Sweet 16

Birthday #2 for our family this week.  We had Tyrel's birthday dinner last night.  He wanted brats and chinese ramen chicken salad for this birthday.  He told me to make lots of salad because it is his favorite and I'm afraid he is going to be eating it for a week because there is LOTS!  Again, we had to eat in shifts because of all the stuff going on.  It gets kinda crazy when you have a house full of teenagers with schedules going all over the place.  We did go to Tucano's with Grandpa and Grandma Evers tonight though, so we got to celebrate all together. 

Sixteen is such an important age.  He gets his driver's license (as soon as he finishes range and road), he gets to start dating, and he gets to be a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.  I know he has set good standards when it comes to dating and he has made wise choices so far in his life, we just pray he continues to do so.  I'm sure he will, he is a good kid.  He is a very good driver and I don't really ever get nervous when I drive with him.  He makes good choices and pays attention to the laws and does a really good job.  Sean will ordain him to the office of a Priest on Sunday along with ordaining Trevin to be a Deacon.  What an exciting day for us.

Our Baby is 12

I can't believe it!  I still don't know how I got old enough to have a 12 year old, and he is my youngest!  Time has flown.  Trevin turned 12 today.  He wanted spaghetti for his birthday dinner, so I made it for him.  We had his cake (BTS cake) on Sunday when we celebrated all the Nielsen family March Birthday's at Grandpa and Grandma Nielsen's house.  Unfortunately, his birthday fell on a Tuesday, so with the Young Men's schedule, we had to eat in shifts instead of all together, but it was yummy and he loved it.  He will be ordained as a Deacon this Sunday by his dad.  He is very excited to be able to pass the Sacrament and do baptisms when he goes on his 12 year old trip with his Grandpa and Grandma Evers next week.  Travis gets to go as Trevin's "friend" beating out mom for that coveted spot because he didn't get to see any Vegas shows on his 12 year old trip.  They are both super excited to get to spend some time with their grandparents and go to the "O" Show.  I hope they take lots of pictures.

More great Sunday lessons

I've really enjoyed the lessons the past few weeks at church.  Probably because they have been focused on the life of the Savior.

Our lessons in Sunday School and in Relief Society both were kind of the same.  They were about the burdens we have.  Some burdens we can see like physical handicaps, illnesses, financial burdens.  But EVERYONE has some kind of burden, we just may not be able to see what it is.  I love the ward I am in and that everyone is so willing to help us bear our burdens and help out where needed.  I was handed a slip of paper to read in Relief Society and I didn't read through it before I was called on.  I got choked up in the middle once I realized who was being talked about in it.  This is the quote I was asked to read as we were talking about enjoying the life we have to live and the trials that we have and others have.

"One such person lived in a country occupied by the Romans.  She was from humble beginnings and probably wondered about her future.  Her espoused husband couldn't fine a decent place for her to give birth to her son, and later, because people wanted to kill her baby, the young family had to flee to another country.  It seems like such a difficult way to start out in ife, yet Mary went forward and helped raise the Savior of the world."

I also wrote down this quote that was on the board.  "Your future is not determined by the conditions around you.  It is determined by your faith, your choices, and your efforts."

So true.

Friday Dates

Sean and I have a standing lunch date every Friday afternoon.  We usually end up at the same place (at least if I'm choosing), but occasionally branch out and try someplace new.  I didn't think we were going this week since he had joined us yesterday for our lunch at our scrapbook gathering at Jaxies in Spanish Fork, but he surprised me and called and had me meet him for lunch again.  I was glad to oblige.

He has had a busy week this week and I hope it stays this way.  It is so nice for him to be busy with work.  Now that Spring is rolling around, we are hoping he stays really busy so we can pay off some debt and get our heads above water again.

We went to the temple tonight.  It was our ward temple night, but we went and did some sealings instead.  I forgot that I had hurt my knee when I tripped over a curb and fell down earlier this week, so that wasn't good, but I managed to make it through.  It was fun to have two dates with him in one day.

Layout #2 from Photography 101

Here is the 2nd layout I did from the photos I took at our little class we had on Saturday.

Layout from yesterday's Photoshop 101 class

I did a layout from the pictures I took yesterday at our little Photography class.  I think it turned out awesome if I don't say so myself.

We had an awesome lesson by President Newman today in Sunday School.  It was the 2nd half of the Sermon on the Mount lesson that we started last week.  Today we mostly discussed forgiveness and repentance and the Atonement and how they all work in our lives.  The discussion was very good.

It reminded me a lot of the talk I gave on the Atonement a couple of years ago.  It was good to have those things brought back to remembrance again.

A couple of the scriptures we discussed were D&C 64:9-10
9 - Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
10 - I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.

We also talked a lot about forgiveness from Matthew 6 in the New Testament.

These are the notes I took about the discussion we had - It doesn't matter what it was, we HAVE to forgive them in order to fully partake of the Atonement.  Even if the person who wronged us or hurt our feelings or sinned against us hasn't repented or shown remorse, it is still required that we forgive them. or we are under the greater condemnation.

What I learned today..............

My sister Heidi and I did a digital scrapbooking workshop today at my ward.  We had about twice as many people as we originally anticiptated showing up for it.  There was quite a bit of interest.  It was fun but really hard to teach very much with only 3 hours.  I'm sure many of them left frustrated and lost, but don't give up ladies!  It just takes practice.  We are hoping to get a little group together to meet once a month to help each other along.  I think it will be fun!  It will make us get some scrapping done and keep it fresh in our minds.

Then, we had lunch.  Yummy soups!  Thanks everyone who brought some.

Then we had a photography 101 class from Ashley Taylor, our ward resident photographer and this is what I learned
F-Stop
ISO
White Balance
and what it means to open up all the way, blow out the sky and a bunch of other stuff too!  It was so fun!  We had awesome models from our ward and these are two of my favorite shots I did.

The thing I didn't learn was how am I supposed to get my boys to cooperate like these girls did for a photo shoot? That is the big mystery.