A picture's worth a thousandwords...

I HAVE GOT TO GET A CAMERA FOR MY SEMINARY CLASSROOM. I had this thought to play scripture mastery Twister...how fun does that sound. It was fun!!! I assigned a scripture reference to a color on the Twister floor and a matching reference to the spinner. So I had a student spin and say, for example "right foot If you lack wisdom" and the kids then had to put their right foot on the circle that had James 1:5 on it. We even had Danny Hunsaker of our bishopric attending today that got down and gave it a try!!! I wish I could describe how funny it really was:o)

Happy Easter

Easter was extra special this year as we shared it with Jenna's 9th birthday. What a beautiful day. Grandma and Grandpa found her a darling brown dress with White polka dots and bright blue ribbon trim. She was darling!!!

We took the kids to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa temple the thursday night before Easter and what a great reminder of what this holiday celebrates. I loved watching the re-enactment of the Saviors life, death and resurrection and it filled me with a spirit of love!!! I think having spent the last several months teaching the life of Christ in seminary I was touched me a little more deeply than in years past. I walked away realizing the peace that comes from not just reading, but studying and teaching the words of God and the prophets. I feel like I have missed many years of studying and teaching to my family. With or without a seminary calling I hope I take more time to really study and teach the scriptures... to my kids.

What a glorious gift. I have heard the saying that without Easter, Christmas would be useless. How true it is. Our Savior was born just as promised and prophesied from the begining of time. Starting with Adam and through every prophet until His birth all awaited His arrival. It was then that He made sure that all was done to fulfill every prophesy of His life. Jesus chose to endure all that He endure.

I don't know when the day will come that I will fully understand all that He did for me or how He did it; butI can't wait until the day that I can kneel before him and with a full, humble heart thank Him for doing it.

Joe's back surgery

Joe's back surgery went well. He was only able to get one disk fixed and in 6-8 weeks the dr. will look at the second herniated disk and see if Joe is ready to have that one fixed. Joe is home and doing well. He will be out of work for a week or so, which will be fun to have him around the house a little bit this week. He feels well and is looking forward to being able to be more active and play more basketball again. He is on crutches for a couple of days as his right let gains some strength because of the surgery. He is in good spirits and has good drugs...so all is well. Joe is a trooper....which I love about him!

Just when I thought life could get no crazier...

I am called to teach seminary and also called to be a stake YCL leader for girls camp this summer. I am super excited about it, I just hope that I can juggle 3 callings (yes, I am still the nursery leader for the ward) homeschooling and being a mom. So far I feel very much at peace with it all and have LOVED the chance to read and study for 2-3 hours a day out of the scriptures. I have very much felt the Lord's love through this calling like never before. I feel so blessed to be learning the things that I am learning in the detail that I am learning. We spent 6 weeks as a class studying just the last week of Jesus' life. What an awesome experience it has been to dive so deeply into the details of his ministry, life and love for us.

Camp meetings start next month and I will be over the YCL's that are over the 2nd year girls. They let me choose which year I wanted to be over so I chose the 2nd year girls . We have really good friends who have a daughter with type 1 diabetes that will be a 2nd year so I am hoping to be of some help since I know the disease so well. I always love when there is someone with Hayden to help and give me a little peace while he is away. I have a lot of the YCL girls in my seminary class so it will be fun!!

I'M BAAACK!

WOW! It's been a while since I have been on my blog. I was having problems getting my background changed and have just been busy...but I'M BACK!

What have the Estes' been up to lately?

I have discoverd Facebook (thanks Kasey!!!! I REALLY don't have time for it, but it's so fun.) I have down loaded a lot of pix there.

I have LOVED homeschooling this year. What a great experience it has been on so many levels for me and my family. I have never felt this at ease with my day to day schedlue, which I truly expected the opposite:o) We have done a lot of field trips. We have done a lot of hiking, took an extra last minute trip to Texas to see my brother, Brent for his 30th birthday in November, found some snow to play in up in Northern Arizona, cut my hair short, then a month later cut i really short, went to the chocolate factory north of Phoenix where the kids got to make chocolate "pizzas" and see things like chocolate covered jalapenos (yes, Hayden was curious) a 3oo lb. chocolate Santa and an equally big chocolate football....you know we all loved that one. We have played a lot and learned a lot....there are a lot of things that I either never knew or have just forgotten through the years, but I learn new things everyday.

Hayden played flag football this year and made the cover of the local PRL magazine, which was a fun surprise. Michael didn't play this year...he can't wait until next year, though.

Christmas was awesome this year. One of my favorites so far. Very quiet and laid back. My brother, Brent and his family came out for Christmas...waaay fun. We had a great Christmas and I am happy to have all of the decorations put away....I can only handle the extra clutter for so long, a month is just enough time for me...

We brought in the New Year with a group of Michael's friends...I forgot how late teenagers are willing to stay up! Ikicked the last couple out after 2:30 am and felt really old:o)

I have been called to teach Seminary this last semester. That has been awesome! We are learning the New Testiment and daily I say to Joe, "how did I not know this?". The kids are awesome and teach me more than I could ever teach them....I have totally fallen in love with these kids:o) I have a mixture of all ages...they don't divide by grade here, which I didn't think I would like but I do.

I got a new treadmill last week, which has been the hilight of my month...after waiting a few weeks for it I was so excited to finally get it.

I just signed Michael up for 9 credit hours at the community college. He has not loved high school so we tested at the local college and he did great so we withdrew him completely from high school and I think this will be a great fit for him. Next semester we will add more credits to his schedule and hs goal is to get as much school under his belt as he can before his mission.

We are busy, but life is good and we are looking forward to a great New Year!