MARCH-ing on!

Emily had been SO excited to turn 12 and go to the temple, and she had a secret (at least at first) desire to have her first baptism trip be to the Salt Lake Temple, and THEN, the Young Women planned a trip TO Salt Lake right after her birthday, so she was SO-O-O excited,...until they had to cancel.  They were set to try again in January, but they started with just Laurels, so by the end of February, I knew, baby or not, we needed to plan a trip for her.  We planned for the first Saturday of March, and I was SO grateful as I started dabbling back into Family History (after a YEAR!!) to find 2 cousins that needed baptisms from that Hefner line Dad had coached me in.  It was a brother and sister that Dad had actually submitted, so it was nice to include him in things too :).  That morning Brent AND Maddie both got up and dressed, then realized that both of their recommends had expired (the DAY before--typical temple resistance!), but Maddie was fine to accompany me to the Family History Library w/ the younger ones, and Brent worked on jobs at home after his last basketball game.  It ended up just being Brian and Emily, and they each just did the one name, but still a great day.  I looked (without finding) for a name on Brian's side that's had us stuck at the awesome Family History Library (that was SO MUCH MORE kid-friendly than I expected!), but even w/ coloring and kids webpages, their limit was reached, so we met up w/ Brian and Emily as they were coming out, and spent some time in the Children's are of the Church History Library before getting Siegfried's sandwiches on the way home :). 

(Love this picture of them walking to the temple!) and hard to see, but Anne's kneeling in front of some purple crocuses!--first signs of spring!

Sweet Emily bore her testimony in Sacrament Mtg the next day, of the peace she felt at the temple. Then, that night, we had a great treat of Elder and Sister Nelson coming to a stake Family Fireside!! We asked the family if they wanted to get their (very) early for good seats, and maybe a chance to shake an Apostle's hand, and they all agreed to try.  We got there when the doors opened, and enjoyed having the last soft bench in the chapel. We kept popcorn and snacks in the van that the kids would go out in shifts to eat while a few stayed on the bench.   Emily was sad we didn't get in line fast enough to shake his hand afterwards, but they had great messages--of making our lives holy, and just doing our best at living the Gospel, even when not everything is perfect all at once, and of the Eternal Significance of FAMILY and TEMPLE.  Elder Nelson left us with a blessing to hunger and thirst after the word of God, and a blessing of healing for those seeking it.  Such a great thing to hear from an apostle!--we really had a good taking advantage of Utah weekend!

I taught Sunday School today, such a fun lesson, as the sole female teacher, to be able to cover all of the weddings, women, and babies of Genesis 24-29, and living up to our birthrights.  To me it was a lesson on the importance of priorities, and keeping that focus on what is most important.  I love the verse in Genesis 24 (27) describing Abraham's servant, that because he was where he should be "in the way" ,"the Lord led [him]."  Then with all of the importance and effort of marrying in the covenant, and the trading of Esau's birthright for a bowl of pottage, I started with the example of Mom and Dad's wedding.  I shared how I love that I grew up hearing that Mom made her own wedding dress, and that it turned out a little shorter than perfect, and that she "picked" her wedding colors just by which nice fabric was on sale for the bridesmaid's dresses, AND that she just didn't remember CARING about all of that too much, because she was so amazed at the prospect of getting married to Dad, and marrying HIM is what mattered, and marrying him in the temple WAS taken care of.  So opposite to a world full of magazines and TV shows dedicated to getting the perfect dress, the perfect cake, the perfect decorations, and missing what matters most :).

Salmon was on sale this week, so Brian treated us to, I'm not kidding, POMEGRANATE BALSAMIC GLAZED SALMON for dinner today! So delish, AND he heard that a new prosecutor job should be posting this week, so we are quite hopeful at the prospect of him getting back into government work! We shall see, but in the meantime, we'll enjoy these unseasonably warm days and LOTS of rain we've been having after fasting to overcome threats of a drought this summer.  The hope of Spring feels SO good!