The Dreaded Talks...

So Tanner and I throughout our 2 1/2 years of being married, have never been asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting. We always counted ourselves lucky and thought, "Well maybe we are being so righteous that we don't need to!" HAHAHA funny I know. So I don't know if that means we haven't been being righteous lately...? Haha juuuuust kidding. 

So we moved into a new ward in August, and summers are always crazy with reunions, and summer, and family, and everything.  So we didn't meet a lot of people the first while we were there.  However, we noticed right from the get-go that this ward was very friendly. We really liked that, but knew that that would probably mean we would be speaking in this ward...AND didn't know how we felt about that one.  JK> So anyway during December we got pretty close to the bishopric as they connected the dots to who my family was. When I told one of our counselors who my mom was he was like, "Oh. Jill Anderson is your mom? Hmm." And that was it.  Didn't really know what to think of that haha! Come to find out later that he hadn't agreed with something my mom had said in a meeting for Madison Education Foundation... so there was a litle tiff there. HAHAHAHA! so funny. 

Also in December Tanner and I wanted to do something nice for a family in our ward that maybe needed a little help at Christmas time- so that got us close to the Bishop. BAD IDEA...hahaha.  Then the dreaded day came when we met with the bishop to renew our temple recommends. AND..after that he asked us the question.  "So we have really enjoyed getting to know you two and think the ward should get to know you a little bit more too. How would you feel about speaking in sacrament meeting next week?" We both looked at each other, smiled, and said, "We'd love to!" Now, it gets worse.  The topic.  He said, the topic for January is the Godhead, so we would like you guys to focus on this: "What is Heavenly Father's role in the Godhead?" Oh dear right?  We both looked at each other again and smiled.  Now mind you, I was really nervous because 1. This was the first "real adult" talk I had given since I was like 12. and 2. Because what the topic? I knew I would have to dig deeeeep, because in my opinion they all have the same role and work towards the same goal. BUT I could've been wrong. To make this all worse....my brother Jaxon and his family were in town, and my brother Tanner also. My parents live here also so...well...THEY ALL DECIDED THEY WERE GOING TO COME AND LISTEN. That scared us even more...hahaha.

So....throughout the week Tan and I prayed about it, thought about it lots, and finally Wednesday I began searching and picking my brain for what I could possibly talk about. I decided to focus my talk on this: "Heavenly Father's role in the Godhead is to help us grow forever in light, truth, and happiness. I came upon that sentence during my research and I fell in love. I knew that was what I was supposed to talk on. I figured that I could go so many ways with that. SO...I decided to take the ward through my journey of how I, with  God's help, grew forever in light, truth, and happiness.  I shared many personal experiences of how I was in a pretty deep pit and had stopped all spiritual progression in my life until one day I just decided it was time to change. I took about a year and just truly dedicated myself to the Lord, and to the Gospel. It truly was life-changing. I know now that God prompted me to talk about that, because i hadn't really shared my personal testimony of how  I came to be where I am today. SO...even though my entire family was there, sweat was coming from every pore, my hands were sweaty and clammy like the Grinch, and I told the whole congregation my husband gave me a concussion when we were dating and I just " knew he'd take good care of me...," it went pretty smoothly ;)

Tanner did really good too, he was shaking like a banshee! hahahaha. He shared a really touching story of a down-syndrome boy who's dad's testimony was strengthened by what his baseball team did. I'll have to post it on here soon because it's a tear jerker!  I've only seen Tanner cry a total of 3 times in 3 years.  This was the third- and yes I am counting because he is a softy even though he doesn't believe it.

So in conclusion: What did I learn about sacrament talks?
1. They really aren't that bad if you don't freak out. haha.
2. Never chew gum while on the stand.
3. Never be friendly in a ward. hahaha.

In second conclusion:Our talks went just splendid, and we got way too nervous for nothing. Now hopefully this means we won't have to talk for 3 more years! WOOHOO!!  :)

CHRISTMAS/ New Years 2013!

Oh Christmas.  Isn't it a wonderful time of year? And not only for the presents, but just for the fact that family is together! It's just the best ever. My parents are going to be in Israel for a year from August 2014 to August 2015, so we spent the majority of Christmas with them. Christmas eve and Christmas morning we were with my family, and then Christmas day we were with Tanner's family.  Some of the things we were blessed to get were:
-An ipad Air
-A pressure cooker
-Tan got me a sweet Klim jacket
-A digital kitchen scale
-I gave Tan a bosch organizer tool kit
-perfume
-a safe
-And then of course stockings!! My favorite.
Ever since I was little my mom had the best stockings ever.  just stuffed full of fun, silly things.  This year all the men got nerf guns and shot my mom till she was in pain. hahaha. That was a bad idea Jill. haha. Ash and Eth were there for Christmas and that was a blast!
Christmas Eve we of course did the Pickle Tradition, and I FOUND A PICKLE FINALLY!!! I have never found one, and this year I did. so excited. Here's some pics:

 

Tanner and I are like little kids.  Our kids are doomed.  Neither of us could sleep because we were so excited.  I woke up at 5:30 and sat upstairs waiting for everybody to wake up.  10 minutes laterI get a text from Tanner that says, "Are you upstairs? I'm coming."  So there we sat. like little kids in front of the christmas tree. excited beyond belief. Wyatt woke up shortly after and was SO excited to open his gifts. ALMOST as excited as us I think ;) That got us super excited to have kids. We opened gifts, and the best part was watching Wyatt.  so fun.  Here's some pics:

SO MUCH FUN!!! i love christmas.  it's so much fun.  Anyway, so all of my siblings were able to be up for christmas/new years.  Brett and Aub surprised my mom the day after christmas, she had no idea.  Then Ash and Eth were there for 2 weeks, and Jax and Meg came the 30th I think. Tanner brought his girlfriend up, and we had a party! Some of the things we did were: visit the arcade, bowling, movies, gingerbread houses, fun in the snow, lots and lots of late night games, talking, talent show, wallyball, early morning basketball, more arcade, and much more.  I can't wait to have our official TIME reunion in 7 months!
Here's some random pics of all the festivities:

                           I love this sweet pictures. nothin better than grandpa love.

                                                     wyatt loves his daddy

                                                                cute family

                                                       this picture is my favorite. haha.

                                                    cuties that surprised grandma.

                                            tanny got a squatty potty from his GF.

                                                           cute richardsons.

                                                      such a tiny cute little shoe!

                        I love all these cute faces! It definitely shows all their personalities!

                                            oh ethan. funniest thing ive ever seen.

                                                         matching cousins.

I have so many pictures, I just chose some random ones. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family.  It always brings back so many memories having all of us together.  This Christmas and New Years was SPECTACULAR and I'm grateful for all my siblings for making it that way!  Thanks mom and dad for giving birth to all of us :)

Here's to year 2014!

Secret Santa Blessings

This Christmas Tanner and I had the special opportunity to get gifts for a family of 5. The mother just moved into our ward with her 4 boys, and is in the middle of a divorce. Their family is really struggling at this time, and Tanner and I wanted to help them out this Christmas.  We talked to our bishopric and they gave us all the information we needed to know.  We went to Kmart on Christmas Eve and had SO MUCH FUN picking out gifts for these boys, and the mom. We got the 2 oldest boys nerf guns, (hope the mom was okay with that hahaha) we got the middle boy a  car/lego thing, and we got the youngest boy a car puzzle.  We also wanted to get a family gift that they could all do togther so we got them a hoop with a basketball that you put over a door.  We got the mom a pack of 7 lotions that smelled AMAZING. I almost bought some for myself. haha.  But anyway, we bought this MASSIVE bag from walmart that I couldn't stop laughing at.  It was almost as big as me! We wrapped them all individually and put them in the huge bag and door bell ditched it on Christmas Eve. I think we were both touched and brought to tears that we were able to do this for this sweet family.  Not only did it bless THEM, pretty sure it touched and blessed Tanner and I more than we thought it would. We watched the door open as we slowly drove away, thinking of how happy the little boys would be in the morning to see a bunch of gifts from Santa. It really was bittersweet.  We have decided we want to make this a tradition and be "Secret Santa" for a family every Christmas season.  It is very gratifying and rewarding, it was definitely a highlight for us this year.