Oh the Places You'll Stand-YW

Last week we had our Young Women in Excellence. It was a lovely night where the girls shared where they had Stood in Holy Places this year.

Our school district has an AV center where you can use their die-cuts. Karen and I went one afternoon and we (mostly she!) cut out the letters and then the girls decorated and traced for a mutual night.

Then everyone was asked to share a special thought, experience, where they have seen that girl stand in a holy place. It was awesome!!

Karen also used my cake-pop maker and made these fabulous cakepops! I LOVE the color and it was a neater (cleaner) way to eat cupcakes!!

Each YW also went home with their own copy of "Oh the Places You'll Go" and a fun pair of socks to help the remember to Stand in Holy Places!

A marathon weekend...

This weekend we packed up and headed to St George so that N8 could run his 3rd marathon!!

We left about 9am on Friday and loaded into the Rav. A tight squeeze but a savings on gas mileage!

We got N8's packet and checked into our hotel (a huge step up from last years hotel) and headed to an all you can eat pasta bar so that N8 could carbload!

In the parking lot they had a phone booth. The kids didn't know what one was!!

N8 caught a shuttle to the drop off at 3:45am!! and the kids and I headed over at about 9am ready to cheer him in!!

We were SUPER excited when we saw him!

3:12:33, a personal record!!

And an ice cream sandwich to make it worth it!

After he got cleaned up we needed to refill all the calories he had burned!

This was my meal, a huge sandwich!

N8's cousin Kara lives in St George so after lunch we met up at a park so the kids could burn off some energy and we could visit!!

Then a Costco run and N8 and the boys stayed at the hotel, caught Priesthood session via the internet while Emma and I shopped and grabbed dinner from Durangos (yummy and cheap!).

N8 got a free Yogertland coupon for running so we headed there with a TON of other people. Well worth it!

We downloaded Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon sessions of conference and listened live and what we downloaded the entire drive home. I think we missed 1/2 of one of the sessions, but otherwise I think we got it all.

My favorite thoughts:

• attend all 3 hours of church
• missionary work, don't be afraid to ask
• Teaching youth the gospel, be prepared
• Parents should know the lessons their children are being taught.
• There's more, but that's it for now!

He's 11!!!

It's hard for me to fathom that Benjamin is 11!! Today he left for school at 6:45am, will attend Cross Country Club for the first time and go to his first night of 11 year scouts!!

11 years ago N8 and I were just beginning this journey as parents. Now he is thriving in school, he just finished reading the Book of Mormon for the first time and just as great as ever!!

We love you Bud!!

He has sure grown from his 1st birthday!!

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!!

This past Thursday I had volunteered to go into Mo's kindergarten class to help make applesauce for Johnny Appleseed day. I arrived (a little later than most parents because I had to drop off Henry at Preschool) and there were at least a dozen parents already there helping.

So, I headed over to Emma's class where they were suppose to be making caramel apples and needed help. I persuaded a friend to come and help too!

We unwrapped A LOT of caramels and dipped about 30 apples.

Will it blend?

N8 spoiled me for my birthday and got me a BlendTec blender! We've been having fun trying different smoothies and today I made almond butter!

 Will it blend?

Yes it will! It was vanilla yogurt, juice, frozen banana, frozen grapes, frozen blackberry and frozen blueberry!

I'm really liking smoothies with a little oatmeal in them for breakfast, yum!

Beyblades Party

I was selected to host a Beyblades party through HouseParty. To day that Bud, Mo and Henry were excited would be an understatement! I did not let them open anything before the party date (which was yesterday 9/20).

We invited a bunch of boys and I knew we would have 8 at the party. The only problem was that HouseParty sent me 6 Bayblades. So I purchased a set of Beyblade tops using one of the $5 off coupons they sent me.

Then I numbered everything and we did a drawing to see which Bayblade each boy won, plus one boy won the stadium.

They all really enjoyed using the Beyblades. It took some figuring out and some coordination.

We did have one injury.

It was a mixed bag on those that liked the cartoon. All in all they had a fun time getting together!

A wonderful weekend full of wonderful work with wonderful people!

At 1pm on Friday afternoon I picked up Megan and Shar and we started our trek down to Los Angeles. We made excellent time, about 2 1/2 hours and got checked into our room at the LA Temple apartments. We tried to get cooled down, the humidity was melting all of us.

Then we headed over to the temple to have temple cards printed, speak with the baptistery and do a session. As we left Rachel made it up from Vista to join us.

It was our Survivor Trip Reunion!! When we made it back to the room it was time to figure out where to eat for dinner. Apparently, I am a very picky eater. Sorry to the other ladies if I squelched your desires for something else, but Rachel found an awesome Italian place not too far away.

I ordered Gnocchi with a creamy pesto sauce. It was amazing!! I had never had gnocchi before.

Megan had a pasta with meatballs, Shar also had gnocchi and Rachel had crab cakes. At the end of the meal one of the owners brought out a complimentary dessert-tiramisu! We don't drink coffee and had to turn it down, it looked so yummy and we felt really bad, but it was what we had to do.

In the morning we got up and ready and went over to the clothing distribution for Rachel to get a new dress. We waited outside and got this lovely shot of Megan!

Then we headed back to the temple doing more work and running into many people from Ridgecrest! We were in the temple from about 9am until about 2pm.

As we left we finally got a shot of all four of us!

One of the reasons for going this weekend was that our Relief Society had arranged for it to be a RS temple trip. Here is part of the crew that drove down on Saturday morning!

Then it was time to check out (and leave my pillow, grrr)

and head over to Fat Burger for some lunch!

We said our goodbyes that will hopefully not be as long and drove on up to Costco, Sonic and home!

I am grateful to Megan for planning and putting this together and for friends that I can have fun with and be uplifted by. 

Wonderful!