What I Learned Wednesday #57

Welcome to another week of the 

What I Learned Wednesday link party!

I am so glad you are here to link up your awesome posts!  I love seeing all your creativity!

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We've been spending lots of time outside with the warmer weather and my girls love the sunshine!  Pretty much every morning Kami asks to go to the park.  Luckily we have an awesome one right down the street.  We also just bought road bikes and a bike trailer to pull the girls.  It's really fun to be able to ride bikes as a family!  Here's a fun picture from last night via my hubs.

And now to the awesome features!

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Cream Cheese Brownies @ Snippets of Inspiration

How to Cut a Mango @ Dessert Now, Dinner Later!

Compiling a Personal History @ Hot Commodity Home Decor

DIY Refinishing Old Furniture @ Delightful Diction

And now let's party people!

A Vase for Grandma

For Mother's Day I made my mother-in-law a super cute vase with my girl's handprints a sweet little phrase.  It's pretty easy - as long as your kids cooperate.  :-) And here's how you make it!

I found green, pink, and yellow letter stickers at Hobby Lobby and put this phrase on one side of the vase:

Dear GRANDMA

all FLOWERS

remind ME

of YOU

I capitalized the words that had the most meaning and made the words curvy like children's writing, but you can do it however you like!  This phrase is from a song called I Often Go Walking written by Phyllis Luch.  It actually says mother instead of grandma, but grandma fit for the occasion. 

Then I took acrylic paint and painted both my girls' hands and had them place their hand on the vase to make their hands little flowers!  This was a little difficult with squirmy girls.  Kami's smudged and Clo kept making a fist.  So I did have to wipe the paint off the vase once each, but we did it!

      

I then put the girls' names next to their handprints and the year with the letter stickers.  I just added little stems with green acrylic paint to make them look like flowers.  And there you have a super cute and memorable vase!  Needless to say, my mother-in-law loved it!

Mother's Day Weekend and Park Play

My Mother's Day weekend was both fun and crazy.  We did a lot of fun things, but Sunday my girls were a little to hard to take care of.  Both were a little grumpy.  Clo's third tooth was coming through and Kami was just having a hard day. But that's how it goes when you have little children right?

Saturday we started by heading to Kneaders for free french toast for mom's and it was delicious of course!  

Then we went to Baby Animal Days.  It was awesome!  We held baby ducks, bunnies, and chicks.  We saw a sheep being sheared.  We saw lots of horses, goats, pigs, llamas, etc.  And Kami even got to ride a pony!  We had a blast!  And even got some snow cones since it was so hot.

Later that night we spent some time with Alan's family.  His sister and her family moved out of state last week so we got to spend some time with them and the rest of Alan's family throughout the weekend.  It's always fun to be with Alan's siblings and for Kami and Clo to play with all their cousins!

Sunday (Mother's Day), as I mentioned, was a little crazy.  Sundays are hard because we have church from 1pm to 4pm which is right during nap time for both our girls.  So Alan had to wrestle with Kami and I had to wrestle with Clo pretty much the whole time.  A little frustrating.  Then we went and celebrated with Alan's mom and then my mom.  So that was really nice.  I'm going to show you what I made them next week!

We've also had lots of fun times at the park lately with this warm weather.  My girls love being outside!  Especially Kami who finds the big kid park much more fun than the little kid park.  I can't believe how well she can climb and how fearless she is to go on the big slides!  She's my little thrill seeker.  

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day weekend and fun this weekend too!

One Drop at a Time Book Review

I have the privilege of partnering with Deseret Book and I am so excited!  I was recently at a blogger event at their corporate office for the Ephraim's Rescue kick off event.  You can read more details about that HERE.  Alan and I are attending the premiere next week!  I'll tell you all about it!

I was recently able to read the book One Drop at a Time by M. Russell Ballard.  It's a wonderful book for women and a good reminder that the small things we do each day add up.

I especially needed this book right now.  Sometimes I feel like I'm just not that important.  I know I'm important to my family, but I feel like it's hard to make a difference in the world when you have two small children to take care of and pretty much every moment of the day is dedicated to them.  I love being a mom, but sometimes I want to be able to help and influence others.  To be a volunteer in my community and serve my neighbors when they need it.  

But that's hard to do right now.  And this book is a great reminder that the little things we do each day, especially the day to day nurturing and caring for our families, matter.  

I love the analogy he uses of the honey bee.  In the course of a honey bee's life, it will only produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey.  Elder Ballard says, "Though seemingly insignificant when compared to the total, each bee's one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey is vital to the life of the hive.  The bees depend on each other.  Work that would be overwhelming for a few bees to do becomes lighter because all of the bees faithfully do their part."  I love this!  I am doing my part no matter how small. 

Another part of the book I love is that he teaches us how to ingrain the love of Christ in our hearts so that we will live how we believe.  This book is a great balance of uplifting women, but also teaching us.  It's definitely worth the read!

Ephraim's Rescue

Last week I had an awesome opportunity to go to the Ephraim's Rescue blogger event at Deseret Book.  It was awesome!  

Ephraim's Rescue is a new movie coming to theaters May 31st which is based on the true story of Ephraim Hanks who was a rescuer of the Martin Handcart Company.  If you're a Mormon, I'm sure you've heard of the Martin Handcart Company.  If not, the Martin Handcart Company was a group of Mormon pioneers who trekked across the United States to get to Utah where the Mormons had fled to be free of religious persecution.  The Martin Handcart Company left too late in the season and ran into terrible weather where they had to walk in snow and had very little food.  It was a terrible situation and Mormons who were already in Utah were asked to find those in the handcart company, give them supplies, and help them get to Utah.

In this movie we learn about the life of Ephraim Hanks, how he joined the LDS church, and then how he became one of these heroic rescuers.  

In the blogging event I was able to hear from the Producer/Writer/Director T.C. Christensen and then the lead actor Darin Southam.  It was really neat to be able to hear from them about their experiences with the film.  It made me even more excited to see this movie!

I love that T.C. Christensen is making movies about LDS history!  It's a great way to learn about our heritage and be able to share the stories with out families.  One of my favorite T.C. Christensen films is the movie Treasure in Heaven: The John Tanner Story.  It's the story of Alan's direct ancestor John Tanner and his amazing story.

Here's a little summed up history of John Tanner.
He was a very wealthy business man who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when Joseph Smith was the prophet.  He gave all of his money to the church when they desperately needed the funds to pay for temples and land and Joseph Smith wrote him IOUs.  There was a point in time as they moved from place to place with the Mormons that John had to beg for food for his family.  He had nothing left.  Yet he was still hopeful and optimistic and a devoted Mormon.  He was called on a mission and before he left, he forgave the debts that the church owed him, although he could have used the money.  Joseph Smith then promised him that his children would never beg for bread again.  A special blessing that has blessed generations of Tanners.  

It's such an awesome story and I love that it's a movie that I can show my children and teach them of their ancestor.  It's definitely worth seeing and I know this movie will be just as good!  And Alan's friend from high school, Dan Sappenfield, is one of the supporting actors.  How awesome is that? (He's the guy on the right)

So make sure you go see this movie!  It's going to be awesome!

To check out more details about the movie, head to the Main Website.  Or check out their Facebook Page.  To learn more about Darin Southam, you can check out his website. And to see if the movie is coming to a theater near you, go HERE.

What I Learned Wednesday #56

Welcome to the What I Learned Wednesday link party!  
So glad to have you here!

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Sorry I've been a little MIA the last week.  The weekend was very busy with Mother's Day, family BBQs, a goodbye/birthday party, and of course, more sickness.  But I have lots of post ideas that I just need to finally find time to sit down and do them!  I think things are settling down, so I should get back into my normal posting routine this week.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day whether you're a mom, will someday be a mom, or because you have a great mom.  I had a pretty good Mother's Day.  My kids were a little crazy so things were a little stressful, but things were also very good too.  I'll post more about that Friday.

Anyway, back to the link party! 

 Here are the features this week:

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Almond Joy Bites @ Will Cook for Smiles

Ten Top ABC Coloring Sets @ Teacher @ Home

New Mom Surprises @ The Life of Faith

Now let's party!

What I Learned Wednesday #55

Welcome to the
What I Learned Wednesday Link Party!  
I hope the start of your week has been going well and that you all have a wonderful Mother's Day this weekend!

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Before I show you my features today, I wanted to let you know about 3 awesome things going on right now on my blog.  And all are for those living in Utah.  Sorry those who are out of state or even out of the country!  I've just had a lot of local opportunities lately.

So if you're in Utah, listen up!  

I have 2 Family Passes to Baby Animal Days in Kaysville happening this weekend.  And the giveaway ends tonight!  So come enter HERE.

I'm also doing a Mother's Day giveaway for an hour massage at Massage Envy that can be used at any location on the Wasatch front. This giveaway ends Wednesday so enter HERE.

And the Color Run is coming to SLC in August!  I don't have a giveaway, but I do have a promo code to get $5 off your registration.  To get the promo code go HERE.

Ok, and now for the features!
Here are some fun Mother's Day gift ideas.  Remember, it's this Sunday!

Well I'm sure you already know, but remind your husbands!  :-)

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Handprints on Canvas Bag @ Raise a Boy

Easy DIY Soy Candles @ Creative Blossoming

Mama's Memories Jar @ Purple Hues and Me

Mother's Day Gift Wrapping Canning Jars @ Bowdabra Blog

Mother's Day Candy Bouquet @ Kim's Kandy Kreations

And now let's party!