We attended Stake Conference on Sunday.
We expected to see old friends from 5th ward. We expected to be uplifted by some great speakers and beautiful music. We expected to have sore buns after sitting for 2 hours on folding metal chairs.
We didn't expect Cara to be mentioned in a talk. Seriously.
Sister Gennell Jones was Cara's primary teacher in 5th ward when the stake realigned two years ago. Two years ago?! She is now the 1st Counselor in the Stake Relief Society. She prefaced her comments with, "I was teaching primary a few years ago and there was a young lady in the class who, I hope won't mind me sharing this..." My ears perked up and I thought, "Could she be talking about 5th ward?" She was speaking about testimonies and she said something to the effect of how she was impressed with Cara's ability to have a strong testimony even though she was the only member of the church in her whole school. You should have seen Cara sit up quickly and look around shocked that someone would remember her! People around us started turning around and pointing even. It was completely unexpected.
It reminded me again of how blessed I am to be the mother of these two sweet girls. It brought up a good discussion about how others ARE watching and paying attention to what we say and do. It was almost as if I watched Cara's self-esteem rising. Awesome.
Sometimes I feel that I don't deserve them. We'll see how I feel after we get through the teenage years. :) And actually, we sat on the last row of cushy chairs...
Jordyn and our neighbor buddy Cole.
I don't know why she thought this was so fun but she slammed numerous snowballs on her own head...
That's a full-on Daddy snow angel. Love it!
The is the backyard around 4 this afternoon. There's so much more now - it's intense!
Cara is in her school's performing ensemble. The group made up of 5th and 6th graders sing, dance and play musical instruments. The kids practice at least once a week during their recess and then every Wednesday after school for an hour. Our music teacher, Mrs. McKenna, is very dedicated. I wish I would've taken a picture of the whole group but I was focused on my own cutie...
Playing the xylophone (only it's not an ordinary xylophone - it has a special name that's escaping me right now...)
Here they are doing a hand/body-slapping, stomping rhythm dance. In the background you can see the buckets the boys did a "bucket song" with. It was really cool!
Cara has always been the one to take care of and love on Sugar.
Jordyn, 2 years old, squeezing into Sugar's crate (which didn't last too long because I couldn't take the crying Sugar would do when we put her in there...)
Cara and Sugar had a special bond.
Having a dog has been a mixed bag. She's been a great friend to Cara all these years but recently we've decided that she would probably have a better life with someone else. Except in the summer time she spent A LOT of time by herself. We would have to remind Cara way too much to feed or water or bathe Sugar. She was constantly digging out under our fence. Do I need to mention the dog hair issue? But the worst was every time we left town we would have to ask our friends to keep her at their houses. I hated asking. Really. 
This is Babs and her dog Brady. Bryan said he thought she had a few dogs already. When we got there five dogs greeted us! Five! That's a lot of doggie love. We stayed and visited for over an hour and Jordyn made herself right at home... Sugar will have furry friends and a huge backyard on a lake to run around. Babs has invited us to visit anytime we want and we're looking forward to going fishing with the Millwards in April. Babs' daughter, Amanda, has already posted pictures on Facebook for us and says Sugar's fitting right in. It makes it much easier to swallow that she's in a happy home.
We'll miss you Sugar but thank you Babs!
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