My calling in our ward is Primary Chorister! It is the best calling in the world! To make it even better, I have a partner! We alternate weeks and teach together. It is perfect! DeDe started this one week, and I finished it the next 2 weeks. We used a fishing theme - you know, like being Fishers of Men, and how many of the stories of Jesus involved water... So we used that as our spring board! We tried to get each of our 9 songs up to "blow me out of the water!" By that week before our program, they had all them up there! Both Jr and Sr primary! More on Primary fun a little later!
Our peach harvest this year was CRAZY!!! I think we probably got a whole box of peaches off our two trees combined! WOOT! Peaches are my favorite, so this was quite exciting! I ate peach oatmeal, peaches with my Cheerios, peaches on my toast, and plain peaches all month long! I also made a yummy peach crisp.
Just a fun pic of Bells from her Class DoJo.
This was a game up at Alta. It had been pretty stormy the night before and the morning of, so the field was soaked and muddy! Look at all those socks!
I loved this picture - the other team player tapped the ball into our goal!
Here's Kaley doing what she does best! Just hustling!
Bella got braces last week! She was really excited to start on her smile. She doesn't like how her front top teeth stick out, so she's ready to fix it! They were pretty sore for the first few days, but she is back to eating mostly normal now!
Thomas brought home his cello to practice last weekend. He sounded so good and still really enjoys orchestra at school. Funny story though: he DID remember to take it with him Monday morning to the bus, but he FORGOT to get it off the bus once he got to school! He FORGOT to get it on his way home that day as well! Lucky for him, it was still there the next day for him to grab on his way off the bus once he got to school.
Jace and Soph won BYU football tickets at the Cosmo in the Park event in SF a couple months ago! It was finally the day to go! We had 4 tickets, and then the day of, were given 4 more! So we all went! It was a nice hot day, and even though we lost, it was still a fun game!
Last Saturday, we had our Primary Program practice. It was so fun! We stuck with our fishing theme and I had Kaley hold up a giant fish in the back. It would swim higher or lower, depending on how loud the kids were singing. This year, we only could have a 25 minute program. That meant there was not enough time for each child to have a part. We felt inspired to have one child bear a short testimony before each song. It worked out perfectly! The sweet testimonies were awesome! We couldn't have written them better ourselves!
DeDe and I put on a "fishing gear item" after each song during the practice to keep the kids watching us. By the end, we were wrapped up in a "fishing" aka badminton net! We looked ridiculous, but oh, those kids were singing SO well!!! We led with our fishing rods and fishing nets - anything to keep those kids into it and watching us!
Oh those fishing waders did NOTHING for my figure! ;)
Our program really lasted 25 minutes, and we ended right on time! One miracle was our closing hymn. Our organist was not apprised of what the plan was for the closing hymn, but she joined in anyway. She is a wonderfully talented older woman and I had no doubt that she would make it work. But, our version had a small interlude before the 4th verse of the hymn, and after that a descant part that I had taught a group of 10 kids. I was sweating bullets that it would all work out! SOMEHOW, (and I really know it was the Spirit!) she paused during the interlude, and then joined at the perfect spot in the 4th verse. It was powerful! I have never sung I Know That My Redeemer Lives, more than I did that day. It was overwhelming.
After the program, the kids had popcorn and cookies and tried to watch a movie - we ended up winging a singing activity though because they were a little crazy! What did we expect with 150 kids?!
Kaley needed a picture for her Student Council wall.
This week I did the Autumnal Equinox party with the 6th graders. See Bells in the middle?
This is a picture of one of the MANY emails/phone calls Thomas has done for his Eagle Project. Man! This whole earning an Eagle business is not for the weak! He has been turned down a few times now, and we have had some disappointment. Hopefully this next one we are waiting to hear from will be the one that sticks! His goal is to earn it before the end of the year.
Cute Kaley at more soccer!
I got my new badge at work this week!
Sophie and Bella's soccer team played Caeden and Maddi's team! They ended up with a tie! Soph scored that goal to tie it!
Thomas took a spill on his bike this week. His front tire just fell off, resulting in a large pebble imbedded in his elbow, and a broken bone scare. It was not broken - just bruised, but he was in a lot of pain that afternoon.
See the tire wedged between the fork of the bike and the pedals? I don't even know how these things happen!
Thomas went on a campout this weekend to the Sand Dunes. They stopped in Eureka at the mine on their way home. T found a dead squirrel - which he is holding on a stick. Then he told me he dropped it down the mine. Ew.
Thomas has saved his money all Summer for an Apple Watch! Yesterday, he finally had enough to go get one! We went to Best Buy and he bought it. He has had fun setting it up and playing with all the features. Of all the kids, he likes the gadgets the most! He loves Apple products, and is always up to date on the latest software and Apple gear.
Last night was also Family Fun Night! After Best Buy, we ate dinner at Costco - my favorite pizza place - and watched them make the pizza! We haven't been to the Orem Costco in a long time! They have a window where you can watch the pizza being made. It was fascinating!
We walked around Sam's Club after that just for fun - and bought a dozen Dunford Chocolate Donuts. Then we went home and watched the new Aladdin movie. I loved it! It seems like our Family Fun Nights have been a little sparse - or just at the soccer fields, so this was a nice change of pace!
At church today, we attended a worldwide meeting detailed what the new Youth program will look like! It sounds great, and we are looking forward to setting goals as individuals and as a family to bring us closer to Christ. I think my favorite part was the 4 minutes they gave us to talk to our kids and help them write down a few goals. Jace's surprised me - when I explained what Intellectual meant, he told me that he wanted to learn a new language. What a great thing! I'm excited to see him achieve big things through these goals that he will set!
We are heading up to Grandma Del's house today to visit her. She had knee surgery this past week. After that we'll go to Carter's birthday dinner at Drew's house. Sunday's like this feel meaningful. Visiting with family, and spending time thinking about the things we want to accomplish.
Now that I am all caught up on the blog, the goal is to keep it up! I hope to blog here and there the things that are just happening daily, or weekly as they happen! It will make it feel more like a journal, so I hope you enjoy the raw ride!
