Celebration Saturday

 After Autumn's shower this morning she wanted me to do her hair. She asked for 2 French braids, and she looked soooooo cute!

 I took her over to Papa & Mimi's b/c Mimi said she would watch her for me while I went to the Stake Relief Society celebration. I sure LOVE my Autumn Girl.

 I had kind of debated if I really wanted to go or not. 9:00 am on a Saturday is pretty early. Plus, I was going to go w/ 3 different friends and they all had to bail at the last minute. But y'all, I am sooooooo glad I went. It was amazing, phenomenal, and exactly what I needed.

 We started in the chapel where there was an hour long program about the history of the Relief Society. There was a lovely slide show that went along with it. They also had several women in the stake come up and narrate the parts, which was very effective. There were also some amazing musical numbers! The Stake President gave some remarks and talked about how we often have a plan for our life, but things rarely turn out that way. If we'll have faith & trust in the Lord, our lives can be so much better than we ever had planned for ourselves.

After the nice program, we split into 2 groups for 2 different workshops. One was about Celebrating the Everyday. The lady that did it was AMAZING & so much fun! She had little music clips to introduce each suggestion, and then she would share some thoughts and ideas. It was VERY well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 The second workshop was about celebrating spiritual gifts. It was so different from the first workshop, but was so incredible and amazing in its own way. The lady speaking shared the following about prayer from the Bible dictionary:

The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that we must ask for in order to obtain.

She then shared a thought that came to her. What if after we die, we get to heaven and there is a room full of baskets. Each basket is labeled with a name. When we find our basket and take it down from the shelf, what if it is FULL of things that we could have had but never asked for??? Wouldn't that be so heartbreaking to look in the basket and think, "I could have had THAT if only I had asked?" or "I could have BEEN that if only I had asked?" or "I could have BLESSED so and so's life if only I had asked?" She then shared how she hopes that when we all get to heaven, that we will find only EMPTY BASKETS. It was very powerful and extremely touching.

 I was so overcome with emotion the whole conference. The Spirit was just overflowing, and I am beyond thankful that I attended. After the workshops, they had a delicious lunch that was kind of like Cafe Rio. YUM!

 These cupcakes were delicious. I had gotten up to go throw away my trash, and I saw a woman sitting alone. I STINK at small talk, so I was going to go back to my group of ward sisters, but I felt strongly that I needed to sit down and talk to her. I am so thankful that I did. We ended up having a very deep & open & spiritual conversation. She is definitely a "kindred spirit" and I would have missed out on that if I had ignored the prompting! WOW .. what a morning!

 I got back to Mom & Dad's around 12:30 and sat and talked w/ Mom for a while. We offered for her to come out shopping with us, but she said she needed to stay home and get some things done. We are so blessed beyond belief to have her for our Mimi!!!

 Autumn had some birthday money that was burning a hole in her pocket, so we headed off to go shopping. It was a GORGEOUS day outside, and we're glad Savi could come with us. That way she was able to get out of the house for a little bit.

 We went to the crepe place, b/c Savi had never been there. Plus, Autumn got all A's & B's on her progress report so I told her she had earned it. I was good and had just a bite of each of their crepes. It was so lovely to sit and visit and enjoy good food with a nice breeze coming in from outside. We walked over to Nick's work to say hi to him, and he was so surprised to see us. Savi was so happy to give him a hug and a kiss.

 After that, we went to a consignment store that we had never been to before. Autumn wanted to spend some birthday money. She tried on all of these dresses but none of them worked for her. However, she found several cute shirts that were only $7 a piece! She looked adorable and was so excited to wash them and wear them.

 We went back to Mom & Dad's house after that b/c Savi was DONE for the day. This pregnancy has been really hard on her b/c she's been so tired and so sick. Poor thing! We spent the rest of the evening making chicken soup, watching TV, and just spending time together. I had to snap this pic, b/c I am sooooooo going to miss having Mom & Dad home when they leave soon for their next mission! Mom is always working on some sort of mending or sewing project. What a great example she is!

When Autumn & I got home, Frank asked if we had checked the mail yet. I was sooooo excited that I literally RAN (and for those of you that know me, you know I do NOT run) to the mailbox. Inside was a small package and inside was a new wireless speaker w/ some treats and a super sweet card. Frank said he was walking through the store one day and saw that and thought of Autumn & I. He knows we like to have fun dance parties in the living room & this has great sound so we could really have fun with it! Soooooooooooo stinkin' sweet & thoughtful & tender! What a guy!!!!