Mission Quiaba Reunion

Nathan served in the Quiaba, Brasil mission under President Milder.  Nathan loves, respects and greatly admires his Mission President.  He shaped Nathan's life and taught him lessons that will remain with him throughout his life.  We were blessed to have the Presidents wife, Sister Milder, visit the States from Brasil this month.  The missionaries were very excited and decided to have a mission reunion.  Nathan and I volunteered to have it at our house.

In Brasil street venders would walk or drive around shouting out or calling into their megaphones the items that they were selling.  There was one that sold ice treats.  so Nathan bought otter pops just for that night and at one point later on in the evening came out loudly calling "______" to bring back some old memories of Brasil.  The missionaries got a good laugh out of it.

Sister Milder is a powerful woman.  She does not speak a lot of English but kissed me and told me I have a good man for a husband. Tears in her eyes told me of the love and care she had for these missionaries, my amazing Nathan in particular.  Towards the end of the night she stod and addressed all of us.  Those of us who did not speak Portuguese had our spouses translate for us.  She told the missionaries how proud she was of them, challenged them to remember the counsel and teachings of President Milder.  She also said to remember their President and act in ways that would always make him proud of them.  Teach your children to live the gospel and they will be blessed.

It was wonderful!

Ladies Man

Oh this child makes me smile!  Each and every day is a joy!  I could never kiss him enough, squeeze him enough, make him laugh and smile enough!   

Here's our little Ladies Man eating some gram crackers and then some pears for his dose of solids for the day - He loves eating all this wonderful tasty stuff and is having fun exploring with his tongue and trying to figure out what the heck to do with it :)  Finger foods are an adventure.  He can pick the pieces up and bring them to his wide open mouth but hasn't figure out that he needs to open his hand once its there so that the food can actually then go into his mouth :)

 Hehehe - I think this is so cute of him! It just captures his little personality!

Dinners at BYU

Nathan amazes me!  He is such a wonderful man and a hard worker.  He is currently balancing work at UIS and being a fulltime student at BYU.  He pulls long days and is dedicated to his responsibilities - I know it cannot be easy for him.  We keep Daddy in our prayers!

Since Nathan is at school most evenings studying I decided more than a year ago that I wanted to make family dinner a priority and I wanted us to be able to eat together whenever possible.  So I make dinner, pack it all up and Harlow and I head down to the BYU campus to join Daddy for some family time.  Sometimes its brief but at least we get that chance to sit down together.  (I'm grateful to my mother for teaching me the importance of sitting down as a family at dinner time.  They are memories I cherish and traditions I want to keep alive.)  I don't mind the extra work and mess...to be able to eat with my honey is all worth it!    I love our little family!

funny little story: so for our wedding we were given this portable heat pack (seen in the pictures below).  When we looked at it both Nathan and I were like 'when are we ever going to use that!?'  I have to say a big huge THANK YOU to the Colvin family for that gift because it's awesome!  and I use it nearly everyday to bring a hot, homecooked meal down to Nathan.  Who knew that'd be one of the best, most used wedding gifts we received - Colvin's, you guys are hecka great!