Ogden Temple Open House Mitz and Dad

Earlier this month I was getting ready for bed and I had the strongest impression to invite my sister Mitz to the Ogden Temple open house. Mitzi, is amazing. I always looked up to Mitz. When I was little I don't think she missed a single birthday of mine. I could always count on a birthday card with lots of confetti in it. One year she picked me up in her convertible and had a ton of balloons for me and she took me to my favorite restaurant, Ligori's. I can still remember where we sat. I want to say it was for my 10th birthday. Whenever you are in her company she makes you feel #1. I loved being around her! For Christmas one year she brought me over a baby stroller for one of my cabbage patch dolls. She would also come over and make virgin pina colada's and bring this yummy coconut that she would put on the rim of the glasses. Mitz is the best and I am so grateful that she is my sister. Mitz accepted my invitation to go to the Ogden Temple open house. It really meant so much to me that she went. I think she knows it means a lot to me and I think that is why she went. She is wonderful like that! I only wish that I could have been there with dad and Mitz. I truly love going to the Temple. There is no place quite like it. Life can get pretty crazy and difficult. I know when I go to the temple all my worries and fears go away. I feel so close to heaven when I am there and feel incredibly at peace. It's a beautiful feeling. Thank you Mitz for going. I love you so very much!

 

Back to School 2014

This year I have three kids in Middle School and 0 in elementary. Kind of strange! My older 3 are going into 8th, 7th and 5th. Bean is officially in middle school and is mostly excited about a locker and getting to wear flip flops to school.We are excited for the new school year, for new opportunities to learn and new people to meet. We have spent the last several family home evenings talking about education and the importance of it. The New Era just had a whole section on education and I have been reading those to the children. I especially loved this quote from Elder Russell M. Nelson. "Brothers and sisters, don’t be afraid to pursue your goals—even your dreams! There is no shortcut to excellence and competence. Education is the difference between wishing you could help other people and being able to help them."

The evening before school started Jer gave all the children their back to school blessings. I love this tradition and it always starts the children off on the right foot. I am so grateful to Jeremy for working so hard and getting his education. I hope my children follow in his footsteps. With all the back to school talk the conversations I have had with the children have been so great. Goose was doing tons of research googling what jobs require ZERO math and Granny is just wondering where he can get a job so he can earn money to pay for his mission. On a side note, I love Bean. I just discovered that she emails her teachers quite often. She emailed her orchestra teacher and asked her if she knew anybody that taught violin. For some reason, my three older children are very independent. I love that quality about them. I think it is going to be a successful year and for the record I completely do not have a CLUE on how to do Granny's math. Thank goodness, he gets it!!!

 

Chief

I have so many mixed emotions about this, but Chief is going to Preschool. He LOVES it, which I am so grateful for, but sad at the same time. It is hard seeing your kids grow up. I guess bittersweet is a better word. Here he is on his very first day. He loves his Spiderman backpack and wanted to make sure he had a spike in his hair on the first day. :)

 

Daddy/Daughter Campout

Last weekend Jer took the Lady and Bean on a daddy/daughter campout with the ward. This would be Ladies first daddy/daughter campout. I love that Jer took her! Even better it was his idea! :) Love that about him. He has always took all of our children camping with just him when they were all small like Lady. I think it started raining around 11pm and Lady had a hard time falling asleep, so sleep and a leaking tent made for a rough night. Bean had a blast though! :)

Syrup

This is what happens when Chief pours the syrup on his French Toast.:)

 

Little Mother Hen

This little Lady is a little mother! We were getting ready to leave and she was trying to put shoes on Toad. Love her!

 

On the Menu

On the Menu: Chief's specialty sandwich. Ham and cheese on Wheat with carrot slices and lots of ketchup.

Anybody want to come for lunch?

Yes, he did eat it minus the crust. Gross!

 

On the farm and late strawberry picking

I don't live on a farm. Sometimes I wish we did. However, I love taking the children to the farm as much as I can. I want to give them the opportunity to run in the open and to be around animals. This particular day last week we spent an hour watching the goats, donkeys, pigs and chickens. Chief made friends with the farm kittens and had a ball chasing them around. He even picked one up and asked if we could bring it home. On the other hand, Lady is TERRIFIED of the animals. When the kitten walked under her stroller she nearly fainted! When I pushed her stroller up to the gate where the donkey was she flipped out again. Toad was content and munched on his cracker. The funny thing is whenever Lady sees someone walking a dog on our street she always wants to go up and pet it and is not afraid at all. I hope to get here used to animals and not be so scared. After visiting the animals we went and picked a quart of strawberries. They were a late season variety and were seriously delicious! I plan to take the 3 littles again this week to pick more strawberries and some raspberries.

 

Target

Target with these two is kind of my favorite. At least on this particular day. :) I can't get over their cuteness!! Love them!