Shantel & Ten Years of Temple Blessings

Today marks ten years since I received my endowment in the Manti Temple, just a week before David and I were married. Today as I have reflected over the past ten years of attending and worshiping in the temple, I have had many special experiences brought back to my mind.

The Temple is a place where I have felt the Love of God in real and tangible ways. I have experienced tender mercies too specific and personal to be a coincidence. Worshiping in the temple has brought peace into my life. There have been times in the temple when I have felt strengthened and fortified and over and over again my testimony and faith have solidified. I have put my faith and trust in the Lord. I have made covenants to serve Him and Keep His Commandments and I will not fail Him. 

The Temple gives me courage and assurance and reminds me of the blessings that belong to me and my family as a covenant-keeping woman. 

To live so close to a temple is a blessing I cherish. I am constantly reminded that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that my weaknesses can become strong through Him. Because of Him. 

I am grateful for the blessings of the temple. 

When I first received my endowment, I started writing down the date, which temple ordinance, and name of the person that I was doing the temple ordinance for. I know that I've missed a few here and there - but even so, I have served in the temple over one hundred times over the past ten years. That number seems tiny in the eternal scheme of things. Just a drop in the bucket. But in my own life, each and every one of those 110+ visits has blessed my life immensely and I feel connected to each of the people whose names I have read, remembered, and served in the temple. I humbled and honored to be a part of such a great work.

At a recent General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson said the following: 

"My dear Brothers and Sisters,  construction of these [recently announced] temples may not change your life, but your time in the temple surely will. In that spirit, I bless you to identify those things you can set aside so you can spend more time in the temple. I bless you with greater harmony and love in your homes and a deeper desire to care for your eternal family relationships. I bless you with increased faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a greater ability to follow Him as His true disciples."

I have taken that promise to heart. Harmony and love, increased faith, a greater ability to follow Him. The time I have spent in the temple has changed my life - and I hope that as I continue to serve and strive to live my covenants, my weaknesses and failures will continue to change until I become the person that He wants me to be.

I'm so grateful to David for letting me come to the temple tonight after I realized that today was my 10 year temple anniversary. I came alone while he took over bedtime. He is such a support to me and I'm grateful for his sacrifice so I could have this special evening to myself to ponder and pray and reflect and count the blessings that have come from the Temple. 

Snuggling

One of my favorite things about life right now is that in the morning, my kids come into my bed and snuggle me for 30ish minutes until we are all ready to get up for the day. Sometimes they fall back asleep with me while I'm sleeping. Sometimes they just cuddle up quietly while I keep sleeping. 

Sometimes we talk and laugh together. 

All of the time, I love it. 

It's such a slow start to our day. It feels unhurried and cozy.

I love this little family of mine. I love our life together. I love that Homeschool gives us the time to have this unhurried lifestyle where we can just enjoy our time together instead of having to rush around from one thing to another. (And I love I don't have to get out of bed until 7:30-7:45 in the morning lately!)

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{5.13.19}

This girl and her 📖 loving ❤️. She got a set of six books as a late birthday gift... Yesterday. This is her finishing up book #4 while waiting at a doctors appointment earlier today. Since then she has made her way through book #5, too. It makes my book loving heart happy to see, and I have to shrug and laugh a little when she can't be bothered to come to dinner or you know... Anything else because she's in the middle of a chapter. David and I were both like that, and honestly... We still are. I just love her and can't believe how big she looks here. (Also, baby is doing good but my iron levels are SUPER low, so cross your fingers that I don't end up with an IV in the next couple of days- and send me your iron rich food favorites because I can't seem to get my levels up with what I'm doing.)

{5.13.19}

The best dad. I watched this scene unfold- David carefully combing Lydia's hair, allowing Caleb to run to him (to escape my pajama-dressing-attempt) and him not missing a beat. He shows his love to us in a hundred different ways and I'm just grateful he's ours. @davidpeaden

{5.16.19}

Our weekly hikes are being slowly and steadily downgraded to "nature walks" as this baby gets bigger and more demanding of my energy. But I love adventuring with these kids of mine.

{5.21.19}

Prepping for baby girl with my tiny sidekick. ♥️ #lotsofdiapers

{5.21.19}

He's such a good helper. 🤦🤷😍 #halfofabottleofdishsoap I swear he was only alone for two minutes. I had told him to go wash his hands. #goodlistener "Bubbles mommy!" 🧼🛀

{5.22.19}

Lydia volunteered to put Caleb down for his nap this afternoon. Austin helped, too. Lydia read books, they sang songs, and jumped around the crib like monkeys. But after I called up to them to give Caleb a kiss and leave, they both did- and Caleb soon fell asleep. I'm grateful for these sweet siblings (and that I didn't have to do naptime today 🎉). Also, Lydia missed the first half of her piano lessons because of this adventure, so it wasn't all a win. Good thing she has the best piano teacher ever. Thanks and also so sorry @robosteff

{5.27.19}

#babyprepprogress

{5.29.19}

A 4-day weekend with this crew of mine and I'm already counting down the days until our next long weekend, (which, happily, is this coming weekend! 🎉). I think David should only work 3 day weeks EVERY week. We finished up our homeschool last week 💪 and I'm so so happy that it's SUMMER!

{5.29.19}

Ten years ago I received my endowments in the Manti Temple. Ten years of worshiping in the temple has brought me peace and confidence. As I reflected on this today, I was reminded of many experiences where I have felt the love of God in real and tangible ways. I love the temple and testify of the blessings that come from spending time there. (Grateful for David who took on bedtime by himself so that I could sneak away to the temple to mark this 10-year anniversary.)

{5.30.19}

The best neighborhood tradition of an Ice Cream party on the last day of school for the kids plus our first pool day, and just like that.. Summer is here! ☀️😍🎉 Last summer I posted about this party and then didn't post on Instagram again until the fall (too busy living our #summerofdreams). This year I can imagine I'll be posting a lot, because well... New baby. This summer may not be as full of adventure as last summer was, but I'm looking forward to pool days, riding bikes in the front yard, and lazy book reading mornings. And baby snuggles. Lots and lots of baby snuggles.

Staycation 2019

Similar to the Peaden/Middleton trip, with the timing of our baby, planning a full fledged vacation was a bit challenging. In addition, this year is technically our staycation year after traveling to New York last year. However, we wanted to do something fun before the baby comes. In addition, the kids have been begging to go camping. We looked at our options and considered camping close by, and came up with the plan below instead. 

Friday morning we went on a hike to Battle Creek Falls in the Pleasant Grove. It was a really fun hike. However, the waterfall was beautiful, but it was pretty windy there and there was not a great place to eat lunch. So we explored a bit and then went back down the trail and found a nice spot to eat lunch. 

As I mentioned, it was super windy, so here Caleb is trying to hide from the water that is spraying off the waterfall. 

Look how pretty this girl is. She is smart and funny, a great mom and amazing in so many ways and also so beautiful.

This is right where we ate lunch. The kids had fun tromping around in the water.

Right after we got the picture above Lydia was climbing out further and the limb and it snapped right off. Fortunately she did not fall too far and was more scared than hurt.

After hiking we went home for a movie and "camping night." As I mentioned, the kids were dying to go camping and since we could not make that work, we compromised with them to set up the tent in our living room for a movie night. It was so much fun and the kids loved it.

Caleb still slept in his bed.

Meanwhile we watched Toy Story 2 and had such a fun time. 

We planned to do a few fun things Saturday morning before we went to a Rugby game that night...but Shantel got a call that her friend Ashley was being induced and had agreed to help her at the hospital. So I slept with the kids in the tent and Shantel spent the night at the hospital with her friend. 

I am grateful that even the most simple things can be great bonding times for our family. I loved hiking in the mountains with them. One of my favorite thing was going with Lydia and Austin to the top of the waterfall and exploring and just letting them tromp through the water. I am so lucky to have this family.