Life lesson

There’s a quote that I came across while I was at work a couple of days ago. It has been a very powerful advice that I felt from heaven. It almost feels like a warning. A warning that opened my eyes to a bigger perspective.

 As we started a new year, I felt the impression of what I needed to do to become better. I was at the urge of trying to stay above the water, but something heavy kept pulling me down. And I often would feel angry, jealous, mad, prideful, etc. I felt everything good was being pulled away. Months later, I started to recognize the things that I have been doing wrong and things I knew that I cant blame my human side forever.  I desperately wanted to get over what was boiling inside me and get over feeling so mad and jealous all the time. I had to stop feeling sorry for myself and start doing something about my life. Only I can change the outcome of every mistakes and success. I started working out, and started changing my diet. I then started to feel better about my life but that didn’t kept me from feeling jealous and mad all the time. Sure it covered the emotions temporarily. I guess its one of those things that wont heal if you just put a bandage over a deep wound. I started to rip the bandage and dig deep down and pulled out everything that could make me feel the way I feel.. I started to share my feelings to someone maybe a coworker… I cant remember who.. And after I shared all of what was in there.. Things were starting to look better. I guess. Maybe not exactly but it was somewhat better. After I said all these things… I said a prayer in my heart, asking Heavenly Father to please help me get over these emotions and help me not let it boil over and ruin good relationships that I interact with. After I said a prayer, a quote came through. I don’t know if I have it down correctly. But it says. “Comparisons crushes JOY” I kept repeating this line over and over again and tried to learn something from it. I slept on that quote and then I realize that was exactly what I was doing to make myself mad, angry, jealous, prideful etc. That was what kept me from moving forward. I was so busy looking at how green everyone’s grass is instead of being happy for them. Everyone grass will get green in their lifetime but in their own time. Something that made me think about this analogy was that even if their grass is greener than yours, if you look close enough… they are also battling their own struggles as well. And that maybe there’s a dry patch in their grass and you cant see it because you are a thousand miles away. But regardless how green it is, I don’t need to compare my grass to theirs. I don’t know exactly what is going on in everyone’s lives therefore I don’t need to be jealous of them and mad for their success. I need to be let it go and move on. It’s always those tough lessons that stick with you for a lifetime. I am grateful that I am daughter, a wife and a mother.

Tonights cupcake

I had so much fun baking cupcakes today. It is so easy and fun! We had the Spanish Elders today and boy do I have a story to tell. So, there is a new family that moved into the ward not too long ago. She and I knew each other from work. She came in after I gave birth and I would go in to work if they needed an extra hand. So she and I were able to get to know each other a little bit.. maybe not enough. Anyways. She also moved into our apartment complex and her name is Vanessa as well. She also has a baby too. So when we signed up to feed the spanish elders tonight, I told them our address and we will see them tonight. So as time went by, It was getting really late. We called, and texted them and no answer. Later tonight, I got a text message saying that the Elders came by and shared a message with them. And one of the Elders said the prayer and he said were thankful for the murphys! And then everything went down hill from there.. well not exactly downhill it was more like a laugh a ton. One of the Elders got mixed up with the area and didn't realize that they were in the wrong home. Thankfully Vanessa and her husband were so nice to let them in. Although his companion knew that they were in the wrong place and waited till after to laugh about the error.  (he was pretty new tho. Both of them just got transferred and we got new sets of spanish elders) So they called us and told us that they are on their way. haha. Anyways I didn't get the cupcakes all decorated and pretty in time, so I did it while they were eating. We all enjoyed their company. It was a nice fresh of breath air. Anyways here is a collage of the finish work. I didn't take pictures of all of them. Because by the time I could get to it, it was all gone.

(ps you can click on the picture to see it better)

As you can tell, I sure did had so much fun doing them. I enjoy baking and maybe I could pick it up as a side job. So if you know anyone, let me know! I would be so delighted to do cake, cupcakes, or cake pop. And because walmart is having a sale on their cake box I decided to buy a lot of them and use them. It saves me time and money. But the frosting is all homemade and it is so yummy!

       I have also enjoyed making these little cute cake pops. It is so much cheaper to make your own instead of buying them. My mom was telling me that they sell individual cake pops or cake balls for a dollar. AND dude! I could make 40 of these in two dollars. I saved myself some time and money! But after making a bunch of these for Laneah's first birthday party, I totally get why they're a dollar a piece. Anyways I hope you all are having a wonderful week! I made these cake pops for fun! Thankfully I don't eat this all by myself and that I can share the calories. :) 

Oh sweet Laneah

 
Love that cheesy smile of hers

Just a couple of month ago, I finally let her start feeding herself. I know its a little to late for a kid to start feeding themselves. But I feel like she was ready to take on this adventure. AND! She finally mastered the spoon! And I just had to take more than one picture. So excuse me for being so so so so so proud of my little girl!

She is teething again! The molars are coming in and they are coming in strong! Four new teeth are coming in and at the same time! I guess its better that they're coming in all at once instead of just one at a time. I guess its a blessing in disguise.

Even when she is teething, she is a happy kid. We love having her around! She is growing so fast. She is now 30 inches and 19lbs. Her favorite thing to do when she first wakes up is say bear bear bear! And she would run to her bear and cuddle with it. She still loves to read books in her own special way. She loves the word No. She doesn't like to be called Abigail and she will correct you and will let you know her name is neah! She loves the temple. She is still shy around people but will warm up to you if you give her a chance. She loves to play games. She is still a great sleeper! Especially when she is teething. holy cow! She sleeps from 7pm to 830 or 9am. And still a great nap taker. She takes about 2-3 hour naps. sometimes when she's really tired. she takes two..She is also a good eater. She loves to eat! Especially rice! She loves loves her daddy and thinks the whole world of him. We truly love being her parents. Okay. I'm done bragging about her. well not really ;)

Late post! Happy Halloween!

Halloween was pretty fun! It was my first time to go out with Laneah. I wasn't feeling so great last year and didn't feel like going. It was sooo cold last year and prob one of the reasons why I didn't want to go. hah! Joshua, Sandy, Will And Eric were able to come up and spend Halloween with us. It was so fun to go trick or treating together. :) Oh and the best part of it is that the weather was perfect!! It is so fun to see Laneah and Will go trick or treating. They're in such a fun age. William would go to every door and say trick or treat. He was so cute saying it. I wish I could have recorded it. :D

Laneah costume was something along the lines with a fairy. And we were trying to make her be a monkey but we couldn't find her monkey hat. These two truly are like best friends! Sometimes Laneah ask to see William. 

 

oh the high ropes

Whoops! I forgot to show you the things we did on my birthday weekend. Since It was on a tuesday, we decided to celebrate it the weekend up to it. I didn't want to do something big this year because I wasn't too excited to turn 26. I feel like its just another reminder that I am not getting any younger. Lol anyways heres is a sneak peek of it.

It was Laneah's first time to the mountains. I think she did pretty good.

We had to sign a waiver to make sure that we are okay to go up 21 feet above ground. And many times someone had to remind us we are parents to a one year old. lol. it was a fun experience. Idk if ill do it again. But it was fun! I think this kind of adventure is nathan's kind of fun.

see how natural He looks! He had so much fun. especially when the wind came rushing through. :P

   

These courses were pretty hard and scary. They move as you get on.  Sometimes you are up there doing the splits and trying hard to pull the log closer to you. And you're up there for a while. I tried so hard not to look down... way too scary.

Don't let the face fool you! It was scary! especially when you have a lot of little kids trying to get on the same station as you! :P

  




I don't know if she was having a great time. But it sure was passed her nap time.

 Christina finally got up on the ropes and after one thing she was done! She is truly afraid of heights.

 

 Over all it was a great birthday weekend. It was well spent with people I love. High adventures like these make me feel even more alive everyday. I can't wait to see what this year has to offer. :)

Something new & Something old

You guys! I found a new hobby. Well, its always has been my favorite hobby, but I didn't realize how much i loving doing this till recently.. Lets just say a month ago, I bought myself a decorating tip tools with my birthday money. And it has been the best thing that I've ever done and wished that I have done it a long time ago. I love to bake and decorate as well. I guess I didn't realize that I have a talent for it till recently. It has been so much fun to play with my decorating tool set. One night, my mom came home with some tubs of frostings. She said, "Vanessa, I got you some frosting that you can use to practice with." Ever since that night, I haven't been able to put that decorating to stop. Well, I try to decorate a cake or cupcakes once a week. I have finally figured out to make my own frosting. And it has been so fun. :)I would spend sometime on youtube on how to decorate cakes and cupcakes and finally put that learning to use. :) so enjoy. Hopefully it doesn't make you too hungry. :P (oh i even got the muffin pans for my birthday a long time ago! thanks mom &dad... its still the best bday gift ever)

I made this for  our big FHE and use monsters as the theme. Since the next day was going to be halloween. It was so much fun!! And of course so yummy. My favorite feedback from the cupcake was stevie's respond. He said, Auntie neyney these cupcakes are delicious. I don't really like frostings but i really like this one." that made me smile.. maybe he said that because he is eating monsters and theres nothing better than you being the monster to the monster. :P 

And after ten attempts, i finally was able to make a rose! :D 

I also made Joshua's birthday cake. It was pretty yummy but I learned a lot from this attempt. It doesn't look pretty but not too bad for the first try. 

This is also my first try in mixing two colors as well. The gray didn't turn out the way i wanted it but the pink was my favorite look. Im learning a lot as I try to make a goal to work on this talent. 

 Heres my second attempt on the cake. I guess I seem pretty happy how it turned out. i kinda liked the colors that i put on the cake.. at first it was looking ugly and then i decided to mix the yellow and orange and red together and it turned out to be pretty. it looked like a sunset on the cake. Baking has been so fun and the weather has been perfect for me to go on a baking spree. :)

my temple visit

This month has been a very uplifting month! We were able to attend the celebration of the Fort Collins temple! It was such an amazing experience! All I could feel is so much gratitude for our youth in our temple district. The amount of work, dedication and faith that they have put into the history of the temple made me feel so appreciative. All those youth could have been doing something different that weekend but they all choose to be there and perform. Its also neat to have President Utchdorf  and his wife there too! Anyways the temple dedication was such a neat experience. I have learned so much from the dedication. There was a talk that was shared and it has changed me forever. He said, " Now that you live closer to the temple, I will share a piece of warning. I warn you to not let the little things get in the way of letting you get to the temple. Sometimes its easy to plan a day to go to the temple when its a little far because you have to plan time to get yourself to the temple. But now that you live closer its so easy to let things get in the way and tell yourself that you will go tomorrow or you'll go next week. And that if you continue to do that, you are only pushing yourself further and further away from the temple." And because he said that, I feel embarrass to even say that I can't go to the temple because I have a mountain of laundry to do. Or Who is going to watch Laneah? So, after that talk I have committed to not let that get in the way of me planning on going to the temple the day I want to go. Anyways, this weekend my mom had saturday off. She wants me to drop her off at the temple so she could spend the whole day there.So I tried to do all my laundry on friday night but that didn't work out.

 So, I dropped my mom at the temple in the morning. It's my first time to drive there since it was dedicated. I have driven to the temple ground many times, but never did I had an overwhelming feeling of love as I drove up to temple ground  this weekend. I knew in my heart that this is the Lord's house! What an amazing feeling to have that be testified to me this weekend!  And I felt prompted that I should try to go to the last session and meet my mom there too.  So, i did all i can the next day. I told myself if i can get all of this laundry done by noon, I can go. So I texted mama Jenni and asked her if she could be willing to watch Laneah. So happy she said yes! I happily went to the temple.

It was such a sweet experience. I remembered even more that I am a daughter of God. And what I was doing in that exact moment was exactly what I needed to do. I urge everyone to get to the temple as often as you can. There is peace and joy when we do enter into the house of the Lord. :)