Elder Roberts is Home!!

We are so happy Elder Roberts is home! Almost immediately, he was playing and wrestling with the nieces and nephews. They all missed him so much! 

Boston's First Day of Kindergarton!!!

First Day of Kindergarton: August 24th 2018. Boston is in Miss Schmidt's class, and LOVES school!

Boston is a great helper and a fantastic big brother. He is responsible, loving, sweet and thoughtful. He is quick to think about other people, especially his sisters. He doesn't ever get a reward without asking if his sisters can share with him. I love that about him. He loves his friends/cousins/playmates, and always lets them play with his best and favorite toys. He especially likes going to school with his cousin James. He shares everything he has (when he and Ellie aren't fighting) and loves to read books with me. We are currently reading the Magic Tree House Series and learning all sorts of cool things from those adventures! He like to play Mario Brothers on the Wii with me when chores and homework are done, and loves to play baseball outside. He can hit the ball really good without the tee now! He is also learning his Articles of Faith and can say the first four on his own (and further if we are singing the songs) We love our boy!

 

Weddings, Youth Conference, and lots of "Happened's"

August started off with a bang. We got to drive to the Manti Temple on August 1st for the wedding of one of my favorite girls. I also got to do her hair...that may or may not have been a good decision on her part ;)

Isn't she so cute??

One of the ladies I work with in young women's has a family member that owns the donut shop in Manti, Millers Donuts.So of course, any excuse to go get food, we are definitely in! I also wanted to check out the place since this was one of the many stops on our Youth Conference trip. 

We then drove to Provo for dinner with the wedding party, and upon leaving the restaurant, I realize I don't have my purse...wallet, curling wand, nothing. I seriously left my bag at the donut shop. I have never (that I can recall) left my wallet in a public place. I must be doing something right in life though, because Millers Donuts just HAPPENED to find my bag, and just HAPPENED to put it in the lost and found, and when I called saying I just HAPPENED to be coming back in the next 2 days, it seemed nothing short of a miracle. And with even better luck, Jeff just HAPPENED to have my temple recommend in his pocket, so I would be able to get into the temple on our trip the next day. I also just HAPPENED to have my phone in my pocket.Talk about lucky. When I got back to find my bag, all of my things just HAPPENED to still be there. I'm grateful that the people in the shop were nice enough to turn my things in. If any these 'JUST HAPPENED' things hadn't HAPPENED, my weekend would have been miserable. Someone was looking out for me that day, and now the word HAPPENED is starting to look really weird.

So waking up bright and early the next morning, I set off to our ward youth conference. We did baptisms at the Payson and Manti Temples and got to go to the Castle Valley Pageant. We stayed at Huntington State Park for two nights and swam at the reservoir. We played night games (can't remember the last time I did that) and card games, played in the water, had mud fights, jumped off the docks, and had so much fun! I felt like a kid again...and probably acted a little too much like one too. 

We went and saw some cool southern Utah sites including this canyon (not sure what its called, I was too busy trying to keep the kids from getting too close to the edge or climbing down the canyon...my fear of heights is a little ridiculous) 

I asked one of the boys to take a picture of my other leader and I...this is what we got. A whole lotta face and no canyon haha

We went and saw the dinosaur footprint. Is it real? I don't know if I believe it or not, but here it is :)

Castle Valley Pioneer Activities: We all got to churn ice cream, make honey candy, milk cows, and get sized for our very own "diamond" nail rings. The Pageant was fun! It is definitely dated and pretty cheesy at times, but it had a great message and we had an awesome time!

When we got to the Manti Temple, the temple workers asked if I was going to do baptisms. I was so surprised.. I never get to do them, they don't ever even offer it to me since every opportunity goes to the youth. (Maybe I just look so young, they thought I was a teenager ;)) I had two girls opt out of participating at the last minute so I totally took advantage! I haven't done baptisms in like 10 years, and it was amazing!!! One of the girls we did baptisms for was born in the 1600's. The temple worker stopped us and pointed out that this girl had been waiting a long time for this day. SO NEAT! Pretty grateful for my calling!

July Stuff....

We attempted to go to build a bear on pay your age day....When we found out how long the line was (out the mall and wound around the outside of fashion place) we ditched those plans and went to wheeler farm instead. I'm sure Jeff was happy about that!

 As we were leaving Wheeler Farm, we decided to be spontaneous and take a day trip to Logan. We had no plans to go to Bear Lake this year (sad!) So we were really missing our Logan visit. We went to Gossners for cheese and ice cream, then Pepperidge farm to get some goldfish and cookies. My Grandpa is buried in Smithfield, so we were able to stop and show the kids where he is buried.

We stopped at my brothers house in Roy on the way back to meet our new nephew Maddux, and then again in Layton at the SeaQuest Aquarium. We crammed a lot into just one day, but the kids did great, and we had a lot of fun!

I'm surprised that Boston and Ellie aren't afraid to touch any of the animals. I wanted to see Jeff feed the birds this time, and he said even he was freaking out a little. 

We took a tour of Mrs. Cavanaughs chocolate factory (our ward goes every year) and then ended up going to meet another new niece, baby Madison in Heber!  Rylee got heat stroke and threw up all over Squeezit Grandma. Poor baby! And poor Grandma :)

Jeff had fun taking down some diseased tree's at my parents house, while the rest of us stayed home with sick baby Ry-ry. We cuddled and Boston picked out the most baby-est show he could on Netflix. She turned away from me at one point and layed her head on Boston's shoulder. Aww! She slept on him for a long time. She loves her big brother.

We love Sundays!

We had fun with cousins at the splash pad and the zoo! 

Ellie earned a Moana necklace for keeping her underwear dry at night for a week in a row. No more pull-ups for this girl! Yay Ells!

24th of July fun in Heber with more cousins and fireworks!

Dad home during the summer means the kids get more than cold cereal for breakfast. Sorry, kids! I just really love cold cereal.... :)

Got some one on one time with Ellie, when she was the only one who wanted to go grocery shopping with mom. She loved looking at all the backpacks, and can't wait to go to school! Every time she saw a mirror she would stop and check her hair. Yikes!

Ellie loves tacos for dinner. Lots of cheese and nothing else haha

I was able to work multiple times this summer and one of the perks was getting to go to Dr. Christensen's Cowabunga Bay party. None of us had ever been to the park before and we were all crazy about the water slides! Thanks Grandma and Papa for playing with Rylee so we could go :)

This girl loves her food....

We're always sad when July is over because it means Daddy is almost back to work. We love having him home to play with us!