New Year's Eve

2010 in review

This was a fun challenge I did.  I was only going to do one picture per month, but then I had too many pictures to just pick one from each month, so this is what I ended up with.

January - Trevin played basketball, and spent the month on his science project.  February - Trevin earned his All 20 award and presented his science fair project. March - Trevin got a BB gun for his birthday, Tyrel got a new phone and we had a family BB shooting competition,  Travis and Tyrel received their Eagle Scout awards.  April - we had a big snowstorm for April Fools Day and then again for Easter Morning.  Trevin played soccer, and we took pictures at Red Bridge for grandma’s Mother’s Day present.  May - we planted our garden, and put up a fence.  Travis got his driver’s license and went to Sadie’s with Ashley.  Trevin participated in the Hershey Track meet, and Tyrel shaved for the first time.  June - Travis and Tyrel went to St. George for Youth Conference, Trevin went on his first overnight campout as a Boy Scout and learned to mow the lawn.  We spent a week with the Evers at Bear Lake at a cabin.  July - Spent lots of time floating the river at the Richardson Family Reunion.  Tyrel spent lots of time riding and jumping the 4 wheelers, Trevin took swimming lessons.

July - Sat on the lawn with the Nielsen’s to watch fireworks at the Stadium of Fire.  Attended the Smith Family Reunion at Soapstone and won a mega roll of toilet paper for being the best at Family Fued.  August - Spent a week in Denver with all the Evers family to visit with Great Grandpa and Grandma Evers.  Tried to take the waverunners to Utah Lake, but they died again, Tyrel got his learner’s permit, the boys started school.  September - Trevin played Flag Football, Lori bottled lots of salsa, attended the Onion Days parade and got to sit under the awning with the announcer, granpa Nielsen.  October - went on the Provo River Halloween Cruise with Sharlynn, Travis and Trevin wore the “fat” costumes for Halloween.  November - Sean played the part of Moses in the Ward Roadshows.  BYU beat Utah!!!, Travis didn’t shave for “no shave November”.  December - Tyrel became skilled at using the snowplow, we attended Christmas parties at the Evers and the Nielsen party was at our house where we made gingerbread houses.  The boys got Sponge Bob pj’s for Christmas.  We held the annual New Years Eve party at our house.

YAY!!

The loan fiasco from my terrible, horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day funded!

Free Food and Cheap Food

Sean sent me an email Wednesday morning asking if I wanted free food.  See, apparently, since he is on the board with the Spanish Fork Chamber of Commerce now, he is entitled to some perks.  YAY for perks.  There is a new Wendy's opening in Spanish Fork and they invited all the Chamber Members and their families to test out if their systems work and their employees were trained properly.  So we braved the awful snowstorm for free dinner at Wendy's and the boys thought it was most awesome!

On our way home, we noticed a sign at Crisps in Salem that the store was closing and everything was 40% off.  So, we stopped in there and got $500 worth of food storage for only $290.  SCORE for the Nielsen's.  Our pantry was looking pretty bare, but it is now full again.

Scrapbooking

Kristi came up and spent the day scrapbooking.  She caught on really quick and it was fun to be able to teach her and see her so excited about it.  I hope she keeps doing it.  We got the program ordered for her, Adam bought her some disks for her birthday and she actually got 5 layouts done the first day.  I think that's pretty good for just barely learning the program.  The kids played outside some, watched some TV, played Super Smash Brothers and had a pizza party.

We also got Kristi's blog updated and made her a new background and header, so it is all cute now.  She promises she will keep it updated better now that we got it all fixed up for her.

Troy and Lisa sent me the pictures from McKynlee's blessing a while ago, and I was able to get these layouts done of her in her blessing dress, so I thought I'd post them even though it was like a month ago.

Grandpa's "RUG"

So, funny story.....

When Santa was here for the Nielsen family Christmas party, Carolyn asked for a rug for her family room that now has a tile floor, so it was warmer and quieter for her kids to play on with their toys.  Lisa also asked Santa for a rug for her house.  So, when Grandpa LaMarr got on Santa's lap, he asked for a "rug" too while patting the top of his head.  He is getting a little thinner on top as of late.

It got me thinking.  My great uncle Wilbur had this awesome hat at the family reunion this summer.  It's a baseball cap that looks like a visor with hair coming out the top, but the hair is fake.

Heidi and Kirk got one for Uncle Greg for Christmas this year with brown hair 

So we thought since Grandpa asked for that, it would be funny to get him one too.

Christmas Day

The boys threatened me last night that they were going to get up at 5 am this morning and I told them no way.  Then they said 4 am and I again shut down their plan.  I told them they had to let us sleep until 7 at least.  At around 7:30 am, I heard Tyrel whistle (they know better than to come up the stairs until after we get the camera set up and we get out of bed).

We had a fun morning opening presents.  The boys got me a new can opener (not because I think I need a new one, I'm fine with the old one, but they hate it, so it is more for them I think.)  Sean got me a really pretty flower arrangement to set in some room that I haven't decided yet.  Then they all got me some new Mickey Mouse PJ's because my Minnie Mouse ones that I have had since we went to Disneyland when Tyrel was 5 finally ripped out a seam up the side so I needed new ones.

I got Sean the WOW upgrade and a GPS for his work truck from all of us because he has a hard time finding addresses sometimes and is always calling me to Google an address for him and give him directions.  We had fun trying to decide which voice we wanted on it.  The boys got him some black socks and a new tie for church.

Travis also got the WOW upgrade, his Skull Candy headphones that didn't get here yet, an oil vial for his key chain for consecrated oil (he asked for that, I'm proud of him), and a window scraper for his car. 

Tyrel got Skull Candy headphones that aren't here yet, a boogie board, and snow gear (gloves, coat, boots) for his winter campout.

Trevin got an Eagles Hoodie, some cars, and a Wii game.

All of the layouts I've been doing for the boys all year for their scrapbooks have been a secret.  I've been getting them printed through the year but not letting them see them.  I put them in their albums and wrapped them up and gave their 2010 books to them for Christmas.  I think it was their favorite present.  They all looked through each and every page and it was fun to see them reminisce and laugh about things they had done throughout the year.  I think I'm going to do that every year now.

We all got scripture markers in our stockings along with the traditional orange (chocolate oranges for our non fruit lovers), corn nuts, and some candy.

We used the GPS to find our way to Grandpa and Grandma Nielsen's for breakfast casserole.  Sean thought it was funny to not go the way it told us too so that it had to keep recalculating.  I said the lady was going to get mad at us if we didn't follow directions, I was just waiting for her to raise her voice at us.

The breakfast casserole and homemade Christmas punch and eggnog was yummy as usual and it was fun to visit with those that were there.  We came back home and chilled for the afternoon and then went back down for ham and funeral potatoes in the evening.  It was a lot of fun to spend time with family.

Christmas Eve

 It's Christmas Eve.  I made turkey with most of the trimmings for dinner tonight.  Everything is done and ready, but Travis and Tyrel's main present never got here.  I am so mad.  They guaranteed me they would have them to me by Christmas Eve.  At least they are older now and understand that they will get here eventually, but it makes it kind of sad that they don't have very much to open in the morning.

We read the story of Christ's birth in the scriptures tonight.  Sean played some songs on his guitar and we sang along.  Then we let the boys open their Christmas PJ's.   They were so excited to get SpongeBob PJs this year and I did well guessing on their sizes, they all fit perfectly.  They filled the Santa plate and actually went to bed fairly early.

Christmas Card

I didn't get as many Christmas cards sent this year as I usually do.  Postage is so expensive!  So, in case you didn't get one, I still wanted to share because I think they are cute.  So here is the annual Nielsen Christmas card.

You can click on the images to see them larger if you care to read what they say!

I had to post those cute pictures of my awesome family to cheer myself up.  It has been a terrible, horrible, rotten, no good, very bad day.  I have a loan I have been working on for over 3 months now and the lender is making it so difficult I just can't stand it.  Today was the last day to get it closed this month or else start all over again and drag it out another month.  We were almost there and it was just one thing after another and we finally just gave up, at least the loan officer gave up and turned of his computer and phone and said we would just have to send it to another lender next month and start it all again.  Right after that, the lender called me and said they were sending documents but it was 1 1/2 hours after the title company had closed and 4 hours after the customer had left.  I told them to send them out anyway just because I wanted to make them work even though it wasn't going to close.  I went down to Sean's office in tears because I had been working on it for the last 3 months, but working my guts out today trying to make it happen and then it didn't.  My being spiteful paid off though because the title officer was checking her emails from home and bless her heart, she saw the documents come, called the borrowers, and ran to their home at 8:30 tonight and got them to sign.  The loan officer got the message on his voicemail and called to tell me it was a Christmas miracle and I told him I had told them to go ahead and send the documents out even though he told me to just forget it, so I took credit for the miracle and I'm so thankful for that awesome title officer that took it upon herself after hours to make it happen for us.  Now hopefully it funds next week.

Snow Day

I think it snowed almost all day long yesterday.  We braved the weather and went out delivering treats to my visiting teaching families and Sean's, Travis' and Tyrel's home teaching families.  Sean likes to drive in the yucky weather, so it wasn't a big deal for him.  The boys all chipped in and helped make the treats for our Family Night activity and we got all of them delivered but one.  Travis' family wasn't home, so we wrapped it up and will try again tonight if we can get out. 

The kids woke up this morning telling me the power was out, and it was.  Tyrel said everyone was texting him that the buses were cancelled.  Come to find out, that was true but they were still holding school.  We decided since it is the last day before break, we would just let them stay home, so they are out shoveling and then we just found out that they cancelled school, so it is a snow day.  They have been wishing for one.

More Snow - Evers Family Christmas Party

Seems as though we are full of celebrations this time of year.  Trevin got up early and went swimming with his Scout group.  Tyrel has been having fun learning to use the winch on the 4wheeler to shovel snow with the blade so he spent the morning cleaning up the driveway from the snow we got last night.

Once Trevin got home, we headed to Leamington.  Heidi and I enlisted Dad's help to get our catalogs put together while the cousins watched the BYU game and then a movie.  We played Pictionary Man for a while before dinner (hard game) and then we opened the presents.  When my mom asked me a while ago what I wanted, I had mentioned that I wanted Dad's conversion story written down so that I had it.  He had told it to us up at the cabin this summer and there were lots of details I hadn't heard before, so I wanted the story in writing.  We all got a copy of it and it will be my favorite gift I'm sure for years to come!  The funniest gift was the hat the Marchant's got for uncle Greg, what a riot!

Sean played the guitar and we sang a few songs.  Kaitlin played a song on the piano and Andrea read a story before we opened presents and then after all of that we had a yummy dinner of roast, potatoes and gravy, salad, rolls, vegetables and banana slush.  Everyone but Trevin was too full for dessert and I'm sad I was too full because I've been craving peppermint ice cream with hot fudge.

Nielsen Family Christmas Party

The party was tonight at our house.  I was in charge of breadsticks along with Sharlynn.  Haylee, Lisa and Traci made soup and Carolyn and Melisa brought desserts.  Everyone brought candy for the gingerbread houses.  The food was so yummy!  I love the recipe I used for the breadsticks, so I will have to remember to keep that one handy for the future.  The corn chowder that Lisa (actually I heard it was Troy) made, was to die for.  So yummy!

Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Before we ate, Sharlynn got Adam and Kristi on her phone for us to wish a Merry Christmas to.  In the middle of us singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas to them, the doorbell rang, Travis answered it, and it was Adam and Kristi and the girls!  What a totally fun surprise for them to be here for the party and staying through Christmas. 

After we ate, Santa came and he was amazing!  He was totally not rushed and took 5 minutes or so with each child, even some of the big "kids".  We all got treats from Santa and then went to make our houses.  Each family made one and my boys each made their own because they are old enough now to do it themselves and they were excited.  That has been a tradition since they were tiny and even though they are big now, they still look forward to it and still want to make them every year.  I'm going to have to see if I can find a couple more sets of the cutters I have so I can give each of them a set for when they have their own families.  Or maybe they will all just have to come to my house to make them every year.

The kids played and we got the kitchen cleaned up and then visited for a while.  It was a great time.  I wish Ken and Jen and their girls would have come.  It would have been great to have the entire family there to celebrate the birth of our Savior together.

Baking and more baking

Sharlynn came up tonight and we got all the gingerbread houses baked for the family Christmas party.  My back aches as I go to bed tonight and I hope it feels better tomorrow as I have lots of housecleaning to do to get ready for everyone coming over.  Building 10 houses in one night is a lot of work, but it will be worth it to see the kids having fun building them.

Travis' SEOP

Sean and I were able to meet with Travis and the school counselor today.  It seems Travis is on track and only will need 2 required classes next year to graduate.  So, he is looking into taking some classes at MATC to get some computer certifications under his belt to help with job seeking once he graduates.  He is pretty excited about the prospects.  He also needs to take the ACT this year, which he is not too excited about.  He is transferring out of TV Broadcasting into TV Production for the 2nd half of the year, and is checking into a couple of other schedule changes to get him more channeled to computers as he feels this is what he wants to do "when he grows up".  It was a pretty productive meeting we felt.

Sister Anderson in our ward isn't doing too well and I was able to help with dinner for the family tonight.  Since so many of us signed up, I only had to do rolls.  It snowed a ton last night, so I waded through the snowy mess to deliver them.  I got to visit with her for a little bit and it was good to see her.  I hope she gets feeling better, we miss her fun personality around.  It is sad to see her so sick especially around this time of year.  I'm going to try to go next week sometime and sit and visit with her for a bit.

Caroling with the Scouts

We worked on our Good Manners belt loop with the cub Scouts today.  As we talked, we had them frost cookies and we delivered them to a few people in the ward.  We let the boys pick the song they wanted to sing (Jingle Bells) and we also let them pick who they wanted to deliver them to.  They picked the Haskells (who weren't home), the Hardy's, the Ditlevsen's (who also weren't home), the Harding's, the Bishop (who wasn't home), and the Anderson's.  They sang well and seemed to have fun and they all got to take a plate of cookies home with them along with the rubberband guns that they made last week when they were learning about tools.

Sister Brown came over tonight with the pictures of her new grandaughter for me to get her Christmas project finished for her.  I finally also got all of McKenzie's pages done too along with the ones I did for Andrea that my mom had me do for her for Christmas, so I should be able to get all of those sent to be printed tomorrow.

We had tithing settlement on Sunday.  I love our Bishop.  He always makes everyone feel so good about just everything.  He is an amazing man and I'm so grateful to be in this ward.

Ward Party

Our annual ward Christmas Party was this morning.  Santa was there.  We had breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls.  They also had chocolate milk, juice, and cereal and milk in case you didn't want the real food.  It was yummy and fun even though I had to get up early enough to make a casserole to take.  They did a nativity program also.  Travis was one of the Inn Keepers.

Trevin's Christmas program

I had a meeting in Lehi this morning with the company I'm processing for.  I'm excited to be getting more loan business now.  It will be good this time of year when Sean is slower especially.  It has come at a good time.

This afternoon, Sean and I went to Trevin's school program.  It was the 4th thru the 6th grades and the 6th grade choir sounded excellent!  I was amazed at how well they sounded together.  Trevin seems to like performing in stuff like that.

Hair color

Sean colored my hair this morning.  We figured it would save us a few bucks to do it ourselves.  It is a little darker than the color I usually have and he wasn't thrilled about doing it, but it looks pretty good.

Christmas shopping

Sean and I were feeling a little better tonight so the boys talked us into taking them Christmas shopping.  We both still have those nagging coughs that take a month to go away.  I think we got most of the shopping done.  I still have one more thing to get from Trevin and then I got an email saying the main thing I got for Travis and Tyrel is backordered and they expect another shipment on the 22nd.  What??  Now what am I going to do.  I emailed them to see if they get it on the 22nd if they could get them out to us by Christmas so we shall see.  They just might both get a package wrapped that says IOU.  Why didn't they have it on their website that they were out of stock?  They will not be getting a good customer review from me.

Will these colds ever go away???????

I thought I was getting better and headed to Leamington to help Heidi with a home party on Friday.  Trevin came with me to hang out with his cousins.  Our party went GREAT and I woke up Saturday feeling achy and yucky again.  It's moved from my head to my chest, so now coughing and not feeling so great.  I didn't want to drive home, but had to.  I was wishing Travis would have come with me so I could have him drive home.  I took a 4 hour nap and did some laundry and got the kitchen back in order.

Sean and I both stayed home on Sunday from church but all the boys went.  I'm so glad they aren't sick and hope they stay that way.

Today (Monday) we were both feeling better, just the nagging cough now that will probably last another week or so.  The boys wanted to go Christmas shopping for family night, but Sean and I didn't want to go out in the cold, so we enjoyed just a scripture reading family night at home with some yummy chocolate cake the neighbor brought over.

Getting better

Trevin felt better today and went back to school.  I'm feeling fairly well, but Sean is still feeling crappy.  Nothing much going on, just hoping we get better so we can finish getting ready for Christmas.

More sickness

Trevin still felt sick today and Sean came down with the head cold I had.  I feel a little better today, at least I'm over the achy chilled feelings, just sinus pressure now.  At least we are between holidays.  I felt well enough to head to Delta for another scrapbooking home party.  It went well.  We just have one more before the holidays and then we will start scheduling for after the first of the year.

Sickness

I started getting a sore throat last night and woke up with a nasty head cold today.  Trevin also woke up with an upset stomach so he stayed home from school today.  I hate being sick and hope no one else gets it.

Tree Trimming

We decorated the tree for Family Night tonight.  The boys decided they just want to set up this tree this year, they don't want to do the "kid tree" downstairs.  It's kinda sad when they grow up and don't want to do all the same traditions anymore.  They did at least humor me and wore their Santa hats while they were decorating and we had a good time.

Sad Day

It was a sad day for the Nielsen's today.  We all got toether at Todd and Haylee's to watch the BYU vs UofU football game.  BYU lost but it was a very good game.  We love it when they are exciting.  We think they got some bad calls that should have been different and we should have won.  We had good food and good fun and lots and lots of cheering for a great game day.

Tyrel and I had a Guitar Hero competition for 3 hours when we got home for our November date.  It was fun.  I even played one song on Expert and got 51%, he said I did well, but I thought that was pretty bad.  I don't do well with that 5th finger (the orange button).  I just can't seem to get my act together to be able to play with that finger.  We had fun though!

Another Week

with no blogging from me.  So here I am playing catch up.  Saturday Heidi and I had a home party in Draper.  We decided it's maybe the wrong time of year.  People are so busy this time of year.  Sunday was church, Trevin had the scripture for Primary sharing time.

Monday Trevin had the Family Night lesson and then Sean took us all to the dollar store to get our own treats.

Tuesday was Pack Night and it was also the night we were supposed to get the "blizzard of the century" but we only ended up with a few inches of snow.  Travis was bummed that we didn't let him drive to school though.  We were worried that it was going to be crazy and he hasn't ever driven in the snow before.  He is not loving the bus.  Trevin has been studying Ancient Civilizations in Social Studies this year and they put on a Temples and Tombs program at the school and it was really cute!  He would have made his Grandpa Nielsen proud with his acting skills.  He got to leave school when it was over and come home with us.

Wednesday we just kind of chilled around the house doing nothing.  My mom didn't want me to bring anything for Thanksgiving except a pint of whipping cream, so my day that is usually full of pie making was totally empty.

Thursday we went to Leamington for Thanksgiving.  The food was great.  We got into a conversation about our favorite Thanksgiving food.  My Thanksgiving is not complete without celery stuffed with cheese.  Sean loves the jellied cranberries.  Heidi and Brett both love crinkled potato chips with onion dip.  My boys all love ham more than the turkey.  Dad and Andrea love pecan pie and all my boys plus Sean love pumpkin pie the best.  Me, I had to try slivers of 3 different kinds of pie because I can't decide.  The kids watched a movie and played some games and the adults watched a football game and sat around and visited.  It was a fun day with family.  Oh, I forgot to mention that Jaron's favorite thing was the olives.

Friday was my normal set up the tree day, but Sean had traded some pest control for some carpet cleaning and the carpet guy only works on Fridays and Saturdays, so we got the upstairs carpet cleaned plus the stairs.  The house was freezing because the door was open for a couple hours but it was nice to de-junk the rooms upstairs that we had to move stuff out of the way so he could clean the carpets.  I'll have to put my tree up tomorrow I guess.  The boys and I played Wii sports and watched Elf.

First Overnight Campout

Trevin is going on his first overnight campout with the 11 year old scouts tonight.  I guess it is technically his 2nd since they camped out at Scout camp over the summer.  He was pretty excited to be going.  They are headed to Goblin Valley with the deacons and lots of leaders.  I hope he doesn't freeze, there is supposed to be a storm coming in tonight.

Sean was kind of bummed he couldn't go with Trevin on his campout, but he has been busy doing his mining certification in Salt Lake.  He was there all day yesterday, today, and will go up again tomorrow to finish up his hours.  He got the bid for pest control at the cement plant and they are requiring him to be mining certified in order to do the work on their site.  Hopefully it will open up some other contracts with other mines for him also.  Did you know that 24% of the industry in the state of Utah is mining related?  Interesting fact, I know!

Home Party in Fillmore

Heidi and I had a home party in Fillmore today.  Actually, it was at the library instead of at someone's home.  There was a fair turnout and they had lots of questions and all showed a lot of interest.  In fact, we sold out of the programs we ordered to sell to those interested in learning and will probably be teaching a class there very very soon.  There were quite a few that wanted to learn to use Photoshop and between them and the ladies in Scipio from last week that want to learn, we should be able to have a pretty full class.  The library has a big room that we can teach in and the price is very reasonable.  We are going to do it all in one day - 8 hours of instruction and fun!  Heidi had to leave a little early, so it was kind of crazy with everyone filling out order forms and stuff.  I hope they keep the enthusiasm until we can get down there to teach them a class.

When I got home, I had about 5 minutes before Travis and Tyrel got home with their ASL lab group.  Their little group of three has now grown to five.  It seems that they are the only group that actually does anything, so they are having people jump ship from other groups and joining theirs.  They sounded like they had fun again.

Busy Day

What a busy day.  You won't think so when you read this, but it seemed like it was a totally crazy busy day for me.  Probably mostly because I was still trying to get caught up from being gone on Saturday last week and had to get my house back in order and laundry done.

We had visiting teaching appointments set with two of our ladies that we teach and had nice visits with both of them.  I also had to make cake because I had book club with our ward book club at my house tonight.  I made pumpkin cake and got some taco soup ready and on the stove to simmer before I left to go visiting teaching so we could eat quick when I got home and get the kitchen picked up before the book club ladies arrived.  They all seemed to like the book "Good Night Mr. Tom" and we had a fun discussion.

Scrapping with Liz

My cute little neighbor and her husband are hoping to adopt a baby and I got to spend some time with her this evening working on her scrapbook pages to get their packet submitted.  It was fun to help her out and to get to know them a little better through all the fun pictures she used.

We also had cub scouts today.  The called a new co-leader for me to work with on Sunday so this was our first time working together.  The boys made gifts for their family for Christmas and we also talked about nutrition.  The planned a day of balanced meals and we had quite the discussion on the difference between a fruit and a vegetable.  Do you know the difference?  I thought I knew, so I didn't look it up beforehand.  Our little scout Mason raised his hand with the answer and I thought he was wrong, so we looked it up and he was right, I was wrong.  Way to go Mason!

Cleaning the Church

We cleaned the church again for Family Night tonight.  This will probably be our last time for the year.  Sister Ross was there with her tasks all ready for us.  The Archibalds were also there to clean with us tonight.  We left Trevin home because he has been home puking all day.  Actually, he only threw up once and he said he is feeling much better, but I didn't want to risk it.  Sean was late because he had a job in Fillmore that he couldn't go do until 5 tonight.  But we had most of it done by the time he got back.  He had to mop all the bathrooms.

I cleaned all the classroom door windows.  Liz and I cleaned all the entryway doors and I also cleaned all the metal plates on the doors in the chapel and cultural hall.  Sister Ross cleaned all the bathrooms.  Roger and Travis and Liz did all the vacuuming.  Tyrel cleaned all the chalk boards, then I'm not sure, but he probably dusted stuff after that. I forgot to ask.

Holy Ghost Lesson

We had a great lesson in Relief Society today with an even greater discussion.  The teacher was talking about the Holy Ghost and about doing things that invite the Spirit so the Holy Ghost is our constant companion.  Sister Gunnell brought up an excellent point that made total sense and I'm glad she finally got called on so she could tell us her opinion.  She mentioned that the Holy Ghost is ALWAYS with us since we received that when we were baptized.  Unless we do something bad to make us not worthy of that gift, the Holy Ghost is our constant companion.  The thing we need to work on is being able to do those things that will bring us closer to the spirit so that we can recognize it in our lives.  I love that!  Yelling at our kids once in a while or forgetting to say our prayers or read our scriptures here and there don't make the spirit of the Holy Ghost go away, it is still there, but it will make it more difficult to hear or feel the promptings.

Super Saturday

I was going to just run down, take my food item and pick up my craft, but I ended up staying for an hour or so.  I totally spaced that Ashley Taylor was doing a photography workshop and she was in the middle of it when I got there, so of course, I had to stay for a bit.  She did a great job and it was very interesting.  I learned a lot, now if I can just put it into practice.  I think I need to buy some of those silver car window reflector things for my next photography purchase.

I applied the vinyl on my craft and then headed out to Scipio as Heidi and I had a digital scrapbooking home party to do there.  Not very many people showed up, but we still did a fair amount of sales.  I think the key there is just introducing them and then they are very excited to have a class to learn how to do it, so we need to get a class scheduled for there.  I think we are going to try to find a place in Nephi to hold an all day, lunch included, 8 hour class for the Scipio and Delta people to attend.  Hopefully enough of them have laptops that we can make that work out for us.

Lunch Date with my Sweetheart

I got to go on my lunch date with my sweetheart today.  I love that we are able to have a weekly date together.  Tyrel stayed home from school sick today, he has a headache and stomach doesn't feel good.  I'm sure he'll feel better once the weekend hits though.

It's also my mom's birthday today.  Hope your day is awesome mom!  It was fun to talk to you on the phone this morning.

Annual Shopping Day

Veterans Day has been our annual Christmas Shopping day, but since Sean is no longer in the banking business, he has to work on Veteran's Day now.  So, I asked the boys what they wanted, and Travis said, "what I really want is some consecrated oil for my key chain."  Isn't that so cute!  I have awesome kids.  I didn't get any shopping done, I'll have to wait until a bad weather day because I like to go with Sean.  There's still plenty of time!

The boys brought their friends over for their ASL lab today and I made them donuts. They wanted donuts and hot chocolate for their lab.  I heard lots of laughing and talking, not sure how much signing got done although I did see some when I was still in the kitchen cooking donuts for them.  I'm pretty sure they are all going to have belly aches because I made 3 dozen donuts and there were only 5 or 6 left when the boys were all gone.

Oh, I forgot

I forgot I also used Heidi's quick pages for our Disney kit and made these cute layouts of my cute boys when they were little and we went to Disneyland for the first time with them.

Vinyl and more Vinyl

I got a call from the Charter School where my father in law is Headmaster to do some vinyl work for their walls.  I got it cut out on Monday during the day and Sean helped me Tuesday night put the transfer paper on it because they were really long.  Two of the pieces they had me do were 10 feet long.  Then I also did a couple that were only 3 feet long. 

Today, I went over and got it hung up for them.  It looks great and it sounds like I'll be getting more vinyl orders from them.  It was fun to do.

I'm getting started on a new scrapbooking kit today.  It is a dance/drill team/cheer kit and I'm having a hard time getting started on it.  I'm not feeling inspired.  I googled other similar kits for some inspiration and got NOTHING.  There are no cute drill/cheer kits out there in the paper or digital world.  Hopefully that means if ours is good, it will sell well because it will be the only one in existence.

Bowling Cub Scouts

We took the cub scouts bowling to work on their bowling belt loop this week.  They released Kelly and I'm going to miss her.  They haven't called me a new co-leader, so Tyrel is filling in until they get someone called.  He was more than happy to fill in with this activity.  He has been going bowling every Monday after school with the bowling club because they get a discount.  He is getting pretty good.  So, he and I bowled on one lane and the scouts bowled on the other one with bumpers.  I felt bad because Stockton was sick and missed this fun activity.  Tyrel beat me the first round and I was beating him until the last frame on the 2nd round and I choked on my last frame and he beat me again.  Mason won out of the cub scouts.

When we got home we hurried and ate dinner and then the boys had Young Mens.  Tyrel's group went swimming and he said he had fun. 

School and Work

Just a normal day of school and work.  Heidi and I are trying to get ramped up for more home parties and shows plus the company I process for called me in last week because they are getting rid of their corporate processing center and just going to a  panel of contract processors that all of their nationwide branches are required to use and I get to be on that panel, so hopefully that means a lot more processing business for me.  Sean is still working on his huge termite inspection contract he got on a bunch of apartment units in Salt Lake.  He will be busy with that most of the week.

For our FHE activity tonight, we watched Toy Story 3.  When it was over, Travis said, "Did that ending kind of make anyone sad?"  He was feeling a bit emotional.  I'm so glad my boys are a bit tenderhearted like their dad.

Baby McKynlee

We had a great time at McKynlee's baby blessing visiting with family and getting to see her again.  I got my camera out to take her picture after we had eaten, and they had taken her to change her out of her blessing dress, so I don't have any pictures of her but Troy promised he would send me the ones they had taken early so I'm holding you to that Troy.  He did a great job blessing her and we are so thrilled to have a new baby in the family.  She is such a cutie. I cleared off some of the info on this layout, but you get the idea

Such a bad Blogger

I have been so good about blogging every day this year and now I've missed a whole week.  Life is crazy and I know that isn't an excuse and I was going to go back and make a post everyday and backdate it, but I decided to just do it all in one post instead.

Sunday we went to church and then just had a lazy day at home hanging out.
Monday I did the family night lesson, we talked about the importance of temples and temple work and how the kids can participate in those things now (great Ensign this month)
Tuesday Travis and Tyrel had Scouts and I had Cub Scouts.  We talked about keeping our bodies healthy and safe.  It actually went pretty well for a kinda boring subject.
Wednesday Heidi and I had our first home party for our scrapbooking and it went way better than we expected.  We thought it would just be good practice - and it was - but it was fun and sales were great too.  Our days have been filled with getting ready for these and we are so excited that we are pretty much "there" now.  So, if you want to host a party, get signed up because it is going to be a popular thing and the before Christmas party dates are going to fill up fast.  So call me!  I also taught my last scrapbooking class for this session tonight.  I need to figure out how to advertise better and get bigger classes for my next session.
Thursday Trevin had Scouts
Friday Tyrel had a friend over for the evening.  Another friend introduced to having to help make Pizza's on Friday night at the Nielsen's.
Saturday Heidi and I did a booth at the craft fair in Delta.  It was busy and went really really well.  We have close to 50 people signed up to take lessons, so we need to find a place and get times set up.  We got the name of who Heidi needs to talk with at the high school to use the computers, so hopefully we can get it figured out and start teaching.  We will have to break that up into 2 or 3 groups though.  That is way too many people to teach at once.  We sold some stuff and had lots of good conversations with people, so it will be fun to see what comes of it.  We also have 6 or 7 people that wanted to schedule home parties so we are looking forward to those because it gives us more "face" time with small groups to get them excited and hooked on digital scrapbooking.  I had to slip out in the morning for an hour to host BINGO for a bunch of digital scrapbookers since it was international digital scrapbooking day.  It was fun but I had to sit in McDonalds to get internet to host it.  I'm kinda sad I missed out on all the other great festivities of the day.
Now it's Sunday and we are going to McKynlee's baby blessing, so I'll have to update ith pictures later today.

Family History Fair

The fair went really well today I think!  My dad said there were 160 people pre-registered for it, but I know there was more than 160 that showed up.  They were worried about the pre-ordered lunches and the Stake center chapel and overflow were filled entirely up. 
They had an opening where the Manti Temple president (Pinegar) and his wife talked.  He is so awesome and funny.  Then they split for two classes in the morning.  Heidi and I slipped into one about Family History for Kids and one about Family Cookbooks.  They were both very well done and gave us some fun ideas.  Inbetween classes we talked to people at our display and found a lot of people interested, especially in classes, so we need to really find some way to get some laptops so we can make that happen.  We had lots of people sign up for things, so hopefully we can get some business from it. 

Uncle Greg took the kids bowling and Tyrel won.  He has been going bowling with the bowling club here at the school every Monday and his game has really improved.  He bowled a 170 I think he said.  They had fun and think Uncle Greg is awesome!  They are right.

We made it back in time for Trevin to change quickly and go trick or treating with his buddies.  He had a great time even though it was wet and cold and we ended up with a hail storm at one point.  He wore the infamous "fat" costume and won the Funniest Costume award for the whole 6th grade at school.

Travis went to Devin and Dayans for a Halloween party and movie and Tyrel and I rented a couple of DVDs and just chilled at home.

Sean had dinner almost done for us when we got home, so that was awesome!  Thanks honey.

Headed to Leamington

Heidi and I got the opportunity to have a display at the Family History Fair in Delta this weekend.  I headed down with the boys this afternoon.  We had dinner and then they went to the football game with Greg and Heidi and I headed to Delta with Kirk and my dad to set up our booth.  We got everything out and set up and decided some changes needed made, so we came back and had Dad and Kirk build us a shelf that we could put underneath our tablecloths so we could have things on two different levels.  It is still a little crowded, but I think it looks pretty good.  The calendar Heidi and Kirk did looks awesome.  I need to get a picture of it to add to our catalog.  I hope it goes well for us tomorrow.

Trevin's SEP

I had a great meeting with Trevin's teacher today for his SEP.  He couldn't say enough good things about Trevin.  He said he was always on task and never caused problems with behavior or talking.  It's always good for a parent to hear that their child is behaving and respectful.  I hope he is always that way.  His grades were excellent and the teacher said the only thing he needed to work on was turning in his in class reading log.  I asked Trevin about it and he said it was lost in his desk but now he has found it.  If his desk looks anything like his room, it's no wonder.  I told him if he loses it again to ask for another one and not just not do it.  His teacher also highly commended him on his sock puppet project.  Trevin had an Italian sock puppet, so make sure you read this with an Italian accent.  No, my "a" button is not stuck.  I thought the same thing when I proofread it for him so he had to tell me his puppet was Italian and then it made perfect sense!

“Hi a my a name is a Gino. I a come a from Italy where I a had to a grow up in a my a family’s restaurant. We a were a very rich. So I had every a thing I a wanted. One fateful day a my a brother Gigi and I a were a separated. I a sort of a pushed him under a the bed and a we sent a search party for a three days. Then I knew one a thing and it a was my family will ship a me to a Rhode Island. I like a Islands till I saw a this a place.

There a was a no a lasagna (sob). I just a love a lasagna. But a no I a had to have a sardines. That is all a they a had at a the stupid island paradise (sob). Then a this a guy looks at a me and a said ”Let a me take a you home a with a me. I a got sardines with a you’re a name on it!” He a drags me off. I ate a the sardines and a let me tell you a something, they were so....HORRIBLE! They a taste a like raw sewage (sob).
So I ran a to the a airport and a flew to a Utah. It a was a great! I a found a this family and a guess what? Gigi was on one of a the kids a feet and not another sock on a the other. So I a am a living a with Gigi a forever and a the part is a that this a family ate a lasagna and pizza and a spaghetti. A thank you for listening a Good Bye. I’m coming a Gigi.”
6th grade sock puppet project

Not so Speedy Speed Scrap

For our Dig-Scrap class tonight, I taught them how to do Quick Pages the first half hour and then we were going to do a speed scrap the last hour.  Normally, in a speed scrap, you get an instruction every 10 minutes for an hour (7 steps total) and then have a completed layout (you get another hour afterwards to finish up in case you didn't keep up).  Well, we started a little bit late and only had 40 minutes, but I thought we could get through the first 4 or 5 instructions.  We only made it through two.  I emailed them all the instructions when I got home and told them to finish it up at home and bring their finished layouts to class next week.

Next week is the last class.  We are working with templates and we are going to start at 7:00 instead of 7:30 and see if we can get another speed scrap in after we learn about templates or maybe review some photo editing from the 1st week.

I also went visiting teaching this afternoon.  I have a new partner and new ladies to visit.  I'm excited to get to know all of them better. 

Scouts at my House

I spent the day again trying to figure out how to make my CD work how I wanted to.  Heidi and I are burning our kits onto disks for the home parties we are going to start doing.  It apparently is not possible for it to work the way I want it to now after all these months of trying to get it done, so we went back to plan A, since plan B isn't going to happen.  Oh well...........I did get some burned and packaged up tonight for our Family History Fair we are doing on Saturday.

We had our Scouts Halloween party at my house.  We opted for the easy way out and didn't even play any Halloween games, but I did give them Halloween treat bags.  We did a little game involving the Scout motto, slogan, salute, and sign.  Then I let them just hang out and play air hockey and pool.  Tyrel helped me out and kept them all busy.

After that we had dinner, Travis headed to the city council meeting for a school assignment.  He came back saying it was boring, but that he actually understood everything that was going on because of his government class he is taking right now.  Tyrel went to babysit for the neighbors and I relieved him at 7 so he could head to Young Men's. 

Amazing deal at the Grocery Store

Tyrel headed to the bowling alley with the bowling club after school today and then when Trevin got home I took him down, we picked up Tyrel and took them to get their hair cut.  They both needed it really bad!  Then we all headed to the grocery store and we found an amazing deal.  You could buy a Stouffers family size lasagne or enchiladas for $9.77, which by itself is an amazing deal compared to what they normally cost.  But, with it you got a free loaf of french bread, a free 2 liter Pepsi product, a free dozen cookies, and a free bag of salad!  We bought 4 of them and ended up taking the last 4 loaves of french bread.  Sorry to anyone who was behind me in line!  The poor lady in the bakery was beside herself not knowing what to do with very few cookies left and no bread.

We came home and made potato soup for dinner. I thought it was delicious, but my boys don't love it so much.  I do make them suffer through it a couple times each winter though because I think it is so good, especially since we had SNOW today.  It tasted really good with one of our loaves of fresh french bread!

Tyrel did the family night lesson tonight and we had a good discussion on serving others.  Trevin had treats and he was covered since we got 4 dozen free cookies from the store!

New Calling for Sean

Wow, I'm glad today is over.  It has been really hard keeping the secret for a month now.  Sean was put in as Elder's Quorum president for our ward today.  He called Jared Peterson and Doug Howell as his counselors and Chris Sainsbury as secretary.  They should all work well together.  He is sad to be leaving his Sunday School class though, he has liked having that Sunday Calling and has enjoyed the kids too.

Running around

We spent the day looking for Hotel conference rooms to host our scrapbooking retreats at in January.  I think we found a good deal, but have to wait to talk with the lady on Monday.  I'm pretty sure we are all ready now for our Family History Fair next weekend.  It is so exciting.  My dad said there were over 100 people registered, so hopefully it will be good for us.

Heidi and Derick are headed home.

Hanging out with Heidi again

Heidi came up tonight so we can finish everything up for our show next weekend.  She brought Derick with her this time and he is hanging out with the boys playing video games.  We have lots and lots to do tomorrow but we did get quite a bit done tonight too.  Then we took a break and watched a movie with the boys.  Now I'm headed to bed.

Visiting Teaching

My most awesome visiting teachers came today and brought me one of those most delicious carameled green apples with caramel, white chocolate and cinnamon on it. So YUMMY!  I love my visiting teachers and especially in October when they bring me those yummy apples.

I totally spaced book club tonight with my ward and I'm sad because I read the book and everything.  I had it on my calendar and just noticed it and now I'm too late.

No Supervisor

It was digi-scrap class tonight.  I got there and my supervisor wasn't there yet but Brad Shuler from my ward was just headed into the building with some biology stuff, so I got in with him but had to keep checking back watching for the ladies in my class and the supervisor to unlock the door.  He never showed up!  What's up with that?  I kept checking back for the first 15 minutes of class so I could let people in.  All but one were there and I needed to start class, so I just went ahead.  I figured she wouldn't have been more than 15 minutes late and probably just didn't come.  I hope that is the case because I would feel bad if she showed up and couldn't get in.  I'm going to have to let the school district lady know that the guy didn't show up and that is not a good thing when I've got people trying to get in for a class they paid for.

Rowdy Scouts

We had cub scouts today.  Man were they on one.  We worked on our Citizenship belt loop and we talked about what it means to be a citizen, what we are citizens of (state, city, nation, world, etc) then talked about the difference between being a good citizen and a bad citizen.  I threw out some scenarios and had them tell me whether the action was a good citizen or a bad citizen.  Then we had them make a poster of something they could do to be a good citizen.  We had a couple that didn't want to draw, didn't want to write, didn't want to make a poster, they just wanted to play with Kelly's toys and their cell phones.  What is up with 8 year olds having cell phones?  I'm thinking we will need to call some mom's and ask them to keep the phones at home or else take them from the boys when they get there and give them back when they go home or something.  Anyway, we finally finished the poster and then we frosted cookies to take to the widows in the neighborhood.  They were running in peoples yards, playing in their fountains, throwing things.  We had to stop after the 2nd house and give them a talk on what we had already spent the first half of scouts talking about, being a good citizen, being respectful, and how to treat other peoples property.  They did calm down a bit and were much better at the last house we went to and then they even said thank you to us as their leaders when we finished.  So, hopefully something sunk in.  Maybe I was just being cranky, but they had way too much energy for me to handle today.

When I got home we rushed out to Trevin's last football game.  They lost again.  He did have a fun season though and he doesn't usually take it too hard when he loses.  Is that a bad sign or a good sign?

When we got back I started on dinner and Travis and Tyrel headed to young men's where they played Human Clue.  They had to figure out who kidnapped the Bishop.  They said it was fun.

Sean got the bid for the company in California that is buying the apartment complexes in Salt Lake.  So exciting!

Halloween Cruise

So, do any of you do the Groupon thing?  We have got a couple of good deals through them.  We got tickets for the Provo River Halloween Cruise and we went last night.  We took Sharlynn with us since we had to have her buy one of the tickets so that we had enough for the family, and that left us with an extra ticket since we have an odd number in our family.  Trevin helped me make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that we took over with us for treats.  We got their just in time for the 7:00 cruise, but there was lots of people waiting, so we got on the list for the 7:45 cruise.  It really wasn't too bad of a wait and we had fun chatting and visiting as a family.  Sean thought we should sing the family night song for everyone there, but the rest of us didn't think it was such a great idea.

We were glad we got on the later cruise, because it would have still been light for the 7:00 one, so it was fun that it was dark when we went.  It was okay, probably would have been more fun if our kids were younger, but the river was really pretty with all the lights reflecting off of it and it was kind of funny.  Actually, the funny parts left us wondering if they were intended to be that way or if they just messed up.  Anyway, it was a good cheap date.  Glad we got our coupons for 1/2 off though.

Guess Who?

Quite a few years ago, when Trevin was just a toddler, there was a mother daughter party at the church that I went to.  They had everyone bring baby pictures that they numbered and hung around the cultural hall and one of the games was to guess who's who.  As I got my picture out to take to the church, Travis saw it and said, "Why do we have a picture of Trevin in a dress?"  I laughed and told him that it was me. 

Fast forward to this week.  The challenge at the Stuff to Scrap forum was to scrap ourselves and our daughter, or us and our mother or grandmother, or whoever we think we look like, etc.  I immediately thought of this incident and went and pulled out my picture and Trevin's picture and thought we looked similar, but not just alike, so I then pulled out Travis' baby pictures since he and Trevin I thought always looked a lot alike.  Upon inspecting pictures of all of us at the same age, I think Travis looks more like me than Trevin did, but I ended up putting all 3 of us on the layout so you can all judge for yourselves.  Kind of a fun thing to do.

Hanging out with Heidi

Heidi came up this morning and we spent all day getting things ready for our home parties and the family history event we are doing in 2 weeks.  It will be so fun.  We got a lot accomplished today but still have more to do tomorrow.  We are still looking for people to host parties in their homes.  We have some scheduled but would like to get a few more in before the holidays and we are going to be doing our first weekend digital scrapbooking retreat in January, so watch for that!  It will be fun, productive, and we hope lots of people want to come!

Slowing it down - Fall Break and a date

Today was a bit less stressful and busy.  Sean had a really busy day with work in Nephi, Santaquin, Elk Ridge and Spanish Fork and he was supposed to have his annual audit with the State, but rescheduled it for next week when it is supposed to be rainy anyway.

I worked like normal today.  It was fun to sit and listen to the boys laughing and having a fun time together in the basement. 

Around 3:00, Tyrel had decided he had been cooped up in the house long enough and was feeling better, so he asked me out on a date.  He didn't want to go do anything too adventurous since he was still coughing a bit, so we headed to town and he bought some flaming hot cheetos (for himself, I don't really like them) a candy bar for me and soda's for both of us.  Sounds nutritious huh!?  We came home and chilled for the afternoon watching a movie.

Sean got home exhausted and then got a call to help someone move into the ward, so he left for that, I made dinner and then I did a speed scrap after dinner.  The instructions for this one were really hard and confusing, but it was still kinda fun.  Not sure if I like my layout or not, I might re-do these pictures in a different layout with a different kit, I can't decide yet.  The pictures are great though I think!

Temple and Splits and 10 mile Bike Ride and funeral . . . not necessarily in that order

Another extremely busy day today.  I knew it was going to be and didn't want to have to rely on leftovers again tonight, so I got some homemade beef stew simmering early this morning so everyone could eat a good meal when they were around.

Tyrel stayed home sick again.  It sounds like it is moving from his head to his chest because instead of not breathing and sneezing a lot, he seems to be having a congested cough today.  He stayed home and read some more and napped.

Sean and I went to lunch because we both needed to get some business cards ordered and Heidi is going to be here Friday when we normally have our date so we moved it to today.  Our business cards turned out so cute - mine and Heidi's that is, not Sean's.  His are cool, not cute.

We are doing a Family History fair type thing at the end of this month, so we have been busily getting stuff ready for that and thought we should have some cards.  We are also working on the cutest kit called Family History - I am Doing It.

When we got back from that, we had to quickly change clothes, respond to emails and voicemails and then headed off to the temple.  But in the middle of that, I had to get Trevin's bike helmet and sweatshirt found because he was headed with his scout troop on a 10 mile bike ride in Provo canyon.  Hope he makes it.

A couple in our ward was being sealed and he had invited Sean to go with them and I tagged along grateful for the chance to spend some time with my husband in the temple.

Travis was scheduled to go on splits with the missionaries and he left sometime after us.  Tyrel stayed home and watched some more TV and read some more in his Hunger Games books.  He finished the first one and is 1/3 of the way through the 2nd one this week while he has been sick.

On our way home from the temple, we got a phone call that our sister in law's grandmother had passed away so we stopped in Spanish Fork for the viewing on our way home and visited with her family. 

By the time we got home, we were starving and the stew was still hot in the crock pot and tasted great with the loaf of homemade bread I had made on Sunday and pulled out of the freezer this morning.

At the Police Station

Today was extremely busy!  In addition to all the other things normally on a Tuesday and because school is out Thursday and Friday for Fall Break, we had to move some of the normally done on Wednesday activities to today.  Things like Scouts and my Digi-scrap class.

Tyrel was home sick with a horrible head cold.  I worked on both digiscrapping stuff and loan processing like normal throughout the day and then at 4:00 headed to Cub Scouts.  We took them on a tour of the police station and lieutenant Wright talked with them about safety so they passed off quite a few requirements and they were extremely excited to get their little police badge stickers.

Came home and didn't make dinner because I still needed to get the stuff ready for my class.  I told everyone they were on their own and they were cool with that (except Sean, he is never cool with being on his own for dinner).  We had plenty of leftovers though so they all managed to not go to bed hungry.

We had switched my class to Tuesday because the ladies said it would be easier than Wednesday because of Fall Break, but only 1/2 the class showed up after they had all agreed on Tuesday.  But we held it anyway and hopefully the others can catch up.  We went over some pretty important stuff, and the members that were there seemed to catch on to what we were doing.  Hopefully they all keep practicing at home.

Sean took Trevin to his football game since I was gone to my class.  It was their last regular season game.

Travis went to help with a service project for young men's and Tyrel stayed home sick and watched TV.

Change of Plans

We were all scheduled and excited to go on the Provo River Cruise for our Family Night activity tonight, but then Tyrel woke up sick, so we had to reschedule. We were going to go Wednesday night instead, then we remembered that we had been invited to a sealing and Travis is scheduled to go on missionary splits on Wednesday, so we might have to go on Saturday night since that is our next free evening, or maybe next Monday. But that was too long to go without having a family night lesson, so Trevin pulled one together quickly. Normally, the Monday after conference, we all talk about our favorite Conference talk and have a little testimony meeting by all. Sean had different plans for last Monday's lesson, so Trevin did it this time. I was impressed that over a week later, everyone still remembered a talk or two. We even had a good discussion about a couple of them with input from everyone. I love my children and the testimonies of the gospel they are developing. I'm so thankful for a living prophet on the earth and for the chance we get every six months to listen to Conference and hear things that build our testimonies and uplift us and remind us that our Heavenly Father loves us and is watching out for our needs.

Trevin talked about M. Russell Ballard's talk on addiction and about how it doesn't need to be drugs or alcohol only that can be addicting, but things like watching too much TV or playing too many video games. He reminded us that we need to take time to do other things and have a variety of wholesome activities to occupy our time
Sean talked about Boyd K Packer's talk and President Monson's talk about how we have our agency and we can choose our actions, but we cannot choose our consequences. About how the world tries to get more people to do wrong things because of guilt so the can feel better about the wrong choices they are making. How they think if they can get enough people to do it and make laws saying it is legal, then they won't feel as guilty about doing things they know are wrong and that even though things are legal according to the laws of the land, that doesn't mean they are ok to do. God's laws are unchanging.

Tyrel talked about Jeffrey R Hollands talk about the sacrifices his parents made in order for him to serve his mission. We will all be asked to make sacrifices in our lives and hopefully those sacrifices we make will make the lives of others better.
Travis talked about President Uchtdorf's talk from the Priesthood session how he compared us to a pen. When we use a pen, we are in control of what that pen writes and how we need to be pen's in God's hands doing his will. (I think that was the main gist of what he was saying)

I talked about the talk in the last session (I need to look up who gave it because I can't remember) but he talked about the girl who had the job of making sure the cows didn't get out of the fence into the wheat field because they would eat the wheat, bloat and die. He compared that to our lives and choices. Just like the fence, we have commandments and those commandments are not restrictive, but a protection to us. If we stay inside those boundaries that the Lord has set, we will be happier and have better lives. He knows what will bring us happiness better than we know and we need to look at the things we have been commanded to do as protections, not restrictions. I thought it was a very good analogy.

Understanding Isaiah

Just wanted to send a shout out to President Newman for his Sunday School lesson today. Isaiah is always so hard for me to understand and I just kind of get a glazed look when I start reading it. Even when I have had past lessons on it, I have a hard time understanding it but his lesson made total sense today. So great to have inspired teachers and leaders.

BYU finally did it

So, we got up and did our normal Saturday routine. Big breakfast together, chores, laundry, grocery shopping, etc. We put on our best fan faces and got ready to cheer for BYU hoping there was something to cheer about. The first half was great and they got us worried in the 2nd half, but they did hang on to win. Hopefully they can keep improving through the season.

Family Pictures

Oh my goodness, so I totally spaced blogging about our family photo shoot.  My awesome neighbor consented to deal with us again this year and take our pictures.  We went down to Salem pond and tried to get some shots in but Sean was so uncooperative.  He is way worse than the kids.  None of the pictures of him and I together looked good and we only had a few family pictures that turned out. Here are the ones I liked, which do you like best?

I had to do some major editing of that first one, this is what it looked like originally

So yes, we did have some cooperation, but we ended up with a whole lot of this..........

and this

By the time we got through all the nonsense, it was too dark for me to take individual pictures, so we went back this morning and I did pictures of the boys. 

Here is the three of them together.  They came up with this pose and it took us a million tries.  Trevin would not stay on Tyrel's back and when he was on, he wouldn't look at me.  We thought none of them turned out but we were pleasantly surprised to find this good one in the batch.