Shaun's Special Day

Shaun went through the Brigham Temple on April 18th and took out his endowments!  Traver, a good friend and neighbor of ours was Shaun's escort.  There was just a small group that went through with him that included me and my mom, Traver & Ivy, Bishop Sanderson and Laureen, Rob and Lora.

When I saw Shaun for the first time all dressed in white my heart literally skipped a beat.  All the feelings that I felt when I went through came rushing back to me as I saw him sitting there with a look of complete contentedness and peace.  It was an absolutely perfect evening and the most incredible experience to be with Shaun and the others in the Celestial Room.  It leaves me in awe each time I'm in there imagining what Heaven must really be like and the great anticipation our loved ones on the other side must have as they are waiting for us to return.

I was completely surprised to learn that my old Primary teacher, Kathryn Hyer, was going to be my host for the evening.  I didn't get the memo that I was supposed to have an escort, but my mom got there as I was finishing up with the Temple Matron (as well as one other girl and her mom).  It was nice to get to go through that again with more of a clear mind than I had the first time going through.  I love that everytime I go to the temple I learn something new!

My dad and the kids were waiting for us as we came out of the temple and they had plenty of time beforehand to get some pictures taken on the temple grounds.  I am so grateful for each opportunity they have had to be at/in the temple.  They were there waiting when I went through the Logan Temple (except for Kambri), when I did a session at the San Diego Temple, the open house of Brigham Temple, with Shaun and our upcoming sealing.

Warning: picture overload; I couldn't cut any of them out!

We sure love these kiddos of ours!  They're very excited for our upcoming sealing.  Kambri has been questioning Shaun since before the temple was dedicated as to when WE were going there to be sealed.  Several times when we'd drove past (I LOVE that it's on Main Street and I get to drive past it so often) Kambri would say, "Can we go tomorrow night to be sealed?"  She's just been so excited, I know Taylor and Hollie are as well but Kambri has been so passionate about it from the get go so when she realized we were really going, you can only imagine how ecstatic she was.

 I love Shaun so much and I'm so proud of him and the many changes he has made in such a short period of time.  I don't want to put out the wrong impression that he wasn't already great and that our marriage wasn't good, but the changes occurring with him and myself have completely changed our marriage.  I can honestly say that our marriage is the best right now that it's been in 12 (almost) years of marriage.  Until having the Gospel as the center of our marriage, I never could fully understand how it can bring so much greater happiness to a marriage.  It's always been something I've wanted, but at times has seemed so out of reach.  Shaun inspires me to want to be better and I hope that I can be the same for him.  I want to live the kind of life and marriage that my kids will want to have for themselves someday with their spouse.  With having gone through the temple to take out my own endowments just over 4 years ago, I couldn't fully grasp what the temple would do for us TOGETHER someday.  There were amazing blessings in my own life from having gone beforehand, but I know we've not even scratched the surface of things to come with these new changes in our marriage together!

And very shortly...the Bess Family will be an Eternal Family!

What do you do when all of your dreams are being realized?  I get down on my knees and thank my Heavenly Father & Jesus for all that I've been blessed with.  I have wanted this day to come for 12 years and it's really happening!  My cup runneth over!

Blessings of the Priesthood

I'm sure there are lots of things I could talk about that have happened in the last year with Shaun, but bottom line I'm dying to put this out there and share it with any one who will listen.

This is very spiritual in nature to me and my family, but seeing as I'm not a faithful journal writer, this was the next best way for me to preserve such exciting memories for us!

Let me set-up the scenario of how this all came to be.  I had foot surgery in October and I was laid up during the time when my temple recommend was about to expire.  I have the sweetest Bishop and he didn't want it to have to wait until I could make it to church again, so he came to my house for my recommend renewal.  When it was all done, Shaun came walking in to the living room and said to Bishop Sanderson, "we need to talk about what I need to do to get to the temple."  Ok, I'll be honest, my jaw probably dropped to the ground, but of course I tried to act all calm and collected.

So, fast forward a few months and Shaun and I started the temple prep classes.  It was an excellent review for me and he seemed so excited.  Shaun had always told me, "when I start working towards becoming active again and then making it to the temple, hold on, I'll be doing it fast!"  Wasn't sure exactly what that meant but I think I've witnessed it.  The temple prep class was about 4-5 weeks and then a week or so later he had his interview with the Stake President so he could be ordained an Elder.  They normally present the name before the congregation at Stake Conference for someone receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood/being ordained an Elder.  We recently had our stake conference and so we were told they'd need to present his name before each ward in our stake.  We show up at church on Sunday and the Bishop comes up to Shaun before it starts and tells him that the Stake President is there and they'll present his name today.  And then tells him, we'll take care of this after Sacrament meeting, oh....and who would you like to ordain you?!  We were both totally blown away and had no idea they were doing it this week until 2 seconds ago, and so long story short...the President of the High Priests is the one who ordained him and it was only the Bishopric, the Bishops wife, and our family there for the ordination, but it was perfect!!  I wish we would've known ahead of time so he could have invited our immediate families, but it was sort of fun to go home and surprise them with the news, we're all so proud of him and the changes he's been making.  The blessing he was given was beautiful and one thing that stood out to me that I wanted him to be able to refer back to later was that 'he'd be blessed with a more thorough knowledge of the Melchizedek Priesthood with time.'  He was born LDS and went to church as a child, and then off/on once he hit 16 years old.  And to hear that the Lord blesses him with continuing knowledge of the sacredness of his Priesthood really stood out; to think of what's yet to come with him in His work, it brings such a feeling of love and peace to my soul.

Obviously this was a necessary step along our path to the temple together, but even after this I still thought he'd be a month or so further out for getting his temple recommend, but that didn't prove to be the case.  A week or so later and he had his recommend in hand...

Bess Grown-Ups

It feels nice to be blogging again (we'll see how long it lasts...haha).  We'll start with updates on Shaun, as I'd rather talk about him than myself anyways! :) 

Shaun has been such a trooper over the last year with me not having a job.  He's been incredibly supportive and although he makes smart aleck remarks about it, I always know it's in teasing.  He's continued to keep busy with work and the fire department. There was a death of one of the guys on the department, so here is a picture I took of him all dressed up in his formal fire attire.  Such a good-looking man! 

This picture of Shaun holding Rylee marks a very important first for him!  He's always been good with little kids and has always loved the nieces and nephews.  But when they're first born and he sees them for the first time, he won't hold them.  It's not because he doesn't think they're all great and wonderful, but more like he becomes nervous to hold a brand new baby again and it takes him a time or two of seeing them before he comes around and is ready to hold them.  Well, this was his very first encounter with Miss Rylee and look at him, holding her like a natural (with maybe just a little prodding).  :)  

...More about Shaun to follow in an upcoming post...

Kellie- It's been a bit of a year for me and I've had quite the whirlwind of emotions to accompany it.  It has been hard for me to just enjoy the journey while I've been unemployed and still looking for work, but I can say that I have seen blessings in being home. It has come with its struggles in obvious ways such as financially and also socially...work really fulfilled that for me. However, I've enjoyed being home when the kids come home from school each day, having the mornings with Kambri before she has left for afternoon kindergarten, having the time to spend with Hollie and address the things that are troubling her as well as watching her turn into this young lady right in front of my eyes, being able to attend things of Taylor's and being home if/when he needs me (at 15 years old he needs his mom less and less), etc.  

One of many great things that has happened this year is being blessed with a new niece in September.  Rylee Michelle joined our family and we all love her so much.  I had the honor of being present when she was born and it was a bittersweet moment to realize this was the last of the grandkids on my family's side, and my last time to witness the miracle of a birth!  

I had to have surgery on my foot for a bunion and if I'd have been employed during that time it would have made things really difficult, so it was nice that I didn't have that added stress and was able to focus on my rehab and healing.  I was non weight-bearing for a little over a month and got around via my GLAMOROUS   knee scooter, a very humbling experience.  I had a lot of great help and I couldn't have done it without many visits from friends/family, help with housecleaning, outings in the car (which were NOT an easy task to take on), and lots of love!  Thankfully, other than a real ugly scar and some pain from time to time, I can put this experience behind.  :) 

This was taken at my 1 week post-op appointment.  

Lindsay and I started doing Paparazzi Jewelry as a team and it has been an absolute blast!  I'm loving it.  Everyone gets so excited over $5 jewelry and who can blame them?  It has been a success for us so far and it has created many occasions for 'business related' outings, which also double as fun girl time with my best friend!  I obviously have no idea at this point what the future holds as far as a job goes and so right now, this is working out great and I'm excited to start feeling like I'm contributing in some small way, again!

This cheesy picture was taken at a recent boutique we participated in at Maple Springs, where we stole the show with our awesome jewelry!  

Well, I think that sums things up for the Bess family on a personal level!  

What a year, what an unexpected year! :) 

Quick year overview of the Bess 'Littles'

Ok, the perfectionist in me is going to have a really hard time letting go of the last year's worth of blogging that I'm behind on and just picking up from here!  So instead I'm going to try doing a brief summary of things that have been going on in our lives!

Taylor has been in Chamber Choir this year and has kept quite busy with many performances, activities, etc. He has truly found a passion for music and it shows.  He had the opportunity to participate in a 3-day workshop with the Young American's.  (One of the members of the group thought he was good enough that she was trying to help him find one of the directors afterwards so he could try out! What a compliment!!)

 

Taylor with his friend Dakota on the left and then one of the Young American's to his right, below his old girlfriend Brittany.

He was part of the cast at the school musical 'Sound of Music' where he played out the part of the butler.  It was an EXCELLENT play and he did wonderful!  A new girlfriend has come into his life, Emily, and we get the honor of trying to keep a healthy balance between hanging out and not 'dating'.  She's a cute girl though and he seems to be quite smitten.  ;)  Within the last week he brought home the stuff to register for HIGH SCHOOL next year.  Oh my gosh, seriously?!  Where has the time gone?  He also just put in for a job at the Bear River Bird Refuge that is specifically for youth ages 15-18.  It's a random picking that they do for the job, so hopefully he'll hear something about it either way in the next several weeks.

Hollie is wrapping up her last year at the elementary!  Again, where has the time gone?  Seems like yesterday I was dropping her off for her first day of kindergarten.  She's becoming such the young lady and we're enjoying watching this transformation.  It has been a bit of a trying year for her socially at school, so we're very hopeful that next year will bring some positive changes for her and many of her peers.  She's trying so hard to make the right choices as we're working with the doctor to get things leveled out for her the best we can.  Like Taylor, she also has a real love for music.  She signed up for the 5th grade Talent Show to do a solo.  I love to sing and consider myself to be half ok at it, but NEVER would I sing a solo.  But she did amazing, she has a beautiful voice!

Beautiful girl after her solo performance!! :)

I started teaching her piano lessons about a year ago or so, but we struggle with keeping after it...well, recently she's been trying to teach herself and can play a couple of church songs out of one of her learner books.  Needless to say, we've got to make it a top priority to set aside the necessary time each week to do lessons.  Hollie has also started just very recently babysitting Aunt Sissy's girls and seems to feel quite proud that she's growing up and able to do that.  She loves to make up dances and cheers and as soon as I find a job I'd like to put her in dancing or cheer- she loves it!  Her and Kambri have both done the Mini Cheer Camp the last 3 years while my friends daughter Madeline has been a Box Elder Cheerleader.  They LOVED doing this with her, and even managed to score their own private session with a few of the cheerleaders after it was all said and done.

Kambri has been enjoying this year with me being home everyday and having me to herself before school.  We've played many of days with Aunt Sissy and the girls before afternoon kindergarten.  She has absolutely loved school this year and is so excited to start 1st grade in the fall. She has made a lot of cute little friends and it's been fun having them over and seeing how excited they get to play.  She loves to play with Hollie and join in on making up dances and cheers- we'll be putting her into dance or something also when we're able to put them both in.  Kami has learned so much this year and has started learning to read and does a pretty good job at it.  She loves to be outside whether she's riding her bike, playing with her dog Alli outside, riding her scooter, jumping on the tramp...it doesn't matter she just LOVES to be outdoors.  She welcomes any chance she can get to hold Lindsay's newest daughter, Rylee who was born end of September.  She is always happy to help do anything for her whether it's feeding her, changing her, holding her, etc.  She is just the cutest lil' mommy ever!

Stay tuned for a quick year overview of the Bess 'Grown-ups'! :)