challenge on anther site

So, I was challenged to go through my house and take pictures of what is was like right at that moment. So... I did and here they are. Here is my kitchen --- not too bad. We still haven't put in a new floor though. "/ We moved the rug from the living room in there so we didn't have to stand on that floor all the time though. LOL! We need to install the new floor and new counter-tops and then we will be finished with the kitchen remodels. YAY!! :)

This was the living room.... eek! Okay, not at it's best moment. There is a robot box in the corner and toys everywhere --- even on the mantel. ;) Collin was doing something on the computer and Ryanne was sitting on he bean bag watching Caillou.

School/Dining/Piano room. We had just finished school so there was still stuff all over the table. It hadn't yet made the transition from school room to dining room.Scary!! It looks better once we make the transition, I promise! :)

Leah and Rachel

With Her Father's Sheep (Rachel) by Elspeth Young

Blessed (Leah) by Elspeth Young

Scriptures to look up:

• Genesis 29-35; 46; 49:31
• Ruth 4:11
• 1 Samuel 10:2
• Jeremiah 31:15
• Matthew 2:18
• Doctrine & Covenants 132:37
• Bible Dictionary pg 723, 759

These are the

MOTHERS OF THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL

That sounds like a huge responsibility. Several times in the scriptures it states that Rachel weeps for her children. How horrible to see so many choose wrong. Of the millions of descendents she watches over, I am sure that many of them cause her to weep. Hopefully I am not one of them.

TIME LINE

• Esau and Jacob are born to Isaac (60) and Rebekah
• Abraham dies (175); Esau and Jacob are about 15
• Esau (40) marries out of covenant
• Jacob receives the birthright blessing
• Jacob goes to Padan-aran to find a wife
• Jacob marries Leah and Rachel
• Leah gives birth to Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah
• Jacob marries Bilhah
• Bilhah gives birth to Dan and Naphtali
• Jacob marries Zilpah
• Zilpah gives birth to Gad and Asher
• Leah gives birth to Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah
• Rachel gives birth to Joseph
• Jacob departs Haran w/ 4 wives, 11 sons, and 1 daughter
• Rachel dies after giving birth to Benjamin
• Jacob and Esau are reconciled; Jacob's clan settle in Hebron
• Joseph (17) sold to Egypt
• Joseph (30) is made a ruler in Egypt and marries Asenath
• Isaac dies (180); Esau and Jacob (120) bury him
• Joseph and his brothers are reconciled
• Jacob's family moves to Egypt
• Jacob dies (147)

This is kind of random but I found it interesting. In Genesis 30: 14-16 Leah and Rachel argue over some mandrake root. At first, I just thought it was because they were rival sisters and just really didn't like each other. While that may be partly true, it's also because mandrakes were believed to contain fertility inducing powers.

My Thoughts:
Honestly, I had a hard time with these two. You know that saying, "Do what I say, not what I do?" I wonder if that was Leah and Rachel's philosophy. Those two seemed to be constantly fighting. I really do hope that perhaps the scriptures just showed us the negative side and that their home life was a lot more harmonious than it appears, especially since these are the parents of Israel so... I'm sure it was. We just don't get to read about it in the scriptures.... maybe?

What is unique about Rebekah and her story?
How does she fit into the time period she lives in?
What Christ-like qualities does she exemplify?
What would I ask her if I met her?
How can I relate to her?
What can I learn from her?

I didn't answer all of these questions about these two b/c I just couldn't think of answers. But, here are the ones I did answer. :)

Why are these two women unique? Jacob was fooled into marrying Leah when he really wanted to marry Rachel. Also, there was a lot of unrighteousness involving Laban. He seems like a very deceitful man in other parts of the story as well. Plenty of sibling rivalry between Rachel and Leah that unfortunately, spread to their sons.

What Christlike qualities do they exemplify? Determination ---- both of them. Leah is determined to get Jacob to favor her by the number of children she and her maid bear for him. Rachel displays determination by her constant prayer to the Lord for children.

What would I ask them if I met them? What are some good things that happened in you lives while being married to a prophet of God? The biblical account is just so depressing.

What can I learn from their experience? Be truly humble and God will listen. Don't be prideful and compete/compare yourself with others.

Train Museum

I feel like I've been so busy lately. Last week we went to the Zoo, this weekend we went to the drive in, and today we went to the train museum.

Collin and his friend (he loves this kid!)

The group.... the museum opened special for us. YAY!! It was only our group and one lady who worked there.

Ryanne and another little girl. Would you believe that they are only a year apart in age?

You can't see that all the kids are looking at a diorama, but they are. There were several that went all the way around the room, showing what the towns used to look like. It goes from Charleston to the GA border and a train travels from one diorama to the next. The kids loved following the train as it traveled around and around and around the room.

Afterwards, the kids and I went out and checked out the model trains outside.

Easter Week

Dress that Mimi (my mom) made

Easter tombs

Easter Story Cookies

Kamikaze bird who crashed into our window. Poor little thing. The kids wouldn't let me just trash her so we put her in a box and buried her. It was sooo sad... :(

Easter dress from Na-na (Paul's mom).

Earrings and necklace made by Mi-Mi. Don't you love the face Ryanne is making in this one. LOL!

Collin in his Easter suite from Na-na

Zoo!!

We had the awesome opportunity to meet my mom, sister and my nieces and nephew at the zoo. And, to make things even cooler, my mom has a membership so we all got little wristbands which gave us access to everything -- carousel, ponyrides, train rides, feed.... awesome-ness! My kiddos never get to do those things b/c the zoo costs a fortune to go anyways so I don't want to spend any extra money on those For our little family it's almost $40 just to get in. So, yeah, $5 for pony rides, $2 for train or carousel rides...etc. It just adds up and is too much for me to spend, even on my awesome children. ;) I'm not sure how my sister feels about me posting her children's names online so I will just use their first initial. J (7), M (6), K(4), S (2 and only boy), and then there is a bump on my sis's tummy for #5. :) So, enjoy the pics of my family at the zoo!! :)

Ryanne and Collin

Collin and M

Ryanne

K, my mom, S and J

S feeding a Lorakeet

My sis watching us all feeding lorakeets but she was too nervous to go in where the birds were free to land or poop on us. LOL! See the bump... yeap, that's my future niece or nephew. Not sure which one yet!

M feeding a lorakeet

Collin feeding a lorakeet

M riding a pony

Collin riding a pony

K riding a pony

Ryanne on a pony

J on a pony

and S on a pony

Feeding the goats

ostriches

zebra

gator

giraffe

All the kids on a fake elephant. From front to back we have Ryanne, Collin, M, S, J, and little K is falling off the back. :)

Here they all are again. We were waiting outside the Gorilla building. L to R is... S, K, M, Collin, Ryanne, and J.

Gorilla foot with a couple of cute hands.

The girls had their faces painted and the boys each got a truck from the gift shop

Wasn't that fun? Afterwards we had a picnic by the river, went to Nephi's Books (bookstore) then we all headed back to our homes. :)

Easter

What do most people think of when they think of Easter?

Normally it's the eggs and the bunny. Sometimes people think of chicks and flowers. What do all of these things have in common? Maybe "new life" or "rebirth". Do you think there's a reason for this? I think so!

In the Bible Dictionary when looking under "resurrection" we read this:

The resurrection consists in the uniting of a spirit body with a body of flesh and bones, never again to be divided. The resurrection shall come to all, because of Christ’s victory over death. Jesus Christ was the first to be resurrected on this earth . Others had been brought back from death, but were restored to mortality, whereas a resurrection means to become immortal, without blood, yet with a body of flesh and bone.

All will not be raised to the same glory in the resurrection, nor will all come forth at the same time. Christ was first; the righteous have precedence over the wicked, and come forth in the first resurrection, whereas the unrepentant sinners come forth in the last resurrection.

The N.T. gives ample evidence that Jesus rose with his physical body: He ate fish and honey; he said he had flesh and bones; the people touched him; the tomb was empty; and the angels said he had risen.

One of the most fundamental doctrines taught by the Twelve was that Jesus was risen from the tomb, with his glorified, resurrected body. To obtain a resurrection with a celestial, exalted body is the center point of hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is the most glorious of all messages to mankind.

Latter-day revelation confirms the reality of the resurrection of Christ and of all mankind, as in.

So, what exactly does this mean for us? In Moses 1:39 we read:

For behold, this is my ^awork and my ^bglory—to bring to pass the ^cimmortality and ^deternal ^elife of man.

This wasn't possible without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But, first, what is the difference between immortality and eternal life. Aren't they both the same thing? Well, I always thought the were before I read "What is the Difference Between Immortality and Eternal Life?" by Joseph B. Wirthlin.

As I read the talk mentioned above I learned that immortality is about quantity and eternal life is about quality. All will receive immortality and live forever. However, only the righteous will receive eternal life and live forever with God. What an amazing blessing!

What did we come to earth to prove?

Abraham 3:25 And we will ^aprove them herewith, to see if they will ^bdo all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;

Are we obedient enough to receive eternal life or just immortality?

An incredible chapter that helped me understand what Christ did a little more is 2 Nephi 9. I have this chapter completely marked up in my scriptures. At the Fall of Adam two deaths began -- Physical Death and Spiritual Death. Physical death is the separation of the body and spirit and spiritual death is to be separated from God. We agreed to experience these two consequences during the pre-existence. 

When Christ went through the Atonement he actually redeemed us from BOTH deaths. We really have an amazing older brother, don't we?
If Christ had given up before the Atonement was complete then our body would "rot and crumble to mother earth and rise no more" (2 Ne 9:7). The scariest part of all was that our spirit would become subject to Satan and become like Satan. We would have become angels to the devil (2 Ne 9:8-10). So, yeah, that would have NOT been cool at all.

In Revelation 12 we learn that we fought for this right! We fought for the chance to come here and to be separated from God and go through both forms of death. We fought with Michael against Satan and his angels. It must definitely be worth it if we were willing to fight for it, right?

I am so grateful that, even though Christ went through so much torture, he never gave up on this important task. I cannot even imagine the relief he felt when he said "It is finished." He was done with the pain and was able to experience physical death.

Elder James E. Talmage said,

When the Savior exclaimed in triumph, 'It is finished', he knew his atoning sacrifice had been accepted by the Father. Sweet and welcome would have been the relief of death in any of the earlier stages of His suffering from Gethsemane to the cross. He lived until all things were accomplished as had been appointed. (Jesus the Christ, p622)

I am truly amazed at the sacrifice my Savior made for all of us so that we can return to the presence of our Father. We have been given what we need to return and we just need to take advantage of those gifts we have been given and not let them go to waste. What an amazing gift we were given, too. ;)