My painting

The title of this post is referring to the fact that it was painted FOR me, not by me. The artist, of course, would be John. he has only painted two other pictures since we moved last March, so he was really looking forward to getting into his painting again. I'll need to post pics of the other two in another post. He started this last Monday and he spent a few hours that day making that beautiful shade of red and then doing the first phase of the picture. It was fun to walk into the laundry/craft room all week and see it there, teasing me :). Then Saturday, after we returned from BBall games, he spent most of the day completing it's beauty. It is a 16 by 40 inch panorama. He painted it to go above our bed and incorporated the red color from the accent pillows. It is gorgeous and I. LOVE. IT. His talents always amaze me. I'm grateful to be the recipient! I'm already looking forward to the next one!! My new realistic goal for blogging will be to swap back and forth between highlights of last year and current events. I really want to document last years happenings, but don't want to get to far behind on the here and now. I hope it works :D!

Church History Vacation, Part 1

March was a BUSY month at our house. It began with JJ's 11th Bday on the 3rd. This picture is a glimpse of JJs favorites. The ice cream flavor is cookie dough and the cake is chocolate cake with chocolate icing and for the toppings, it is 1/2 crushed butterfinger, and then 1/4 each of mini MM's and mini choc chips. He likes his options!

John and I really wanted to take the kids to visit some of the church history sites that were not very far away, before we moved West. So despite all the craziness of moving, we incorporated it into our plans and the second weekend of March we loaded up the crew and drove East. Our first stop was Kirtland, Ohio which was about 4 1/2 hours away. We were lucky to have beautiful weather on this particular day, and we spent about 3 hours in Kirtland enjoying the sights and feelings in that area. We were guided by two very sweet sister missionaries who I'm sure we left our own impression on :)! The older kids were very well behaved and really seemed to be soaking it all in, which was of course our hope. Braxton and Tori really took seriously the journals we gave them to record their feelings in and JJ was documenting everything that he was allowed to on his video camera. The younger ones on the other hand were, well, not quite so well behaved. It was pretty stressful trying to keep them from breaking all of the antiques. Then there was trying to keep them quiet so that the missionaries could share the history of these places and their testimonies. We took quite a lot of pictures and I've tried to narrow it down to specific ones. This next one is of all of us in front of the Newel K Whitney store.

We got lunch and then got back on the road bound for Palmyra, New York. I'm thinking that this was about a 6 hour drive from Kirtland. We got there and checked in to our hotel and tried to get out some wiggles that had gotten pent up in the car. We got an early start the next morning and unfortunately, rain was the forecast. The temp was cooler as well, but it was mid March after all. our time was limited to that one full day. we started at the Grandin Press. this was actually one of the places I think the kids remember the most.

We also went to see the Alvin Smith Grave which was really neat and beautiful. You had to walk up these stairs and at the top of the hill was the cemetery where his grave site was located. Even though it was cold and wet, we probably spent a half hour just walking around the small cemetery. The kids were impressed with the VERY old and sometimes unmarked graves.

This is a shot taken at the Smith Farm. The highlight here was obviously ending with a walk through the sacred grove. Unfortunately the wind had picked up and it was making being outside pretty miserable, so we were definitely a little more more rushed than we would have liked. We had the kids pose in front of a tree in the grove to get a picture and then headed back to the car. This other pic is of the Palmyra temple through the trees. Too bad we didn't have the time, or babysitting, to go in.

We decided to make the hour drive down to the Peter Whitmer farm in Fayette. Once again, we were not disappointed to have made the extra effort. The Chapel/Visitors Center was beautiful and is one of the pictures. Another is of the homestead.

Our last stop in Palmyra was the Hill Cumorah. The weather was really getting bad with wind gusts that would grab the car door and fling it all the way open and rain drops that were starting to feel like tiny sharp pellets. However, since this was a limited time opportunity for us we braved the elements and drove up to the top where the monument stands and held the little ones tight so they weren't blown away. It was still a special and memorable experience and it was amazing to be aware of the hallowed ground that we were standing on. The visitors center at Cumorah was the end of our visit and we made our way back to the hotel very worn out and with lots of impressions on our minds.

The day ended as many do in our house with the kids hugging and wrestling with Dad. We left the next morning and had intended to stop and visit Niagara Falls on the way home, but due to the snow that had arrived we ended up just making our way home and continuing to pack up for the move in less than two weeks!