The Windy City

The last port of call on our holiday was Chicago, to visit my parents. We were there just after Thanksgiving, but gave a trip into a the city a miss and decided to save it for the warmer weather - so glad we did. I have to say, Deldon and I were well impressed with Chicago! I love it's setting on Lake Michigan, it's so clean and has so much to see and do. We only had a day, so saw very little so I would love to go back and see more of it some day. The girls got on a train for the first time which was fun for them, and we headed straight for Sears towers. After that we took the water taxi (how cool) down the river to navy pier, a really fun place with amusements, funfairs and restaurants.

We met up with my cousin Stephen and his baby daughter who live downtown. Elle is the double of her mom Lisa with Stephen's mouth, such a cute baby girl! I then took Samantha on a Ferris wheel which had a brill view of the skyline.

We said goodbye to Stephen and Elle and got on the water taxis again, out on Lake Michigan over to the Aquarium.

We had to awaken sleeping Samantha as it was too cool to miss seeing all the exhibits. It was great to spend time with Granny and Grandad, and we even got to sneak out to the Olive Garden that night for some quiet time on our a own. That is a rare occasion outside of the 4 walls of our own home - thanks mum and dad!

The greatest blessing occured when Samantha slept most of the flight home and Sophie slept from about 5 minutes into our flight home until the moment we hit the runway in Belfast 7 hours later - Go Deldon for not being able to get out of his seat, the entire flight. I'll give you one guess who was looking for a restroom as soon as we hit the terminal building? It was a relief to be home and be in one place after all the travelling, but so sad to say goodbye to American Soil for another wee while.

Our weekend

We had a busy, but fun weekend. It started with attending the baptism of April Irvine, where Rachael and I had been asked to sing. I thought I was having a heart attack with palpitations before I got up. I think it was too big of a dinner and belly on top of nerves. I was just glad something came out of my mouth when I opened it. We quickly left to head over to a Stake YSA / Laurel Camp (girls 16+ that are single). They had asked some of the girls to suggest a married couple to come speak and we were the lucky ones. When we pulled up the girls announced that the eye candy had arrived - Deldon. They all think he looks like Ben Afleck. When I was in Stake YW and Stake RS they always asked me how my "hot" husband was doing, they crack me up! Anyways it was really fun to visit and catch up with the girls. I got all the fun bizz from the convention they had attended in Manchester the weekend before and then we all gathered around the campfire.
We were asked to talk on self-worth. It was a great topic to personally study up on, because it was a reminder to me just how important our individual worth is, and how important it is to stay positive. I find myself too doubting my self-worth way too often these days. Deldon shared a quote when he spoke from a talk Pres Monson gave of when an Elder's Quorum President in a congregation was asked what he thought the worth of a soul was. His response was "The worth of a soul is its capacity to become as God." I feel that says it all, no wonder the Devil works so hard to destroy our self -worth and offer us a counterfeit worldy confidence that will never lead to eternal happiness.
Saturday was a new day and brought with it a new experience for Samantha. She had her first haircut. I know she's 3 years old and never been to a hairdresser! Her hair has taken that long to grow, I couldn't bear to have it cut before now. I wished I'd taken a photo as it was so cute. They braided it at the front and sprayed sparkles on it for her.
As for our dear Sophie, she looks like we've punched her in the face because she fell on her pram last night. She has a nice bruise and a puffy eye, but the camera doesn't do it justice, so no photos to post.
A photo I do have below, is of some friends I went out to dinner with last night. It was a catch up night with Lorna, a friend from my teenage years. It's always fun to go out and eat in good company, we had a great laugh. Then today was a really good day at church with lots of "food for thought". We've had my sister's family over for dinner, and now it's time to say night night to our cute girls until Monday morning.

Before and After

Before, when she was mad about something, who knows what????

and after when I told her to smile for the camera or else...........lol

What if the Mormons are right and the Catholics and Protestants are wrong?

Article written by Eamonn McCann. Thursday, 28 August 2008, Belfast Telegraph

Given Christian teaching, does it make more sense to baptise dead adults rather than live babies?
Why are the Catholic bishops so concerned about Mormons baptising dead parishioners? The Mormons didn’t invent baptism of the dead. The practice has a significant history within mainstream Christianity. The decision to order its abandonment was taken only after heated debate, and was a close-run thing.
What’s the difference, anyway, between baptising the dead and baptising babies? A tiny infant will have as much understanding as a dead person — none at all — of the complex philosophical belief-system it’s being inducted into when baptised, say, a Catholic. Transubstantiation? There’s daily communicants go to their deaths without any clear understanding of the concept. So what chance the mewling tot?
Indeed, given that all Christian Churches believe that the soul lives on after death and retains understanding and consciousness of self, doesn’t it make more sense to baptise dead adults than live babies?
Apart from which, if the Catholic bishops hold that the beliefs of the Mormons are pure baloney (as they must), and their rituals therefore perfectly meaningless, how can it matter to them what mumbo-jumbo Mormons might mutter over Catholic cadavers?
The current controversy has been prompted by Archbishop Dermot Clifford and Bishop Bill Murphy complaining to the National Library in Dublin about records handed over by the Church being made available to all and sundry. The Mormons are believed to have taken advantage of this facility to comb through parish records and baptise the souls enumerated therein, a batch at a time.
The bishops stepped in after the Vatican warned all national churches earlier this year about Mormons misusing diocesan records. I have heard it suggested that the alarm of the Holy See had escalated after reports that Mormon multiple baptisms were regularly breaking the official record set by General Liu Kung Lee who, in one afternoon, baptised seven regiments of Chinese soldiers into Christianity with a fire-hose.
Let’s look at the facts as understood by the early followers of Christ. For more than 300 years after the Crucifixion, baptism of the dead was widely accepted, its biblical basis located in 1 Corinthians 15, 29: “Otherwise, what shall they do who are baptised for the dead if the dead rise not again at all? Why are they then baptised for them.” In other words, a deceased person could be baptised by proxy: otherwise, how could such a person be included in the Resurrection? A good question.
The radical Cerinthians and the Marcionites were especially energetic baptisers of the dead. It was to wrong-foot these sects, seen as competitors with the official Church at a time when it was consolidating its position as the State religion of the Roman Empire, that the Synods of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) voted, after bitter debate, to condemn the practice.
Interestingly, a clear trace of baptism of the dead has lingered in official practice to the present day, in the form of prayers for divine intercession on behalf of the unbaptised souls. Prayers for intervention were encouraged in Catholic schools in the 1950s. For all I know, this remains the case.
Baptising the dead might be seen as analogous, too, to the Jewish prayer of intercession. Which serves as a reminder that US Jews put a halt to galloping post-mortem Mormonism a couple of years ago by arguing that deJudaising those who’d perished in the concentration camps constituted a profound insult to Holocaust victims. Following talks in New York between leaders of the two religions, the Mormons backed off.
The key point is, surely, that all religions believe that the soul, after death, at last knows what’s what — whether Hinduism, Free Presbyterianism, Jainism, Judaism, Islam, Catholicism or whatever is the true religion. What if it’s Mormonism? What if it’s an everyday occurrence on the other side that Catholics and Protestants are left standing dumbstruck at the Gates, gasping: “Mormons! Who’d have believed it?” And maybe a wife berating her husband: “There! I told you it would be the Mormons! But would you listen?! Now it’s eternal hellfire for the two of us, I hope you’re satisfied.”
In that scenario, shouldn’t all members of all other religions be literally eternally grateful to the Mormons for sharing their saving grace even unto and after death?
If, on the other hand, it isn’t the Mormons at all, those who turn out to have been right can wave a merry farewell to the crestfallen followers of Brigham Young as they trundle downwards to their eternal comeuppance.
What’s the problem?

Cousins and Best Friends

Thought I'd post some photos my sister took today. Samantha just adores my sister and her cousins and is always so excited to play with Lucy, they are only a year apart. The great thing is, when Samantha goes to play I get to put Sophie down for a nap and lye down on the couch and take a nap myself......thank you Rachael!! We'll have Lucy over to play at our house tomorrow. Sophie loves to visit with them too, when we get closer to their house she starts to scream and gets all excited. Luke and Sophie are only a week apart but just kinda play along side each other rather than play with each other at this stage, but I'm sure that will change as they get older.

Liberty Jail, Liberty, Missouri

This was the last place we visited on our tour. When we arrived at the visitor's center I was looking around for the jail and couldn't see it anywhere. I was surprised to learn they had built the center over the top of the jail. Makes sense now I've seen it, as it was so small and had no stairs in it. The church has had to restore pretty much all of it with the floor being the only original part left. The girls got a little crazy during the visit, hope we didn't annoy to many people during the tour, oops! It was great to see and be reminded again of the terrible hardships the Prophet and his loyal friends endured, yet he was never bitter.

Waxed figures representing the men to show how tiny the jail really was

They could hardly even stand up straight, one of the men was left hunched back the rest of his life from the experience.

Here we are with Papa Van. Can you tell from the photo Sophie was not in the mood for being held? As darling as it normally is, Samantha and Sophie were trying to dance and sing together during a very "spiritual" presentation, which was rather stressful for us as parents.

On the way to the airport with Uncle Darin in tow. He had a flight back to Sacramento the same time as our flight to Chicago. Aunt Staci and the kids were heading on to Oklahoma to spend a week with her older sister.

Independence, Missouri

We were so wrecked by this stage we missed out driving by Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Far West, and Hauns Mill. There are just markers at these spots and we couldn't face the extra 2 hour drive on top of the already 4 hour drive just to see markers. I was excited to be back in downtown America again and was excited to see some of my favourite restaurants off the freeway as we drove closer to Kansas City. The next day we visited our own Church visitors center on the 63 1/2 acre lot that was dedicated by Joseph Smith for the Temple and land of Zion. It was nice to visit and I took the tour that showed a typical log cabin they would have built there, and saw a printing press similar to that of the William W. Phelps printing press before it was burnt down and destroyed by a mob.

Fun in the hotel pool with Aunt Jashel

The statue of the Christus

Children's play area in our visitors center. Best idea ever!

What I was really interested in, was visiting the Community of Christ's Temple (RLDS) across the road. I have to say I was really disappointed with the visit, I expected to find a lot more in common with them doctrine wise, but as I spoke with some of the guides there and read their literature, they have moved so far away from the original church and even embrace the Trinity as doctrine, how does that fit in with Joseph's Smith's Vision, which they now just call a "divine experience"? I guess when they changed their name and joined some big christian union they changed their teachings to be more "mainstream". However it was still very cool to walk around their Temple which is a place of learning, concerts or conferences, and worship.

View of the Community of Christ Temple

Inside view of the spiral

Their symbol of the cross

The living waters at the end of the Worshipers path in the Temple

Organ inside the arena where they would hold general conferences or concerts

"I want flat hair Mummy"

Samantha asks for flat hair every week or two, but I rarely oblige as it takes some serious hot straighteners to make it work and is so time consuming. Then give it a few hours and the kinks are coming back already. But, for today I let her have it straight. I thought you all might want to see what she looks like with straight hair. The first time I ever did it I thought she looked really scary, but now it's starting to grow on me a bit. Sophie wanted in the photo taking too, she's a cute little curly bap like her big sister. I wonder if our baby boy will have curls too?

Sisterly Love

Some summer fun

We've managed to have a little bit of outside fun, despite our rain every day. Here's some photos of picnic's in the park with friends (under the shelter of a tree of course), feeding the ducks with a walk around the lake, playing on the swings and slides, visiting Indiana Land (indoor play area), and visiting Tanaghmore Gardens and Farm. We've spent a lot of time inside drawing, painting, watching movies, and baking too, just never think to take pictures until after.

Wanna be Princess Samantha

Samantha can't seem to wait to grow up, be a princess, find her prince, and always look pretty with her makeup. Good thing she's got a few years to perfect the look based on the photos I took the other day. On a more painful note, she knocked her cousin Andrew in the head yesterday with her 2 front teeth, and one is sore and wobbling. I thought I'd look on the Internet as to what is done in that situation and the answer seems to be nothing!! What's worse is, if the tooth is damaged bad enough it dies, turns grey, and eventually black - aahhhhhhh !!!!!!!! That's it until she gets her permanent one through. They don't remove it as it can mess up the new teeth coming in. Here's hoping we don't see any signs of grey in the next few days or her dreams of being a princess will have to be put on hold for a few years, she'll look more like a pirate, and we'll look like bad parents who don't know the first thing about dental hygiene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carthage Jail

This was a wonderful place to visit. We visited there on a Sunday, our last day in the Nauvoo area. It amazes me that people in Carthage would have had issue with Joesph as it is about 25 miles way, so in those days would have been a 6 hour horseback ride. I was a little stressed throughout our tour as it is such a sacred place for so many of our faith, and I didn't want our girls to ruin the experience for anyone. They did really well, and we sang I am a child of God at one point in the tour and Sophie stopped her fussing and just listened. As we entered into the room where the Joseph and Hyrum where martyred the missionary leading our tour told us we would have some time to reflect about the events there and if anyone wanted to share any thoughts or feelings they were free to do so......silence.....my worst nightmare with 2 young kids. I quickly said a prayer in my heart that Sophie would be quiet and this is what she did whilst we all sat quietly for a few moments, it was precious.

Can you believe the door has been preserved all these years with the bullet hole that killed the Prophet's Brother Hyrum?

The window out of which the Prophet Joesph Smith fell to his death and sealed his testimony with his own blood.

The well marks the spot where Joesph lay dead after falling out of the window of the Upper room in the jail, I believe he actually lay there for 2 days before being taken away for burial.

Mum, Dad, and me. I hate all these photos, I think I managed to gain about 10 pounds in the 2 weeks we were away. It was very traumatizing, but thankfully about 6 pounds of it turned out to water weight from the heat, but boy did I start to look and feel very prego on this trip!

Nauvoo continued

Below the Tagged and Noah's Ark entries

Tagged

The rules of the game are each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
10 Years Ago: I had been on my mission for 5 months and was stuck inside an apartment with my companion in a little farm village called Benhausen. She had run into a tree on her bike the first day I arrived in the area.

5 Things on my to-do list today: 1. Dry my hair, 2. Get the girls dressed 3. Babysit for my sister while she's at the dentist 4. Go to the dentist myself 5. Help Deldon update his CV.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Rent our house out, buy 2 homes - one in the USA, one in Ireland and live between the 2 countries the rest of my life. Pay off all family mortgages and find some great charities to work with.

3 of my bad habits: 1. Eating too many packets of crisps and chocolate bars 2. Speaking before I think 3. Being pessimistic

5 places I have lived: 1.Belfast, N. Ireland. 2. Lisburn, Northern Ireland 3. Provo, Utah. 4. Solingen, Germany 5. Sacramento, California.

5 jobs I have had: 1. Balancing check books and a/c statements for my dad. 2. Customer Service advisor for Etams 3. Clerk and phone technician for BYU IT Services 5. Network Documenter for BYU IT Services 5. Broker Coordinator for a Mortgage company called Loan City.

5 things people don't know about me: 1. I have a bronze level medal for Latin American dancing (got it when I was 6 lol). 2. I'm a wanna be scrapbooker, cutsie craftsie person 3. I love the smell of America (it has it's own distinct smell, you smell it as soon as you set foot in the airport after you land) 4. I have 2 veneered front teeth 5. Thanks to this pregnancy so far I am 2 pounds shy of 12 stone, yikes!!

I tag Jen Ruggles, Amanda, Tom & Amy, Rachael Johns, and Natalie Hart.

Noah's Ark sounded pretty good yesterday

We are having a miserable summer here, in fact you couldn't even call it summer. I keep telling Samantha that our baby is coming in the winter and she keeps reminding me that it is winter already. I feel so bad having to tell her it is actually summer, even though it's so dark and wet outside we have to put our house lights on by 3pm in the afternoon...aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
I have never ever in my life feared the risk of flooding in this rainy country, but yesterday for the first time I was worried!!! I kept looking outside my front window thinking this place was going to flood. I have been sick since last Sunday and Deldon was gone at YM's camp this week which was a complete wash out, they had to abandon camp after the first night and seek shelter in a portacabin building of a branch of our Church in Omagh. When he arrived home yesterday afternoon I was itching to get out of the house despite the torrential downpour outside, so I ventured into town to go shopping for baby boy clothes. I have to say I am becoming more and more disappointed with the lack of cute baby boy clothes compared to girls, it's been bursting my bubble of joy a bit. I've gone shopping twice, the first time came home with only a hat and matching mitts and the second time came home with 7 body suits and 5 sleep suits - woo who!! I'm ready and willing to spend, just can't find stuff I really like. Oh well, at least our bank account will be healthier for it. But back to the flooding, the roads were wild and when Deldon went out that evening to get our Saturday night Chinese just around the corner, he was greeted with sand bags, a closed confectionery store, and a closed chippy obviously trying to keep the water out. A big thank you must go to our brave Chinese Takeout that was still open despite the start of a swimming pool in it, so I could enjoy my yummy half chips / half fried rice with curry sauce, and battered chicken balls with kung po sauce. Here's a photo of a new underpass about 10 minutes drive from us joining one of our motorways with a place called the west link. Someone will be on the chopping block for this engineering disaster!

Nauvoo continued.......

Few realized precisely where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were buried. In those days of the early 1840's there were many, especially from Missouri, who despised Joseph and because there was a bounty on his head, close family members feared that his body would not be safe.
Thus, after Joseph and Hyrum's bodies had finished lying in state in the dining room of the hotel wing of the Smith's Mansion House, their coffins were filled with sand and rocks and buried near the temple. For protection, Joseph and Hyrum were buried behind the foundation of the unfinished Nauvoo House, and remained there until 1845. Then, at Emma's instruction because construction work was resuming at the site, their bodies were buried under the old springhouse, in the corner of what today is the Smith family cemetery.
There the bodies laid, in unmarked graves, marked only by a spring house, until, with time, the wooden structure itself collapsed-and then the spot was forgotten. In 1913, a dam was built on the Mississippi at Keokuk, Iowa, just 12 miles downriver from Nauvoo. By 1928, since the river had risen, President Frederick Madison Smith of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hired a surveyor to locate the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum. They searched the area, finally found the former location of the spring house and moved the bodies only a few feet and marked them with a stone.
Recently and gladly stone markers have also been placed on the graves of the prophet's parents, Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith.

Sitting outside the Smith home, and the grave site of the Prophet Joesph Smith. Deldon and I took turns visiting the grave markers whilst the girls were napping in the car. It was lovely just to stop and think about all Joesph did and gave in restoring the Gospel to the earth.

Deldon outside the Mansion Home of Brigham Young, pretty nice for the 1800's.

This was a cool little stop, where you get to learn about how they made bricks in Nauvoo. Each family receives a brick to take home as a souvenir. We also visited the Blacksmiths where they give you each a prairie ring (a horse shoe nail bent into the shape of a ring - very cool)


In the concluding dedicatory session of the Nauvoo Temple, President Hinckley made a special request of all those who were then in Nauvoo. He asked everyone to take a few minutes to "walk down Parley Street to the waterfront," to the landing on the Mississippi River from which the Saints departed Nauvoo and crossed into Iowa on their westward trek. He asked members to leave behind the comfort of their air-conditioned cars, to walk along this sacred path and take time to read the plaques along the Trail of Hope. We did this, but I'm afraid we stayed in our air conditioned car, I've never felt heat like I felt it there. Here's just one of the 30 plaques we read.

I loved walking around the Women's Garden at the Visitor's center. It portrays the life of a women from a little girl, to a fulfilled mature women at the end of her life and all the milestones in between.




Me hoping for my boy

Daddy and his girls


The Sunday evening before we left for Missouri a family testimony meeting was held and it was lovely to hear every one's favourite moments of the trip so far,and to be reminded of what binds us eternally as a family.

Some of Deldon's family outside the Nauvoo Temple