We Have an 8 YEAR OLD!!!

Samantha had a birthday!!! Her birthday was really on September 25th and I'm just really late in putting together these posts, but the birthday pictures were REALLY taken on her actual birthday.

Samantha is a very unique little girl who knows exactly what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it. She has always been this way and as she gets older she is definitely using this trait for good. She has a strong testimony of the gospel and tries her very best to do what's right. I'm proud of her. :)

One funny thing about her is that she has pulled all of her own teeth. I don't even know when her teeth are loose anymore. She just comes into the room holding a tooth and shows me the bloody gums in her mouth! She just prefers to do things on her own no matter what the results will be.

For her birthday she knew exactly what she wanted for dinner/dessert. No beating around the bush. For dinner she picked Dip Sandwiches (homemade philly steak 'n cheese sandwiches dipped in au jus). Dessert was Pumpkin Chiffon Pie with cream on top. YUM! Because of her pick, I spent most of her birthday morning in the kitchen, cooking . . . but isn't that what moms are for?

We all went for a movie in the afternoon and invited the grandparents to come over dinner and gifts in the evening. As you can see, she had a great time opening her presents. Here she is holding up some new barbie clothes. The package even includes a suit for Ken!
She was happy to be able to read the cards herself.

Until she got to the cursive! This is when Athena stepped in to help. It was so cute to watch them try to read the birthday card together. Finally neither of them could figure it out so they had to hand it to Grandma to have her read her own writing in the card to Samantha.

After presents we delved into the pie! I like that Samantha chose pie because cake has never been a favorite of mine. Little kids like decorated kids. Older kids get a little more sophisticated and request treats that actually taste good. YEAH!

Thank goodness I could only fit 3 candles on this piece of pie instead of 8. She barely got them all out.

I love having Samantha in our family. She is a blessing to us all and I love seeing her learn and grow. I'm especially excited to have another baptized member of the church in our home. I look forward to watching her take more responsibility and grow in her gospel knowledge.

Fruits of My Labor

Here are the fruits of my labor during conference.

I made grape juice for the first time unassisted! :) It was fun, but extremely time consuming. I juiced 2 bushels of grapes and came out with 38 bottles of grape juice! It's really good, we had it for breakfast this morning.

With all of my leftover time, so for one session, I worked on this puzzle. I love puzzles and that's really my favorite conference past time - not making grape juice. I guess you do what you have to do, right?

The kids were actually not too bad this time for conference. We did have plenty of moments where they got "shushed", but for the most part it didn't get out of hand to the point where I was wondering why we watch it at all. It certainly helped that we still have naptime for 2 of them! Athena and Samantha were really good about finding quiet activities and listening. All the kids were quite interested in the grape juice making process and they took turns helping me wash the grapes. If I dared turn that whole job over to them I would because it's my LEAST favorite part, but I'm too picky about how the grapes get washed. Overall, I'd have to say it was a good and productive weekend!

Things That Are Sharp

Today at Macey's I got a balloon for Nathan and Alexandra. Nathan kept hitting Alexandra in the head with his balloon and I told him he had better stop it or I was going to pop his balloon.

We got in the car and as we were headed home he asked me:

"Mom, what pops a balloon?"
"Things that are sharp." I answered.

He thought for a minute and then asked, "Are toenails sharp?"

Nice Addition to My Day

Today I was in the middle of my scripture reading when the doorbell rang. Standing at my door were 2 nice ladies who were knocking doors in our neighborhood sharing spiritual messages from the bible. I told them that I just happened to be in the middle of my own scripture study. They asked what I was reading about and I told them that I was reading in the Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Christ. I told them that I was in the middle of reading about Korihor and I gave them a summarized version of that story. I also added how everything on our earth denotes that there is a God and how interesting it is that people can act like they don't believe when there is evidence all around us that He lives.

They then related that to a story in the bible and started talking about how angels visited people in the bible and it's so important for us to read the word of God because angels don't visit us now and we need to learn from the people who have been visited long ago.

I told them - oh, I do believe that angels still visit us. They looked a little surprised and said, "Well, they don't visit people on earth anymore, but we can read about them in the bible and learn from what they tell us." I said, "No, I believe that God loves us just the same now as he did then. Our world has changed so much since then and I believe that God has a continuing interest in us. There is no reason why he wouldn't be talking to us now just like he did then. We can receive personal inspiration from him and I do believe that He and his angels still talk to prophets today."

They just stood there with a nice smile on their faces. I then thanked them for being willing to come and spend their time sharing spiritual messages with people and told them to have a nice day.

I didn't really know that I would have the opportunity to share my testimony with someone today because it doesn't seem to come along that often. The knock seemed to come at the perfect time. I do know that God lives, that he loves us, and that he continues to reveal His word to us so that we may know the truth and live righteously. He wants us to return to live with Him again. I love the Lord and am grateful to have this knowledge in my life instead of having to wonder and have unanswered questions.

Busy Brain

I have so many things going through my head lately that I have to remind myself to take it all just one step at a time. I really like being busy and I'm actually considering starting to make lists! I just got called to be the 2nd counselor in the Primary for our ward. I'm excited about the calling and I'm excited to serve my ward. In thinking through this week, I just started to feel so super overloaded, so I thought maybe if I write it out I won't be quite so overwhelmed with everything that I need to be doing.

Here is what is in my head for this week:

Monday:
-Cut coupons from 15 coupon magazines and file them in their correct categories in my coupon book.
-Reorganize Nathan's closet by taking out clothes that are too small. Replace all the old little hangers with the new normal sized hangers I bought at Walmart on Saturday. Hang all hand-me-downs that fit now in their new reorganized places.
-Keep eye on Max for every time he has to go potty so he has no more accidents and take him out
-Fold laundry, clean, vacuum
-Post to blog and index 50 names
-Come up with dinner and dessert for FHE
-Teach aerobics to community class
-Preschool for Nathan
-Contact everyone about Samantha's baptism and plan big family meal

Tuesday
-Go visiting teaching to Jenn at 9am
-Read through some of primary manual
-Athena choir
-Samantha dance
-Make dinner for family and then make casserole to furnish for Enrichment night.
-Go to Enrichment meeting
-Primary meeting to discuss writing primary program
-Make it to Macey's and hope they still have the eggs for 58 cents/doz, oh and buy sour cream

Wednesday
-Go visiting teaching to Laura at 9am
-Read through more of primary manual
-Sort through 4 big bags of hand-me-down clothes for Athena and Samantha
-Athena dance
-Wedding shower for good friend
-Athena, Samantha, and Nathan soccer pictures
-Athena, Samantha, and Nathan soccer games
-go to aerobics and possibly teach kick boxing

Thursday
-continue reading primary manual and hope I'm retaining some of it
-Nathan gymnastics
-Athena, Samantha, and Nathan soccer games
-Bring treats for Athena's soccer game
-teach aerobics to the community class

Friday
-breath and play settlers with Daddy for the afternoon

Saturday
-Play 2 volleyball games with the relief society for stake volleyball
-Go to BYU game with Jeremy

I think by the time Friday comes this week I'll be so grateful! And yes, it most certainly did help to type it all out. I hope I didn't forget anything.

Playing School

I am a cheapskate.

I had Nathan signed up for preschool this year, but the $50/month chunk of change wasn't sounding so good to me, so I called and cancelled and decided I can teach him some things at home. Well, I think that preschool would really do both of us some good - him for the learning, me for the sanity - but it's really hard to justify spending that much money just so I can send him off.

Anyway . . . I told Nathan I was going to teach him preschool from home this year. He was pretty excited. I planned on starting doing extra things with him after Labor Day. So, yesterday he came upstairs with Samantha's old backpack on his back and said with a big grin, "OK Mom! I'm ready for school!" I knew he was pretending that he was going to school, but he just looked so cute and excited and I decided to play along.

I told him that he would be going to pretend school in just a minute. I got a few things out of the cupboard for him and started talking to him in my "school teacher voice". In a very orderly fashion I told him to find a hook to hang his backpack on, sit quietly at the table with his arms folded, and then wait for the rest of the class so we could get started. He went and hung his backpack on the pantry doorknob and very quietly sat down at the table with his arms folded! I've never seen this side of Nathan! It was so cute!!!

We continued playing teacher and student. I got him to write his name (which he was SUPER excited about) and then I got out the paints and let him try painting a little. He was very respectful and obedient the whole time. At the end of "school" I told the "class" that I would call their tables to get their backpacks and sit back down. His table was the green table. I called a bunch of different colored tables to get their backpacks. When I said, "OK . . . now green table go and get your backpacks" he hurried over to where it was hanging, put it on, and sat in his seat. Then I had him line up behind me with his backpack on and we walked to the front door like he was headed out to meet his parents. Then I went in the house and left him outside.


When he came in the house to be home from school, I was back to being his mother. I asked him how school was and what he did at school and he sat and told me ALL about it. Then he said with a quirky giggle, "Mom, it's funny. My teacher looked just like you. And she had the same clothes as you."

I guess if this works to get him excited about school, then we will be doing this a couple of times a week!

Just For Fun

I was looking at some of my summer pictures and came across these beauties.

This is when we went up to Grandma Lynda's campsite for dinner. I love this picture because it has all of us in it and we all look decent. That's quite the requirement for a blog!


Jeremy's mom goes up the canyon quite often and everyone is always welcome to come up and spend the evening. We went up and roasted hot dogs, hung out around the fire, and later made smores. It's nice that our kids are getting a little older and can be more responsible around the fire pit (for the most part).

This was taken the next day. We were all playing outside and I sent Alexandra in to get some shoes. She found Samantha's boots. I guess if she is able to walk in them, then it works!