Rachel's dance recital

This year Rachel has started dance through the park district.  They had a concert last weekend to show all they have learned.  Rachel's little class did a wonderful job and were the cutest lady bugs I've ever seen.  Unfortunately, we are not able to take pictures of the performance but here a couple from before.  Way to go Rachel!

Whew!...that was a close one

One milestone kids look for is the loss of their first tooth.  The boys were no different and they've both been wiggling their teeth since each started kindergarten.  Of course Anson has a 6 month jump on Aaron so he was a little bit more determined it would happen.  Well the day finally came May 7th after putting the kids down for bed I heard from upstairs, "Mom, my tooth came out."  A very energized Anson jumped down from his bed to show everyone.  We took pictures, called Daddy, and promptly put it into a baggie for the tooth fairy.  After another "good night" I heard again, "Mommy, my other tooth came out."  Anson had pulled it out although it still had a few more days to go.  Here are a couple pictures.

 

Anson had reestablished his "oldest child" ranking in our family with this event.  Thank goodness because on May 15th Aaron brought his first lost tooth home with him from school.  Yep, they lost their first teeth about a week apart.  I have been ever so glad it happened in that order or I think Anson would have been up all that night determined to pull out a tooth at the same time as Aaron.  Having the older child smaller than the younger child, especially since they are boys, we have a bit of competition in Anson's eyes with everything they do.  Anson has to be sure he wins  and proves as the oldest child he's the first at everything.  Luckily loosing teeth first has helped Anson prove to himself that he is the oldest and peace continues in the household.  Whew!

Stake Conference

We have what is called a Stake Conference a couple times a year.  That is where all the congregations or wards in the area come together in a meeting to get counsel from our stake leaders.  Every couple of years we have the opportunity to have a leader from Utah come out.  These men from Utah are general authorities or leaders for our whole church.  One of these men came to our Stake Conference today.  His name is Dallin H Oaks.  He is a member of the Twelve Apostles.  Just like when Jesus lived on the earth we have 12 apostles who, under the direction of our prophet, go throughout the world testifying of Christ and his teachings.

 
Prior to his calling as a member of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Oaks was an attorney and eventually a member of the Supreme Court in Utah.  Being married to an attorney, I can recognize the intelligence this man has when he speaks.  These men who are apostles have the priesthood of God.  That means they have the authority to act on God's behalf where ever they are.  They do not apply for these positions, most do not study theology as a profession.  Every calling in our church is given by inspiration to ordinary people.

It is a great privilege to have one come to our stake and because of his presence there were a lot of people attending the meetings all weekend.  We went early of course so we could sit in the large room where the meeting was held.  We were toward the back but he came in 20 minutes or so early and went through every person in the chapel shaking hands with them.  I took the opportunity to take the kids up and shake his hand.  We had talked about how he works with our prophet helping people all over the world. 

He said many things in our meetings this weekend.  He truly speaks with the power of God, not just as a man.  A couple things he said I wrote down, when I wasn't wrestling the kids, were that when we are baptized we take upon ourselves the name of Christ, meaning we call ourselves Christians.  It also means we take upon ourselves the work of Christ, which was bringing people to God.  I had never thought of it that way.  Another thing he spoke on was about the Priesthood.  He said the Priesthood like like an umbrella.  It is on the earth to bless the lives of all God's children, not just those who are members of our church but everyone.  Worthy men hold this umbrella.  They have the opportunity to serve all of us with this Priesthood.  He spoke many other things and so did our other stake leaders.  It was a great conference and worth the stress of wrestling the kids for several hours.  He truly is a man of God and I'm very grateful for his service to me.