Halloween 2012

This year Katie was Super Girl and Kellen was Captain America. They both looked so stinkin' precious! Kellen really looked like a miniature Captain America too. He had his hair combed all spiffy like. They had a lot of fun at the ward Halloween party and then trick-or-treating. 

 Katie got Kellen to pose like a super hero. The little muscles in his costume were filled with pillow and Kellen was so fun to cozy with. I think he got tired of me trying to hug him.

 The kids had to take turns flying with dad.

Katie & Kellen stories

I will play catch up on the blog when I am out of school for the semester but for now I will put in a couple of stories for the grandparents:)

Kellen's stories

The other day we went to JoAnn Fabrics on a huge sale day. Tom took the kids to walk around while I picked out fabric and waited for 39 people to get their fabric cut. Yep, I just wrote 39 people! I about cried but the fabric was a really, really good deal and I would be mad if I left the store without it. I digress....
Tom and the kids were walking down the Christmas aisle when Kellen fell in love with a ginormous Nutcracker that even with 50% off was still $50.00. Kellen was disappointed when he had to leave him there.

The next night Scott had a birthday party and earned $90.00 from sisters and mom and dad in the matter of three minutes. Nice, right?! As soon as Kellen found out how much Scott raked in he yelled, "Hey Scott!!! You can buy a huge Nutcracker!!!!!!!!!!" He was so excited!! Too bad Scott didn't take to Kellen's idea.

Kellen told me today that he is going to save up all year to buy the huge Nutcracker. I asked him why he wanted the Nutcracker so bad. He said, "I want to crack nuts, duh!" Oh yeah, my bad!

Another Kellen story....

As were putting up the Christmas tree this year Tom was telling the kids what the candy cane represented as well as other things. He then asked the kids what they thought the Christmas tree represented. Kellen said, "Well, Jesus lived in a forest and the tree represents the forest."  I just thought his answer was so innocent.

Katie story....

Let start by saying that Katie is far more righteous than I will ever try to be. She has more faith in her little pinky than I do in my whole body. Every night, without fail, she reads her scriptures and listens to church music. She is so stinkin' righteous! Last night I was walking around checking on the house, locking doors, turning off lights (our kids think we own SRP), etc. I walked by Katie's room to find her next to her bed, on her knees, her arms folded, her head bowed, and her eyes closed. She looked like a little angel saying her nightly prayers. She heard me walk by and told me that she was just praying. Katie will always be the perfect little example of everything pure and righteous!!!

Lately....

Lately, I have been too tired to sit and write anything on the computer. I am in week 8 of nursing school and have a hit a wall. Everyone in my class feels it, our teachers all admit it exists, and I am sooo tired! I cannot even list the amount of information and skills that we have learned in 8 weeks. I think it would hurt my brain to even think about it. I am surviving. I have a great study group and a very supportive family. Good thing!

Here is an update on everyone else....

Katie-She loves 4th grade, with the exception of math. She is really mad that I make her go to after school tutoring for math. Oh well, we do what we can to help her out. She is loving gymnastics. Every time she does a cartwheel it gets better and better. Grandpa Lyle told her that if she could do a cartwheel on the balance beam, without falling off, he would give her $5. Sure enough, she earned her money! Thanks to Aunt Di, she has a really awesome leotard and loves to prance around in it. She also loves to sing and is currently doing what she can to make sure that she is the next american idol. Ya never know!!!

Kellen-My little "baby" turns 6 tomorrow. He is super funny too! He comes up with the funniest one liners. He is also finally enjoying his days in kindergarten. It took about 10 weeks for him to finally enjoy it. I was a little worried for a while. He is reading and doing really well in math.

Tom-Well, this man knows how to work really, really hard. He is currently working two jobs to support our family while I go to school. He is working at University of Phoenix and also doing Landscape Architecture part time. We are hoping that he can get back into the Landscape Architecture field sooner than later. We just keep praying for a miracle and are continuously grateful for his current position.

There you go, you are all caught up. Until next time!

Fake Injury

Tonight during Katie's gymnastics class Kellen asked me an interesting question. This was our conversation:

Kellen: Mom, should I fake an injury?

Me: (internally-What???!!) Um, no. Why do you ask?

Kellen: I was thinking I should fake an injury so I won't have to go to school everyday.

Me: Well bud, you need to go to school and a fake injury won't keep you from going. You need to go to school to learn to read and learn about math.

Kellen: I already know how to read.

Me: (handing him my nursing school reading)-Okay, read this.

Kellen: (laughing) I guess I better go to school.

Conversation with Kellen

I was helping Kellen get ready for school and this was our mini-conversation.

Kellen:My shirt is going to get all wrinkled during quiet time at school.
Me: You have quiet time?!
Kellen: YES! We put our heads down on our desks.
Me: How long does it last?
Kellen: 200 seconds

Chipping Away at Things

For the past couple days I have thinking a lot of life. Perhaps you can tell from my latest posts. Anyway.... this post comes after my visit with my visit teachee.  I visit the Relief Society President who's life parallels mine right now as well. While she is not in school, she is working and is trying to juggle a large calling, and has a few kids. She is also caring for her parents as they are getting older. She is quite the lady! We were talking about the goals we set and how we achieve them one day at a time. She talked about her nephew who just completed dental school. He worked so hard to get through school as he is not a natural born student (like myself) and needs to work extra hard for good grades. She reminded me that as we seek the help of the Holy Ghost as we are working toward our end goal that he will help us immensely. Yes! True! There were nights when I was studying Anatomy/Physiology that I pretty much pulled up a chair for the Holy Ghost to sit right next to me. It was so hard soaking in and memorizing all of the information. I only made it through the class because of the help from my family, friends and the Holy Ghost. So, as a reminder (mainly to me), whatever we set our mind on to accomplish, we can do it with the guidance and support of the Holy Ghost. Just as a sculptor chips away the rock or clay, eventually he creates a beautiful piece of art We too can also chip away at whatever we are doing, day by day, and in the end create something beautiful and/or accomplish a very difficult goal!

Frosting Face

Last night we were decorating our individual cakes with frosting. I got a little bored with it and asked if I could draw on Erica's face. Yes, it is such an older sister thing to do :) Katie and Kellen loved the idea. Here are a few photos of the final outcome. We all look great!

Our Callings

I am super tired right now and yet my body and mind feel that I should be up and writing in my "journal". I am going to blame the fact that my writing is not that great on the fact that I am really tired. For some time now, two months really, I have been primary president. The week that I was called was a very interesting week. I accepted the call and went to work praying about my counselors. Crazy thing, when the adversary does not want you to do something he makes it known! That week was an extremely dark week. I thought that when they called my name to be sustained, I felt people would laugh. I am younger than my counselors and a lot of people in the ward. They have so much wisdom and I really think I should be learning from them. I honestly stood up and waited for the laughter to begin. Luckily, nothing! That day my ward was extremely supportive and gave me such great encouragement. I had nothing left to fear, right? Wrong! Yet another week of darkness. I have never had more people tell me to give up and tell the bishop that because I was starting nursing school in the fall that I needed to be released. I would serve for three months and do the best I could but that I needed to give it up. The pit in my stomach grew larger and again, darkness. As soon as I prayed again about this calling, I knew it was the right thing to do. I would have to tell the "peanut gallery" that I was grateful for their wisdom but that I trusted Heavenly Father's faith in me and that's all I needed.

My poor counselors! The first meeting we had I burst into tears thinking that I could not do this. Seriously, they probably thought I was going to cry like this at every meeting. Luckily for them, it has only happened once! At this point I had yet to be set apart. That next Sunday, I marched myself to the bishop's office and asked to be set apart. I needed it! My friend told me she saw how nervous I was to accept this calling with all I had on my plate and yet after I was set apart she said that she saw the mantel of president on my shoulders and things changed. Yes, things did change. I was less nervous and I had the determination to go forward with faith. The darkness was completely gone and I was now sustained and set apart as the primary president.

It's interesting how Heavenly Father gives you different challenges in life and allows you to either accept the challenge, allow Him to mold you and make the best of it. He wants us to succeed and gives us tools in order for us to do so. I have amazing counselors. I tell them almost everyday how grateful I am for their support. Their attitudes of selflessness often puts me to shame.

As I was reading the scriptures tonight I was thinking of how we often accept callings or are given trials that are hard. At the beginning we moan and groan about how difficult our life may be. Yet after a few weeks, months or years, we realize that our lives would be less fulfilled without everything we have faced. I tell ya, after all that our family has faced, I am ready for my challenges to slow down. However, I know that Heavenly Father knows what He is doing. I know that he calls us to do things at times we didn't think were the best. Such as now. I am a mom, a wife, a friend, a primary president, and a nursing student. It's a little over whelming to think about it. However, after a beautiful blessing from Tom, my eyes have truly been opened to Heavenly Father's merciful hand in our lives. I am more grateful for everything! For every meal, for every pay check we receive (we have been without that before and are very happy when it comes every two weeks!), for every extra job that Tom is doing to build up his Landscape Architecture Firm, for every break through that I have with one of my primary kids, for every super great sharing time that I have with all the primary kids, for every minute I have with my family and for every time or conversation I have with a great friend. We are truly blessed!!

Callings are for our good. They make us grow. They shape us. They help build our character. I still wonder sometimes, "Why me?" There were/are several women in the ward that would have rocked it as primary president! However, I know that our Father in Heaven knows what we need in our lives at the exact time that we need it and then I think, "Thank you for choosing me!" I have loved every minute of it and I am truly grateful for the blessings that we have received because of the calling. I know that this calling can and will help me to be a better mom, teacher and student. For this, I will always be grateful.

Kellen lost a tooth...again!

Before Kellen starts kindergarten, he will have already lost two teeth. We were just sitting at home and Kellen announced that he lost his tooth. He was watching Yoggie Bear and was messing with it. Our little man is growing up so fast! Don't you love the picture too?!

Tom's Masters Graduation

On June 30th, Tom graduated with his Masters in Business Administration (MBA). We are very proud of him. Here are some highlights from that day.

 Well, highlight number one, Martha Stewart was the main speaker. Here she is giving her speech. She gave a pretty nice speech and did not forget to plug her new show on PBS in the fall. That was kinda funny.

Kellen is so proud of his daddy.

 Tom looks so studious as he thinks about the complexities of life and the universe.

 Tom with his proud parents, Ann and Ted.

 Here we have everyone (except my mom) who came that day: Shannyn, Ann, Tom, Ted, Stephanie, me, Katie and Kellen.

 Everybody, this time with my mom on the right.

 Yay, finally done with homework forever! What is up with the tongue?!

 Kellen's happy pose.

Yay!

Friends

A couple of weeks ago our friends went to Florida and left their daughters here with us for about three days. We had so much fun! They slept in different places every night, we saw a movie, made smores in the back yard, and set up the tent in the family room. I know my kids had a blast with their friends!

 Here we are making smores using ice cream cones, chocolate chips, marshmellows and cookie dough. Then we put them in the fire (and later oven) to get them all gooey.

 Kennadie building her smore.

 Yummy, Katie!

 Here they are, all snug in the tent.

 Hi there! They like to bring in the flashlight and tell ghost stories.

Hi Reese!

Fathers and Sons Camp out 2012

Oops, I totally forgot to put the camp out on the blog. Sorry, Tom and Kellen. Anyway, here are some highlights from the trip SANS the quad ride that Tom took Kellen on without a helmet!!! I was mortified when I heard about that. Especially since someone in our ward broke their collar bone on a quad that same day at the camp out. 

 Kellen eating his yummy breakfast.

 Kellen loves to go and play with the old beat up cars. He looks forward to it every year.

 Kellen loved the rock behind them. He thought it was so cool that it has not fallen down yet.

 Woo-hoo!

Picture of the view around their campsite.

Trek 2012-Gilbert, AZ Stake

Here we go!!! In January of this year, the Bishop asked that Tom and I be a "Ma" and "Pa" for the Trek. I was over joyed! I never got to go on a Trek growing up so this was going to be a great experience. We traveled up to Munds Park by Flagstaff and journeyed for three days as pioneers. 

"If you are going to leave footprints in the sands of time, you better put on your work boots!" 

~LeGrand Richards

 We were off. At 6am we met up with our ward to travel as "families" to the loading area.

 Here is our handcart all ready to go. We had some super strong boys that put it together in no time. We had 13, 5 gallon buckets on the bottom and then sleeping bags and other odds and ends on top.

 We're off!!! We started out in the front of the pack and then they made us move to the back. Apparently, they were all running to keep up with us. They didn't like the pace we set. I am not sure why? :)

 After talking to our stake rep., we were really off! Here are all four hand carts. We had one of the biggest wards at the Trek....our group was the loudest. Love it!

 Gary (blue shirt), Levi (plaid shirt), Andrew (red shirt), Jodi (flower dress), Jaxon (hat with blue), & Savannah in the black dress. Just part of our family.

 There's Dwayne. The attorney I work for was also on the trek. I caught him off guard and got a picture of him to bring back to work.

 Here is Tom. just hanging out. He grew a Brigham Young beard for the Trek. Truth is, he looked like cousin Mos from The Office.

 We had a little competition with the Brienholts during the Trek. Too bad Br. Brienholt won the stick pull with Tom.

 I did a stick pull with Will. He was way too strong and won, of course!

 Levi, doing his Bill Cosby impression.

 Our super fun group!

 Andrew also grew a beard for the Trek.

 One day Andrew will be able to have a cousin Mos beard like Tom too.

 Gary, Savannah, Lauren, Jodi, Hayden and Ryan.

Last day of the Trek! We are tired and super dirty. It was super fun and I would go on another Trek anytime!