This week

Andrew had to get his shots on Tuesday this past week :( It was so sad. He had to get two shots in his leg and one that he drank. He has been pretty cranky since then, the poor little guy. He keeps spitting up a lot of his food too when he eats so I think his stomach must be upset too. I am going through about 4 shirts a day and a couple pairs of pants due to all the throw up. I don't know what to do to help him. He just likes to be held all day long and screams when I put him down, so this week has been pretty tiring. I did discover a new tv series on netflix that I like watching while he sleeps on me, haha. I have watched almost two whole seasons of the Vampire Diaries; much better than Twilight in my opinion, haha. Brandon has another big test tomorrow so he has been studying pretty hard the past week. I am seeing now why the wives always say medical school is rough; I don't really get to see Brandon at all. He goes to school and then comes home and has to study in the back room when he is here. It has been hard for me to get used to not having him around all the time; but that is just life.

Primary is going alright. I feel bad I couldn't put on an activity for Halloween, but I just did not have the energy to do it. The parents are frustrated at me that we didn't do a trunk or treat but I just really couldn't do it. I will have to plan some sort of activity after the primary program in a couple of weeks for them. Today I made a pumpkin singing time. I made a couple of pumpkins and all sorts of faces that can be put on like a jack-o-lantern for the kids to do for singing time. With the older kids we are going to play name that tune where the piano plays only part of a song and they have to guess what song it is. And whatever team guesses right gets to put a piece of the jack-o-lantern on their pumpkin and whoever finishes first wins. They like the competition stuff.

Two Months Old

This week Andrew will be two months old already! I can't believe we have already had him that long. We just had a really fun week. Brandon took his big test on Tuesday and got an 87%. He still felt he could do better but I think that really great for a super hard test, and now he will know the format for the next test. But after Tuesday he was able to spend lots of time with us, which was great because we haven't seen much of him while he has been studying so hard. On Thursday afternoon we went and played tennis at the park. I was horrible! But it was still fun :) Friday we went out to eat at the Olive Garden. We haven't gone out to eat since our family was here, so it was nice. Andrew was awake the whole time but he was still pretty good. Brandon figured out that the Olive Garden chairs have wheels on the bottom so we could rock him back and forth and as long as we did that he was happy to just sit there. Saturday we went and played tennis again and i was much better, so that was fun. The weather has been pretty cool lately; around 75 degrees. It is perfect tennis weather but a little chilly for the beach, haha. We are turning into babies about the cold. Andrew has to go and get his shots on Tuesday, so that is not going to be fun :( Andrew is doing so great though. He is starting to be so much fun now. He loves to play patty-cake and smiles and makes sounds the whole time; it's so cute! He smiles when you tickle him now too. And his favorite song right now is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He gets so excited when I start singing that to him. I can't imagine a cuter baby in the history of the world; he is just so adorable. There is nothing like his cute little smiles in the morning. It has been a while since he has been cranky; so that has been really nice. He is just a happy little guy as long as we are by him. He gets lonely fast if we leave him in his crib or somewhere by himself. He has also started to sleep longer at night finally! Yeah! I only had to feed him once the other night; it was amazing :)

Dad's Birthday

      Yesterday was my dad's birthday :) I just wanted to write about some of my happy memories I have had so far with him. I'm sure we will have many more, but it is nice to reminisce sometimes :)
       I remember when we were little my Dad would always come tell David and me a story. I especially loved the stories about the Jedi knights and about my favorite stuffed animal Jenny's adventures. He would tell us episodes every night and I was always so excited to hear what would happen next in his stories. He is a really good story teller. We would also have lots of lazy nap times where he would scratch my back and help me fall asleep.
        I remember playing Age of Empires many Sunday days with David and me. I loved playing with my Dad! He is probably the reason I love computer games so much, haha. I loved going to his work with him and having him show me all his computer stuff that he does. I have always looked up to my Dad for how smart he is.
       I also really miss my Dad's crepe nights. He makes the best crepes ever! I remember I would eat about half of the batch just by myself. I loved those crepes. I remember making him breakfast in bed too and even though I would wake him up early for it, he would always smile and eat it anyway. Christmas mornings were always fun too. I remember Dad would always get the camcorder out and we would all whine about being filmed while we looked funny in our pj's at 5am; but he would film us anyway and I'm glad he did. I also remember going on lots of camping trips with Dad. He loves to fish and I loved when he would take me with him even though I wouldn't touch the worm or the fish, haha. Sunday games at home with the family are some of my favorite memories too. Dad would always sing songs during the game and make everyone crazy becuase he would take such long turns, haha. I thought he was funny. One of his favorite songs to sing during games is what do you do with a drunkin sailor. Now I find myself singing this song during games with Brandon, haha.
     When going off to college I remember my Dad taking time off work to help me move into my new apartment and getting me all situated at BYU. I remember him getting a little teary eyed when it was time for them to go and I thought it was so nice he cared so much :) My Dad always took the time for me when I needed him. I remember him giving me many blessings while I was at home. I have really looked up to his spiritual power that he has. He has always been so faithful in his callings and is able to give the most powerful talks I have ever heard. I remember thinking he would be an apostle or something someday. My Dad helped spark my interest in nutrition and I loved all our talks about healthy foods and whats new in the world with nutrition.
     Most of all my Dad has always helped me feel good about myself. He has helped me achieve so many of my goals and has been there to urge me on. He always expected the best of me and helped me reach for more. He helped me see the importance of education and studying hard. He also showed me what type of man I wanted my husband to be. Someone who is strong in the gospel, loves his family, takes time to be with his family, is educated and compassionate. I am so grateful I have such a great Dad, and love him so much!

Sunday

       Well today has been a pretty hard day. I woke up at about 2am with a really bad stomach ache. I was up for a long time just sick :( Andrew actually slept most of the night but I was up being sick; it was not fun. Then I got feeling a little better so I went to give my talk. It went pretty well. I think I only spoke for about 7 minutes or so. But I actually spoke slowly this time so the translator could keep up. One great thing about my primary calling is that I am not afraid to get up in front of people anymore. I wasn't nervous at all and didn't even turn red for once. So that was great :) After my talk I wasn't feeling to great still but the primary just doesn't have enough people to work without me right now, especially when my first counselor is gone. The kids really liked the singing hospital though. I brought Brandon's lab coat and stethoscope for them to wear when they came to pick a song out of the pocket. The Junior primary is so much better behaved than senior primary. It is so hard to deal with the rowdy senior primary; I feel like I am about to go insane after senior primary singing time. But at least they liked being doctors too.
       Brandon got released from being a counselor in the young men's today so maybe I can grab him for primary, haha. We have some teachers that haven't shown up for 3 weeks now and it is so frustrating trying to find a sub at the last minute. Brandon also has a big test on Tuesday that he has been studying really hard for. I am very proud of him for how good he has been studying. He goes to school around 7 and doesn't come home till 6. He has been studying really hard so hopefully his test goes well on Tuesday. He is such a good test taker I bet he will do really great :)

Here is a copy of my talk on Covenants:

Covenants

When researching about covenants I came across a talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson about the power of covenants that I really liked. He asks the question “What is the source of moral and spiritual power, and how do we obtain it? The source is God. Our access to that power is through our covenants with Him.”

A covenant is a sacred agreement between God and a person or group of people. God sets specific conditions, and He promises to bless us as we obey those conditions. When we choose not to keep covenants, we cannot receive the blessings, and in some instances we suffer a penalty as a consequence of our disobedience. “When we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” D&C 130:20-21. A covenant is different than a commandment. We all have commandments given to us that we are expected to follow. But in a covenant, we are promising to God that we will keep His law. And it is very serious if we break our promise to Him.

The Lord has given us the opportunity to have many different covenants with Him and thus an opportunity for blessings. In our dispensation the Lord has revealed the new and everlasting covenant, which is the fullness of the gospel, to Joseph Smith. The covenants are new every time they are revealed after a time of apostasy. It includes the doctrines and commandments of the Lord including baptism, temple marriage, the word of wisdom etc.

I think it is a good thing for us to review what covenants we have made with the Lord.

In Mosiah 18:8-9 we learn about the covenants we make in baptism. By being baptized we make a covenant with God to bear one another’s burdens, mourn with those who mourn, comfort those who need comfort, and stand as witnesses of God at all times. If we do these things we are promised that we will be redeemed of God and numbered with those of the first resurrection and have eternal life.  Elder Christofferson says, “By being baptized into the church we become part of the covenant people of the Lord and heirs of the kingdom of God.”

In D&C 132 the Lord reveals the new and everlasting covenant of celestial marriage. He says that if you marry by the word of God and it is sealed by the Holy Spirit then you will come forth in the first resurrection and will inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, powers, dominions, all heights and depths. You also will be exalted and be Gods. What amazing blessings these are if we abide by the covenant of celestial marriage in the temple.

In the temple endowment we covenant to be chaste, charitable, benevolent, tolerant and pure; to devote our time, talents and material means to the church, to maintain devotion to the cause of truth, and to help prepare the earth for Christ.

I have really started to learn what it means to give all of your time and talents to the Lord with my new primary calling. It takes all of my time during the week. But I find that as I devote myself more to the Lord, He blesses me with the ability to take care of Andrew and get all the primary things done that I need to. The calling has really helped my faith to grow.

            Robert J. Matthews states “because gospel covenants are revealed from heaven, they are specific indicators of what God would have us do.” We are able to know God’s will for us by the covenants we make with Him. This is such a great blessing because we don’t have to be in the dark. We can know that if we are keeping our covenants with God we are on the right path to salvation. God has laid out the path before us and all we have to do is stay faithful to our covenants and they will lead us home. President Boyd K. Packer reminds us that “we are a covenant people. We covenant to give of our resources in time and money and talent—all we are and all we possess—to the interest of the kingdom of God upon the earth. In simple terms, we covenant to do good. We are a covenant people, and the temple is the center of our covenants. It is the source of the covenant.” It is in the temple that we make these covenants with God and it is so important that we are worthy to go to the temple and participate in these sacred covenants.  Our covenants will help strengthen us and keep us close to the Lord so that we can bear our burdens and become more perfected in Christ.   

            How are we strengthened by keeping our covenants? Elder Christofferson says the first way we are strengthened by keeping covenants is that as we are obedient to the commandments of Christ we are promised many blessings from God by his covenant with us. Those blessings are what help strengthen us in times of need. 

            The second way we are strengthened by keeping covenants is they “produce the faith necessary to persevere and to do all things that are expedient in the Lord.” It takes faith to get baptized and take the name of Christ upon us but as we keep his commandments our faith grows. In the lectures on faith it states, “In offering whatever sacrifice God may require of us, we obtain the witness of the Spirit that our course is right and pleasing to God. With that knowledge, our faith becomes unbounded, having the assurance that God will in due time turn every affliction to our gain.”

            The Lord said in D&C 97:8-9 “Verily I say unto you, all among them who are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice- yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command- they are accepted of me. For I the Lord, will cause them to bring forth as a very fruitful tree which is planted in a goodly land, by a pure stream, that yieldeth much precious fruit.” I really liked this scripture because the Lord is telling us that if we keep our covenants and obey His commandments He will bless us so that we can bring forth fruit or in other words He will help purify ourselves and do much good in the world.

            The last blessing from keeping covenants Elder Christofferson says is the bestowal of divine power. He states “Our covenant commitment to Him permits our Heavenly Father to let his divine influence flow into our lives.” God can bless us so much more because by living our covenants we show Him that we are willing to receive more knowledge and spiritual power.

In conclusion covenants make us strong. They provide blessings from God, help our faith to grow, and allow Heavenly Father to bless us with increased spiritual power and knowledge.

Good day :)

      Yesterday I got to go hang out with my first counselor in the primary for a few hours. It was really fun :) I have been pretty lonely with just me and the baby here all day by ourselves so it was nice to be able to hang out and talk to somebody for a while. She lives over on Key Biscayne which is really beautiful. We went to a fun park there with her kids. And I am really excited because she knows some really good tennis people that I could hit with! I have been dying to play tennis so that would be awesome if I could get some hitting partners out here. I miss all my Utah tennis partners!
        I was able to finish my talk for church on Sunday. Brandon bought me some diet coke with lime a little while ago that i have been trying not to drink because it has caffeine in it and I don't want Andrew to get too hyper but I had to have one the other day. So I had it at about 5 or 6pm which was a bad idea. I could not sleep at all! Andrew was actually sleeping great but I couldn't sleep, I was so mad! But I was able to write my talk at midnight and finish it, haha. It may not be the best talk I have ever written but its the best I can do right now.
       I also finished my singing time hospital for Sunday. I am going to have Brandon come in wearing his doctors lab coat and stethoscope and "diagnose" the kids' singing songs for the program. All the songs start out in the waiting room and they get discharged from the hospital if they sing really good and they go to the emergency room if they don't know the song well. It should be fun :)

 

 

Andrew 7 Weeks

 He always has smiles for Daddy when he comes home :)

Helping Mommy get ready in the morning. He liked playing with the brush!

 Caught him sucking on the thumb, haha, so cute

Well this week has been pretty hard so far. Andrew has decided to never sleep. He only takes 20 minute naps during the day which isn't enough for me to do anything in! I am so tired. He doesn't sleep for more than 1-2 hrs at a time at night either and is up for the day at 5am. So I don't know how he does it but I guess he doesn't need that much sleep anymore which stinks because I do! He is getting so smily though, I love it! In the morning right after he wakes up he is so happy for about an hour, smiling all over the place. He has also started making cute little cooing sounds. I keep trying to get it on tape but he doesn't do it when I get the camera out. But it is super cute! He has also started to love his little stuffed elephant. I wiggle it around and he smiles and gets excited to see the elephant. It is so fun to watch him learn and grow!

Sunday

Well today was crazy in primary. We took Andrew to church for the first time. Brandon had him for the first half of primary and then I got him for the second half when Brandon had to teach. He was pretty good for me but Brandon had to walk with him outside for a while because he was cranky. Sharing time went pretty good for me. The junior primary loved acting out the story of Daniel and the Lions den. I made some lion masks and some crowns for the king and jealous princes. The kids learned the story really well and were really great actors; it was fun :) For senior primary I told the story of the Brother of Jared and taped up 16 laminated rocks on the board that each had a question to go with it. Then split the primary into two teams and had them answer the questions. They really liked the competition, but some of the kids got a little too into it and got crazy. The winners got to watch the other team do the hoky poky, haha, it was cute. And after church the counselors in the bishopric found me and asked me to give a talk next Sunday. I had to cry a little in the car, but I'm ok now. Andrew has been eating every hour right now at night and during the day so church is really hard becuase it is so long. Next week I will be doing singing time. Hopefully I will have time to write my talk and make some sort of singing time prop the kids will like; that helps a lot with singing time. Church is just a little stressful for me right now.
    Andrew's fun new thing is sticking his thumb in his mouth. It is so cute! He is learning how to open up his hand better and get that thumb in there, haha. That would be awesome if he could learn to like his thumb and just quiet himself down like that! 

6 weeks old

 Smiling at his Palm Tree; he loves that thing!

 His Halloween Costume we got him. He makes a pretty cute little bear!

     

 My singing time Mailman

     My 6 weeks is finally up so I can get in the pool, hot tub, and ocean again! Yeah! I can also start exercising again; I'm so excited! It's funny how when you aren't allowed to do something like exercise you want to do it so much more so now i am really excited to get back into the gym again. This past week we went to the beach again up at Hollywood. This time Andrew didn't like it quite as much. He was a little cranky because the wind was really strong. He did like sitting in the sand though. Andrew has also been really constipated for about 4 days so the doctor told me to try some sugar water or sliding the thermometer up his bum. So I tried it and I have never seen so much poop in my life! haha. It was so gross! He got it all over his changing table and kept getting his hand in it; eww! We went through about 5 diapers in 10 minutes; he kept filling them up completely! But at least he got it out, haha, he is so much happier today.
        Being a mom is a lot different than I had pictured it. I thought you just sit around with your cute baby and they smile and play all day. But a newborn is much different than that. I can't really play with toys with him yet so it is really hard to find things to do with him all day. I try to read to him but he gets bored of that in about 5 seconds. So we go on lots of walks. His favorite spot in the whole house is his changing table with the palm tree above him; he loves to sit there forever and just look at the palm tree I made. Good thing I put that up, haha, it is the only thing that gets him to stop screaming sometimes. He is learning to like the jungle mat a little better but still can't really focus on any of the toys for more than a few minutes. When we are really out of options we go down to the pool and I stick his feet in the water; he really likes that. Other than that he hangs out in his bouncer and swing and I put on some gospel music my mom got me; he loves it, it puts him right to sleep. I wish I could do more with him but it's just really hard at this stage. Lately he has been so cranky too which wears me out a lot; but I think it was because he was so constipated so hopefully now he is going to be happier. Today has been really good. He is smiling more and more. I can't wait until he can laugh at us too, that will be so fun!
   Primary is going a little better finally; but is still really disorganized so I am working as hard as i can to get it better. Mish brought a bunch of really fun primary books down when she visited so I have been looking through them and making some of the fun activities in them. It is especially great for singing time. This week I made the singing time mailman which the kids can pick letters out of the mailbag that have songs written on them. I think they will like it a lot on Sunday. I have to do sharing time this Sunday on Heavenly Father hears my Prayers. I got a really great lesson idea from the things Mish brought so I am going to teach the story of the brother of Jared and the stones and things. I will post it after I give it; the activity is cute :)