A peek into recent days.

Life has been full of fun activities, friends, and new adventures.  Celia is an official rider of her bike with out training wheels. I had fun going to apple hill and canning apple pie filling with a friend. We've had Thanksgiving and many activities for church and school. Life is full and these are some of the fun pictures I've snapped. We loved going to visit my folks for my mom's birthday. Going to Yellowcard in San Francisco was quite the adventure and oh so fun! Emmy has been having fun with new friends in the ward since the Youth Celebration she participated in. She has a cute bf, Andrew. We have enjoyed Christmas parties, shopping, dates and gifts. I am understanding more of the challenges I face and ad trying to do all I can for our children. We love them and protect them. I'm glad to have drop box, instagram, and my camera phone for being able to snap pictures of life as it happens.

Thankful for Patience

Happy Thanksgiving!. I am so grateful for my loving husband, wonderful children and sweet extended family. I'm glad my tree out front that has been looking so sad finally has its leaving turning autumn colors. I am hopeful it will perk up and get great leaves next year. We have been enjoying relaxing in town and prepping for Thanksgiving. I am Thankful for all our blessings of comfort, but also for the love and joy I feel from serving others.( even  my wild Indian kiddos;)) I want to have our gifts to each other for Christmas this year to be one of time and effort given in our family. I love the idea of giving of oneself for a need or want of someone we know.  Yes, some things take fixing and assembling and I am happy to have Brian to help with that.  Celia knows what I like and often tells me she will give me a peach or let me watch "Twilight" if I let her eat out of the kitchen, hehe. It is a great thought though, trying to give someone else what they want and look for those reinforcing things. I'm grateful for kind people in traffic and in supermarkets. I'm most grateful for patience to give it, and be able to receive it. We are all weak in something and make mistakes, how great it is to love one another, to be patient and forgive. I look at mishaps and trials as an opportunity for understanding and growth. I am happy, life is good and I'm grateful for this time in my life.

A lot of teenagers at my House.~

I survived watching 14 kids for 5 hours. It was Emmy's Sixteenth birthday party. We played games and then I let them hang out. I didn't like how much they loved it when I gave them some time to relax and hang out with out me being in the room. Spencer did amazing hanging out among all the teenagers, but was ready for a quiet ride with Brian after all the busy tome during the day. I couldn't;t help reminisce about my sixteenth birthday. Lisa made me a batman cake and I felt like I was pretty old and adult like.  We went to the temple and went on the grounds because it landed on a Sunday if I remember right. I did get my patriarchal blessing when I was sixteen too on my future marriage date. I had no idea that would be such an important date for me later in life.
The kids wanted to watch Blue's clues. Joseph kept saying how he didn't like it.  The boys there were very offended and hassled him for it. He was tricked and bullied a little, but still claimed Blue's clues wasn't where it was at. Hopefully Joseph won't mess with the guy who is much taller and older than him next time!

Where did the Time go?

Emmy is Sweet Sixteen. She woke up and drove us to her seminary class. I can believe she can drive. I made her a photo album with over a hundred pictures in it from when she was younger. She has so much personality and is so loved. She enjoyed gifts and friends remembering her birthday and had some cake with Rah Rah and Papa after a family dinner of steak, mashed potatoes and salad. It is fun to be the one in charge of what we eat for dinner. Emmy loved her batman snow hat, a homemade BYU pillow case from Rah Rah, and a great yellowcard watch from Bri.

Emmy is excited to keep celebrating this milestone with a party here at the house on Monday, a day off of school for Veteran's Day and a possible trip to a Yellowcard concert in San Francisco at the end of this month.  I'm so glad we have Emmy, she is so smart, beautiful, funny, and great. Time is passing by so quickly, but I'm grateful for all the wonderful memories of watching her grow these sixteen great years.

Icky Squishy

Halloween snuck up on us this year. We carved our pumpkins and lit them as the trick or treaters were coming. Celia want to be a mad scientist, but since we have tutoring during the mad scientist class at her school, Allie brought a fun mad scientist project. We made gak, but called it fairy guts lol. They had fun squishing their hands in it and carving pumpkins as well. Emmy was a monster, and Spencer was Indiana Jones for dressing up. We enjoyed visiting with Rah Rah and baking pumpkin seeds that night. We trick or treated around our neighborhood. Emmy went with her friend Kaitlyn and we noticed it started to pour rain, Emmy had umbrellas and wasn't soaked thankfully.

I had book group the next night and we talked about the book Dracula. It was a great time and we had candy corn puddings, a great idea I got from Dawn:)  I can't believe it is November already. Hurricane Sandy hit and there are a lot of relief efforts going for that. We are doing Genealogy for our Relief Society extra meeting this month. It is fascinating how easy it is to find and take names to the temple these days compared to years past. It is very exciting. Big things coming up for us next week are; voting for the next President of the United States, Emmy turns sixteen and we have a pivotal IEP for Spencer at school. It is busy, but we are blessed.

Pre-Halloween festivities

 I had Joseph take a sunset picture for me with my camera as we drove to our Ward Halloween party.

Halloween Party time. This holiday seems pretty celebrated these days. So many adults were dressed up at our ward Halloween party. They went all out for the activity, almost like how Christmas is such a celebration. We loved the haunted house and the various carnival games. We were missing Emmy, she usually does all the games with Celia, but she was in Lake Tahoe having a fun time at a young women's retreat.  Joseph was so sweet. We went to decorate a room at church to pass out candy in and he offered to help with the set up of the party. He wanted to stay there until it was time to start. I love how he is so helpful. Celia too was setting up chairs and helping me to do various things to prepare. We did go home in time to find Celia's fairy costume she got for her birthday that I have been searching for for weeks. We also found my viking hat and Joseph found a cape to wear.   Spence and Bri came by the party too and I loved seeing how happy Spencer was, he just loves decorations and holidays. He was giving me kisses, I'm glad I get credit for the good things too and not just for whenever things aren't just how he likes, he he.

Halloween Band Concert

Joseph had his First Band Concert for Chilton Middle School. Since they are a brand new school their band teacher comes from a nearby school for one period a day. She is great and the kids are learning very quickly.  The concert was a fundraiser party and all the band members dressed up and played in their Halloween costumes. Joseph was ghost rider and flipped his mask up to play his trumpet.

Joseph seems to have a talent for the trumpet and happily he is learning that practice makes perfect. He pulls it out and practices every chance he gets. It makes me so happy to hear that rather than some Netflix T.V. shows showing on the kindle fire. Kids have entertainment at their fingertips so easily, I love the practice of learning to make music, its a talent and Joseph has it. I missed all of the concerts I've been to for Emmy. The band families became familiar to me. Here there was no one in the room of 300Plus people other than Joseph that i knew. He was great and I loved his little smirk for accomplishing a great thing. He played in Jazz band and in concert band. I think he played around 7 songs. We celebrated after with some fries and Ice cream. I wonder while celebratory food is so bad for you? Lol. That's a subject for another post.:)