the same issue!  What's the deal?!"

We will be laughing about this for years!

Anyway, I'll post some pictures.  I haven't been taking many, but here's what I've got!

Jon and I went to the temple on Friday, spent the night in a hotel, and spent some time at Knots Berry Farm as well.  It was all spooked up for Halloween!  I LOVE the fall.  Now that Bryce's birthday is over I am going to set up our Fall decorations this week.  On Tuesday, I think.

William is loving Kindergarten!  This is a picture of him at school that his teacher sent me.  My favorite part of the day is when I pick up William at the gate and he RUNS to me as fast as he can and that he is able to with his huge "Golden Yellow" backpack on.  He is a sweetheart, my little baby boy.  He is a joy and a blessing.  If only I could have more!  My heart yearns for more babies.

The kids are loving our new playground and trampoline.  I no longer have to force them to play outside.  They do it all on their own.  They are the luckiest kids on Earth.  We are so blessed to live out here in the "country", in the peace and quiet, on our own large private property.

Bryce's Birthday Breakfast!  The traditional birthday donuts!  Lizzie prefers scones (and so do I).  Bryce loves his donuts!  I make them myself, the easiest "cheat" recipe in the world.  I fry up canned biscuits in oil -- that's it!

I tried making homemade greek yogurt for the first time this week in my instant pot.  It was easy and yummy, but I'm not sure if it's worth it.

This picture popped up on our rotating picture frame.  I loved this day!  It brought back wonderful memories of the excitement of bringing another precious little spirit into our family.

We saw this huge red fuzzy ant this week!  Crazy!

Bryce's birthday cake!  He requested a German Chocolate cake -- I made WAY too much!  It was huge!  We had leftovers for days and I ended up throwing it away, ha ha.

Lizzie and Grandma -- Twinners!

It's hard to believe that this good-looking 12-year-old is mine!  Bryce is so handsome!

We had a ward pine-wood derby last weekend.  Jon is such a wonderful dad and he helped the kids with their cars.

Mason's Hot Dog Car!

William's Ghostbuster Car!

Caitlyn's Unicorn car!

One of the many joys of being a child is licking the cake batter off of the electric beaters!  It is my pleasure to provide these special moments for each of my children.

William is turning into such a great artist!  He drew everything in red!  I was very impressed!

I can't emphasize enough how much I love living out in the country on a our own dirt road!

I am so incredibly blessed.  Our family is so incredibly blessed.  I hope and pray that I am doing all that I can to serve Heavenly Father and be obedient to His commandments in an effort to show Him, by my actions, how much I love Him and how grateful I am for all of my countless blessings.