Trust

On answers to prayer:  Sometimes they are subtle and sometimes they are undeniable. 

The last few weeks, Peter and I have been trying to make a decision regarding Dallin's schooling for next year.  Just like always, each time we need to make a decision for his future it is very painfully difficult.  I want what is best for him, but since I can't see the future, I feel like making big decisions is nearly impossible.  Yet they must be made.  And like I always tell myself, if I don't stand up and do it, no one will.  I am his advocate, its my responsibility and so I am strengthened. 

Yesterday was our meeting day at the school and Peter and I had prayerfully made a decision, but I was so full of doubts, which would not be good for standing up for Dallin.  All morning I had been worrying about these doubts and praying about it.  Then someones name came into my head.  It was like something inside me saying "You need to talk to this person."  This person is a friend from our ward who has 4 teenage children, but I had never talked to her about this situation and had no idea why in the world it would be helpful.  So, I just tried to put it out of my mind.  I couldn't seem to stop thinking about it though. 

Peter had stayed home from work for a couple of hours while we tried to work through our decision.  Just before he left we knelt together in prayer and pleaded with the Lord to know without a doubt that this was a good decision and if it was not, that we would both have a stupor of thought about it.  After that we both felt a little better and as Peter was about to leave, I told him that I really had this feeling that I need to talk to this lady in our ward.  He said, "Well, we made our decision so I think we are good."  I agreed. 

So this is where my testimony of Divine intervention grows.  Not even 30 minutes later, this person called ME!  When I answered the phone and she said "Hi Pricilla, this is _______."  It almost didn't seem real.  I have heard stories like this lots of times, but never had it happen in my life.  She was calling about a baby shower for a girl that we know, but I was like, "Um, are your really calling me right now?"  She was confused and I told her she had been on my mind all morning.  I said, "I think I need to talk to you."  She said she had been wanting to call me all week, but lost my number and had just found it this morning. 

Because of the feelings I was having, I knew that whatever she had to say, I was to listen.  I asked her a little bit about her past experience with her kids and without pause, like she didn't even have to think about her answer, told me about a decision from her past that related to what we were working on with Dallin.  It totally confirmed our decision.  My doubts were gone, and besides all the shaking from what just happened, I was at total peace.  Then I was able to go to our meeting with complete confidence, and was not shaken a bit by those who tried to sway the decision.

It sure seems like every step is guided with our precious little boy.  Thinking back through all the times that things have happened to help us get Dallin where he needs to be leaves me humbled and in awe...
 






I know Heavenly Father has all the answers and Peter and I are just the instruments that those answers need to come through.  It is a great responsibility as it is for every parent of every child.   I believe that every person who has come into Dallin's life was meant to be there and that the amazing timing and chain of events that we have seen time after time have always, in hindsight, been miracles to me.  I will say that I have no idea how this decision will affect the rest of his life, but I trust in the Lord, because He does know.

Marriage Humor

Peter has made me laugh so hard a couple of times lately.  The first time was last weekend when I had put a pair of pants on that I haven't worn in a while.  Once they were on I started wondering what size they were.  I was curious because I thought they were a size smaller than the size I have been wearing, so a girl needs to know these things ya know?  Instead of taking them off to look I went and found Peter so he could look at the tag.  I reversed the top of my pants in the back and asked him to tell me what size they were.  Instead of just looking he decided that I had invited him to give me a wedgie!  It caught me so off guard that I started laughing.  He was pretty proud of himself. 

Then the other night, Peter decided to cuddle up next to me while I was asleep.  I was at the very edge of the bed.  Several hours later one of us moved and WHACK, I fell right out of bed!!!  I landed on my knees and just sat there for a minute because I wasn't really sure what just happened.  I kept trying to go back to sleep but every time I thought about it I couldn't stop laughing or joking that Peter had dumped me.  Now I will have a little more sympathy when I hear a thud coming from one of the kids rooms in the middle of the night.

Temple

I want to put a nice picture of the temple up in our house, but they are so expensive at the bookstore.  I thought I would probably like it even more if it was a picture I took and edited myself so last weekend I spent some time taking some pictures. I wanted to get something unique.I can't decide which one I want to frame so if you have a favorite please let me know.  Here are a few that I ended up with post edit so far.  I would be happy to give anyone a full resolution image if you are interested. 

All of the Sudden

I was starting to wonder when Carter was going to start really talking.  He has a lot of words, so I wasn't to worried, but it was not too clear.  Then very suddenly, he started speaking sentences, a lot!  It is more clear sounding too.  He wouldn't really repeat words for me before, but now he does it all the time. I don't recall having a child just start talking like that, but I am not too surprised with Carter because he seems so aware, as if he could already talk in his head before he could make it come out.  I love this phase, when they start talking all the time.

Best Friends

Tanner has fallen in love with a worm he found in the back yard. He has been enjoying carrying it around, and setting it down so that he can watch it wiggle. Daddy would not let him take it on the trampoline much against his wishes. He named it Peter Worm Dickinson. He keeps talking to it and playing imaginative like he would with a sibling. Then I heard him say, "Your my best friend!". Should I be worried?

Last night Eden and I were tired and the boys were downstairs watching a movie. So us girls went to lay down on my bed. We cuddled and chatted for a while and I said:
"Eden, can we be best friends forever?"
She said excitedly:"YES! Tomorrow morning I will go wish for that."
I thought about what she meant for a moment and asked "Do you mean on a wishing flower in the yard?"(you know the dandelion weeds)
She replied: "Yes."

Swagger Wagon

Oh, man this is the funniest video ever. I laughed so hard. See, it really is cool to have a minivan!

Timberline Weekend

This last weekend we were planning to take Dallin and Eden snowskiing.  Then Peter and I got to talking and started looking into staying overnight at the Timberline Lodge.  We decided to go for it and left the kids with Peter's parents on Friday morning and headed to the mountain.  Then Peter's dad brought the kids on Saturday for skiing. Peter has talked about taking me there since we got married and we just hadn't gotten to it.  Since it has been about 2 years since we went away for a night, it seemed like a good time.  Neither of us had ever stayed there so it was a first for both of us.  It was such a cool experience! 

This lodge was an 18 month project funded by the Works Progress Administration during the great depression.  President Roosevelt dedicated it in 1937. Now it is a National Historic Landmark. There is so much to look at, so much history, beautiful architecture and art everywhere.  It was fun to learn so much about it.  We watched a video documentary about it and read all of the pamplets and took lots of pictures of course(don't worry, I will just share a few). When we got there we just explored the place for a long time.

Once we checked in we decided to try out the outdoor pool!  It was plenty warm and we swam laps, tossed a footbal around and played for a couple of hours.  The hot tub is hot hot hot, so that was nice too.  There were a couple of teenage boys keeping us quite entertained by getting out and making snow angels and then hopping back in the water. 



We thought this was cool.  This picture was taken at Timberline and as you can see on the bottom left of the folder, was featured on the ever classic PeeChee.  What do you know!


After the relaxing hot tub, we found this cozy place to sit on the top floor. There were 2 couches facing eachother and a coffee table in between looking out these huge windows.  It was amazing, it was so warm and cozy, but felt like we were right out in the scenery.  We got these fancy hot chocolates that were totally amazing and sat for hours, literally.  We had a long family council, planned our next whole year, and talked about each of the kid's needs.  I love to plan so that is my idea of fun.


This might be my favorite spot on the planet at the moment. 


Okay, one more hot chocolate picture, it really was that good.  Those are english toffee bits on top.  We went ahead and ordered our dinner right there and stayed a while longer. 

After we ate we video conferenced in for Luke's mission call.  Congratulations Luke...Philippeans!
That night we spent a couple more hours sitting by the huge fireplace.  It was just such a fun atmosphere.  We decided to take the Love Language quiz that our Sunday School teacher had given us.  It was so funny to realize that we are complete opposites!  We were reflecting on all the times that we thought we were trying to help eachother, but were not communicating it in a way that the other person works.  It was pretty funny.  Somehow it works well, but I think we understand one another a little more now.


Big fireplace.  It has 3 sides to it, each with its own firplace and goes up all the floors. 


Not a clear picture, but just to prove I was there. 


I liked this bird sculpture.  There were so many things like this.


On Saturday we went skiing with Peter's dad, Dallin and Eden.  It was Eden's first time and she was a natural, and a daredevil oh my!  The weather was bad, but we still had a great time. The weekend was so relaxing and fun.  We want to make this a yearly tradition.

The Coat

I am beginning to see what a sensitive little soul Dallin is. Last night for Family Home Evening we were learning about compassion and as I read the following story, I could see that Dallin was listening very intently. As I read on, his face grew more and more sad. Afterward, tears streamed down his little face as he asked many questions to try to understand the concept. It was just so tender and sweet:

Tell the following story about Heber J. Grant, who later became the seventh President of the Church.

Heber wrapped his thin coat around him and shivered in the cold. It would soon be his birthday, and all he wanted was a warm coat. But they were too poor to buy a coat. Sometimes they went to bed early because there was no fuel to keep the house warm, and sometimes he was hungry because there was not enough food. To earn money, Heber’s mother often worked far into the night, sewing clothes for others.

On Heber’s birthday his mother gave him a beautiful coat made from leftover material. Heber could hardly wait to go outside and feel its warmth.

A few weeks later, Heber saw a boy just his size crying. He was wearing only a sweater, and Heber knew how cold he must be. The boy looked longingly at Heber’s coat. Heber stopped and, almost without thinking, took the coat off and gave it to the boy.

That afternoon Heber’s mother saw him wearing his old coat. She asked, “What have you done with your new coat?” Heber wondered how to tell her. Then he said, “I saw a boy who needed it worse than I did, so I gave it to him.”

“Couldn’t you have given him your old one?” she asked.
Heber looked up at his mother, hoping she would understand, and saw her eyes fill up with tears. He threw his arms around her as she answered her own question. “Of course you couldn’t, Heber,” she said. “Of course, you couldn’t.” (Adapted from “The Coat,” retold by Lucile C. Reading, Children’s Friend, Nov. 1966, p. 5.)

This morning as I drove Dallin to school I said "You know how much I love you, right Dallin?" He said "Yes, but I forgot." I said "Oh, I love you VERY much." He said "I like it when you tell me a lot."

Hot Air

Dallin came home from school the other day with some grand ideas in his head.  He started talking all about hot air balloons and how they work.  I knew where this was going and was right.  He fully intended to build one.  I was blow drying my hair and he came in and said, "Mom, can I borrow that?"  I said "Sure, why not?".  He showed me an empty plastic grocery bag that he was going to use as a balloon.  He got Eden all excited about it and I could hear them in the living room working on their new project.  Then after a few minutes I heard the blow dryer turn on and then off again.  They were obviously troubleshooting and I heard Eden say "Hmmm...maybe if we build this outside, we could use the hair dryer and the wind to get it to fly." 

I just had to check it out by then.  Dallin had turned their little table upside down and put a couch cushion on top of the legs and then a big basket.  The table legs had several of the plastic grocery bags hooked on.  Eden's little bean bag was up there too.  It was so cute.   I think they eventually gave up on making it float, but it was very imaginative for sure. 

Super Cool!!!

My review for the Accountable Kids program is listed on their website! How cool is that?  It is the first one listed on the blog review page at the moment!!!

We all need a little pep talk once in a while...

I love this woman!  Her name is Connie Sokol.  I listen to BYU TV while I do housework a lot.  I have listened to a couple of her talks over and over the last couple of years.  She is so inspiring and once in a while I need a pep talk, so I listen to her. This morning I listened to this one and I feel so motivated.

Feeling Fit and Fabulous About Your Physical, Spiritual, Emotional and Mental Life!:
http://www.byub.org/talks/Talk.aspx?id=1410

I enjoy this one just as much:

Cleaning Out Emotional Clutter:
http://www.byub.org/talks/Talk.aspx?id=1125