A make and a few makeovers...

We bought these beauties at Goodwill few months ago.  $15 for the pair.  I had a doubtful vision of dvd player storage and toy storage for them.

A lot of elbow grease in the form of sanding, staining and polyurithaning and we now have this:

I love being able to store all of the baby toys inside the cupboard and have a toy-free room every now and then (not very often)!

This little number belonged to my parents at one point in time.  It then found its way to my brother and his wife.  

As you can see, it was really showing its age....  We adopted it from my brother and after a little bit of sanding and a few cans of spray paint we now have this:

I want to distress it a little with sand paper and some dark stain...we will see how that goes.

 I still don't know quite what to put on it but I really like having something to put under the pictures on that wall.  It looks so much more finished!  We need some color on this wall.  I am thinking of painting that star (we could paint the wall but remember we are renting and we don't want to spend the $$ and then have to paint it back.)  And what to put on the table?  

This next one is a MAKE not a makeover...

I love my interchangeable flower necklace!

Seriously, I stink at taking pictures.  The flowers are handmade and much cuter in person.

I got the tutorial from my favorite crafting blog The Polka Dot Chair.

See how cute???

Adam and Eve

After church on Sunday I asked Stephen what he learned about in his Primary class.  He said "Adam and Eve."  I asked him who they were.  He said, "they lived in the garden and they ate the fruit from the bad tree so Heavenly Father KICKED them out of the Garden of Eve!" I wish I could convey the emphasis he placed on the word "kicked."  It was pretty funny!

It appears that Stephen is picking some fruit for himself, though not from the "bad tree."  Really, he is trying to pull the branch off the tree - he is into leaves and sticks and flowers and I am constantly trying to get him to "leave the flowers/leaves/sticks where they are!"  This picture is in Scott's Aunt's backyard in Thatcher when we went to visit last week.  Stephen loved it there.

Addendum to my last post...

I don't think that I mentioned in my last post that I love Primary...

Just thought you should know that I love the children in my ward...and loving them helps me be so much more patient than I ever was with my students when I was a school teacher.

I am so blessed to work with these sweet, precious children and I am overwhelmed by the absolute love that I feel that Heavenly Father has for them.

Tonight we had a stake leadership training meeting and it was so wonderful!  They talked a lot about children being under attack by Satan.  It is our job to help them build up their armor so they can protect themselves.  Because no matter how hard we try to protect them, we can never prevent the attack from coming.  They have to be ready to withstand it without us.  It is a scary thought.  They said our first priority is our own children and then we need to help the broken, struggling families.

The thing that stood out to me the most from the meeting and talks was from the 2nd counselor in the stake Primary presidency.  She is the mother of three boys and she says that whenever she goes out with all three of them together she always gets "oh, three boys...don't you wish you had a girl?"  With great emotion she talked about how much she loves having three boys.  She says the world is developing a strange attitude about boys.  Boys are expected to be rough, tough, messy and crazy.  She then talked about how vitally important it is for us to develop our scouting programs within our wards because this is an inspired program that will help our boys grow into strong, good men and prepare them to serve missions.  Of course it is impossible to think of boys and scouting without thinking about my own two boys.  I want to do everything I can to help them grow and develop their testimonies.  What a huge responsibility!

At the end of the meeting they had a special musical number with 10 senior Primary (ages 7-11) boys from several of the wards in our stake.  They sang the new theme song for the year I Know that My Savior Loves Me (I LOVE this song - I can not listen to it without feeling such a strong feeling of my Savior's love).  Click here if you want to listen to it.  To be honest, it was not musically good.  It was totally obvious that these boys were so nervous to be in front of all of us women - and they had to sing (what briberies must have gone on at home we will never know...), but the spirit was so strong.  Most everyone was crying by the end.  After that, a member of the stake presidency stood up and told us that the statistics in the church show that only 3 of those 10 boys will serve missions!!  That seems unthinkable.  He said that if they could get even 5 of the 10 to serve missions they would be able to open 150 new missions!  Well, that tells me I have a big responsibility - to prepare my own two sons and to help our sweet primary boys be prepared too.

I think this portion of the meeting was especially important to me because I have been having such an incredibly hard week with Stephen.  I feel at such a loss sometimes with how to deal with him.  He is such a good sweet boy a majority of the time but I just feel like I am not doing something right because he has such a hard time in certain situations.  (Some of the worst tantrums you have ever seen).  We need to change some things around here.  It is not going to be easy, I already know.

P.S.  They called a new set of Primary teachers today - hooray!  And....they called a new Primary Chorister!!! Double hip-hip-hooray!!!!  I am so excited because the new chorister is going to be GREAT!!  She came along to the meeting tonight (she was asked to sing a solo for it - BEAUTIFUL!) and I gave her a ride home - she is so bubbly and a total crack up!  I was laughing the whole way home - it made me feel like I was in high school again hanging out with a bunch of girls.  I already know the kids are going to love her!

Primary...oh yeah, and some new responsibilities associated with that.

I feel like all I have been working on for the past two weeks is Primary business NON STOP!  Suddenly, this month blew up with a million things to do for Primary.  But really, it makes no sense since  I haven't even been to church yet this month (due to General Conference and an impromptu trip to Thatcher).

Last week I spent most of Tuesday morning making phone calls and emailing people - I don't even remember what it was all about!

I was notified by a few people that our upcoming Primary Activity Day was conflicting with the Stake Humanitarian Activity...grrrr....guess we will have to change that.

Last Saturday night Scott and I went down to the church to set up the Primary chairs in the new arrangement I have been dreaming of ever since I have been called.  Deep instead of wide....  Here she is:

Had Presidency meeting on Tuesday, rescheduled Primary Activity Day for May (oh yeah, did you know that conflict's with the business school's graduation?  My thoughts "hmmmm....that can't be an issue for too many families in our student ward...let's leave it where it is."

Then there was Wednesday night.  I will never, ever forget Wednesday night.  The ward mission leader called Wednesday morning and asked me to go along with the missionaries who were meeting with a 9 year old investigator.  They wanted "someone from Primary" there.  "Can you go at 6 tonight?"  "Sure," I say - "no problem"...
4pm I get a call from Elder so and so...
Elder: Sister Smith, I understand you are planning to go to the ---- home tonight at 6 pm?
Me: Yes, I will be there.
Elder: Would you be able to teach about obedience, follow the prophet, The 10 Commandments, tithing, fast offerings, and obeying and honoring the law?"
Me:  Uhhhh, sure I can help with the lesson, how long should I plan on taking with all of this?
Elder:  Oh, the whole thing should be about 20 minutes.
Me:  Okay, what part are you going to do?
Elder: Oh, I won't be there.
Me:  Excuse me????
Elder:  Call Sister Allen.  She is a ward missionary and has meet the family before.  See if she can go with you.
Okay I didn't say "excuse me??' in a rude voice, though I thought it. I think I just questioned him more to find out why in the world they wouldn't be there...something about his companion going home and he was with two other Elders until his new comp came and they had other appointments to keep that night...I am still not sure on all the details except that they were not going to be there.  Then I got off the phone and realized that I am now somehow the missionary - by myself.  What the heck?  This is not what I signed up for!!  How do I get myself into these things? I am the Primary president, not a discussion-teaching missionary! Why do I become such a spaz in these situations?  Why can't I just say no at this point???  Because it is an investigator, we are messin' with someone's eternal salvation here!

After a phone call to Sister Allen (I LOVE this girl - she was all over it - totally calm and cool and like, "yeah, we can totally do this."  She saved my life)

Then it really all sank in and I called Scott, called my mom, called the ward mission leader (not home, couldn't be reached), called the Elders again to clarify ("you really can't reschedule?" "no."), called the ward missionaries across the street to borrow "Preach My Gospel," called Scott again, had a major breakdown, cried like a crazy woman, called Sister Allen again (I think she is an angel).  Sat and struggled with my pride and finally was able to pray.

Luckily I had a crock pot dinner going or we would have starved that night.  I couldn't even think enough to process picking up fast food.

Then we went.

All was well.  It was actually kind of fun (but only because of my friend Sister Allen).  We taught obedience, follow the prophet, The 10 Commandments, tithing, fast offerings and obeying and honoring the law, just like we were supposed to.  The little girl was baptized on Sunday so I must not have messed things up to badly.  (She was already planning to be baptized long before we showed up at her house- it had nothing to do with me!)

Sweet relief!

I think this experience may have strongly convinced me to make the 2.5 hour trip to Thatcher on Sunday to visit Scott's grandparents.  I needed a break from my expanding duties....

Oh yeah, the missionaries called again two days ago...they are teaching a 10 year old girl and would like "someone from Primary" to go with them them that evening at 7...yes the Elders would be there this time.  I decided to delegate. One counselor's husband was gone to work, the other counselor's husband has class...my husband was home...my turn again.  I called Sister Allen to come with me...bless her heart she was able and willing to come again.  (Did I mention how much I really love her?)  It was another good experience...I am learning a lot!  We (all) taught the Plan of Salvation.  It was well received by the 10 year old, though not by her mother.  Fortunately, her mother is totally supportive of said 10 year old being baptized May 8th.

I made this Plan of Salvation visual for the Elders to use in the future for their young investigators who seem to be so numerous:

(Bless his heart, one Elder had spent 1.5 hours making something similar out of cardboard - it was teeny tiny but still effective.  I offered to make him a slightly bigger one and he was favorable to the suggestion).  Okay, I am a nerd for taking all the time to do this but it was kinda fun.  I made it smallish still so that it would still fit on a coffee table.

Did I mention that I have to speak at the stake baptism tomorrow morning so I have been working on my talk all week...oh yeah, it is my month to teach sharing time so I have been working on that too.

Upcoming Primary:
Saturday (tomorrow) 8am: Scout leadership training "we really want Primary presidencies there." (I am totally ditching - I am so bad).

Saturday 11am (tomorrow): Stake Baptism - I get to speak!

Sunday night 7pm: Stake Leadership Meeting

Tuesday:  Help with Activity Day "manicure activity" for 8 and 9 year old girls.  (I volunteered for this one several months ago before I knew any better).  It should be fun though.  I like manicures.

Wednesday:  Go visit 10 year old investigator again with Sister Allen and the Elders.  At least I have advance notice this time.

I am glad we rescheduled that Primary Activity Day.  It would have been next Saturday.

Sunday: Another sharing time.

Oh, and did I mention that one of my secretaries(yes, we require two), who happens to be one of my good friends, moved on Monday and this Sunday is the last Sunday for my second counselor and Primary music chorister.  They are moving too.  Also, I am currently short four sets of Primary teachers due to people moving out or being called to other callings. I still don't know who will replace of these wonderful people...

There you have it - two  and a half weeks in the life of a Primary president.

I feel so bad for our Bishop!

Photography Blog

Go check out my cousin's photography blog.  She is amazing!  Those cute family pictures in my side bar are thanks to her.  I especially loved the photos she took of my little Stephen.  But, you haven't seen anything until you see the precious baby pictures she has taken.  They are so dang cute they make me want to drop everything and have a baby tomorrow so that I can have pictures like these!

Happy Happy Birthday Boston!

Boston turned one on Sunday, April 4th.  We had the fun of watching General Conference, celebrating Easter, and celebrating Boston's birthday all in one day!  We had a big Easter dinner at my parents house with all of the Smiths and (Arizona) Quists present.  There were 13 adults and 6 children!  We had a delicious traditional Easter meal with all the trimmings and finished up with "elephant" cake and three kinds of pie.  I don't want to know how much weight I gained over the weekend!  After eating ourselves silly we had a grand Easter egg hunt in the backyard.

Stephen was picking up eggs and spilling them out of his basket just as fast!

Boston loves the eggs he found.

Boston, cousin Bently and cousin Ryker, just chillin'.

After the Easter egg hunt we couldn't resist the gorgeous weather and green grass so we stayed outside to watch Boston open presents.

Boston was very serious and intense about this...he never smiled once, though I can assure you he loved every single gift! Stephen, being a helpful older brother, used his advanced gift opening skills to make sure all the gifts were opened quickly.

Finally we let Boston dig into his elephant cake.  (I got the pattern from a good old "Baker's Cocconut Cut Up Cake" book).  Surprisingly he was not so excited about eating it as I thought he would be...ah well, less mess to clean up!

Boston enjoyed the Happy Birthday song.  Stephen, still being an obliging older brother, blew out the candle.

Tasting the cake...he is actually spitting it out in this picture.

Maybe he will be one of those people who just don't like cake.

Me and Celsea opted for Mom's homemade chocolate pie...it was sublime!

Boston is One!!

I have adorable pictures from his birthday coming soon...

For now you will just have to feast your eyes upon his photo shoot from JC Penny.  I love going there because it is so affordable!

https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0639101451JCP

Then enter my name "Cami Smith."

Enjoy!

Ha! I just realized that I can download them and show you my favorites here!