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!

Becca was on TV!

Becca and her play "Schoolhouse Rock" were shown on Channel 2 News this morning! It was super fun. In case you missed it, here's a clip: (Becca is the cute little blonde dancing in the front and on the right!)

Back to (pre)school

Yeah! Tommy's back on the bus for this school year! Doesn't he look glad to be back?

This year, he is in the 4-year-old class of preschool, which means he goes to school 4 days a week- just for a couple of hours. He's has been doing so great with his speech! We know he'll continue to improve from here on out....we're finding out just how smart this little guy is!

The best news of all- his classroom has a pirate ship! Believe me, this was huge factor for Tommy. I was nervous they wouldn't have this important piece of play equipment in their classroom this year, imagine our relief when we saw it! This was at a preschool open house they had for the students and their parents.

More amazing quotes

Since we lost Matthew, reading is a great comfort to me. There is not a whole lot written on the lives of these little ones, so what I do find I really do treasure. Here's some more "nuggets" of truth:

"Little children shall be saved. They are alive in Christ and shall have eternal life. For them the family unit will continue, and the fulness of exaltation is theirs. No blessing shall be withheld. They shall rise in immortal glory, grow to full maturity, and live forever in the highest heaven of the celestial kingdom." Elder Bruce R. McConkie

"Joseph Smith declared that the mother who laid down her little child, being depirived of the privilege, the joy, and the satisfaction of bringing it up to manhood or womanhood in this world, would, after the resurrection, have all the joy, satisfaction and pleasure, and even more than it would have been possible to have had in mortality, in seeing her child grow to the full measure of the stature of its spirit...

"...When the mother is deprived of the pleasure and joy of rearing her babe to manhood or to womanhood in this life, through the hand of death, that privilege will be renewed to her hereafter, and she will enjoy it to a fuller fruition than it would be possible for her to do here. When she does it there, it will be with the certain knowledge that the results will be without failure; whereas here, the results are unknown until after we have passed the test." President Joseph F. Smith

It's great to be eight!

Becca is eight years old! She is such a sweet daughter and of course, has been looking forward to this birthday for a long time. We opened presents on Friday morning and had her favorite breakfast of German pancakes!

Rebecca got 2 new books, white shoes and a beautiful white dress for her baptism. We'll wait to post a full picture of the dress at her baptism.


I got to go to Becca's classroom on Friday, too and share a favorite book of her choice: Shel Silverstein poems! We also had some time to show the kids in her class how to make tissue paper flowers. It was easy and fun!

This was the "cake" that Becca chose for her party- "cubcakes."
Becca is lucky- she gets to share a birthday with her Aunt Jill! I think Rebecca helped Jill with her candles here. Jill is probably out of breath thanks to Bailey! (You can't tell in this pic, but Jill is almost 7 months pregnant...)
These two love treats and actually gave each other treats for presents! Sweeeet teeeeeth!!

Raising a gentleman

This is amazing- but Tommy loves to clean! He got the spray bottle and paper towel on his own the other night and went to town on the floor! He actually looks happy, too!
He also is the best bean snapper in the family! Can you see how hard he's working in his little face? He outworked Becca and Allison by 10 minutes! He's the best little helper!
This was the night my cute Mom and Dad dropped in the see us on their way to their 40th high school reunion! They were recently called to be temple ordinances workers in the St. George temple- we are so proud of them! Way to go, Grandma and Grandpa!

Anyone want to join us?

Hey- John and I are going to run a 5K on Sept. 13th at Suncrest. I know- hard to believe- I haven't run since the 8th grade and I'd really rather stay inside and read a good book!

John's Dad is one of the organizers of the run and we thought we'd give it a shot! My sisters might be more interested in running the 10-mile race, though! Here's a link: check it out!http://www.utmountainracing.com/

From the mouths of babes...

Kids are amazing! I am constantly learning from my own. Recently, they have said things that astound me. Tommy saw a cemetery as we were driving by, and he said, "Where did all the flowers go?" (He was impressed on Memorial Day with all the flowers on the graves.) Then he asked, "Where did Matthew go?" This came from him, I didn't remind him of his little brother. We talked about how he lives with Jesus now and how we'll get to see him again. Children really are listening even when you think they aren't!

Allison had an activity day where they learned about testimonies and she wrote her own down. This is what it says: MY TESTIMONY- I'd like to bear my testimony and I know this is the true church. I know that because I have asked people about their church, and they have no idea what their church is about except a few out of place things. I also know because I have felt the Holy Ghost. Even though other people tease me, it doesn't matter. I will still believe.