July Family Month - aka Cousin Month (and 24th of July celebrations)

In our stake, July is "Family Month" which means that calling-related meetings are limited and families are encouraged to spend more time together. This year the Stake President, President Bulpitt asked me to compile a bucket list of activities families could participate in. Here is what I wrote: 

The Lehi Thanksgiving Stake has chosen to implement “July Family Month” as a way to encourage stake members to intentionally focus on their family and relationships. Ward and Stake Leadership are encouraged to limit non-essential meetings. No primary and youth group activities will be held. We appreciate the time and effort that so many in the stake offer to bless others and move forward the work of the Lord. We hope that each member of the stake will take this opportunity to connect with family and neighbors and strengthen their connections and foundations of faith.

To assist stake members in doing so, we provide this list of activity ideas. We encourage individuals and families to select 3-5 items to accomplish together during the month of July.

We then had a list of activities to encourage people to participate in. Our family picked a few of them to complete - but at our house July was not only "family month" it was "COUSIN MONTH!" Jenna and Kevin planned a trip with Kevin's parents to Nauvoo for a week, which perfectly overlapped with Matt and Brooklyn's planned trip to Portugal. I volunteered to watch their girls, Juniper and Sylvie for the 21 days that they would be gone. (There was some discussion of bouncing them around from my house to Jenna's house to Mom's house - but I felt like it would be easier for them if they had a consistent place to stay). It was wonderful, we played with cousins all months long and loved it. Some of the highlights were the 24th of July parades, spending time in Lyman, going to the Thanksgiving Point gardens/museums, and just spending a LOT of time hanging out together. (Even though the Haderlies were only with us for a week, we convinced Jenna to meet up with us for the 24th of July and it really felt like we were together all month long.) I am grateful for this family of ours. I am grateful these cousins love each other, that they get to be together so much, and that our family is dependable enough to allow for world travel because those kidlets will be well taken care of by everyone in the family. 

Here are some pictures from the month: 

-We kicked off Cousin Month with a trip to Splash Summit (aka SevenPeaks) with the Haderlies and had a great time.  

-The kids got really into playing Risk. I do not love playing Risk, but they wanted to play is - so we gave them the rules and they spent hours playing in the basement. 



-Lucy and Juniper are so fun and whenever they are staying with us, I feel like I have twins. It makes me so happy to dress them up alike, and apparently my very favorite thing is taking pictures of them from behind. (The only way to tell them apart is that Lucy's hair is straight and Junipers has curl to it.) 

-Church with 10 kids (+watching the Nauvoo performing missionaries on TV)

-Dinosaur Adventure at Thanksgiving Point Gardens

-Swimming Pool

-Bedtime - David is the hero of bedtime with the cousins. We have enough beds for everyone to sleep at our house, and I love that we have space for them all. David wins all the points though because he does such a good job reading them books, telling them stories he made up, and making sure each one is taken care of. 

-I loved having Sylvie stay for so long, it made me miss having a little baby of my own. I jokingly said that maybe we should have another baby, but David shut me down SO HARD. I was vacuuming and I started crying. I had mostly been joking, but the idea being shut down so immediately and completely made my emotions get the better of me. We are really with our family at 4 kids and it feels like the right thing for us, but that just means that I will soak in any baby time I get from family and friends! 

24th of July Celebrations 

David took Lydia, Austin, Camille, and Jason to the Days of '47 float preview in Salt Lake. It's so fun to see the floats up close! 

-Ogden 24th of July Parade and Celebrations. We missed the Lehi parade (our favorite) and for a minute I thought that we weren't going to make it to any parades this summer. Thankfully we squeezed a few in and filled our parade quota for the year. I planned to take my kids + Juni/Syl to the Ogden parade, (Juniper really latched on to that and was SO looking forward to it) and I convinced Jenna to meet up with us after at the park in Ogden for 24th of July celebrations they had there. 

-Lyman 24th of July Parade 

This is our favorite 24th of July Parade - and now our family are officially residents of Lyman again. I (again) convinced Jenna to come with us to the parade in Lyman and hang out for a couple of days. The kids got SO much candy at this parade. Like SO much candy. They were in heaven. We started making plans to enter the parade next year! (Although the kids might be sad to miss out on all the candy.) After the parade, my dad bought us all lunch at the Bridger Valley celebration. 

-Fort Bridger 24th of July Celebration. 

After lunch we got to explore Fort Bridger. 








This month was filled with a lot of fun, a bunch of slow days hanging out at home, and a LOT of family. It was the perfect July for us this year. 

Easter 2022

As I sit here preparing the pictures and thinking about the words I want to use to write about this Easter, I find that although there are a lot of egg hunts and Easter baskets (and happiness and memories) but not a lot of Christ. To be honest, this year, we didn't do a lot to celebrate Holy Week. In years past, I've really tried to make an effort to do that and it's been wonderful but I just couldn't pull it off this year. I hope that, even though I wasn't able to make the same effort this year as in years past, that my kids heard the words that were said as we spoke about Jesus and the incredible reason that we celebrate Easter. I hope those words sink into their hearts and that even though the message came more simply this year - that they know that Jesus loves them and that they can start building a relationship with him through their knowledge of his life, atonement, death, and ressurection. 

My friend, Alex Morley, introduced me to the symphony/musical performance of the "Lamb of God". She told me about it and told me that this year I needed to find the CD and listen to the songs to prepare my heart for Easter. “Lamb of God” is a musical portrayal of the final days of the life of Jesus Christ, and is filled with touching songs and powerful testimony of the Savior. Her family ended up having two extra tickets to a live performance at the Eccles Theater in SLC and asked if David and I would like to come with them. (They bought these tickets months in advance. When her dad bought the tickets he decided to buy a couple of extra, but the people he had in mind didn't work out. The morning before, Alex had been thinking "I wish I had a ticket that Shantel could come see this performance with us" and only a little while later her dad called asking if she had anyone that could use the tickets. She said that she felt like the tickets were meant for us.) About the performance-  It was amazing. We didn't know until we arrived at the theater but it was actually ROB GARDNER, the composer, as the conductor and all the people from the video performance singing. It was probably the most amazing musical performance I have ever seen and the words and testimony so incredibly powerful. I wanted to share these lines from the song "Make Me Whole" sung by Martha after her brother Lazarus dies: 

Make Me Whole

Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ, which should come
The Son of God
But I do not understand
Touch my eyes and bid them see
That my gaze might pierce the veil
And behold the wondrous scene
That, in dreams, I've long beheld
Oh, touch my heart and bid it know
That ev'ry sorrow here
Is but a moment's tear
And Thou wilt make me whole again
Touch my ears and bid them hear
All the glory of Thy truth
That my hope might come of faith
And no more require proof
Oh, touch my heart and bid it know
That, while in darkness here
The Light is ever near
And Thou wilt make me whole again
Then touch my lips and bid them sing
Songs of everlasting praise
That my soul might then believe
And give thanks through all my days!
Oh touch my heart and bid it know
That ev'ry breath I take
Is by Thy tender grace
And Thou wilt make me whole
And Thou wilt make me whole
Oh, Thou wilt make me whole again

----

Egg Hunts

One of our favorite Easter traditions is to take some egg hunts to other people and surprise them at their homes.  In years past, we've done a full easter egg hunt with Melissa and Zachary, but this year we weren't able to make it happen - so we drove to his house and hid eggs all around then knocked on his door to let him come find the eggs. I'm so glad that we did this.

 

We also did an egg hunt for the Young's and for a small family in our ward the Vanderlindens. (I let the kids pick someone and they picked their friends the Youngs, then I picked the Vanderlindens who have one 2 year old and a new baby.) I love that they get the chance to give and serve without the focus being on them getting the candy. And in fact, egg hunts are just as fun when you get to hide and surprise someone as they are when you get to find the eggs yourself. 

The Sunday before Easter was spent in Morgan. We decided that we wanted to do an egg hunt with all the cousins while Juniper was here. We filled the eggs with only a tiny bit of candy, but included puzzle pieces and papers to answer a riddle written on the back of the puzzle. When the kids solved the puzzle - they found directions to a treasure, which ended up being matching "Cousin Crew" shirts. 

They are so cute! Even Rugby and Melissa's new puppy, Ruby, got matching shirts. 

Easter Morning we had an egg hunt in our house, with half the eggs being full of breakfast cereal for the kids to eat for breakfast. The Easter baskets were simple but fun. 

We went to church where there was a special musical presentation all about Easter and it was wonderful. The kids sang with the primary and all the testimonies were shared of the Savior and His Victory, which is our victory. 

We ended the day with a nice Easter dinner with the Peadens in West Jordan, which was delicious and lovely - even if I did manage to botch the Angel Food Cake I was asked to bring for dessert.