Our J Squared Fam: March 12-18, 2017 Messes, Butterflies, and March Green FuN!

Here are a few highlights from our week! To start off, we have little J who hardly lets a meal pass by without getting messy or dumping some sort of food item to the floor! Haha... This is the phase of life we are in with this cute 18 month old!! Peek-a-boo!!

Here are some treasures the kids like to collect from bringing in cool items they find in nature, like rocks, seashells, barnacles, wasp nests and more! Some of their recent treasures the kids have brought home are huge animal bones (bleached and cleaned, thankfully!), crystals, spiral conch shells, fossilized seashell imprints, shark teeth, gems and tiny seashells. Katelyn likes that they come from the ocean! What a fun collection of treasures!

We celebrated uncle Austin's birthday after they went on a date night. Yummy brownie!

Here are our family's first pets!!!! We ordered 5 caterpillars to help us teach and learn during our turn teaching Gracie's Preschool group about Gardens and Springtime! We watched them as they grew larger and larger everyday for about 10 days, then crawled up to the top, hung upside down from the lid, formed a chrysalis, then after about another 7-10 days, they surprised us one night and had crawled out to become beautiful butterflies!!

Stay tuned to see our butterflies!

Joshy pointing to go "outttssssah" or to go chase after his "bahhh!" =OUTSIDE and BALLS are his favorite places to go and toy around!

MY TESTIMONY OF PLANTING THE SEED OF FAITH, NOURISHING OUR HEARTS & MINDS WITH SCRIPTURE STUDY & FINDING STRENGTH AND JOY THROUGH OUR SAVIOR

I came across this scripture recently and I loved the part where we read in Alma 33:23, we must plant the word of God into our hearts and as WE nourish it with our FAITH, it will become a tree, springing up unto everlasting life. The word of God is the seed we must plant. It is so important that we understand His word and how we can apply those words and strive to live their teachings in our life. As we do this, the scriptures teach us that, "God may grant unto you that your burdens may be light, THROUGH (or BECAUE OF) the JOY of His Son. "

Thus, we may have JOY as we strive to plant and nourish the word in our hearts, because as we do this, we will come to KNOW of our Savior. When it says that our burdens may be light, we may find that our ability to handle the struggles and trials in our life will be increased. We will have more patience, more long-suffering, more understanding, love and kindness for those around us. We may find that our perspective may change and we will see the small tender mercies in our lives and the glorious joy they bring. We will find ourselves feeling more grateful for the blessings we have and a renewed desire to hug our loved ones closer, to press forward with faith and continue serving them and those around us out of a love for our Savior and knowing that as we serve others, we are doing His work, we are serving Him.

I also like how it says, "Even all this can ye do, if ye will." IF YE WILL. All of these blessings and strength are conditioned upon the fact that it is UP TO US what we choose to do, how to act, how much time we put into studying His words, pondering their meaning, and making quiet moments in our lives for listening for the Spirit, then sincerely finding ways, even sometimes in small baby steps, to LIVE them.

All of this can come, IF WE WILL. I am so encouraged and strengthened by this scripture. What beautiful and wonderful promises can come to those who STRIVE to have FAITH in Him, truly THAT is an ACTIVE CHOICE. Then, as we ACT on that faith by READING the SCRIPTURES and PONDERING CONFERENCE TALKS, and letting HIS WORDS touch our hearts, and fill our souls with comfort, love and guidance. I know the extent to which we PUT THE TIME IN and find QUIET MOMENTS to ponder, we will FIND GREATER PEACE, ASSURANCE and JOY. There have been times in my life I know I have struggled to spend the amount of time in the scripture and conference talks that I would like to. During these times, I try to take on my personal promise to the Lord when I was 14 and searching to know if the church was true for myself. I promised Heavenly Father I would read my scriptures EVERY SINGLE DAY, no matter what. I know that because of this promise I have struggled at times, but always kept, I have been blessed.

For the first year of my reading the Book of Mormon for myself, it was my goal to read at least ONE CHAPTER every day, which helped me finish it so quickly as I gained my own testimony of its truthfulness. :) After that first year, I have had times in my life when I set other goals for myself, such as reading 10 pages each day, which I can testify, truly brought so many blessings into my life. At that time, we had been trying to get pregnant with our 2nd baby and after 9 months of trying with no avail, feeling all the confusion, frustration, disappointment, sorrow, and doubt....I made a promise to Heavenly Father that I would do more on my part to study my scriptures and allow them to guide my life by reading at least 10 pages everyday. After making that promise and keeping it for 6 months, our prayers were answered. Not understanding why it hadn't worked before, we became pregnant with our second and Heavenly Father followed through with such an incredible blessing. :) Other times when I have been up several times in the night feeding a baby, or trying to keep up with the demands of motherhood, I sometimes would only be able to read a verse or two each night or recite one I had memorized a few times in my head. But, as I have MADE the time to nourish my faith with the scriptures, even sometimes in small ways, I have been blessed. I have found strength beyond my own to make it through, have been lifted up, comforted, strengthened and found JOY in the simplest ways in my life.

I know this JOY comes because of our SAvior and Because of His Loving sacrifice for sin, because of His Atonement. I know our burdens can be lighter and because of HIM we can find JOY amidst the hadships and trials of our lives. We can feel him walking along this path with us because he will as we continue to seek Him and follow Him. In Doctrine and Covenants 84:88, we read, " And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." May He ever be there to bear us up, strengthen us and help us find the strength beyond our own to hold the course and press on our way. :) I know these truths to be true and pray as I and each of us ever seek to apply them, we will be strengthened and blessed!

Speaking of JOY, here is us visiting our local library, probably maxing out our account of books, but still loving it just the same!

#I want to instill a love for learning! So this is one way we try to do it!! #loveforlearningherewego!

For Pi Day on 3-14-17, we made pie of course, a tradition we started 4 years ago and strive to keep!! I love math and hopefully can pass on the joys of numbers and figuring hard problems out, and how extrememly rewarding it can be!! So happy Pi Day!!! Hooray!

Here is Miss K after our Homeschool Co-op Day!! They made different kinds of paper airplanes and raced them! Woo hoo!

This little guy LOVES anything that has to do with a ball! So, here is setting up T-ball all by himself, and swinging away!!! We've got a sports star on our hands!!

WOOOOOOOOAAAHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He would day after whacking it off the tee! So cute!

I was touched my these scriptures this week. :)

Love these cute cups Aunt Sarah sent us from her trip to Baltimore, Maryland!! Thanks Aunt Sarah, the kids LOVE them!! They are THE COOLEST cups ever invented!!