Photoshoot

Ev and I got to be models yesterday for Capture the Moment Photography. She sells her photos on istock (I believe that's what it is called), so she is always on the lookout for models, and we just happen to want some pics so it was a great fit. These are just a preview of some of them. She was nice enough to e-mail me a few right after the shoot. Fun stuff! And Ev was a great sport through the whole process!

Time Out for Women

This weekend I was able to attend Time Out for Women with some of my friends from Church. It was my first time going and it was a lot of fun. It was held in Kansas City so we were able to do some great shopping, eat at Cheesecake Factory and PF Chang's on top of the actual Time Out for Women event.

I'll just share a few highlights from those things talked about at TOFW. Kind of long, but I wanted to jot a few notes on the blog about it.

Jenny Oaks Baker performed Friday night. She is such a talented violinists. She was a lot of fun to listen to and incredibly talented! I got her 'Best Of' CD which I have already listened to numerous times today. A funny story she shared: She was in a singles ward, and like most single wards- was spotting that right guy to sit next to. She ended up finding a good one to sit by. As he was trying to impress her, he shared how his dad was a Bishop, Stake President and now a Mission President. Jenny thought he seemed a little too confident in this and replied, "Well my dad's an Apostle." His response was that that was cool... so she knew he was a keeper and they ended up getting married.

Michael Wilcox then spoke to us. You can tell he is very knowledgeable about the gospel. One night he was marking his scriptures and his young son came up and starting coloring his scriptures, too. After a while he looked at his sons page and it was an exact replica of the marks on his page (which, you can imagine, wasn't just one little word highlighted, but a lot more detailed). The son then started to cry and said, "my lines aren't as straight as yours." Michael then explained that sometimes we feel the same as this with the Savior, but that we will get 'our lines straight' with time. Another comment he made was that of a great lesson he was taught and can change your life. It is when you realize that the woman you love, loves you. He said the same thing goes with Heavenly Father. The God you love, loves you.

Emily Watts spoke on Saturday. She also was a great speaker. She spoke about various parts of motherhood, including how when you become a mom, you become an obsessive counter. I thought this was so true of moms... having to make sure everyone gets not only the same number of skittles, for example, but the same number of reds, greens, and yellows. She said, "Everything I know about charity, I know from being a mom." She spoke a lot about the 'fruit' of being a mom, usually meaning kids. She asked the question then of what if the 'fruit' of being a mom, is me {the mom}? She shared that this will change the way you think/parent. She also told a story of when her daughter and her were prom dress shopping. We all know what a treat this is when you are trying to find a modest prom dress. They ended up finding one that was pretty decent, it just was barely too low cut. She told her daughter she thought it would be fine. Her daughter said that it would be fine if she was going with someone other then the specific guy she was going with. Emily said she wanted to call up that boys mother and say, "thank you for raising a son that makes my daughter want to be modest." I hope I can raise our boys to be like that, especially in these times when it is more important then ever!

John Bytheway {I hyper linked some quotes from him on some website} was not scheduled to speak to us, but Sheri Dew was unable to make it so he took her place last minute. Personally, I think this was a great fix! I read his books to teenagers growing up, so it was great to hear him as an adult. He quoted Sister Hinckley who said, "Decide what's important and move at a pace comfortable for us." He also had us ask oursleves, "What's it like being married to me?" I plan on focusing on this question, because I know it must be difficult! He had a lot of great stories and quotes, but I will not do them justice here!

Wendy Ulrich then spoke. You can tell she is just the sweetest lady. One thing she said I thought was interesting was that we've all heard, "If a thing ifworth doing, it's worth doing well." She took it one step further and said that there are something worth doing badly... and be willing to do better (motherhood, missionary work, etc.). She distingished between sin and weakness which I think sometimes we mix up.

The last speaker was Kris Belcher. She was great! I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time as I did when she spoke. SO funny! She has such an amazing personal story. I would encourage others to read her books or listen to her speak if possible. Too many great stories to tell here. Loved it! Some notes: Our will and Heavenly Father's will need to become one, and his will is not going to change. There is purpose in struggle, that helps us get through the day and look forward to tomorrow. She is a living example when she said that bad things will happen but that we need to find ways to work through them (one way she does this is through laughter). She said we are commanded to have joy!

Overall, great weekend. Now I better go eat some food!

October Happenings

October has been a fun-filled month for us thus far. I'll break it down for ya...

We celebrated my dad''s birthday on the 4th by throwing him a surprise football/ref theme party.

We've watched Alissa and Kailey do their thing with volleyball and basketball.

My cousin, Dawnielle, and her baby came to visit the land of the Ozarks. It was great seeing them. I think it made my family that much more excited about having a baby around come January. My dad was able to bless their baby during their trip, as well.

We wished the birthday girl, Adrienne, a happy birthday on the 13th.

We were busy pranking ward members and friends for a Halloween Challenge we participated in this past week. We were put into teams and the week before the big Challenge (basically a fun-filled scavenger hunt around Branson), we got extra incentives for pranking the other teams. One of the pranks we did was write 'Just Married' kind of stuff on their cars. One prank someone did on us was to rearrange our house a bit, and place dixie cups filled with water all over our bathroom floor. Dad, we will get you back for letting them in our house! It was a lot of fun and I feel like we now know the ins and outs of Branson a lot better!

We had our ward activity which consisted of a Fish Fry and a Trunk-or-Treat. Notice the pic of Ev and Brian. While we were busy getting the activity all organzied, he was at our house stealing Ev's jersey and pranking us!

Last night we partied with the now 17 year old, Alissa!

And today we wish a Happy Birthday to Les!

Ev is currently just letting the good times roll as he is busy working on getting our backyard filled with grass. He loves to work outside and do all his 'manly' things. This weekend I am going with some friends to Time Out for Women in Kansas City. I'm sure it will be one big party! Other than that, I am just getting bigger and bigger as the days go by!