Activity or Achievement?

I can never remember. Isn't that CraZy? I probably ask every week, is it activity day girls or achievement days? At least they are going and loving it and it is a great program. Last week (actually two weeks) was Kaitlin's first time. They had a great lesson on modesty and made their own dresses. Maddi is modeling a original creation designed by her and her team. Pretty cute if I say so myself.

cute purse accessory

Baptisms and Blizzards

BEAUTIFUL

OK so it really wasn't a huge blizzard but it felt like one as we drove into Lethbridge. Kaitlin was finally baptized after waiting quite a while due to travel, and miscommunication. What should have taken place on Nov 29.,2009 took place on Saturday Jan 23, 2010 at the Lethbridge East Stake Center. Kaitlin was baptised by her dad along with her friend Blake Chan by his dad. It was a wonderful baptism service. The mom's said the prayers. Blake's grandpa Zobell spoke on baptism. He used his old well used handkerchief that used to be white but was now quite yellowed over time, and compared it with a brand new bright white handkerchief. These were compared to how we are clean and brand new when we are born but over time we can make mistakes and become discolored. After we are baptised we are brand new again butif we make mistakes we can repent and each week when we partake of the sacrament it can help us stay bright white. It was a very affective visual aid. Jackie(Blake's mom), and her sisters Louisa and Tekarra (Can you believe I taught all three of these girls in Young Women's and now they are all moms. CRAZY), sang a wonderful song that they had sung at their own baptisms.It made me cry.  Their mom, Louise Zobell had written the song. Then we had the baptisms. Kaitlin and Savanna (Blakes little sister) sang I like to look for rainbows. It was very good. Kaitlin's Grandma Memmott gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Kaitlin loved it because she gave both of them a comforter to remind them of this special day and that they now have a special gift that is with them all the time if they live worthy. After the confirmations Kaitlin and Blake both bore their testimonies. It was very special and the spirit was strong. It was interesting because we were baptizing our baby and the Chan's were baptizing their oldest. This was a beautiful day that we will always remember. It was made special by being with our special family and friends.

cute hair by Aunt Jody

Organizing Saturday

We spent today cleaning and organizing Maddi and Kaitlin's rooms. It was quite an undertaking as clothes and toys and paper and a whole lot of junk had started to TAKE OVER. You could hardly move in Maddi's room and more than once mom was yelling from stepping on something sharp. And do you know what? It was not their fault that their rooms were in that awful shape. OH NO! Not THem. They didn't know how it got that way but of course mom's heard that before. SOMEWHERE...........?  We finally just jumped in and 3 full garbage bags and a lot of sorting and putting away the rooms look 100 times better. At least I won't stub my toes or step on any sharp object. Now the trick will be keeping it organized and clean.

Brandon even took some time and started organizing his room. Maybe his bed will have sheets on it tonight. We'll have to wait and see. I am positive he can do this little task by himself but it's been a while. He just grabs a blanket and wraps up in it. He also got the back porch shoveled off. He left it till the evening and the chinook that blew in today took care of most of it but I threatened him with his life after I went out to check on the dog and fell down the steps because they were so snow covered (and I had no grip on my boots but still!!!!). It's been a productive day

AJ got out of the organizing today because he woke up just in time to catch the bus with the ball team to go to a tournament in Milk River. THey took first place but he was gone to 9:15 pm. He did ask me to cut his hair when he got home so that makes me uber happy, and makes up for not getting his room clean. (He still has to do it though.) His hair doesn't look like a giant mop on his head anymore and I'm so happy he trusts me. I'm smiling from ear to ear.
                                                             All in all it's been a super saturday.

INTERNET BLISS

Isn't the internet wonderful. Just think about it. You can email someone and get a reply the same day, instead of waiting a week or 2 for snail mail. (I still like letters in the mail too. There's something about holding a letter in your hand and then ripping it open to find out what's inside) It's just that email is almost instant gratification. Then you have Blogs (who thought that up). You can just ramble on about nothing or share ideas and thoughts. You can share your creativity with the world or just keep in touch and update family on the goings on in your life. I love to look up friends and family's blogs to find out what they've been up to and see their wonderful pic's. I LOVE to sit and look at all the wonderful blogs out there in blog land that give such great decorating advice and cute ideas (Here's where it can get tricky though..... I can sit for hours looking and suddenly realize I've wasted half the day. OH WAIT! the whole day is gone. I've enjoyed myself but really accomplished nothing) Already today it's 9:15 am and all I've really accomplished was driving the kids to school which took all of 5 min. of that time because I've been sitting at the computer, looking, reading and emailing. See the problem. Bliss vs. Addiction (is that too harsh). Anyway on with my ramblings. Now you have facebook. I finally joined up after forever because a friend did it and so of course I had to too. And now we see how you can get sucked in. Brandon is forever groaning because his mom is checking her facebook and it's just so wrong. It should only be for the teenagers. But what fun to be able to connect with people you haven't seen since grade school. Even just the fun of seeing others thoughts of the moment. WHAT A GREAT THING TO KEEP US IN TOUCH WITH THE WORLD. We just have to remember to use it wisely.(like everything else in life!) HMMMM Maybe I should go do the breakfast dishes now. What do you think?

Winter Weather

            A View from my room. Does it make anyone wish they were here right now? It is pretty, but still too cold.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

We had a fun and crazy christmas eve at Jody and Dano's house. It was a houseful of people with our family, their family, Grandma and Grandpa, Larry,Becky, Grandpa Don, Daryl and Carol, Heather and Brandt and their kids were home for Christmas and then there was Ben and Mandy and their Kids. LOTS OF KIDS. We had a cute nativity with all those little kids and I didn't even get a picture. We had a lot of good food to eat and did a lot of visiting. We headed home so the kids could open their christmas eve gift. SURPRISE... P.J.'s.

Christmas Morning was a lot of fun. Dad got everyone up which would normally be a huge surprise but now

that he gets up at 5:30 every morning I guess it was to be expected. We got up around 6:15 and everyone had fun opening presents. Cassin didn't want to be left out and he called at 7:20. He hadn't even opened up his gifts. It was so fun to talk to him and hear all about his mission and the people that he has met and baptised. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing with the loot. Then we headed back over to Jody's for Christmas dinner. Not as many people Just our Immediate Nilsson family. Carol and Daryl and their kids had their own. It was YUMMY!  Dustin called while we were over at Jody's so everyone got to say hi. He sounded great and we had a wonderful visit. He told us he will probably be home around April 28th. WOW the time will fly. All in all we had a great christmas!