Thanksgiving in St. George

I love my job for many reasons, one of which is that I can set my own schedule for the school year. So I decided I won't hold class AT ALL the week of Thankgiving so we could spend more time in St. George with my family (9 whole days). Every one of my siblings and their families were there, and it was such a blast! :)Monday night, we had family home evening with my parents and Steve's family. Here's Emily, Katrina, Allison, and Amanda playing the opening song. Steve even taught us the actions to some primary songs. (yeah, he and I are A LOT alike)

Then after the lesson, we all enjoyed Wade's famous no-bake cookies.
On Thanksgiving day, we decided we had to get a picture of Whitney and Alex saying, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!" hehe
Wade and Austin hanging out
Ruthanne, Margaret, and my mom working hard in the kitchen
I promise I was helping, too. I just took a quick break to snap some pictures, hence the reason I'm rarely in the pictures on our blog. You know how it goes! ;)
Lizzie and the beautiful Thankgiving spread set up behind her Steve and Jason

Ruthanne, Austin, and my dad watching Wade play "airplane" with Jonny

Funny story about the clown outfit Jonny's wearing...My mom bought it at DI as an extra just in case any grandkids have accidents at her house. It's the cheesiest outfit, and when Emily was playing dress-up with her cousins, Jonny found this outfit in the closet and brought it upstairs so we could put it on him.

Nick and Ruthanne talking while Preston is just chillin'

All week, Jonny wanted to climb a tree, just like the big boys. Wade finally gave in and helped him get up in the tree so he coudl feel "so big" for a 1/2 hour or so. It was the highlight of the week for my 2 year old!

After giving thanks for all of our many blessings, we helped Grandma get ready for Christmas. :)

It really was an incredible week being with the Lang family, and it was one I will never forget because it was then that I heard my friend, John Jones, died after being trapped in the Nutty Putty Cave. Our families go way back since our moms became friends at BYU nursing school. They worked together for years as home health nurses, and we had dinner and family home evening with their family a few times.

We all went to the same schools, and I had the biggest crush on John in middle school. I think he means so much to me still to this day because of the way he treated me, during my most challenging years, when I had such a low self-esteem, feeling ugly, chubby, awkward, and different. He was just the type of guy EVERYONE respected and admired because of his kind nature.

His older sister, Cherie', has been one of my dearest friends since the college married ward when we served in the Relief Society Presidency together. And the hardest part of the weekend was trying to decide whether to leave my family and drive back up north early so I could be there for her at the funeral. I asked Carolynn and Summer for advice, since they have both lost a family member, and they said that she may need me more later on after things have quieted down. So I went to spend the day with her two weeks later. I think we both needed that visit. We had a really good talk and shared testimony of how we know we WILL see John again. She's amazing to me how she's clinging to her Savior and her testimony of Him at this time. I love you Cherie'!

Changes and Leaves

This happened back in September, but I haven't blogged about it yet, and I feel like I should since it's had such a huge effect on me...

After 5 years of serving as the Primary Music Leader in our ward, I was released. I didn't know what to think. I have had that calling since the moment we moved to Salt Lake. Although I'm 27 years old, I felt like I belong in primary. You all know ME. My 3 greatest passions are the Gospel, teaching children, and music. I felt so at home in that calling. For the next few weeks, I cried. a. lot. But my new calling has brought me a different kind of joy. I'm less exhausted on Sundays, but it keeps me busier all around. I'm the 1st counselor in the Young Women's Presidency, and I'm LOVING it. The girls I work with are amazing. They are strong. Some have dealt with abuse, divorce, and death, but they love their Savior and rely on him so completely. It's such a powerful example to me. They're also a lot fun. Whoever thought that teenagers were just as much fun as 4 year olds? (Besides Aliese, who always knew she would teach the older grades, while I preferred to teach the younger ones.)

Anyway, these are some pics from a service activity last month where we raked leaves for some of the elderly in our neighborhood. Of course, after we raked up big piles of leaves, we had to jump in them, too!

Allie

Melanie

Jon and Emily
Emily laid down and said, "Look mom, I'm cute. Take a picture." Can you tell she has a blogging mama? haha
Then Melanie insisted I jump in the pile too, and I'm so glad I did. It was such a blast...until Emily doggy piled on me.
The kids really were a big help. After we raked up most of the leaves, the kids would pick up the last few individual leaves and put them in the bag. Jonny even used daddy's work gloves to help.
Good times!

Field Trip to the Fire Station

When I originally planned the monthly field trips, I KNEW the firestation would be the favorite, and I was right. I have never seen so many kids behave so well and listen so intently, including the younger siblings that tagged along. These kids were all so stocked to meet real fire fighters and see the big fire truck!

Just a few minutes after they started our tour of the fire station, they got a "call" and had to rush away in the fire truck. It was the highlight of the day, I'm sure!



Listening to the fire fighter talk about his job and watching him put on his protective gear

Firefighter Jonny in the front seat ready to goFirefighter Emily
They learned about the firehose and even got a chance to hold it.

You would think they were Disneyland, they were THAT excited. It was awesome!

Dress up anyone?

As many of you know, I like to dejunk A LOT. It just feels good to sort through our things and throw away, recycle, or donate the things we don't use. A huge plus for living in Sugarhouse where the homes are cute, but small, is that there's simply not room for junk, so I'm forced to get rid of it. I'm already looking forward to this weekend when I can dejunk my closet and run a load to DI of some of the clothes I don't need, since I just received some new clothes for my birthday last week.
Anyway, everytime I dejunk a closet or drawer, Emily and Jonathan like to be involved in the process. I was FINALLY getting rid of my prom jewelry from high school, but first Emily wanted to play dress up with it. It kept her entertained for like 2 hours. It was great! Oh and don't worry, there's no way I got rid of my ultra cool 80's shirt clip. That's a keeper, friends, a real keeper!
Speaking of dress up, doesn't Jonny look like a little man in this suit? A lady in my ward gave me two suits that her son wore 20 years ago. Jonny looks so handsome, I think. I just can't believe he's almost 3!

1 little, 2 little, 3 little witches....

Every month in my preschool, we have a field trip. Last month, along with learning how to keep our body healthy, we visited a beautiful local orchard and garden and then had a tour of my favorite grocery store, Harmons! This month, to help us get in the Halloween spirit, we went to see the witches at Gardner Village. It was a cold day, but so much fun! We stopped to take a break, and I read everyone a few favorite Halloween stories.

Taylor, Juliet, Quinton, Everett, Miss Catherine, and Jonny as a lion, just like he was last year.

My sister actually lent me an adorable frog costume and a monster costume, but Jonny refused to wear any costume. He wanted to just stay in his pajamas that morning, carry around his blankey, and pout, so I thought, "Perfect, he can be a baby." ;) So I gave him his teddybear and a binky so he really would fit the part. An hour later when he saw how much fun the kids were having dancing around in their costumes during Music Time, he wanted to wear his lion costume from last year, so he could scare everyone.

Emily and Salote in their costumes
Of course, once Emily saw some of the other costumes, she wanted to be a Super Hero Girl rather than a ladybug. ;)

Michael, Damon, Luke, Conon, Cannon, Jonny, Salote, and Em

Dancing to "Halloween on Parade" for the Halloween Program

"1 little, 2 little, 3 little witches, fly over haystacks, fly over ditches..."

The night before Halloween, we went to the Neighborhood Trunk or Treat. My little sister, Ruthanne, is so cute and doesn't feel that holidays are the same without having kids around, so she called me up and joined us just like last year. I was grateful to have her and Austin's help with the kids!

me with my angel, Melanie

Jonny and Emily were all set to help daddy scoop out the goop...

...but it didn't last long. All of a sudden, they got this great idea that it would be fun to clean the floors instead. Random, I know, but I'm not complaining because I could use the help!

Cath getting really intense about this pumpkin carving business! haha

Happy Halloween

Budding Artist

I don't consider myself an artist. I used to think I wasn't creative at all since art was always my worst subject in school, but I decided I can actually be quite creative, I just lack skill when it comes to drawing or painting. I have had a complex about my level of skill in art since 5th grade when Mr. Mitchell asked us to sketch a picture of an owl, and mine looked more like a fat penguin. Do you remember that Katie, Sarah, and Rachel? ;)

However, I have been amazed at how my daughter is drawn to art. She is always drawing, coloring, painting, molding playdoe, you name it! My sister, Margaret, gave her a magna doodle for her 2nd birthday, and she still carries it around all the time sketching pictures of our family, her friends, her toys, or animals. But her favorite thing is actually just to grab a pencil and a piece of blank white paper and sketch for long periods of time. Two months ago (yes, that's how far behind I am on blogging), Emily drew a picture of herself. Wade and I were impressed. :) She's gotten better since then, but I wanted to post her first offical self portrait on the blog, so we will always remember how excited we were when she showed us.

Got apples?

My cousin, Carolynn, called me and invited me to can applesauce with her because her apple tree had so many apples this year, she just had to share the wealth. I was happy to oblige. :)

Emily helped me core and peel the apples.
Then she wanted to show her cool apple peel creation to Jon.

I canned sliced apples I can use to make apple pies later. And Carolynn showed me how to flavor the applesauce with just a pinch of kool aid to make cherry, peach and even tropical punch applesauce. They taste really good, and I'm just excited I was able to can for Free Ninety Free, my favorite way to do everything!

Emily's Superhero Birthday Party

Last month, Emily had a Superhero Birthday Party with cupcakes in the shape of a star...

...and all her friends dressed as their favorite superhero. It was awesome!
I set up an obstacle course, and each superhero took a turn running it while everyone else cheered them on.

Go Superman Jonny!

I made superhero eye masks for everyone to wear. Then we dressed Eston up as a monster and all the superheros chased him around trying to capture him. Then we put minature superhero action figures in the middle of the parachute and made them "fly."

I thought it was hilarious that the 3 batmans were having a secret meeting. ;)

Here's Emily, Salote, Sammie, and Etta in matching supergirl capes. Cute idea, Brynn! And thanks to Traci for being my camera girl.

Go supergirls!