Fall Festivities

Jackson carved a purple minion on his own. He didn’t want my help. It was for a contest at the Ward Fall Festival. He was disappointed he didn’t win.

This little girl is a firecracker. Super cute and sweet…most of the time.

Rachelle’s eye is doing much better. You can see a little discoloration still.

We’re pet sitting this little guy. His name is Toby. The kids love it.

Sarah set up a mad scientist booth for the Ward Fall Festival. It was fun. She had jars of things for kids to touch. Freeze dried bat wings (Turkey Jerky), Rat Hearts (Mushrooms), Chopped Brains (Spiral pasta), Wizard Ears (dried apricots) and Cat Eyeballs (Peeled Grapes).

Jackson always looks forward to his football games. He has been a little more frustrated this year. I think he needs to learn that sports aren’t always going to be easy and he isn’t automatically the best on the team. He needs to work for it.

family

Posted on October 26, 2014

Family Chalk War

2014-10-122 Tonight for FHE we tested out the chalk balls that Sarah made for her mutual activity on Wednesday. She made some homemade chalk and loaded it into socks and stockings and tied into balls. We made teams. Me, Lacey and Autumn vs Sarah, Jackson and Rachelle.

I’m not sure who won but I do know I lost. I think was just the biggest and slowest target.

family, fhe

Posted on October 13, 2014

Life is Tough

Today was a somber day and we fasted for a family who experienced a horrific tragedy yesterday. Our kids don’t quite comprehend the situation and they seem confused to see their parents crying. We tried to maintain some normalcy for them and had them set up some Halloween decorations while we prepared a simple dinner of fruit and muffins. Our hearts and prayers go out to the family.

My original goal for the next few weeks was to journal something positive from the day and sometimes the positive can be extremely hard to notice in the face of an overwhelmingly sad day.

family

Posted on October 12, 2014

The Phoenix Temple

We started the day waking up at the Residence Inn next to the Mayo Clinic. After breakfast we hit the pool for a nice chilly swim. It wasn’t too cold and once you got it it was actually really nice.

Then we got cleaned up, had lunch in our room and headed over to the Phoenix Temple Open House which was our excuse for staying in a hotel this weekend even though it is only about 1 hour from our house 🙂

Parking for the tour was at a nearby water park and they had tour buses shuttling people back and forth to the temple. We were hoping to see the

temple from the road somewhere and we were a little surprised that we didn’t really see it until we got into the stake center parking lot and the steeple peaked out above the stake center. It was still a beautiful site.

Now here is the crazy part of the story. We got off the bus and walked into the stake center for a presentation. As I step off the bus there was a guy at the front of the bus who looked familiar. As we started the presentation I got another look at the familiar face and I was pretty certain it was a friend of mine from High School. As we filed out of the room I stopped him and asked him if he was who he thought and sure enough it was! We embraced and chatted (as reverently as possible) during the tour and come to find out he has been living in Arizona for the past 5 years. I had no idea.

Anyway, the temple was beautiful. Unfortunately, I can’t help compare it to the Gilbert temple which really is possibly the most amazing temple I’ve been in. We were glad our kids had another opportunity to be inside a temple. What a cool time to be a part of this church! Tomorrow we may try and catch a showing of “Meet The Mormons” after we do another morning swim, checkout and go to our Nephew Max’s baptism.

temple, vacation

Posted on October 10, 2014

Taking A Day Off

I’m not sure who reads our blog any more. It has been over a year since we posted. This week I started keeping a daily journal but then I couldn’t decide the best place to do it and said, “Hey, why don’t I blog it?” I guess this means I can’t get too personal…or can I? The point of the daily journal is to follow some advice I got to be happy. The task is to write about something positive each day. This way my focus is on the good stuff. I don’t think we have to ignore the bad but we should always try to recognize the good.

What was good today? After work we piled the family in the car and drove to North Scottsdale and now we’re in a hotel and I have tomorrow off and we are going to attend the Phoenix Temple Open House. Fun! We could have just driven there tomorrow and not gotten a hotel but we wanted a little adventure and change of scenery. The kids are on Fall Break and this will be the only thing away from home we’re doing this year. Plus we’ll have two days of not having to cook and clean!!! I guess I would say that is the positive.

Another positive for me is that I have an awesome wife that took care of getting the van in for maintenance today. We had to get the power steering fluid flushed and some other thing. And since I was I work when it was finished she walked to the mechanic with her 4 little kids to pick it up! What a woman! Did I mention she is almost 7 months pregnant?

This wasn’t today but another positive thing that happened this week is that we decided on a name for our baby. We always have the hardest time choosing names for our children. We were determined to find a name fast so we could have it done and start getting used to the name. We still aren’t 100% sure of the middle name but as of now it is Sierra Snowe 🙂

baby, vacation