Professional Family Pictures!

One of our friends in our ward has a sister who is trying to launch her photography business and asked to take pictures of our family.  Excited for some nice family pictures I decided to get us matching outfits (really just me a new outfit so I felt semi-good about how I looked in the pictures).  

 Earlier that week I was in Denver and saw a sign for a huge sale at a store there.  So the morning of our photo shoot Elizabeth and I drove all the way to Denver for this sale.   We spent a long time in the store trying on different things and finally found a perfect shirt for me to wear during pictures;  I checked out, paid and was on my way back home to get ready for our pictures.  When I got in the car I checked the reciept and found that I was not given any discount but I really liked the shirt so I tried to shrug it off.  However as I drove home I kept getting more and more upset at the price for the shirt and the fact that I didn't get my discount (I know I am weird). When I was almost home, I called Ben and he told me to turn around and take it back- so I did with poor Elizabeth starving and bored in the back seat.  We went in to ask about the discount and they told me that the sale had ended days before but they hadn't gotten around to taking the sign down- WHAT?  So I returned everything (I had also gotten Elizabeth an ADORABLE outfit) and left.  I was so frustrated because I now had spent more than half the day shopping and driving and still did not have a shirt.  We went to two more stores before Elizabeth gave out and we had to go home.  In the last store I bought a shirt (which I look at now and probably won't wear again) and we went home to get ready. 

Ben came home from work early. Elizabeth was fed, napped and smiling. And I was in my new clothes and feeling accomplished that I had managed to get my family all put together for these pictures.  The time came for our photo session (she was meeting us at our house) and she didn't come.  We waited an hour and she didn't come; I didn't have her phone number and I ended up e-mailing her with a response the next day that she had forgotten.  I was so upset that I had spent the entire day getting ready, had a horrible experience shopping and then didn't even get the pictures taken.  Our awesome neighbor came outside and took some pictures of us (so that my matching outfits didn't go to waste)- thanks Nate!

We rescheduled with the photographer for the following Wednesday at 11 (so we didn't get to do a whole family shoot- sad).  This time it was my turn to forget; after a rough night and a hard morning, Elizabeth was asleep and I laid down to read when the knock came at the door. I ignored it for a while until it continued and I got up to see who it was;  to give you a visual,  I was in my pajamas, no bra, with my hair in a messy bun and I don't even think I had brushed my teeth that morning.  When I saw who it was I went into hyper apology and panic mode.  Elizabeth was woken up (at least she was smiling?), dressed in ragamuffin clothes, hair not done (actually hair standing up in weird places and pushed into an impromptu photo shoot.  This photographer was very nice and the pictures of Elizabeth turned out cute!
 I was so frustrated by the whole experience (shopping catastrophe and missed appointments x2) that I don't think we will take professional pictures for a LONG time.  

Trip to the Temple

Since having Elizabeth, I do not get to go to the temple as often as I would like.  Ben and I decided to go to the temple one Saturday (April 12) and we took Elizabeth down with us to do a trade off.  I went through first, an amazing relaxing and peaceful experience, and then came out to trade babysitting duty with Ben. However when Ben went to go in the doors were locked and we found out that the temple closed earlier than we had expected.  So poor Ben didn't get to go but he did get to walk around the temple grounds with Elizabeth and eat Cafe Rio, so I think he was okay.  

Elizabeth looks like an orphan child in this picture!

April- Article of Faith 6 & 9

Because there are 13 Articles of Faith and only 12 Months in the year I knew I would have to double up one month.  I decided to go out of order and study Article of Faith #6 and #9 this month.  I chose these two because they have to do with the organization of the church and continued revelation and this month is GENERAL CONFERENCE.  I hope to be able to view/study conference different after studying these articles of faith.

Article of Faith #6

We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists and so forth.

I found a lot of scriptures about revelation coming from and only from the Prophet (Amos 3:7).  D&C 43: 1-7 says "Through him whom I have appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelation from my hand... there is none other appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelation until he ne taken... receive not the teachings of any that shall come before you as revelation...that you may not be deceived...he that is ordained of me shall come... to teach those revelations which you have received and shall receive through him whom I have appointed. "  I like this set of scriptures because it talks about there being one prophet on the earth today. This supports and is echoed in D&C 28:2-8 "No one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church except my servant...the head of the church; For I have given him the keys of the mysteries, and the revelations which are sealed, until shall appoint unto them another in his stead."

I also spent a lot of time reading D&C 107 which is the Organization of the Priesthood. Here are some of the things I found. 

Prophets: Presiding High Priest over the High Priesthood (66); Presides over the whole church (91); seer, revelator, translator and prophet (92)

Apostles: Special witness of the name of Christ in all the world (23); Traveling Presiding High 

Counsel- build up the church, regulate affairs (33); Keys to proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (35)

Quorum of the 70: also witnesses with different duties (25); direction from/under 12 (34); called upon to assist the 12 in preaching and administering (38)

Pastors (Bishops):administering all temporal things (68); Judge of Israel (72)

Evangelists (Patriarchs): ordained by the 12 (39)

Article of Faith #9

We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

                                                                                                                                                           

I focused this study on these three statements has reveled, now reveals and will yet reveal.  The 'has revealed' part made me turn to the scriptures, which are past revelations.  I thought of this as both things that were revealed and have already come to pass like the birth and death of the Savior (Isaiah, Malachi and Samuel the Lamanite) or the restoration of the church in the latter days (2 Nephi 25:17); and also things that are still yet to come, like the 2nd Coming (Revelations).  

The statement "He does now reveal" made me think a lot about General Conference and the messages and teachings given to us from our Latter-day Prophets and leaders.  In recent years we have received the Proclamation to the Family, last year there were changes in missionary service ages and there are new temple videos that were just produced.  All of these things come through revelation given to the Prophet.  I am so grateful for a living prophet and the guidance that he gives.

The third statement is "He will yet reveal" and this is where I focused the majority of my study.  I think this statement supports that we have a living prophet (AoF6) that is still currently getting revelation and it pushes me to now be content but to continuously study and learn about the gospel.  I found so many scriptures about continued revelation, here are a few:

D&C 121:26-32 "God shall give unto you knowledge... that has not been revealed..."

D&C 76:7- "I reveal all mysteries... from days of old, and for ages to come...concerning all things pertaining to my kingdom."

D&C 124:41 (Chapter concerning the Baptism of the Dead and requirements of saints) "I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times."

Daniel 12: 4- "Shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end..."

Studying this topic strictly from the scriptures (and not from any conference talks or recent addresses) I gained a new understanding of the importance of the scriptures and what they can teach. This also confirmed my belief in the Latter-day leaders and their teachings because they support these scriptures.  

**This month I learned a lot of things but one thing that stuck out to me early on was that everything is so tied together.  If you believe one aspect of the gospel it filters into another; this is so true with my study of the Articles of Faith, they truly teach the building blocks and simple core truths of the gospel.

Some Elizabeth 'Moments"

Elizabeth has such a fun loving personality.  She is so adventurous and already has a great imagination. She has some puppets and is starting to figure out how to play with them (and her dolls/stuffed animals) in an imaginary way (as if they were real).  The other day (4/4) she was reading to herself with a puppet, it was so cute and one of the first times I saw her do this. 

She has also started loving to draw; A pen, pencil, marker or crayon, or anything she can get her hands on has to be used to draw.  We have done pretty good at keeping her art work to paper and only had one incident with a book and the oven door.  It is cute to see her focus all her attention on one thing and to see that she is trying to make deliberate movements.  And sadly we had one incident with her EATING a crayon (4/17) but hopefully that won't happen again...for a while at least!

We were given a kids chair from some people in our ward.  It is just her size and she loves it.  She climbs up there to read books, positions her babies on it perfectly and will sit there to watch TV.  It is so cute to watch her because it makes her look all grown up!

 She now understands that some things are silly and does them to get a laugh; she will make a sad face and then smile big,  she will suck on a binky (because she doesn't usually) to pretend she is a baby and she has learnt to play hide and seek herself (she will hide under blankets and wait for us to find her).  It is so cute to see her learning and developing! 

General Conference

I LOVE General Conference! We had General Conference at the beginning of April and it was great.  It always feels like life just slows down and everything calms down for Conference.  When the weekend is over the craziness returns but you are built up with such a great spirit that you can hold on for a while. 

Between sessions on Saturday we had a family picnic- it was so fun to have that special family time this weekend!