Elementary School

It is still weird to me to only have one child in elementary school. Goofy had his music concert on November 8. They did a lot of patriotic songs for Veteran's Day.

 And he received a Top Dog Award this quarter as well. He was awarded his certificate at a school assembly.

I am the Home Room Parent for his class, so I get to plan the four parties they have during the year. We had fun with the Christmas party, playing Christmas charades, a book exchange, hot chocolate, and cookies.

It's nice that he has a cousin in his class because my sister-in-law helps me plan and execute all the parties!

Feeling Connected

We had a family move out of our ward at the beginning of December. We were all still fighting sickness, but I did go out to eat at my friend's going away breakfast. This is Minnie with the friend that moved in the middle.

Well, at that going-away breakfast, I had the opportunity to talk to one of my friends that I just hadn't had much time to talk to recently. Her husband has been battling throat cancer for the past ten years. They have 3 little girls who are just the cutest. One if 5 years-old and the 4-year-olds are twins, so she is super busy. Her husband hasn't been doing well, having had to have surgery to remove a tumor in his leg recently and then having to go in for throat dilations every couple of weeks, plus they had to put a trach in so he could breathe. Anyway, it's been rough on my friend and we really wanted to help. So I offered to help set up some ladies to come in and clean her house and watch her kids when she has to take her husband in for his long appointments. It has been such a blessing to be able to help her out and feel connected to so many women in my ward. We just love their family and want to help however we can. Here's picture of my kids playing with their kids on the trampoline.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 These four girls just love to play together. M & C came in for Thanksgiving week, so while the men took the older kids to go play Laser Tag, we girls got together to chat and let the little ones play.

They had a lot of fun playing Laser Tag!
For Thanksgiving Day, we all got together and D & S's house. Nana wanted to do sugar cookies with the kids, so we let the girls go first. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the boys doing it, but we did let them!

 

 Tink and Bucko went to the temple with their cousin who went for the first time, along with some aunts and uncles.

 

 Then we all went out to eat at Guadalajara one night.

 And, of course, we did our Thankful Turkey for Family Home Evening that week.

Mini-course

Minnie signed up for the Cake Boss mini-course at school. She had a blast baking and decorating her cake. I think she was most excited that she got to keep all the bake ware and icing bags/tips. She loves baking!

Haircut

Minnie got her hair cut today. She has been wanting to get it done all week, but we were so busy I told her we needed to wait until Saturday. Unfortunately, I got sick on Thursday and have pretty much been in bed for the past few days. But I dragged myself out of bed and we went and got it cut. I think it looks great.

Dates

PC and I don't get to have "real" dates because of his schedule. There just is not an evening where we can work it, so our dates usually involve the little girls and us shopping. I realize I just don't take very many pictures of me and him together, so I made sure we did today. And of course, the girls needed their picture taken as well.

Randomness from September

 Tink went to the Homecoming game with her friends. They had a lot of fun and came back here for ice cream afterwards. I'm so glad she has good friends.

 This was a mutual activity and I just love Bucko's smile in it.

 Goofy went to the fire station that same night. He looks good in a fire truck!

 This little girl just cracks me up. She really wanted to dress up in the shark costume, so I helped her in and rolled up the pants. So stinking cute!

 And a bit rotten. I don't remember what she got into, but her face was covered in something red!

 And these two always want me to take their pictures.

 She's a good helper in the kitchen. Making bread.

 Minnie has had huge bumps on the inside of her eyelids for a couple years now. She has eye drops but they just weren't cutting it anymore, so we went to the ophthalmologist and she gave her some antibiotic drops that cleared her up. She has bad allergies that affect her eyes. She had to get her pupils dilated.

Time Out for Women

When I heard Time Out for Women was going to be in Castle Rock this year, I did not want to miss it! So I bought the tickets for myself, my mother-in-law, and two friends from my ward. We had SO much fun!
The speakers were absolutely amazing and I left feeling so uplifted and inspired to work harder and be better.

 Laurel C. Day has always been an inspiration to me. She was the first one I went to get a picture with! This time she spoke about tears and how she views tears as shedding the old "me" and embracing and molding the new me. She talked about the different kinds of tears, like the tears of laughter, tears of sorrow, and tears of sacred/reverence.

 Anthony Sweat is a religion teacher at BYU and talked about faith, hope, and charity. His talk is one that has stuck with me as it completely changed my understanding of these virtues. For example, he spoke about how charity is not just about service. Charity is the love of God and our love for Him. This relationship is charity! And it affects us more than any other gift. He said, "Feeling love changes people, and feeling divine love divinely changes people." The whole talk was amazing and I have 3 pages of notes!

 This isn't a speaker, but was one of my favorite parts of TOFW. She is one special girl who used to live in our ward but has moved across town so I just don't get to see her very often. Her smile is the best as well as her hugs!

 

Mary Ellen Edmunds is always a hoot. She talked about prayer and how it is a privilege and the hardest work we can ever be engaged in. She talked about praying with maturity; wrestle, plead, cry, and hunger. 

Jenny Reeder is just amazing. Her story was shared in conference and she is so strong and inspiring!

Calee Reed provided the music on Saturday which was just awesome. One of our favorite things she talked about, though, was being broken. She shared this about a type of Japanese pottery called kintsugi.

This type of pottery is highly prized and viewed as even more beautiful for having been broken. She said, "There are things to be learned while you wander, there is good to be done while you wait."
Sister Elaine Dalton and Tim Ballard spoke on Friday evening, and both of those were absolutely amazing too! Sister Dalton talked about holy habits and righteous routines. Brother Ballard talked about how "covenant makers are miracle chasers." The stories he shares are amazing. He shared how we must prepare and need to fill our lamps with light to withstand the darkness.

Halloween

The Saturday before Halloween, we had a trunk-or-treat in our neighborhood and a Punkin Dunkin at the pool. The little girls LOVED that! They had pumpkins and little rubber ducks to get and they all got a bunch! Goofy ended up with six or seven pumpkins!

 And that evening, we had trunk-or-treat at the church. We dressed as characters from Peter Pan. I was Nana the dog, Tink was Wendy, Bucko was Captain Hook, Minnie was Tiger Lily, Goofy was Peter Pan, Shortcake was the Crocodile, and Rosie was Tinkerbell.

For Halloween, they all dressed up as something different other than Rosie. She still wanted to be Tinkerbell. Bucko was a ranger (but I didn't get a picture), Minnie was Super Girl (also didn't get a pic), Goofy was a skeleton and Shortcake was ladybug Cinderella. Tink painted her face like this:

We even got a little pumpkin costume for Yeti.

Fall Break

We went to Park City the second week of fall break. It was nice to get out of town. We spent time with friends and family and just relaxed at the place we were staying. It had an outdoor heated pool, hot tub, and sauna, so the kids really liked that. The two little girls really liked the bowl of candy they left out for guests at the sign-in counter!
PC's cousin has been asking for a picture of him with the kids so we finally took that and sent it while we were there.

We went on a few hikes too. This one was near where we were staying in Jeremy Ranch. The kids loved the sign because there was a picture of a man that said, "Thanks, Bill!" because it was in recognition of his work done in the community, but the kids just thought it was hilarious and continue to say "Thanks, Bill!" at random times.

The little girls got tired pretty quickly, so I headed back down with them and we had some snacks near the bottom where we sat on a little bench. The girls always want me to take their pictures. I just love them!

We also did the Living Room hike. It was a super hot day which made the hike a bit more rough. Shortcake and I went really slow and made lots of stops. We were almost to the top, when Shortcake said she was done, so Minnie and Rosie stayed with us, but soon after a man came down and said we were almost to the top and should continue on. Shortcake really wanted to see the "rock castle" as Uncle M had called it, so we went on and made it. The view of Salt Lake was pretty cool, though pretty smoggy as well. Shortcake was so happy to sit on her rock throne.

The leaves were gorgeous along the trail in places too.

And since East High (where they filmed High School Musical) was only about ten minutes from there, we finally stopped to make Minnie's dream come true. All four older kids were so excited! Tink kept going around and saying things like, "There's the tables!" "There's the railing!" It was so fun to see it and to watch their excitement. High School Musical was a big part of their growing up as they would not only watch them, but sing the songs and act them out all. the. time when they were little.

We went to Uncle M's for dinner that night. The boys all took the little ones to see and feed the ducks while us older girls stayed back and played Tenzie.

And of course, Tink's birthday always comes during fall break. She really wanted my sister to make one of her famous layered cakes. We had everyone over to her house for burgers and hot dogs to celebrate.

We were also able to meet up with our friend "A." She and her family came up for Tink's party but we also got to go down and do lunch one day with her and see her kindergarten classroom. It's so fun having a friend that both PC and I just love and have grown closer to throughout the years. The time together is always too short, but we take what we can get! And we remembered to get pictures with her this time!

We did Temple Square one day as well. We took the kids inside the Tabernacle since they had never been in there and we also did the Conference Center tour. Finished off the evening with dinner at Chick-fil-a inside the City Creek Center.

 

Our last hike was up to the PC in Park City. The storm was blowing in, so we pretty much ran down to get back to the car.

The morning we woke up to leave, we had snow. It was pretty. It had snowed a little the day before and we went to the pool, but this had actually stuck. It was a fun week!