Family

So, here's our family: Cameron is a wonderful father and husband. He is the First Counselor in our ward's bishopric. A ward is the name we use for a congregation. The head of a congregation or ward is called a Bishop and the bishop has two men that aide him in his work. They are called counselors, so Cameron is very busy tending to the needs of those in our congregation. As the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a volunteer ministry, my husband also works full-time. He works with high speed printers. In his spare time, he plays with our children, reads and educates himself of The Constitution, and fixes whatever is broken around the house (ranging from a skinned knee to a part on the car that I never knew existed, much less could name.)

Sara (that's me writing): I am the wife and mommy. I have been blessed to be able to stay at home and be with our children. It is fulfilling, hard, happy, and has taught me patience, great communication skills and appreciation for self-control. In our congregation I teach a class of 6 year-olds about the gospel. I also coordinate musical numbers for our meetings that are performed by our choir or other ward members. I also have 2 women that I visit every month, give them a spiritual message, attend to any needs and leave them with a word of prayer after each visit. I also am educating myself about the Constitution, but it's a little more sporadic and in between breakfast, bites of food, "mommy, I need...." and weeding the garden,

Marissa is our firstborn. She is a good example to the boys. She loves to read and occasionally memorizes a scripture to help her learn more about the gospel. She is learning how to conduct music at home and loves to bake. She and her church class did a bake sale service project to raise money for children in Afghanistan last week. Today for a church activity she learned to make ice cream. She is continuing her piano lessons and looks forward to playing the hymns.

Thomas was baptized last year (children in the LDS church are baptized at the age of 8). He is also in Cub Scouts. He will be earning his Wolf here pretty soon. He also takes Tae Kwon Do. At this point he is a green belt and really enjoys it. He is working on a program called Faith in God which teaches how to make goals and reach them, and has many opportunities to learn and serve others in it. Another he is doing is called "Learning to Preach My Gospel".

David is helping at home and learning to be responsible. He works very hard on being reverent at church. He likes to sing the hymns and listen to the lessons. We are working on math and spelling mostly during the summer and he can't wait for 1st grade! He is excited for his birthday coming up and so are we. His favorite church activity this summer was a Fathers and Sons campout. He also likes to share his testimony of our Savior whenever he has the chance.

Michael is according to his sister "the sweetest little brother that I've ever had...besides my other ones." He loves raisins. We just went to Lagoon (a theme park with roller coasters with tons of fun stuff--Marissa) to celebrate him being potty-trained. He likes to get into, through, on, next to, and under everything. He is constantly asking to get baptized, and loves our Monday Family Night, learning about Jesus, playing games, singing songs and having treats.

Jenniellen (see the post on partial molar pregnancy) passed away in September 8th last year. She's our little angel.