Mascot Bowl

Our family loves the Mascot Bowl. It is fun to sit with friends and come together as a community to watch the Mascots from all over take on the 8th grade football team.

Incredible

If I had to describe the Women's Broadcast in one word it would be incredible. I loved each and every speaker. Sister Beck is amazing and I love her. She has a conquer the world attitude that is contagious. She makes you proud to be a woman and to be a part of Relief Society. She says we haven't even begun to accomplish the things we can do with Relief Society. I felt Sister Beck's love for me and for all of us.

President Uchtdorf talked about how many of us feel inadequate and seem to always fall short. I felt like he was talking straight to me. I felt the spirit so strong as he shared the message that I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and that he cares about me personally and the trials I am going through.

President Uchtdorf also talked alot about service and how service to others brings us blessings, and the biggest blessing can be that we recognize that others might have it worse than us. He said that many times we are the answer to another's prayer. He called it an instrument in God's hands and that many prayers are answered this way. I want to be the answer to someone's prayer. I know many people have been answers to my prayers.

I left the meeting excited and extremely motivated to do better and be better. I can only hope that the feeling will last.

Cornbelly's

Kevin has never looked so small!


"Cornbelly's Rocks"

Intense Duck Race


Zach imitating Napoleon Dynamite with his Tetherball skills


Friends we saw along the way


Enjoying the Hayride together


Victory at the end of the Maze we did both Phase 1 and Phase 2.


Lexie and Kelcy doing the "girlie" thing

We sure got our "$.93" worth. The deal is going on for the rest of today. Cornbelly's for $.93 from K-bull 93 if your interested you need to go and print a coupon for each member of your family. It was well worth it!

Learning to Work

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I have been thinking about how I grew up and learned to work and how I am teaching my kids to work. My parents have a large garden not a small backyard garden a large garden. It produces a large amount of food. We have always had a large garden. The year I was born my grandfather passed away on my fathers side. As a result my dad inherited alot of responsibility. My grandma has a large lot and always grew a huge garden. We lived only one mile away and my dad took care of the garden with her. As I look back now I think it was his way of checking on my grandma and always being there for her. A garden takes a lot of time. Several nights a week we went to grandmas, and as a child we knew that going to grandmas meant we were going to be put to work. I remember clearing the garden of rocks. I had to fill many five gallon buckets of rocks before we would leave that night. I was younger than Lexie is now. I used to plant the seeds and drag the hose to water our newly planted seeds. I learned to weed and to pick the beans, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, dig potatoes, etc. I would spend hours with my grandma snapping beans as my dad finished his work. As a result of my childhood somehow in the middle of it all I learned to work and I learned a lot about service. During all this work we had a lot of fun. We would play in the irrigation water and ditches for hours. We spent a lot of time as a family. I had a special relationship with my grandma that the other cousins or even my brothers did not have.

Anyway that was a long introduction but this past weekend my mom invited me to come down and I could have the next picking of beans, because she had already canned 75 pints this year alone. I was excited to show my kids a taste of how I grew up and let them experience for the first time how to pick, and snap beans. I took Zach and Lexie with me, Carson had his first football game on Saturday morning so I left him with Kevin. Zach, Lexie, and I along with grandma and grandpa picked the beans the minute we arrived on Friday night before it was dark. The beans had really slowed down due to the cooler weather. I was glad that it was not a ton, because I really wanted Zach and Lexie to stay interested and finish picking all the beans. They did such a good job. We picked and snapped enough beans to fill nine pints. My mom and I stayed up and canned the beans that night.

The next day my mom and I canned 12 pints of tomatoes for me and 14 quarts of tomatoes for her all from her garden. I grew up canning but now as an adult never felt confident to do it on my own. I shared this with my mom and she was explaining and teaching me through the whole process.

Zach spent hours shooting a bb gun. Grandpa always the worker stained their log home and was covering it with a clear coat. Grandpa still found time to take the kids on a long ride on the four wheeler up the canyon. I love my parents and I love that I learned to work to really work, and the accomplishment I feel from a job well done. Among the work this weekend at my parents we all had a great time.

Now as a parent I worry that I don't have kids who will grow up to be adults who know how to work. I have a son that holds a wash cloth between one finger and his thumb to do the dishes. How did this happen? I give my kids chores, they clean their own rooms, I don't even give allowance, I expect it. They can't play with others until their jobs are done. Yet, I don't feel like they get it. I realized lately that I need to raise the bar and expectation level. I know my kids are able to work, and to do a good job, not just the bare minimum to get mom off their back.

I did not realize that a garden helped instill all these habits in me. I know my kids are missing out. I do not know all the answers, but things are going to change around here. I owe this to my kids and to future employers to raise kids that know how to work. I also think service is a huge thing that I need to instill in my children to see a need and not have to be asked to serve but want to serve. I will keep you posted on our changes and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Brace Face

The day has arrived that Zach needed to get braces. So Zach will be sporting the Brace Face for next 12 to 18 months. Any secrets I should know about to help him the next couple of days or foods I should buy would be greatly appreciated.

A Pool Thing

We went to the outdoor pool for the last time this season. My baby girl decided she was big enough to jump off the diving board. I was so proud of her and she not only did she jump off of it, she did it over and over again. She was so glad to be a part of something the boys could do.

Carson's Birthday

All Carson wanted to do for his birthday was the arcade at Boondocks. I love that Carson is so easy to please and we were all willing to accomodate. I talked to Zach and Lexie about giving all their tickets to Carson so he could have his choice at the prizes. When it was Carson's turn to redeem his tickets he bought Lexie and Zach something first and then picked out his prize. If he would not have had enough tickets to buy what he wanted he would not have changed a thing. He is always thinking of others first.

My parents came by our house on Saturday evening to celebrate Carson's birthday. My parents had spent the day at a mountain man rendevous and knew that Carson had been asking for his OWN fishing pole. Because my parents had been at the rendevous all day I am sure a light bulb went off in my dad's head that it would be fun to give Carson an old-fashioned fishing pole. He had made Carson a fishing pole from a thin tree branch and attached a piece of jute to it with a large safety pin for the hook. When Carson received the homemade fishing pole he kind of smiled and I know he was thinking "okay, funny but where is my real present" he played along as Grandpa attached a gummy worm that had been on his birthday cake and they threw the line over our railing into the family room. Carson would catch whatever anyone attached to the pole (stuffed animals, coloring pages, etc) and hand reel it in. After he caught a few things Grandpa attached the real fishing pole to the safety pin and yanked on the line to indicate Carson had caught something.
After a few minutes we noticed that he and Lexie were back to playing with the homemade pole again. My dad laughed and laughed that the gag gift actually was a better gift in the end.