Inviting all to come unto Christ: Sharing the gospel

The General Young Men's Presidency has set a goal of having this video clip reach 100,00 hits in the next 2 1/2 weeks.

It is about Junior Reyes, from Florida, who was the only young man in his branch. He decided he needed to "open his mouth" and start inviting his friends to church. That friend told a friend, who told a friend and the group grew rapidly and these young men are on fire with sharing the gospel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynVgDWKWHtU

PS- as a return missionary myself, I have to say these boys are all going to be remarkable missionaries.

New Beginnings.

We had our New Beginnings program last night for the Young Woman in our ward.  I wanted to share a few highlights.  We had each of the Laurels and Mia Maids spotlight a Beehive - they did such a great job.  Our Personal Progress advisors put together a really great presentation on our 2011 Mutual Theme which is the 13th Article of Faith.  We decorated in black and white and all wore black and white to represent the difference between right and wrong.

The old YW presidency gave the girls a necklace {pictured below} for Christmas.  Tonight we gave the girls two charms to wear on the necklace.  One is a '13' for the 13th Article of Faith and one says "believe"
I made the boxes pictured above which we put the charms in.

We served homemade 'oreo' cookies and cupcakes with chocolate '13' on them.

book club.

Saturday morning Tara hosted book club at her house.  We read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  I really liked this book.  It's about a young shepherd boy who is in search of a treasure that he learns about from a recurring dream.  He meets several different characters along the way that each teach him an important lesson about life.  The main motto of the book is "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"  The young boy faces lots of challenges but he never seems to let them get him down.

I give this book four and a half stars out of five.

Thanks Tara for a good breakfast, good food and good girl time!

Next we are reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

I don't know anything about the book!

When I first found out I was pregnant I bought this book You: Having a baby.  I have been casually reading it but I decided since I am on the count down to baby #2 being born I would read it more seriously.  It has some very interesting and good information in it.  So far I really like it.

Christine.

My aunt Christine did this pencil drawing of Truman for me.  I just got it back from the framers today and wanted to show off her amazing talent.

Our fireplace mantel is not normally a shrine of Truman but it is for now until I get these pictures hung in Trumans' room.

Here are the photos I took that my aunt drew from.

Amazing.

Thank you Christine!!!

idaho.

This weekend we took a trip to Idaho to visit family.  We took our 'other' son McKay with us {because technically we were suppose to be in Park City 'babysitting' him while my parents were out of town}.
Some of my cousins from out of town where in town for the weekend so we went to see them.  We also had a baby shower for Molly {and soon to be baby William}.  I took the most random pictures this weekend.  I was most bummed I didn't take a picture of Molly at her shower {although I did take pictures of the food!} and I really wished I would have taken a picture of the little kids, Truman, Dallin and Crew playing together.  Bummer.
During the shower the 'boys' went bowling.  Thanks Joel!
Above is a picture of the most delicious lemon cake my aunt Ilene made for the shower and below is a picture of the baby shower party favors.

Cute baby Crew..almost one!

We can't go anywhere without a basketball hoop!  This was well worth the $1.00 I spent at Wal-Mart.  Truman played ball during the shower - and all weekend for that matter {until he formed a random but serious phobia of the carpet...}

Truman must be hungry he is eating food off Dallin's tray.  Thanks for sharing Dallin!

Cute Crew again.

Thanks Trents for letting us crash your family party.  We had a great weekend.

kids.

I really wanted the Simons kids to take a picture all together over the holidays.

I told them it could count as their 'family history' for the year.

Bob, Lynn Simons, Tara McGown, Becka Cragun, Krista Faulkner, Gregg Simons, Brad Simons

What a good looking family :)

double time.

It's time to invest in a double stroller.  I have been doing some research for a couple of months.  Here are the strollers I am considering - I wanted to get some opinions before I make a final purchase (if you have one of these strollers and have any pros or cons you want to share that would be great).

I don't really run with my stroller.  If I want to go on a serious run I will go without kids.  I do walk alot with Turman in my jogger stroller now so I do want my new double to be light weight and easy to push.  And, it needs to fold easily and fit into the back of my car.

Baby Jogger: Performance

Baby Trend: Expedition

I am not sure I would like the swivel front wheel...

Bob: Ironman

 Bumble Ride: Indie Twin

(I don't know how I feel about the double front wheel)

InStep: Run Around LTD

Schwinn: Free Runner 2

I have a Schwinn Single Jogger now and I LOVE it...so I am tempted to go with Schwinn again.

grandkids.

Here is a picture Krista took Christmas Eve of all the Simons grandkids. 

I was standing behind her singing "Once there was a snowman" at the top of my lungs looking like an idiot while all the parents laughed at me! But we did get a good picture!

{Presley McGown, Elliott Faulkner, Stella McGown, Jonas Faulkner, Lincoln Cragun,  Truman Simons}