Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

So I received some hand-me-downs from my sister-in-law and decided to try one of the outfits on Ahnali this morning. I got her all dressed and about 2 seconds after I was done, David gasps and says in awe, "Wow...Ahnali's beautiful..." He must've really liked the outfit! He insisted that I take a picture of them together. He sure does love his sister!

Say I'm the Only Bee in Your Bonnet...

This last Saturday I took David down to The Home Depot to participate in their Kids Workshop. We met up with my friend Jamie, her hubby and their 2 kids. David and I had never gone before, and it was so much fun! They give the kids an orange apron with their name on it and when they finish the project they get a pin to attach to their aprons showing what they made. This last weeks project was "to build a little birdhouse..." (go on...finish the song...you know you want to!) David had a blast playing with the hammer and "sharing" the assembly with Mommy. Afterwards, we went to Michael's and let the boys pick out paint colors for their newly constructed bird dwellings. After about 10 minutes, the boys got distracted and outsourced the paint job to the Mommys. (Can you tell?) It was a great activity for David and he is very proud of his little house! We can't wait to do it again next month!

Gee Mom, I Wanna Go to Camp!!!

Well, I have survived!!! I did a major flash back and went to Camp Lomia for the first time in 11 years. I went as a cabin mom and although it was fun, I am VERY happy to be home. I have to say, I'm not that sure that I am excited to have a teenage daughter. Hopefully Ahnali will be a tad more mellow than the girls that I was over.

I was not expecting to go to girls camp at my ripe old age of 27, and have it be the emotional roller coaster that those five days were. We had a non-member girl whose mom was a crack addict and lives with her grandmother. She came with her friend whose mother was a prostitute in Brazil, and adopted into a home where she was abused by her father until the parents split up. To top it off, she is bi-polar and has reactive detachment disorder. Ugh! So I spent a large part of my time wrestling the 2 of them and trying to make sure they were where they were supposed to be and that they would get the most out of camp. It was tough. I found myself questioning the reasons that I was there.

I'm amazed at some of the trials the youth of the church face today and the emotional struggles they deal with. These young women are such strong and beautiful spirits. They still move ahead with their faith even with all the temptations they encounter. I remember when I was a teenager, I believed that the obstacles we faced were next to impossible compared to what our parents faced. Our children are going to face greater difficulties. The Adversary is attacking them at every possible turn. I truly believe that the Lord has sent us some of the strongest spirits in these last days. I pray that I can teach my little ones to face the world fortified with the the knowledge of the gospel.

In times like these, I am glad that I am not in control. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that knows what he is doing and preparing the world for the great day when the Saviour will return. I am so grateful for the gospel and although I often get disappointed, I am looking forward with excitement!

I pray that we can all move onward, united in faith. With the Saviour, all things are possible!

Love to you all~!

Ugh...

Okay, so I realize I am not the best at keeping our family blog up to date. To those of you who are tired of reading about Homestar Runner..."HERE!!! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?????" Bwahahahah..... But really, I don't feel like we have a whole lot of new happenings as of late, thus no new posts...and I am sorry.

I start beauty college next month on July 14th. I enrolled with Regency Beauty Institute, who like to think of themselves as "The Harvard of Beauty Colleges". (Insert Masterpiece Theatre music here.) Does that sound as hokey to the rest of you as it does to me?? But those are the exact words my enrollment counselor used to describe themselves. Funny. I AM really excited to get started! So for those of you who love free hair cuts and all that jazz, give me a ring in a few months. WOOHOO!

Soooooo~I will now promise to try and keep our blog updated more often that I have. I just feel silly talking about us and our family that often. "Me, me, me!!! I've been to the moon!"

Love to you all~!

Wii....Wow...that was fun!

For those of you who own a Wii AND have a deep adoration for Home Star Runner, I have some fabulous news!!! Telltalegames.com will be releasing "Strongbad's Cool Game for Attractive People" this summer. This game will only be available through telltalegames.com and your Wii internet connection. This is gonna be WICKED AWESOME I tells ya! Check it all out at http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbcg4ap.html or http://www.telltalegames.com/ . For those of you who have not yet become acquainted with Home Star Runner and Strongbad...DO IT!!!! DO IT NOW!!!! Fun stuff.....

Where the Heck am I?

Okay....I realize that I've only had 1 post since I started our family blog almost 2 months ago. Quite honestly, I have no idea as to what to post. I guess I had some big grand ideas of how it would look and the fun stuff I would put on and then realized that I have no idea how to do any of that stuff. ARGH!!! Anyhow---here's a quick run down of what been going down with the Stay's:

Jay and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Saturday...Woohoo!!!! (Insert your congratulations here.)

Jay will be returning to school in June via some email classes working towards a degree in Police Science/Criminal Justice. We are very excited about this and he hopes to get on with one of the police departments very soon.

Clarissa (me) has been keeping very busy with the endless work that mother's do, i.e. laundry, dishes, diaper duty, etc. and our bishop has recently extended a fourth calling to me in our ward. Holy crud! Busy, busy, busy....

David will be finishing his 1st year of preschool at EMECEC in May and is excited to start again in the fall. We are signing him up for swim lessons this summer...that ought to be a fun new adventure.

Ahnali is growing up so fast! She still has no hair, but is one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen! (But I am a bit bias.)

That about sums it up. PLEASE if any of you can help me with my blogging, let me know!

Love to all and have a splendid day!

The New Kids on the Blog

We have finally decided to jump on the blogging wagon and join all our super-cool friends! Huzzah! Since we are new to this...please bare with us as we figure it all out. Thanks and "Stay" tuned! (Teehee.)