SUMMER!

Scripture time!  Hudson isn't concentrating very well... :)

Hudson loves the bath...he also loves to put anything he can in his mouth...

Including the drain for the tub.  To bad he hit the water first and didn't know what to do!  The poor kid was so surprised as to what in the world that water was!

Hudson fell asleep on the way home from our walk....so cute!

   Wahooo am I glad that it is finally summer time!  Rexburg has actually had a great winter, so the warm weather came much faster than it usually does.  Hudson just loves that it is warmer because that means that he gets to be outside!!  He loves it.  We go on walks all the time (sometimes multiple times a day) and we just started going on bike rides with him...HE LOVES IT!  It is so fun to see him so happy.  He is starting to giggle at lots of things, instead of just when you tickle him, which is so great.  He also is so close to crawling, he has taken a few wobbly crawls, but he doesn't do it regularly yet.  Though he did master a new trick last week, he can now push himself off of his belly and sit up, ALL BY HIMSELF!  My little man just got a top tooth last week as well.  He is working on the other front, top tooth, and it is a pretty miserable deal for all of us.  I hate seeing him in pain.  He also has allergies like crazy!  Joe has bad allergies, so I really shouldn't be surprised that Hudson does as well.  I just have never had to deal with them, so it is hard to see my baby with them.  His poor little nose just runs all the time, and his little cough is so cute, sad, but cute!
     Life is just wonderful for our little family.  Joe and I are still working hard at building our business with Melaleuca, and we are seeing some great results!  We are gearing up to move to St. Louis as well.  I am actually really excited.  I called my Aunt Colleen to see if we can stop in Loveland and visit for a bit on our epic drive across the country.  I haven't been to Loveland since I was about 12 years old, and I have always missed it, so I am excited to get to go and visit!  We are also super excited to be near Joe's family and all of those other fun things!  I am also WAY WAY excited to finally be able to start my own studio out there!  I am taking a vocal pedagogy class and the things I am learning about the human voice are amazing and I feel a lot more confident teaching voice lessons.
   School is going well for both of us.  BYU-I just released a new "flexibility" for the bachelors degree, so I am hoping that through one of those programs I can be graduate a lot sooner than I thought!  It seems like the elusiveness of graduation keeps moving farther and farther away.  Please keep me in your prayers that the flexibility program works out for me so that I can graduate soon!
    Well, I actually updated the blog within a good amount of time so I don't have a ginormous post like I normally do!  I'm sure everybody who is reading this is like "THANK GOODNESS!"
    As a parting thought though...  I shared this in testimony meeting today, so for any of you in my ward...sorry you have to hear this again.
      I have the great opportunity to be in Women's Choir this semester, and on Friday we had a concert.  We had a song that speaks about the Master's touch, and how he chisels us and shapes us into who he wants us to be, and who we need to be.  I hadn't really thought about the message of this song, and as I was singing on Friday night the message hit me.  I started to plead as I sang for the Master to touch me.  I feel like I have been in such a rut lately, and I do need the Masters touch in my life.  I sang with all of my heart as I begged my Father in Heaven to touch me, to sculpt me, and to polish me. There is a specific part of the song that cries "spare not the stroke" and as I sang that I really understood the message.  Trials are hard, bad things come, but they are what shape us.  To spare not the stroke is hard.  It means that Heavenly Father will let bad things happen to us...and that is good.  Because it allows us to become who we need to be.  I sang that with my heart open, and tears on my face (small ones, so nobody would see me cry onstage) to spare not the stroke, so that I may be polished.  I needed to be going through the rough patch that I have been in so that I can be shaped.  So that I could have the reminder to return to God and to obey the good of his gospel.  Joy comes from obeying the good, and from the knowledge that He is true.  I needed that concert Friday night, even though I was not excited about going.  I needed it so that I could remember who I was.   I know, without at doubt, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true Gospel, and the only true way to eternal happiness.  My life has been blessed by my Master's touch and I ask to let his music live in me, that I may sing of his goodness.