Temple trip

 A few Saturdays ago (1/21/12) was a youth temple trip for our ward and because Carrson and myself were out of town the last time they went (we were on the cruise), we missed the opportunity of being there for Ryan's first time going.  This time dad was able to go (him being in the Young Men's), I sent the camera with him in hopes of getting a picture of  Ryan in front of the temple, so I could post it and so he could remember how he felt that day.

I can't believe that I am old enough to have two of my children old enough to be able to go to the temple already and feel the spirit there.  I hope that they will always remember how they feel when they are there and that they will think about it often.    

 

 The Draper men

Changes

I know I have not blogged for a few weeks I have good reason (well not really).  Two weeks ago I was trying to put my laptop back on the table and move a book all while trying not to knock over a can of soda.  Well the soda won, the cord from my laptop hit it knocked it over and some spilled on the keyboard and a few of the keys would not work after that, so needless to say no laptop and trying to work on the desk top and have a two and a half year old just do not go together.  Then it gets worse we took my laptop to "Geek Squad" they called and told me the keyboard was working but the hard drive was fried and we would need to replace it.  UM... it was working when I took it in and they want to fix it but they refuse to pay for it. So hopefully I will get it back tomorrow and I can really see what is going on.  So in the meantime I have a few minutes to sit at the desk top and blog.  I don't have any pictures to go along with it so you may really enjoy this, but beware when I get a few minutes later lots to get caught up on!!

Two weeks ago our ward here in Prattville, Alabama split.  Okay let me start at the beginning.  When we returned from our vacation this past summer we came back hearing the rumors that the ward was going to split.  I thought how crazy, the ward isn't very big, we were averaging about three hundred to sacrament (me thinking) and I thought it wouldn't happen.  Well all we heard was the ward is splitting and this is where the boundaries for months, then they postponed out Ward Conference till November (to give the First Presidency enough time to look it over, me thinking again.  Ward Conference came (we ended up being out of town) and the Stake Presidency announced it was going to split and they would announce the boundaries on January 15, 2012.  I was quite shocked coming from Utah where the wards are the size of the ward they wanted to split.  So I now know if the Lord thinks it can be done, we better work hard to make it better.  Just to think the ward seems like it did when we moved here.

Even though we stayed in the Prattville Ward we (most all of us) have new callings.  No bishops, but Clark was called to be the First Counselor in the bishopric. It is funny (or I think it is), I had some of the members come up to me and ask if it is going to be an adjustment having him gone on Sunday mornings, nights and not having him sit with us.  My answer was well he has been on the High Council for the last three years and for a year and a half before we moved, having him home Sunday mornings throws me off. I am grateful that Carrson is worthy enough to be able to have the calling and show his love for the gospel to our brother's and sister's in the ward.  Now to me (sigh), all I wanted was a calling that put me closer to my comfort zone and not have to ask others to help with meals or visit sisters that are home bound and needing compassion.  Well I got a new calling but as we know the Lord works in mysterious ways (He is going to get me out of my comfort zone one way or the other) I am now the Gospel Doctrine Teacher. Yes, the adult teacher.  Three things I am going to learn here are,1: don't wish for an easier/more comfortable calling, 2: to be able to teach adults that know more than I do and 3: more about the scriptures.  They are all win win situations and one day I will be grateful that I accepted the calling and the challenge to learn the scriptures.  I had been wanting to get back to studying the scriptures so this way I figure Heavenly Father is providing a way for me to have time to be able to. 

I had to teach today and I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be.  The power of prayer is wonderful!! I know Heavenly Father will only give us what we can handle and He will help us when we ask Him to. 

5 years :)

I was thinking last night (yes it is rare, jk) that this weekend was our five year anniversary from moving to Alabama from Utah.  It seems like the time has flown by and it was just yesterday that we left, but then I get looking at pictures and my how the kids have grown and besides that I have a two and a half year old that wasn't even thought of yet.  I wouldn't trade it for anything though.   

Moving here has been an experience that I would never of thought I would have ever done.  I had never imagined living anywhere except Utah.  I thought moving to Smithfield from the Ogden area was tough at least for the first little bit, but it was nice, family was still within and hour and we visited almost every weekend.  Here we get to visit for a few weeks in the summer.  I think I miss family and friends the most other then the mountains and camping.  I am glad we as a family took the plunge and moved.  I am grateful for all the new friends that I have!!

Happy New Year!!!!!

 I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!  Yes I am a little late at it and I appologize!!

We had a lot of fun on New Years Eve.  We did fondue, played games, watched a movie and lit some fireworks just after midnight .  I know that doesn't sound like a whole lot but we enjoy it.  The kids look forward to doing fondue and they start reminding me of it weeks before.  It cracks me up that they enjoy it so much.  All we do is chicken, steak, fried cheese and hot dogs dipped in pancake batter and then we always have a pot of cheese to dip bread (I usually get a baguette or french bread) and some broccoli and carrots (cauliflower would be good also).  You can't forget the chocolate either.  The only problem is when you have fondue you don't realize how full you are getting till you are ready to pop!  So we ended up finally doing the chocolate on Monday night.  The kids love to dip strawberries (living in the south strawberries are starting to be in season, so I can get them without paying on arm and a leg), apples, gummy bears, angel food cake, bananas, we have even dipped marshmallows and cinnamon bears (these are my favorite, but I can't find them anywhere here I don't think they like them here or maybe they just haven't tasted them, maybe that's it!  I will actually bring some home with me when we visit Utah, but they are usually gone before we fondue. 

This is our attempt at getting the kids picture before we took the Christmas tree down.  Andrew did not want to cooperate so we had to bribe him and with that not working we talked him into sitting on his couch and having the kids kneel so we could get all four of them.  Like Andrews pout, he has become very good at that. He may even be better then Emma with the pouting.  

 Clark 14 1/2, Ryan 12 1/2, Emma 9 1/2 and Andrew (almost) 2 1/2 

(yes the terrible two's are here and in full swing)

 This is what the front room looks like most of the time.  I just get them picked up and not more then five minutes later he has already dumped them out.  He plays so good with them, but he is like his brothers when he plays, he lines them up just like both Clark and Ryan did.  It is so funny to watch him play, he lays on the ground on his side and is either very quiet or he vroooms as he drives them.  He was sitting here last night just minding his own business and I thought what a great photo op.  Once he heard the camera he was done and just had to see the picture.  So trying to get more was a chore, I kept putting the camera away and telling him to go back to the cars.  Eventually he did and I was able to get more pictures, yea!!!  So enjoy him while he is being good and having fun with his cars.

 

 I swear every time the camera made a noise he had to look up to see what I was doing.  

Yea!!! I got one without him looking at me. 

 

Love those eyelashes!!

Andrew wanted me to take his picture, and come to find out I took this picture in front of some of his artwork on the wall.   I am wanting to repaint the walls so I am glad that I got this picture.  He has drawings on a couple of walls and a window, and other then Ryan drawing on the wall once Andrew is the only other one that has drawn on the walls and one window.  

His head is looking better.  We had the stitches taken out and four days later it opened up and a friend helped me by gluing it.  She is a nurse and I wanted her to look at it to see if she thought we needed to go back for more stitches, she said all they would do was glue it and she actually had some.  So thank you for helping us out, I owe you!!  Now I keep a band aid with triple antibiotic ointment on it, I am not going to take a chance again, the one night I took the band aid off it split.  Hopefully it will heal quickly!!