Week in review

MONDAY- It's amazing to think of all that happens in one family in one week!! Since I'm a little slow at posting lately, I wanted to post the last week in review. Above is Tommy's "new" room! Actually, just a new paint job. He moved into a bright yellow room when we moved to this house. We thought he needed something a little more "boyish." We think he really likes it!

TUESDAY- I went to a "training" just to volunteer with Allison's class. I had no idea, really, what I was getting into. They are participating in "JA Biztown"- the JA stands for Junior Achievement and it looks so fun! The training was on the top floor of the Gateway Discovery Museum. It's set up like a mini-town or community- the students go there on an all-day field trip and work at their jobs, collect paychecks, go to the bank, take out loans, pay for health insurance, etc.- All the fun things we adults get to do! It should be interesting and fun for the kids!

WEDNESDAY- You'll have to check on SATURDAY for the results of this day. Allison's activity day leader called at 12:30 p.m. to "remind" Allison that their Halloween party was today! That was news to me! I frantically got out the pattern and material we had picked out for her witch dress and went to town cutting and sewing. The result? Like I said, check out SATURDAY. I will say that I got finished at 4:00 p.m.-- about 5 minutes before Allison got home from school. (4 p.m. was also the time that the party started... that's cutting it a little too close!)

THURSDAY- Tommy earned all his "stamps" on his chart for being such a good boy and for being a perfect little potty user!! We frequent this dollar store a lot to reward the little guy. His favorite items are: pirate play sets, Spiderman cars, Spiderman flash cards (not to learn numbers, but to look at "the mean guys!"), he also thinks the plastic pirate knives and guns are cool, but they are off limits!

FRIDAY- This is Tommy at his Grandpa's office waiting for his flu shot. You can tell that he doesn't know that! I actually told him beforehand that he was going to get a "little poke" and he started freaking out a little bit. So I had to change the subject and pretend like I didn't know why we were there. Sorry, Tommy! He was brave and only cried for about 1/2 a minute!

We also took the kids to the 'Gale Museum' today and they loved it! I didn't even know it existed until the girls had their Peter Pan auditions there. They have mini rooms to depict life at the time of the settling of South Jordan. Perfect place to take kids- and best of all? FREE! Tommy is pretending to eat a plastic steak in this picture.

Becca's gathering eggs

Fishing

Cute little house!

In the teepee.

SATURDAY- Ready to 'trunk or treat'! Like I said, we seem to celebrate Halloween all month long! The kids had a great time at this ward activity and I'm just happy that all their costumes came together and they like them! Happy Halloween (month) everyone!

Who's that girl?

Remember when moms had until Oct. 31st to have their children's costumes made? It seems like we celebrate Halloween all month long! Rebecca had an activity days Halloween party last week and this is the result of the "Geisha girl" costume. I sewed the little dress. And I had an interesting experience while cutting out the pattern! I lost the front sleeve pattern piece somehow. I searched the house high and low, and could not find it! So, I said a prayer like I usually do to find missing items. Instead of finding the piece this time, an idea came into my head on how to lay out the other pieces of the dress to figure out how to draw the missing sleeve piece! It's amazing how we are helped if we only ask. Heavenly Father wants to help us always, even with "silly" missing things!

Hairnets are happenin'!

Whoa- kind of a scary picture, but this was so funny, I couldn't resist! I took the girls with me to the cannery downtown to buy some jam (I had previously worked there to earn a card to go back and buy more) and we had to wear these hairnets to go pick it up!
Here's Rebecca manuevering the cart to get our cases of jam...
We also took advantage of our time there to take a little tour of Welfare Square. The cutest sister missionaries, one from Guatemala, one from Australia took us on a personal tour. It was such a great thing for my daughters. Here they are by the items they pack into the cleaning kits and also food boxes that are shipped to areas where a disaster has hit.

Allison and I were almost crying when they showed us a picture of a little girl in Ethiopia that was 8-years-old and weighed 20 pounds! She looked like a baby. It was so sad. But, BYU helped develop the Atmit- a powder with lots of vitamins and nutrients that can be mixed with water. The Atmit has saved hundreds of thousands of lives for those who are starving. $5 of Atmit can save a life. They showed another picture of the same girl 6 months later, she had grown hair and looked almost normal size! Yeah for fast offerings! It was amazing to see this wonderful place.
P.S. Becca kept her hairnet and wore it on and off throughout the day!

Happy Birthday John! (aka Daddy)

What could be under this greasy box?? No peeking, Daddy- it's your birthday cake!
In honor of our junk food-loving, sweet-toothed Dad that lives at our house, we went all out on his cake! Yes, that's chocolate cake with coconut pecan icing and to top it all off- donuts! Allison and Rebecca mixed, baked, decorated his cake all by themselves! We're proud of them for doing all this work for their Dad!
Opening gifts and cards- thanks everyone!
New vest for the cool weather...
What, oh what should we wash down the donuts and cake with?? C-milk, of course!

Tommy's ready!
Yes, he did! We're laughing here because Tommy blew out all the candles for his Dad!
Classic Ryan picture- (wide open mouth while eating picture.)
Let's have Dad's birthday again tomorrow!

We needed a little miracle....link

My cousin, Laura, wrote an awesome post about our family (my cousins, sister, and I) and our struggle to bring little babies to the earth. We are all celebrating the miracle of adoption for my sister and her family. I hope you'll take the time to read it- it is beautiful! (And I love that she complimented me very generously, thanks, Laura) What she doesn't mention is that she also has been trying, praying, struggling to get pregnant for years.

http://dugovicdomain.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-needed-little-miracle.html

Wasn't conference amazing??

Wow, I am so grateful for our prophets. Conference always leaves me feeling inspired and refreshed! I don't always feel I get to take in all they have to say at once, especially with the children running around! I look forward to re-reading their messages and listening to rebroadcasts on the internet. We are so blessed! I am especially grateful to President Uchtdorf, he seemed to always say just what I needed, both in the Relief Society Conference and on Saturday's broadcast on hope! He is amazing... What was your favorite talk?

Giving back

Did you know that you can pick up Humanitarian projects at the D.I. and work on them at home? Well, you can and I didn't know about this until recently, so hopefully it's news to someone else! We worked on making little baby hats for Family Home Evening(s)- it took us two Monday nights, but they were so fun and easy! They are made from "stockinette"- a tubular bandage. You just cut, fold, and tie! There are many other projects to choose from there, and they have the room set up so you can go there and work, also.

It's Autumn time!

Thanks to Crystal for taking these family pictures for us! We found a beautiful trail just south of the new Draper temple. Some of these are worthy of the Christmas cards.... and some are not! Tommy got tired of posing after awhile. Just scroll down and you'll see what I mean!







The behind the scenes action!

Pumpkin patch

Here's my children on a bright, beautiful, sunny and hot (85 degree) October day! We have the cutest "little" pumpkin patch near our home and they couldn't wait to get over there to enjoy!
Which one? Which one? Tommy walked and walked and walked to try to find his perfect pumpkin!
Still searching......

The tractors are a big hit! They love to climb on and "drive" every one.

There's a cool little children's corn maze there, also. Below is my favorite shot of my kids in the corn!