Senior Missionaries

Grand Nan and Papa left on their mission for Martin's Cove on April 15th. On their way to the MTC they ran into some bad weather and were involved in a car accident. It was quite the fiasco! They had quite the delay and lots of damage to their truck and 5th wheel, but we are so glad that they were not bodily harmed. We wanted to say our goodbyes and so we headed to SLC to visit them and Heather and Shane. We toured Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake and had some good family time despite all of the gnats.

Elizabeth, Misty, Carson, Darin

Island Explorers Elizabeth and Papa

Happy Boy!

Lots of Bison on Antelope Island

Crossing the creek with Aunt Heather on a fallen tree.

Making Cake Pops

Sunday Services with Heather & Shane

Cake Pops with Grand Nan

Emily is proud of the finished product

Pretty Parks in Bountiful

Swinging Siblings

Itty Bitty Dancers

 It has been a whole month since I have posted on this blog. Things have been NUTS since Spring Break and it doesn't look like the schedule is letting up at least for the next couple of weeks. The twins had program pictures for their dance studio. These two have quite the personalities and exhaust me every day, but I sure do love these cuties.

 

Love & Hate Experiment

So, I saw this experiment on Pintrest and thought it was cool, but didn't believe that it would work. The next week I went to Time Out For Women and Hilary Weeks talked about how she had done this experiment and the valuable lesson that it taught her about speaking kind words to yourself and others. I still didn't believe that it would work, but thought I would give it a try. So, for FHE a couple of weeks ago we had a lesson about kindness & love. I told the girls we would try this experiment, but I even gave a disclaimer stating that I wasn't sure that it would work. Basically, you cook some white rice and put the rice into two separate jars. Label one jar LOVE and the other HATE. Basically, we talked to the rice for a week and saw what happened to the rice after a week. We talked about how hateful / angry words are hurtful to our spirits and souls and also hurtful to the rice. I didn't really want the girls purposely speaking hateful words, so every time they got frustrated and wanted to say ugly things, I told them to go talk to the HATE jar instead of yelling at their sisters. Every night before bed we would tell the LOVE rice that that we loved it, were happy it was in our family and how smart and beautiful it was. I couldn't believe the results after a week. IT WORKED!! The only difference in our experiment and the one that I have given a link for below is that we kept the jars in separate closets. The girls didn't want the LOVE jar to get it's feelings hurt if it overheard what the HATE jar was listening to. Below are pictures of our results and a link to the experiment. What a great object lesson!

Day 1  - Our Love & Hate Jars with Clean, White Rice

 

Day 8  - It is hard to tell in the picture, but the Love Jar is just as white as Day 1 and the Hate jar's rice has turned yellow with black mold growing inside it.

A Close Up of the HATE jar on Day 8 - See the nasty mold!!

 

I think this really hit home for my girls. They can see the damage that unkind, hateful, mean words do to you. So the age old saying is a big fat lie "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Words cause just as much damage to the spirit as a physical injury. Everything has a spirit that needs to be loved and nourished. It brings to mind this scripture "The Lord created all things spiritually before he created them physically" (Moses 3:5).

 

Below is a link to the experiment:

http://www.billionclicks.org/blog/2012-09-25/the-rice-experiment/

 

Opera, & Soccer, & Veggies, Oh My!

Carson got his first taste of baby food this week and he seems to be pretty pleased with the variety of flavors that he is experiencing.

Soccer season started and Elizabeth was so excited to play. Abigail and Emily chose not to play, but were excited to cheer their sister on. It was nice for Elizabeth to have some individual attention placed on her. She gets mixed in with the bunch sometimes. I think she loved it that she had a great time and had so much love and support from her family.

Even Cousins Madie & Bella came from California to watch Liz play. They were pretty cold with the windy and overcast day.

Abigail was in the ISU Opera Noyes Fludde (Noah's Ark). She was one of 10 out of 40 selected to participate as an animal. She was a rabbit if you can't tell. She said she had a fun experience and even got flowers all the way from Grand Nan and Papa in Texas.

Has it been Six Months Already?

I can't believe that my baby is 6 months old! Seriously, where has the time gone?  

Grandma Mimi & Grandpa Del got the perfect Easter gift for Carson: a package of plastic, empty eggs that he could bang together. He played with them for quite a while, but the football egg seemed to be his favorite.

                           We have misplaced his 6 months old sticker tie, so a piece of construction paper will have to do. I just love this little 6 month old of mine.

Easter 2013

We had a fun Easter this year, and it was just the right thing to end our relaxing, low-key spring break.

 

We went to the church on Saturday for the annual breakfast and Easter Egg Hunt.

On Sunday morning before church, the girls woke up to find plastic eggs with scavenger hunt clues to help them find their baskets.

 

Carson was pretty excited to dig through his basket full of formula, bottles, pacifiers, and a "My first Easter" hat, onesie, and booties.

 

 

 

 

Then it was off to church for sacrament meeting to better understand the Gift of Christ's death and resurrection. Most Sundays. the girls go to church with pony tails, but they wanted Fancy Nancy hair to match their beautiful Fancy Nancy Easter Dresses, so I tried my best to give them what they asked for. It is very clear though that hairstyling was not one of the talents that I got in the  pre-existence.

 

 

Then we ended our day in Utah at my cousin Kristin's house. We had a great dinner, and as an added bonus Darin's good friend John Eskelson from Ricks college was there with his wife and kids.

Left to Right: Emily Ralphs, Abigail Ralphs, J.D. Eskelson, Mary Eskelson, Jeffrey Eskelson, Elizabeth Ralphs

 

Pinewood Derby

I certainly didn't think that the Ralphs Family would be  participating in the Pinewood Derby any time soon, but when the Cub Scouts invited the Activity Days Girls to participate, Abigail was thrilled. I wish I could have gotten a picure of Darin's face when he got the news. It was such a fun bonding experience for them to build Abigail's car. It was tourquoise with pink polka dots. It was way too light when we did the weigh-in, so we had to tape some quarters to it to get it the appropriate weight. It was a good thing we did too, because Abigail took 3rd place in the race.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub Three Kids in A Tub

I love how much the twins love their little brother. They were so excited to take a bubble bath with him. They all smelled so good when I got them out.

Temple Square

I love that we live so close to the Salt Lake Temple / Temple Square! On Sunday after the dance competition, we walked around temple square and the visitor's center. I loved talking to the girls about all of the wonderful things there, I love how the spirit is present and it is such a wonderful place for learning.