Sunday March 30th Carthrage Jail

Sunday we went to Carthrage Jail.  This is where the Prophet Joseph Smith, and Hyrum Smith were martyrd. This was a very sad place.  Joseph Smith new as he and Hyrum went to the jail that he would never be coming back out.  He stated "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning".  The only way I can describe the spirit that is there is sad.  It was truly evil men who conspired to kill the Lord's prophet.  They came as a cowardly mob painted black.  They shot Hyrum first he took a bullet in his face.  Joseph fled to the window and was shot in the back. Then the Mob fled when they heard some one say that the Mormans where coming.  This is a statue of Joseph and Hyrum together.  It states "in life they were not divided and in death they were not sep

erated" DC 135:3

I think that this is a testiment to the designs of the Adversary.  Satan will stop at nothing to attempt to destroy God's work from moving forward.  I told the kids that the church's enemies felt that if they could kill Joseph Smith they could kill the church.  But it is clear that God is at the helm, and that he will not allow the adversary to thwart his plan.  May we ever remember to stand stong to our conviction's and know that right will prevail.  The work of God has rolled forth, and the gospel of Jesus Christ fills to four corner's of the earth.  This is a dynamic example of how God plus one makes the majority.  The Saints were out numbered, driven from place to place, and even lost their beloved prophet.  But they persevered becasue they new that God was on their side. 

After Carthrage we stopped at the Mississippi River at sunset.  It was really beautiful.  There were huge pelican's flying with fish in their beaks.  The kid's enjoyed throwing rocks, and and playing.  I took a lot of pictures, the lighting was really pretty on the river. 

Big long Wedding Trip!

We had the most awesome opportunity to go to Nauvoo Ilinois to see Dan's brother Robbie get married to Lyndee Unsicker.  Nauvoo isn't exactly an easy city to get to.  We flew for three hours into St. Louis airport.  Our flight was delayed so we didn't arrive until about 2am.  We woke up the next morning and got ready for family pictures (this is the first time we have been altogether on the Mower side for a while).  It was a four hour drive, and as we rolled in and got checked into our hotel we learned pretty quickly there's no Mcdonalds or Wendy's in Nauvoo.  We finally got hot dogs for the kids at a gas station!  We finally made it to the family pictures, and I can't wait to see how they all turn out.  I am very excited.  I took some of my kids with my own camera.  They turned out so cute.  I just love the colors that Wendy picked out for us.  She is amazing and got matching shirts all in different sizes for all fifty people in the family.  I don't know how she did that!

The next day was the wedding so the Unsicker's had a little openhouse at the stake center for everyone ot gather and hang out. We needed food for the weekend so Dan ran into Walmart to get us some food.  Little did we realize that a trip to Walmart would take a couple of hours so we had to miss the Friday night family get together.  From what I hear it was huge, and packed the stake center.  It sounds like Robbie has met his match.  He has TONS of friends and family, but it sounds like Lyndee has even more than he does!!!!!  They are a great couple so I"m not surprised that they had a huge group coming out to support them. 

The morning of the wedding was just wonderful.  The spirit inside the Nauvoo Temple is truly special.  It has stregthened my testimony of Joseph Smith.  I know that he was a prophet of God.  Some things are hard to explain and put into words, spiritual experiences are like that.  I'm not sure how to express it, but the spirit of Joseph Smith is in that sacred town.  He built that City out of a swamp.  The Saints built the Temple with tremendous sacrifice.  They finished just a few months before they were driven out.  It was burned down by an arsen, but was rebuilt and is just gorgeous.  Kirk mentioned a good insight to me.  He stated to me "The saint's built the temple that is like being born, but when it burned down that is like dying, but when it was rebuilt like brand new that is like being ressurected".  That simple observation perfectly illustrates my feelings about sacred temples.  I know that death is not the end, the scriptures say "death where is thy sting".  We will all every single one of us be resurrected in perfect glory, and as we keep our temple covenants and do the work for all our dead we will also not just live again, but live with God and have eternal life.  I can not see a temple and not think of the ressurection, and how thankful I am for the peace that temples bring in my life.      

Our family at the wedding luncheon.  The Wedding Lunch was held at the Nauvoo Hotel, which was very cute.  It reminded me of a perfect fancy little Nauvoo Home.

This dress I am wearing is in Lyndee's colors.  She chose green and blue.  I'm glad  I got a photo of it becasue Dan was trying to be helpful and threw it in the wash along with the kid's jeans and dark colors.  It was a Clavin Klein dry clean only dress so you can imagine how upset I was with him.  O well I just hope he didn't shrink it cause there's no room for that dress to get any smaller and still fit.  I may need to do some shopping before the reception.

It's great to be eight!

On March 13, 2014 Kirk turned eight years old.  I can remember the day he was born.  Kirk was my biggest baby, and I can remember just feeling desperate to have him.  I went into labor two weeks early, and had him in the middle of the night.  It's strange how I have had all my babies in the middle of the night.  Kirk was my very best sleeper when he was a baby.   One thing that stands out about Kirk is that he is a very sincere little boy.  He get's very excited and happy over little things, and shows that with his happy smile and good attitude.  He likes to look for the good and tries really hard to do what's right.  He has a very good memory and can tell in detail about sports, church history, and scriptures stories.

On his Birthday we made his favorite dinner which was sloppy joes.  We invited his grandparents over, and then let him open his presents and had frosted brownies.  I took some pictures of the brownies becasue it was decorated with basketball players, but I can't find the photo's on my camera.  I must have taken them with Dan's phone.  Kirk got some new clothes, scriptures, scripture case, and a lagoon pass to use this summer.

Basketball Birthday Party

It's that time of year!  March is March maddness around here not because of basketball season, but becuase of all of the birthday's.  Kirk's birthday is on March 13, and Ben's is on the 31st.  Those dates plus the wedding on the 29th has made me super busy.  This is Kirk's last friend party.  The parties became so much work that I had to cut the kids off at eight years old.  I think I might be able to revisit the idea of a friends party when the kids turn tweleve or sixteen.  Kirk's birthday was a Jazz basketball themed party.  I made basketball jersey's with the kid's last names on the back of the jersey for each of the kids.  We headed up to the Mower's basketball gym.  Dan started the kids off with runnig splits.  Then they split into four teams and played a scrimmage game.  This was a great way to burn off all of the boy's energy.  Then we headed back to the house and we had pizza.  I made homemade pizza because it tastes so much better.  I could barely bake the pizza's fast enough the boys were starving.  Then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream.  Then the boys watched space jam.  It was a great party, and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun.  When it was over the boys got to take their basketball jersey home, and also a gatorade with a gold medal and a sports braclet.      

I had the boy's twist their jersey's around so the back was in the front so that you could see their names.  Stenciling on the names took som time, but the effect was cool. 

Newest Cub Scout Member

Here we go!  I'm now offically a cub scout mom! 

Kirk is about to turn eight this week.  He is so excited to start going to cub scouts.  Today was his first day attending.  He already has his pine wood derby car and can't wait to get to work on it for next month's pack meeting. 

Boy's Party

Here's what the boy's and Mom did while the Dad's were out on their Valentine's dates with their Daughter's.  We had a big pizza, popcorn and movie party.  My really great friend Yvonne Lowe hosted us and the boys had the best time!  It was a Valentine's to remember! 

Valentine's Daddy Daughter Dance!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Kate got to celebrate with her Dad at a Valentine's Daddy Daughter Dance!

What memorable night for Kate and her friends. Kate's friends and their Dad's had been planning on attending our city's annual daddy daughter Valentine's dance.  The day before the dance we found out that the tickets were sold out. The girls were so dissapointed,  so we decided to throw our own little valentine's dance together in my in-laws basketball court.  It actually ended up being more fun than the city dance.  The dad's took the girls to dinner and then came back to the decorated gym for dancing and pictures. Then the girls changed out of their fancy clothes and played broom hockey with their dads.  It ended up being way cooler than standing around a loud, crowded gym.  I made these little tissue paper corsages for Kate and each of their friends.  We are really blessed to have so many sweet little girls live in our neighborhood.  They have all been really good friends to Kate. 

Kate posing with her friends Bella, Savannah, Keely, and Bailey