family

happy thanksgiving week!

i'm grateful for this team of mine.

 

(pics by heatherhowardphotography)

service-ing

(one of my all time favorite pictures) 

all month in primary, sharing time was about service.  i feel the spirit in primary.  it has been a good experience to ponder service and how Christ was the perfect example of accepting people the way they are, and leaving them better.  

we compared service to a boomerang.  

when you do an act of service, most often something comes back 

to you...happiness, blessings, kindness, peace in our homes.  

but ultimately, we serve because we want to show love to our Savior and Heavenly Father.

leave someone better than you found them today:)

my view

i'm realizing this won't be my view forever! 

it makes me teary to even think about it.

it's a tricky balance as a mom, trying to get everything done, while still trying to soak it all in.

it's something i have struggled with this week.

but every time i look at this picture, it just makes me happy-
this is my view, and even though it will change, it actually is mine forever and
i will do my part to make sure of it.

enjoy your view today!!

abe

sadie snapped this pic of abe at school. 

i think it's a pretty good glimpse of abe at age fourteen.

(and i am extremely curious what the girl with the kitty bag behind him is thinking!)

except, as of today, he has braces:)

 pretty entertaining, that abe.

sadie

this has been an emotional week for sadie.

she tried out for basketball and made the team, but the coach basically told her not to plan on much playing time.  when she was driving home from practice, she rear ended someone- actually it was my friend, who was SOOOO NICE about the whole thing, but it scared sades pretty bad.

she is feeling overwhelmed with school and life decisions.

sometimes life is challenging.

i am so grateful it wasn't worse and all involved were totally ok.  

she had to come home from her accident and get ready for her girl's pref date.  

it was hard for her to switch from crying her eyes out, to happy date mode.

but, i'm so glad she was going to girl's pref and not to the hospital.

her cousin tyler gave her some good advice a couple months ago

"keep moving forward, sades."

we love you.

small things

i'm so happy sadie and abe are back home.   

 i realized these two give me my conversation fix each day, and i really missed my teenagers!

i like them.  a lot.

that being said, they had the best time at disneyland with their friends in student government. 

 they loved the leadership training disneyland provided for their group and i think this trip is something they worked hard for and will never forget.

i hope when they remember the trip, they also remember the small, but real 

experience they had with the holy ghost.

the first day, abe lost his phone. 

he went back to find it. sadie wondered where he went.  everyone kept telling her that he was with the other group and that he would text them later.  sadie said she had the feeling to walk to a certain spot and so she left and did it.  right when she got there, she saw abe walking toward her.  he went back to look for his phone, but couldn't find it.  so he was phone-less and by himself.  she really felt directed to go back and find him.

i have been praying that my kids will have times when they feel the spirit.

i know this is just a small example, but i was able to testify to sadie that she felt the spirit, and yes, it was a feeling and a thought put into her mind.  that's the way it works.  it's small, but when we listen, it puts us where we need to be.  it may not be a burning in our bosom twenty-four hours a day, but when she needed it, it was there and she listened.

Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

Alma 37: 6-7

those small experiences can be easily dismissed, but when we trust, and believe, and follow- those experiences add up, and then when we need big guidance in our lives, we are familiar with that still small voice and the way it feels and works.  it becomes an anchor to our souls.  i know it.

i'm grateful for disneyland!  

...and don't worry, on the last day they checked and someone had turned in abe's phone.

happiest place on earth? got that right!

(pics from sadie's VSCO account)

bring it on!

 max is now playing 

futsal.

he has waited for this.

it was a big day.

...and then it wasn't:)

the second game, max played keeper.

let's just say we won.

max did not get a lot of action in the goal box.

he scored a goal and had a lot of fun in the other game, but the highlight for me was watching his body language as he waited in the keeper box while his team dominated.  

made me smile.

 FINALLY, SOME ACTION!!!

proud

max performed in his 3rd grade patriotic program yesterday.

it was awesome.

i even got chills and might have shed a tear.

the kids learn all year about america--

the program would make my mother, who is the most patriotic person i know, very proud.

veterans from the community participate in the flag ceremony. 

the man holding the flag is a world war II vet.  i'm grateful max understands that we honor those who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms.

max's grandpa (who served in the army) came to support max.

max gave a little speech, which he practiced for weeks and nailed it!

he also learned how to play this land is your land on the ukulele with a group of students. 

it was a highlight! 

i came away grateful, for my country and for my max!

GOD BLESS THE USA!!!

family scripture study

cozy style:)

  max followed along and asked for another chapter because he was so into it, and even though kai LOOKS like he was asleep, he answered the question right, while vivian, safely between her brothers in her own little kitty world, shared her sucker (so kind) that i told her she could have in the morning...

and did she remember?  yep. first thing.

pretty sure family scripture time is one of my favorite things.

sadie and abe left for their student government retreat (disneyland) at three in the morning...

maybe that had something to do with why we wanted to stay in bed a little longer!

i miss them already.

halloween 2015

vivian decided to be a "pink, and all colored kitty, that does magic and can fly, named butterfly."

all ready for her preschool halloween celebration.

the young women and young men, put on a halloween carnival for the primary kids.  sadie and abe helped out.  i liked watching the youth take on this activity.  they really came through.

vivian and her friend waiting for the elementary school parade.

max, walking with his class around the town.

isn't it amazingly awesome that the sheriff blocks off the street for the elementary school parade?!

vivian did a little shadow dance theater during dance class to celebrate halloween.  loved it!

halloween night:

dave helped this little kitty trick or treat, while i passed out candy....like 12 big bags. and i almost ran out.  max and kai donated all the candy from their stash that they didn't like, so we barely made it through:)  our neighborhood is a pretty great place to spend halloween.

max enjoyed being malfoy!

and...

kai decided at the last second to dress up like a nerd.

what a night!

i stayed up and watched spiderman, and i was pretty scared.

happy halloween!

fall break

we decided to stick around for fall break and just have some down time.

i like having down time with the kids.  i love where we live, but sometimes i ache to get out for a bit and have a change of scenery, so i convinced abe and his posse 

to go to the movie- once i was a beehive:)

it was soooooo fun!  vivian really wanted to come along for the late night, so we brought her,  pajamas and all.  vivian was thrilled to be there and the boys were highly entertaining.  

just the thing i needed!

the next day, i took the kids and we hiked to the Y in provo. 

it's something i have never done.

it was steeper than i thought.

as she was riding on sadie's back, vivian said, "i'm tired."  haha!

we took turns carrying her.  i'm grateful for my kids.  they look out for each other.  they were all happy to help her make it to the top.

this is my crew. 

we help each other.  

this is what i do.  this is what i have done for the past 18 years.  that's a lot of my life.

they have no idea how much they mean to me and how much i hope good things for them.

i enjoyed hiking and spending the day with them.  

we finished the afternoon at waffle love. then a speed round at the DI (abe's super into thrift store shopping, so it was the cherry on top of his day).

this is what the end of a good fall break looks like:)

beautiful choices

lately, i have thought about this beautiful little girl.  

she is happy, kind, caring, excited, smart, and loving.  

right before i go to sleep, i lean over and kiss her (which is easy because she insists on sleeping in my bed),  and i say, "I love you." she then does the exact same thing to me in return.  for some reason, it surprises me every time and i love it.  

it is beautiful.  

my mom and my grandma used to say,

BEAUTY IS AS BEAUTY DOES.

at first i didn't get it.

but now i do.

my goal lately has been to teach vivian to be beautiful through her choices.  

this girl LOVES beautiful things.  dresses, lip stick, sparkles, princesses--so when she got frustrated with a girl in her playgroup and hit her...a few times, i decided to focus on beautiful choices.    i still tell her she looks lovely, but i want her to recognize that what we DO and SAY can be beautiful too.

a few tween girls put on a little princess camp and when i picked her up the first thing she said to me was, "i didn't hit at princess camp!"

 i knew we had arrived when i heard her playing with toys and in a small, but sophisticated voice one toy said to the other, "that was a beautiful choice."

this is a beautiful world.

so glad we get to be a part of it.

 we believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, 

and in doing good to all men; 

indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul- 

we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured

 many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. 

 if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

 (13th article of faith)