Sleeping in a castle in...Ireland!!!

I think I'm about one of the luckiest girls alive!  I just went on a trip with my MOTHER, just the two of us... NO KIDS! It was a dream come true, and to make it even better our hotel was in a CASTLE!!

 This is the beautiful Clontarf Castle Hotel, just in case anyone is going to Dublin sometime soon and want to stay in an amazing place!

 My first morning there we had my favorite fruit ever... raspberries!  Yummy!

 More pictures soon to come.  I was so grateful to my husband for taking care of the kids, and for my friend Ana Carina, taking 24 hours with my kids, especially considering I have kids that still don't sleep through the night!

Aaron's baptism

Tonight Aaron got baptized.  There are certain moments when time goes still, and you can feel your heart beat, like when a child is born, when someone passes on, and in this case when someone makes a sacred promise to God to try and follow Him, and in return He promises to change you (and forgive you when you repent), give you a companion to keep you safe and lead you back home (the Holy Ghost), and to return to live with Him.  Amazing and sweet.

One of Aaron's great qualities is that he is "serio" or serious.  Also meaning that he takes things seriously, with great care.  This was his choice, and one that he took with great care, even though he's only 8.  I think that it's amazing that we can be changed for the better so often and so much.  I'm grateful for what Jesus Christ has done for me, for Aaron, and for each one of us

Sorbola

Ho un figlio Bolognese.  Sta mattina si è svegliato guarito dalla febbre e vomito.  Voleva dipingere.  Mescolando i colori esclamò "sorbola!"  Gli ho detto Jordan, si dice "sorbole".  Mi fa "si lo so, ma sorbola è solo una."  Gli ho risposto che non si dice al singolare.  E da allora (10 minuti fa) ho sentito "sorbole" almeno 25 volte.  Direi che gli piacciano gli esperimenti di colori.  Direi anche che sta diventando Bolognese grazie alla scuola.

Ugo's wedding

 Recentemente si sono sposati Ugo e Silvia.  Ugo lo conosco da quando mi sono sposata con Paolo.  Veniva in chiesa con noi e andavamo in macchina insieme.  E' davvero un bravo ragazzo e direi che ha sposato una veramente molto brava!

 The wedding was beautiful!  I haven't been to a latter-day-saint wedding ceremony like this before.  It was absolutely beautiful.  I was reminded of how much God has created man for the woman, and the woman for man.  When we give the best of ourselves to each other we can be whole- be ONE.  What a gift a good marriage is!  It also made me feel very sappy, and also very grateful for the wonderful companion that I have.  I sure love Paolo to death!

 The Mormon world is a small one.  We ran into someone who went to the same church building that we did and we would see each other in the hallway (in Taylorsville, UT).  Fernando served an LDS mission in Italy too and I think that's why we talked to each other.  It turns out that they know the bride and came from Utah just for the event!  It also turns out that Sharon sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with one of my favorite mission companions of all time!

And I knew Nelly on my mission 15 years ago.  I seriously loved her back then, and still do now!

To Jordan...

So my life was changed when my first child was born, but it was deepened and more profoundly changed when along came Jordan.  I feel like I went from being awed to being wowed after Jordan came into our lives.  He absolutely hates being the "second" and the middle child.  When I was pregnant with him and shortly after he was first born I wondered why on earth God would give me this child as my second and what his place in our family was.  Little did I know what a gift and blessing he would be, and still is.  Jordan brings peace to those around him.  He is sensitive and intuitive of the needs of those around him.  He brings harmony.  He's been a best friend and playmate for Aaron, and also a good friend for Isabel.  He's always had a fun and silly smile that lights up those around him.  He has a great gift and talent for noticing detail.  It's a talent that helps him in drawing.  He absolutely loves to draw.  He spends a lot of time at school drawing and puts in lots of detail.  It makes things seem more real.  He's able to see (and draw) things from lots of perspectives.

Little did I know that he would be the glue to holds us and his siblings together.  I can't imagine life without this kid!  He's also my only cuddly kid, and I love to cuddle!

Jordan also came into my life 6 years and two weeks ago today.  I love this kid with all my heart!  I hope that he comes to know and understand his purpose in life.  I also feel very strongly that he came to our family at the right time, and for specific purposes.  And I feel like he is a gift from God!  Seriously.  I hope he comes to understand the inestimable power of being a friend.  That is Jordan's gift to those around him.  His loyalty, his good company.  It's strengthening and lifting, sometimes subtly but powerfully.

I hope that Jordan will know and understand that he doesn't have to do anything for others to love him.  He just needs to be himself and that he is perfect the way he is.  I also hope that he can learn that it doesn't matter whether your first, second, third, or fiftieth to be important.  We're important because God made us the way we are.  And that is amazing stuff.  A part of this understanding comes from a knowledge that there is a time and place for all things.  If he can trust that God knows timing better than we do, he'll find happiness in life.

To my sweet, sensitive Jordan, I love you with all my heart!  Happy (late) birthday!

When your life is changed forever... !!!

Tomorrow my oldest turns 8.  I've been thinking about the last 8 years.  An eternity ago, a blur, a whirlwind, and most especially how my life has been changed forever.  It started 8 years ago with Aaron being born, and then Jordan, and then Isabel.  They've all changed my life and changed me, forever!  I am a different person than before having children.  I hope less selfish at the very least.  But no one can NOT be changed after a little bit of heaven is gifted into their home.

Aaron has many talents and gifts that inspire and lift me.  He is GOOD and I don't know any other way to describe him than profoundly good.  He is strong and firm.  And seriously at 8 years old has some killer brute force.  He has strength.  It's one of his gifts from God to help him along his path in life, because we definitely need strength.  He's also generous when he decides to be.  Willing to give up his very favorite things in the world for those he loves.  Aaron has the gift of obedience.  He loves to listen and obey when he thinks it's right.  Sometimes to the other extreme of wanting to help others to have to be good too, and it frustrates him.  That profound desire to do what's right is ingrained in him.

The other night at dinner I heard the two most sincere and spectacular prayers of my life.  It started with Jordan.  Jordan thanked Heavenly Father for the things he loved about every single member of the family- and then Aaron did the same.  It was funny but mostly just beautiful to hear them open their hearts to their Father and tell Him about each one of us.  Aaron described himself as full of fun ideas, an inventor, and creative.  One thing that's come out in Aaron over the last year is his love for funny jokes, and to play jokes on other people.  He loves to laugh and tries to make others laugh too.  His sense of humor is very innocent and naive.  It makes me grateful to have a pure soul in my life.

He has reached the age of "accountability".  He is accountable for his choices in life.  The last 8 years have been a gift of time to teach him all that I can about what's right and how God has a plan for him.  Now he continues using his choices to make himself into his own person.  I hope that he will choose to be a lifter to those around him.  I hope that he will realize that his greatest power comes when he is making choices that helps those around him be better than they were before.  There is great power in this!

I hope that he can come to feel deeply within himself that he was born onto this earth with a purpose that God has designed, and that God will help him along the way.  I hope that He will come to know that he doesn't have to be strong, or good, or obedient, or anything else alone.  I hope that he comes to feel and know deeply that he has a Savior who has payed the price for sin, pain, sorrow, weakness, accidents, tragedy and anything that may come his way, and that this Savior has conquered it all.  I hope that Aaron comes to know that in giving his heart to Him that he conquer all things that come his way.  I hope that Aaron feels the Savior's profound love for him, now and throughout the rest of his life.

I hope that Aaron knows when he gets baptized in about 10 days that he is literally binding himself to God and His power, and that it's the way to help us return home to that God who created us.  I want Aaron to know that I his mom, know that God loves him, and know that He has a plan for each one of us.

So now, 8 years and counting to my life being changed forever, I'm grateful for Aaron.  He is a gift and blessing from God.  I love this kid with all my heart!