First Marshmallow Roast

We built a fire and celebrated the cooler weather by roasting marshmallows! Maryn and Kelsey drove home for a quick trip, too, so that was another reason to celebrate. It was a rough week, or couple of weeks, with hard lessons to learn, and scary experiences and tough talk about keeping covenants. I just had to give them a real hug so I begged them to come home. And they did!

We watched the Relief Society broadcast, ate some dinner and then had dessert at the fire pit. I know we all felt better after spending our time together like that.

Most of us took advantage of the time to relax, but Hunter was a blur! Literally.

Relief Society Service

This was a difficult week.

I was stressed.

I was blessed.

I know that I was given heavenly help to be successful this week.

The reason for the difficult week was really two-fold. I started school this week! I began the Pathways Program from BYU-I. And I was doing a BIG project for the stake Relief Society. It was very similar to the one I did last year. It wasn’t hard, just took a lot of time. Time that has become so limited that it is hard to do extra things.

The Lord helped me. He helped me prioritize, utilize the time I have to upmost and he helped me keep most of my patience.

And He gave me Kelly. Who is a perfect support to me.

Here is a look at the final product.

The WINTER Garden Experiment

We have water to the garden! Last time I talked about the garden, it was just being built. We had a pile of supplies. Now we have the plants in and growing with water!

I am so excited.

We have had some great weekends together, accomplishing so much. I love to spend time with Kelly—whether it is work or play—as long as I get to be alongside my husband!

While we were busy doing our thing, the kids were busy making a “city” in the dirt. They built lot’s of bridges so that they could run water along their ditches. 

I think it turned out to be a perfect Saturday for all of us!

Ellie’s Mobile

Ellie has been working hard on a book report for school. She is reading “The Familiars” and really enjoys the book. Her report had to be done in the form of a mobile. Ellie found it a bit difficult to keep up her enthusiasm for doing her best, but she made it! It turned out great, so we took a picture to celebrate.

Update: As I write this, Ellie received her grade yesterday and got 100%! She was so proud and I hope this will help her as she works on other hard things. That she can learn that the hard work she puts in will be worth it.

No! Not another one!

Sister Bishop came by tonight to say good-bye to the kids. She is being transferred not too. We are so sad to see her go, but so thankful that we were able to keep our sisters till the kids got baptized. It was actually quite a while when you think about it.

Sister Bishop was special to me because I felt her coming was a tender mercy from the Lord. What were the chances that we would have a sister who was in foster care? Yet there she was placed right here for Ellie and for me. I will never forget her telling me her story, then as they walked out the door, Donna came in and had to start talking about the long process and the possibility of the kids not going home at all. It was so scary to me, yet I had just heard a wonderful success story, that helped me to see that the Lord will take care of all of us.

Hunter Turns Nine

Hunter celebrated his ninth birthday on the 13th of this month. We wanted to make the day special, but not take away from his family plans, so it was a little tricky to navigate. But we managed. We celebrated at Daks Pizza and Games—Hunter’s choice! We ate pizza and played a video game called “Minecraft”. My feelings about video games have not changed too much over the years, and this one did nothing to increase appreciation of them! If you are into games, they have a pretty fun set up especially for group play.

But…Hunter had a great time and so it was worth the time we spent there. I think he appreciated it. We came home and blew candles out on some brownies. Hunter doesn’t like cake, so he chose brownies instead.

Saturday was their visit, so he was able to spend that time celebrating with his mom, dad and ellie.

Family Room Art

We finally got all three pictures back from the various printers to able to get my wall decorated. But now I think I need a shelf!

August Collage

The month at a glance! It is so hard to believe we are finished with August already.

August was good to us: Ellie was baptized, the kids started school, we had some crazy monsoon weather, we celebrated Kelsey’s 24th birthday, and Kelly and I spent four days in San Diego!