Little Man A.K.A. Elijah

I took Elijah for a walk yesterday.

He looooooves being outside. Takes after his Mama...and brothers. :)

He crawls and puts everything in his mouth. Yum.

I'm so glad he got his Daddy's beautiful blue eyes!

THERE'S that smile he wears almost 24/7.

I love, love, love this Little Man. 

He's only been in my life 10 1/2 months, but he makes my heart absolutely swell with joy!

The Prophet's Voice

So I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This fact has played an integral part on who I am today. Being a member of the church dictates my thoughts, actions, desires and goals. Its teachings are woven so deeply into my very being that I forget that not everyone believes what I believe.

And what I believe, what the church teaches, is that Christ is the Savior of the world. Not only this world, but worlds without number. That Christ has instituted His church on the earth various times, taking it away in between because the people were too wicked (apostasy), and that He has instituted it one last time through a prophet, named Joseph Smith, and called it The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe that God is our Heavenly Father, that Christ is His only begotten son, and that we can all know the truth of all things through the Holy Ghost.

Since Joseph Smith, the Lord has continued to call prophets to lead and guide His church. The one today is named President Thomas S Monson. President Monson is a true prophet, I know it, and he and the twelve apostles and other leaders of the church speak every six months, in April and October.
Yesterday and today I've been able to listen to them and be uplifted to my very soul as they teach timeless gospel truths about God, family, and the great plan of happiness our Heavenly Father has laid out for us.

After the first session (a two-hour block), I put baby down and went for a walk to stretch my legs and ponder the things I'd been taught. Toward the end I rested on a swing in the back of our apartment complex. The swings overlook a large golf course, which was crawling with Sunday visitors in golf carts, hoping to play a good game in this lovely spring day. I felt sad as I watched them. Sad that there is a prophet today who speaks the word of God, directed to everyone today as prophets have directed their teachings to those in days of old, and the majority of the world is not listening.

A prophet is speaking, and the majority of the world is  not listening.

Sound familiar?

It happens all the time in the scriptures from the majority refusing to listen to Noah's warnings about the flood to the inhabitants of Zarahemla not heeding the warnings to repent or be destroyed. Today the world is rampant with spiritual destruction and the prophets, apostles and other leaders are warning us to protect ourselves spiritually by doing things like:
stay away from pornography
devote constructive time to family
limit time-consuming vices like video games
pray, read scriptures, serve others daily
go to church
go to the temple
pay an honest tithing...

and physically, such as:
keep a year's food storage on hand for each member of your family
keep an emergency cash fund on hand
be self-reliant (plant a garden, stay out of debt, etc)
obey the "health code" God has given us today, called the Word of Wisdom...

These things are given to us to bring us closer to God. Because, though we can't be perfect in this life, we need to be as clean as possible to be able to one day stand in His presence. To stand in His presence, blameless, knowing I've done everything I can to deserve all he has to offer me--and He offers ALL he has. I couldn't imagine the joy.

In the meantime I'll keep on trudging, trying to overcome my mountain of imperfections as I sit at the feet of the prophets and apostles and listen to the sweet words they give that feed my soul.
And I'll invite everyone else to listen...click on the link below and you can watch any session of conference from this weekend. I pray you do!

Watch it here.
And here's a link to learn more about those of the LDS faith, also called "Mormons" (mormon.org).

Pittsburgh Zoo

March 30th we took the boys to the Pittsburgh Zoo. It was our first time and it was fun-o. :) The spring/summer season wouldn't start until the next Monday so some of the exhibits were closed, but the most important ones were open! Overall it was well worth the looooooong 2 1/2 drive.

When we approached the zoo, we saw a big Hot Wheels stand in front of it. There were stations for the boys to play on and they gave out raffle tickets.

The boys won a Hot Wheels track. It was a fun and exciting way to start our zoo trip. :)

HA! Miles is such a little ball of energy, sweetness, and attitude all wrapped into one. Love these boys!

 Baby elephant: Miles is shorter, Christian is taller. :) 

 And this elephant is taller than us all...and yes, it's real! :D You could pay $10 to have 2 pictures taken on your camera with the elephant. It was so fun! We got to pet her and Elijah grabbed onto her tusk. HA!

These rhinos were fun. The baby was running around in all its cuteness and the Mama kept looking at us like she would gladly horn us if we tried to harm her babe. :D HA! Looooved it.

The weather was PERFECT and Elijah was so good the whole time! He sat in his stroller and looked around and eventually took a nap and loved the whole thing.

There was a big aquarium with GIANT stingray you could touch. It was AWESOME! We didn't get any pictures of it, of course, but here's Elijah with Daddy after his nap inside of the aquarium. :)

Next best thing, right?

On the way home we ate at Clem's Cafe, a reeeeeeeally good and affordable barbecue place. mmmmmm.....drooling just thinking about it. Hooray for family fun time!