The End of September

This past week has been a busy one for us. Eric was gone most of the week with school stuff, so it was just me and the kids. They all came down with colds by the end of the week, so I have spent the weekend covered in nastiness from their cute, snotty faces. Hopefully we are on the mend! We did get some fun activities in before everyone got sick. 

 Tessa's best bud, Camdyn was here for Mommy school on Thursday. We talked about shapes and made some scarecrow heads out of different shapes. Other Mommy School activities for the week included making own fall leaves (you can see Tessa's tree in the background) and making some fall sun catchers for our windows.

 Little Miss Gwen is into everything! She is so fast now. During Mommy School, she loves to empty Tessa's backpack. 

 On Thursday we had Adam's Parent/Teacher Conference. Mrs. Riley said Adam is doing great and that he is a wonderful student. She said she loves how curious he is about everything and that he is always pushing their discussions further because he wants to know more.

  We had Book Fair this week too! We ran into Clifford while we were there.

 On Friday they opened up the Marriott Center so people could go check out the new floor and new seats. Adam LOVED it!!

 These kids love Jimmer!

 Adam had fun shooting some hoops outside the Marriott Center. He sure is good at this basketball thing:)

 Cute Sisters!

Eric was gone all weekend for school, so we came home Friday night and made a pizza while we cheered our Cougar's on to victory! After seeing the 2nd Hawaii player being taken off the field on a stretcher, Adam turned to me and said, "I think you're right Mom. I better just stick to basketball."

The kids are so excited that tomorrow is the first day of October! We have so many fun things planned for next month.

Alpine Slide

Last Friday we checked Adam out of school a couple of hours early and headed up to Park City to spend the afternoon with Mamma and Bampa. We had so much fun riding the Alpine Slide and enjoying the gorgeous fall colors!

 The first run down...Adam rode with Bampa and Tessa rode with Daddy. Tessa was a little unsure about riding the slide, but she loved it and could have spent the entire day on it.

 The colors were stunning!

 Picture by Tessa

Uncle Alex, Adam and Daddy. 

 Ready to go! The lift ride was so quiet and relaxing. 

 The second trip down Adam rode with Daddy and Tessa went with Mommy.Gwen got to hang out with Mamma and Bampa while we were gone.

We had so much fun!

Thanks Mamma and Bampa for a fun afternoon!

Family Home Evening

We had a fun Family Home Evening last night! Sadly, Daddy had a study group so he missed out on the fun and we missed him. 

This week I have been able to reflect on how grateful I am for the temple. Eric and I were able to attend the Brigham City Temple Dedication on Sunday and it was such a beautiful meeting and a wonderful reminder of how important and special these beautiful buildings are. I want my children to grow up with a love for the temple as I did, and count down the years until they are able to enter their Heavenly Father's house. I remember being so excited to turn 12 just so I could go to the temple. I want them to feel the same way. I also want them to grow up with a realization of how truly blessed we are to live close to so many temples. As I taught the kids about temples last night and explained how most members of the church have to travel far distances to attend the temple, Adam was surprised by that. I never want my kids to take living here in Utah for granted. When I was growing up, I always felt that people in Utah were so lucky to live so close to the prophet and temples and so much church history. I want my kids to understand how truly lucky they are!

So, last night we talked about temples. Why we have them, who they belong to, and some of the things that go on inside. We talked about the blessing of being a forever family. Those discussions always make me so very grateful that my family is eternal and that Eric and I were worthy for that blessing.

We went for a drive down to Payson to see the progress on our temple. We cannot wait for this temple to be complete and are a little bummed it will be 3 more years. Adam will be able to attend this temple dedication with us. Kind of crazy to think of him being that old! There is still a long ways to go, but we were excited to see what they have done since the last time we saw it.

 We came home and had some fun constructing our own temples out of marshmallows. Adam and Tessa had a blast and they were pretty creative. They decided to use a piece of rotini pasta (whole wheat-it looked more golden) as their Angel Moroni's. 

Another fun Family Home Evening!

Happy Fall!!

We love this time of year and are so glad the weather is finally cooling down a little bit! It has been so hot!

Tessa had a fun week at Mommy School. This week we talked about our bodies and being healthy.

She put together a skeleton puzzle that was just about Tessa size.

 We learned about the letter B.

 Tess loves story telling and so I have been making props for the books we read during Mommy School. This week we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

 We talked about healthy food and unhealthy food. Sadly, I don't think that will make a difference in her diet. 

 Adam is finally riding his bike! He loves going over the the church parking lot and riding free. He was having such a hard time on our little sidewalk and kept telling us he would just learn how to do it when he was 12. We told him that wasn't an option! One day a couple of weeks ago, Eric took him over to the church parking lot and he literally took off and started riding without any problems! He does really well.... until his chain falls off.

 Tess just loves running next to Adam. 

 Charming.

 Tessa loves riding her "trusty red tricycle", as she calls it. 

 Autumn mean Oktoberfest! This year we kept it low key and went to Ma and Pa's house for Pa's yummy German food! We had lots of fun eating and visiting and playing some German games.

On Saturday, to celebrate the first day of fall, we made our favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Bring on the yummy recipes! I love cooking this time of year and am glad that I have such good kitchen helpers!