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.

Would You Host A Party

Sean and I went on our lunch date today and talked a lot about the new business adventure Heidi and I are almost ready to go with.  We are going to start hosting digi-scrap classes and retreats.  We have a little more to get pulled together for that part, but we are ready to do our home party presentations.  So, we are looking for friends and family to host them for us.  We can do them during the day on any week day or on Friday Nights or Saturday morning or afternoon.   Let us know if you are interested in hosting one for us.

This is the run down.  We have invitations for you to send to all of your friends and would have it in your home.  Think Pampered Chef party, only digiscrapping. You would hand out the invitations, host the party at your home, make treats or whatever you want to do that way.  We come in and show our slideshow and talk about digital scrapping and the advantages.  We have two different areas.  We give a run down on the advantages and get into a bit of how to do it yourself.  We will have disks available of the kits we have designed and lots of fun home decorating projects done with layouts to show you as well as invitations, cards, books, etc.  Or, we also have the option of our Scrap 4 Hire side which is for people that don't want to be bothered with learning how to do it and don't have the time and want us to do your scrapbooking for you.  As a hostess, you can earn free kits if you are a do it yourselfer or can earn us doing pages for you based on your total sale volume for the party.  It is low key and we are just starting, so, we'd love some people to practice on and I think you will love what you see.  Let me or Heidi know.  We are doing a genealogy seminar at the end of the month that we are stoked about.  GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT IDEAS INCLUDED

We'll also let you know when our retreat option is ready to go, probably after the first of the year.  We have lots of fun activities planned for those

Moses

Remember the days of roadshows when we were teenagers.  Well, they are back, kind of.......  Our stake decided to do ward plays this year.  It was a whole ward event, not just the youth.  Sean got recruited to play Moses in our assignment to bring a Bible story into modern times.  It was quite funny!  I also loved the football play from the Mountain View ward with the David and Goliath story.  Travis was involved in making the poster and sound effects.  Tyrel was a complaining Israelite youth.  I helped a bit with the poster.  They only had 1/2 the wards perform their plays  tonight.  I didn't know they were splitting it up, but it is good they did or we would have been there all night.

Trevin stayed home sick again today.  He wasn't running a fever anymore though so I think he is about over it.  Wasn't coughing near as much either.  I went down to the school to get all the work he had missed and he spent the day getting everything but his Math homework done.  He'll have to work on that tomorrow if he is still sick.

2nd Digi Class

I had my 2nd class tonight for digital scrapbooking at the high school.  They seem to be catching on.  We worked more with the marquis select tool and talked about how layers worked and how to move layers if you need to.  We also went over how to resize things, rotate, and move them around on a layout.  I kind of switched the order of my classes from last time I taught because the last class said the layout from scratch was the easiest, so I moved it to the 2nd class instead of he last class.  So, we'll see how it goes.

We had cub scouts this afternoon.  We worked on their communicating belt loop and their reading and writing belt loop.  They got it all done other than their week of journal writing and it was fun to listen to them tell stories while they worked on their posters.  Kelly made them cute little journals to write in for the week.  Hope they made it home with the instructions.

Trevin stayed home sick again today.  His throat is sore, he has a slight fever and is coughing a lot.

Still sick

Trevin felt worse today than yesterday so he stayed home again.  He read all day long.  He finished the 2nd book in the Hunger Games series and started on the 3rd one.  I scrapbooked all day long.  We have this cute hunting kit that released today and I did lots and lots of layouts with it.  Here is the kit

These first two layouts I did with pictures I was sent from a bear hunt

This is one from deer camp up in Vernal quite a few years ago.

This is a story about what a good shot I was when I took hunter's safety clear back in 8th grade

This is one about a cougar hunt Sean went on with his buddy Brent.  I don't even know who the guy in the picture is, it seems like his name was Charlie or something.

And this one is from our 12th anniversary, yeah, I know, long time ago.  We stayed at the Daniels Summit Lodge (so nice by the way, the down comforters are awesome) and drove the 4 wheelers around the trails by Strawberry looking for wildlife and picking raspberries.  It was fun.

Isn't it an awesome kit! 

Travis and Tyrel had play practice tonight for YM and Sean is the lead in the play.  Kinda funny huh!  Following in his father's footsteps.  He plays the part of Moses in a spoof of Deal or No Deal called Plague or No Plague.  I'm excited to see it!

Sick one

Trevin woke up with a fever and a cough this morning and ended up staying home from school.  I hope he gets over it quickly.  I hate it when my kids are sick.  He just sat around and read all day long.  He read almost the entire Catching Fire book (2nd in the Hunger Games Series).  That's how awful he felt.

Sean gave a most awesome FHE lesson tonight about repentance and following the commandments.  We talked a lot about the last chapters in the Book of Mormon where 230,000 Nephites are killed leaving only a handful including Moroni.  How sad that must have been for him to look down and see all of those people.  We talked about how important it is to repent and to be righteous.

We had fresh peach pie for dessert and it was so yummy!

More Scrapping and More Conference

Another great day listening to conference and scrapping with Sharlynn.  I got a lot done!  Nothing to show here, because I was doing layouts to update some old posts with no pictures, so you'll have to search to find them.

After the first session we went for our traditional Conference Casserole at Grandpa and Grandma Nielsen's and then back home for more conference and more scrapping. I enjoyed lots of talks, but here are a few of my favorite quotes from the talks on Sunday.

Eyring - God knows us each individually. We ought to be content of what the Lord has blessed us with.  We must trust in the Lord and know that he knows what is best for us.  "Be still and know that I am God."  Trust in the Lord enough to listen to him in every song, prayer and talk in conference.

Packer - It is intended that we be happy.  The Lord is voting for me and the adversary is voting against me, it is my vote that counts.  Everyone has a key to the gate, the key is called repentance.  Satan cannot have the key.  Repent and don't look back.

President Monson gave a great talk on Gratitude
L Tom Perry gave a talk aimed at young boys to prepare to recieve and honor the priesthood

missed who gave this one, but - parents are responsible for the protection of their children, that includes spiritual protection also.  Parents who love their children cannot be intimidated by them.  Parenting is not a popularity contest.  Don't be afraid of counseling them by fearing you will disappoint them.  Parents be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid when it comes to raising teenagers 

missed this speaker's name too, but he told a story of a cow who broke through a fence, ate some wheat in the next field, became bloated and died.  He compared it to the commandments, which like the fence, are designed to protect, not restrict.  The fence was a protection just as the commandments are a protection to us.  we can make choices, but we cannot choose the consequences.  The commandments are clear, they are protective, they are not restrictive.   Before you act, picture the Savior standing by your side and ask yourself would he say it, would he do it because he truly is right by your side.  His Spirit is in our heart.

Conference and Scrapping

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day today scrapbooking with Sharlynn and listening to Conference.  I'm so glad we have a sound system that pipes it throughout our house, then we can all listen to it wherever we are.  I especially loved the morning session with my three favorite speakers, President Monson, Uchtdorf, and Holland.  How much better can it get?

President Monson announced 5 new temples and talked about how every worthy able young man has a duty and obligation to keep themselves worthy and able to serve a mission and how the church needs many more senior couples

Elder Holland talked about the sacrifices his parents made for him to serve his mission and thanked the church as a whole for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make for their children to make it possible for the gospel to be spread and that no one is insignificant.

Uchtdorf talked about focusing on the essentials and making our lives more simple in order to draw closer to God.  We need to master the fundamentals of the gospel. Also talked about 4 key relationships we need to develop with God, our family, our fellowmen, and ourselves.  He said some people can't get along with themselves and we need to get to know ourselves better, we need to enjoy God's creations, walk in nature, ponder the gospel and see ourselves as our Heavenly Father sees us with divine potential.  Awesome talk!

Sean, Travis and Tyrel went to the Priesthood session together and then went out for ice cream, which is their tradition.  I can't believe that next conference, Trevin will be old enough to go with them too.

Two dates in one day

I went and got my hair done this morning, so I was all spiffy for my lunch date with Sean.  I love going out with him every Friday.  Speaking of dates, I'm pretty sure Travis never took me on one last month.  I'm going to have to make him take me on two in October.

After lunch I got home and did some loan work and some scrapbooking for a new kit we have coming out next week and then made pizza dough for the boys to be able to make dinner.  Sean helped Trevin get the brakes working on his bike and then Sean and I went to the temple.  It was our ward temple night, but we went and did sealings again instead.  It's fun going with the ward, but it was also nice to get out earlier too.  We were able to get back before the boys had to head to bed and see them a bit too.