A cute new Mom

Melissa, you're my hero! This is my cute "little" sister (just 6 or 7 inches taller than me) with her sweet new daughter! After waiting for years, and then having to wait 2 weeks more, she and her husband, Ryan, were able to adopt this beautiful little baby girl! She came in answer to many prayers and our whole family is celebrating! Yeah!! Congratulations!!

An idea

Here's an idea that came to me while thinking about how to teach my children from "The Strength of Youth" booklet. Whalaa! I copied and pasted each section from lds.org and printed them up. I then placed them in a sheet protector and taped them to the back of our bathroom doors. I can switch out the topics from time to time..... Friends, Entertainment and Media, Gratitude, etc. and we get to read a little bit from them each time we visit the bathroom. I liked how the General Young Women's presidency put it, "Underline the YOU in Youth- these principles are for all of us!"

Eleven

Our little cutie turned 11 on Monday! We are so proud of this beautiful daughter. Here she is with her "ice cream cone" cake.
Eleven candles- how did I get a daughter this old so quickly??
Blowing away the smoke...
When can I have a piece of cake, Mom? Nice party hat, Tommy!
The 2 birthday girls- her little cousin Emily has a birthday on Sept. 21.
Presents!! Allison got a large basket of clothes for her birthday. Boy, did she need them!
Rebecca painted this beautiful picture for Allison's present.
She also got "The Candy Shop War"- her class started reading it together last week! Great timing on this gift...

All in all, having Allison in our family has been pure joy! Everyone that knows her knows that she truly has a "sunshine" personality! She is sweet to everyone! She is talented and beautiful and her testimony of the gospel is strong. We love you, Alli!

Two dates with my two guys

Friday was an awesome date day! (and night) Tommy and I took advantage of the day with no preschool and headed to the zoo! His favorite animal is the gorilla, and he stopped for a long time to stare at the rattlesnake! But his most favorite thing about the zoo is the playground! I let him run around there for as long as he could take it! I love this little guy!

John and I also got a date that night. We went to the O.C. Tanner "Gift of Music" concert. It was beautiful- the Tabernacle Choir performed with the Utah Symphony, plus guest artists. I am now a big fan of Brian Stokes Mitchell- he was incredible! You should be hearing his rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening" now! My favorite song was sung by him as well, "New Words"- about teaching your children to talk. If I can find a copy of it, I'll post it also. Oh, and the concert was free!! You can check out events on lds.org every once in awhile and get free tickets to random concerts on Temple Square. I highly recommend it!

100% for 100 days

I really like this idea from my sis-in-law, Mary. Can you guess? The 100th day is Christmas! Well, if you started yesterday... a good reminder of what we should already be doing!

Daily: Individual and family prayer

Individual and family scripture study

Acts of Love & Compassion to Spouse and Children

Weekly: Date with Spouse

Family Home Evening

Sabbath Observance at Ward of Record

Magnify your calling

Monthly: Fast & Payment of tithes and offerings

Temple Attendance

Home and Visiting Teaching

Suncrest 5K

Here's John and I...ta da! Getting ready for our first ever 5K together. Excuse my dorky outfit, it was freezing up there at 7 a.m.! We ran the race with John's sister, Mary- (thanks for the pics, BTW!) and her husband, Josh. It was great fun, if you like running uphill for 2 miles straight! It was hard, but I was proud of us for even doing it....
At the start line....

They're at it again!

So, I know that some of you will be like, "What?!" but... Allison and Rebecca are going to be in another play! This time it's Peter Pan- they were both cast as "Lost boys" (guess they needed some girls to fill in!) and Allison was also cast as "Jane"- Wendy's daughter. She has a short part at the end, gets to meet Peter Pan and fly away with him! She was getting fitted for her harness at their first meeting yesterday. They are so excited. And, of course, Tommy will be over the moon to go watch it, with the pirates and all! The play will be performed in the middle of November. We'll keep you all posted on the details later!

Beware!

Yikes!

On Tuesday morning, John spotted a little toad in Allison's window sill. No big deal, we figured out that it was our neighbors toad from their yard pond. We returned the toad and were thinking that's where all the little tadpoles had come from that were swimming in a wet leaky hole in the front yard. Right? Wrong! Our same neighbor had a look at the "tadpoles" and told us they were actually mosquito babies! Yikes, I'm glad someone knew the difference. We've since been pouring bleach and bug killer in the water to kill the little babies. She could tell that they were mosquitos from the many legs they were growing... Gross!

Rebecca's baptism day

The day she's been waiting for is finally here!
Rebecca with her Dad
Becca and Mom (me)
Becca and Allison
Becca, Daddy and Tommy
The whole family! It was a wonderful day! Thanks to all who were there! We missed those of you that weren't able to be there. Rebecca had a wonderful day and felt so much love from everyone. We are so happy for her!