The blessing of Seth

On Sunday, we had Seth's blessing. I woke up with a full heart. Grateful to my Heavenly Father for our beautiful baby boy. Dressed in the same outfit as Joseph had worn for his blessing, he looked so handsome and as normal he was smiley and content. Joseph and Ben, the handsome older brothers, looked great in their Sunday best and they even posed for some pre-church brotherly photos.

By the time Sacrament meeting had even begun, I was already overcome with emotion. I felt so blessed to be there, able to have our baby blessed by the priesthood, with all our immediate family, some extended, some friends  and our ward with us. The opening hymn was; 'Because I have been given much.' It's one of my favourites. We had at our wedding so it felt special that Dorothy had chosen it for the day's service. The sight of our Dads and brothers forming a circle with Nathan to bless Seth was one of the occasions in my life where the word 'awesome' was totally appropriate, a real spiritual moment to remember. 

The blessing was wonderful and like with Joseph and Ben, I have taken notes so that they can look at them when they are older. I have often thought that the words are lovely and it would be nice to know what was said in the blessing given to me when I was a baby. It's also lovely that it was my Dad that gave me the blessing, like Nathan was able to do for our boys. However, the most important thing is that our boys have been blessed, blessed by the power of the priesthood. 

After church there was time for eating ( the ham and pork sandwiches went down well) and chatting.

It was great to spend time with Richard and Ashley who came over from N. Ireland. Grandma and Grandad did really well with all the travelling they'd done, especially as just the day before we'd had a family gathering to celebrate there 80th and 85th birthdays.

Someone put on their blog the following statement which I am going to copy as it sums up a feeling reinforced by this wonderful weekend -

Family isn't important, it's everything.

I have a testimony that Heavenly father lives, that he loves us. To him we are known.  I believe he sent His son, Jesus Christ to atone for our sins so that if we repent we can be forgiven. I believe families are meant to be forever and can be forever through the blessings of the temple and us trying our very best.

A night in Bethlehem

The ward party this year was 'A night in Bethlehem' 

It was a lovely night simple in format - come dressed as a Bethlehemite, sign the census, trade coins for food at the food stalls, mingle and chat with one another, play the dreidel game for chocolate if you like and then enjoy some time for reflection whilst watching the nativity and singing some carols. 

The organisation of it was also fairly simple in the end, from my point of view. My task was to find the best people to do a great job in their given area. Everyone fulfilled their task and it was great to see how working together we can put on a really lovely event, which seemed to be really enjoyed. Also the 6pm start meant that even those who stayed to tidy up ( and there was actually quite a lot ) left the chapel at 9:15pm - happy days :)

 Mayan and Becky did a great job of creating the market stall scene. The children loved the driedel game, Joseph made a cute shepherd and we took along to Bethlehem our own thumb sucking cow :)

Baby Simon played the perfect baby Jesus - no crying did he make (unlike the baby Jesus Nathan and I provided five years ago for the RS nativity - that baby Jesus was in no mood to be put in a manger and let everyone know it) I think mum and dad were really quite proud. Nathan enjoyed being a wise man from the East :)

RS Meeting - Being a temple loving people

Last Thursday we held a RS meeting focusing on being a temple-loving people. It was a really lovely night and worth all the wood-dying, painting, repainting, sanding, cutting and photo editing and re- editing. I actually really enjoyed all the prep and was really pleased with how the finished pieces turned out. As well as the temple art section we heard from Kath, Jenny, Teresa and Ann and their love of the temple for various reasons. Next month we have a temple trip booked :)

On the night Mayan had set up an amazing table display - it looked fantastic and I had great pictures to share however for some random reason there are not there anymore - gutted. The ones with Sharne posing have also gone too :( 

So here are just some I was able to take at home. The original idea for the art is from here and the photos which I used to edit are from 'The idea door' website found here. 

Each sister chose the temple she wanted, a colour choice and then a quote. I had a lot of fun using Piknik to create them all their personalised photos.

Some of the chosen quotes were-

Together Forever

Familes can be together forever

Whatsoever shall be sealed on Earth shall be sealed in Heaven (with their sealing date)

Never fear, God is always near

I feel my Saviour's love

Families are Forever

Steadfast in hope

You are never lost when you can see the temple

I chose - Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven

Hooray I found the photos :) I'd randomly saved them to a separate memory on my camera. They're a little blurry but still they're not lost.

Mother's Day

I spent most of last week reading great talks from the church website found here about motherhood. It has to be said that writing talks I find, totally takes over my life. I read lots of amazing things, spend day and night thinking, praying about which direction my talk should  take and admitably

put off the actual writing of the talk. The beginnings always stump me and I must begin about four, five... ten, eleven different ways before I may then go back to beginning number two or three.

 To be honest though it did consume me, I actually felt like it was a gift. A gift to direct me; to cause me to reflect on my role as a mother; to think of the amazing things my mum has done for me physically, emotionally and espcially spiritually and also the other women who have greatly impacted on my life because of their mother hearts. In particular I thought of my Grandmas and Val and Beth my two wonderful Young Women's Presidents who I just knew loved me (even when I was 15 lol!) I also thought of Violet and how much of a great mother she was, though she never bore children of her own; how blessed we were as a family to have her as part of it and how blessed 'her boys (Gohar, Ranjit, Jamil , Ayas and also Wayne)' were to have her as their church mother. 

I love the mormon message 'Motherhood an eternal partnership with God' (found here) so many parts of the message resonate with my spirit and what I've gained from this week is fresh perspective on how I need and want Heavenly Father's direction as I am a mum to Joseph and Ben. 

I'm grateful for Nathan, for being the husband and Dad he is and for all the help, encouragement and love he gives me.

On the morning, he organised breakfast for me and the boys brought me cards and gorgeous flowers.

We went to church, the service was lovely. Rafa and Nila sang beautiful prelude music and I loved watching Joseph sing with the rest of primary. 

I requested a family photo attempt. This was the best of the lot! 

Most of the rest looked like this -

After church we went and quickly popped in to see my Mum. The boys were reluctant to wake up from their naps :)

Which gave Granne and Grandad the perfect opportunity for some all too rare cuddles with my boys - the perfect mother's day gift.

Another attempt at a family photo :)

We then went to have tea with Carol. The boys entertained and went into their roles of Lords of the Manor with the 'Uncles Three' and Aunty Amy being the humble servants (poor Aunty Alice was at work). We had a great time and as usual the boys did not want to leave. Ben hid in PePo's cage :)

A lovely day

RS turns 170

We had a great time at the RS birthday party, celebrating 170 of its organisation. The theme was 'Live up to your privileges' and after the spiritual beginning with a readers theatre, musical item (My sister's hands - sung by Stacey and Gill) we celebrated with English afternoon tea (without the tea of course) Scones, jam, clotted cream heaven :)

After tea we played the shoe game and the white elephant gift game - lots of stealing went on :) A great night with my Selby sisters.

Stockeld Park

7th January - Nathan's birthday. 

Breakfast part one in bed

Bacon, sausage n egg butties downstairs with cards and presents

Joseph was so excited to give him his card he tried to give it to him whilst he was in the bathroom getting washed :) 

Joseph and I had a lovely time, the afternoon prior, colouring the dragon on Nathan's card. Up until recently, Joseph hasn't really shown a liking for colouring or drawing but when we did the dragon he coloured really carefully. Sat on my knee, he'd do some and then direct me where I should colour. He offered me great praise for my efforts 'That's fantastic!' 'That's just perfect mummy.' He went to find his dragon to inform us which colour the wings should be - red! 

After brunch we had some shopping to do, to get ready for Aunty Caroline's upcoming wedding. Necklace ordered in Morley and black shoes bought for the boys in a busy White Rose centre. We took the boys round in the Little Tyke's Car trolleys you can hire, to make the experience more bearable for our shopping-phobic boys. Ben made all the usual high pitched  breaking and skid noises as we meandered around the hustle and bustle!

Jobs done and a quick stop off at Macdonalds later, we headed for Stockeld Park with it's Christmas Adventure. We'd been planning to go since November. Ideally we'd hoped to go before Christmas and take the boys to see Father Christmas, then we planned to go between Christmas and New year but opted for two chill days, then new year's eve were changed due to lack of time. So in the end we finally got there one day before it closed for another year. We were not disappointed. 

The walk around the Enchanted Forest was really great. Along the walk were deer,

a talking tree;

Rapunzel in her tower;

The boys imaginations were captured

by the forest coming alive as we walked through it.

Ben is still not happy with his hat, Daddy was more than happy to use it to keep his ears warm :)

We had to play the chimes to make the fairies wake up and dance.

Along the route there were also unicorns, owls, swans, wolves along with an ogre, a Wizard with his spell book; Cinderella's carriage; another bridge with a troll underneath; giant toadstool houses and an Enchanted lake. 

A few trees had doors where you rang the bell to find out who         lived inside. 

Figgy Pudding was not very pleased about being disturbed :/

Little Red Riding hood's Grandma looked like she needed a shave

Joseph and Daddy being statues 

It was really, really well done and magical for the children. I'm glad we finally made and hopefully we'll get there sometime in December this year.

In the evening Nathan went to conduct the baptism service for Denise Osbourne (unfortunately I had a migraine coming). He came back really uplifted by the strong spirit he'd felt. Elder Pezensky performed the baptism with Steve Lawrence also there to offer him assistance in the water. Dee is so lovely and seems to have grasped the gospel with all her heart. She'd ordered a temple dress for her baptism and organised her own service with Nathan and Ben Adamson speaking, and a  musical item of ' You raise me up' which she really makes her feel the spirit. Her family came to support her and had driven up from the midlands to do so, even though they are not members themselves - what a great example of family unity.