Hair Clips, Enrichment , Park and Brothers!

So I had to post this picture that Maddie took of my hair after I woke up from a nap on Sunday. I was sitting at the piano with Maddie and I was practicing my song for Enrichment Tuesday and Madeline was showing me how she could play her choir songs (reminder - she plays amazingly by ear and can pick up the melody for ANY song she hears!) and then she decided that she wanted to play with my hair while I sang and played. So she did. After awhile I was so relaxed and sleepy that I decided to just lay down and take a nap. Maddie wasn't done playing with my hair yet so she followed me into the Family room and kept at it. Soon I was in and out of consciousness and I vaguely remember her asking if she could decorate my hair. Asleep again, then a vague "can I decorate the house with clips and headbands". Asleep again. Anyway, when I woke up the side of my head that I was NOT sleeping on was completely covered in clips and bows and I had a rubber band wound tightly around my big toe, that was turning shades of blue! There were headbands and bows on every door knob downstairs and clips on the plants and on my purse straps and everywhere else they could get them to stay! Emily apparently joined in the "decorating" party somewhere along the line! I could not believe that I didn't even feel them messing with my toe to the point of cutting off the circulation!! I guess that's what the reality of being pregnant with 4 small kids gets you, total and utter exhaustion!! I love my sweet girls!

So I did want to write about what a super amazing night we had last night at our Quarterly Enrichment. Last year I kept having a feeling that we needed to have a musical fireside for the sisters in our ward where people could share their testimony through song. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love singing and how much music touches my heart and inspires me. Well, I kind of put this feeling off because I wasn't in any calling to put anything together. I had just been released from Young Women's and I was now a Primary Teacher (and still am). I talked to a friend of mine who was the Stake Music Coordinator and told her about my idea and she liked it, but then it never materialized. I had the feeling again that I needed to get it together, but I rationalized it by saying, I did my part by putting the idea into the right hands. The feeling just wouldn't go away and so a few months later I called our Relief Society President who is a dear friend of mine and talked to her about how I'd been feeling and what my idea was. And she said, "That sounds great! Let's do it for an Enrichment, how much time do you need to put it together? Can we do it for our Quarterly Enrichment in March for the RS Birthday Celebration?" I think it was like October at the time, so I agreed and that was that. So as a Primary Teacher I was in charge of the Quarterly Enrichment. But I was really really excited about finally doing this activity. So I started to talking to people about singing for it. We haven't really had many musical numbers in our ward, so it was hard to find people who were comfortable singing but finally I got a good group together and got a few people to play the piano, and then we started choosing songs. I wanted to use songs from the "Women of Destiny" cd's (there are two of them) and they are SO fabulous. Well I gave everyone that was singing several different songs to choose from and I asked them to choose songs that touched them and that they felt they had a connection with. Unfortunately no one really connected with any of the songs I had chosen. But it was PERFECT because they all chose songs that HAD touched them and that meant something to each of them. So when they sang them for us they were so heartfelt that the spirit was so strong and it was just so amazing. I had some crazy last minute stress as I found out the week before that no one had practiced with the piano and a lot of people were not aware that I wanted them to take a few minutes before they sang to give us and intro to their song by sharing their experience/story or testimony of the things taught in the song they chose (which I thought was a really important part of the night). And then there came the cancellations. Ahhh!! At one point I only had about 30 minutes of our 1 1/2 hour program filled! And there was less than a week before the Enrichment! So I called for reinforcements! I put out emails to everyone that I knew that sang in the area and begged and pleaded a bit and got one amazingly wonderful reply by sweet Becca Laing! She had sung one of the very songs from the Women of Destiny CD at EFY last summer and then again at her Enrichment only a week before! Anyway, she came and did an AMAZING job and started the night off with a bang. As she introduced her song, the spirit came rushing into the room and then she started to sing and the sweetest peace filled the room and I knew that the rest of the night was going to go great (despite the cancellation phone call that I got from one of our singers 10 minutes before I left to go to the church!). It was so neat to hear everyones experiences and feel the spirit as they shared their testimony of how they drew on the strength found in these songs. We also sang several Hymns throughout the program and I called sisters to share with us a Hymn that had touched them in some way. It was so neat to hear what these women had to say and understand why the spirit had directed me to call certain people. It was just such a wonderful evening and I'm so glad that it all came together!! Thank You so much to everyone who helped and participated and brought the spirit! It was such a great night!

Well after an amazing night we woke up to some amazing sunshine!! Yesterday was beautiful as well and the kids got a little hot and sweaty playing outside and it was SO NICE to think that spring really is here! I'm not counting out another freak snow storm sneaking up on us but I was SO grateful for the sunshine this morning. I was up late last night telling Peter about Enrichment and so I slept in this morning, and Tyler ended up missing the bus. So as I drove him to school I saw all of the kids out riding bikes and the people out jogging and pushing strollers around and I was shocked! It hasn't been warm enough in the MORNING to do this since last summer! I got so excited that I came home and got the kids dressed and got my shoes on and off we went. We walked along the river trail by our house up to a park and I let the kids play. I was wearing a lightweight nylon jacket and was REALLY hot! Hallelujah! It was so gorgeous!! So anyway! Here's a few pictures of my youngest three at the park this morning! I'm so happy for Spring!!!

ALSO! In exciting news! I found out yesterday that my older brother Billy and his wife Jen and their daughter Britta (who will turn one about the same time that I have Logan) are going to move up here to Utah in April!! They bought a house up in Traverse Mountain a year or so ago and have been renting it out. They found out that the tenants are going to be moving out in April and the decided to move into the house instead of trying to rent it out again! I am SOOOO excited! I miss my family a lot and I'm so glad to have one more member of them up here by us! And I've been so sad to not get to see little Britta as she's been growing up! She and Ashlyn (Tara and Jason's youngest) have been growing and changing the most and I've been so sad to be missing it and now I'll get to see her more and my kids will get to play with her and have a cousin on the Hurd family up here close! I've LOVED having Sterling and Katie up here and I can't wait to have BOTH of my brothers here! We found out last month that my Grandparents bought a house in the same cul-de-sac as my aunt right across the freeway, so we're slowly getting a little more family on MY side of the family up here! I seriously have been so excited since I found out! Hooray for family!