Birdhouses, Favorite quotes from conference and a Photo Shoot in the Park on Yom Kippur, not in that order

The girls couldn't stay out of the trees. At least they let me take their pictures.
Notice Ariel's biker shorts peeking out, there will be a quiz later in this post and that is an important detail to remember.
.This kid is so cute, but it is so hard to get him to stand still for a picture, most of my shots of him are where he is running away, and giggling. His hair is getting kinda long, but the thought of cutting it makes me sad, the sun has really lightened it up and cutting it will probably make it look darker.
Don't you just love her smiling eyes? (Even if she's doing something goofy with her mouth.)




So the big girls didn't have school today because it was Yom Kippur, and I wanted to go somewhere fun with them, and take advantage of the nice weather while we still have it. There were these cool bird houses in the rose garden part of the park. I thought they were really cuteI have been trying to get better at my photography skills and have been learning about different settings on the camera I really like how this one turned out the focus and lighting, it was taken from really far away, too bad it isn't a prettier fruit like and apple.
Can you see the REAL bird in there?





These two pictures aren't that great, but they are before and after pictures, so I want you to look at them and figure out what is different about what the kids are wearing.
We went to this great park that has trails and streams and ponds, and lots of neat spots to take pictures. I kept trying to get a good picture of Annika and she kept running away from me. She ran around a bush so that I couldn't see her, then I heard a loud SPLOSH. She had fallen in, luckily it wasn't very deep at all. Everyone chipped in and donated her an article of clothing so we could take her wet clothes off. Have you figured out what they were? Ariel gave her her biker shorts, Adriana her shirt, since she had an undershirt on, and Dallin his sweatshirt which we tied around her waist to hold up the biker shorts.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from conference:

Elder Bednar said"...meaningful morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day—and precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day. Just as the temporal creation was linked to and a continuation of the spiritual creation, so meaningful morning and evening prayers are linked to and are a continuation of each other.

Consider this example. There may be things in our character, in our behavior, or concerning our spiritual growth about which we need to counsel with Heavenly Father in morning prayer. After expressing appropriate thanks for blessings received, we plead for understanding, direction, and help to do the things we cannot do in our own strength alone. For example, as we pray, we might:

• Reflect on those occasions when we have spoken harshly or inappropriately to those we love the most.
• Recognize that we know better than this, but we do not always act in accordance with what we know.
• Express remorse for our weaknesses and for not putting off the natural man more earnestly.
• Determine to pattern our life after the Savior more completely.
• Plead for greater strength to do and to become better.

Such a prayer is a key part of the spiritual preparation for our day."

This was one of those deep thoughts, that made me really want to change how I do things. I felt like he was speaking directly to me.

Elder Perry said, "One of the challenges of this mortal experience is to not allow the stresses and strains of life to get the better of us—to endure the varied seasons of life while remaining positive, even optimistic."

It is good to hear this acknowledgment. I have the tendency to give myself a hard time for having to deal with the "natural man" so it is good to hear that dealing with different struggles in life is what we are supposed to be doing and that there is nothing wrong with me because I do have challenges. I loved the comparisons that he made with Thoreau's concepts of food, clothes, shelter and fuel and the mind-body connection.

From President Uchtdorf I loved all that he had to say about hope. Here is just a bit that really illustrates the difference between despair and hope: "Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart. Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward.

Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. It pierces the darkness with a brilliant dawn. It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear."