Visiting the Payson Temple

Last Tuesday, we had the special opportunity to go to the Payson Temple Open House. We have been so excited for our temple to be finished. The kids have been especially excited to go inside of it. We had a lovely evening together walking through the beautiful temple. The girls loved all the sparkly lights and Adam loved the Celestial Room. We got to take a minute in the Celestial Room, and I looked over at Adam and saw that he had tears rolling down his cheeks. I asked him if he was ok and he said that he felt really happy because he could feel the Holy Ghost so strongly. 

Eric and I have been talking lately about what things in our life our truly important. It is easy for us to get frustrated that we don't have a lot of money. By the worlds standards, we live a very meager lifestyle. We don't own anything, we don't travel or buy anything expensive...when we buy anything at all. But, on the flip side, the things we value the most don't cost money. We have a beautiful, healthy family, our kids are receiving an amazing education and most of all, we have the gospel and our testimonies. We wouldn't trade any of those things for money or fancy things. It can be easy to lose this perspective, but as we walked though the temple with our children, I was filled with such gratitude for our Savior and the gospel. Knowing that my family can be together forever is the greatest gift I have been given. 

Meeting Gia

Last week, we were so excited to welcome sweet baby Gia to our family! Matt and Gillian are so glad to finally have her here and so are we! Mommy got to go see her in the hospital and the kids got to go meet her once she got home. We are so thankful that Gia made it here safely and that Gillian was watched over and was ok during labor and delivery. 

Everyone was amazed at how tiny she is and how much hair she has!

 Gwen has been so excited about Gia being born. Mainly because Gwen is convinced that she has a baby in her tummy named, Gia.

 It's hard getting 5 kids in a picture.

 Caleb wasn't really sure what to think. We all think he looks huge next to a 6 pound baby!

Adam's Track Meet

Last week Adam got to participate in the Hershey Track Meet. It was fun for him and a long day for the rest of us! Thankfully, Gwen and Caleb did really well for the first 4 hours. We had to keep ourselves entertained in between races, so we took lots of selfies. 

Adam ran the 100 meter race and came in 3rd place. 

 He also participated in the soft ball throw.

These little ones were so good while we had long waits between races and not a whole lot to do.

Adam didn't make it into any more races, but he loved being out on the track and hanging out with his friends. They kept themselves entertained by throwing empty water bottles under the bleachers. Boys....

Star Wars Day-May the 4th Be With You

We didn't go crazy for Star Wars Day this year, but we did have a bit of fun with it. We had Leia Rolls for breakfast. 

We had a fun Star Wars dinner and then for FHE watched The Empire Strikes Back. 

For dinner we had, Han-bugers, Yoda soda, Boba fruit, Thermal detonators, Vader veggies, Leia Lays, Vader Taders, Edible Ewoks and Padowan Popcorn. It was a fun dinner!

Speech Festival

 At the end of April, Adam and Tessa both participated in their class Speech Contests, and they both won! Mommy didn't even know about it and they both recited poems for their classes. I guess their classes voted on who was best and both of them won. We were so proud of them for doing so well and for having the confidence to recite a poem in front of their classmates. 

All the winners from each class then went on to compete against each other at a school wide Speech Festival. Mommy got to go hear both of them recite their poems in front of the whole school and all the parents. They each did a great job and got ribbons for being finalists. 

Mother's Day 2015

We had a nice Mother's Day yesterday. Mommy got to sleep in a little bit and Daddy and Adam made pancake for breakfast. We went to church and then spent a lovely evening with our Nielson family.

As exhausted as I am and as much as I feel like I am doing a lousy job, I am so grateful for these 4 amazing kids who made me a mother. I am also so grateful for my own mother and mother in-law who have been such influential women in my life and who have helped me become the woman and mother that I am today.

 Tessa made me this beautiful picture for Mother's Day. She was so proud of her hard work and I appreciated her thoughtfulness!

The Dino Dash

This weekend we loaded up the whole crew and headed out to Vernal for the Dino Half.

It's a 1/2 marathon for adults or 1/2 mile for kids. We opted for the 1/2 mile run.

 Stretching before the race.

(Really just a diversion to keep them busy until the race started)

 Tessa led the stretches and showed Adam stretches from her gymnastic classes.

 Adam was one of the first kids to cross the finish line.

 

 Crossing the finish line with Tessa Boo. She insisted she finished in 17th place.

Proudly showing off their medals for finishing the race.

  After the race we went to see Dinosaur bones in Vernal and at Dinosaur National Monument.

Our first stop was the Dinosaur Museum.

 Daddy took the older 3 kids around the museum while Mommy hung out in the lobby feeding Caleb.

 Posing with petroglyphs

 LOOK OUT TESSA!

"Digging" for fossils.  Gwen loved it so much we had to practically

tear her away to go to the next exhibit

 

 Gwen was not a fan of the big dinosaurs and kept running away from them.

 Gwen welcoming us to Dinosaur National Monument

 This is called the "Wall of Bones".  It is an old dinosaur fossil quarry.  The entire wall is filled with bones from different dinosaurs.  There was hardly any space without a dinosaur bone

 Even though the bones are all together the dinosaurs didn't die in the same spot or at the same time. The Park Ranger told us that there are so many bones in one spot because there was a river that carried all the bones downstream where they eventually were buried and fossilized.

 Adam and Tess leaning against a Camarasaurus femur bone

 Our happy boy was happy the entire trip!  This was his first big road trip and he did awesome.

 We took a shuttle to and from the quarry. 

Gwennie thought it was a fun way to ride; no doors or seatbelts

 This rock formation looks like stegosaurus.  The oval shaped rock at the bottom of the hill is the head and the rocks jutting upward are like the stegosaurus plates along the back.

 

 

 

 

 Gwen wasn't too impressed with the fossils.  She spent most of the time picking pebbles and shoving them into every crack and crevice she could find.

It was a fun little weekend trip. It's been long time since we got away from home. It was fun to watch the kids race and see the amazement on their faces with all the cool dinosaurs that we saw. We will definitely be going back to Vernal to see more!