Welcome to our World

When I heard Girl Scouts of Colorado set up a special 100 year anniversary weekend for entire families to participate in, I convinced my husband we should spend that weekend in Colorado Springs.  The children were begging to return to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and we had a great day there on Friday after setting up camp on Thursday night in Falcon.  Of course the giraffes were the biggest draw.  N didn't remember that part and really didn't like it at first, but eventually, after seeing her siblings smile and laugh, she began to giggle too.  M showed once again that birds love her and she is really wanting a parakeet but I confirmed we are maxed out on pets right now.  The good news is, a family membership only cost $30 more than a one day entry fee, so we can look forward to another wonderful trip before next July.  Our membership materials say CMZ is ranked in the top 10 zoos in the United State and we completely agree!   That night we had hot dogs...

This summer K has really wanted to be older than she is. I was listening to the audiobook "All Joy and No Fun" and when it described the characteristics of adolescence, I felt like it was perfectly describing my newly minted 9-year-old. No, you're not old enough to get rid of your Barbies!  She was ready to give them all away, but it was decided they could move into the play room for N's sake. Good news is, now that she sneaks playing with them, she isn't forcing M to play Barbies anymore.  (Turns out K was bribing M to play and M didn't really like them.) For her birthday, K opted, like D, to have friends over to watch the movie Maleficent instead of having a full fledged birthday party. She had many wonderful friends to help celebrate her special day. We went through a lot of popcorn, soda, and cake but it was so fun to have all those nice girls around. Half of them even bought her presents even though I had said they weren't expected. So sweet. ...

Did you know the Church Handbook of Instructions doesn't require you to hold an annual Primary activity?  I just couldn't resist having a pioneer one since our church building has a lovely pavilion and horse shoe pit. We knocked it all out during a presidency meeting one day and it was so much fun!  We had 6 stations, so every group had 6 or 7 children.  The Bradys helped the children make butter, the Keenes taught how to play horseshoes and held a watermelon seed spitting contest, Heather had a stick pull, the Valiant 11 girls manned the potato sack races, Amber did the hoop and stick games, and my husband did the water bucket station while a YW took N around for us.  I was the timer -- going around and making sure everything was going well with the primary president and helping groups switch stations.   I'm so glad we did this.  Easy, inexpensive, and hopefully created lots of happy memories. Little airplane crash on the way home.  Luckily the...

My children have been waiting all year to go back to Avid 4 Adventure, especially D and M. K pretended to not care but by the way she got ready every morning at super speed let me know she really wanted to go. This year we registered with two other families from our ward (congregation) so they had friends in their groups with them.  Always fun to have car pool buddies. We will certainly sign up again next summer. M is excited she will be old enough to do the real rock climbing by then.  Oh, and you'll never believe how we solved the problem of K growing out of her water shoes from last year.  She borrowed mine!  Here are my 3 favorite pictures their leaders sent me:  D on hiking day, K standing on the canoes, and M right after being dumped out of a canoe.  (The top photo is our car pool group.  M was sad it was the last day and refused to be included in the pic.) One day we had N's friend Rose over and another day N went to their house. They get a...

We were so excited to see our wonderful neighbors, M and D again at their son's wedding. This wedding was beautiful!  I knew we were in for something special when I saw the seating chart on the way to where the ceremony took place surrounded by towering trees in front of a Victorian home. The words were so moving. I loved the way the bride included a blessing in Cantonese given by her cousin. The mothers also wrapped the bride and groom's hands together with ribbon. You could feel the happiness in the crowd. The sit down dinner and dancing afterward were a blast. I overheard other women saying what I was thinking: "I want to wedding just like this one!"  Of course, my sealing did not include the words, "'til death do us part."  I am so grateful I sealed for time and all eternity in the House of the Lord.  Doesn't feel like that was almost 13 years ago. I guess Husband is just too easy to be married to!  Still one of the happiest memories of my lif...

That happy medium between being too busy and too bored in the summertime -- I think we accomplished it as well as we could this summer. There are so many great things to try when school is out. I'm loving this summer thing. My kids are so much happier than they were in May! M loved attending horse camp again this year. My future farmer is doing great grooming and riding a horse!  A big thank you to my mother who helped drive her to and from. It allowed K and D to chose other activities and N to not be in the mini van so much. K went to the M family sewing camp. We love going to their house. They charge $45 for  Tuesday ,  Wednesday and  Thursday . That leaves Mondays and Fridays free and believe me, the quality for the price is great. I told the children whenever they wanted to go, I was fine with it. M and N chose gardening/science camp one week and D chose water camp another.  They were great. D returned to L Indoor Soccer and to Ninja Camp. He cho...