Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and Valentines Day

The time has finally arrived. The 2010 Vancouver games have finally begun and I'm so excited!! I LOVE the Olympics so much and I'm so happy to 1) be a stay at home Mom so I an watch all the events, and 2) have satellite TV with PVR so I can record the stuff I miss. The opening ceremonies were great! Dave of course, being the patriotic Canadian, nature lover, loved everything about the opening ceremonies. He loved the nature scenes and the fiddlers. My favorite part was when they made it look like whales were swimming across the floor. I also really enjoyed watching all the athletes enter the stadium. The Italians had some pretty classy uniforms. Today Canada finally won a gold medal, the first gold medal won by a Canadian on Canadian soil. It was won by Alex Bilodeau in moguls. GO CANADA!!!

Today is also Valentines Day. We made some cherry chip Valentines Day cup cakes and went to visit Nannu at his nursing home in Brampton. It was nice to see him as usual, and Rosie had fun running around the dinning room and making the other residents laugh.

Speaking of Valentines Day, here's a cute picture taken earlier this week that is full of so much LOVE. What a nice thing to wake up to.

Also for Valentines Day, Rosie let me paint her toes pink (I told her I was giving her "princess toes" since she into princesses now).
Tomorrow is the 2nd annual "Family Day". I'm looking forward to relaxing with Dave and the kids and watching some more Olympics!

Me Ka Aloha- Elisabeth

Planting Seeds

During the October 2009 General Conference, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a talk called The Love of God. In this talk he asked "...of all the things we want to be known for, are there attributes above all others that should define us as members of His Church, even as disciples of Jesus Christ?" At the end of his talk he says "Let us be known as a people who love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and who love our neighbor as ourselves. When we understand and practice these two great commandments in our families, in our wards and branches, in our nations, and in our daily lives, we will begin to understand what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus the Christ."

I really love this talk. President Uchtdorf is an amazing speaker and I can really feel the spirit when I read this particular talk. After I read it, I prayed that I could better love others and be a better example of a member of His church. Along with that, I am always praying for missionary experiences.

Well, earlier this month Dave and I had been trying to save up to buy a new bed frame that I've been eying for a while. We were selling things that we no longer needed on kijiji to raise the money. We sold Rosie's old crib, a DVD burner, Jumperoo, box springs, and metal bed frame. We also listed our old play pen for $25 but nobody had bought it yet. That play pen was given to us for free a few years ago and it wasn't exactly the nicest one. Any how, I got an email from a lady asking to buy the play pen for her church's nursery. I asked her what church she belonged to, thinking maybe she was from our church, but maybe the downtown location. She was from another church that I had never heard of before. Suddenly the thought came to me. This was a missionary opportunity. I didn't think that I could suddenly convert her but I did think that I could at least show her that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are good, kind, charitable people. I thought that maybe I could plant a tiny seed in her heart, if anything. I emailed her back and said that I was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and that since she needed the play pen for her church's nursery that I would give it to her for free. I was a little hesitant because I knew we could use the $25 that we could get if we sold it. I also thought Dave would get upset at my decisions, however, I also knew that I had been praying for opportunities to be more charitable, praying for missionary experiences, and the song "Beacause I have been given much I too must give" sounded in my heart. The woman responded later that night with much gratitude. She came over a few days later to pick it up and left a sweet "thank you" card in my mail box. Hopefully she now has a better view on members of the church and hopefully she told others about her experience.

It's true, Dave and I could have used the money. Dave was a little surprised at my decision but was ok with it when I explained why. The $25 that we could have gotten for the play pen would have paid for diapers or gone towards paying bills, but I have faith that Heavenly Father will bless us so much more.

I want to finish by quoting President Uchtdorf " He doesn’t care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely."

Me Ka Aloha
- Elisabeth

Sleeping Beauties

My Mom is always getting into something new and fun. Once it was puppets, now it's princess dresses. It's pretty awesome because my kids have a great collection of puppets and Rosie now has an adorable princess dress (sorry Joseph, this doesn't benefit you too much). Well any way, I decided to let Rosie try on her dress and she LOVES it! I wasn't sure how she'd react but she kept on saying "pincess dess" and looking at herself in the mirror. She even cried when Dave tried to take it off of her. Now let me just say that I too LOVE the dress. It's made by a company called Little Adventures. They decided to make dresses that were washable, comfortable (no itchy fabric), and easy for kids to put on themselves. My Mom loves them so much that she's become a distributor (yay!!!) Alright, I'm getting off topic. Back to Rosie. Well she loved the dress so much that we let her wear it all day. While Rosie was eating her peanut butter sandwich, she fell asleep. This is a common occurrence in our house. She refusses to take naps and then out of complete exhaustion, falls asleep eating (why while she's eating? It's beyond me). So there she was, dressed like a princess asleep on our couch!

Later on that day I brought Joseph upstairs to change his diaper. I put him down on my bed and gave him some toys to play with as I watched him. He was playing on his tummy but a few minutes later he stopped playing with his toys and put his head down on the bed. He just laid there staring at me with his "lover eyes" he just had this look on his face like "Mommy, you're the love of my life" He laid there, not even blinking, all peaceful for about five minutes until he fell asleep. It was such a cute moment. I wish he would fall asleep gazing into my eyes every day.

I love these little moments so much! Life really is BEAUTIFUL!

Me Ka Aloha

- Elisabeth