Elise is Two

We celebrated Elise’s 2nd birthday at my parents house with a Dora cake which she loved.

Anna was more excited about Elise’s birthday and all the presents then Elise was, and Anna helped Elise open all of them.

She got a baby doll stroller and some other fun stuff. Nana ended up buying Anna her own baby doll stroller the next day as they both wanted to play with it at all times.

Our family with our sweet Elise taken on her birthday. She is wearing her very favorite “bug dress.”

Some Elise faces we love:

Nauvoo & more

For our honeymoon we went to Palmyra and Kirtland and promised ourselves for our 5th anniversary we would finish the church history tour by going to Nauvoo. Since we are expecting another little one shortly we decided we better make the trip while we can; and 10 months before the 5th anniversary is pretty close. So we booked our flights, got ready.

Thoughts of the early saints and their sacrifice still lingers heavily on my mind as we have just returned from this trip and been at the places the early members of the church lived, loved, died, suffered and yet were great blessed. They were an example of faith, and courage as they were willing to sacrifice everything for those things that mattered eternally.

Following are some of my thoughts, or insights gleaned from the different places we went:

Independence: It was interesting to note how much the saints wanted Zion, and tried to build up Zion. Yet it wasn’t time and they weren’t quite ready. We need to work on building Zion in our own hearts. This is the spot of the cornerstone of the Independence, Missouri Temple.

It was also interesting to read that the civil war passed through Independence, and there was a big battle here. This highlighted one of the blessings of the saints being driven to the west. While the rest of the country was embroiled in the Civil War, the saints were focusing on building and colonizing in the west.

Liberty Jail: It impressed me how horribly their sufferings were in this jail cell. Living for months on so little food in the freezing dark dungeon, knowing that their families were being driven out of Missouri. Yet they trusted in the Lord, they looked to Him, they had to humble themselves and they became more refined here, more like the Savior. D&C122:7 “…all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.”

I love that Joseph Smith received revelation regarding the priesthood in this lowliest of spots. D&C 121:41 “…No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned…” They did not learn about the priesthood as they were leading in their majesty and might but when they were at their lowest, humbly relying on the mercies of the Lord for theirs and their families very lives.

With only straw for warmth beneath them, as was the humble circumstances of the Saviors birth, Joseph received revelation on how to be more like God. D&C 121:45-46 “Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.”

It truly was a temple prison, a refiners fire, and a place where they drew closer to God as they looked to him in their sufferings.

Far West: This place had an amazing spirit about it. So peaceful and beautiful. When we walked onto the grounds, it felt like walking onto temple grounds, definitely a holy place. D&C 115:7 “Let the city, Far West, be a holy and consecrated land unto me; and it shall be called most holy, for the ground upon which thou standest is holy.”

I could just imagine how the people loved this land and how hard it was to be once again driven out.

 

Adam-Ondi-Ahman: A spirit of reverence fills this place. It does fill my heart with hope and joy to think this is the land where Adam blessed his posterity and where Adam and Christ will come again one day.

Carthage: I don’t know why I was smiling in this picture because I actually felt more like crying when I came out of that jail. It pulls at the heart strings to hear the story of how Prophet Joseph Smith and Hyrum were murdered in cold blood here. I felt the bullet hole, still in the door. There was no pretense about it, they gave their lives for their testimonies.

Ramus: A place near Nauvoo where my ancestors, the Johnson family, settled. Some of them died here and some died on their way to Salt Lake. They all remained firm and strong in their faith and testimonies. The town is now very small and called Webster. It was kind of nostalgic to stand on the place where they lived and went about. The first pic is of some of Joel Hills Johnson land here. The second is where they build one of the first meeting houses.

 

Nauvoo: This place is amazing, so much deep history; this city was built with hope, love and sacrifice and sadly left in faith with much sorrow and loss. It was those things which are eternal that were important to those early saints, as they sacrificed everything else. They leave a great legacy and example for us to follow.

It was amazing to attend and see this magnificent temple.

One of my favorite parts about Nauvoo was the spirit the senior missionaries brought there. They allowed us to feel the spirit of Nauvoo and taught us truths along with the history. Smiles were always on their faces and testimony on their lips, and a welcome wave in their arms. We went on horse drawn wagon rides and even ox cart rides with them as they told stories of Nauvoo. We believe we came at the best time of the year, it was green and beautiful and not hot yet, it very personal and quiet, just before the arrival of the summer crowd.

The walk down Parley Street was very moving. To imagine what it was like for them to leave their beloved beautiful city behind, to look back at that beloved temple they had sacrificed so much for, to leave friends and loved ones, and cross that river never to return. Many in the freezing cold, with only a few of their earthly possessions, yet they had made covenants and received their so desired temple blessings which gave them their strength. Would I have been so strong?

We also had lots of fun exploring on bikes, taking pictures of rainbows, and checking out fun new things like the Mississippi. I would say the bike rides would rank up high on my favorite thing to do in Nauvoo.

There were so many great things to learn in Nauvoo! We loved learning how they transformed a swamp into a “beautiful place”. We learned about how they lived, worked, played, and everything in between. A few of the things we learned were: how they made bricks, how shoes were made, how they were able to create and operate ovens for baking, how early guns were made and improved, how oxen were trained, how they made wagon wheels and tin pails, how candles were made and kept, what they did for entertainment and relaxation, and so much more.

We stayed in this amazing little place, the Willard Richard’s Inn, right down in old Nauvoo. It is an original building from the time period, and we learned they even performed endowments in the upper room here before the temple was completed. The family that lived there was fun, and we saw amazing thunderstorms at night.

 

I feel like I glean little insights on a lot of things that I didn’t know before. It was amazing to get away together on this trip which was filled with history and testimony.

 

 

Our Funny Little Anna

While having a tea party

Anna: Can I have some Alligator, mommy?

Me: What?

Anna: Some Alligator?

Me: What? Show me.

Anna: Goes to the cupboard

and points to the gatorade, “Some Alligator.”

 

While in the car

Anna: I am a princess, Elise is a princess too, you are a princess to mommy, and daddy, he is a boy princess.

 

While taking a bath

She layes down in the water and crosses her feet just so and says look mommy, I am a mermaid, but I ‘m a fairy princess ballerina mermaid.

 

While putting her potty seat on the toilet

Anna: I have to use this little hole because I still have a little bum bum but you use the big hole mama because your bum bum is big.

 

While telling me how she is getting so big

Anna: When I grow up I am going to be a

really big girl one day. Mama is a big girl and daddy is a big girl too.

 

After waking up with a bid knot in her hair

Mom:” Uh Oh Anna, did you make another knot in your hair?”

Anna: “It is just a little one, a really little one. “ Then she shrugs her shoulders and smiles, “it happens.”

 

In the middle of the night

Anna woke up with a cold, came into my room, woke me up and said in a very concerned voice, “Mama, my nose isn’t working.”

 

Listening to General Conference

While watching general conference The General YW president told a story about her vacuum burning out. The girls were just running out playing while we were watching. At the end of her talk Anna came over to me and I put her on my lap and said, that is the General YW Pres. Anna said, “Ya, she burned her vacuum up.”

 

When I got really sick

Whenever Anna is sick I try to comfort her, hold her, stroke her hair, etc., until she is better, and whenever she says she has a “tummy ache” I help her go sit on the toilet and tell her to get all the yuckies out.

Well, the other day I got a bad stomach ache and who was there to comfort me and stroke my hair and say, “oh, poor mama. It will be OK, it will be OK” It was Anna. She stayed by me the whole time trying to comfort be and patting my back as I was moaning on the couch. When I went into the bathroom because I thought I might throw up she said, “Mama, sit on the toilet and get all the yuckies out.” She was so concerned and was such a little mother to me. When my tummy ache got bad and I was just so uncomfortable out here in the front room she said, “mama, go lay in your bed so you can feel better.” She is so sweet, and takes so good care of her mother.

 

Something up the nose

Anna came screaming into the room while I was trying to get Elise to sleep for a nap, crying, “Something is in my nose, get it out.” I laid her down and saw nothing in her nose and asked her what it was. She said she did not know but she needed a Kleenex to get it out. I took her to the kitchen and got a Kleenex and told her to blow. Out came a popcorn kernel.

Easter

When we got out our plastic easter eggs this year I went and hid them (empty) around the yard and told the girls to find them. Anna thought it was so much fun that she said she wanted to hide them this time, so I let her. I figured she wanted to hide them for Elise and I, but when she was done she said, “Go", and ran and found them all herself. I had to laugh. Then she went and hid them and found the same ones she hid over and over. Cheap entertainment!
They actually did go to a real Easter Egg hunt a few times. Our music makers church preschool program had a little one and it was fun to watch them. Oh, they loved the candy. It was fun to watch Elise when she realized there was candy in the eggs. She stopped right in the middle of her hunt and sat down opened the egg, ate the treat, before she would continue collecting eggs.

I have had to work the last two Easters so we woke up early before I had to head off to the hospital and found Easter baskets. Anna always puts as much candy in her mouth as she can before she starts chewing. Kent insisted that the girls had to have some candy in their Easter baskets, silly dad. I think he secretly wanted to make sure their was left overs for himself!

Sweet Kent made me and Easter basket too, filled with fruit, avocados and good treats and made a ham dinner for when I got back from work. I felt bad that I didn’t get back from work until about 8:30 at night and everybody was starving waiting for me.

A Big Decision for Anna- Throwing Away the “paci”

4/5/13

Anna has sucked on her pacifier since about day she was born. She loved that thing and has needed it to sooth her many times. When she just started to speak she began calling it her “paci’. Many people told us to get rid of it when she was little, and maybe it would have worked out, but after considering we felt she still benefited from it. She was a child that got really emotional and had a hard time calming down. I remember many times when she was only a toddler and not able to express her frustrations, she would get so upset that she would run into her room, lay on her bed and suck on her paci as a means for calming herself down. When she had calmed down she would put her paci back on her pillow and come out happy again; we had a rule that the paci had to stay on her pillow. . It was something that Anna knew would sooth her so it was a great help for her when she was so young. She would also suck on it to go to calm herself in order to go to sleep at naps and at night.

The one thing that was terrible about it is the fact that she would wake us up in the middle of the night,, crying, when she lost it. We would have to go into her room time and time again searching blankets and under the bed for that devil of a thing. But we eventually got smart and resolved that by tying a “paci bucket” to her bed post where we kept several pacifiers so that she learned to just grab another if she lost one and allowed us to sleep.

When she was close to three years old her vocabulary had greatly improved. She could express herself fairly well, could have a conversation with us and we could reason with her. We could tell her why we did the things we did, and she understood. And she could control her emotions a lot more. At this point we decided that she did not need her beloved pacifier anymore and that she was mature enough to deal with life without it. Yet, we did not want to rip it out of her hands; we wanted her to make the decision to do away with it on her own. We told her that when she was ready she could throw them in the trash and when she did we would buy her a doll. She always replied, with a concerned look on her face, “No, I don’t want to throw my pacis away,” and she clung to them, so we just said, “Ok, you can keep them until you are ready.” When we watched the trash truck take the trash away, a favorite activity of the girls, I would comment that the trash man takes our trash away forever and we never see it again; just to make sure she knew that when she did throw something away it was permanent. 

Then one afternoon last week, out of the blue, while we were watching the trash truck empty the dumpster, Anna said, “mama, I want to throw my pacis away now.” I was shocked, I don’t think I was ready for it and said, “Anna are you sure? You will never have them again. Are you sure you want to do this?” She kept telling me yes. Then I realized what I was saying I thought, why am I trying to talk her out if it? If she is willing let’s do it now. So we gathered up all her pacifiers, six of them, and walked over to the big dumpster which was just emptied. Anna wanted me to lift her up and watch as she dropped them in one by one. After she did we all yelled, “hurray!” Then we jumped in the car to go get a doll. She was all smiles.

The thing that amazed me was when night came I thought she would have a really hard time falling asleep and cry and ask for her paci but she didn’t. All she said was, “I don’t know how to fall asleep without my paci,” I told her that she would have to practice and she would learn. She has never asked for her pacifiers since. I believe that because it was her that made the decision that she accepted the consequences and was ready to do live without it. She grew up a little more that day.

Baby #3

Had our first doctor’s visit last week. I hadn’t told people I was pregnant this time since I miscarried last time, and I wanted to make sure there was actually something in there. The doctor did a surprise ultrasound for us and there really is somebody in there! A cute little new one growing fast and making me extremely tired and quite nauseated. Much more nauseated then I was with the girls. Here is the first picture.

We are excited for another little Slack coming for some fun due on Oct 12, 2013.