Women's Conference

Earlier this year Julie called me up, and asked if I would want to go to Women's Conference with her. After I talked to Shawn we thought it would be a great idea. Julie and I had gone together years ago before we were married. We decided after this trip, that it needs to be an annual event.

I flew up on Wednesday, and my dear friend Jenny picked me up from the airport. We met up with Julie at Cafe Rio, and were able to catch up just a bit. I hadn't seen Jenny in almost 8 years! I had lost track of her, and just recently through Facebook we were able to reconnect. I loved seeing her and her cute baby, Brooklyn. My only complaint was that our visit was too short. I am now secretly trying to figure out a way to get her to move down here. Women's Conference is put on every year around the end of April beginning of May at the BYU campus in Utah. For two days thousands of women get together to listen to different speakers. All through out the campus different topics are being discussed, and we got to choose what we needed to listen to. We attended some really good classes, and others that I wish that we could walk out of...but overall the experience was great. One of the topics that I think I appreciated the most was "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Phillipians 4:11) It opened my eyes to realize that no matter what happens in life there is a choice.

I sat there and listened to a woman, who was around my same age, tell us about her trials of losing her husband to cancer 3 years prior. At 27 she was a widow, and also a mother to a young little boy. I was amazed with the joy that she was still able to find.

She taught us that in life there are two different doors we can choose from. The first door is WHY. We can open this door easily, but once inside it is impossibly difficult to leave. She could have spent the rest of her life wondering why Heavenly Father chose to take her husband away from their family. Why she has to raise her child on her own. Why she didn't get to have much time with him. The list can go on and on...

Instead she chose the second door that was labeled WHAT. Entering the door that says "WHAT" takes a lot more effort. Yet if we make that effort the rewards are doubled. That extra effort is what humbles us enough to receive more promptings and revelation from our Heavenly Father. Instead of asking 'WHY' we can ask 'What' do I need to learn from this? I know I have shared this on my blog before, but I will again.

"Every person God puts into our lives. Every experience that He gives us. Is the perfect preparation for the future only He can see."

As I sat there listening to her I thought of this quote. I came across it during a tough time in High School, and it has been a beacon for me throughout the years. I think it is a great example of the point she was trying to convey to us.

Life is hard....but we always have a choice. We can choose to blame or we can accept and grow. We can sometimes not understand why things happen. Yet, I know that He knows me better. He knows what I need in my life to prepare me to be stronger for what is to come.

I can't say I always open the What door. I have been known to have quite the pity parties at times, but this was a great reminder for me. We really do have a choice to be happy not matter what.

Besides having fun at the Conference, Julie and I got to spend some time shopping. There is something about Utah...they have great places to go shopping. Julie and I joked about driving up here with an empty van just so we could fill it up with cool stuff and bring it home. I hope to get a Tai Pan here someday...then I would be happy :)

Thanks Jules for inviting me along....can't wait for next year!

Picture Fiasco

Last Wednesday Julie came over so I could help her make a bow for Gemma for Easter. I got all my bow making supplies, and that is when she saw one of the bows that I made to match one of Sydney's dresses that had cherries on it. Goes to find out she had just recently bought the same dress for Gemma. Thats when we thought it would be so cute to get pictures of them together. Wednesdays are Robbie's day off so we decided to go the following Wednesday to get the pictures so Robbie could watch Caden while we took the girls.

Julie was a member of a picture club for a company that shall not be named. She had some coupons, and also got some sort of discount so that is where we thought we would take the pictures. When Julie called to set up an appointment, she found that all the locations had been shut down except for one that was on the other side of town. We knew that it would be a long drive, but thought it would be worth it anyway. They didn't have any openings in the morning at the time, but said that we could walk-in, and they would be able to squeeze us in.

So we began our hour long drive closer to 10 am. When we got there we were displeased to find that they couldn't "squeeze" us in until 1:20 pm. At this point we didn't really have much of a choice. We had already driven out there so I wasn't about to turn around empty handed. Julie called Robbie and told him of the situation. Thankfully Robbie is such a trooper, and was willing to watch Caden longer than expected.

With all the time on our hands all we could do was shop, and we also got a bite to eat. One fun thing was Children's Place is having a spring clearance! I think The Children's Place has some really cute clothes, but I am just not willing to pay full price for them. Everything was marked down to $4.99!!! So things that last week had cost $30-40 were now cheap! I snagged some beautiful dresses, and some cute boy outfits for my sister who will be having a boy in June! BTW, they said that Children's Place's nationwide are doing this so check it out, and you may be able to get a deal too!

Then it was time to head back to the studio for the girls photo session. I have to tell ya, they looked so cute. We had everything matching right down to the shoes. While we were waiting to be ushered in the girls played on this thing they had in the entrance. They could climb inside, and then go down a slide. As luck would have it (because the way this day was going...it just had to happen) seconds before they called us...Gemma tumbled down the slide and hit her head. She now was sporting a beautiful red bump on her forehead! They got us an ice pack, and that helped a little bit. The photo shoot turned out pretty good. It is amazing how hard it is to get two little girls to sit still. Halfway through the shoot Sydney decided to face plant. I guess she was feeling left out, and needed a bump of her own. We laughed, they cried and they took more photos. Now we were left with yet another hour to wait for the pictures to get developed, and then we could go home.

We took the kids over to the malls play place, and let them play to their hearts content. It was quite the fun little area. Sydney loves to climb, and this gave her exactly that opportunity. She went up, down, around and through all of fun structures. Finally we headed back over to the studio.

Unfortuantely, the pictures weren't done and we had to wait some more. They gave us more of a discount because they felt so bad because we had been there all day and had driven so far. We finally got to see the results closer to 3:45. They turned out pretty cute, and even though it ate up our whole day...it was fun (though my husband would like to think otherwise). We probably won't ever make that trek again, but atleast we will be able to look back on our crazy LONG day, and laugh even more.

I am this tall!

Just a little fun snippet. At Christmas, Julie & Robbie made us a height chart to use to track our kids. We finally got it hung up and Caden can't get enough of it. He loves to "stand up real tall" and have me mark it. Of course he doesn't change in his height, but loves the fact that I wrote his name on it. Caden is a little taller than 40 inches, and Syd is almost 30 inches. It is really a great thing...nice and sturdy. The best thing about it is IF we ever move (which is very unlikely) we can just take it with us and always have the memories. What a great gift. THANK YOU, Jules & Robbie!!! They made this one themselves, but I know there is one similar you can buy on-line. I will have to get the link from Julie if anyone is interested.

Beautiful Baby Search

Okay, I know I am biased, but I think that I have pretty cute kids. My best friend Julie called me today to see if she could come over to submit some pictures of Gemma and Tanner (her children) for the Regis and Kelly Show's Beautiful Baby Search. Julie has yet to get the internet (how has she survived?--I think she thinks the same thing :) and didn't know a whole lot on how to format a picture to the right size (100kb) and format (jpg or gif). So she popped on over so I could help her out. By the time we actually got to the computer her wonderful hubbie, Robbie, had already figured things out...but I thought...what the hey... I will submit pictures of Sydney and Caden. What do we have to lose, right? Now Julie and I have facinations of being able to fly together out to New York to be on Regis and Kelly because OF COURSE our children will be in the top five! :) If anything we may see one of our cute faces on TV so set your Tivos and see if our kids get a cameo. Here are the pictures that I submitted...tell me what you think...are they winners?

Caden

Sydney