Be The Salt of The Earth

     This week while studying in the Book of Mormon I came across this scripture, "Verily,verily, I say unto you to be the salt of the earth; but if the salt shall lose its savor wherewith shall the earth be salted? The salt shall be thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men." 3 Nephi 12:13
      The past few months have been very busy for Levi and I. We have looked at each other several times and wondered what we were doing.  Our congregation at church has been going through a lot of changes at church and honestly, we were just plain tired.  As I started my scripture study I asked Heavenly Father to help me know what he would have me know as I read.  This scripture stuck out to me and I wrote next to it, "Keep going". It had such a huge impact on me.  Just because life gets hard, busy, and sometimes a little crazy, we can't stop or give up.  
      My energy was increased by this experience and my faith was renewed as I felt of Heavenly Father's concern for me and the difficulties I was having in life.  I know he knows us and cares for us all.

Eagle

It has been so fun to have the boys in scouts.  They have worked hard and have tried to be ready to advance as soon as time allows.  This past weekend we held Andrew's Eagle court of honor to officially award him his badge.  We are so happy with the work that he has done and the person that he is. 

My scouts

Nana and Papa are proud of this guy.

Courtney loves Andrew.

Andrew gave his second mentor pin to his good friend Norma.  They are only separated by 75 years. She has taught him the organ, but with that has taught him more about service.  We love her so much.

The Eagles nest.

The Way We Do Preschool

This is the way we do preschool.  

8:10am

shovel dirt.

We were a month late planting the snow peas, but they are growing well now.  Hopefully we'll get some to eat before it gets cold.

This is about a month after the snow pea planting.  David wanted to use the chalk boards and when I came to look at what he was doing, he was writing words.  It made my day and gave me a little more confidence to keep homeschooling this boy once he's kindergarten age. It also eased my conscience about letting him watch Word Factory and play Star Fall.  Apparently they really do work.

Renaissance Fayre School Days

Last year a Renaissance fayre came to our little community.  This year they put on a school day.  It was done wonderfully.  We were separated into groups and the kids were able to learn about so many different things.

Learning about weapons was a favorite for all of the kids.

One of the stations we went to had a lot of different games for the kids to play.  Bryson came home and made one of them that same day.  The giant Jenga game that players made sure to get away from when falling, was really fun. 

David and Michael starting a game of Vikings chess with Penny watching.

Geckos

This summer has been full of baby geckos.  We found out last spring that Elise really was a girl when Bryson found eggs in her cage.  After researching a bit we learned that a female gecko can stay fertile up to a year! We separated the geckos, but know we had a lot of months of eggs coming our way.  We have had 5 babies hatch so far.  A couple of clutches didn't develop and  hatch.

This is Perch our first baby when he was working on shedding his skin.  It's amazing to watch.  They will use the branches around them to help get it off, but they also bite, peel it off and eat it.

Ginger Snap was the only one in his clutch that hatched.  It's fun to weigh the geckos when they are brand new.  Ginger was our smallest yet weighing in at......0grams.

Lake Natoma

We made full use of the lake this year.  Last summer we bought a park pass and we wanted to get full use of it.  This is from one of our last trips to the lake.  We acquired the raft this summer and it has been so much fun.

I'm Coming Back

After a ridiculously long break from posting on my blog, I have decided to come back! I have been inspired by Marcy and Reianna. (With gentle nudges from Bryson too) It is so fun to have a record and pictures of fun events with our family.  I figure if I can post on Facebook, I can post on my blog.   Here goes to giving it another try.