Science Birthday Party

 A few weeks ago we celebrated Brigham and Gavin's birthday by hosting a Science Party. It was fun to plan and fun to be part of.
Scott and Will, gladly, played the role of mad scientists and helped run the entire party. I have all these grand ideas of vacations and parties and Scott is the one who always pulls them off perfectly!

When the children came in they had to use a disinfectant hand rub  and then scan their hand on the iPad to make sure they had clearance to enter the party.
Next Will would hand them some nerdy glasses and a couple of antibiotics (Mike and Ike candies) that they needed to take before entering the lab.
While we were waiting for the other children to arrive, we made molecules in the kitchen by using toothpicks and mini marshmallows.

 
Scott held their attention by showing a few different science projects.

 Density test (above). Elephant toothpaste (below).

 

 
Slime. And a few others...

 We then headed outside to make fake snow.

 We handed out water bottles with balloons attached to the top. As they poured the powder (baking soda) fro the balloon into the bottle (containing vinegar) the balloon expanded.

 

 
Here is Brigham with his "girlfriend" Betty. They are inseparable. So cute!

 The perfect ending was the Diet Coke and Mentos trick. Such a fun party. The kids took their glasses, bottles with balloons and a bag filled with fun Science activities.

 
Two hours later, we held another Science Party for Jackson and Tyler!!

 
Scott attached the laptop to the TV in the kitchen and loaded a few fun videos to watch.

 
There was a competition between Tyler's Diet Coke bottle and Jackson's...Jackson's went higher and won!

Cupcakes for all! I sprinkled pop rocks on top of them. They were a huge hit!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS!!!

Service

I was asked to share my testimony on service, and this is what I typed up and sent in. After I emailed it to my friend, who is using several testimonies to bind together and share as part of a Relief Society Activity, I wanted to share this simple testimony with you.


I would like to share my testimony of the importance of service and its rewards. The simple act of serving others goes far, even more than I think we know. Being on the receiving end of service, numerous times, has not only uplifted me but it also strengthens my testimony of service. I also know that when I make it a point to serve others, even in simple ways, it brings wonderful blessings to me and my family and give me good feelings that uplift me. 
I had the wonderful opportunity to service a mission in the Washington Spokane Mission for 18 months. I was able to sacrifice these months of my life to serve;To serve the people in Washington, To serve the Lord, and even To serve myself. I was and still am being blessed for that tremendous effort.
I also believe that service is an important principle that I want my boys to learn for themselves.  We make it a point to actively serve those around us and understand the opportunities that could be afforded to us by simply keeping our eyes out for such opportunities.

One Wish

If a genie offered me wishes, I would only need one. Really, only one.

I've always been the kind of gal that wants to be better and I am continually striving to do more. Always trying new things and making improvements. I do this for myself, as well as for my family.  These past few months has made a stronger impact on me to do even more. To be even better.

I would love to see a glimpse of my life in 5 years, 10 years, 15 years and so on. I would love to see how my boys are doing. I would love to see what they're doing. Then, I would take that information, good or bad, and change what I'm doing right now to ensure those glimpses into the future that they'd be good.

Now, back to my one wish. What would yours be? Money? Fame? Great job? A baby? Health? All of these would be great, but none are the one I would wish for. My one wish would be that all my children would be active members of the church for the rest of their lives. All I want is that my boys stay worthy members of the church. That they have a desire to serve a mission, are worthy to enter the temple, want to be sealed for time and all eternity and raise their own offspring in the gospel. I am willing to do whatever I can to make this a reality and not just a wish.

Is there a recipe I can read that has step by step directions on what to and not to do? Is there a check off list to follow? That would be great. If you know of this list, please let me know ASAP because I will follow it to a T!

As I ponder and pray about what I need to do for my children, how I am suppose to raise them so my wish comes true, I can't help but think of the blanket answers of the gospel. Read your scriptures, attend church and pray always. Usually I don't like it when someone offers these as answers because they seem so simplistic; I want them to go deeper. But, in this case , I believe, it's the only answer.

It's not always easy to attend church every Sunday for 3 hours. It's not always convenient to gather everyone together and pray. It's not always inspiring to read scriptures with such young children. BUT they're all important. Actually, they're more than important; they're life altering. As our family does these things together, I feel the spirit. I feel more of a bond and connection with them individually and as a whole.

I was asked to speak in Gospel Doctrine last Sunday about "How I am preparing my boys to receive the Aaronic Priesthood". Above is what a summarized. I can't express to you how strongly I feel about this. And how important it is to me.

I know by doing this and following the words of the prophets my family will be together forever.

More Hawaii

The sunsets were amazing in Hawaii, every evening we'd sit and watch it. Peaceful and so beautiful.

We went snorkeling several times at many different locations, it was incredible. We brought the Go Pro and took pictures and videos under the water. I'll post of that later. We brought our own snorkel gear so we could take it with us wherever we went.

 
We went on a hike to see petroglyphs which was pretty cool. There were also rock shelters that the Native Hawaiians built to protect themselves from the wind.

We're lounging on the beach watching the sunset at the Marriott Resort in Kona.

We stayed on Kona for 6 days then flew to Kauai for a couple days. We're at Marriott Kauai Beach Club resort beach for the last part of our fabulous vacation.

Sad time, we had to pack up ad head home. Preston was great on the flights and was extra hungry, so we fed him Scott's hat.

One of my last view's out my window of the beautiful tropical islands.

Hawaiian Vacation

 

 

Well, were here in beautiful Kona. Scott has a PA conference and Preston and I tagged along for the ride, and what a ride it's been so far!!

We've been to Kona before, 10 years ago. I loved it them and I love it now. It's huge. It's beautiful. It's warm. It's been a great vacation!

First night we stayed in downtown Kailua-Kona. The next morning walked around, shopped and went sight-seeing.

 

 

 

 
 

 

 We visited the real cool Tiki retreat. There were a ton of cool tikis right on the beach. The ocean here is warm, clean and so many shades of blue.

 Preston has traveled so well. He's such a happy, good baby. He slept most of the flight over here and has been a dream baby with a hectic schedule that I planned. In and out of the car seat, stroller or backpack....Here is our first time on the ocean.

 

An awesome rock we spotted!

 



 We shopped at this cute flea market area and I bought this! I love it!!

Right around the corner form our hotel is the beautiful Kona Hawaii Temple. We went at night and again in the morning to see it again. The stone blocks are white with slight pink tones in them. So beautiful!

And of course the sunsets. They are amazing!

Heavy Heart

These past couple days I've had an extra heavy heart and been real emotional. I attended my cousin, Alison's, baptism yesterday afternoon. During the beautiful baptism and confirmation I sat there watching all my cousins and their friends and realized William won't be attending any more of my family's various activities. No more baptisms, birthday parties, trips to Disneyland, mission farewells, weddings...It made me sad. William wasn't in attendance to all of our family affairs, but he came when he could. It makes me sad that I won't see him again here on earth. I miss him.

I miss our letters we'd write back and forth while he was in jail or prison. I miss the quick conversations we'd have while he was in my mom's kitchen and I was here in SLC. I miss when we were together and we'd gang up on my mom and tease her relentlessly. I miss my brother.

At church this afternoon I shared my testimony with my ward that I know the church is true . I know William is in heaven and I will see him again. I know families are forever. I know Heavenly Father wants all His children to return and live with Him  and He'll do everything he can to make that possible.

I know his spirit will be in all those places watching us. I know I'll see him again. I know he loves us. I miss my brother.

I am so thankful for so many wonderful, caring, supportive friends who continually remind me how sorry they are for my loss and are there if I need anything. I am really lucky to have such a strong support system and feel completely blessed, even when tragedy occurs. So, thank you!!!

Funeral

Why in the world is the word fun in FUNeral? It was definitely not fun, but it was really nice. William's funeral was held on Saturday, January 19th at the LDS Church in Santa Barbara.  We made two large poster board collages filled with pictures of William as a baby, boy, teenager and adult. The front podium has a few different pictures, flowers and his remains.

Preston Mann, good family friend, conducted the service.  He started it by acknowledging the sacrifices that many had made to attend the service that day.  "But for those that know Julie, they know she made the ultimate sacrifice by getting up at 10am to be here..."  Everyone laughed at this remark.

The program included several cousins who shared childhood memories of William, a talk by George Thompson, myself and Scott. As a special musical number, we had a recording of Travis Stehmeier singing "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables, and I was able to accompany it with Sign Language.

There were over 70 family and friends from all over that made it down to Santa Barbara to attend the service for William.  It was a real moving, touching dedication to his life and a joyful reunion with many family members that we had not seen for a while. 

After the service, the ward held a luncheon for the members of the family that attended.  We were able to get some fun family photos with everyone.  Here is my mom with a cousin, Jeremiah, who had driven down from San Francisco and didn't tell us that he was coming.  So it was a big surprise!!!

 

We were surprised to have all of my cousins (the Gray Girls) attend.  Three of them had shared childhood memories of William and brought a sweet spirit to the tribute.

 

Glenn, Marsha's husband, decided to be the honorary pallbearer and carry William's remains from the luncheon to the car.

Here I am with a childhood friend, Lisa, who made the trip and it was nice to see her again.

And, of course, I was especially surprised to have my husband and boys join me all the way from Salt Lake City.  They had not told me that they were going to be driving in, and so it was fun to see them when they pulled in the day before.

 

Jeana wins the award for having traveled the farthest, since she flew all the way in from Alaska to be there for the service and support my mom.

 



We again would like to express our sincerest appreciation for the love and support that we received from everyone during this difficult time.