The House of the Lord

Rexburg, Idaho Temple

Hooray! We finally went to the Temple again today! It has been a LONG time since we've gone and we have no excuse because we have one 5 minutes away. But, as with a lot of people, we get caught up in the thick of thin things.. too often forgetting the important things that keep our spiritual torch burning bright.

President Thomas S. Monson puts it so clearly here in this quote from his talk "What Have I Done For Someone Today", 

We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the “thick of thin things.” In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.

Ouch. Yeah, guilty as charged.. but I'm gonna do better! And make Temple worship a priority!

 I must admit, it felt sooo good to go today. It always does. Just sitting in the Temple waiting for the session to start felt so right. I love the peaceful feeling I get when I get to relax and enjoy the Spirit in the House of the Lord. 

It was this time where I prayed and asked for the Spirit to be with me and for me to gain wisdom and learning and education taught from on high. I wanted to be taught by the Spirit and for me to spiritually "see" (aka understand, gain insight, etc..) what I haven't seen before in previous sessions. And I definitely felt that I learned new things this time around.

I also put a few names on the temple prayer roll and thought about those people during the session, and really thought about the person I was doing the ordinance for..which made my experience all the more enjoyable and sweet.

Houston, Texas temple, where we got married

I've had a good day all around today. I have been trying to make it a habit to get more exercise so I found a good walking route I take with Lydia. I also got to do my visiting teaching with my partner today and it is always so nice to talk to other women about life and the gospel. I wasn't really planning on going to the Temple today, even though I mentioned it to Jonathan yesterday. But today our friend invited us, so we decided to go. And what a blessing! Ever since I decided to put a scrapbook together for Lydia I always wanted to include her newborn baby footprints she got the day she was born at the hospital. However, I could not for the life of me find them aaaanywhere, since we moved. It has been 5 months since we have been to the Temple, and 5 months since I last checked my Temple (actually, my diaper bag I never use haha) bag...which had her baby footprints tucked away in one of the pockets! 

Can you say tender mercy from the Lord? That was the LAST place I expected to look and find it, which if I had had my priorities set straight, it would have been the FIRST place I could have found it! I feel really humbled and grateful by this experience. 

Temple attendance has truly blessed my life!! I know I am not only married, but sealed to my husband, Jonathan, as well as Lydia and any other future posterity. Realizing that blessing, a first of many, every time I go to the Temple, always brings a refreshing perspective of how much the Lord really loves His children and our families!

(if you have any questions about the LDS Temple, just leave a comment below with an email for me to respond back to, or visit the link below.)

http://www.lds.org/church/temples/frequently-asked-questions?lang=eng

Salt Lake City, Utah Temple

Drive-In Movie

Remember this post? About my bucket list? Well, I thought it would take me a while longer to get another thing crossed off the list.. Little did I know it'd happen so soon!

On Wednesday, Jonathan and I invited our good friends, Jared and Whitney to go out to eat with us. After dinner they mentioned the drive in movie theater playing the Bourne Legacy and the Amazing Spider-man back to back that night; both movies we hadn't seen yet, so we agreed to it! Needless to say, watching a movie out of the car was a lot cooler than the actual Bourne movie was.  But I'll get to that later!

Sigh.. I really love Rexburg..and all its perks! We saw both movies back to back for only $6.50 per person! Does it get any better? The regular theater charges around 8 for one movie. However, when it comes to comfort, it was a bit chilly once the second movie started at 11:45pm. For the Bourne Legacy, me, Lydia and Whitney got to sit in the back of their jeep. It was nice and comfy and wasn't too cold. Lydia ended up sleeping for most of the movie, which was nice.

Yay, it's like camping for a few hours! {Best Buds}

Lydia..guarding the snacks!

 

Lydia always looks SO attractive when the flash is on hahaha

 For Spiderman I switched with Jared so he could sit cuddle with Whitney in the jeep and I sat with Jonathan in the other camping chair outside of the jeep. They kept Lydia with them so she could stay warm but it wasn't long 'til she wanted me again, and then ended up falling asleep once more. I enjoyed Spiderman, but it was kind of hard to focus on it because sitting outside of the jeep was really cold, even with blankets (next time we'll definitely have to bring mas!). But it was a good movie. I'll have to watch it again in the comfort of my home next time!

As for the Bourne Legacy... kind of a letdown to the trilogy. There was good acting and a lot of action..but a stinky storyline.. and the ending basically sucked. Haha.. anyways, don't waste your money on it! 

It was a fun night! We love hanging out with our neighbors! They are the best! :)

Family Pictures!

Soooo I guess I should finally put up the family pictures that were taken by the fabulous Hannah Nielsen. I've been trying to decide whether or not to put them all in one post, or use a picture for different posts each time I write to make it more surprising. Buuuuuuttt I figured my parents/family would enjoy seeing our family pictures. So here they are!

These first ones were edited by Hannah and LJ. It's SO hard to choose which one I love the best!!!
The rest below were edited by me with photobucket. haha Yeah, go photobucket!

Haha it's always so awkward taking pictures with a baby in a dress..

I love the bright colors on this.

I love love love her cheesing smile.

Hannah took us to a cupcake shop and had Lydia TRY to destroy one. She didn't really attack it unfortunately.

I had a little bit of fun with this one. So, the reason I asked Hannah to take our pictures was because I saw her taking pictures while we were at our stake summer party, and asked if she wouldn't mind taking some of Lydia since she's now one (hence the cupcake/birthday hat)..and then I asked if she wouldn't mind doing some family shots.. Which was perfect because it was a day after our two year anniversary..and we needed an updated photo of us all. Thank you so much Hannah (and LJ) for taking and edited our photos! 

We love them!!!

PS: which is your favorite?!

Happy and Crafty

Yesterday is what I'd like to call...an all craft day. Because that's basically what I did.

Here are some of my recent projects. Most everything I got was from the Dollar Tree or Walmart. I love cheap prices. I'm a cheapo and I know it.

A wreath with flowers hanging on Lydia's door. She LOVES it. Every time the door swings open she starts hooting and pointing at it.  All items from the dollar tree. Total = $3

Okay, its not really crafting anything, but I finally printed off some wedding pics and put them in frames. Then I rearranged the pictures that we already had hanging up to look better. All I am missing is one wall (on the right)

our wedding pictures in the center, and Lydia's pictures on the left with The Family Proclamation. I have to figure out what to put on the right wall. hmmmm Maybe "The Living Christ"?
This is above our couch in the living room.

Lydia's pictures that Hannah took of her/us

I moved the First Pres. picture and the picture of Christ I drew to the little space between the bathroom hallway and our bedroom door. Sorry it's really hard to see.

These are my mod podged canvas wall art. I had found on Pinterest/someone's blog canvas art where you attach tissue paper to a piece of paper and print out your picture on the tissue paper and mod podge it carefully to the canvas. Unfortunatley, I'm not sure what was wrong, but I spent an hour and a half at my printer trying to print. My printer just got jammed about 52948594841 times!! So frustrated. So finally I just printed off the pictures on regular photo paper and mod podged them on to it. This was my first MP project. MP kind of gives your picture a shiny seal/coat to it. Then I painted the tops and bottoms different colors. The black and white ones got the color red because when I started MP-ing them the black color started bleeding pink.. I discovered later that it's better to print pictures on regular printer paper when mod podging them. Lesson learned!

Pretty easy to make. Print pictures, mode podge ($4), paint (78cents), canvas (6X6) 4 for $7

see the shiny finish? It looks better in person. I think this one turned out the best and it was the first one I did. I think it turned out better than the others because I put only a thin coat of MP on it, whereas I laid it on on the others and so there were a few bubbles. It's still a nice touch to our bathroom hallway area near Lydia's room.

Up close, Lydia's eyes look pink/red. She has demon eyes haha. Oh well, it was a fun project!
I was just bummed it took a long time.

Well, there you have it! Here are my projects!