The Three Newest Temples

One of the perks of living in Utah is our Stake President works in the temple department of the Church. During Stake Conference he gave a little insight into the three latest temples that were announced.

Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple
For the members of the Church in the Ivory Coast, it costs 4 to 5 times their annual salary to visit a temple. Yet, they are currently submitting more family names to the temples in Europe than the members that live in Europe.

Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple

Currently, people living in Haiti can't get visas to travel to countries in the area that have temples. All of the people that are ready to go to the temple simply can't because there is no way for them to make it to the temple.

Bangkok Thailand Temple

The situation is similar in south east Asia. There are refuges from the Vietnam war that have no government ID, so they are unable to purchase plane tickets to go to the temple in Hong Kong or the Philippines. With the temple in Thailand, they will be able to drive to the temple through whatever countries in the area to get to the temple. Those in the area that can go to the temple currently travel 12 to 15 hours one way to get to the temple.

It's amazing to hear the stories of the people that are going to be blessed with these new temples and of their faith as they have waited until they have an opportunity to go to the temple. It really helps me remember the blessing it is to live so close to so many temples and that I have the opportunity to go when ever I want to.

Mother Dearest

Saturday was my wonderful mother's birthday.

She truly is the perfect Mother for me. We always had so many craft supplies on hand, that our teachers would get upset when they would see our projects that we were specifically told to only use things we already had at home. I can say that she is the reason why I have boxes filled with my very own craft supplies. You never know when you are going to need... (fill in the blank).

Now she gets to help with her grandkids school projects.
This was Ty's project for Grandparent's Day. It looks just like my dad!

She gave us the room to find our talents and was always supportive. When I was signing up for classes for eighth grade, I decided I was going to do band as my elective. I had wanted to be in band since 5th grade and I was finally going to do it. My mom wasn't so sure about, but she fully supported my decision. She was at every concert that we had at school and every competition my senior year of marching band. She was one of the favorite moms that volunteered and my friends ended up calling her Mrs. BJ's mom. 

It was a soggy Veteran's Day my junior year of high school.

This past year and half of living apart has been pretty lame, but I know that no matter how far apart we may be physically she is always there for me!

Last Year's Projects

Since moving to Utah, I've done a number of projects around our apartment but I haven't taken the time to share them. Here are the ones I took pictures of. One of the very first things I did was hang up some of our engagement pictures. This was the first time they have been displayed since our reception. Yeah, it was about time!

I was so excited for spring weather that I sewed a simple paper bunting for some much needed color.

This project actually started when we were still in California. Jonathan's office chair was lacking in padding, so he ripped off the fabric from the seat and bought some foam. I decided that we should change out the fabric for the entire chair. I dragged my feet with actually getting done, but after our apartment was more or less set up I couldn't stall any longer! I got a staple gun and finally covered the chair. It looks so much better!

My laptop and tablet needed a cover. I have yards and yards of felt, so I made a cover for each of them. It couldn't have been an easier project!

I made a mini California using finishing nails and embroidery floss. On the back, I wrote the years Jonathan and I lived in California. I love it so much that I plan on making one for each of the states Jonathan has lived in! (He's lived way more places than me.)

I made my very first baby blanket for Ruby. I figured it was about time I make one since she is the 10th child I am an aunt to. FYI, it is not very easy sewing minky fabric and satin binding. They just want to slide all over the place! I figure I don't need to make another blanket until my 20th niece or nephew.

My cousin and his wife had twins in December and I decided to make a set of onesies for their baby shower. Since they were having a boy and a girl, I made a little tie for Oliver and a necklace for Nettie with matching fabric. I didn't realize just how big my sewing machine was until I was struggling to sew them on these newborn sized onesies!

Manti Temple

For Jonathan's birthday, we went down to the Manti Temple. To be honest, this is by far my favorite pioneer temple. (Sacramento will always feel like home, but I love Manti.) As soon as you step inside, it feels like you are transported to back in time. To me, the interior feels like I'm on the set of the movie Pollyanna. I love how the pioneer workmanship has been maintained and the attention to detail considering they had to do all of the work by hand.

I was tempted to grab one of these huge rocks for Tyler.

It is truly amazing to live close to so many temples!

Trying Something New

For Christmas 2013, I wanted to give my grandpa a really personal gift. I follow a lot of artists on Instagram and I decided to give him a watercolor of the Los Angeles Temple. That's where he and my grandma were sealed to each other and their children. To make it even more personal, I decided to do the painting myself. It didn't seem like it would be too difficult to do. I looked at a lot of pictures of the temple and then I got out my engineering paper and did a sketch of the temple. The hardest part for me was to draw on a completely blank paper.

I did a few tests before I painted to make sure it would turn out. I ended up using a brown Sharpie for all of the details.

This past Christmas, I decided to do a couple of more paintings. I was originally going to give each set of parents a painting of the Oakland Temple since that is where they were married. As I thought more about it, I realized that my mom didn't have any pictures or paintings of the Idaho Falls Temple. Before moving to California, her dad helped with the construction of the temple. I went through the same steps as I did for the LA Temple for both temples.

Apparently I didn't take pictures of the progression of the Oakland Temple, but at least I one of the finished painting!

Jonathan's mom seriously thought I bought the painting. I couldn't have asked for a better compliment than that!

I'm still trying to be brave enough to do one of the Sacramento Temple. Arches are really intimidating!

We Are Still At It!

Jonathan and I have been diligent in taking our family to the temple this year. I truly feel my ancestors with me each time I take them to the temple.

Jonathan doesn't feel it as much as I do, so I thought that he should take some of his own ancestors to the temple. Back in January, I was poking around Jonathan's family tree and found three family members that needed their temple work done.

I am blessed to have a job that allows me to pretty much do whatever I want when I'm in between calls. Back in February, I was feeling like I was starting to run low on family to take to the temple. So for a few days, I went searching through my family tree. I was able to find almost 800 ordinances that needed to be done for my family. It was crazy!

The three couples on the bottom right corner got to go on Amy and Mike's grown up vacation to Hawaii.

At the end of March, our bishop challenged everyone in the ward to find one ancestor and take them to the temple. After we take them, their name will be added to the family tree on our ward's bulletin board. Jonathan and I looked and each other and almost laughed out loud because of all of the family members we've taken to the temple so far this year. I'm certain that we could fill the entire bulletin board with just our family.

It has been such a wonderful experience to find and take our family to the temple! Don't worry, there are still plenty more for us to take!

Imagine a Mother

With another Mother's day coming, I have a lot on my mind along with a heavy heart. This is a post that sums up everything I would like to say, but can't find the words on my own. Thankfully, someone else can be so eloquent. 

Imagine a mother caressing her bulging belly, nine months pregnant and glowing from water retention and maternal anticipation as she speaks softly to her unborn child and gently encourages him to join her in the world.

Imagine a mother nervously hugging her daughter goodbye on the first day of kindergarten. Her daughter holds her close out of fear that her mother will let go as the mother holds her daughter close and fears the same.

Imagine a mother teaching her son how to ride a bike for the first time. The training wheels off. The wind in his hair and the smile on both of their faces as they revel in the shared pride they feel for his first sense of true adventure and independence.

Imagine a mother watching with joy as her daughter walks down the aisle, linked in arms with her father, as she approaches the man that will never truly be “good enough” for her sweet girl…as a mother always hopes her daughter would always stay “daddy’s little girl” forever.

Imagine a mother wiping away tears of fear of the unknown and pride in her solider as her grown son embraces her with his strong, courageous, camouflaged arms as he prepares to board a plan to serve overseas.

Now, imagine that same mother awoken from sleep one night to a phone call, the police at the door, or to the eerie sound of screaming silence from the nursery.

Imagine a mother who hears…

“I’m sorry ‘mam, there was an accident, he didn’t make it…”

“I’m sorry ‘mam, there was nothing we could do. She wasn’t breathing when we went to wake her…”

“I’m sorry ‘mam, there were no survivors, his service to our country will be remembered…”

“I’m sorry ‘mam, there is no heartbeat. There will be no baby.”

Imagine a mother whose child’s life stops there and her life is lost amongst the fog left behind by the grim words that the unknowing messengers of death brought to her door.

Imagine a mother left imagining what life would have been like with her child now gone too soon.

Imagine this mother and realize that she is no figment of imagination.

She is your neighbor. She is your mother. She is your therapist, your maid, your gas station clerk, your nurse, your friend, your sister, she is you.

And remember, although she lives in fear of being only a figment of a mother.

She is just as real as moms with living children.

For she is still a mother.

She is the bereaved mother.

Created in an instant but remains for a lifetime.

This is the link to the original article.

Motherhood is different for everyone. Just because a women doesn't have her arms filled with children, doesn't mean her heart is not.

The Adventures of California Patt and Oregon Nelson

My dad had a mild (but could have been so much worse) medical emergency at the end of April. I wasn't handling it very well, so I decided to do something similar to what we've been doing for our niece's and nephew's birthdays. My dad is Mr. Mountain Man. Back in the 90's, he had the nickname Mountain Man Bill. There was another man who had the same nickname, but no one liked him and his friends convinced my dad to choose another nickname. He followed the example of Indiana Jones and chose Kentucky Pat.

For those who don't know my dad, he served his mission in Kentucky.
For those who do know my dad, you can't forget he served his mission in Kentucky.
As I was trying to think of what we should do, I remembered all of this and it was obvious that we needed to go with an Indiana Jones theme. I am California Patt  since that is the only state I've really spent much time in. (I like spelling Patt with two ts and my dad sticks with one t.) Jonathan served his mission in both Washington state and Oregon and he chose to be Oregon Nelson. With our names picked out, we were ready to start shooting!

We took the pictures on the trail to the Y. Luckily, we didn't have to do too much hiking to find the perfect spots to get the pictures we wanted. Since this story was longer than the ones we've done previously, we broke it up into multiple videos.

Since there are so many switch backs on the trail, I thought it would be funny to have the boulder launch off the side of the mountain. To make it even funnier, we took pictures of it rolling around places in Provo that my parents remember from when they lived there.

I enjoyed making these because it enabled me to focus on making my dad laugh rather than worry about how he was doing. Honestly, he's doing great and he feels like nothing happened, but it still shook me up.

Bountiful Temple

Back in September, Jonathan and I went up to the Boutiful temple. I say up because the roads going to the temple were reminiscent of driving in San Francisco. We will not be visiting that temple in the winter. Any way, this temple is very similar to the Mount Timpanogos temple. The biggest differences to me are the spire and the color schemes inside of the temple. This temple has a lot more yellows whereas Timpanogos has various shades of light purple. I was really drawn to the stain glass windows. I would love to have a home with stain glass windows. They are just so beautiful!

I enjoy each and every temple we visit. They are each special in their own way, but the teachings are identical in each and every one.

Padawan Seth

Jonathan and I are still having too much fun making birthday pictures for our nieces and nephews. Seth loves Star Wars, so we decided to make it look like droids invaded UVU.

I love how Jonathan has gotten so excited with each birthday shoot. He came up with most of the ideas for this one. He's tapping in to all of the hours he spent pretending he was a jedi as a kid.

What makes me the happiest is hearing the reaction of the birthday kid. Seth was convinced that we were really taking on droids and wished he could battle them with us. We have fun making these, but the real reason is we want to make sure that our nieces and nephews know that we love them no matter how far away we live.