The Value of One

It is a blessing to be the favorite Aunt of 28 going on 29 nieces and nephews.

As I have pondered the little things in life that make me happy. My mind always takes me back to the little hugs, little words, the "I love You's" that come from my nieces and nephews.

Spring time. Why was Liam born around spring time you ask?

Could it be his bright understandings? His bright personality? Or the bright smile that shines through his eyes.

Some of my fondest memories of Liam:

1. His photo's. They say a thousand words. Happy, innocent boy who just tries to do his best in life.

2. Watching him play football. Not sure at his age of all the in's and out's of the game but he having trust in his coach to give him the plays on the field and then doing his best to try and full fill the best he understood. Sometimes not even really caring about the game, but running up and down the field and feeling he was doing his best.
The little look overs at the bleachers to see if Papa Magic or Grandma were still watching. His little hand waves to his mom and dad to let them know he was aware of them being there. And the little glances as he watched sister's Abby and Ella play on the bleachers and seeing it play through his mind if he should leave the game and or go play with them instead.

3. Always getting beat at the Wi. It dosn't matter what game we were playing. There is no winning Liam. Evan when I try. Oh and his little giggle or laugh as he conquers and defeats. It is almost more fun to let him win, just to see his pure satisfaction of victory over his Aunt Tauni.

4. "I love you mom". He tells her at least once a day. And watching Helene smile as she knew it was truly coming from her son's heart.

5. Watching Liam pick up the guitar and play and or preform. Knowing I would never play as well as him, as he could do strums, picking, and bar chords I could not do, and he was only 7.

6. My favorite of all times, is when he was going to do his primary program and I asked him to put his hands behind his back and stand up tall and straight.

Liam: Hum Aunt Tauni. If I put my hands behind my back, people will think they are broken off. Would it be ok if I just put them down on my side like this.

7. I always get a Thank You and hug from Liam when I bring treats. He is always grateful that I brought him something. Small or Big. He remembers to Thank me.

Each niece and nephew have touched my heart in some way. I always hope I can add or touch their lives when they need me too.

The Value of One you say? Heavenly Father knows each Child's name. Today it is Liam Poppleton.

I wish him a very Happy Birthday.

Give said the little stream

Fourth of July was a blast. We ended up at the Wellsville house and Ethan and Shannon blew up pools, layed down water slip and slides. The kids had a blast. Aly and I enjoyed a nice ride around the Wellsville dam on Ethan's quad. I know have mastered the machine and know not to push to many buttons.

Mom and Aly enjoyed a ride, it was nice to see mom take the Quad for a ride and spend time with Aly.

The kids all had a blast and thanks to Ethan and Travis we enjoyed an evening of fireworks out on the driveway. Brought back fond memories. Mom mentioned the road shows we used to put on prior too and during the firework shows. Good times.














Girls camp was last week. I ended up driving up Tuesday night and staying until Thursday 9:00AM.
When I arrived Tuesday I was amazed at how green and beautiful everything was.

The theme of girls camp was Turning your Heart to the Savior.

First night all the young women sat in the meadow and sang a song with their wards in regards to service.
We sang: Give said the Little Stream. primary song. It was perfect.












The girls did activities all through the day. Archery and shooting bow and arrows was one, the other was canoing. However there were leaches in the man made pond so this girl did not go. But the girls that did enjoyed themselves.

We got to bond and told stories around the camp fire. The last night was testimony meeting. It was nice to know and hear the young women express their testimonies about the Savior.

It is amazing how each girl comes from different families, have different personalities, and yet come with the same purpose. They all face different challenges and trials, and yet they are where they are needing to be.
Girls camp was fun, but I am sooooo tired so I am glad it is not going to happen again until next year.

THE GREAT ADVENTURE

LIFE IS LIKE A BUNCH OF WILD FLOWERS, IT CAN BE BEAUTIFUL DEPENDING ON HOW YOU VIEW IT?

Thursday evening I had picked up a good friend Jody Jacobsen from the airport. We drove down to Keri Reynolds and stayed there for the weekend. We enjoyed the Singles conference. I was glad I had three friends to go with. It made it more enjoyable.

I did however get picked up on by a 70 year old man, and this conference in Orem for some reason tends to draw in the 50-80 year old crowd. Keri was freaking out, all I could do is laugh at our luck, and Jody was pretty optimistic. "Come on girls, we will make it a girls weekend. Does not matter what or how old the men are, we are here for the spiritual food."

We enjoyed a nice morning summer hike up the Provo canyon with several older ladies. We enjoyed getting to know them, hearing their stories as to why they were at the singles conference and we got to enjoy the paintings of nature.

The second picture above we kept finding silk worms on our cloths. As we were walking the silk worms were making their way down and out of the trees on their silk in the middle of trail. We got to give a few of them a free ride up the and back down the canyon.

We on the way down found a whole nest of silk worms hatching in a huge silk nest. It was pretty neat. I got several pictures, and am sharing the one that is clear so you can see it.

We enjoyed the work shops, and my favorite was done by: Richard Norby.
He spoke on putting on the armor of God. He used some good object lessons such as:
Putting on a life jacket. There are several life jackets that can keep us safe from drowning.

*Put both hands on the temple: Not one on the temple and one on the world. But both hands on the temple.
*Have you ever seen a picture of the back of the Savior? No He never turns His back on us. How many times have we turned our backs on Him?
*Increase your faith. Resolve your fears.
*Get your water from the Spring, not down river after the animals have already bathed out of it. Meaning get your resources directly from the Savior, through scripture study, prayer, church, visiting teaching, serving others, bearing testimony, singing hymns, and songs.
*Over come trials and obsticles. Don't put the pebble in front of your eye, you can't see around it. Through it on the ground, you can step over it, or it becomes not as big.
*Be content as a tree. Be where you are planted and learn to enjoy and appreciate what is around you.
*Love life, be happy. Find the positive things in life. Write down your blessings and have graditude.
*Keep a daily journal, not just for family history, but to be able to see how many times the Lord has touched your life that day. Or when He was apart of it, or helped you through it. You will come to appreciate Him, and draw closer to Him by noticing His hand in all things and in your life daily.
*Joy depends on your Trust in the Lord.
*Important components that give us faith: Long suffering, enduring to the end. Life was not meant to be easy. Anyone can live an easy life. It is the Celestial people who are out working and doing the Lords work, and suffering through the hardships in life. If we are always on a summer vacation, then we are not growing in the Lord.
*The Lord did not know exactly what his soul trial would be in taking upon the sins of the world. However He even after The Father with drew His spirit, endured to the end and then Forgave.


Our weekend also entailed of dancing, Jericho Road concerts, Alex Boye' concert, dinner at Spencer Jacobsons (in which he and his wife live out in Genola Utah, they have a yard full of animals that are of the wild and they do shows, sell, and work with wild animals. I got to pet a raccoon that wanted my watch, I did not give it to her but she was determined to try and get it off, I petted a small bobcat, some kind of prarie farment thing (cute), big large parrots, a fox, and a very colorful lizard that looks like the one on The rescueurs. the one that always tries to still the eggs. Oh and we can't forget the HUGE tortise out eating the back lawn. And a baby skunk that does not spray....thank goodness. Spencer has four cute children, and it was fun seeing his family. It was a nice weekend.

I look forward to spending time with friends, family, and making this summer a great adventure that I can be grateful for.

The New Car........

I decided after much ponder and prayer, that it was time to trade in the Hyundai.
After doing some research and shopping around, I ended up in Ogden at Avis car dealer.
All of their cars are rentals, with low milage.
The first car I test drove is the car I ended up with.
I walked in told them what I was wanting, was looking for, color, price, and something that would do well in the snow.

I test drove a 2007 Subaru, and was excited about it until I looked at the trunk space and the back seat. You had to be a midget to fit in the back seat. So I ended up with a Chevy Malibu 2008, silver, with silver rims. It has a computer in side that tells me how much air presure is in the tires, it comes with a traction button so in the snow if the tires start spinning it will dig in and balance out the tires so they don't spin, it tells me how many miles to the gallion I am getting, how many miles I have driven and how many more miles I can go before the I run out of gas, it tells me my oil presure, etc. It had $15,000 miles on it when I got it and has a warrenty up to 100,000.00 miles. I have attached a picture for you to see.

I don't like photos any more of myself. It shows me how much more exercising I need to do and to stay off of the ice cream.