Jacie's Baptism Weekend

Better late than never right?? I finally got my pictures off the broken camera and got the pictures that my parents took while they were here.

We had such a good weekend. We miss all the great company we had. We love you guys.

Jacie's Birthday :)
We hope you had a good birthday Jacie. We love you
and are so glad you are part of our family. You are
such a bright, talented and creative person.

Julia being held by her cousin and grandpa in the back. :)

Treven eating yummy, yummy chocolate ice cream cake from Coldstone. (Thanks Landon & Trinette)

Talden with his cousins.

Jacie opening gifts from grandma & grandpa (with cousin in the background).

We went to the Mall of America with everyone on Friday.

Everyone looking at the theme park. :)

Treven is driving in the front of the truck. :)

My sister and her daughter on Blue's Clues.

Talden & Jacie went on their first roller coaster.

Talden and his cousin listening to High School Musical
while waiting at Ikea.

After the mall we went to the Chutes and Ladders park.

Jacie & Jez at the baptism.

Cute sisters

Jacie's new scriptures.

Our family with slightly animated children :)
This is in our backyard looking out toward the lake.

I will do an update of the school carnival
and halloween soon too.

Our Greatest Fear

I need to still update, but my camera got broken last Sunday and I don't have the pictures I wanted to post. Really quick though, I LOVED conference as usual and Jacie had her 8th birthday and it was so much fun. My parents came from Utah and my sister and her family traveled from Michigan to be here. Jacie's baptism was last Saturday and Jez's parents and brother came too. It was a great weekend. We loved having family here with us. We are already planning our next get together. :) I will post more details and pictures when I can.

The other reason I wanted to post is because I was writing in my journal today and a quote came to me that I love. I was expressing in my journal my thoughts about it and then wanted to reread the quote. I searched for it on the internet and not suprisingly it wasn't hard to find, but I wanted to post it here so I could use it as part of my own story.

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,

but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,

gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest
the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine,
we consciously give other people
permission to do the same.

~Nelson Mandela

I Will Update Soon

I know I haven't posted for awhile, but I am still here. :) I have had an amazing last 2 weeks and will get caught up soon, but before I could catch up my blog I had to read all of yours... so here are a few things I learned while reading (and quizing)

I am Cinderella and...

What My Feet Say About Me:

I am pretty average in my expressiveness. I can express myself well, but I don't always want to. I am a very passionate person. I am highly charged and easily inspired. I am an assertive person at times. I'll pull out all the stops to get what I want, if it's worth it. I take a while to fall in love, but once I do, I stay pretty attached to my partner. I am not afraid of anything. I am brave and courageous, even when most people would be terrified. I am intellectual and philosophical. I am more concerned with thoughts than action. I am an amazingly hard worker. I'm not spoiled and I don't mind getting my hands dirty. I am easily influenced by other people. I'm quite impressionable, so I should only be around people who are a good influence.

What Do Your Feet Say About You?

Thanks Jessica and Shauntae for the fun quizes.
I also was reminded that I am mostly around
people who are good influences. All of my friends
are amazing people that I look up to tremendously
for different reasons. Each of you have qualities
that I admire and try to emulate. If I could just
do what I think about (see above) I would be a
pretty perfect person. :)

We love and miss you all.

I will update my blog soon with everything else
that has been going on in our part of the world.

Happy Birthday Talden!

Our little Talden just turned 10 years old.

It seems like just yesterday that his beautiful

spirit came into our lives. He has brought us

so much love and joy. I cannot imagine my

life without him. He is so full of love for our

family and he is growing up so fast. I love to

have talks with him about his thoughts and

dreams. He is truly an amazing person who

understands who he is and what he wants in

his life. He is a great son, a wonderful brother

and we love him. Happy Birthday Talden. :)

Talden got to choose what he wanted to
do for his birthday. He wanted to go check
out the mall first because he knew there was
an arcade, playground, food court and game store.
It was raining (misting).

Then he wanted to go to the Library.
They had a special program going on that
had dancers dancing to the beat of the drums.
It looked like this:

For dinner we had pineapple pizza.
We always buy a cheese pizza and add
a can of pineapple. It is the only thing
he will eat on pizza. :)

Talden chose the candles for his cake and made
them into a "10." He also chose his cake...
It was Red Velvet with White Chocolate Almond frosting.

Then he wanted to go bowling.

He opened his cards and presents.
This one is from our bishop and his wife.
They also brought some clothes for Treven that their
boys had outgrown. He loved his new hoodie.

We also went to the "Chutes and Ladders" park again.
This is the lake that is next to it.

New School

Our kids started school last week. They are both really enjoying it. They have great teachers and have met a lot of new friends. It is different from what we are used to though.


1- We had planned to walk them to school and then realized that NO ONE here walks! (The winters must be pretty exciting). They have 920 students in the school (K-4) and less than 50 kids walk or have parents drive them! So the kids ride the bus that picks them up at the front door. I have to admit it is a lot easier for me. :)

2- Also, you would think with 920 students that the kids wouldn't have a lot of personal attention. Wrong again! These teachers are so involved with the kids. On Jacie's first day her teacher called me to let me know that Jacie was a little sad at recess and that she sat with her at lunch and paired her up with a couple of buddies for the next recess. They call and send notes all the time just to touch base.

3- This is a major one! The school endorses a NO HOMEWORK policy! Yes, you read that right. Studies have shown that kids this age don't benefit from homework assignments so the teachers are not allowed to send any home. The kids are encouraged to read 15 mins (30 for Talden) a night and do a study time. They want the parents to help the kids do educational activities, but there is never an assigned "study time." I can't even tell you how great it has been. I have always struggled to get the kids to do homework after a long day at school. The teachers send ideas of things we could do for study time and that helps to know what they are learning at school and what we could reinforce at home.

4- The school has a PTO that is fully staffed and functional! Parents here are so excited to volunteer and help out that they have amazing activities and organization. Coming from a place where finding volunteers is like pulling teeth, I find this rather commendable. :)

5- There are 5,276 after school activities to choose from. (Seriously I don't know the exact number, but there are lots!) Some of the flyers I got today... Basketball, Karate, Gymnastics, Cheerleading, Chess, Ice Skating, Hockey, NASA exploration, Art, Children's Choir, YMCA and the list goes on and on and on. I think it's great that they offer all these things, but it is so hard for our family to let our kids be involved in all of those things.

6- The kids rotate going to music, art, P.E., and spanish class every four days. They love the spanish and art. The goal is for the kids to fluently speak 2 languages before they are in jr. high. (They have elementary k-4, intermediate school 5-6, jr. high 7-8, and high school 9-12) And they also have "Smart" rooms. They have the whiteboards that can capture the writing into a computer program. I can't explain it because I don't understand it, but it is cool. And the kids have their own lockers.

7- This is another big one... Lunch is... $2.85 per kid/per day!!! I guess we can't complain though because the lunches are SO much healthier than they were in Logan. If the kids don't like the entree of the day they can choose the salad bar. They have a salad bar every day that includes soup, salads, and sandwiches. It is $94 for every 20 lunches for both kids. Luckily we were approved for the reduced lunches so it is only $0.40 per kid/per day. That means they can eat for 7 days to every one they were before we were approved. It is crazy the difference, and I feel bad for using the assistance, but I realize that there are times and seasons in our life when we give and when we take. Right now is a time to take.

Anyway, we are excited to have a good year for the kids and hope you are all doing well. :)