Happy 2nd Birthday Beck!

Here is my baby Beck 2 years ago. It is wierd that in a little over a month I will be posting another baby photo of the still to be named baby girl. Looking at all the baby pictures of Kate and Beck lately is reminding me how small and helpless she is going to be. I am starting to get a little more excited the more I check off my before the baby comes to do list.

We didn't do much for Beck's birthday today since we already had combined parties for Kate and Beck with both sides of the family. Here is the cake daddy decorated for Beck. He loves Thomas the train and knows the names of all the engines. It looked good and it actually tasted good too considering it was dairy and egg free. I am so glad to have Beck in our family. He is such a sweet, smart, funny, little boy. We are really enjoying seeing his personality develop and watching him grow and learn new things. I just hope I be the kind of mom that deserves such a special boy.

Here are some pictures of Kate and Beck opening presents and enjoying their cake at their parties. Kate is already asking when she turns 5 and when she can go to school.

Sister Beck

About a month ago, we had a stake enrichment night in which we were priveledged to have the General Relief Society President sister Julie Beck come to speak to us. Our stake president emphasized at the beginning of the meeting that the church does not approve of members passing along notes from talks given by general authorities. I think the main reason is that they can be mis-quoted and mis-represented as their words are taken out of context or the person hears something different than what the speaker intended etc. I just wanted to mention that this entry is mainly for my own journaling purposes and my notes are not direct quotes from Julie Beck, but more what the spirit emphasized to me was important as she was speaking and answering questions posed to her from the audience.
Spritual Strength:
Sister Beck spent a lot of the evening discussing the importance of developing more faith, hope and charity. The question was posed "what keeps you up at night?" and part of her response was how can she help the women of the world increase their faith, hope and chairty. She said without these things we can't make it. She discussed the power to change from who you were to who you need to be. Sister Beck also discussed that we can fulfill our responsiblities through personal revelation and spritual gifts. We are lost without them!
Sister Beck read Alma 32:41 and talked about the importance of nourishing our faith. Don't let go of faith! Nourish it with great diligence and patience! She talked about how we live in a world of 15 second fixes. For example, if you want to fix bad breath, whiten your teeth, or even arrange to go on vacation you can do it all in about 15 seconds. However developing faith, hope and charity take time, effort, patience and diligence. We can't let ourselves get discouraged by thinking if we can't fix it now we are a failure.
Missionary work:
Someone asked her the question (I got the impression it was related to all the negativity toward the church in relation to proposition 8) about how we should respond to all the negativity and attacks on the church lately in the media etc. I think the sister asking the question was wondering how best to defend the church and sister Beck's responses were not about being able to defend the church, but instead to be an example of righteousness and a light to the world. She read a quote from President Kimball. I wish I had the direct quote and if any of you do please pass it along. It went something like my dear sisters much of the growth of the church in the last days will come because women of the church reflect righteousness seen as distinct and different in happy ways. We were encouraged to be articulate in righteous, distinct and different ways not to argue or be defensive but to live righteously and let our light shine. Sister Beck told a missionary experience she had where a stranger told her they knew she had something to do with God after she handed them a business card with the name of the church on it. What a compliment that stangers are able to pick up on the fact that we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ just in doing regular every day business with them because of how we live and act. Julie Beck reminded us that many have not been taught how to live after the manner of happiness and she encouraged us to tell what we know in our hearts.
Visiting Teaching:
Sister Beck told a personal story where a family was in great need of assistance and she stopped by to check on them and found the needs of the family basically being ignored while the wife sat patiently while her visiting teachers gave her the message. She emphasized that visiting teaching is not about checking off a list of behaviors and is more about ministering. She told another personal story where she was assigned to visit a sister who had requested no contact with the church and she didn't know how to love this sister or what she needed so she prayed for help from the Lord because she knew he did love her and he did know her and he could help her love her and understand her too. She encouraged us to pray about our sisters and that the Lord can help us understand their gifts, heartaches etc. Sister Beck emphasized the importance of being spirit driven and not list driven in visiting teaching. She said the spirit can't speak to you if you've already decided.
Unity:
John 17:11 She said this is the best explanation of unity "to know God and Jesus Christ" and that it takes a lifetime of practice to not do or say anything that wouldn't make our Father happy.
Positive attitude:
Sister Beck talked about how a lot of her friends are pointing out blogs that they think she should check out and she is always hesitant because a lot of the time it is about "I didn't get what I wanted" out of life's experiences. Some complain they don't have kids and some complain they have too many kids and so on. She discussed that we need to focus not on what we didn't or aren't getting out of life and foucus on helping each other prepare for eternal life. We can't buy the dream, but we can earn it. Increase your faith and personal righteousness. Strengthen families and homes. Mortal life experience is to prepare us for the dream. We fought a great war in heaven just for the experience.
Education:
In addressing the single branch she encouraged them to get the best education they can afford. She encouraged them to work for their education and not to go into debt for it. She also said to work toward a profession you could support your family with and not something that is your hobby.
I am glad I was able to go back through my notes and remind myself of these important pinciples. I know I can make a lot of improvements in my own life and I am grateful I had the chance to listen to such an inspired leader to help motivate me to continue pursuing these goals.

Big Box Baby

First thing this morning when I was getting Beck out of his crib he says to me "I wanna go wal-mart". I thought it was kind of funny because he has been making several comments like these lately. He also has said "I wanna go bye bye Target" and wanna go wal-mart in new car". He can recognize when we are at Wal-mart or Target as soon as he sees the front of the building. I am a little anxious for when the weather improves enough that I don't have to shop at the big box stores just for an excuse to get out of the house and I can take them on walks, go to the park or just let them play in the yard instead. I'll probably be able to stick to our budget better then as well.

We did get our new mini van and I am loving the automatic doors. Beck says "Thank you door" everytime it opens or closes for him. I am glad when the baby comes it will be a little easier to get three kids into safety seats.

Kate turns 4!

4 years ago....

Kate is now 4 years old and now that she is out of the toddler bed and into a twin bed she is feeling like a very big girl. She had a pretty good birthday first with dance class then picking out a Belle princess polly pocket gift set including the beast and horse and carriage for her birthday. She already knew what her present was, but she still wanted me to wrap it up and she did a pretty good acting job of being surprised when she openned it. She also got to have a play date with her cousins and when daddy got home we took her to play on the mall playground and paid for a few rides, then on the way home she got to get a stawberry shake. Pretty spoiled if I do say so myself. It is hard not to though at this age when they are so excited about birthdays. She has been asking about her birthday since halloween. She has had one family birthday party already and will have another one Sunday both of which are combined with her brother since there birthdays are only 11 days apart. Beck insisits that he is going to be 4 too and if you try to tell him otherwise he gets mad and starts crying. Kate had a Wall-E cake which she chose over pincesses. Daddy did a good job on the cake. I will post more party pictures later after the next party.





I can't believe I have a four year old. It really makes me want to try harder to be a better mom because kids remember so much more at this age. Happy Birthday Kate! We love you! We are lucky to have you as our daughter and you are a great big sister.

Valentine's Day!

We had a very busy Valentine's Day. We shopped most of the day trying to get a few things we needed for the baby and the basement. We picked out our paint for the basement since Home Depot was having their Behr paint rebate sale and then we got some bunk beds for Kate and Beck. Kate has been usuing a borrowed toddler bed from a neighbor and Beck is still in the crib and Number 3 which we are still trying to name will be here soon. We were hoping also pick up our new van, but it wasn't ready (it is not official yet, but we should be able to pick it up Tuesday). It is a 2005 Honda Odessey with 28,000 miles, leather interior, DVD player, automatic doors and we are so excited. Beck kept saying "I want this car!"

Eli made breakfast and dinner which was nice. He grilled steaks and shrimp on the BBQ while it was snowing. I guess he didn't mind the snow after snowblowing the drive way like 4x that weekend already. Then we watched the Charlie Brown Valentine special with the kids.

Here is a Valentine I created for Eli Thanks to a neighbor who pointed it out to me from the Family Fun Magazine. It is just a box of sweettarts made to look like an iPod. It is called the iLove and you personalize it with love songs that match the person to whom you are giving it. I haven't had much time for crafts, but I like the homemade valentine's. It was nice to find this one that was so easy.

Back Seat Drivers

I have been noticing lately how many comments my kids make in the car about my driving and it is easy to know why. I talk a lot when I am in the car and it is a bad habit I am realizing I need to eliminate. The good part is that I point out interesting things to my kids out the windows and they learn some new things about their world, the bad part is that I also get frustrated with other drivers and make comments about that too. I also tend to tell my husband how to drive and he usually responds that he has been driving just fine for years before he met me and was able to get from one place to another just fine without my help. I have to clarify for those who don't know my husband that he is extremely smart and thinks deeply about things and discusses these deep thoughts with me while he is driving, so sometimes he is on auto pilot and not really paying attention to where he is going. He frequently will pass our exit from the freeway or drive around a parking lot for 5 minutes passing several good spots to absent mindedly park in some random spot a mile away because he is so busy solving the problems of the universe. Usually I don't mind where he parks, but being in the third trimester of pregancy with back pain and trouble breathing plus winter snow and ice in parking lots I have become a lot more particular.
So maybe now you'll understand why sometimes I have to be a back seat driver and let him know "that was out exit you just passed" or "here is our turn" etc.

Kate is always asking what this sign means or what power sub stations are for and sometimes I have to just tell her to be quiet, so I can concentrate on driving. She can be quite distracting at times with her millions of questions. Then sometimes she is acting like her mom and becomes quite the back seat driver. For example, when I am turning right and the light is red, she is quick to point out that the light is red. She often thinks we are going the wrong way home and I have to reassure her that I do know where I am going and I do know how to drive. She is also helpful to point out that we don't use the word "dumb" or "idiot" when I slip up and say something I shouldn't to other drivers in front of my kids. Why is it that I think it is okay to talk to other drivers in such a way when I would never in a million years act like that in their presence. I am usually extremely polite in public, so it is quite out of my nature to be such a irritable impatient driver.

Beck hasn't been immune to picking up my bad habits like I wish he was. He has been quite the impersonator lately. I will hear him yell from the back seat "Go dude!" or "Come on cars". Hopefully I can change my ways before my bad habits rub off even more on my kids or my husband wants to drop me off on the side of the road:).