October 6th Pandora's Box

Brigham's class did Greek plays for their culminating event and Brigham got to be Zeus in "Pandora's Box."  He did a great job.

October 5th An Artist, Dorothy, a Tin Man, and a Scarecrow

 Found this sitting around the house.  Seriously, who can do this with and Etch A Sketch?  Porter is AMAZING.  He is so artistic.  Love him.

 Grandma Julie works with a special needs mutual and was doing a "Wizard of Oz" theme for New Beginnings. I told her I would help so this was my contribution.   

 Ruby Slippers, Tin Man hat, and straw bracelets, anklets, belt, hat, and flannel shirt.
No the best but good enough.  :)

October 4th Conference and Darci

We drove home listening to conference which was awesome.  Then we came home to chat with the neighbors on the porch.
Worst picture ever but of one of the cutest women ever. Darcy brought gifts for my girls for no reason. Just because she loves them. Darci does the best princess parties in the world but knows Martie loves superheroes even more. So, she got her a SUPERGIRL costume! Martie is as happy as can be. Thanks for being so awesome Darci!  She also gave Eleanor a cute little parasol.  

October 3rd St George Marathon!

4 am wake up and off to the busses!

 7800 people make for a much bigger run than 1600 do!  This is intense!

 We had a great start and while it is a tough marathon, we were doing pretty well until about mile 17.   Then Brigham got sick.  Looking back, it may be the fact that he ate candy from every booth the night before, took candy from all the spectators that had a candy bag by them, and ate two pieces of licorice at every water stop handing out candy.  Plus I was pushing us to eat more than we ever had before.  Either way, he was in pain and we visited every port-a-potty the rest of the race.  :)  We finished at 4:42 but we had a great time and we REALLY enjoyed the race.  I can't communicate how much our time together on these races means to me.  Memories I will never forget.

This is what the kids did while we were out on the course.  We loved staying at sister Simpson's house.

Love these supportive people who wait so patiently and give us so much love when we come in.

After the race and some rest, the kids wanted to go to the rec center...but it was closed.  So we decided to take them to DI.  They each drew someone else's name and had $5 to get that person something they would want.  They had a ton of fun.  Then the neatest thing happened.  Peter was looking at some church history books debating if we should get them for Porter.  There were 16 books and each were $2 .  Ultimately he said he wasn't that interested and didn't think he would read them so we put them back.  Then this beautiful woman walks up and hand me some money.  She is insistent that she wants to buy them for our family.  I tried to explain that it wasn't the money that was holding us back but she just kept saying she wanted to buy them for us.  She said she saw a video on Facebook of a woman buying a cake for a family that had wanted it but when their groceries were rung up, they didn't have enough money.  She had decided she wanted to do something like that for someone.  I couldn't talk her out of it so we bought the books.  But told her I wanted her picture so we could remember what a special experience she had provided for us.  We talked about what we could do with the money and decided that we could send it to the people trying to rescue people from Syria.  Such a nice good example for our family.

Then we went to dinner at Paula's where Peter picked a prickley pear off the cactus.  We took it inside to dinner, cut the skin off, and ate it.  Pretty good.  Mild flavor but super dark red like a beat.  Fun new treat.
   
Then on the way home, we stopped at Albertsons for some ice cream and saw some roses.  Peter picked them up and said he wanted to get them for me.  I told him that was sweet but it was the thought that counted so he could just take my picture with them and save himself the money.  He responded, "In that case, have two dozen."  Love him.

October 2nd Payson Temple and Packet Pick-up!

Getting ready to head to St. George today and we were thinking about going to the St George temple.  Then we decided to do Payson temple instead.  Peter was ready to go when I mentioned that he got to take Julia to the temple last time and so I wouldn't mind taking her this time.  So, he changed out of his church clothes and I changed into mine.  Then walking into the office to get the temple names, I realized we had a lot more male names and it made more sense for him to go.  So, I told him I wasn't going to go, he could, and I changed out of my skirt.  We started driving and half way there I started talking about him going to the temple.  He said he wasn't going.  I told him he had to and that I had given up my spot so he could go.  We were both a bit frustrated and then Peter said, "OK, we will stop at Walmart and if they have a skirt for you, you will go."  When we got to Payson we walked all over and couldn't find a skirt anywhere.  I finally asked an employee if they had skirts.  She said they didn't carry skirts any more.  When she saw my look of disappointment, she said she may have one skirt left in the clearance section.  They had one skirt left, my size $1.  Between that and a clearance t-shirt, I had an outfit to wear to the temple for $4!  I was meant to go to the temple.  And it was BEAUTIFUL.

After arriving in St. George Brigham and I went with Heidi to pickup Misty and go get our packets.  Nervous but fun moment.  :)

October 1st Field Trip!

Eleanor and Leila had their first field trip today!  Farmer Luke's farm and pumpkin patch were awesome!  The girls picked out the BEST pumpkins.  So glad I am home and able to do these fun things with them.  :)

September 29th Temple, Lunch, and New Jewlery

Jen Wakely and I went to the temple while the girls were at preschool and when we picked them up, we went out to lunch.   They have so much fun together.

And Martie made me this bracelet to match hers.  She said they say, "God's Not Dead" on them.

September 27th Sunday Mornings

Martie came upstairs today so excited to show us what she created.  I love that she plays with fun toys.

Peter brought these in from outside.  We get a bowl lie this every other day.  Love raspberries but probably not as much as Martie who eats most of them.  :)

September 26th 5K, Runaway, and Women's Session of Conference

Porter is AMAZING.  We want to the stake 5K and he kicked my butt...as well as his old record.  His previous record was between 31 and 32 minutes.  This time he was 27:16!  AWESOME.  He left me about a mile in and fiished a few seconds ahead of me.  We were both able to take second in our age groups.  He gonna be fast!

Then he got frustrated with me because I didn't take him to Lowe's for the craft and he ran away.  We found him in the gully like this and explained that just like he would be sad and scared if we left, we love him and we get scared and sad when he says he is going to run away.  We talked and laughed and then took him home to empty his backpack of clothes, shoes for when he gets bigger, and potatoes to eat.  Oh, and a towel to sleep with.:)

That evening Julia took a short break from her three days of babysitting (7 hours Thursday, 9 hours Friday, and 14 hours Saturday) to go to the General Women's session with me and Aunt Lisa.  It was a great meeting.

September 25th Comic Con and Brigham's Camp Out

I have been looking for ways to volunteer and my neighbor suggested that I help her daughter with Comic Con.  Interesting.
 Not really me...but interesting.

Then Brigham went on a Jamborall camp out with the ward scouts.  Peter went down for the night and they had a great time sleeping in hammocks.  Brigham even said his group won the fire starting competition where they were given two matches to light a fire and whoever got the balloon string to burn and send the balloon up first won.  Awesome.  And he came home with a box full of candy as a prize.  

September 23td Martie is a Pirate

Martie tested out the pirate costume today.  She looks pretty fierce.

September 22nd Julia''s Temple Trip and an Ice Cream Party

Julia had an orthodontist appointment and decided to miss school so she could go to the temple with me and Grandma.  We did a session so she had time for 10 confirmations and 25 baptisms and still an hour in the waiting room.  Gandma had to rush to a closing but she sent us off with money to go out to lunch.  Julia chose Cafe Rio.  Good choice.

Almost a year ago, Abi Rhea passed away from brain cancer.  She was Brigham's age and had been in his class while her little sister Autumn had been in Porter's class.  She loved glitter, pink, and ice cream so they have an annual party to collect glitter to donate to Primary Children's hospital.  The party is at Leatherby's and the kids love it.  The mascots from the Mascot Miracles foundation was there and they even had a drawing where Porter won a pirate costume.

September 21st Black Eye and FHE treats

Apparently this happended when Brigham tried to catch a football and stepped off the curb at the same time.  He didn't mind.  It made him look tough and he made the catch.  :)

Martie saw these turtles made from apples, grapes, marshmallows, and chocolate chips in the Friend magazine and has been wanting to make them forever.  We finally got around to it tonight but somehow I deleted Porter's picture and Eleanor's picture.

September 19th Princess Party

Sister Maxwell's daughter Darci owns a company that does character parties and today they held a tea party for little princesses to attend.  The grils had a blast getting dressed up.  Martie, Leila, Sophie, Eleanor, and Emma.  :)

After that, I went to a baby shower in Provo for one of her old young women was able to catch a picture of her and her sister.  Heather and Janelle Nixon were some of the best Young Women around.  They were always nice to all of the girls and it was clear they were always trying to keep the Lord's commandments.

September 18th Robots

Brigham practiced driving his submersible today.  He even gave Porter a quick turn.

September 16th Walking Sticks and Fun Run Entries

Check out the walking stick Brigham made.  He carved it with his wood burner and wrapped yarn around it.  Pretty authentic looking!

The school has a contest to design the t-shirts for the fun run every year.  This is what Porter and Martie came up with.  Mrartie's says, "School is the best.  I like to learn."