Seeing things come to pass

This morning after returning from my paper route I decided I was not tired to go back to bed, so I would do my scripture study.  After reading from the Book of Mormon, I decided to read the RS/Priesthood Lesson for next Sunday as we are encouraged to read it ahead of time.  It is Chapter 15- Advancing the Work of the Lord~ From the book Teaching of the Prophet George Albert Smith.

The 1st thing that stood out to me was when Pres. Smith first became a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles  in 1903 there was only 300,000 members of the Church.  In 1950, One year before he died the church had surpassed 1 million member.  As of April 2012 there is almost 14,500,000 members.

The next thing that stood out to me was Pres. Smith supported Avation as a way for him to get to his different locations more quickly and see more members of the church, were before they had to travel, by car, train, and boat.  Today Our current Prophet Thomas S Monson, travels  by a privet jet that was donated.

Also he welcomed and supported the change in technology that allowed the church the use of radio and television to take the word of the Lord to a much broader audience.

He said "We out to regard these [inventions] as a blessing from the lord, they will greatly enlarge our abilities  They can indeed become blessing if we utilize them in righteousness for the dissemination of truth and the furtherance of the work of the Lord among men.  The great challenge facing the world today lies in the use we make of many of these inventions.  We can use them to destroy, as we have sometimes done in the past, or we can utilize them in enlighten and blessing mankind, as our Heavenly Father would have us do."

In a 1946 general conference President Smith prophesied about the use of such technologies:  "It will not be long until from this pulpit and other places that will be provided, the servants of the Lord will be able to deliver messages to isolated groups who are so far away they cannot be reached.  In that way and other ways the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord, the only power of God unto salvation in preparations for the celestial Kingdom, will be heard in all parts of the world, and many of you who are here will live to see that day!"

When I read this I thought, how my grandparents have lived to see this happen!  I don't have TV channels in my home, but I do have the internet and every conference and other events it is amazing how I can go to the church website and watch the event live right in my home.  And yet others across the world can also watch it in their own home as well.  How amazing!

Also I found some distant family members that had been looking for my side of the family by sharing an article from the Children's Friend (a church magazine) on Facebook, one of my friends on Facebook saw the article and knew it was from her family too...they had been looking for my side of the family and they shared a lot of valuable family history for that side of the family that my family did not have.  Technology helped us reconnect a lot sooner then probably would have happened before!

Pres Smith goes on to talk about how each of us as members need to participate in the work of the Lord.  We can not just leave it to the missionaries, or the quorum of the 12 to do all the work.  We each need to do our part in being closer to the Lord and helping him move his work along.

This hit home to me as in our local ward and stake we are part of a brand new mission in Salt Lake City, UT.  And it seems a lot of our talks and lessons are on how we can reach out to our neighbors who are less active or not members with out offending them.  It seems that a lot of complaints here are that Utah neighbors are too pushy, but that if we treated them like if they are our friends and pray for the Lords help we can by example further the work of the Lord.

Remember that Opposition will not stop the progress of the Church, because it is the work of God not man.

If we pray for the Lords help he will adjusts the conditions so that his work can spread.

There is a lot of meat to this lesson and if you want to read it you can go here to read it.

I am so grateful for this lesson, I think it has allowed me to think and ponder how much the world has changed in my life time that makes it easier in some ways to share the gospel, but also that as I prayerfully ponder for ways to help share the gospel, that the Lord will help me.

Our world is changing but as we choose to use the good, we can further the ways of the Lord and help all of us come unto Christ.

Until next time,
Annette

Summer 2012 so far

Well the summer has been going by really fast!  We have gone to Seven Peaks Water Park a few times and played at the park, and we have been walking to the school for free lunch, but other then that it has been a quite summer.

On the 4th of July we just hung out at home and the kids could see the city fireworks from their bedroom window so we let them watch them and then go to bed.  It was nice no traffic to fight to get home!

We meet up with my sister Jaclyn and her family this last Saturday and had fun at the water park again.  Today is the 24th of July which is a State holiday in Utah to celebrate the day and year that the Pioneers came to Utah.  We watched a little bit of the parade online and then this afternoon I took the kids to a movie at the $1.50 theater, and they all did great!

We also got Dillon registered for 1st grade last week. We have a few fun things coming up in a few weeks before school starts.  I am starting to think it will be wired to have only two kids at home during the day once school starts.

Also I started a new job delivering newspapers.  So far it is going pretty well (but I have only been there a week) but it does have early hours.  We show up at the warehouse to pick up our papers at 2am and then deliver them by 6am.  I am usually home by 5am and go back to bed for a few more hours until the kids get up.  That will change a little bit once school starts as I will have to get two kids off to the bus in the morning as well.

So it has been a pretty boring summer, but that is all right, we are looking forward to seeing all of our cousins on the Dillon side of the family very soon !

Until next time!

End of May Activities

In May the school district had a district wide sports day.  Dillon who had 1/2 day kindergarten got to go to school all day and participate.  He even got a school sack lunch for the day.  He was so excited to show me his ribbon's when he got home!

We bought Pass of All Passes to Seven Peaks owned places.  This allows us the fun of bowling, bumper cars, laser tagging, miniature golf, and also going swimming at Seven Peaks Water Park. 

The water park opened Memorial Day Weekend.  We decided since Dan was off on Monday we would go.  It wasn't too crowded and we had a great time!

 A random picture that was on my camra of the girls all asleep on the couch.  Dillon saw me taking the picture and he smiled for it!  

Homemade Greek Yogurt

I decided to make homemade yogurt to save some money.  A friend shared with me a website that once I
understood the instructions I had great yogurt.

This is my mixture before I put it in the oven overnight.

This is my plain Yogurt this morning!

It made up 4 small mason jars and two small food storage.  All with Plain yogurt this morning.

After church we came home and I dished some up added a little vanilla and some blueberries and it tasted good.  I enjoyed it very much.

I followed a website to make this.  Here is the link: 

.salad-in-a-jar.com

Give it a try and you can make regular yogurt or Greek yogurt!

Growing up...again

This morning I get up and my son (who is 6 1/2 years old) comes up to me and tells me his tooth hurts.  He then shows me that the tooth next to the one he lost a month ago is loose.  He won't let me pull it  But the tooth he lost is already growing back in.  I didn't think I would get this emotional for my 1st child to loose his 1st two teeth.  Thank you Dillon for bring lots of smiles into our life!  We love you!

Happy Birthday Annette!

 Today is my 34th Birthday!  I had such a fun day today with the family!  Dan told me a few weeks ago that he was taking today off!

We started off going and getting the girl's hair cut!  They look so good!

Then we went to the park for lunch of Pizza!  It was so good and the kids love using our Picnic blankets that I bought last summer!

We then stopped by my sister Wendy's house and she gave me the gift from my family.  I so needed the new cloths they gave me.  I am so excited to wearing the new outfits!  Thank You!  

A few weeks ago we bought what they call Pass of All Passes to one of the local Fun Centers in the area.  They have everything from water parks (with water slides), bumper cars, miniature golf, bowling, and soon Laser tagging.  As well as tickets to local collages sporting events, and some of the Minor League sporting events, even race car events here in our area.  These passes are good for one year.  They are a great deal! Even if all we did was go to the water park twice, it would have paid for itself, but since the water park doesn't open until Memorial Day  we decided to take the kids and go bowling for the first time as a family.  Dan and I enjoy bowling, but we have never taken the kids!  We had a lot of fun and look forward to going again really soon!

When we came home we we had left over pizza and spaghetti for dinner, and then Dan made me a rice crispy treat cake.  He did a great job, and the kids wanted to put the candles on!  (the cake is in the shape of a horse).

I truly did have a great day, and I could not have asked for a better day!  Thanks Dan and Kids and My family for making it so great!

Mother's Day at Church 2012

 I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and each Mother's Day you can usually plan on two things.  1.  The children sing some songs during the Sacrament Meeting 2.  A little gift to all the women in the congregation.  Usually the gift is a flower, or candy.  Last year I got candles with a nice poem, the year before a church DVD.  This year I got these:

A little Pearl Necklaces and a little Forget Me Not flower Grow Kit

And the Kids went up and sang Mother I love you, and  Mother Tell Me the Story.  They did such a great job!

Then the kids went to Nursery and Primary and made me these:

Hand shape flowers from Ruth and Irene
A wheel of how they love me from Dillon and Jennilyn

The wheels from Dillon and Jennilyn had answers to questions.  They were so cute.  Here they are:

They Say Happy Mother's Day!  I Love You!

And then you turn it to read what it says:

Dillon's Wheel:

My Mother is 10 years old and has black hair.

Her favorite Popsicle is... Blue

She Spends Lots of time ... Cooking

Her Favorite Color is .... Blue

She shows me love by...Hugs me

My mother is good at...tickling me

Her favorite chore is... jumping

If my mother were a superhero she'd be...Spiderman

Her favorite sport is...baseball

Together my mother and I like to laugh

My mother is afraid of ... Ghosts

Her favorite cake is... the cake she makes for me

Jennilyn's Wheel:

My Mother is 30 years old and has black hair.

Her favorite Popsicle is... Grape

She Spends Lots of time ... taking care of me

Her Favorite Color is .... Purple

She shows me love by...giving me hugs and kisses

My mother is good at...exercising

Her favorite chore is... All of them!

If my mother were a superhero she'd be...Wonder Woman

Her favorite sport is...I don't know

Together my mother and I like to...read books before bed

My mother is afraid of ... Spiders

Her favorite cake is... Strawberry

I loved getting these little gifts from my kids!  It was amazing well Jennilyn knows her mom at only 4 years old.  

Until Next year!

Mother's Day

Tomorrow is Mother's Day.  And I am proud to say that I am a mom of 4 great kids!  This morning after my husband left for work, the kids and I just sat on the couch cuddling and they were telling me all about their dreams last night.  Now that I have a child in school, it is fun to see what he brings home as each holiday approaches.  Yesterday he brought home a little card with his picture on it and this questioner that they had him answer the questions to.  It is funny the way kids see things, and I loved the answers.

Side note:  My kids do not get medicine everyday, but when I tell them they need to take it, they usually take it with out fighting me!


I hope every Mom has a great Mother's Day!

Another Kindergartner

On Friday we registered Jennilyn for Kindergarten!  While the parents meet with the principal, the future kindergartner's went with some of the teachers and had some fun and came back with this picture!

We are excited that we will have both Dillon and Jennilyn in school next year.  Jennilyn will be in an all day kindergarten class and she is very excited about it.  She did not like getting her kindergarten shots a few weeks ago.  :)

Sad Times

This weekend has been a long bittersweet weekend.  On Wed, my wonderful Aunt Sharon passed away after a long illness.  I am grateful for my knowledge of eternal families and that we will see her again.  She is also with her dear husband who passed away 15 years ago.

Today was the funeral, but because of what I will talk about next, I was busy with the Doctor today and was not able to go to the funeral, but I did go to viewing last night and saw many people I have not seen for awhile. It was good to see everyone.

On Friday Dan and I were excited.  We were 10 weeks pregnant and were going to our first Dr's appointment.  we had started to tell family and friends that we were expecting a new baby.  We get to the appointment and they can not find the baby in the uterus.   After a bunch of confusion we got me squeezed into the radiologist tech for a more advance ultrasound.  They did find the baby but not were it was suppose to be.  It was on the right side by my right ovary. ( For those who don't know 6 years ago this week I had a tubal rupture, after thinking that I had miscarried the week before. )  This fetus they found this time was in the same area, were I have no tube.

There was no life sign, and today the ruling came back as a Ectopic Pregnancy.  I had three options, full surgery (6 weeks recovery), a scope to remove it, or using a medicine called Methotrexate which is a radiation medication given through a shot  that devolves what is left of the fetus.

I decided to go with the Methotrexsate and I will have to go back in for blood work on Friday and again next Monday to make sure that it is working.  If it is not then we will have to do surgery.

It has been hard on both of us as we have been looking forward to adding our family for  awhile now.
But we will be ok, and I am at peace that we will add to our family one day.

Thank you to all the family and friends who have shown their love in person or vie Facebook, or email.  It has been wonderful to know that we have so many that love us and support us.

Thanks You and love you all!

Irene Playing

Irene looking for Easter Eggs

Irene~ "Mommy I want to turn you into a a shoe princess!" then touches  my feet with her wand!

"Daddy I want to turn you into a monster!"  Dan: "I don't want to be turned into a monster!"  She says it again and touches him with her wand

"I want to turn you into a Mermaid!" to Ruth

She is turning us all into something else tonight!

What fun little ones have using their imaginations!

Put It Back On!

Dillon with his tooth and you can see the small gap in his smile where the tooth was!

Dillon lost his 1st tooth today biting into an Apple!  I didn't even know his tooth was loose.  He was so mad about it and keeps telling me to put it back on!  I finally have gotten him to understand that he has a new tooth growing in and that he and all of his sisters will loose their baby teeth!

Congratulations Dillon on the next milestone of your life!  You are growing up!

Easter 2012

This year the kids were on Spring Break during the week leading up to Easter weekend.  We made plans to go to Idaho to Dan's sister Marsha's house.  Dan was to be out of town until Easter Sunday night, but then his flight got changed and he got home on Friday night really late.  So we decided to wait and go to Idaho after he got home, which worked out great so that we could spend time with my  side of the family too.

We spent Friday down at my sister Jaclyn's house and had an Easter Egg Hunt with the cousins and spent time with Nana and Papa Jack.

We left early Saturday morning and got there at 10:30am and spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa Burke and most of the cousins.

We got up and went to church and then during Sunday School Marsha and I came back to the house and hid the eggs and baskets.

The kids had a lot of fun with both Easter Egg Hunts.  And are enjoying their candy and small toys they got.

We hope all of you had a great Easter.  I love remembering that Our Savior has Risen and he lives!

Here are some pictures of our weekend!

Happy 39th Birthday Dan!

Today Dan turned 39 years old!  Because today is the Republican Caucus he is out enjoying his political side.  He has really gotten into politics this last year!  We will go out on Saturday and have some fun with the kids and celebrate his birthday.  And then his birthday gift from me this year is tickets to the Symphony.  We are excited to get out on a date and go listen to Classical music.

Happy Birthday Dan!  We love you and I hope you had a great day!

Valentine's Day 2012

Dan and I went out on Saturday and had a good time eating out and shopping.  And he got me roses!

Our Valentine's Day with the kids was good at home with a Candle Light dinner.  The twins kept saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Valentine's!"

We made these Valentine's Day Cards for our cousins and grandparents.

Our Dinner 

Jennilyn and Irene

Dillon and Ruth

We had a candle light dinner and I got out our china for the 1st time in 4 years.  We also used the Silver Gobbets that we received from Grandma Burke.

I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's day with you family!  We sure did!

Dillon's Field Trip

On Feb1st all of the Kindergarten classes at Dillon's school went on a Field Trip to the Children's Museum.   My mom came and stayed with the girls so I could go with them.  We had a lot of fun and I am looking forward to taking the whole family there soon!

Happy Birthday Ruth & Irene

Happy 3rd Birthday Ruth and Irene!  You both bring so much joy to our lives!  We love you both so very much!

I love to see the Temple!

This morning I got up and went to the Draper Temple with Keli Wright.  Keli was my MTC Roommate with her companion when I went on my mission.  We saw each other a few times after the mission and then lost contact.  2 years ago, just as she moved back home to Virginia we reconnected on Facebook.  When she announced she was coming to Utah, and wanted to go to a couple of the temples, I told her I would love to go with her.

So we made arrangements, and I was able to get a babysitter to come over at 7:30am so that Dan could go to work.  I left our house at 5:45am and went and picked Keli up at a friends house not far from my place.  We made it to the 7am session.  I am glad that it worked out to see Keli as it has been about 8 years since we last had seen each other.

I had a great time!  And I hope we can do it again sometime!
Thanks Keli for going with me.

Draper Utah LDS Temple at 6:40 AM

New Years Eve 2011

It is New Years Eve 2011.

The kids are in bed and I am relaxing watching a movie and writing this blog.

This year has been good for the most part.  We did have some deaths of family members that we miss dearly, but we know they are with our Heavenly Father and we will see them again one day.

We are excited for the New Year and we feel like it will be a good one!

Here are some pictures of our New Years Eve Celebration with Sweat and Sour Meatballs and Rice and cake with Candlelights.  The kids were singing Happy Birthday All through dinner and were excited to blow out the candles at the end of our celebrations.  And we played the wii and build with legos today.

Tomorrow we will get a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Burke.  We are excited to get to see them since we don't see them often.

Happy New Years Everyone and We hope 2012 treats you all well!

Christmas 2011 Pictures~ Slice of Life # 80

Here are our pictures for Christmas this year!

"Burke Christmas 2011"

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