McQuay

McQuay

Monday, April 9, 2012

{Thoughts on General Conference}

This past General Conference was seriously fabulous. I'm just going to share a few [okay...maybe there are a lot but it was soo good! I had a hard time narrowing down] of my favorite talks/thoughts that I heard during that weekend.


President Boyd K. Packer - "And a Little Child Shall Lead Them"

This was the first talk of conference and of course it hit home for me because he spoke about children and the importance of eternal families. My favorite quote of his was, "One of the greatest discoveries of parenthood is that we learn far more about what really matters from our children than we ever did from our parents."
He also said ....
"Family time is sacred and should be protected and respected..."
"Next time you cradle a newborn child in your arms you can have an inner vision of the mysteries and purposes of life. You will better understand why the Church is as it is and why the family is the basic organization in time and all eternity."

Sister Cheryl A. Esplin - "Teaching Our Children to Understand"
 Cheryl A. Esplin
Another talk about children! "What a sacred responsibility Heavenly Father places upon us parents to partner with Him in helping His choice spirits become what He knows they can become."


Elder Donald L. Hallstrom - "Converted to His Gospel through His Church"
Donald L. Hallstrom
This was an interesting talk about the difference between the gospel and the church. He said we can be active in the church and not in the gospel. Going to church every week is great, but it's not all that we need to do.


Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - "The Laborers in the Vineyard"
 Jeffrey R. Holland
Elder Holland is one of my favorites. His talks are always wonderful and hit ya right in the gut. He spoke about the parable of hired laborers who all received the same wage although working different hours. I never really liked this parable and always thought that it wasn't quite fair - well, I has chastened during this talk....
"So don't hyperventilate about something that happened at 9 o'clock in the morning when the grace of God is trying to reward you at 6o'clock in the evening..."
"His concern is for the faith at which you finally arrive, not for the hour of the day in which you got there"
This was a great one.


President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - "The Merciful Obtain Mercy"
 Dieter F. Uchtdorf
President Uchtdorf is also a favorite. He talked about forgiveness and mercy - very inspiring talk.
"When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it."
"Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive...is the person looking back at us in the mirror."


Elder M. Russell Ballard - "That the Lost May be Found"
 M. Russell Ballard
Elder Ballard also talked about families [notice a pattern here?], particularly using the Holy Ghost to guide your family. He listed many statistics that suggest that prosperity and education are connected to a better chance of having traditional families and values [the sociologist in me loved this part].
he said, "do some sectors of our society have stronger values and families because they are more educated and prosperous, or are they more educated and prosperous because of their values and strong families? In this world-wide Church we know that it is the latter."

Oh man - It was a great General Conference!!

Also - Pictures of my two loves :





Sunday, April 8, 2012

{Easter Family Pictures}

It was Easter, beautiful weather, we were dressed up super cute, and we bought a new camera yesterday. 
That means family photos.






After church we picked up Scott and he came and took some pictures for us!





I adore this picture - not sure why, but I do!



Thanks, Scott Boy!


Thursday, April 5, 2012

{Life as we know it}

This picture depicts our life right now. 
Husband studying. Baby playing. Momma Packing.

Evette's new favorite thing - contorting her body in her bumbo while eating.
So dramatic.... :)


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

{Babbling Baby}

Evette has started babbling. Baby Girl has always been very vocal - she likes to talk, sing, coo, etc all the time. She rarely cries, she just starts talking and then gets louder and louder and louder until she gets her point across. But today, she started added some consonants to her wonderfully adorable noises. Her favorites are "b" and "p" but occasionally we get an "m" which just melts my heart when it comes out - "mamamama..." love that little cutie.

She's so cute about it. All day she's been buhbuhbuh-ing and puhpuhpuh-ing. Sometimes she just sits quietly and lets her little mouth figure out how to move just right. She'll quietly open and close her mouth making a barely audible "buh" over and over again and then she'll scream it a couple times. 



She's also trying to figure out if she wants to switch to 2 naps a day instead of 3. Some days are good, some not so good. Also, I'm not really sure what time this child wakes up in the morning. I used to think that she would wake up and then immediately wake me up, but I don't think that's the case anymore. It seems like she wants to take a nap really early in the morning, but that could just be because she's been awake for an hour or two singing to herself in bed. Seriously, folks. This morning I heard her talking and singing to herself starting around 7 am then I fell back asleep and didn't wake up until she started to get louder and louder around 7:45. What a great baby to let me sleep in a little while she just entertains herself!

Monday, April 2, 2012

{March Books}

Here are the books that I read in March and my thoughts on them.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden

I loved this movie as a child and was excited to read it. Overall the movie was pretty similar to the book - I need to watch the movie again [date night with the hubs!]. It was a great read - pretty quick and very easy. The imagery was beautiful and made me excited for our upcoming spring season so I can watch the flowers and trees around me bloom. It had a great message about love, forgiveness, inner strength, ....all that good stuff. Loved it.

After the Trial of Your Faith The story of Edmund & Marry Ann Richardson by Jeff Richins
IMAG0639.jpg
My Grandmother lent me this book a few weeks ago for me to read and I am so glad that I read it. It is the story of my ancestors. The story is about Edmund & Mary Ann Richardson and how they came to join the church and their testimonies and sacrifices. Edmund Richardson is my Great Great Great Grandfather. Their story was inspiring. They were so faithful and dedicated to the gospel and to their family. At the end of the book a scripture from Doctrine and Covenants, chapter 58 verse 3-4 it says "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings..." How beautiful! My testimony and love for the pioneers and early saints have increased tremendously through this book. I am grateful for the wonderful legacy left by my family. I'm grateful for the journals and records that were kept by the early saints so that I could learn from their experiences [at the end of each chapter the author shows his references].
After reading the book I went onto new.familysearch.org and traced my lines back to those wonderful saints, looked at their names and birth dates their children - it was awesome!. These were real people with a real story and they are my ancestors.
Man, I'm blessed.
I recommend it to all my family, especially, and anybody else who loves being uplifted and having good examples to learn from.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

{General Conference}

Yesterday and Today was General Conference. It was great to be able to listen to our prophet and leaders. It was, and always is, inspiring to hear their words and guidance. More on what they said later. For now, let's just look at Baby Girl. She is now 2 general conferences old. Wowza - time flies!

Here we are back in October when baby girl was a mere 4 days old.  What a little happy lump she was!!! Oh man... time sure does fly!
Our little family!
 Auntie Caitlan
 Daddy!
 Tired Mom

Proud Uncle
Grandmamamama
Grandma Laurie making us food... :) saved our lives having her there right after the birth.



And this is where we are now!
Holy Cow, Child! You are a big grown up girl!




Hope everyone had a wonderful conference! I sure did. Fun to spend it with my family [we went up to the Binns Grandparents yesterday - always a pleasure :)] and listen to the prophets. I also did a fair share of reminiscing on the conference 6 months ago and how much has happened in between!! love my fam.

Finishing this blog post I'm in tears "What happened to my baby? She's all big!" 
The husband said. "A time machine got a hold of her."
I think he's probably right.







Wednesday, March 28, 2012

{Heebie Jeebies}

Tonight I had a terrible case of the heebie jeebies.... I was over at my friend Kirra's house to work out and when I was leaving my car was no longer in the parking stall but out in the middle of the aisle - weird, right? It gets worse. I get into my car [wasn't sure if it was locked or unlocked because I pushed "unlock" on my little button thing as soon as I stepped outside] and the emergency brake is up so it didn't roll back...weird, right? It gets worse. As I tried to start the car I realized that my seat was scooted way back and I couldn't reach the pedals...weird, right? It gets worse. As I start my car some creeper guy jumped out from the back seat and... just kidding. That last part about the guy in the back seat isn't real but the rest is - 100% for true.

As I was driving away I thought it was Sean that did this and that maybe he went for a run and decided to pull a little prank on me and then I realized that he couldn't have because he was home with Baby Girl. I then decided it must have been Kirra's husband pulling a prank on me but then I realized that we were in the front room the whole time and I would have noticed if he went outside. At this point I was half way home and was sure that some creeper WAS going to jump out of the backseat and kill me.

I raced home as quick as I could and jumped out of the car into the house [yes, one big jump]. I ask Sean what he did and he had no idea what I was talking about. After I explained what happened and I was fully convinced that he had nothing to do with it I called Kirra and come to find out her husband didn't have anything to do with it either... creepy! I went back outside and checked in our car - the carseat was still there, all the stuff in the trunk was there, all of our giftcards/emergency money were still hidden in there, our 1/2 used packet of gum, sunglasses, sonic straw wrapper... it was all there. Nothing was taken.

The husband and I have decided that I must not have locked the car door when I went to Kirra's house and that someone, who is a good person, walked by, saw the car unlocked, and decided to pull a little prank and not actually do anything bad. At least that's what I'm praying happened! Craziness, right? I still have the heebie jeebies a little bit and you can bet for sure from now on the car will be locked at all times.