(AKA the month of Wedding Planning and Book Publishing!)
The month started off with a 4 day trip for mom and dad to Orlando, Florida where they got to stay in the Waldorf Astoria Resort. Dad had a work conference for Xylem there and after finding a round-trip ticket for mom at a great price ($249!) they decided to make it a little get-away vacation. Dad was in classes and mandatory dinners each day but mom had a great time sleeping in, lounging poolside listening to books, enjoying the sun and the gorgeous views! Grandma Vogt came and stayed with the kids and we're soooo thankful that she did so that we could enjoy this time together!
Arriving back from Florida, the pressing need of getting the wedding announcements ordered was prevalent! We put the finishing touches on them and put the order in. They came back looking beautiful and have since all been mailed out! Here's a preview of them - along with the (business card size) Temple Sealing Invite insert. We are so thrilled to have McKendra join our family and our hearts are so full to have them be married in the Temple!
The other HUGE undertaking this month has been finalizing Ben's novel - Revolt! As of today - it is COMPLETE! It has been uploaded to Amazon (will be available for Pre-order this coming week!) A few physical proof copies should arrive in a few days where we'll make sure all of the printing is perfect! Ben and his Editor have (literally) spent hundreds of hours over the last 3 months getting this thing polished and ready for the world!! It's official release date is Friday, March 15th and we're all really excited! He and his friends created a book trailer that can be seen on his website. To think that a bunch of 16 year olds made it, is quite impressive! So mom's big involvement came with all of the designing - Designing the book covers, designing and publishing the website, designing the cover for his Author page on Facebook and doing a mini photo shoot for some cute pictures of him to be included in his book and website.
In between these huge undertakings, we also celebrated Valentine's Day! Mom came down with a bad illness and was in bed for 4 days (and then still wasn't back to herself for another week!) Of course Valentine's Day fell on one of those "in bed" days and so the girls stepped up and put on the entire Valentine's Day celebrations! They (along with dads help) created the big "We Love To Be a Family" Banner and then came up with 7 activities to put on the hearts that we had to find. The activities were some of the traditional ones like "Who's your mummy" (although since mom had been so sick and hadn't gone to the store, they improvised and we used TP instead of crepe paper for the "wrapping" haha)... Getting the cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using hands, family selfie and making a family Valentine (which we ended up dedicating to our awesome dad!). They also came up with a few new ones like Pin the Heart on the Bear and having a family hug while listening to music. Not only did they orchestrate all of that.. they also PUT ON A FULL BREAKFAST and decorated the house with whatever they could find! We had homemade blueberry muffins (from scratch!) along with waffles and eggs - is there nothing these girls can't do? I mean if they can do all of that at the age of 10, what will they accomplish in the future!? I'm excited to find out! Here are some pictures from our festivities:
Another thing the girls have been into lately (and I'm hoping it sticks around for a bit! haha) is they L.O.V.E. to clean! and moreso they love to surprise clean - so if I'm upstairs, they'll be busy working downstairs or if I ever leave the house - I'll come back to being "Bamboozled" (as they call it! haha) and the place looking awesome! And we're not talking like a little straightening - we're talking full deep cleans and organizations (like the pantry, kitchen drawers, vacuuming the stairs, scrubbing the bathroom and even cleaning under the kitchen sink!) Mom's love language is "Acts of Service" so when they take their time to do these surprise cleanings, my heart just soars and I feel so happy and loved!
Dad had to do some minor work on a Saturday and decided to take the girls with him - afterwards they went out to the desert and did some shooting. Now this was not any ordinary shooting, it was the first time this particular shotgun had been shot in FORTY years! This was great grandpa Vogt's gun that got passed down to Grandpa Vogt which then got passed down to dad in 2013. The last time it had been shot (40 years ago by grandpa Vogt) he said that there was a misfire. Dad had worked on it a bit but eventually took it to a gunsmith who got it cleaned and fixed. Dad let the girls do the honor of being the first ones to shoot this H & R Break Action Single Shot .410 Shotgun.
Our days were also filled with Seth coming home for a long weekend, weekly Co-ops, Shakespeare practice for Ben (they meet twice a week and the show is set for May 10-11th), church meetings, Dave Ramsey classes, movie nights with friends, gun cleaning (dad and Nathan), Temple dates, going to see an Anne of Green Gables play at the local highschool and we even got a piano (since ours got damaged in the move) and the girls have been really into practicing everyday for hours!
Spiritually Speaking...
* The Come, Follow Me church curriculum is going well. We're still doing our longer FHE lesson on Sundays to introduce the next weeks chapters and topics. Over this past month we have memorized the Be-attitudes, Selected one (being a Peacemaker) and worked on that as a family, we made goals, discussed why we should think of good things (and not dwell on bad things), Talked about how the Savior taught in parables using ordinary objects so each of us brought a household object and related it to a gospel truth, we've worked on memorizing scriptures each week, discussed what things we want to keep out of our home (as well as things we wanted to keep/bring in), watched lots of the Bible videos that go along with our readings, and the past 2 weeks have been focusing on the Sermon on the Mount. I really love how simply and beautifully laid out this home-centered curriculum is!
* We had a Stake Priest/Laurel Temple activity where mom and Ben were able to spend 6 hours doing 5 workshops at the Temple and the church building next to the Temple. We did 5 one-hour rotations to the Family History Center where everyone was able to find names that were then printed out and then taken to the Temple for Baptisms. There was a Q&A session with our Stake President and his wife, letter writing to the Missionaries in our stake (which is what mom was over) and an interactive presentation on keeping the commandments). The youth were split into 5 groups of 20 and then rotated through with a lunch break in the middle. It was a very uplifting time and Ben (and mom) enjoyed themselves! Here's a picture I got of Ben and some of his friends during lunch.
* There have been some PRETTY MASSIVE changes within the church since our new Prophet, Russell M. Nelson, has been sustained. I can't help but believe that future generations will look back during this time of our church history and be in awe with how much President Nelson has done! Let's take a quick look over the last year at a few of the changes that have been implemented or announced (in no particular order):
* We are now Ministering Brothers and Sisters and no longer Home and Visiting Teachers
* High Priest were dissolved and now all adult men meet together in the Elders Quorum
* Our Meeting schedule was changed (from 3 hours down to 2 hours) to focus on home-centered gospel study
* We are now to call the church by it's (full) proper name
* The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's name got changed to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
* The whole new (awesome) Come, Follow Me Curriculum released and introduced! Love this!!
* Youth can now advance to Young Men and Young Womens the year they turn 12 (vs. waiting until their actual 12th birthday). They can begin attending the Temple right away and boys will be ordained to the Priesthood in January of the year they turn 12.
* New programs for the primary and youth to be rolled out in January 2020
* Missionary Calls are now sent out via email
* Sister Missionaries can now wear pants
* (Sacred) changes were made to the Temple ceremonies
And just this month of February 2 new announcements were made
* Mothers (with dependent children) can now be Temple Workers!
* Missionaries can NOW CALL HOME EACH WEEK (this included video chatting and text messaging)! This is huge! When this change was announced, Ben was sitting next to me (mom) and he looked over at me and said "Nothing can stop me now! I'll admit that I've been a little worried about not being able to talk to you guys for 2 years when I'm gone on my mission, but now that I can call you every week - there's nothing that can stop me from going on a mission!"
* During my personal scripture studies I've had a few thoughts I wanted to record. In Alma 37 (where Alma is talking to his son, Helaman) he teaches and counsels him on 15 things and it struck me that these are the same 15 things that I need to be teaching my children:
1. Repentance
2. Faith in Jesus Christ
3. Teach them to be Humble
4. Teach them to be Meek and Lowly of Heart
5. To withstand every temptation (which can be done with faith on the Lord)
6. To never be weary of good works
7. To learn wisdom in our youth
8. To keep the commandments of God
9. To Cry unto God for all our support
10. Let all our works be unto God
11. Have all our thoughts be directed to the Lord
12. Have our hearts affections be unto the Lord
13. Counsel with the Lord in all things
14. Pray both morning and night
15. Have our hearts be full of thanks to Heavenly Father for all things
* I also was reminded how the Lord works in SIMPLE ways and that by "small and simple things are great things brought to pass". Some of those Small things that add up as we consistently do them again and again include: Prayer (both family, couple and individual), scripture study (again, both family and individual and as a couple), weekly FHE and eating meals together. Don't dismiss the small things! Don't be slothful (or lazy) in the simple things BECAUSE when Satan can't get us to sin, he'll try another approach - CONTENTMENT! He'll make us feel content with our lives and then it's easier for him to get us to become lazy in spiritual matters or in things we know we need to be doing.
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