more pics

Brooklyn is figuring out how to smile! She is so cute and getting so roly-poly. Cayden loves the outside and he and Dolly chase the cat (the sweeper) all the time. They never seem to catch it though! Cayden took a dump into the pool, but his dad has been teaching him how to go under the water and close his mouth and to paddle, and he all but got himself out. Grandma helped save the day and he wailed pretty good, but you would never have known he was upset, for he went right back out today and chased the dog and the cat again!

Spiritual Impressions from reading the Book of Mormon

I was reading in 2Nephi tonight and I read the last verse of Chapter 32...9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.... and it hit me very hard that I have not been praying enough.

Then as I was fixing dinner and reading another chapter as I was working, I kept thinking about that verse and some very strong impressions about our family came to me. I don't know what your praying habits are and I am not going to ask. But I felt impressed to invite you to join with Dad & I and Andi, Jennie, Cayden and Brooklyn to pray each night together as a family - at the same time whereever we are. Even if we are by ourselves...at the appointed time have a quick prayer whereever we are so that we are praying for each other together.

We want to make sure Cayden joins with us so we are going to pray at 8:00 pm each night. So in whatever time zone you are, please join us and think of each member of our family in your prayers. We all have issues and problems that only the Lord can help us solve. I think there will be great strength and power in a family prayer.

I love all of you and would have your lives be simple and easy. But that is obviously not going to happen. Our lives...as reflected in my last spiritual thought here in the blog...must have ordeals and challenges so that we can grow and mature our spiritual selves. Let's help each other to make strong steps towards that goal.

Love Mom

More Pics of Brook & Cayden

I am doing better at taking pics these days. Must be because I am around 2 kids. Who knows?Anyway, here are a few cute pics. Jennie had Cayden on her lap just chilling before bed last night and we included a cute shot of them with this pictoral story!

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Brooklyn's learning to smile!

Here are some fun pics as Brooklyn is figuring out how to smile! It is hard to get them because they are fleeting, but she loves to smile for her mom.

Visiting Teaching message hit me strong

I wanted to share a moment of inspiration that happened to me on Friday and yesterday. I went visiting teaching on Friday and used the August Ensign message and then my VT's came to visit me yesterday and we talked about both August's and September's message. Let me share a couple of thoughts that were so impactful for me.

In August's message President Lorenzo Snow (1814-1901) said this: "We believe that we are the offspring of our Father in heaven, and that we possess in our spiritual organizations the same capabilities, powers and faculties that our Father possesses, although in an infantile state, requiring to pass through a certain course or ordeal by which they will be developed and improved according to the heed we give to the principles we have received”. I have known this concept but the thing that really hit me was that we must pass through ordeals in order to develop the powers that will allow us to become as our Father in Heaven is, while giving heed to the principles of the Gospel.

Then, in Romans 8:16-17 this scripture clarifies again the same concept in a little different fashion: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

To me this helps me see that in order for us to inherit the kingdom of God, we MUST SUFFER as Christ did, not necessarily as bad, so that we can be joint-heirs with Christ of our Father's kingdom.

So the ordeal or suffering, is an integral part of inheriting the Kingdom of God, while giving heed to the commandments. Not letting the trials and ordeals become so overwhelming in our lives that we cannot keep the big picture in mind.

I loved these concepts.

Then in September's message it further clarifies and adds to this concept:

President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency: “The purpose of God’s creations and of His giving us life is to allow us to have the learning experience necessary for us to come back to Him, to live with Him in eternal life. That is only possible if we have our natures changed through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, true repentance, and making and keeping the covenants He offers all of His Father’s children through His Church”.

Doctrine and Covenants 78:18: “Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.”

What great promises! We cannot lose hope because of adversity. We must continue on, focusing on keeping the commandments and he will lead us along.

I love you all and know that through these trials and ordeals we will grow closer and be together forever.

Love Mom

I thought I would share this experience with everyone cause I know that we are all struggling with different things right now. I went to the temple today and had a strong impression that I should share some of the things that I have learned in this last week.

As you all know, Doug has been in Pittsburgh the last 4 weeks. It has been an extremely tough time for Logan and I. Especially for Logan. I have felt like I was all alone and that I wasn't being the kind of mom I wanted to be. I wasn't feeling peace at all and that really bothered me.

On Sunday we had a lesson about the natural man. It was very interesting because the lady teaching brought up some different things that really hit home for me. In my patriarchal blessing it tells me to avoid the natural man 3 different times. Apparently Heavenly Father knew that I would struggle with this.

When I was in college I thought that it meant that I shouldn't covet worldly things like shoes or clothes. This is a true statement but it also means other things too. Since I have pretty much been a single mom for the last month my patience for Logan has gone down drastically. I have felt very drained and in need of time apart from him. Logan has regressed with potty training and he is having a very hard time being away from Doug. Something that our teacher said really hit home for me. She said that the natural man can also be me not having patience or being short with someone or showing anger towards them. For me it was with Logan. I realized that I was letting the natural man take over and that I needed to push that away and allow the spirit to help me.

Since then things have been a little easier. I have asked Heavenly Father that he bless me with the patience necessary to raise Logan in an environment pleasing to the Lord. I have found that even though he still has accidents or yells at me or even hits me that I have a choice. Once I have realized that I can teach him with the spirit. By the way, this lesson didn't fix things permanently for me. We still struggle. It has just helped me to make a conscious decision about how I am going to react.

The 2nd thing I wanted to mention was something I read in Nephi 3. It was a fantastic chapter and I read some great things out of it!

Well, I was reading the scriptures the other night and had this feeling like I needed to start reading the book of mormon again. So I turned to chapter 1 and started reading. When I got to Chapter 3 I knew why I had that prompting. So, I just wanted to share a few things with everyone that stood out to me when I was reading chapter 3.

I have wondered over and over why certain things happen to certain people and also why those same things or a similar trial keep happening over and over. As I was reading chapter 3 it was talking about how Nephi and his brothers were commanded to go and get the plates from Laban. It was very interesting to me how many times they had to try before they got the plates. I have a tendency to assume that if Heavenly Father commands it that it will happen with ease. Turns out that i am wrong. He does make a promise to us though and that is if we will follow his commandments (no matter how many times we are required to try) he will provide a way. In chapter 3 Nephi talks about how he was able to get the plates. The Lord provided a way. It wasn't the way that you would think, but it was a way. Nephi was blessed so much for following the Lords commandments.

As for why things happen over and over I have learned that it is because WE are not learning the lesson that He wants us to learn. Once I submit to His will it seems that I learn a very important lesson.

So, the question that i asked myself after reading this was "Do I have the faith necessary to follow and endure the things that the Lord asks of me?"

I hope that everything is well with everyone! Love you tons!
Brandy

More Pictures of Baby Brooklyn!

New Brooklynn pics at home

Brooklynn has arrived!

Here are a few pictures of a beautiful 4 hour old baby and her big brother and mommy and daddy. We are so happy that Brooklynn has been added to our family. Her big brother Cayden can't put her down and we will definately have to keep eagle eyes out on him to keep her healthy and SAFE! But such love is a wonder to behold.

I have not forgotten!!

So, I just wanted to let everyone know that I have not given up on the blogging world! Our life has been so crazy the last 3 weeks! I spent a wonderful week in Lake Powell with my best buddy Krista (pics coming soon) and so much more!!! I have tons of really fun stories to tell everyone as well as fun pics so be patcient!!! Love you all!!

Our adventures with painting prayer rocks!

For FHE tonight we had a lesson about prayer and then we painted prayer rocks (thanks elaine for the idea). I knew that I wanted to have the kids paint some rocks but I didn't know why they should paint rocks until I talked to Elaine! HAHAHA! It was funny. We sat down and I gave them a quick lesson about praying and how we talk to our Heavenly Father. Cayden had his arms folded almost the whole time! It was funny. After the lesson we got them undressed and took them outside to let them paint some rocks! It was awesome!!!! They even kept themselves exceptionally clean!! What cool kids! They each got to paint 2 rocks and then they came inside for Popsicles. Yum!


This is Logan's rock. So colorful!!
This is Cayden's rock. He liked red and orange!!

Another Family Night And Other Thoughts

For family night tonight I decided that I wanted to include the boys in the cooking so we decided to make home-made pizzas!!! We let the boys decorate the pizzas however they wanted. As you can see Cayden loved to put the cheese in one spot and the olives in another. Logan was just throwing toppings all over the pizza! Anyway, Andi helped even out the cheese and then we threw it in the oven. I don't want to lie and say that it tasted good cause it didn't. I accidentally bought Imitation cheese instead of real cheese. I know, i need to pay more attention. So, I went back to the store and got real cheese for the 2nd pizza. It was much better!

After we made the pizza we sat the boys down with a bowl of ice cream and I gave a lesson on Temper Tantrums. They seemed to really like the story but we had to remind them not more than 3 minutes later to stop throwing a temper tantrum! HAHAHA! I guess that we will have to repeat this lesson a few more times! :)

I love to have family home evening! I never had it growing up but I really love to spend that special time with Logan. Logan will talk about the story for days and ask me to tell it to him again. I hope that he will like it when he gets older.

I am not sure why having fhe is so hard sometimes but it is. I have made it a priority to have fhe every week. I feel that it is so important to our family and I can feel the blessings of being obedient. When it comes to things like this (temple attendance, scripture reading, tithing, praying , etc) we can easily forget to do them. I know that my life has been blessed because I am making an effort daily to do these simple things. I have felt much more peace in my life as well as our marriage. It is hard to have a fight or get mad when you are constantly filling your day up with things that uplifting and spiritual.

OTHER THOUGHTS.......

This week in Relief Society we had a lesson about remembering our spiritual experiences and how we felt. It was amazing. The lady teaching the lesson asked us if any of us had ever met an apostle or a prophet and how we felt. Before I could even think about what I was doing my hand flew up! Right as she called on me I remembered a time when I met all 12 apostles.

Pat had just come home from his mission and wanted to go to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to watch one of the shows there. I didn't want to go cause it was cold, I had a 6 week old baby, and I was tired. Doug talked me into going so off we went. Once we got there we found out that you had to buy tickets in advance so that idea was shot. I was mad. I was mad that I had come all this way with a newborn just for nothing. I wanted to go home. Well, Logan started to get hungry so then I got even madder. I had no idea where I was going to nurse him! So, I went to the 3rd floor and we found a secluded area with a chair in it. I fed him and then took him to the bathroom to change his diaper. I was still in a really fowl mood as I was walking back. Then I turned the corner and saw all 12 apostles talking with Doug and Pat! I couldn't believe it! I got to shake all of their hands and they all said that Logan was cute. I felt so much better and it was just because the spirit that they have with them on a daily basis. It was the weirdest thing to go from this fowl mood to the wonderful feelings that I could feel while we were around them.

I instantly felt guilty for being in such a bad mood. I was being so selfish and that is not how the savior would act. Seeing and being able to talk to the apostles was a very neat experience for me personally. I am grateful that I was able to experience something so powerful.

So, I told this to the whole relief society and I now know why my hand flew up before I could remember. It was so that I would remember. I needed to remember the feelings that I had that day. I need to remember all of the spiritual experiences that I have cause that is where your testimony comes from.

Anyway, this was just suppose to be a picture post with a few comments but it turned into a book! Sorry about that! Hope everyone is doing well!

ps. Erin, Isaac, and Bryce - We miss you guys SOOOOOOOO much!!! We wish you were here with us! Love you tons!