UTAH!

"Once she starts pushin ya know you start to see the head:) hehe i can't wait:)"

What in the world?!

I found this quote in Kent Buys' phone this morning. So naturally, I'm blogging about it.

After laughing together about it he finally told me he was walking from class and heard a guy on the phone telling someone these exact words I'm guessing about child birth.

WE ARE OFF TO UTAH at 5:30PM!

Engagements (hopefully) this weekend. The forecast of rain is 90%.... but maybe it will clear up for an hour? We are hoping and praying.

We are also deciding more things about our wedding and purchasing a white camiseta and black shoes for K. Hopefully we will find something.

Right now we are eating a grilled chicken bagel sandwich/BBQ pizza. 

We haven't updated the daily blog in a while. But I promise I'm still taking a picture everyday. We ALMOST forgot on Thursday! but we got it :) no worries.

have a great weekend! talk to you soon!

xox anna

Expressions of Love

This is so cute! I love Richard G. Scott's words, expression of love, and how he speaks of his wife. ah!

"Marriage is perhaps the most vital of all the decisions and has the most far-reaching effects, for it has to do not only with immediate happiness, but eternal joys as well." -Spencer W. Kimball

Marriage is ordained of God
-You must bring the Spirit into the home
-Don't make fun of one another
-Don't smother one with restrictions
-Don't shut someone else out
-Forgive, say sorry
-Pray for a strong marriage
D&C 49:16-17
D&C121:41-42

Relationships take Time, Communication, and Service
Time:
Make time for each other.
Support brothers and sisters at their games, events, or performances.
Eat as many meals together as you can.
Make FHE a priority.
Dedicate a day per week to doing something as a family.
Cook, clean, pray, play, and laugh together
Be spontaneous. When you find time toether you hadn't planned on, do something fun.

Communication:
Make time to talk. Have family councils and parent-child interviews. (greater love and patience for children, take more care in raising children)
Create common goals
Study scriptures together. This can start great conversations.
Watching TVor movies together can be enjoyable, but it's a poor substitute for interaction.
When there is friction, it may help if someone who isn't involved acts as peacemaker.

Service:
Wen one person has a problem, everyone shares it
Find ways to serve each other, especially anyone you're having problems with.
Find ways the family can serve together
"For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" (Mosiah 5:13)

Artilcles

These are some awesome words:

Good, Better, Best
Dallin H. Oaks, "Good, Better, Best," Ensign, Nov. 2007, 104-8

Mothers Who Know
Julie B. Beck, "Mothers Who Know," Ensign, Nov 2007, 76-78

"And upon the Handmaids in Those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit"
Julie B. Beck - Relief Society General President

I really like those talks. You should read them.

More Quotes:
"May I suggest that we give more of ourselves... It might be something as simple as smiling more in your home. What would you think of speaking more cheerfully? Trying more often to say please and thank you? What would you think of finding and opportunity for one sincere compliment for each person each day, and then watching them respond? What if you decided to be cheerful tonight at the dinner table and in spite of what others might do or say, hold your course. See how long  you can uplift your whole family." -Gordon B. Hinckley? Not sure on that one...

"Trust God and believe in good things to come" -Elder Jeffery R. Holland.
So simple but we should all be doing this.

"The Lord is very generous with the freedom He gives us. The more we learn to follow the right, the more we are spiritually self-reliant, the more freedom and our independence are affirmed" -Boyd K. Packer

"Experience is what you get when you didnt' get what you wanted." -Randy Pausch "The last lecture", 2008

"One of your particular gifts is feminine intuition. Do not limit yourselves. As you seek to know the will of your Heavenly Father in your life and become more spiritual, you will be far more attractive, even irresistible  You can use your smiling loveliness to bless those you love and all you meet, and spread great joy. Femininity is part of the God given divinity within each of you. It is your incomparable power and influence to do good. You can, through your supernatural gifts bless the lives of children, women and men. Be proud of your womanhood. Enhance it. Use it to serve others." -James E. Faust

"If you judge people, you have no room to love them."
All day long we are helping each other. Either for good, or bad.
There are no ordinary people, we are all divine.

Set your goals on what is most important
-Journal writing
-Let the Lord Guide your life
-Where are your thoughts?
-What excuses do we cling to?
-SERVICE to others
-reach out and love others and be their friend:Golden Rule
-take time to take care of the people you feel you should
Are you being a friend at all times?

Dieter F. Uchtdorf  Waiting on the Road to Damascus:

"It has been my experience that some of the most powerful promptings we receive are not only for our own benefit but also for the benefit of others. If we are thinking only of ourselves, we may miss some of the most powerful spiritual experiences and profound revelations of our lives.

President Spencer W. Kimball taught this concept when he said: “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other.”⁷ Brothers and sisters, we each have a covenant responsibility to be sensitive to the needs of others and serve as the Savior did—to reach out, bless, and uplift those around us.

Often, the answer to our prayer does not come while we’re on our knees but while we’re on our feet serving the Lord and serving those around us. Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the windows of heaven. By becoming the answer to someone’s prayer, we often find the answer to our own."

I love that quote.

Quotes from my quote box

"Life offers you two precious gifts - one is time, and the other is freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for base desires. You may invest it in greed... Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are no bargains, for in them you find no lasting satisfaction. 

Every day, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years you must sometime be accounted for. And  it is in this life that you walk by faith and prove yourself able to choose good over evil, right over wrong, enduring happiness over mere amusement. And your eternal reward will be according to your choosing."

-Elder Richard L. Evans

The Pace of Modern life

When stress levels rise, when distress appears, when tragedy strikes, too often we attempt to keep up the same frantic pace or even accelerate thinking somehow that the more rushed our pace, the better off we will be. One of the characteristics of modern life seems to be that we are moving at an ever-increasing rate, regardless of turbulence or obstacles. Let's be honest' it's rather easy to be busy. We all can think up a list of tasks that will overwhelm our schedules. Some might even think that their self-worth depends on the length of their to-do list. They flood the open spaces in their time with lists of meetings and minutia - even during times of stress and fatigue. Because they unnecessarily complicate their lives, they often feel increased frustration, diminished joy, and too little sense of meaning in their lives. 

-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

October General Conference 2010

The Real History

When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sounds of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? when the surf of the Centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time. The women of God know this.

-Elder Neal A. Maxwell

The Women of God, Ensign (CR), May 1978, p. 10

Journal Keeping

The art of pen is to rouse the inward vision. -George Meredith

What should we write?

*A true and faithful record of your personal life

*An illustration of your love for family, friends, the Gospel

*Your interests

*Your spiritual Gifts

*Faith received during trials

* Testimony and gospel insights/understanding

*The happenings in the church, God's blessings, your official acts in the Church

*An account of the dealings of God with you daily

*Miracles

*Goals

... My soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children. -2 Nephi 4:15

We often leave the most precious personal direction of the Spirit unheard because we do not record and respond to the first promptings that come to us. -Elder Richard G. Scott

The prompting that goes unresponsed to may not be repeated. Writing down what we have been prompted with is vital. God should not, and may not, choose to repeat the prompting if we assign what was given a low priority as to put it aside. -Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Journal keeping is a discovery. We make the trip alone, but we find things of value along the way to bring back, to treasure, and to share. -Barbra Stiener

1 Nephi 6:3-6 Write worthwhile things