Hope in the Hopoate Family

 Today at church there wasn’t enough time to share my testimony! So I thought I’d blog it this time! Just over a month ago I felt a little stagnant in my spiritual growth. I had just around 2 months until I was due. So I prayerfully set the goal to finish The Book of Mormon by my due date.  Now it’s been around 7 weeks and I only have 1 week left! And I can honestly say that reading The Book of Mormon in these large chunks has helped me so much in my life. Things are still hard and I still struggle, but I feel the spirit more often, I feel more humble and more grateful on the daily.  I know The Book of Mormon is true! It is such a blessing in my life and has helped me when I wasn’t feeling strong.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

  Yesterday, my kids and I were running some errands. We had a long wait at one point in the car so I gave Tiana a piece of paper and a pen to draw during the wait. The boys were happy just being crazy lol.     5 minutes later Tiana shows me what she's been writing. She had copied the letters from a Subway sign. The sign said, COME BREAK BREAD WITH US THIS SUNDAY.     I laughed so hard. I had no clue where she got that from so I asked and she pointed to the Subway sign. She's a hoot! I explained that it was a sandwich place so they want people to come and eat sandwiches at their restaurant on Sundays.     Context for the next part... We have taught our children that God has commanded us to keep the Sabbath day holy. This is different for every family, but for us that means we don't go places on Sundays.      So Tiana asks, "Wait, they're open on  Sundays?!"      I respond, "Yes. R emember, not everyone knows the comma...

      I've had a big appreciation grow in my heart the past few days for our home and wanted to share about it.          We bought this home right when COVID was starting and it was pretty scary. We almost backed out a few times because the future just seemed so unsure. We had been looking for a home for almost a year and this one felt so right for our growing family. But still, it was a scary time.       Well we went through with it and for the first year or so, all we had was problems. This home was built in the 50's and then remodeled right before we moved in. Nobody had lived in this home for a few years before us so it had a lot of quirks. Also the remodel was done pretty poorly, but appeared nice on the surface. This was all frustrating, but we dealt with it and gained a lot of knowledge.     Now we've been in this house 3 and a half years! Our kids will remember this home and so will I. It was definitely a...

Guys, can I tell you a story. Last year for my birthday, we had a few things planned. I was gonna hike in the morning and then get lunch with a coworker. Malachi had planned some things and it was gonna be super fun. Well as the day approached, our sweet 3 little kiddos all got really sick. I can't remember exactly what their symptoms were, but it was rough. So we ended up canceling the birthday plans and said we'd just reschedule it all. That felt like the best plan because I wanted to take care of my babies. But I tell you this. It was the loneliest birthday I have ever had. My favorite little humans were sick and in pain, my friends and family stayed away because of that, and I was at home alone all day. I was definitely looking at the day very selfishly and being self centered and I think that's also why it was such a hard day. But for real, it was a hard and lonely day. Sadly, all those plans we rescheduled never ended up happening either. So that added to the sad birt...

      I'll be honest here. I've always had some trust issues. Blame it on my childhood or my parents divorce, whatever it is, it's real. One of my biggest trust issues revolved around marriage.  I seriously doubted I could ever really get married.     That's where my mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints comes in. I'm grateful every single day for my mission because it  helped me overcome this fear and doubt. I finished my mission with hopes of finding a great companion and  having an eternal family. ...     Right now I have been married for almost 8 years!! Our anniversary is in less than 2 months and it's  fathers day this weekend. So I have been thinking a lot about my husband and our marriage. ...     I still have problems with doubts and work hard to overcome them. Sometimes the adversary wants me to  believe that these wonderful blessings won't last, or that things will eventually fall apar...

 In Utah county right now, we’re enjoying the spring season! For as long as I can remember, we haven’t really had a fully spring. Maybe it would be spring weather for a week or so, but we’d jump right into summer. So my family is thoroughly enjoying the overcast, warm mornings, and stormy afternoons.  This all had me thinking how grateful I am for the change of season. God sure knows what He’s doing. Here is a raw and real picture of our outside pantry. It always seems organized to me until other people see it lol... So here ya go haha… But I realized this looks nothing like the pantry we had in the winter. This is fullllll of snacks for on the go. My husband and I were talking about this yesterday and how it’s because it’s summerish time. We are out of the house a lot! So we need more snack options than we did in the winter when we were home more. In the winter we honestly have a ton of baking things because it’s so fun to bake at home in the winter. You won’t catch me baking...

 I had a special experience with Tiana this last week. We were getting our things together for the kids last soccer game of the season. We were all smiles and excited for the last game. However, as we were leaving the house, Tiana got sad. I knelt down and asked what's wrong. She expressed how she hasn't scored a goal yet. Saia has scored a goal twice, so I could see her disappointment. I quickly fixed that frown and said, lets go early to the game so you can get extra practice in. That made her happy, and soon we left the house and were on the field. Right as the game was starting, she got nervous. She came to me and thought she wouldn't be able to. Doing what I thought was best, I said, Tia, lets say a prayer! We prayed that she'd be able to have fun and that if possible, she could score a goal. She gave me a big hug after and a thumbs up as she ran back onto the field. As the game went on, sweet Tia had not scored yet. I thought, well as long as she has fun, then our...