B+C+B+C+B+C: May 2018

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Friday, May 25, 2018

Menchies date with my girls 💛💛

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Hosting a yard/bake sale fundraiser is no joke.
Seriously took up the entirety of like 4 days.
Still cleaning up afterwards.
But overall it was a success!
We made about 1K, and raised a lot of awareness about Days For Girls. Also - hopefully - taught my children some good lessons about serving others in big and little ways.

It was awesome getting to talk to so many people - friends, neighbors, strangers, etc.

And it was awesome getting my garage all cleaned out!! That felt so good!!

What a blessing to have awesome weather. The forecast had been awful just 2 days prior.
But the Lord fixed that for us!

It was also fun giving people good deals. That might sound odd, but seeing how happy they were to get their "treasures" at super cheap prices was very gratifying.

We'll probably do it again next year....but smaller. Much smaller. :)

"new" vanity/dresser for Courtney!

This is the "after" ! I think I have a "before" pic somewhere. Basically it was all white, covered in stickers and tape, falling apart. Now it's painted a gorgeous pink and white, new knobs, and all repaired.

I got it done at nighttime after the kids were down, so it all was a big surprise. Brian helped me get it upstairs, so that when Courtney woke up it was sitting there in her room! She FREAKED out, it was the best!! Giggling and squealing and jumping. Oh man, so worth every bit of paint stuck under my fingernails.

Overpriced icecream, cheap happy memories

Yeah they may charge like ten times what an icecream should cost. But...they drive to our house with that cute music playing. And my kids squeal with joy. So...totally worth having a stack of dollar bills at-the-ready, so they can run out anytime they hear the jingle!

Friday, May 11, 2018

China trip!!

Megan, Becky, Jenny and I had an incredible week in China!! Here's a video about our adventures:
https://youtu.be/kg80ZfjT5rM

Monday, May 7, 2018

Courtney+Mommy time

With Brianna & Charity gone this weekend in Seattle, I'm getting lots of one-on-one (and one-on-two) with my twinsies! We played frisbee til dark, snuggled lots, read together, and worked together. We definitely missed her sisters (she mentioned it several times) but it was really nice having the QT.

My oven hero!

Dad's BFF Dale is a retired oven repairman who really doesn't like repairing ovens anymore....so I delayed asking him, trying to figure it out myself, thinking about just calling the expensive repair people (whoever they are, not even sure...Sears or something?!)...allthewhile not being able to use the bake feature, just broil....finally got my chance when my dad had Dale over to jump start my car using some fancy tool he has 😁😜

Anyways, Dale got it done super fast! Installed a new ignitor switch, just charged me for the part, so I gave him a restaurant gift card to say thank you (ok fine, it was a regift😄😂😜)

Now yay, a working oven!! Now to fix the other dozen things amiss in my house....

Sunday, May 6, 2018

sister adventure

Brianna and Charity in Seattle with NonnyPapa!

They went for Lincoln, since he's turning 12 and receiving the Priesthood. Big moment for a guy! Super nice of mom and dad to bring a couple of our kids along with them. Brianna and Charity were super excited to play with Savana. And CourtneyBennett are quite happy having their parents all to themselves :)

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Lunch with Nonny

Mom's so sweet, she invited us over for some super yummy homemade veggie burgers, with a killer onion relish. I brought my laptop and got some work done on editing our China pictures, while she did playdough with Charity all afternoon. Meredith and Megan came up too for a bit.

It's really great living near family :)

Brianna's school class pic

Quotes I want to remember

"The Lord knows our bearing capacity, both as to coping and to comprehending, and He will not give us more to bear than we can manage at the moment, though to us it may seem otherwise. Just as no temptations will come to us from which we cannot escape or which we cannot bear, we will not be given more trials than we can sustain."
- Neal A. Maxwell

"It is a fundamental truth that the responsibilities of motherhood cannot be successfully delegated. No, not to day-care centers, not to schools, not to nurseries, not to babysitters. We become enamored with men's theories such as the idea of preschool training outside the home for young children. Not only does this put added pressure on the budget, but it places young children in an environment away from mother's influence."
-Ezra Taft Benson

“Perhaps there has never been a time when we had greater need to pray and to teach our family members to pray. Prayer is a defense against temptation. It is through earnest and heartfelt prayer that we can receive the needed blessings and the support required to make our way in this sometimes difficult and challenging journey we call mortality.”
-Thomas S. Monson

“Live the gospel as conspicuously as you can. Keep the covenants your children know you have made. And bear your testimony! Don’t just assume your children will somehow get the drift of your beliefs on their own.
-Jeffrey R. Holland

"We hold in our arms the rising generation. They come to this earth with important responsibilities and great spiritual capacities. We cannot be casual in how we prepare them. Our challenge as parents and teachers is not to create a spiritual core in their souls but rather to fan the flame of their spiritual core already aglow with the fire of their premortal faith."
-Neil L. Andersen

"Certainly there are times when getting the family together to read the scriptures does not stack up as a spiritual experience worthy of a journal entry. But we must not be deterred. There are special times when the spirit of a son or daughter is just right and the power of these great scriptures goes down into their heart like fire. As we honor our Heavenly Father in our homes, He will honor our efforts."
-Neil L. Andersen

President Hinckley admonished both men and women to be nurturers. He said, ‘How much more beautiful would be the society in which we live if every father . . . and . . . mother regarded [their] children . . . as gifts from the God of heaven . . . and brought them up with true affection in the wisdom and admonition of the Lord.’ ”
-Susan W. Tanner

"Children are like trees. When they are young, their lives can be shaped and directed, usually with ever so little effort. Said the writer of Proverbs, 'Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it' (22:6). That training finds its roots in the home. There will be little of help from other sources. Do not depend on government to help in this darkening situation. Barbara Bush, wife of former U.S. president George Bush, spoke wisely: 'Your success as a family, our success as society, depends not on what happens at the White House, but on what happens inside your house.' "
-Gordon B. Hinckley

“I give counsel to husbands and wives. Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion.”
-Henry B. Eyring

“Reverent behavior is not a natural tendency for most children. It is a quality that is taught by parents and leaders through example and training. But remember, if reverence is rooted in love, so is the teaching of it. Harshness in our training begets resentment, not reverence.”
-Margaret S. Lifferth

"There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else."
- M. Russell Ballard

“As parents, we should remember that our lives may be the book from the family library which the children most treasure. Are our examples worthy of emulation? Do we live in such a way that a son or a daughter may say, ‘I want to follow my dad,’ or ‘I want to be like my mother’?”
-Thomas S. Monson

“Security for our families comes from learning self-control, avoiding the excesses of this world, and being temperate in all things.”
-Kent D. Watson

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