Reflections of Christ

My sister-in-law, Stacey, emailed this to me and I thought I would post it here. It's beautiful!

"For many years the Mesa Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mesa, Arizona) has had exhibits on the temple grounds during the Easter season. This year, there was also a
'Reflections of Christ' photography exhibit in the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center. The photographer was given permission to photograph Pageant cast members for the exhibit. They traveled to various locations in Arizona that the photographer felt looked like the places in Israel where the events took place and recreated the scenes.

The photographer worked with a few other individuals to put together a 5 minute slideshow which includes every image from the exhibit set to the hymn 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.'

Just remember when you're watching the video that the photographs are real, they aren't paintings… Incredible!"




If you want more info, here's the website:
http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/

Further news in the name game

No, we still have not settled on a name, but Felicity has become amazingly grownup about it. I was teasing her and asked if we should name the baby Shrek, but we decided that would be silly. Then she said (and she was in very serious mode) that if we named the baby Tenderheart Bear, people might laugh at him, so "let's name him John." I think they must have talked about John the Baptist in primary on Sunday. I thought it was a pretty normal choice for her, and I'm not so worried about my future grandkids any more. Yes, I would still love my grandkids even if they are named after cartoon characters, but...
Other news, I finished Caleb's quilt top last night, hurrah! Now I just have to finish it. Caleb can write his whole name now, but we're working on writing the number two right-side up. Joseph's dancing ability astounds us, if you want some entertainment, come to our house, he's pretty...um...good. Felicity is in the after school 4H program in the Young Artist class. Last week they pretended to be Michelangelo and taped paper to the underside of the table and then drew pictures. She had fun even though she doesn't know anything about and didn't seem that interested in the Sistine Chapel. Farris is working through the six or seven bushels of pears he picked, he tries to dry a batch every night. We'll be good with pear chips for a long time. And I'd better go now, Caleb is wanting a bottle to put the small pieces of paper he just ripped up into. And as I would rather have them in a bottle then on the floor, even though I don't understand what he is making, I will get him one.

Sorry, Missy, I borrowed your idea for a Top Ten List

Ok, I'm getting to the point where I'm getting really tired of this whole beach ball (and like a Spring Break sized beach ball, not the little ones you get at walmart for your two year old)attached to my body and hips creaking with every step and braxton-hicks and having to find a bathroom every two hours. I know I don't have much time left, and really I am truly grateful for this opportunity I have to be a mother. So to keep my perspective right I'm going to borrow a page from my friend Missy's book (or blog, as the case was) and figure out a Top Ten list on the good things about being pregnant.

10. Really makes you grateful for the day pants actually fit you again and don't have a stretchy belly pouch that doesn't work that great.
9. The whole time you are pregnant you don't have to say no to the baby, or chase down the street after him or find him in the snack drawer fifteen minutes before lunch or clean up glue off the carpet (huh, Tasha!) or tell him to stop eating grass (ok, that might just be my Caleb) or any number of other things you'll be telling him relatively soon after he's not inside any more.
8. When the line is long at a public bathroom, you just have to get a desperate look on your face and people will let you cut to the front. Almost as good as having a three year old that's wailing "I have to go now!"
7. You can cry about anything and people will understand. I'm not just talking Hallmark commercials, but like when Farris came home and found me crying on the bathroom floor because Joseph had peed all over the floor again and then spilled bubble mix everywhere he was very understanding and helpful and never told me to grow up.
6. My fingernails grow fast. I know, that seems trivial, but it's nice because fingernails don't last very long in a world with little boys.
5. Naps. Enough said.
4. Growing a baby is an excellent excuse for ice cream every night.
3. Temple attendance, while a little harder, is even better. It puts eternity all into perspective. And all the little old ladies just light up when they see you waddling down the hall.
2. I love feeling the baby moving and watching my belly jump and having my kids faces light up when they finally feel him kick their hand. Even the rib kicking and bladder punching are great (well, they're not too bad) because you know he's doing good and growing.
1. I know how I am extremely blest to have this chance to not only have three healthy, intelligent (except for the whole walking into walls thing) kids but to have another one coming. I'm not sure why Heavenly Father decided I should get this opportunity, but I do thank Him for it every day.

Other news

Besides the nightly struggle to get Joseph asleep, everything is going good. Things have slowed down for Farris at work now that the semester has been going for a couple weeks, the first day of the semster 102 students came into the office for him and the other advisor. He can actually eat a lunch now and he's getting home much closer to his regular time. Felicity does like school (despite homework every night, and learning about boring things like the number 17), especially recess. Well, who can blame her? Caleb is doing the ABC Kids program at the library once a week. He was a little nervous at first, but had a lot of fun the first day because they did the letter C. He's learning how to write his middle and last name now, too. He calls it his paper work. I've been busy trying to keep the house from falling apart, but sweeping and mopping doesn't really appeal to me right now. I've also almost finished a halloween costume for the baby (he's going to be a caterpillar. Farris shakes his head and says "poor kid". But he'll be really cute. He just might not appreciate the pictures when he's 15) and I've been working on Caleb's quilt that has trucks and cars and tractors and planes so he loves it already. We've been working on baby names and appreciate all the suggestions given. Except for maybe Felicity's. She has wanted to name him Ice Cream, Sunshine Bear or Tenderheart Bear, Diego and many others that I don't think he'd survive the first grade with. Well, Diego wouldn't be too bad, but it was a second choice for her because she couldn't name a boy Dora. When I was telling her some of the names we had thought of, like Aaron, Jackson, Mckay, Logan, she laughed and told me they were silly. Caleb thought Joseph would be a good name until I pointed out he already has a brother named Joseph. We'd better get cracking on all these baby things, because I'm NOT waiting until the 21st. I'll find a trampoline first.

How to not go to sleep, By Joseph H. Child

Repeat these several times each, as loud as you need to get adults attention.
"Sing Popcorn Tree."
"MILK! Want MILK!"
"Where's baby doll?"
"Pillow in living room."
"Sing Child of God."
"Where's Daddy's basketball?"
"I want Daddy's football."
"I need to go potty."
"I get candy!"
"Wake up Caleb buddy sleepy head!"
"There's a big alligator in my room."
"I need to go potty."
"No, poop."
"Hug? Kiss?"
Stretch all of these over an hour period, plus much running around and crawling into every other bed in the house but your own. Be as cute as possible to tone down any anger from adults. Eventually go to sleep, you'll need the energy for tomorrow night.

Pictures and other news

Nicki gave us some pictures from Lissy's birthday party and one really Joseph-ish picture, so here's those pictures I've been promising!

This is the very Joseph-y picture:

This is Duck, Duck, SQUIRT!

Now they're playing Cold Potato, but really it was just Throw Water Balloons At Someone

Here's the relay race:

This is Felicity's cake, it's supposed to be a jewelry box with a Strawberry Shortcake doll on top, but we couldn't get it to stand. The kids didn't care, they were very excited about all the candy jewelry.

In other family news, Joseph stuck a large bead up his nose yesterday morning. I couldn't figure out hat was wrong with the kid, he kept saying "Owie, Owie" and pointing to his nose. He's got a cold, so I thought his nose just hurt from that. Eventually I figured it out, and we tried to blow it out. It didn't work. So I started to hunt for the phone number for the clinic here and when I finally found it we gave it one more try and this huge black, square bead popped out. Little stinker. This morning he was telling Dad not to stick beads up your nose because it hurts. Very wise, my two-year-old.

The new blog link

I just put a new link to a blog on here, the emergency prepardness lady in our ward recommended it, and it really is good. She has good ideas on how to do food storage in a practical way (why store stuff you hate?) and different recipes that you can use, and they look really good. My cravings have been ramped up (Have you ever heard of someone craving ham and cheese sandwiches? I'm weird. But the chocolate milk shakes sounded really good, too) since I looked at it. So check it out, there's some great ideas on organizing kitchens, pantrys, and kid stuff (snacks, lunches, etc). So enjoy!