165/365

The Bishopric visited our home tonight and spent a good hour just talking and getting to know us. They are all pretty wonderful and I learned so much from them and from our new family ward in the short time we've been attending. I love this ward already and am so excited to be around people with more experience under their belt so I can learn from them. I'm thankful for the sacrifices these amazing men make by being in the Bishopric. They left leaving the spirit in our home. This makes me happy.

That's all.

121/365

There have been some changes going on in the Church that will affect 150,000 Utahan's, including us. They are doing away with student wards and replacing them with young single adult wards. What does this mean for us? 5 of the 8 married student wards in Provo/Orem have been dissolved. Meaning, we no longer have the option to go to the family ward or the student married ward. It's been so nice to be able to chose, when we were first married we attended the family ward but eventually moved to the student married ward and never looked back.

We love being with people our own age and in a similar situation because we have been able to meet so many friends. The time has come for us to move on. Eric has graduated so technically we shouldn't be attending the student ward and with this change it's official. Dissolving the married wards will benefit the singles wards and make more room for a new stake. We're excited for the change and for some diversity in our wards, but we'll miss our friends. We're glad we were able to be a part of a student married ward before these wards are no more.

Today all the student wards met at the Marriott Center and everyone in the many wards and stakes were released, that took about an hour. Leila was being so difficult so we chilled with the rest of the parents with restless kids...outside the stadium.

Today wasn't complete without Sunday dinner and a nice walk in the park. 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!
I appreciate Easter as a time to remember the sacrifice and resurrection of my Savior. I'm grateful for the knowledge that all things are possible with Jesus Christ.

I love the simplicity of this video and President Monson's testimony.

113/365

I've never really met a celebrity before (with the exception of seeing them from afar at the Sundance Film Festival and at concerts)...until now. Eileen, my mother-in-law, invited me to her Women's Stake Conference and guess who was the guest speaker?? None other than Marie Osmond! How on earth did they get Marie Osmond?? Turns out the 1st Counselor in the Stake Relief Society Presidency is one of her best friends and apparently Marie owes her big time...so she was cashing in on the favor. It was a huge favor too because Marie flew in this morning and caught a flight back to Vegas so she could perform tonight. Talk about a busy woman.

I didn't realize what an amazing, spiritual, and hilarious woman Marie is. She joked that if we were born after 1985 we are too young to remember her...it's true, I wasn't around for her show and don't think I know any of her songs but I HAVE seen her on Oprah...and I love Oprah (and the countdown begins, only twenty something shows left)!

Marie Osmond is a woman of all traits. She has her hands in everything: has her own show in Las Vegas, owns a craft, fabric, and doll line, and has 8 kids. With all that on her plate she still manages to find time to work at the Las Vegas temple every Wednesday...and sit still. She said we all need to find time to sit still everyday and listen to the spirit. I'm kicking myself in the butt for not coming prepared with anything to take notes because I learned so much.

Eileen and I tried to remember all the things she talked about. These are some of the things we remember and that resonated with us:

-When you think you can't stand it anymore, kneel.

-Her mother used to call the Devil Scratch, she said the Devil is like a rash, if you scratch it he won't go away. 

-When Marie was on Dancing With The Stars she went through so much pain. She passed out, was in the middle of a divorce, and her father had passed away. She seriously considered quitting because that combined with actually being on the show was just too much to handle. When she read one of the hundreds of emails from fans, she couldn't quit. This email in particular was from a young 23 year old girl wanting to quit and not take her finals at BYU. The girl didn't quit because she was inspired by Marie and thought if Marie can do it, so can she. 

-Being the only girl with 9 brothers, she was very close to her mother. When she passed away that was the hardest thing Marie had experienced...until her father passed away, she said that was almost harder because she was a daddy's girl. But when her son committed suicide her heart was broken. She went back to work because she didn't know what else to do and was heavily criticized for it. After her Vegas show they do a Meet and Greet with fans, a lady came through the line and put her arms around Marie. She said she too had a son that had passed away. Marie asked if it got easier and the lady said, "no". Marie said that meant more to her than all the sympathy cards because it was honest.

-She talked about trials and how we all have to go through them. I guess her mother called them Abraham trials - like being willing offering his son as a sacrifice, and how could we be with the people of such great faith in the Lord's kingdom if we don't go through these trials.

I really enjoyed meeting Marie and hearing her testimony about faith, hope, and charity (the theme of the conference). This woman is so incredibly funny and had all of us laughing. That's how she copes with stress, is to laugh it off. We left the conference uplifted. She has had so many trials in her life, I will think of her when I feel that I can't get through it. Eileen and I had so much fun and now we want to drive to Vegas to see her and Donny perform...we hear they put on one heck of a show!

97/365

Grandma and Grandpa Fuessel came down to watch the babe while we paid Provo Temple a much needed visit. Tonight I wanted to get some answers, I feel like I did. We did sealings tonight. The sealor was so cute (aren't they always) and gave us some special insight about the temple. He said that the more you attend the temple, the more personal revelation you will receive. What a wonderful blessing. I loved Elder Bednar's talk about revelation during this past General Conference and so I'm glad our sealor mentioned this.

Sometimes we don't always stay in the Celestial Room for very long because we are too busy running off to the next thing. Tonight that wasn't the case. We took our time and enjoyed the sweet spirit we felt. I learned so much during this trip to the temple. If grandma and grandpa are willing...we'd like to go more often. We had such such an amazing experience... I love going to the temple.

86/365

Look at that tongue. She's learning how to use it and was sticking it out at us while Dylan was holding her at church. She wasn't all about falling asleep in her car seat and wanted to come out and play and listen to the lesson - I don't blame her, Sunday School was really good today. 

65/365

I found the recipe for Gurus' Cilantro Lime Pesto Pasta...it's one of my favorite things on the menu.

It turned out divine and tasted exactly the same.

I need to make some substitutions because when Eric entered the ingredients into My Fitness Pal, the calories were through the roof...that's why it's so good.

Taking Leila to church has become a challenge. It interferes with her nap and she is fussy half the time so we live in the halls. It can be so easy to bail after sacrament but if we get into the habit of leaving early because Leila is fussy I know we can easily become inactive. It's important that we stay all 3 hours so at least one of us can be spiritually uplifted.

We had stake conference today and Eric let me enjoy it. He took Leila out when she got fussy. I took notes for the both of us. I really needed it. Here are some things that stuck out to me:
- Thank God forever that you may be tested. Your increase in faith in Jesus Christ will not come without a trial to your faith.
- When we make Jesus Christ the center of our life, we'll get through all the things we are faced with.
- Contrary winds will continue to come, but know that He will see us through.
- The minute you take your lives off Jesus, you sink.
One last thing, Brother Holeman said, "every time I read the scriptures I feel the spirit". I will always remember this when reading my scriptures.
Looking forward to general conference next month.

61/365

GNO!

I look forward to my girl's night out with these lovely ladies. GNO's uplift my spirit and renew my senses. It's nice to go away for a couple hours, leave the house and Leila with the hubs knowing that everything will be ok when I return. Whenever we meet up at a restaurant, we are always laughing louder than anyone else in the room and stay way longer than we should.

Tonight we went to the Provo Temple. It was a fabulous idea and I absolutely loved it. I feel like this experience strengthened our friendship even more. To satisfy our sweet tooth we headed over to Sammy's to have some much needed girl talk. Sammy's is famous for their delicious pie shakes...banana cream  pie...mmm! 

We all realized something, that the friendships you make in college last forever. Emily and Rachel were my college roomies. We spent so much time together and they really did become my second family. I experienced a lot of firsts with these girls. I didn't know when I first moved in that we would all become such amazing friends. Love them! 

Everyone deserves a girl's night out, even if it's just once a month.