Conference weekend!

I love LDS General Conference and it seems like the messages are always directed to me!  What a blessing to be able to hear the word of the Lord, to receive personal revelation, to be uplifted and at peace all weekend!  We started off the weekend by going to Shakey's Pizza on Friday.  We ate some pizza (used Emma's reading coupons for all of the kids) and then played some games in the arcade. 

Saturday morning, it was conference time!  I set up a "General Conference Store" which had prizes with different amounts on each one.  Then we put out our cards (we've used these since Emma was two) that had key words and pictures on each one.  We told the kids that if they heard one of the topics being talked about, they could give us the card and we'd give them a penny.  Then they got their own little jar and put their pennies in that.  When they got enough pennies, they could redeem them for a prize.  They loved it and it held their attention.  When the morning session was over, Emma said "Uh, we have to pause it?" and Cal said "Oh, I wanted to listen to more conference!"  This only lasted about halfway through the afternoon session though. 

Saturday night, the Bowman's came over.  Josh and Dave went to the Priesthood session.  And Lindsay and I talked and planned Halloween, and the kids played.  Then they got back and we ate enchilladas for dinner and then some yummy molten lava cakes Linds made.  We had lots of fun.  The guys had fun trying on the wigs we got out to use for Halloween.  I think Josh looks like Keith Stone from those beer commercials, and Dave looks like a Granny with a 5 o'clock shadow, according to one friend.  Ha ha!  Too funny!

Sunday was less easy to keep the kid's attention.  But they were really good still and I actually got quite a bit out of Conference this time around.  What powerful messages were shared! 

A few of my favorite thoughts/feelings/ideas from Conference...

Wow, Missionary age for young men can now be 18 and for women 19.  Incredible.  The Lord's work is continuing to go forth!

Loved Elder Cook's talk and it inspired me to do more to teach my family the Gospel all I can. 

"I am a Mormon.  I know it.  I live it.  I love it."  -Ann M. Dibb  (I can see this one on t-shirts at Deseret Book already, ha ha!)

I loved Elder Uchdorf's talk.  It was a good reminder for me.  Especially when he said "Don't wear busy-ness as a badge of honor."  Yep.  I seem to be too busy all too often.  I need to be cultivating relationships and making treasured memories more than I need to be checking off my list. 

"General Conference is always a good time for both hearing and doing."  - President Deiter F. Uchdorf 

Elder Oaks talk was so emotional for me and I felt myself getting goosebumps and wanting to make a voice for the voiceless children who are impacted by others negative choices.  I am thinking and will start praying of ways I can do this. 

I loved Elder Holland's talk on casting our nets and following the Savior and being a true disciple. 

Some of the reoccuring themes (AKA Important things!) seemed to be family, being converted, relying on the Atonement, and following the example of the Savior. 

I've heard, now I hope I will DO!  <3 and="and" christ="christ" church="church" day="day" direct="direct" for="for" grateful="grateful" guide="guide" is="is" jesus="jesus" latter="latter" lord="lord" nbsp="nbsp" of="of" p="p" saints="saints" savior="savior" servants="servants" so="so" the="the" this="this" to="to" who="who" whose="whose" work="work"> 

Our trip to Ooh-tah!

Dave was asked by WSU to go on a recruiting trip to Utah to get the word out about the great HPA Program they have to offer at the graduate fairs of 4 universities.  Instead of him just going down, we decided to make a family trip out of it and all go!  We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and left the house by about 3:45 a.m. *yawn  The kids did great, that's why we leave so early!  They're asleep half of the time and then wake to be happy the rest of the day.  We kept them busy of course with lots of activities.  And activities for me, too!  I love reading and working on needle-point and cross stitching in the car.  And the drive is gorgeous as well.  It's so neat to watch the sun come up.

We got to Utah (or Ooh-tah as Callahan calls it, which has quickly gained popularity in our home) in the mid-afternoon and dropped off our stuff at the Ryerse's.  :)  We were so happy to see everyone again!  Even though it's been less than two months, it's still great! 

Then we went straight to Weber State for the Alumni Band reunion and Homecoming game.  I made it just in time to play for the pre-game carnival.  Dr. Root had to stop everything and annouce that I'd made it.  He's always random and funny like that.  He then said I got the prize for coming the longest distance.  He also said "You look beautiful!"  Like I said, random.  I sure didn't feel very beautiful having sat in a car all day.  I had gotten the flyers in the mail about Alumni band, but always thrown them away.  Then, when I realized we'd be in town for it, I called a few days before and got registered.  We had a blast playing before the game, old favorites like "Hey, Baby", the "The Stripper" and "Sweet Georgia Brown".  The carnival was fun, they had games and food and blow-up toys for free.  I ran into my Aunt Lois and Uncle Keith, who about had heart attacks because they had no idea we were coming...surprise!  That was fun!  Then we went up into the stands and played there.  I got the privilege of sitting by my amazing friend Katie (and Melissa, and some other peeps) who I went to school with.  We had such a blast reminiscing about being in Marching Band (I know, I'm totally a nerd, but hey, it paid for school), blowing bubbles in the stands, and talking about lots of other fun experiences like naming our piccolos and other memories we had ("rarr rarr rarr").  We did have some good times!  The football game was fun, because WSU was playing Eastern Washington, which is pretty close to home for us.  WSU lost, but it was a pretty good game.  Dave and the kids were there, as well as my parents and Amy came.  The kids loved being with Aunt Amy and Grandma & Granpa!

On Sunday, we were able to go to a broadcast of the Brigham City UT temple dedication.  The Spirit was so strong, though I wasn't there in person, I felt reaffirmed in my heart that the temple is the House of God.  I'm so grateful for theses beautiful edifices that are now dotting the earth.  What a blessing!  It is the sanctuary that we need, that I need.  There we can save our kindred dead as well as ourselves.  Later on that week, I was also able to go to the Bountiful temple to do some work for my own ancestors, some names that my Grammie gave me to work on.  I'm so grateful to have access to temples and grateful for what I learn there and the peace I feel there.  That Sunday night, we went over to see the Stoddard clan - my parents, Marko, Mayela and Amber.  I love sitting around on Sunday nights talking and playing.  That's what we do!  Then we had dinner with all of the Ryerse's that night and got to see all of the aunts, uncles and cousins.  Yea!

Dave was off to Utah State on Monday to recruit there, which he had a pretty successful day with lots of interest.  The kids and I decided to go with him, since all of our family was working/had other things going on all day.  We walked around, ran around on the play field, threw pennies in the fountain, went to the art museum, ate lunch at the cafeteria, and then we all went to get Aggie Ice-Cream when Daddy was done.  My dad went to USU, so we had to take a few pictures for him.  :)

I love taking pictures to document what we do, but I was pretty terrible at doing it this time around.  I kept forgetting to take them.  Luckily, Cal and Em love snatching my phone and snapping some shots.  They especially like playing around with effects.  What a good lookin' family...lol!!!  Scary, I know!

Tuesday, Dave was at the U of U and we went over and spent the day with my Mom.  We had fun just playing and being with her.  She made some really cute outfits for the girls.  She sewed some dresses and knitted and crocheted some accessories.  We played and just enjoyed being together.  That night, was more family time with the Ryerses, hip hip hooray!  Dave got to see some old friends he worked with at the U too, so that was fun for him. 

Wednesday, Dave was at Weber, and so we went to see old neighbors in Ogden.  We went to Hlee's house and she is so hospitable and sweet and fixed us breakfast (even though we had eaten already, she insisted. She's like that).  We talked all day and the kids played.  The kids were so cute together and play so well together.  We also worked on this pinata for Ewan's 2nd birthday.  Check out thisIron Man, WOW!

Luckily for Emma, her friend Elisha got out early that day from school, so we got to play with her and Oakley.  We met up with Fernanda and Jaqueline too and went to the park.  It was so great to be with those good friends and neighbors for the day!  That night, we went to Kaison's soccer game.  He just started playing this year and he did pretty well.  It was fun to watch him actually play, and then pull off his shirt randomly and tackle his coach after every goal.  Cal was cheering for him the whole time!  The girls enjoyed playing on the playground and in the leaves together. 

After, we went to Pace's to get rainbows, tasty!  But we all got a little cold after that!

Thursday, it was BYU for Dave.  We got to see Amy and Kolby!  Yea!  And then we just hung out at the Ryerse's all day. That night, we went to the Prarie Schooner restaurant.  Dave scared Cal, as he hid behind the empty "covered wagon" behind our table and jumped out and roared at him as he got back from the restroom.  Emma said "this must be a Mormon place" because there were tons of handcarts and covered wagons. :)  Those kids.  Randy, Julie & Brian came with us. Then we went to visit Grammie and Aunt Christie and Rex.  I loved seeing so much family!   We miss them all!

Friday morning, we went to my parent's house for breakfast and then to see them all off.  They were all going for a family reunion down to St. George, so we got to see them while we could.  Mark and Amber came over too.  So we played with them.  Then we went to see Grandma Sue at work.  And raided her candy drawer.  At Grandma's house, Lucy's figured out where all of the good stuff is kept.  She'll go to the freezer and say "popicle", go over by the cupboard and say "cookie" or pull out a drawer and say "canny".  She's got a sweet tooth, I think.  That night (and lots of the week), we worked on graduate executive administration fellowship applications for Dave.  He's applying all over and it's a lot of work to apply.  He's applied for about 15. 

Saturday, we were able to play with the cousins.  The cousins love each other so, SO much!!  They are too cute!  :)  Stacy and I went shopping and talking together like the good old days.  So that was good.  Then, I went with my mother-in-law Sue and sisters-in-law Julie & Shirley to the Relief Society General Meeting broadcast and dinner.  These women I got to go with are so incredible and I love them.  The dinner was good too, at least I thought, and the words spoken by the presiding RS Presidency of the church and President Eyring were so inspired.  I loved their focus on covenants and holding fast to covenants.  President Eyring spoke of being in tune with the spirit at all times.  It was a great way to end our week in Utah!

Fall is in the air...

Love this time of year, but I can't lie.  Always in the back of my mind is the thought that winter will be here soon though.  But I will try to enjoy it the most I can.  Lots of great things that come with fall are in the air, like...

 

Cooler weather!  But it's still warm enough to be outside, so we have to enjoy it while we ccan so we've been outside a lot.  Last Sunday, we had a potato gun fight!  We got Dave these guns for his birthday and had a fun time with them!

 

Ready

Aim

Fire!

Dave shot Lucy in the arm (it doesn't hurt) and she kept rubbing her arm and gave him this face.  :)

We had a great time!  I always love just playing with my family, it seems to melt all of my cares away!

Fall means getting back into the swing of things and getting on the ball when it comes to routines, and for Dave & I working out better again and eating right.  Dave just signed up for personal training sessions and is drinking green stuff from our blender.   

 

Lucy and Cal decided to do some yoga one morning!  So cute!  They were getting fancy with their moves!

 

Downward dog.

Beefing up before hibernation.  Lucy always falls asleep when she's eating.  I love how her foot is up on the table!

 

The smell of animals is in the air, because one of our traditions in the fall is to go to the fair each year!  We loved it!

 

We went to watch the mutton busting.  Emma really wanted to do it and was determined she'd win this year.  But, the weight limit was 60 lbs., and Em weighed in at 62 (if she took off her cowgirl boots I'm sure she'd be under that)!  Cal really wanted to do "mustin buttin" too, until it was time to sign up and then he chickened out, which was okay.  But we still enjoyed watching the other kids!

We got to see more animals this year.  Cal especially liked the bunnies!

Lucy "mooo"ing!

They all loved this bunny.  The picture doesn't do justice.  It was huge and hairy!  It's name was Teddy Bear. 

Petting the bunny.

They also had some unusal animals at the fair this year, like a CAMEL!



And a baby zebra, it was just three weeks old and adorable!

And they also got to pet a tortoise!

The bleating of the goats was someting that ours tried to mimic and they sounded pretty good!

Emma loved the little baby goats and would talk to them.  It was cute!

Photo-op time!  I like how Cal is the cake Emma's serving up!

Lucy the scarecrow

Ziggy came over to give the kids a treat!  Lucy gladly took candy from the stranger, but quickly ran the other way after she had it in her hand.

The kids thought it was great they could mingle with Ziggy!  Yeaaaahhh Ziggy!

 

We told the kids they could pick two things to do.  Cal really wanted to do the giant slide, but he was too short, so they looked for something else to do.

In a few years, Lucy!

They decided on some spinning bears for their first ride.

They wanted the blue polar bear one...whee!  We got that thing spinning pretty fast!

Then, for their second thing, Cal chose a bouncy house and slide and daddy took Emma to go play a game.  She wanted to do the fish game so she could win a fish.  She didn't get any of the balls inside of the glasses, but the lady gave her one anyways.  "Mom!" she came running back with Daddy with a gold fish in hand, "I got a fish!  I didn't get any of the balls in, but the lady felt bad for me because I was a kid so she gave me one.  Good thing Daddy didn't do it for me because she wouldn't feel bad for him and wouldn't have given him a fish!" 

Emma named her fish Goldie.  Here comes pet number 2 for our fam.  Let's see how long we can keep her alive!

We also went to the Styx concert at the fair.  This was my second time seeing Styx, and the kids second concert (which Emma corrected me, I was thinking it was their first but Em reminded me that they have seen Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband before and been to tons of my band concerts).  It rocked!  We had so much fun dancing and singing along!  It was so loud and crowded where we were though, so we went to the side, where the sound was perfect and we had lots of room to dance and wiggle around!

On our way out of the concert, a group of college-age looking kids said "That's awesome!" and "You have no idea what you just did for your kids in introducing them to such great music!"  when they saw we had our three kiddos in tow.  Then we talked a little as we were shuffling out of the arena how our kids love classic rock like KISS and Journey and other greats!  They thought that was pretty cool.  Yep, we have some pretty cultured kids and only want them to listen to the best.  Since the concert, the kids have been listening to and singing "Mr. Roboto" non-stop.  My favorite they did was "Come Sail Away" and they did a medley of some popular classic rock songs from other artists, which was cool. 

 

School is back in the air!  Emma is getting used to it more now and we started our neighborhood Preschool Playgroup this week!  Cal loved it!  We did an "All About Me/ABC's Day" and I taught the first one.  We had them all bring bags of stuff about themselves so they could get to know each other.  Cal brought a "David" book by David Shannon, a picture of him and cousin Kaison, truck, 4-Wheeler, motorcycle, and a football, of course!  Then we sang "BIngo", but instead of Bingo, we did "There is a (boy or girl) that we all know" and then spell out each child's name so we could learn each other's names better.

Snack time!  We had alphabet cookies and spelled their names out with them.  We sang the "ABC's" and then we played Pin the Worm on the Apple. 

 

 

We made "All About Me" books and would color and fill in a page and then do an activity coordinating with that page.  We talked and did activities about and with each person's eyes, hair color, where they live, etc.  For example, we weighed and measured them and then were going to have them line up by weight and height in order, but that never happened. 

Outside, we played a few games.  We had numbers on the ground with 1-4 and they had to run to the number they were.  Then we counted each group for our math.  We read "I can do it!" and talked about things we could do and did the actions along with the book. 

2012 Preschool Playgroup friends - Cal, Easton, Lucy, Spencer, Lily and Marcus

 

Randomness is in the air, but then again, it always is with us.  The kids just love taking pictures of each other.  Here are a few of Lucy...

And here's a pic of Cal, what a goof ball!  This was right after he said "I love you, Mommy!"  Sweet!

Giving is in the air!  We were able to volunteer yesterday for the 2nd Harvest Food Drive.  We were in charge of our area and gave assignments out and collected them, kept records, distributed treats to the other volunteers and then also later on were able to go out and ask for food donations ourselves.  It was a great time, even the kids enjoyed it!

Music is in the air!  One of the kids took a pic of me practicing my flute, I had to play a special musical number at church and I like when they ask me so I have an excuse to practice!

 

And smoke is in the air!  So we probably had one of the most interesting days I remember to date at church today.  We started hearing weird noises and then we start seeing smoke coming from the ceiling.  It smelled awful and was getting very smoky!  The speaker went on like nothing had happened (maybe he was too nervous and was too into his talk) but men were getting up, opening windows, checking out the mechanical and electrical wiring at the church, shutting things off, etc.  I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but as I said, I was playing a special musical number and they called me up after he was done speaking.  I went up and played "All Creatures of our God and King" and now I can say I've played my flute in the smoke.  Holy smokes!  (Hardee har har)  But then the last speaker got up for a few minutes and then the Bishop came and dismissed us all and told us to quickly get out.  Right when the closing prayer was being said, we heard fire engines coming down the street.  Three came!  The kids were all excited and thought it was pretty cool.  It was an electrical malfunction I guess that needed to be fixed.  But it was quite a Sunday!