Arizona Here We Come....

We are headed to AZ on Thursday so if I don't post for awhile it is because we are getting ready to leave for our fun trip. Although I don't know that I am exactly looking forward to the 120 over night low ;) But it is always so nice to spend time with family, get spoiled by the grandparents and play with cousins. I would love to try to get together one day with everyone. Maybe lunch with the kiddos or swimming? I can only imagine what all of these little monkeys would do together!

Grateful Sunday

5th Ward Primary Presidency
Steph, Katie, Lisa, & Steph

Today I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in Primary. First I feel blessed to serve with the women I do. They are incredible people who truly make me want to be and do better. I also feel blessed to serve with the children in the gospel who are so loving and so full of faith. I am over the Jr Primary and have been visiting the classes over the last few months. I am SO impressed with the teachers that serve in our primary and am amazed at the thought and preparation that our primary teachers put into their lessons. The creative ways in which they teach, motivate and inspire. And the way in which they truly love the children in their class.
Today in particular I was visiting a CTRA class. In this particular class they have a young Autistic boy. The teachers were so patient and loving and knew how to bring in the spirit and truly teach the gospel not just "get through" the class. I was touched at their effort. I know they are blessed for their service.
As a presidency we have often commented on how incredible it is to serve in primary, where many children for the first time associate feelings of the spirit with the gospel. The responsibility lies with us as teachers, leaders, choristers, etc. to help them recognize those feelings of the spirit as the Holy Ghost.
I have received so many blessings in my life as I have served in many areas of the church, but have felt an added measure of the spirit as I have served in primary. So all of you that serve in your primary (in any capacity) here and across the world...Thank you for your service, dedication and love. I am grateful for your examples and I know the Lord is grateful too.

Mark 9: 37 "Whosever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me..."

Goals:
1- Get trip treats and kid's travel bag shopping done by Monday night. (Travel chain, surprise treats, family picture magnets, etc)
2- Be totally ready to leave for our trip by Wednesday night to have an entire day to clean and do last minute things.

Chase Swimming

At the park...

The boys and I had a busy day today. After a pilates class, swim lessons,
a play date, lunch at the pool and naps we decided to head to a park. It was a fun
day and tonight when I asked the boys what their favorite part of the day was at dinner
(a tradition) Austin said, "Mom it was the best day EVER!" I always ask if there was
any part that was bad (so they will hopefully be used to talking to me) and Chasey said
"There was nupping bad today (then he stopped and came and gave me a hug and said) I wub
you momma". Who knew that my kids could be so easily pleased! I think if every day were
this busy we would all be in bed at 7 (like the boys), but every once in awhile it is fun to
have a FULL day of fun!

Yoga

So I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else. I was in Yoga today and the lady next to me seriously was tooting the entire time. When we were doing the warrior poses they were totally loud...did she think no one could hear her? I got worried at one point people might have thought it was coming from my direction so I tried to make the most surprised faces I could every time she would do it. Maybe people thought it was me anyway, but seriously I started to laugh a little bit when we were doing dancer pose. I almost fell over. Anyway, it was just the most odd experience I have had in a long time. I kept waiting for someone to jump out and say "you are one candid camera"...

Grateful Sunday

Today I am so grateful for my own dad as well as my hubby.

I am so grateful for my dad. He honestly changed my life. I have thanked Heavenly Father so many times for sending him to our family. I remember, vividly, the change in our home after he married my mom. Growing up without a dad for all of my young years made me so grateful for the small, but incredibly important, aspects he brought to our home. I remember at 9 being so grateful that at any moment I could ask my new dad for a blessing..this may seem odd, but that was something my friends had talked about frequently and I never got to experience. I don't have very many moments that I remember from my young years, but one of them was the night after my mom and dad got married. I knelt down by my bed and thanked my Heavenly Father for allowing me, at 9, to experience having the priesthood in our home once again. At that young age I had a tremendous testimony of the impact of a worthy and righteous priesthood holder can make in a home. So Dad... thank you for your unconditional love, your example of righteousness, your words of wisdom, and for always believing in me! I love you!

Which leads me to Dave. Dave has been more of a husband and father than I ever could have dreamed of. Those words may seem overused, but I mean it deeply. He is a worthy priesthood holder who has guided our family in righteousness. I have never met someone more selfless and someone who truly lives without guile. It's the little things he does that make him so amazing. Like every time he goes to the grocery store he brings me home flowers. He is always finding little ways to make me happy. How he leaves his burdens and stress of school at the back door and is always ready and willing to step in as soon as he comes home. I am grateful for his gentle nudges to be a little better and try a little harder. I am also grateful for the way he teaches me so much as well as our children. He is so playful and funny yet wise and sincere. I love you baby, and am so grateful for you this father's day.

Goals:
1-Find something nice to do for Dave everyday. Most of the time I am giving to the kids all day and by the end of the day I am tired. Sometimes he gets the short end of the stick.
2- Get a babysitter during nap on Wednesday and kidnap the older kids and go on a mystery date. (My sister Sue does these and her kids LOVE them). Make sure they know they are loved.

Planet Earth Week....so much fun!

Planet Earth Week was SO fun. Here is a run down of our fun with mommy school this week. We started the week with the magic school bus book "Lost in the Solar System". The kids thought this was so cool. We used our solar system place mats all week and had some fun quizzes and learned a lot about the planets in our solar system. We had FHE on the creation and spent our morning scriptures reading about each day of the creation in Genesis. We watched one of the "Planet Earth" series on Discovery and my kids LOVED it. We also visited the Forth Worth Zoo on Saturday evening to check out the amazing animals. We love the Forth Worth Zoo. We have had a pass for the last 3 years and we have frequented the zoo SO many times. They had a huge spider exhibit too that the boys totally got into (it just gave me the heebie jeebies). It rained a lot this week so we learned about why it rains (which was a little more difficult to explain to Chase than I thought). We did rocket math sheets and gold fish counting for some Math and ended our week with a little nature walk. I am so glad we are doing this. The kids get so excited and talk about our weekly theme all of the time.

Happy Birthday Blake!!

Happy Birthday to you Blakey! We are so glad you joined our family one year ago. Our lives would not be the same without your giggles, your smiles, or your snuggles. You have added so much love to our family. Thanks for being your brother's best audience and our ALWAYS happy little guy! Love you forever...

Home Sweet Home?

Dave and I are on the search for the "perfect" place to live. Since we have actually concluded there is NO perfect place we will have to choose somewhere that comes close. We have the rare opportunity to actually choose (albeit one time) where we live for the rest of our life. Anywhere...really. We are actually pretty lucky, but to me it would be way easier to "go where my hubby's job takes us". Well since we can't say that, the choice is up to us. Because we will be stuck with our choice we have spent a lot of time in prayer and doing as much research as we can about different areas (although we can only do so much research over the Internet). We think we may have narrowed it down to three: South Jordon, UT, Flower Mound, TX, and Gilbert, AZ. We would love any information all of you have on South Jordon, UT and Gilbert, AZ. Since we live in Flower Mound we have gathered the needed info here. And yes we are from AZ, but so much has changed in the past 6 years since we have lived there. So if you wouldn't mind sharing about the schools, the homes, the communities, activities, and shopping :) that would be wonderful!!! I know not all of you will know about these areas, but if you do have any information it would be greatly appreciated if you could share it. We are just trying to gather as much information as we can before we make our decision. Dave will have to make his decision probably by the end of the summer so we can move forward to finish out a building and set up his business.

We actually are just hoping one day we will turn on the computer and a divine mapquest will show the way to our new home town. Hasn't happened yet, but we will keep you posted :)

Happy Birthday Chase!

The past three years have gone by so fast. It just seems like yesterday we were bringing you home and not having a clue how we would handle having two children. Here were are three years later so happy and so blessed because you are in our life. You are Austy's best friend and our little sunshine.
We love:
-Your "I love you's"
-Your karate and gymnastic tricks that come without warning
-Your funny jokes
-Your creative imagination
-The way you wake up so ornery because it means you snuggle with us until you are ready to get up and be happy
-Your ability to always say sorry without being asked
- Your sweet smile
We love you Chasey and are so happy you are part of our family!

MLS Soccer Camp

Austin had his first SOCCER camp this last week. He was a little nervous at first and he begged me to stay. It was so hard to manage Blake and Chase while we were there. After all why couldn't they try to sneak on the field and join in the fun? I got many "bless your heart looks". The second day I talked to Austin all morning about how I wouldn't be staying at his CAMP and he finally agreed. I stayed a little each day anyway :). He had so much fun and by the end of the week he was doing so well and I really saw some IMPROVEMENTS.
They had flown in Major League Soccer players from all over Europe to coach. His coach was "COACH STRETCH"(because he was incredibly tall). Austin thought it was so cool to be from Europe because he thought all of the coaches talked "funny". It was a good lesson in geography and we got our world map place mat out and found Europe (and some other random places that fingers pointed to). Now Austin has added Mate, Gooday, and Rubbish to his vocab. The best is hearing him try to use them!



Austin and Coach Stretch posing for the camera



Chasey posing while we were watching big brother play soccer...
He was such a good sport!



One of the moments Blakey wasn't try to get on the field and into the action!
He loved playing with all of the soccer balls.

The whole team

Grateful Sunday

First off this week I am so grateful for primary songs. They add so much to mine and my children's life. Each night they calm my kids down as they lay in their beds. They help my children understand the gospel better and facilitate the first opportunities for them to feel the spirit. Today I am especially grateful for the spirit they bring into our primary. It was my turn for sharing time today and we decided to do music time and sharing time separate (usually we integrate) in order to perfect some of the primary songs for the program before Summer begins and the children disappear for months. The kids were so extra wiggly during Jr. sharing time and so reverent during singing time. It is amazing how the spirit enters the room immediately after the children start to sing.

I am so grateful for the unconditional love and endless forgiveness that my children offer me. These past couple of days have been hard. I have been a pretty poopy parent. A little too quick to anger and too quick for a lot of things. I am grateful for Chasey's sweet words every time I start to get after him or Austin, without fail he says "I love you momma"as if he already knows, at 2, how to disarm a situation. It almost makes me cry and reminds me how sweet and tender they are. Austin is so forgiving of me and my parenting mistakes. I always go in and apologize when I know I have made a mistake and he is always so willing to forgive and forget. Children are certainly good examples of unconditional love.

I am also grateful today for good friends. I feel like I am surrounded by the best women around. I learn from their example and I am a better person because I know them. I am also so glad I have reconnected with old friends. It has added new dimension to my life. My life is certainly spiced up by the wonderful women in my life here in Texas as well as the women in my online world!

Goals this week:
1- Find 2 people that are quietly living the gospel and are good examples. The two people have to be people I wouldn't normally interact with. Write them a thank you note. Specifically name things I am grateful for about them.
2- Take time to enjoy my children. Sometimes I get so caught up in house chores, primary chores, and scheduled activities I need to remember to just relax and play with my kids. So I may just go ahead and not plan out one day...I'll see what happens.

Detective week...a success!

Well detective week has almost come to a close and I feel like the kids are loving "mommy school". The kids and I have had a lot of fun to say the least (and I haven't heard an "I'm bored" yet!). We introduced the theme on Monday with a fun story and activity and had our FHE on "Secret Service Agents". I gave the kids secret service stars that say "you've been served" on them to leave behind when they give a service to someone in the family. All week the service stars have been found by Chase's bed (which was made by Austin), the picked up toy room (where there were 2 left by Austin and Chase), new diapers lined up in Blake's basket, to name a few. This really was fun and kids used the stars! (I was kind of surprised).
For mommy school we start every morning with the pledge, family prayer and the kids and I memorize a small scripture. Yes even Chase does good with actions to help him remember! We have had so much fun reading detective books, eating cookies and playing "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar", making finger print animals and insects, and making plaster of paris foot prints. The kids had the most fun playing "Blue's clues". A couple of times this week I made some paw prints that we placed around the house and the kids had to find out what activity we were going to do. For example, one time I placed a paw print by our craft closet, one in the play dough bucket with our cutters, rollers, etc., and one on the play dough set. After examining their handy dandy notebook the kids figured out that we were going to play with play dough. Nothing fancy here, but the kids loved it!

Guitar Hero

So I remember Leslie talking about this game when I posted some of our favorite family games. I had no idea what it was then. Since that post our friends got this game and seriously I am addicted. It is hilarious and way fun to play as a group. Even Dave loves to play it! So here's to couples game night...after all isn't there a little ROCK STAR in all of us?



Dave and I getting our Rock Star on!




Our friends Brooks and Jessica Moore got totally into it! Rock
Star garb and all.

Grateful Sunday

I saw this idea on a blog and I loved the idea of sitting down on Sundays and thinking about things I am grateful for. In grad school I was forced to keep a gratitude journal and it was a wonderful experience. Hopefully doing this each Sunday will be just as good!

Things I am grateful for today:
1- I am grateful for my hubby. While this should come as no surprise, I am just grateful for how big of a helper he is. He helps so much with the kids (playing with, disciplining, or calendering for) and never thinks twice before stepping in to do the dishes, help fix dinner, or grab the vacuum from me. I would have never made it as a 1930's house wife...I need my hubby's help WAY too much!
2-I am grateful for my nephews. Marshall, Mark & Ryan are 12,15, & 16. They are not like most teenagers and really are incredible young men. Last night they babysat for us for free while Dave and I went out (they do this quite often). These acts of kindness are not solicited, they called and offered because they love to play with my boys (their cousins). I just am grateful for such great sisters who raised these fine young men to be selfless and caring. Love you guys!
3-I am grateful for ovens. I lived without an over for 3 months a year ago and it was the pits. While my oven is not the best, I am just grateful ours somewhat works. It cooked our yummy Sunday dinner and cooked some homemade cinnamon rolls to munch on as a family.

My kids and I have been making goals for the day during breakfast. They choose their goal and have been really good at trying to keep them. I thought I would add a few goals of my own this week.

Some goals for this next week:
1- Keep up with our mommy school. While time consuming, the kids are happier when they have lots of interaction and fun.
2- Try hard to be more "soft spoken". I usually ask once nice, ask twice not as nice, ask 3 times I usually raise my voice. Use ideas from "The Soft-Spoken Parent" by H. Wallace Goddard.

Happy birthday to you?

Austin and Chase informed me the other night that their pet's birthdays were coming up. So yesterday we celebrated their birthdays. We made cards, ate cookies, and invited the cousins over to run in the sprinklers. Overall I think Ruffus, Crouton, Guitar, and Violin had a great birthday...and most of all they felt loved!





Here is Emily's version of the fun day we had yesterday!