Category Archives: Bonus Baby

My Baby is 20!

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My little “Bonus Baby” is having a birthday today!! What a wonderful darling baby. She is truly a blessing.

One day old.
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2 Years Old

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8 Years Old
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18 Years Old_MG_9428aNow!IMG_9463 (2)I am a blessed Mama. I hope my sweet Sister Emily has a wonderful birthday. I won’t be able to call her or hug her today. She’s on her mission for 7 more months. I sent her a package and a letter and a card. I will get to talk to her on Mother’s Day in about a month. Yay! So just for today, I’ll thank Heavenly Father for my sweet “Bonus Baby”, for her life and the wonderful opportunity to love her, and know her, and be her Mama!!!

Happy Birthday “Bonus Baby”!!! oxoxo

St. Lucia Teal!

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I have had a red front door for many years.

I have loved it! It was time for a change.

This is a picture of our old red front door.

Sorry, I couldn’t find a better one. I’m sure you get the idea.

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I found this color called St. Lucia Teal. It had to happen.

Isn’t it beautiful!?! I love it!

I think the front of the house will look awesome when we get our flowers planted.

I will be thinking thoughts of my little missionary serving in St. Lucia every time I see St. Lucia Teal!!!

13 Things I’ve Learned From Posting 1000 Posts!!!!!!!!!

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I have reached a milestone!!! Today I’m posting my

1000th post!

Here are 13 things I’ve learned from posting 1000 posts!!!!!

1-It’s ok to be yourself. 

I have learned that even though I’m not perfect, I am lovable.

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2-It’s a great way to tell your story. 

I love to read over my stories and relive my experiences.

3-I love to talk about my family, and their history.

I have wonderful children! My grand baby is adorable! My ancestors are the bomb! We are all basically pretty great people!!!

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4-It’s actually very fun to have a blog.

It’s a happy, fun, exciting place to share my life!

5-I have lots of heroes, friends, and memories.

My heroes are the good examples in my life. I try to emulate their lives. My friends are golden and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Well, my memory may go, but I’ll still have my blog.

6-Funny things happen in life.

Laughter really is the best medicine. I wrote a post once about laughing at inappropriate times, and yes I have been known to do that. I just innocently try to live my life and funny stuff just happens. I start to giggle and it’s all over. Next thing you know I have a stomach cramp, and tears are streaming down my face. I am thankful that I laugh easily. Life is too short to not laugh hysterically when the opportunity presents it’s self.

7-There are some wonderful movies and TV shows out there.

Dory: “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming….what do we do we swim, swim!”

I need that reminder a lot.

8-Sometimes I don’t Have anything to say, believe it or not. And that’s ok.

I have been amazed at the lack of things to say, or when I can’t think of anything to post. I never thought I’d see the day. I am very social, I can talk to anyone, but I do like to be by myself and just sit still and read or relax sometimes.

9-Life is busy!

Life is busier than ever before. We’re all busy. It makes living adventurous! Sometimes finding time to do a blog post is very difficult, but I’m always glad when I do.

10-I really love Sunday’s the Best!

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Peaceful, inspirational, and spiritual! Spending the day thinking about God and His precious gifts, and looking for ways to bless others lives!

11-The world is full of Beautiful Places!

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Always focus on the beauty in this world. We are so blessed by Father above to live in such a beautiful place. Look for the beauty!

12-I have learned lot’s of lesson’s. 

I’m so glad I’ve written them down. I love to learn and I’m glad that challenges are not wasted by having to repeat difficult times. I so appreciate the lessons!

13-It takes a long time to write 1000 posts. 

Who knew it would take almost 5 years of blogging to reach 1000 posts, but I did it!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!

Bonus Baby, Christmas Bonus!

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photoSister Emily is my Bonus Baby. She has been gone on her mission for 7 months. I haven’t spoken to her for 7 months. We email every week, and you can read her email on Mondays if you’d like. The posts are called “Out on a WIM”. I write a letter to her once a week, but I don’t call her or visit her. She is focusing on serving the Lord. She is spending all of her days and weeks and months sharing her love and testimony of God. We only talk to her two times a year, Christmas and Mother’s Day. I won’t talk to Emily again till May. She’ll be home around the beginning of December of 2014.

Why am I able to let my baby leave home for 18 months and not talk to her everyday? Because I love the Lord. Because I know that there is not one other thing that Emily could be doing with her time right now that would be more beneficial to her, to our family, and to those whom she will meet and serve than what she is doing now.

After a wonderful Christmas morning, after presents and a yummy breakfast, after relaxing and movie watching, we had the highlight of the day! We were able to Skype with our Em. We had a blast talking to her. We laughed and cried, and it was the best Christmas Bonus we could have asked for!

 

My Kiddos!

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DSC05352A few weeks before Emily left on her mission the kids were all out on the west lawn doing gymnastics and having fun. All of my children took gymnastics lessons for a period of time in their life. It is so fun to watch them playing and having so much fun together. They each took turns seeing how many back hand springs they could do in a row. Then they decided to have a hand walking contest. That’s when my darlin’ had to join in. I love time together with my family. What a wonderful experience to be a parent. I know I am so blessed to me Mama to these 4 people. I am so grateful for the love, lessons, experiences and time together for all the years we raised them. I love them so much!!

Family is a circle of friends who love you. -unknown

My Baby and My Love Language.

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The day or so after Emily left on her mission, I was so sad. More so, than I was when the other two kids left on their missions. I was very concerned about being sad. I kept questioning myself, “Why am I so sad? I know this will be a good thing, and that there isn’t anything better she could be doing with her time right now than serving the Lord.” One reason I kind of anticipated, is that Emily is my baby. I am done raising my children. I have gone from being the coach to cheering them on from the bleachers. I knew that someday I would be sad about this, but I also was hoping that I would be glad too. I also remembered that when my darlin’ and I took the Love Language test, I found out that my Love Language is time. Well, because I have had missionaries before, I know how long a year and a half is. I kept thinking that I don’t want her to be gone for that long. I will miss all that “time” with her.

Once I figured these two things out, I felt like I could be patient with myself. I understand that both of the things I’m struggling with would be hard for anyone to accept.

Now I feel peace.

I try not to focus on the struggle, and I just let Heavenly Father speak peace to my heart. And He is. I am so thankful. I know I can do this. I know that being a mom is one of the most important purposes of my life, and I am grateful for the opportunity. I enjoyed it as much as any mom could while I was in the middle of diapers and crying babies at night. I enjoyed snuggles and kisses, and “Mom, I love you’s.” Now I can enjoyed my adult children.

I can do hard things, like letting my daughter leave for a year and a half. I can spend time away from her, and I will be great!

Out on a WIM! #1

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Hello my awesome family! How are you guys?? I am doing sooooooo great! Loving the MTC! There is so much to tell and so little time. Mom I need you to send me in the mail my yellow fever record (the little pamphlet thing that is in with my missionary binder. I need it to go with my passport or I’m in big troub! So help a sista out! Also I need you to send me a copy of my patriarchal blessing, it was in my closet and I forgot to make a copy of it. The first day I was sad for a minute but got busy right after. But I didn’t sleep that night! I’m getting the missionary schedule down 🙂 It’s so awesome! My companion is Sister Bratt. She is so fun and we get along great. I LOVE my district and zone. We have so much fun and feel the spirit oh so much! I’m so glad I’m on a mission I know this is where I am meant to be. Anyway I’ll write better next week. I have to hurry this P day! Write me back and my P days are on fridays 🙂 I LOVE LOVE LOVE you guys and miss you so much! I’ve been not thinking about it too much so I’m good 🙂 I’m happy 🙂 I’ll talk to you guys next week! Write me letters. Tell everyone to! Hurrah for Israel! I luff you. TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! I sent you guys a letter. Happy day! Read. Pray. With love- Sister Emily

MTC!

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We dropped Emily off at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) today!!

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She will be an amazing missionary. We will miss her, but we know she will be blessed and that others will be blessed by her service.

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Look for posts called

“Out on a WIM!”

WIM is short for West Indies Mission.

Emily’s Facebook post: Hello everyone! I’m getting set apart tonight and I’m off to the MTC tomorrow! So this is my final post before I leave. I just wanted to let all of you know that you mean the world to me. Thank you for the support, money, love and anything else you guys have given me. I’m so grateful! I want you to all know that I have a testimony of the gospel and that it burns like a fire in my heart. I can’t wait to share it with all of the people of the West Indies! I will see you guys in 1.5 🙂 I love you all!

 Hurrah for Israel. And God be with you till we meet again 🙂

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Busyness!

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I recently wrote a post about how busy things have become. Last Sunday, “Bonus Baby” spoke in church, before leaving on her mission. It was mother’s day and we had a house full of guests here to see Emily speak. After Emily spoke, we had 60+ people at our home. It was a fun and very busy weekend. Emily did such a great job on her talk. She is a sweetheart and I am so blessed to be her Mama.

This Monday is Riley and Janet’s wedding. We have been busily making decorations and preparations. One of my favorite things that we have been working on is a bench to put Riley and Janet’s gifts on. It started out as our old bed frame. For years my sweetie and I shared a full size bed. We’re not tall people, and a lot of that time my darlin was working graveyard. When I got out of bed, he was getting in bed. We finally graduated to a queen sized bed. I kept the frame for all of these years because I wanted to make a bench out of it. So with the wedding coming up, we decided it was a great time to make the bench. It is turning out so cute!! We’re not quite done with it. Here’s a pic

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We will be busily decorating on Monday morning so Riley and Janet can get married. Then Monday night we’ll have a reception for them. I am so happy for them. They are a very good match for each other. Every mother wants her children to marry a wonderful person. Riley is marrying a wonderful person. We love Janet.

Just two days after the wedding, Emily will leave on her mission. (That was part of the reason for having the wedding two days before, so Emily wouldn’t miss it.) We will drive to the MTC in Provo and drop her off. Then we won’t see her for a year and a half. Ouch. I’ve done this before, but I never get used to dropping off a missionary and saying good bye for a time. The hardest part about this one is, she is my baby. My baby grew up. We used to tell the kids when they were little that “growing up” was against the rules. It was fun to get their responses to that. They’d say something like, “But mom, I have to grow up!”

She did it. She broke the rules, just like the others.

My church calling has been quite busy. I am the Primary President in our ward and I absolutely love it!! I have meetings every Sunday with the children in our ward. We sing and learn together. I love the be in Primary. I meet with my counselors and my secretary each week for an hour or so. We love the children and the teachers who serve with us. We feel very blessed knowing that Father in Heaven is helping us to do our best.

After the wedding, and Emily leaves, things will calm down quite a bit. I think I might have too much time on my hands. I know there will be tears. I know I will miss my “Bonus Baby”. I also know she will do an amazing job on her mission and will bless many people. I am happy when my children have amazing opportunities. This is how I feel about being the mother to a missionary.

I’ll just keep doing what my mission president taught me.

“Bloom Where You’re Planted!”

Life is good!