What a week!!

It has been a week of spiritual feasting for Jason and I. We found out last week that he would be released from the bishopric and it has since been a week of much reflection on the past 2 ½ years, particularly the great amount of charitable service that has been rendered between members of our ward and on the great outpouring of blessings we have received from the Lord as we have tried to fulfill this calling and other responsibilities also. I have also thought of how we were able to witness a ward of largely complete strangers come together and become strong and loving to one another. It is sad today to let go, but I am glad for two other families to have the opportunities that we have had.

Between this and Jason’s drastic decrease in travel this year, I am almost at a loss of what to do! Certainly it will be wonderful to have so much time together as a family and to regain a sense of “normal’ to our daily lives. Certainly also the Lord expects us to make the best use of our time and our resource of being together to do good things.

Friday was a wonderful day also. It was our stake’s 2nd all-day Temple Day. Jason and I were able to split the day. He attended in the morning until early afternoon and then came home and I went down until the evening. We truly felt a great measure of the spirit in attending the special chapel sessions and endowment sessions and in doing many sealings. We finally finished all of the names that Jason’s mom sent to us a few years ago! I was privileged to hear our beloved President Brown (from our mission) speak in the chapel session about the endowment from the Creation until now. It was amazing and I wished I had a pen and paper because my mind couldn’t keep up or even grasp all of what he was saying.

Jantzen went to nursery for the first time today and loved it! Now, I am really at a loss with Jason to sit beside me and no baby to tend! I was able to fill in for an absent primary teacher at the last minute today, so I was glad to be useful. Jason spent his time teaching the new counselor about counting tithing and the all-important working of the podium in the chapel.

We visited the riding stables close to our house last Saturday and Ashtyn will have her first lesson tomorrow. She is MOST excited and we are excited to see how it goes and how she will do with it. Alyssa and her friend will visit the Cozy Cow Dairy by our house with me on Tuesday to watching the milking (FUN!) and then we will learn about the letter “M” for moo and milk and such at preschool that day. Jantzen will continue to be a cutie, I am sure, this week. He says “light” and “da-da” (his obviously favorite person) and is starting to pick up on animal sounds. He loves to read picture books and play trains and trucks and balls.

We all went to the CSU/BYU basketball game yesterday with many other friends and their kids. It was a blast and a big blowout for BYU. The girls didn’t care much for the game, but we enjoyed being together. Jantzen LOVED sitting on Da-Da’s lap and munching almost the whole bowl of popcorn. He loved the commotion and the ball and all of the action! The CSU students weren’t back from Christmas break yet, so it was nicely un-crowded and we didn’t have to endure so much mocking or bad language as we expected from attending the football game this past fall.

So, I guess all is well. Many, many, many, many congratulations to Ryan and Jennica! We couldn’t be happier for you and hope you’ll let us help with whatever you need for the event preparations! May 14th is marked on our calendar.

Hope that you all have a great week!