Called to Serve

My little brother Jon and and my little sister Jess both got their mission calls. They were expecting them Wednesday and they didn't come, then they were hoping for Thursday and Jon's Came YEAH. He is going to the MELBOURNE WEST AUSTRALIA mission. He enters the Provo MTC on December 31, 2008. Pretty awesome and we are super excited for him. I think they must have had quite the time getting everyone that didn't live there on someone's cell phone so that we could all hear. It was pretty cool to hear him read his call. We love you Jon! I think I see a trip down under in about 2 years, no?

Well I imagine Jess was pretty bummed hers didn't come and they were thinking they would have to wait until next week but they were surpised when her call came on friday. She is going to the England London Mission on December 12, 2008. She will go directly to the Preston England Mission training center. AWESOME!! I wouldn't mind a trip to London either.... They did the whole shabang again...calling everyone who wasn't there and having everyone on speaker phone. How exciting.

Well those are pretty much 2 of the coolest mission calls ever. I am so excited for both of them, they will be the best missionaries!

Shellrock and Ironstone

Eric really wanted to go on a hike so he looked through his book about hikes and chose this one and he and our older kids set out for an adventure. Eric is such a cute Dad!! I think they had a good time even if they did get a little tired.

Let's get rolling

August 25, 2008

Meg learned how to roll over!

That's my girl...she rolls all over the place. She is such a fun baby and even though she is not sleeping well at night anymore, I love having her around. We all think that she is adorable. The kids love to make her laugh and I have yet to figure out how they do it. She loves to smile at almost anybody but saves her cute little laugh for her older brothers and sister.

Back to School

This summer just flew by. I can't believe it is that time of year again. Gabe started third grade. Isaac is in second with the same teacher Gabe had, and my little Emma is starting Kindergarten this year...YIKES. It is all day. (my first experience with all day kindergarten, but I think she will be just fine.)

Monday we did our best to get all ready. We went to the school open house and dropped off the supplies for Gabe, and Isaac. They found their desks and put every thing away. We got their back packs ready and had our special family home evening, talking about school and sticking up for each other because mom and dad won't be there to help. Eric gave them each a father's blessing and we sent them to bed...but even the best laid plans can run into a little obstacle.

Tuesday morning about an hour before school started Gabe was trying to straighten his glasses and got a little too carried away.

This was pretty upsetting and Gabe didn't want to go to school but after Eric and I talked to him, he decided that even though something bad happened he could still have a good first day of school, I promised to send a note to the teacher explaining that he wouldn't be able to see very well because his glasses broke. He seemed OK with that. FYI-if your kids are in glasses Shopko is the BEST...they have a warranty for one year from when you get them. I called Shopko and they replaced the frames in about 5 min. with no problem, no money, great service. We will probably be lifelong customers of the Shopko eye center.

GABE

Gabe putting up with me being a little camera happy...what a good sport. Before we left for school I asked the boys if they wanted me to walk them in. Gabe said "no, I am not cool with that." Such a tough guy. As we were pulling in the parking lot I asked again if he wanted me to walk them in. He still said no. As I was opening the door to let them out of the car to walk them across the crosswalk he said "actually could you walk me in." Yes, he still needs me. It melted my heart and I was very happy to walk him in.

ISAAC

Isaac sporting his new Lego Star Wars T-shirt. Does it get any better then Legos and Star Wars on the same shirt? I don't think so. I thought about trying to get him to wear something else for the first day but figured I wouldn't get very far.

EMMA

Emma's first day was actually today, 1 day after the boys started. I took Emma to get some new school clothes and this was her favorite shirt. My little flower child! I think the clincher was the rainbow on her left sleeve.

Emma putting away her stuff. I can't believe she is in Kindergarten. She had to find her cubby number when she got there and then hang up her back pack on that same #hook. Then she needed to sign her name on the roll sheet.

I thought her little signature was about the cutest thing ever. Hope you have a good day at school today Emma!!

Since everyone was getting their pictures taken...This is our first day home with out older brothers and sisters.

ELIJAH

MEG

Meg Elizabeth...finally it's official!

Eric and I have been trying all summer long to figure out a time to bless our little Meg. We thought about doing it in July at my family reunion but it felt a little rushed and we decided we better wait. We thought about doing it at Eric's family reunion in McCall, but that didn't work out either. Finally about a week and a half ago we decided to use our Delta miles before it was too late and fly out to Salt Lake for one last hurrah before school starts.

We left really early Friday morning. When we got to Salt Lake Eric went to the last day of education week (where both our parents were spending the day). I ran a few errands and shopped for school clothes for the kids. Saturday we hung out at my parents house and played games with Jamie, Jess, Josh, Amber, and my parents. We went on a date with the adults on Saturday night, out to eat at Lone Star and then we went miniature golfing it was fun. Sunday we went to church at my parents ward. Afterward we got ready for the blessing at 4pm. We invited everyone to stay for dinner.

For the program we sang Families can be Together forever than Eric's Dad gave the opening prayer. Eric invited all those that could be in the circle up and gave Meg a name and a blessing. I always love to hear Eric give our children blessings. We had a short testimony meeting (Me, Eric, and our parents) and then closed with I am a Child of God and my Dad gave the closing prayer. It was perfect. We are so blessed to have such a sweet little girl in our family. And I am so thankful we were able to come to Utah (even though it was a short stay and last minute) so that we could have so much of our family there to share our special day with us.

This is everyone who came from Eric's side...we didn't get a shot of my side of the family.

Men in the circle: Austin, David-Eric's dad, Kelly, Josh C., Grandpa Carl, Josh F. Jack-my dad, Jon, Eric, and Brian)

We packed as quickly as we could and left for the Airport at 7:30 pm. It was a short trip, but it was worth it.

Gabe's Bowling Birthday Bash

Gabe decided that he wanted to have a bowling birthday party. I was happy to oblige since his second choice was a mad scientist party at our house. That would have require far too much Brian power. We had this scheduled for Thursday (today) but had a scheduling glitch so I had to call all the people we mailed invitations too and reschedule for Mon. the 18th.

Here was the invite, (a little cheesy)
I made t-shirts for everyone that had their name and small bowling pins on the front, and the same bowling pins only bigger and Gabe Birthday Bowlers on the back. The kids were pretty excited about the shirts. They each got a goody bag and that was it. Super easy!

It was really easy and the stress free the kids had a good time and most importantly Gabe was happy with it.

We were hoping to get a few more friends from school to come but most of the people were from church. Summer is hard with traveling and such.

Attendees: Kai, Preston, Kaleb, Jaxon, Ryan, Savannah, Caleb and Adam (Caleb's cousin) and of course Gabe, Isaac and Emma.

Happy Birthday Gabe!!

1 year old

4 years old

5 years old

5 years old

6 years old

Almost 7 years old 7 years old
8 years old
8 years old
9years old (in a couple weeks)
9 years old!!
Today my little Gabe turned 9. Has it really been that long? 9 years! I guess he isn't so little. How do I describe sweet Gabe...he loves being able to be the one in charge. He is a great helper, usually the first one to have his jobs done. He is just like Eric, always looking forward to the next big trip. He is an even better helper when we are getting packed up. Gabe tries hard to choose the right and likes to know that he is doing a good job.

It is Gabe's birthday but it is also my 9th anniversary being a mother. Gabe has done his best to make those nine years relatively easy on me. He is such a great kid, the perfect first child. I am so glad I was chosen to be his mom!!

I love you Gabe!

Partners in Crime

Meg made sure we were up half the night and Elijah made sure we got up far too early....

A few hours later when their job was done

Meg, up until a couple days before our trip, would sleep usually 8 hours at night. Sometimes she would even sleep 10 hours. Right before our trip to McCall she woke up 2 nights in a row at 11-12...not a good sign. The trip didn't help much with her sleep schedule and she is waking up a ton. Last night not only did she wake up a ton but she decided sleep was over-rated and let us know it.

Elijah never wakes up any more but 2 nights ago he woke up 2 times and then woke up crying at 6am. He didn't wake up in the night last night (Meg took care of that), but he did wake us up before dawn this morning and after a long night neither of us wanted to get out of bed. I think our little bug is sick though, he had a fever today.

Home Grown

WE HAVE A GARDEN!!

taken 7/22

this picture was taken the first time we harvested anything from our garden

taken 8/9

this picture was taken the day after we got back from McCall...always fun to come home after a week long trip to see how much progress the garden has made

This summer has been fun watching our garden grow and eating our very first Garden Veggies!

Right now I am convinced that few things in life are as gratifying as eating food from my own garden. Maybe the novelty will wear off once we are old hat at this...but this is the first time in my adult life that I have had a garden and it is so fun! We planted corn, sunflowers, peas, beans, yellow squash, zucchini, pumpkins, spaghetti squash, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, cucumbers and watermelon. I think that is all. I thought it was quite ambitious since we haven't really been into gardening.

Our First Harvest

7/22/2008

I sent the kids out for a cucumber for a salad and they came back with a zucchini, (Like I said, we are new at this)

Here are the kids and our neighbor, Holly, showing off the first harvest. I included the flowers in the picture because, you guessed it, they are from our back yard as well.

We recently had a ward activity that I found out about last minute and I had to bring a side. We had 2 big zucchinis in the garden so I cut them up and put olive oil, Parmesan cheese and seasoning on and put it in the oven for 15-20 min. I kind of wished there was a way to show off that the zucchini was from my garden. I almost made a little note card...just kidding. Martha Stewart eat your heart out.

We brought a bunch of cucumbers to McCall with us along with some spaghetti squash. We have one plant of cucumbers and it is producing like crazy. We brought 6 cucumbers with us to McCall and we got home a week later there are at least 7 more ready to pick.