More September Randomness....

I have not been very good at taking pictures or documenting our life this month. Thankfully, September always feels a bit slower around here and maybe that's a good thing. Here are some pictures of a few things that have been going on this month.

We celebrated the first day of fall with our traditional acorn doughnuts.

Adam and Tessa had fun making them and we all had fun eating them!

Oh, this girl! She is like a tornado! She loves playing out in the backyard and especially in the tomato plants.

Adam and Mommy had a photo shoot.

Tessa is little miss social! She has friends over constantly to play! I can't even tell you how many tea parties we have a week. Last week she went to her friend, Elle's birthday party. They went to a photo studio and had a photo shoot. Tessa wore her most glamorous outfit and had a ball with all of her friends!

When she isn't watching her new favorite show, "The Emperor's New Groove" (go figure, I know) we find her hiding with a toy she knows she shouldn't be playing with....

I couldn't get the pictures to rotate. One night for dinner, Gwen insisted on eating only cold cereal and only with a fork. We thought Tessa was stubborn....

Eric and I got to go to the BYU/Utah game with some cousins and had tons of fun-despite the outcome of the game. We still love our Cougars!

We entered into the red zone to go say hi to Jake and Angel. This rivalry goes deep!

A couple of weekends ago, I was lucky to have a break from life and go spend some time at the temple. It fed my soul and lifted my spirits! I am so thankful for this beautiful place!

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Overall, everyone is well and happy. We are on the countdown for school to be over for Eric. He won't be done until June, but we feel like it will be here before we know it! Adam is loving school and reading on a fourth, almost 5th grade level. He plays football constantly right now and you can often find him exploring Mt. Everest on Google Earth. Tessa is doing great at Kindergarten and has been working so hard on writing her name well. Her practice has paid off because her penmanship has improved so much since she started school. She comes home everyday and reports on who was naughty that day and how many new friends she has made. Gwen will finally let us put her hair up without immediately ripping it out. She is growing up so much and doesn't seem like much of a baby anymore. 

We are loving the cooler weather and these kids are getting excited for Halloween. Costume making is underway and we are excited for the holidays to be right around the corner. We are grateful to have each other and to be so blessed!

Primary Talks

Recently, both Adam and Tessa have been asked to give talks in Primary. Tessa gave her 2nd talk on he last Sunday in August and Adam was able to give a talk today. This is his first talk since he was a Sunbeam. He asks me almost every week when he will get another turn and was thrilled that his turn finally came!

I will put their talks in their journals, but Adam asked me if I would put them on the blog as well. Both kids helped write their talks and both had really good ideas of things they wanted to say. Tessa came up with her talk idea all on her own. 

Both of them received many compliments on how well their talks were written and presented. 

Adams Talk-given on September 29, 2013

In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin teaches his people about the importance of serving others. He teaches that serving others is to help others and when we help others, we are really helping Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We have been taught to serve with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. 

We can serve others with all of our hearts by showing love and kindness to others. When I am playing at school, I always invite others to play with me. It makes me feel bad when other kids don't include me in their games, so I try and make my friends feel happy when they ask to play.

We can serve others with our mind by thinking of ways to help other people.

We serve others with our might and strength by working hard. Especially  when we are doing things that are hard for others to do themselves.

I know that when we serve  others, we are really serving Heavenly Father and Jesus. When I serve others, I always feel happy and good inside. 

I hope we can all try to serve others with our heart, might, mind and strength.

Tessa's Talk-given August 25, 2013

I know Heavenly Father loves me because He hears and answers my prayers. Last year, I got to take a dance class. One night before my class, I couldn't find my dance clothes. My mommy and I looked in all of my drawers and all over my room. We couldn't find them anywhere. 

My brother, Adam, reminded us to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help us find my dance clothes. After we said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father for help, my mommy and I had an idea to look inside my backpack. We opened my backpack and there were my dance clothes! (I forgot I had put them in there.)

I know Heavenly Father will help us when  ask Him. I am thankful I can always pray to Heavenly Father. 

Puddle Fun!

The other day we had more rain and as soon as it stopped, I found this little girl outside playing in the puddles. She had a ball!!

September Randomness...

We have spent the past couple of weeks getting back into our school schedule groove. Both Adam and Tessa are loving school and are busy in the afternoons playing with toys and friends. Last week, Tessa had every girl in the neighborhood here playing and Adam spent hours (literally) researching different places in the world in his Encyclopedia and then finding them on Google Earth. Hours, I  tell you!!

When Tessa isn't socializing, you will usually find her doing some sort of art project. She loves to create!

I have been back into the swing of things with menu planning, recipe organizing and catching up on all of our summer pictures. I finally got all of our summer pictures ordered. I think I am keeping Costco's photo center happy (or annoyed) with my orders from the last couple of weeks. I think I ordered over 1500 pictures just for the months of June, July and August. Hey, we had a fun summer! 

It's nice to work on all the projects that I kept putting off all summer long. Hopefully I can get caught up before Christmas-which my children are already counting down the days for. I have raised them well.

Two weeks ago, we had an insane storm blow through during the early evening hours. It lasted about 40 minutes and this is what happened while we watched the rain come pouring down. It was like a hurricane hit and our backyard totally flooded. It was crazy weather! Adam is still talking about it.  

Gwennie the Pooh

Several people have asked how Gwen is dealing with the recent changes at home. With Adam and Tessa both at school in the mornings, Gwen has to stay at home with boring, old Mom. We have tried to make our mornings fun and I tired to capture a few things from the last few mornings. 

 Gwen is usually ready for a snack around 9:30am. She loves to eat while she watches her favorite cartoons, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sofia the First. I will usually take advantage of this half hour to get something done and then I get to clean up whatever mess Gwen has made with her snack. She likes to dump whatever is in her bowls all over the benches. Occasionally, I will cave and put on her absolute favorite movie, "Air Buddies", which we can all quote now. She constantly asks for, "Puppies!!"

 Gwen has fallen in love with her baby dolls. She pushes her favorite doll all over the house in the baby stroller and will snuggle it while we watch her shows or read stories. It's seriously the cutest thing. 

 She loves playing with the Potato Head pieces. 

 We build and knock down block towers. 

 We do puzzles. 

 Gwen's other new favorite thing to play with is cars. It makes me feel like I am playing with baby Adam all over again. 

 She is like her sister and has to stand right in front of the TV. 

 And of course, we read and read and read and read. This little girl loves her books! Her newest favorite is, "Are You My Mother?" We read it at least 4 times before we pick Tessa up from school and at least 6 more times throughout the rest of the day. 

 We've had fun going on walks in the "wee" (that's what she calls the stroller) and riding our bike to go get Tess from school. 

 Running errands with Gwen is less than fun. She will not stay in a cart-at all. So I either end up carrying her through an entire store (and when I'm dragging a shopping cart full of groceries behind me, my arm goes numb after about 20 minutes of that) or she's screaming bloody murder cause she wants to run free. My new favorite is when she yells, "HELP" at the top of her lungs. I've gotten some awesome looks for that one. Occasionally, I bite the bullet (about every 2 weeks) and we venture out for our big shopping trips. I usually end up a sweaty mess by the time we get home from struggling with Gwen the whole time and my purse has been depleted of every snack I have ever packed. But, we always survive. 

 Today was our big Walmart shopping day and Gwen was super excited about her new shoes. 

 We have had a lot of rain this week. Gwen loves to watch the rain. She yells, "rain!!" whenever she hears it falling. She is not a fan of thunder and runs for cover if she hears it. She loves to splash in the rain puddles as soon as the rain stops. She ends up soaking wet, but so happy!

To sum it all up, I think she is surviving without her brother and sister around. Honestly, I think she likes to be able to get into anything she wants-especially Tessa's toys. It's kind of nice having her all to myself without other kids needing my attention. Gwennie loves to snuggle with me, so I take advantage of that and we snuggle a lot-especially when we are reading her books. I am grateful we have this time together and grateful to have such a fun and spunky little girl!