A few pictures

A few words about Emma, she LOVES dresses, looking cute and being a princess. She calls me big princess and she is little princess. She likes to dress herself in the morning and when she does it is always a dress. Neither of my girls were like that. Becca liked bright colors, Sarah didn't really care, but boy does Emma care. Oh and for the pictures we were liking the flower lei on our head, can you tell...

Frist day of school

Well I officially have a fifth grader, third grader and kindergartner. The girls had their first day of school on Tuesday and they are both just doing great. The adjustment was wonderful. They were both really looking forward to going back to school. We also started piano lessons again. Instead of me paying for lessons, I just pay them a dollar a week to practice and a dollar a month for a good attitude, so far it is working out great.

A few weeks ago Sarah said, "mom, I think I need a bra."
me: do you need a bra?
S: no
Me: do you want one because best friend has one?
S: no
Me: do you want one because you are going into fifth grade
S: (sheepishly) yes

Ack! I have a bra wearing little girl. Fortunately she still like to wear boy clothes and would rather die then think a boy was cute.

Becca absolutely adores her teacher. Becca is sweet as can be and really if I were a teacher I would love to have her in my class!

David starts next week. It will be interesting to just have Emma home, back to princesses, brushing hair and dolls.

pictures from trek

Here are a few pictures from trek, it was such a wonderful time!

Trek

This week I had the privilege of going on Trek with the youth of my ward. For those not familiar with LDS history, in the mid 1800s the early pioneers of the church were asked by the prophet to come west to the Rocky Mountains to escape religious persecutions. In 1856 late in the season two pioneer groups came through with the handcart companies. There were about 1500 people, mostly immigrants from Denmark and England. Due to the cost of travel by wagon most came by handcart and walked the 1300 miles. The Martin and Willie companies came really late in the season and about 10 percent on their company died from starvation or freezing. There were many miracles and abundance of faith with these early pioneers. It was a beautiful experience to be where the actual saints crossed the plains. The cove sheltered over 700 people for 5 days in which 56 people died from lack of food and it was 11 below 0 so many froze to death. They gave their lives and it was because of them that we enjoy our personal religious freedom.

The kids we went with were just wonderful and we shared great memories. There were lots of reenactments and pondering and reflecting. We talked about the boys that came from SLC to Sweetwater that carried the girls and men and the sick and weak across the river. The river had ice chunks floating down and those boys carried as many as they could across. When we got to the river Aaron carried me across. It was really sweet. At the height of their starvation they were rationed to a half of cup of flour per person per day. A lot of the men couldn't handle their loved ones starving so secretly they would give them their rations too. I thought about my children and thinking of them starving or freezing to death and what I would do to save them. One morning we woke up and told the kids that we were going to start and we would have breakfast on the trail. We gave them a half of cup of flour and told them this was their breakfast. They were shocked that we would do that. We shared some food miracles with them (a man bringing dried buffalo meat, a pie just showing up, some women praying to take away their appetite and blessing the snow, children eating nothing but ox hide and sucking on the hoof of an ox, babies nursing until only nothing but blood would come) It was a humbling experience to think about what they went through and the trials they faced. It is wonderful to have all the food we need and warm shelter. I read so many stories of these wonderful pioneers and have a greater appreciation of their faith and wisdom.

I will post pictures as soon as I get them. I just wanted to record my thoughts while it was fresh in my mind. I really APPRECIATE my sister Amanda for the opportunity to go. She watched my kids while Aaron and I went. Aaron was the doctor there for our group. What a wonderful thing to have family so close!