Preschool Program

We had a Christmas Program at preschool. The kids were so cute and did a great job. They sang a few songs, recited a poem and did a little dance to Ellie the elf. After that we had some cookies and hot chocolate.

I had the parent's come and help their child do gymnastics in the gym.  It was fun. Sad thing is...being the teacher and helping the students, I didn't get any pictures of them in the gym. Thanks to Heather, she took some pictures for me of the program.


It was fun but a little more stressful pulling it all together.

 I have to admit, I was feeling a little guilty about doing it, after watching The first presidency Christmas devotional.  The told us not to make this time of year stressful buy attending to many parties and programs etc. that Christmas should be a time to reflect on the lord and the true meaning of Christmas.

A big night

Paige and 11 other young women in our ward earned their Young Women In progress medallion.  12 girls on 12/12/12.  It was a nice program. They had a parent of each girl talk about how personal progress has helped their daughter grow. I got to talk about Paige. She has grown so much over the last few years both physically and spiritually. She loves church, the scriptures and seminary. We are very proud of this accomplishment and also of Paige. 

 Paige posted this on her face book page....

After around six months of completing my Personal Progress, I was finally able to recieve my medalion along with eleven other young women in my ward tonight. Twelve young woman on 12/12/12. Congratulations to all of you! I love you all! Wear your medalion loud and proud :D Thanks to all of you who came and supported us! Love you guys too ♥
Personal Progress has helped m

e so much throughout my life. I have grown A LOT closer to my Savior and Heavenly Father. My testimony has been strengthened a lot as well, and I know that it will continue to strengthen as well. Personal Progress has helped me start good habits, and helped me disocover new talents that I would not have discovered without it. I am so thankful for what Personal Progress has done for me, and cannot wait to start it all over again. I will most definately wear my medalion loud and proud :D

Fall

A few weeks ago we went to church to find piles of leaves everywhere.  Hope told me,"Mom, someone made a BIG MESS!" I said,"Yes, it was the trees."  After church we went outside to find many children running, throwing and piling up the leaves. Parker and Hope decided to join in on the fun. Loren took pictures with his phone and I have been waiting for him to upload them to the computer. He did it a few days ago. But guess what? I can't find them! Loren is out of town again, so I have to wait to post them. They are fun. Check back next week and hopefully they will be here.

Happy Thanksgiving

We went to the R's for the family get together this year. I was in charge of  homemade rolls, nut cups and favors. Hope and Parker helped my make 6 dozen rolls- messy but fun.  Silly me, didn't get pictures of any of it. Oh well.
I think the only picture taken, was the one Paige took of loren stuffing a big piece of pie in his mouth.  He was mean and deleted it from her phone, poor sport.  Paige said she would get him later on and post it on face book. So keep a watch out.
There were 26 of us there for dinner and then Kade and his wife and new baby stopped by for a short visit. So fun to see so many of us together at one time.
I am grateful for so many things but the biggest is the knowledge of the gospel and the purpose of life.
It was what keeps me going everyday and when life gets hard.
I am grateful for my testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ, for God the Eternal Father and for a living prophet on the earth today.  And of course I am grateful for my great and fun family. Love all of them.

Still alive-I think!

So I did it again-got way behind on posting. I guess I should just post even if I don't know where the photo's are that go with it and then add pictures when I find them.

So here is what has happened, not in order!

Hope turned 3 in September.  She loved opening every present and eating cupcakes. She had a small party with friends.

Hope started Preschool with me and really loves gymnastics even though she isn't as limber as the other girls.  She is pretty daring and tries everything. Except swinging on the rings that are up high.  Her favorite thing to do is jump into the foam pit. She has a hard time crawling out.

She has learned a lot in preschool. She can identify the whole alphabet and we are working on phonics.  She can count to 22. Knows all of the colors and can write most of her name.

Hope loves to play with her friend Ellie that lives next door and her little sister Lynlee. One day they decided to take a nap in their parents bed together. Their mom-Heather- got a picture.

I sprained my ankle the second week teaching gymnastics. I landed on the side of my foot when landing from off the bars. So I got to wear a brace for a few weeks.

All of the kids started back to school the end of August. Paige is a Junior this year and in choir. Zach is a Sophomore and on the High school swim team.

Ethan is in 6th grade and proud to be the oldest grade in the school. Parker is in 3rd grade and has made all kinds of new friends.

Braden started working at Winger's during the summer and started his first semester at U.V.U. He seems to enjoy it.  He is saving money for his mission and isn't jumping up and down about being able to leave earlier at age 18.  But he is working on the paper work at a slow pace.

Paige of course is getting great grades.  She pulled a 4.0 this term- great going!

She has started dating and hangs out with a group of friends a lot.  She is going to Washington D.C. the end of November for a school history tour.  AND she just started working at Winger's with Braden.

When they interviewed her, they told her that if she was anything like Braden, they wanted her. She was hired on the spot. Great job Braden for your example.

Paige went to Sadie's with a group of friends.

Zach did a swim a thon to earn money for his swim team gear and tours.  He swam 200 laps in 1 hours and 50 minutes at 10:00 at night.  He earned a lot of the money he needed.  Zach is also in choir. He tried out for honors choir besides and made it. The only problem is that the big concert and a swim meet are scheduled the same day. Hopefully he can make it to both- we will see.

Ethan got braces on his top teeth.  He has been very self conscious about his crazy teeth.  He has had to have 3 brackets glued back on already. Really, they must not have done a great job the first time because they come of when he is eating normal food- like hamburgers.  He wasn't so excited about halloween because he couldn't eat most of the candy he received.  For halloween, he couldn't decide what to be , so he was a little bit of everything for the school parade and was Harry potter for Loren's work party.

Parker loves playing with all of his friends and also plays with Hope.  He entered the reflections contest and got a certificate , a prize and hot chocolate.  He was a black assassin for halloween.  He went out with some friends and their parents and scored lots of candy. He also had a Birthday in September and turned 9.  He had a Mine craft themed birthday party. This was the cake I made.  All of the games he played had something to do with the game.

As you can see-Hope was a sweet little Lady Bug!  After an exciting day of Preschool and gymnastics and playing with friends she feel asleep right after dinner.  She woke up about 8 p.m. and wanted to go trick or treating. Paige took her to two houses and she wanted to come home. Silly girl.

Last month I became very ill. Went to the doctors and found out that I had mono. Not fun at all.  A few days ago I went to the doctors again to find out that I had strep and a sinus infection. They gave me a big ol' shot in the butt.  Wish I could just stay healthy. It is hard being a mom and working part time when you are sick.

Loren went to Florida for 5 days to do some training. Of course, it snowed here and our furnace went out.

The repair man had to condemn it because it had a huge crack in it from the humidifier leaking on to it-for who knows how long. It took almost a whole day to install the new one.  They used php piping instead of the metal vents and put in a new air vent so it would heat better.  It works!!!

Our little singer

Hope in Concert!

 So, Hope has taken to music.  When the primary leaders come in to nursery to do a little mini singing time with the younger kids, they always comment about how well Hope sings, and say "we should have guessed she'd be a singer."  Now she seems to be taking an interest in instrumental music as well.  We caught her on video singing a few of her favorite songs while she accompanied herself on the piano.  Enjoy!

2nd day of Girl's Camp

I woke up feeling a whole lot better. However, I was still a little light headed and my stomach was still upset.  So I took some stomach med's.
We cooked breakfast and ate. While some people cleaned up, we cleaned out tents and took them down and refilled the trailer.  Then we had a devotional and alone time to read the scriptures and write in journals.
We then drove a short way to a trail to start our race again.  The girls hiked for awhile and then came upon a first aid station that they had to treat the injured in order to go on.  I was in charge of this. But since I wasn't feeling the greatest, sent the first aid items and instructions ahead with another leader.  They had to treat leaders for Shock, snake bite, broken arm, severe bleeding, and heat exhaustion.  I was told that the girls did a great job and that the leaders acted out their parts very well and hilarious!  The girls then got their next clue and hiked to the Minatonka cave.  We had reserved a tour and they showed up early, so we ate lunch while we waited.  The tour throughout the cave was amazing.  While inside the Bishop talked about sharing our light and each girl received their own candle and got it lit. They had to hold the cold iron rod in the dark to find their way out (okay not all of the way out but long enough their hands were pretty cold. They then hiked back down to the cars where we then took them took get yummy raspberry shakes.
We then headed to the cabin in Grace Idaho.  It was only 45 miles away but it took us over 2 hours to get there.  Yes, we got lost and had to turn around a few times and back track. After Sister Ship stopped and asked the second local directions, the  sweet lady climbed in her car and took us there.  Everyone was happy to be there.  We then unloaded the trailer yet again and settle ourselves in.Yes, we ate dinner late again, missed doing the skits that night but had fun playing games past 1 a.m. in the morning.
The cabin had 3 bathrooms and so we all drew numbers for when we got to shower off. After the day at the lake it felt nice.

Girls Camp

Yes, Paige and I survived girls camp this year(me,just barely).
Girls camp was a blast.  We had ward girls camp this year which meant we could go when and where we wanted too.  The theme for this years camp was"Choose to shine in your amazing race".  The leaders put together activities for the girls to do that were around the theme and the T.v. show-The amazing race.

We meet at 5:45 A.M. that is

why it is dark outside. The great Relief Society and put a yummy send off Breakfast together for us.

We then talk about 100 years of girls camp-a cake with service opportunities-candles!

Each girl received their own backpack filled with goodies and a bandana for the team they would be on.

 And we were off....

 We spent one day and night at Bear lake.  For the race activities, the girls had to read a compass and find posts that spelled a word ( each team was different) and come and get their next clue for the next activity.  They then had to come to me and learn how to tie two kind of knots and learn how to  lash. When they passed them off they got another clue..telling them to lash swim noodles together to make a raft. One person had to ride it and the rest of the team had to have a hold of it.  They had to find their way out to a tall post that had the last clue of the day on it- Find the mat.

The girls where then free to have fun.  We rented a speed boat, paddle boat and a water trike. We also had a few rafts and a canoe.  The canoe is a whole story in it's self.
We then cleaned up and went to a camp ground and unpacked, set up tents and made dinner. We were behind schedule and din't eat until about 8 p.m..
However, I wasn't feeling wetland went and lied down. About 1/2 later I was feeling horrible and asked for a blessing. The great Bishop and his councilor gave me one. I was nauseous and very dizzy. Also had the chills. Everyone thought I had heat stroke- I don't! I drank a lot of water while at the beach and stayed in the shade most of the time.  A lot of the girls got burned, I didn't.
Because I was ill, I missed the Faith walk that some of the leaders had put together for the girls.  I heard it was very spiritual.  The girls didn't make it back to camp until around midnight. The leaders, even later than that. *clean up duty for everything they had set up earlier.*

Day 2

Parker's new look

Parker has been complaining for a while now that he can't see things that are kind of far away.  When he asked me during church if I could read the hymn numbers, I could, he couldn't, I decided to take him to the optometrist. Guess what? He needs glasses. He choose the frames he wanted and only had to wait 5 days to pick them up.  I am very impressed with him remembering to wear them so far. Of course it has only been about 4 days but he never forgets to put them on.

Parker also earned hi Wolf in cub scouts this week. Way to go Parker.

Fathers & Sons Camp Out

We just got back from the annual Fathers & Sons camp out.  Braden was not able to go with us this year because he has a job!  He literally started work the day before the camp out, so he didn't have much say about asking for time off.  I feel like I've crossed another milestone in life: having a son that's "too old" to go on the Fathers & Sons camp out.

We gave a couple people a ride to the camp out, the Lawsons, and being natives from the area they recommended that we stop on the way up the canyon and take a short hike.   The trail was about 1/4 mile and ended in a 20 foot waterfall that had carved out a large cave-like area at the bottom.  It was pretty cool.  The name of the trail was Grotto Trail.

The camp out was  held at Blackhawk Campground just off the Nebo Scenic Loop.  I found this site for the event and was hoping that it would be an enjoyable place.  Rain threatened on the way up Spanish Fork canyon, but by the time we arrived at the campground it had mostly stopped.  This site itself was beautiful.  We had a group site that took an entire loop in the campground.  There was plenty of room to spread out and mountain meadows (and the fire) kept the boys occupied. 

Zach and a friend disappeared for a long time Friday evening and later came and said that I had to come see what they had built.  They referred to it as a "fort".  Turns out they had built a wood igloo from branches and sticks.  It was pretty impressive.  The pictures below do not do it justice.  There is really a lot of room on the inside.  If we had not been strongly cautioned about bears in the area, I would have let him sleep in it.

The turnout for the event was the best I've seen in all the years we've been in this ward.  There were probably at least 80 people there, probably more.  Everyone seemed to have fun and several people commented on the location. At above 8000 feet, I expected it to be quite cold at night, but it was actually very pleasant.  The only negative thing was that at odd hours swarms of gnats would invade the camp.  They'd hang around for an hour or so making everyone miserable, then disappear.  Other than that, however, it was a really good time. 

Parker's (Abbreviated) Machine Pitch Season

Parker has been enrolled in the Lehi City's Machine Pitch baseball league this year.  Due to his broken arm, vacations, reunions and such he really didn't have a chance to play much, but he definitely enjoyed it when he did.  He played his first game just after his cast came off.  I was nervous that he would re-injure his arm.  He was a little unnerved about standing up to the plate with this machine chucking balls at him.  He got a hit at his first at-bat.  He was so shocked himself that he forgot to run and the other team threw him out at first base.  In the field, he played right field -- at this age that means the back of the infield -- and I don't think a single ball came within 30 feet of him. 

Besides that game, he played in one other game, the last game of the season.  He got a base hit, then rounded the bases to score a run.  He was so excited that he forgot to touch home plate and had to come back to do that. After the game his coach told the team he had been keeping track and they had won all of their games.  He then handed out a "first place" medal to each player. 

Despite not being to many of the games, he thought it was a lot of fun and says he wants to play again next year.  Here are some pictures from the final game of the season.

Making contact.  Parker gets a hit!

Ready to go on first base.

 Another hit!  Parker goes to third.

 Bringing it home.  Parker scores a run!

New business

So, my new business is coming along.

It is at Gymcats ( a gymnastics place) in Lehi.
I will be teaching preschool and gymnastics. With the choice of taking preschool alone or both together.
I have been training and teaching with the Gymcats trainers so we will be teaching the same things on the same levels.  Wow, have I been sore.  It seemed pretty easy the first day, my body told me NO the next day. Boy was I sore.

I have moved a lot of my preschool things in and need to finish in the next few days so It will be ready for my Open House on the 20th.

I am still in the process of getting my Business License. The fire Marshall has a few things that we need to fix before he will sign my form.  Then all will be good.

Some days. I am excited about my new adventure, and other days I am stressed about it. But that is just part of life.

R's Family Reunion

We had our yearly family reunion at East Canyon this time.
Unlike every year, we all tented it! Well, almost everyone. Warrens cheated and brought a tent and their trailer.

 Fishing at the kid pond.  We saw fish and the would steal the bait. But we didn't catch any.

We had a lot of fun and kept busy. A nature scavenger hunt for the kids..Hope had to do it twice she liked it so much. Swimming, fishing at the lake and ant the kid pond, miniture golf, shuffle board and horse shoes.

Nightly family gathering around the fire with S'mores of course.

We ate yummy food and played card and board games.

We had a blast playing minute to win it games.

Some of us slept.

Hope wouldn't sleep in her sleeping bag. So I ended up unzipping it and putting it on her like a blanket, Silly girl. 

Zach told us to make funny faces....

 What? Cell phone service it the mountains, no,no put it away.

Had had Sunday service together at the lodge. It was a great meeting.
Thanks for coming everyone.