Trampoline

Our awesome neighbors bought a  I'm trampoline and gifted us with their kid size one. Our boys could not be more in heaven. It not only keeps the two older monkeys busy, but James, or Jimmy James as Ben calls him, is highly entertained as well. Here are some cool pictures from our end ing last night.

I'm slowly trying to teach myself how to use our camera. I don't plan on going anywhere with what I learn, other than trying to take cooler pictures. I was messing with the aperture setting last night. 

This kid. He kills me. I swear he gets cuter every day, but then he goes and makes some awesome faces, like this one. He is, by far, everyone's favorite little dude. 

Trampoline love. 

These boys are getting SOOOO big!

I start my internship in about a week, and I'm really excited. I get paid or do fun things! I'll keep you all posted on how that goes. Enjoy your Memorial Day!

Ghana, Africa

Where has the time gone? I'm horrible at blogging. This thing called life is a little nuts. In case you're not on Facebook, or just don't know, I finished up my second to last semester of classes in April! Then after that, I went on tour with the choir to Ghana, Africa. It was amazing. I left all three boys with Ben and they were all (all 4) alive when I got back! Dream come true.

I had never been outside of the country before, so it was such an awesome experience to have Africa be the first stamp on my passport. When we got off the plane, my first thought was how familiar it all seemed. We have cars, roads, billings, billboards, people walking on the streets, etc. I think I was expecting something more different. What was crazy, and never got any less amazing, were the people who would carry HUGE things on their heads! The people had such amazing posture, it was crazy. And my favorite thing was how they carried their babies- on their backs, and with only having the fabric wrapped around their chest. 

This woman is so wonderful! I'm so sad that I didn't get her name or information. She was in the ward that we attended for church, then came to our concert. We talked for a while and she told about her delivery with her baby. She asked how my deliveries went and it was really awesome to have such normal conversations with people on the other side of the world. I don't think I really expected anything much different than that, but it was still really cool. 

One day, we went to a slave castle in Elmina.  The building was home to thousand of slaves before they were shipped off to other countries. We visited the castle on an incredibly hot day (all the days were dreadfully hot) and it was so humid we might as well have been swimming while we walked. There s no breeze inside the palace. Our tour guide took us to the woman dungeon. There we learned about how horrifically these women were treated. They were hardly fed enough food to survive on purpose. The women were chosen by the governor to be raped, but before that they were taken to the center of the area where everyone watched while they were stripped of the little clothing they wore and were publicly scrubbed and bathed before being taken up to the governor. These women in the dungeon grew so weak that they couldn't even make it to their designated toilet areas, and they spend days, weeks, months, laying on the ground in their own vomit, fecies, and menstral blood. Horrifying.  Then we're shown the place where families were torn a part, most times never to see each other again. It was here that I had an overwhelming love for my family, my children, my husband. My knowledge of the plan of salvation and eternal families was so strengthened that moment, that I couldn't hold back the tears. I was saddened at the fact that people, humans, were so cruel. But I marveled at our father in heaven who has presented us with a way for our families to be united, FOREVER! Amazing!

Two days later, we went to the temple. I decided to do sealings, and I'm glad I did! I sat in the sealing room participating in proxy sealings of children to their parents, and I couldn't help but think about the families that had been torn a part and how the gospel allows us to defy what man does. Those families can be together, forever. It was pretty remarkable.

The trip was amazing, but those experiences stuck out to me. I thought I'd share them. As I continue to write down my thoughts, I'll try to jump on here and share them with you. Enjoy!

You can read more about the slave castle here: http://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi3/elmina.htm

New toys

I just bought a camera connection kit for my iPad so I can blog in Africa on the iPad. So I can upload the photos that my PC is too old to recognize! Here are some cute ones.

"On my honor..."

How on earth did it get to be March 17th? I keep thinking valentines day was last week.

So it's St Patricks day, and spring is upon us. I need to start planting seedlings if I want to have a garden this year. Life is well, crazy. I can only focus a day, maybe week, at a time. This full time student thing is starting to bear its fruits. I have about 12 credits after this semester, and an internship, then I'm done! Holy cow, it feels so good to almost be done. I'm looking forward to being a homemaker and spending more time with my boys.

Speaking of internships, I got one! I'm the new program director for a Cub Scout day camp just outside of town. I'm really excited. Now I don't have to take classes this summer, but I can have a month off of school before I need to get to work. It will be fun to be back working with cub scouts.

Ben is so busy. He works really hard to provide for our family, but we don't see him that often. On top of all the lessons he teaches, he has started a soul band that he is hoping to get off the ground and running.

Africa is less than a month away, and I'm getting really excited. It is going to be hot, humid, and hot, and I need to stop complaining about wearing pants and closed toed shoes while we are there (remember that one time when Ghana is on the ocean, on the equator??!). But it is hard when I wear sandals 75% of the year (or more). I'm also having to try and get used to a group of people where I feel considerably out of the loop. While half of them are married, I'm only one of two women with kids that are going on the trip. I am also older than everyone by a few good years (at least). We all went on a retreat a few weeks ago, and while I thought it was effective, the lasting outcomes have not been where I would like them to be. Sigh. There are a few people I've been able to get to know, and they don't seem annoyed with my lack of music major-ness. Oh well. I AM GOING TO AFRICA!

Below are some pictures of our last couple months. Grant is getting smarter by the day, and Henry is hands down, one of the funniest kids I know. And sweet baby James- man, did we name him well! He is the one thing that both Henry and Grant adore, and don't fight over. We are so blessed to have this little family. They are growing fast, but we are not wishing for more at this crazy point in our lives.
We miss you all!!!

3 months?

I can't believe I haven't posted in three months. Life has been busy. Here is a quick month to month overview.

Halloween: Grant was a bat. Henry was, well, "Just Henry." And James was being eaten by a shark! We spent it in Utah because Ben was the musical director for a folk opera called, "Deep Love." It was really cool.

Birthdays: Henry turned 3 mid November and loved it! Then 2 weeks later, grant turned 5! Crazy. All three boys had check ups and are doing really well.

Thanksgiving: we hosted our first thanksgiving at our house. Super fun.

Christmas was in California. While it was warmer than Idaho, it was still very cold. We do.d Disneyland and California Adventure. Did lots of hanging out, and ate lots of yummy treats (In n out!).

School started last week and so life is crazy. My sister watches the boys, I'm taking 12 credits and Ben teaches on campus and at some local music stores. I also made collegiate Singers and we're going to Ghana on tour in April. I love our crazy life, just not all the snow that Rexburg never plows!!