As some of you may know, my birthday is today, and I get pretty excited about my birthday.  And I absolutely love surprises.  Luckily, I married a husband who is pretty dang good at surprises.  One of the things I asked Roger for, for my birthday was to go on a fun date that he planned that had a few surprises.  So on Saturday, we got a babysitter from 3-7 and Roger told me he had a good date planned. 

After saying goodbye to Bryston and the babysitter, we got in the car and Roger proceeded to blind fold me.  We started driving away, and I got completely lost on the map in my head and had no idea where we were going.  Finally, the car stopped, and he pulled off the blindfold.  You can imagine that I was pretty surprised to see that we were in front of a gun shop.  I looked at him kind of weird, and he said, "Come on."  We went inside and he told me that he was going to get me a gun for my birthday.  Well, I didn't expect that.  We went up to the counter, and Roger told the store clerk what we were getting.  The guy replied, "So you're getting her a gift for yourself."  I kind of laughed.  Well, he showed us a few guns, but honestly he wasn't that helpful.  He just kept saying that it was all a matter of preference.  Well, considering I don't know anything about guns, I don't have a preference.  To me it just looked like there was a long row of black guns, a long row of silver guns, and a long row of mini guns.  Roger kept asking me which one I liked, and I said I had no idea. 

The clerk then recommended that we actually take a gun class before making the decision.  I agreed, and said I'd like to shoot the different types of guns before choosing one.  Also, the clerk said I shouldn't shoot a gun until after I'm not pregnant because the loud noise can hurt the baby's ears.  So we decided to hold off on a gun purchase a little longer. 

After looking at guns we went bowling on post.  It was a lot of fun considering I won Roger.  Luckily I remembered to make a bet with him before we began playing.  Whoever lost had to make the other one breakfast.  Well, Roger lost, so this morning he actually made me waffles which were delicious.

Once we finished bowling, we headed over to Olive Garden for dinner.  At the beginning of our meal, Roger said he needed to go to the bathroom.  Little did I know he was working his magic elf powers.  Because after we finished dinner, the waitress brought out a delicious cake for me and wished me happy birthday.  At first I almost wondered who she was saying happy birthday too, since I never heard Roger tell her it was my birthday.  Apparently, when he "went to the bathroom" he was actually talking to her waitress.  He asked her if they did anything for birthdays.  She said they didn't, but that there was a cake he could get for $8.  Roger, said not to worry about it then, and then she said, "No worries, it's on the house.  I'll bring her a cake."  Wow!  So we got a delicious cake. 

As we were leaving the restaurant, Roger once again said he had to go to the bathroom.  I was a little suspicious this time, but couldn't think of anything he would be doing.  Lo and behold, he was doing more elf work once again as you will soon see.

We drove home, and I walked into the front door and was surprised to see all the lights off in the house.  I said I was home, and little Bryston came running to me.  I picked him up, and walked around the corner, and was shocked when tons of people popped up and said, "Surprise!"  The whole room was decorated, there was cake and ice cream, and a bunch of our friends there.  I completely did not expect this. 

I guess Roger had been planning this for the whole week.  Thursday night around 9pm, he said he was going to buffalo wild wings to get some 99 cent buffalo wings or something.  I thought that was really odd.  Apparently, he actually went to the store and bought all the decorations, cake, and ice cream, and took them to our neighbor.  Then at the restaurant when he "went to the bathroom" he was calling them to say we were on our way.  What a tricky guy.  I was very impressed to say the least, and he made me quite happy. 

Everyone stayed around for awhile to eat cake & ice cream, and then to play games.  It really was a lot of fun. 

On Sunday, July 24th I was asked to speak in church.  They asked me to speak about preparing to enter the temple, and to focus on the scriptures in Moroni 10:32-33 which tell us how we can become "Holy Without Spot". 

I began my talk with the questions, "What do you think it will be like to meet God?"  "Is there a way to prepare to meet him?"  Well, the answer is that there is a way we can prepare to meet God and even practice for that great day.  And I like to find my answer to these types of questions with a marathon.

I then went on to tell them about how I had never wanted to do a marathon and thought it was even a dumb idea.  But in 2008 I went to my brother's marathon, and I watched a guy come 10 feet within the finish line.  His knees were bright red and were bulging.  Well, 10 feet from the finish line he collapsed and then started crawling until he crawled across the finish line.  This is what motivated me to sign up for the St. George Marathon.

Once I was signed up, I almost wondered what I had gotten myself into.  So I started looking for a way to prepare, and I found a good training schedule online that involved long runs, short timed workouts, and cross training.  I started following this plan, and gradually prepared for the big day.  I remember the first time I ran a 13 miler and it almost killed me.  At that point I wanted to give up on the idea that I would ever be able to run 26 miles.  Well, I stuck to the schedule and kept training, and eventually I did a 23 mile run.  By that point I finally felt prepared for the marathon. 

Well, the day came.  I got up early, the gun went off, and I started running.  And I have to tell you that I felt great.  At mile 22 my whole family was there cheering me on.  They thought I would look dead, but instead I was full of energy, smiling, and I even waved at them.  In the end, I was able to finish the whole 26.2 miles.

Preparing to meet God is like running a marathon.  He is at the finish line, and it can be difficult to get there.  In fact, it would be almost impossible without preparing and training.  God has given us a plan with different things we need to do to prepare to meet God at the finish line.  In fact, we can practice preparing to meet God, every time we prepare to go to the temple.  The temple is God's house, so when you prepare to go there, then you are literally preparing to meet Him.  So what do we need to do to prepare to go to the temple?  Well, the answer to this can be found in Moroni 10:32-33 which says:

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

I broke this scripture down into almost an equation.  Basically our end goal is to become "perfect in Christ" or "Holy without spot". The reason we have to become basically perfect is because no unclean thing can be in the presence of God.  So if we're preparing to meet God then we need to be perfect in Christ.  This seems impossible, but this scripture tells us three things we can do to achieve it.  We need to:

1. Love God with all your might, mind and strength
2. Deny yourselves of all ungodliness
3. Accept the Grace of God or the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

When we do these three things we will be perfect in Christ. 

I then went on to elaborate on these three things.  We can love God by loving and serving our neighbors.  This will change the whole way we do things.  And as we fill our lives with more love and service, we will naturally get rid of some of the sins and the unholy things in our lives.

To deny ourselves of ungodliness we need to realize what we are doing wrong and then repent of those things.  One of the ways we can know what we're doing wrong is by seeking correction.  Correction comes through prayer, the scriptures, leaders, our spouse, parents, from within, the Holy Ghost, and from those around us.  When God corrects us, it is his way of showing his love for us.  It's his way of saying, he hasn't given up on us, he still sees our potential, and he knows how we can reach it. 

Finally, we must believe in the Atonement.  We can only do so much, but we will always fall short.  We must repent of our sins so we can partake of the mercy of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  And each of us can be forgiven and must believe that. 

In conclusion, as we love God, deny ourselves of ungodliness, and accept the Atonement we will be perfect in Christ and Holy Without Spot.  We will then be prepared to go to the temple, and in turn be prepared to meet God. 

This last month I have really gotten into doing crafts and have loved it.  Here are some of the crafts I have made over the last month or so:

On July 21st we had a baby shower for all the military ladies in Roger's class that were pregnant.  That included me, Chelle Langford, Nydia Martin, Tammy Stark, & Christie Taylor.  Since there were so many of us, we called it a Celebration of Babies instead of a baby shower. 

Micala and Angie did most of the work for the party by making the decorations, organizing the food, sending out the invites, and getting the presents.  The party ended up being a lot of fun.  We had delicious food, played some fun games, and then opened presents.  I got a moby wrap, some baby clothes, diapers, and a few more baby items. Here's some pictures:

On July 9th, Roger competed in the Steelhead Triathlon.  The last triathlon he did, was the week before we got married in 2008.  We both did the St. George Sprint triathlon, and I beat Roger in both the swim and the bike.  Well, I have to say that Roger has come a long way since then.  Now he is an avid bike rider, and will go out on 80 mile bike rides.  He also takes time to practice swimming and running each week. 

Although, Roger struggled on the 800M swim, he kicked butt in the 12 mile bike ride, and the 5k run, and ended up catching up to a lot of people.  His total time was 1:20:30.  We still didn't think that he had won anything, so we left before the award ceremony.  Well, lo and behold, our friends stayed for the awards and called us up saying Roger had won something.  They came to our house and handed him a trophy that said 3rd Place Overall Military Male.  I'm super proud of him. 

This triathlon, motivated Roger to get better.  Since then he's been practicing his swim, and has cut a lot of time off of it.  He's already signed up for several more triathlons, and in October he's going to do the half ironman.  I just wish I could join him, but alas I'm pregnant.  Asi es la vida.  Until then, Go Roger!

On July 16th, our friend Micala had a 5k run to raise awareness for the charity group she works for.  They help kids in Ukraine (I think) get adopted by locals there.  Our shirts said, "Orphan Nation".  This is because there are enough orphans in the world to make up a nation which would be the 3rd biggest nation in the world.  It was really cool.  I just walked it.  It's sad to see how slow I am when I'm pregnant.  But I'm really impressed by her work for this organization.  I have several adopted nephews and nieces, and am grateful for all those who are willing to adopt. 

In Arizona during the summer we have what they call "Monsoon Season".  Everybody told us about it when we arrived, and now we are partaking of it's glory.  Basically every day, or every 2 to 3 days it downpours for about an hour during the day.  Also, there is a ton of lightening. This actually cools it down, so that it's only in the 90's.  Honestly, June was the hottest month here, and since then it hasn't been that bad.  Anyways, one of the days after a rainstorm, we went on a walk and saw a beautiful rainbow.  You can see pictures below.

Bryston has also been super cute lately.  He is officially 18 months now and went to nursery for the first time on Sunday.  He loved it and didn't even cry when Roger and I left him.  The only time he cried during nursery was when they put away the toys, but he was quickly calmed down when they brought out snacks.  I guess he sat in a chair at the table with all the other kids.  He's getting so big. 

He still isn't talking much, but has started to finally say "dada".  He also loves to "meow".  It's pretty cute.  He absolutely loves books.  He'll bring book after book up to me and then come sit by me so I can read it to him.  He listens really well.  He also is pretty good at listening to directions, if he wants to listen anyways.  He helps me clean up his toys, and he'll help me out by grabbing things for me.  The other day he even helped me load the dishwasher.  I love it. 

He also continues to insist to be all grown up.  Lately he really wants to drink out of a real cup instead of a sippy cup.  The only problem is that it makes a huge mess as seen in some of the pictures below.  He is also running now, and loves to play tag, and also loves to run away from me when I'm trying to put him in his car seat.  And he has figured out how to arch his back if he doesn't want you to pick him up.  He's getting ready for the terrible twos.  He hates brushing his teeth, but he loves baths.  He also loves to swim. 

And I must not forget.  When he gets upset, he bangs his head against things, such as a chair, the fire place, my knee, a book, the ground, or the wall.  He usually bangs his head against something and then starts crying because it hurts.  I know I shouldn't laugh, but I think it's pretty hilarious! 

We sure love our little guy.  And we hope that he will love the new little guy that will be here in 2 months.  Right now Bryston likes to use my belly as a pillow.  It's cute.