Southern Lights

Tonight McKenna gets to perform in "Southern Lights," the event celebrating the rededication of the Atlanta Temple. She has worked for months learning and perfecting a salsa dance that she will perform for 4,000 people at the Atlanta Civic Center-- including President Monson. She is amazing at it. She has a special sparkle that will make her performance beautiful. I cannot wait to go and see her on stage!!

(Their ending pose.)

Endure through Faith

Over the past couple months, my scripture study has focused a lot on how the Lord chastens his people; how we must be patient in affliction; and how we are required to endure to the end. Then recently I've been thinking about how, because of Christ's atonement, he has power to succor and help those that come unto him. In my mind there was a disconnect between those two ideas: 1) That we must patiently endure affliction, and 2) That Christ would carry the burdens of his people. If Christ carried our burdens, what would there be to endure?

In looking back, this line of thinking has caused me a lot of doubt and discouragement-- not doubt in my Savior, but doubt in my own worthiness and ability to exercise faith. I erroneously believed that if I had enough faith, Christ would pick me up and carry me through the hard times. He would take my burdens upon himself and I would not feel them. But then when I experienced hard times and felt pain and sorrow, I wondered what I was doing wrong.

But I think that I am beginning to connect the dots. Christ did take upon himself all of our sins, pains, afflictions, sicknesses, infirmities, and temptations so that he would "know according to the flesh how to succor his people" (D&C 7:12). But His succor does not mean that he will remove our afflictions, but that he will strengthen us so we can endure them. In a very literal sense, Christ walks with us and holds our hand through our mortal experience (see Isaiah 41:13, 42:6). The help he offers is perfect because he knows exactly what we are going through-- he has experienced it for us so he can experience it with us. In some instances he will lift the burden, but because he knows that "all these things shall give [us] experience, and shall be for [our] good" (D&C 122:7), he allows us to go through the refiners fire. But he promises, "I will not leave you comfortless" (John 14:18). The scriptures are replete with assurance that Christ will help us, strengthen us, comfort us, and even carry us. Like a spotter in weight-lifting he allows us to exercise our spiritual muscles and to press forward in faith. But when the weight we carry is too heavy for us to bear, he lightens the load just enough for us to be successful. We still have to use all of our strength, but he will never let life's burdens crush us.

Life is somethimes very hard, but we can go forward with the very real hope that because of Jesus Christ, we can "one day rest from all [our] afflictions" (Alma 34:41) and receive a great reward. We will ultimately be free from all pain and sorrow. But our immediate mortal experience requires that we endure to the end with faith in our Savior.

Easter Egg Hunt

Last night we had Easter dinner over at Abbi & Chad's house. After dinner the kids got to hunt for Easter Eggs. Even with lots and lots of eggs, the hunt that lasted about 2 minutes. These kids are fast! Afterwards they were all smiles. Can you tell from this picture how much they all really like each other? They are the best of friends.

  

    

    

Easter Pay-off

I started working on Easter dresses in February. Today I got to enjoy the fruits of my labors. (And thank heavens for afternoon church. There is no way I could have gotten everyone ready in time if we met any earlier!)

McKenna--age 12

(Actually my Mom made her skirt while she was here for Emily's baptism. I could have made it. But my Mom is an expert and did a much better job than I would have.)

Lyida-- age 10

 

Emily--age 8 
(You should see this girl twirl!)
 

Summer--age 6

Chloe--age 2

Do you see how big Mr. Knightley is?! He's part of the family now. :)

Our neighbor dropped by just in time to snap a quick picture of our whole family.

I hope you had a very, very happy Easter.

I love my house in the spring time

Over the winter I kind of got lazy about picking weeds. But while I was in North Carolina David worked like a mad-man and got our yard looking spic and span. He planted our garden out back, spread pinestraw in all the beds, and got ferns to hang on our porch. It was such a wonderful surprise. Now every time I drive up to our house I am reminded of how lucky I am to be married to such an awesome guy. Some days I really don't deserve him.

Emily's Baptism

Emily turned eight years old on April 15 and was baptized on April 16. All of our family was able to be here and it was a wonderful celebration.

She wore her pretty white dress to church the next day, and in primary when we brought her up front to be recognized they asked: "Does anyone know what happened to Emily yesterday?" One of the cute little 5 year olds said, "She got married!!" :)

I am glad we're not at that stage yet. She still needs to be our little girl.

These are the flowers Audra & Mike gave Emily for her baptism. They are blossoming so beautifully. (Underneath the flowers you can get a sneak peek of the quilt I am making for my sister-in-law, Marla's baby.)

Every once in a while it hits me how blessed I am to have these wonderful little girls-- and Emily is extra-special. There is no one else quite like her and I absolutely love her to pieces. She took her decision to be baptized very seriously and wanted everything to be perfect. And it really was.

Sisters Retreat

Where has April gone?! My last blog post was in March! My next few posts will play catch-up for anyone intersted in what I've been doing for the last month.

April began with a wonderful "sisters retreat" to a cabin up in North Carolina. I was so busy relaxing and enjoying myself that I didn't take many pictures. (That's Audra & Jessie's job when we're together, anyway.) But here are a few experiences I did catch.

One of the first days we were there we took a little walk along the river and railroad tracks at the bottom of the mountain where our cabin was located. Everything felt a little rustic and old-fashioned-- I loved it.

We took a drive into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and walked around a campground there. We discovered this old church-- originally built in 1836 and later reconstructed in 1912. This picture is meaningful to me because while we were there Abbi started reading the book "Christy," which I then read once we got home. It was set in the Great Smokey Mountains in 1912. It's fun to imagine that this church is similar to the one she taught in.

At the same campground we took a walk along the river. It was actually a horse trail that we followed, but we were careful to watch where we stepped. :)

We wanted to get a picture of the four of us together, but since no one was around to take one, Jessie came up with the idea to hang the camera from a tree and use the self-timer. It worked!

On our drive back to our cabin we passed a family of elk. I think there were about 5 or 6 in all. They seemed used to cars slowing down to take their picture.

In one of our trips into Bryson City I fell in love with these beautiful blossoms. I later discovered it is a Pink Dogwood. Someday I want to have one in our yard.



I missed getting pictures of the gorgeous cabin we stayed in, the yummy meals we ate, the good books we read, and of us watching General Conference and the NCAA tournament. Our one big adventure was that on our last night a big storm came through and knocked out the power to our cabin. Luckily the cabin was prepared with flashlights and candles. And in the morning it gave us a good excuse to check out a couple hours later than we would have otherwise. Of course I missed David and the girls, but I can't imagine better company than my three wonderful sisters. They are the best friends a girl could want.

(Mom, next year you are coming, too!!)