Evening in Excellence

Last week we had Evening in Excellence and it was amazing. We used the part of the theme for the year which is "standard for the nations" and then tacked on the questions, "where will you go?". We talked about the new curriculum for the youth (I am so excited for this!), aiming high and reaching our potential, and being disciples of Christ.

Angela found these perfect globe ornaments and I brought all my maps.

Angela also did all the design work and it was perfect.

I got an old road atlas at the thrift store and tore out the pages to use as place mats.

That is a pen in that little arrow right there. For taking notes.

I also borrowed my neighbors globe collection (like I did this time) and it was perfect.

We had a baked potato/salad bar and had someone make us really yummy cupcakes. 

Here are all my girls (a few are missing) and they are all so wonderful. 

This is with the leaders too. I love the women I get to serve with. I feel really, really lucky.

Mimi made an amazing video with the help of Brooke and Shelby and I love it so much. She did such an amazing job and I made the mistake of putting my speaking part after the video. Needless to say I bawled through my whole talk. They probably all think I am nuts. But I love this gospel! I love these girls! And that makes me cry.

Fairies

In the morning there is a stream of light that comes through the kitchen windows and the kids discovered "fairies" that fly in them. They also discovered that if they shake my old throw pillows in the light it makes more.

 They sure love these fairies 

Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

We had Thanksgiving at my mom and dads on Thursday and as usual I ate all the skin off the turkey. Well, most of it.

Then I took one not so great picture with my phone. I spent the rest of the day eating and visiting with my family. Russ had to work so he joined us a little late.

Gracie made turkey cards for everyone and passed them out (William helped her by writing Happy Thanksgiving on all of them). I love her sweet kindness.

On Friday I woke up and made some pie, mashed potatoes, and a green bean casserole for Russ' families thanksgiving. Russ had to work that day too but he was able to join us before too long. It was at Don and Mindy's and I did not take ONE SINGLE PICTURE. Way to go, Debbie. But you can tell it was fun and that we stayed late by the way Russ fell asleep with his finger on the screen of his phone.

On Saturday we went to McCormick train park to see and visit with my extended Huston family.

Riding in the miniature freight car.

 Stage coach

 Peek-a-boo

It was a really great weekend filled with lots of things to be thankful for.

Grateful list

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and of course I have been thinking about the things that I am grateful for right now. And I am not going to let myself feel guilty for not writing every single thing that I am grateful for. I want to be specific to right now, the things I am especially grateful for right now.

• for our home - lately I have been looking at all the negative things about our house and focusing on all the things that need to be done rather than see it for what it is - a really great house with a big yard for my kids to play in
• Josephs naps - I love that he will willingly come come to take a nap if I mention the books we will read first. He loves reading books and I think he has such a great vocabulary (for his age) because of it. Also its a great time to get stuff done so when he is awake we can have more fun together.
• bedtime routines  - because of the routines we have gotten ourselves in a long time ago we make sure we always to the most important things together as a family (scriptures, prayers, stories, brush teeth, hugs, and kisses). 
• all the things we do routinely in our life (church, FHE, dinner time, birthdays, family Sunday dinners, holidays, etc.) I see the blessings that come from them and I love them.
• Russ - always Russ
• people who seek truth and live it when they learn it and inspire me to do the same
• my body - oh how I love my body
• sleep - a little too much
• food - mmmm food
• my kids school - I love it. I love that they only have school 3 days a week. And it isn't even because when they are home we are blissfully and happily crafting and stuff like that. They just have more time to do things like read, play, and do chores. And I am amazed at how much time (and emotion) is saved when we don't have to get up, get ready, get lunches, and make it to school on time.
• liberty and freedom - Gracie memorized the Title of Liberty at school and recited it for her whole class at school. I love the Title of Liberty 
• my calling in church - it has blessed me in more ways than I can count
• the Holy Ghost - I have learned how the Holy Ghost speaks to me and I am always grateful for it.
• Russ' job - the last year has been amazing having him home more
• my blog - I made a book out of the year 2011 of my blog and I love it. I love my children flipping through it. I am pretty dang proud of myself for keeping a journal for more than 6 consecutive years. That is a big deal for me

Okay I could go on and on but I will stop there. Some many things to be thankful for.

Baptism day

This day. Oh this day. How did it come so fast? How is he old enough to be baptized? How am I old enough to have a son who is old enough to be baptized?

So many emotions accompanied the arrival of this day. But I will share my feelings in a later post. For now I will just journal the day. Russ and I spent a lot of time cleaning our house and getting it ready since it had been a crazy few days before this. We were running late and Russ took William to the church early and I walked in just in time to go sit on the stand and lead the opening song. I didn't even get a picture of the boys in their white jumpsuits:( Oh well, it is a day I will remember forever. We sang I Am Trying to Be Like Jesus for the opening song. And I didn't cry. All the kids that were getting baptized got up and sang I Am A Child of God and I cried a little. William would look out into the audience and every time he saw someone he knew he would timidly wave at them. And he did that a lot of times because there were a lot of people there to see him. Everything was lovely and perfect about the baptism until it was time for him to change clothes and apparently I was supposed to come up with some kind of program after that and I didn't realize that. Luckily Anna and Marie got up and sang Baptism for us and some friends played the piano. After it was over everyone came to our house for dinner and we had a lovely evening. I was grateful for all the family and friends that came to support him. 

Special thanks to Connie for helping me throw together the mantle as a surprise for William. We literally did that in 2 minutes.

I am so proud to call this amazing boy my son.

The next day (party day)

The next morning he woke up first thing and was shooting his bow and arrow.

 And he got pretty good! He also lost an arrow in those bushes that we still can't find.

 His party was that evening and was planned that day:) I had another idea for his birthday this year for going up to the mountains and exploring for awhile but it just wasn't going to work out time wise so we decided to set up and tent have a fire and watch a movie outside.

 We had s'mores and hot dogs and a cake made of donuts (there was no way I was making a cake that day). I also put out a veggie tray before the rest of the food and the kids scarfed it down while playing.

 Russ roasted the hot dogs.

 I am sad these pictures are so blurry, Joseph was so excited to help carry the cake.

 He got some really fun things...

Then we ended the night watching Jumungi in the tent with blankets and pillows. That night Russ, William, and Gracie slept in the tent and Joseph and I slept inside. They stayed out there all night. It was just like camping:)