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.