Happy Father's Day Tie!

Do you LOVE this? A few weeks ago, the Primary asked for old ties so the kids could make a special project for Father's Day.

This is the result. First, get past how handsome my sexy hubby is in his new "readers" (heh) and TAKE.A.LOOK.AT.THAT.TIE!

Ryan carefully glued all the feathers, letters, sequins, and especially googly eyes on just for him. I LOVE IT! (So did Ric.)

All the dad's at Church with Primary kids were sporting their new ties - it was hysterical!

Here's a closeup of his fine handiwork...

Ric promised that he'd wear it every Father's Day. We'll see...

Time for Stake Conference

Yesterday, I had to attend my meeting at the Stake center in Groton CT (which is where the Providence RI Stake is located...go figure). This time, I was treated to my first lesson and talk given by a General Authority of the LDS Church, Elder Marlin K. Jensen. Elder Jensen has been a General Authority since 04/01/1989 and is the Church Historian. He also holds a law degree and is considered to be a major authority on the Doctrine and Covenants. To put it mildly, he was quite impressive.

Needless to say, since Elder Jensen was coming to town, the Stake President brought out the "big guns" for all of the talks given at both our meeting and for the adult session at night, which I also stayed to attend. Our Temple President and Mission President also spoke last night as well. All of the talks and testimonies given were terrific. It was time well spent away from my family and inspiring to be in the company of Elder Jensen.

Ric

General Conference Weekend...a nice break.

This past weekend was General Conference weekend for the LDS church. Twice a year in the Spring and again in the Fall, we get a break from church (sort of) and get to stay at home and listen to our church President his Apostles and other leaders give talks and testify of Jesus Christ, his Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost. It's a nice change from the weekly routine of going to church in that we get to stay home and listen to these talks via the Internet that we connect to our living-room stereo.
The only time that I need to go to ward building is on Saturday night when we hold a Priesthood session via satellite for two hours which is held for all priesthood holders in the church (such as myself). My first exposure to GC was while I was investigating the LDS church and taking lessons from my missionaries. They invited me to attend the Priesthood session of GC in the Fall of 2004 and I found it to be a very moving experience to see so many men of all ages and backgrounds honoring their privilege to hold the right to act on behalf of Jesus Christ in these latter days.

Beside the obvious break from church, the kids and the rush of getting ready to go and sit with Ryan while he acts-up in church for the first hour, it's a wonderful opportunity to listen to these great messages of our faith, history and the most powerful and moving testimonies offered by some of the finest speakers you will ever hear. I personally find it to be a weekend to recharge my spiritual batteries and re-energize myself to my commitment to the Lord, my calling at church as the Young Men's President and to my fellow saints.

This weekend was a historical moment in GC because it was the first time in decades that a new prophet and president (Thomas S. Monson) was sustained unanimously by the entire assembly of church members. At this same time, another apostle was called to the Quorum of the 12 and sustained as well.










The other great benefit of GC weekend is how much stuff we can get done around the house and yard in between sessions of the broadcast! Too bad we can't do this 4 times a year.

Ric

Snow Day!

It doesn't happen often, but when the weather is bad enough, Church is canceled! We just got the call 15 minutes ago, and we've called all of our HT/VT families. Now....what are we going to do with the rest of the day? Hmmmm.....

:)

PS - the weather is really nasty, we got about 6 more inches of snow last night and it's still snowing and sleeting and stuff like that, so I'm not complaining!

Word on the (nursery) street...

Sounds like some sort of "bug" was going around, I've heard from 4 other moms from Church that their kids were sick Monday night too! Somehow, someone brought the bug in to Nursery and the kids all shared it around!

Lucky US! :)

Temple trip Saturday - philisophical question to ponder

Saturday, we took our youth from church to the Boston Temple for a 7:30am, session in the baptismal font. It was a terrific turn-out and including adults and youth, about 25 people made the early trip. Each youth stood in for 10 names for both confirmations and baptisms. Everyone agreed that despite the weather was gray, wet and cold, there was something special about our work and time spent in Boston. We passed up taking the kids into Boston for pizza after the trip and settled on fast food on the way back home about 11am.

Anyway, while leaving the temple (in the hallway staircase), our second counselor from the Bishopric and myself spotted a rather large spider on the wall and debated if we should kill it. Then we pondered the spiritual and philosophical implications of our actions. The question is..."is killing a spider in the Temple a bad thing?" We left it alone and and had a laugh about it on the way out. I need all the blessings I can get in my life, and the spider wasn't worth the risk for me / us.

Ric

Sunday: A Timeline...

(All times are approximate...)

7:00 am - Wake up and get out of bed. Tiptoe around so we don't wake the kids yet!

7:14 am - Mom takes a shower and then starts to get ready, hoping that Megan doesn't wake up so she can at least finish her makeup. (Hair can dry a little on its own while Megs is eating.)

7:35 am - Megan wakes up - HUNGRY! Mom sits down to feed her.

7:45 am - Dad gets into the shower

8:00 am - Mom irons two blouses - one for Church and one for the Wedding we had to attend later in the day. (I know, I know...Saturday is a special day...)

8:15 am - Ryan wakes up with his usual "daddy daddy daddy." Dad is still shaving, so mom gets him up and changes his diaper. (Meg, fortunately, has finished eating, for now...)

8:25 am - Ryan is strapped down into his high chair and given "something" for breakfast. When that "something" ends up on the floor, we try "something else" until "something" is eaten. Meg dozes a little on the couch.

8:35 am - Mom dries her hair and starts to get dressed (knowing that she may have to get undressed if Megan decides that she didn't have enough to eat!) Dad has been getting ready and helping with Ryan's breakfast too.

8:50 am - Mom struggles with her "Spanx" - more on WHY she was wearing them later!

9:00 am - Dad brushes his teeth and mom is still struggling...

9:05 am - Dad gives Ryan the quickest bath in history, then dresses him for Church.

9:15 am - Mom dresses Megan, who was just so cute in her little dress! Luckily, Meg hasn't decided to eat again, so Mom finished getting dressed.

9:20 am - Dad starts to load up the car with the diaper bag, toy bag, Church bag, etc.

9:21 am - Ryan starts to cry because Dad went outside without him. Ryan gets over it when Dad comes back in.

9:35 am - Somehow, we're all loaded up and in the car on the way to Church. (Mom is sucking down a Mountain Dew - the only way she's going to get through the next 3 hours! hehe)

9:45 am - The Levett's arrive at Church. Ryan insists on climbing the stairs by himself, and he's getting pretty good!

9:50 am - Mom starts the prelude music while Dad "wrangles" Ryan into the bench. Megan is just dozing in her car seat.

10:00 am - Church starts. Ryan is somewhat quiet, Megan is sleeping, so far so good...

10:10 am - During the Sacrament, Megan starts to fuss. Luckily Mom had already played the hymn, but we wait to see what happens.

10:13 am - Mom leaves the organ while the water is being passed, scoops up Megan, and spares everyone the screaming by sneaking out the door. (She couldn't have waited until AFTER the Sacrament was all over, right?!)

(At this point, Mom isn't sure what's going on with Ryan because she spends the next 40 minutes in the Mother's room feeding Megan! For all we know, Ryan is tearing the place up!)

10:55 am - Megan is finished, and seems to be happy so we leave the Mom's room and head towards the Chapel.

10:56 am - Megan starts to scream. Mom starts to pace the hallway and eventually runs into Dad, with Ryan at the water fountain.

11:04 am - Mom hands Megs to Dad and goes back into the Chapel just in time for the closing hymn - whew! Tag team at its finest! Dad goes into the Mother's room with Ryan (who is now screaming) and Megan to muffle the sound a little bit.

So we make it through Sacrament Meeting, then it's on to Primary, Nursery, Young Men's etc. We made it through all of that, Ryan even stayed through all of Nursery again! Yippeee! Right after Church (1:05 pm) we met with the Bishop to change our recommends over to the new bar code system, then ran home. Of course, Ryan fell asleep in the car on the way.

Once home, we had an hour to let Ryan sleep, get him something more to eat, drop him off at the neighbors, give the babysitter all the info she needed for Megan, and get back into the car!

No rest for us on THIS Sunday!

My good friend's daughter was getting married, and we were attending the wedding (the reason for the Spanx, more about that in another post.) So...at about 3:00 we're out the door again. Ryan had hardly slept and was not to happy to be dropped off! Oh well....

The wedding was gorgeous - held at the Dunes Club in Narragansett, RI. Right on the water. This is the kind of place where you would expect to see "Lovey and Thurston Howell, III" come around the corner! Anyway, we ended up getting home about 9:20pm or so - and that was only because we left the reception early!

Fully expecting Megan to be screaming her lungs out - we were surprised to find her sleeping. What a nice surprise it was too! She was definitely hungry when she woke up since she had refused the bottle the whole time we were gone. (One of these days she'll just get hungry enough and take it! Right???)

Ryan hadn't slept at all, but did collapse about 15 minutes before we picked him up.

So....after reading all this, anyone want to trade? :)

PS - it didn't end there though! We spent Labor Day on Prudence Island! (Why do all these events happen in the same weekend?) So we had to pack stuff up since we were planning to catch the 10:00 am ferry. We'll put pictures and stuff up about our Labor Day trip next!

Dueling Doodle Pro's

These cool toys can be life savers during Sacrament Meetings!

One way to keep Ryan quiet (OK, relatively quiet) is to draw pictures for him on the Doodle Pro. We have a little one that's about 5" x 7". BUT, the family that usually sits behind us has one for their daughter that's twice as big! (Their daughter is just a month older than Ryan.)

So we're all sitting "quietly" listening to the speakers today... Ric has our Doodle Pro and behind us, Todd has his. The kids are not even paying attention to them. They've moved on to something else, like coloring books or crackers.

At least it's one way to keep the big "boys" quiet! hehe :)

PS - Ryan survived ALL of nursery today! Woo Hoo! We're excited about that, but when he survives for a few weeks in a row, we'll know that he's making progess!