Happy Halloween:)

These are our Halloween ghouls! We had a fun time this year. We headed to the mall early enough to be there when they started handing out candy. Then we went to the ward trunk-or-treat. Then we went around to different houses in the neighborhood. I think that's the most trick-or-treating we have done yet!! Marissa was a bride, Dani was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Allee was Rosette a fairy from Tinker Bell, and Max was Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. They barely even stopped for dinner, we grabbed a couple of Hot-N-Ready pizza's from Little Caesar's on our way to the ward house after the mall. What a fun busy night!

Beauty is...

Marissa and Danielle entered their schools Reflection program. Marissa has loved doing these artistic creations every year since she was in Kindergarten. This year Dani had a chance to enter now that she's in Kindergarten, too. They both did entries under several categories to the theme "Beauty is..." Marissa did a picture for visual arts, a pillow for 3D art, a puppet show for theatre, and took a picture of some fall leaves for photography. Dani also entered a painting in visual arts, 3 little pigs for 3D art, a puppet show for theatre, and wrote a story for literature. Dani received a metal for "Best in Grade" for each of her visual art, 3D art, and literature entries. Marissa and Dani both received a trophy for "Best in Division" for their theatre entries. That means their puppet shows will be continuing on to the District level to be judged, winners will continue on to Region where they will then be judged for State. We're so excited for them and are glad they have enjoyed this opportunity to be creative!!

Family Stay-cation

For our vacation this year we desided to do something local. We found a Connect Pass that allowed us to visit 13 places in 1-3 days. We didn't make it to all of them, but we had a blast going to many of them. We started out Tuesday going to the Hogle Zoo in the morning, then for the afternoon we went to the U of U Museum of Natural History. Wednesday we went to This is the Place in the morning, The Lion House Pantry for lunch, Gateway Discovery for the afternoon and caught a show of BUGS at Clark's Planitarium in the evening. Thursday we headed south to Thanksgiving Point where we saw their beautiful gardens and the Museum of Life Science. On the way home we stopped by the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. It was a great opportunity to go to a lot of places I've been wanting to check out for some time. What a lot of fun things we can do right here locally! ( go to www.visitsaltlake.com/visit/activities/connect_pass/)

Busy Birthdays

Wow! These past few months have flown by for us! We only had three weeks vacation while the kids were out of school. Then right after Pioneer Day we were back to school. Allee is finishing up her last year of preschool this year and didn't actually start until September. But we found a neighbor who is in her class this year and Yeah for carpooling! She also had her birthday in August and is 4 years old, one of the youngest in her year of school. Allee and Dani had a joint birthday party at Grandma Young's and went and visited with Grandma Grundvig the same weekend. So they had lots of birthday partying! Dani turned 6 years old this year, the year I let them have friends over for a party. We had a lot of fun thanks to all the friends who came to her party. We dressed up with animal masks (found at the $ store 3 in a package!) and we played our own version of Fruitbasket. We had one kid sit in the middle who would call out one of the animals or "It's a Zoo!" and the kids would trade places. Surprisingly they fought over that middle position...I guess they all wanted to have a turn to call out the animals! Then we gave them all glo-in-the-dark wands and swords and played Duck Duck Goose with them. It wasn't dark, but they had a blast with them anyway. Of course I had to get a picture of them all dressed up! It was a lot of fun:)


Allee and her new Curious George.

Butterfly wishes and Animal faces
at Dani's Party

Our New Temple

The Oquirrh Mountain Temple

On July 7th we took the kids to the open house for the new Oquirrh mountain temple. They were awed by the chance to go "inside" the temple. We wanted them to have a good experience so we took them first thing in the morning 8:00 sharp when it opened. We were one of the first people there, so there was no waiting in lines or pushing through the crowds. Plus it was very quiet and peaceful as there were very few people in the temple at the time. We were able to take our time and show the kids each room. At the Celestial Room we paused for a while and stood quietly after we explained this room to the kids. As we stood there little Max started toddling off and the girls giggled as they watched. It was so quiet and to listen to their little giggles just sounded like music! I couldn't help reflect how perfect these little kids really are and how they just seemed to fit in that room. I'm sure Heavenly Father just loves children and heaven wouldn't be heaven without the sound of little children.

Lynn and I have been able to return since then to help volunteer. We were given the opportunity to address the visitors in the Sealing Room (#5 was our little room). Lynn explained to visitors the purpose of the temple and especially the sealing power of the priesthood. I was asked to share my feelings, which I was very nervous about. I could not think of what I would say, my mind just drew a blank all the way up to the time we were stationed at our room. But as we watched the first group of visitors come in, there were a couple of families with their little children bringing them to see the "inside" of their first temple. I couldn't help but think of our experience bringing our kids and I finally knew what I would say. It was a very special experience. I felt the Lords spirit there. I'm so grateful and humbled to have been given such an amazing assignment. It has renewed my heart and increased my love for the temple and what it means to my family.

4th of July Birthday

This was such a fun day to have a birthday! We started out with the 4th of July Parade. It rained a little... just enough to keep us cool. Then the sky cleared out as we headed home for our BBQ. The men roasted hot dogs while Ashley painted the kids faces. Then Max fell asleep just in time for opening presents, and eating cake and ice cream! So Mom opened his presents and we saved him a cupcake for later. The kids played in the water - the pool, the sprinklers, with water guns and water balloons- to keep cool. We also enjoyed playing at the park with our cousins. Then we came home and had pizza thanks to Uncle Chad! Later that evening we all went to the church lawn across the street to watch the Magna Fire works. It's so great to be so close to all of the Magna 4th of July celebrations! It was a really fun day to have a birthday party for Max!!

Walking Man

So now that he's a year old, Max finally decided he'd waited long enough. Saturday, June 27, 2009 he started walking! I love his short little wobbly steps! I know it won't take him long before he's running around... but I just love these first few unsteadier steps. I'm amazed at how far he's going right off the bat! And of course now this leaves his hands free to do more mischief around the house. But what a cute little guy!