Most of February

Tuesday February 2nd

Garrett went out of town the day after he got back from the snow camp out.  He flew to California for meetings.  On the last day of their meetings, Intel rented out California Adventure and that whole group got to ride rides and eat for free.  So Garrett sent us pictures to make us all jealous! :)

 They even had Fallout boy come and put on a concert.

 Wednesday February 3rd

 Garrett got home this day and brought the kids Intel light sabers.  

 I started reading scriptures with the kids out of the illustrated Book of Mormon.  I also found the idea to have them write in a scripture journal and have them answer one or two questions about what they read.  I really love it and the kids really love it too.  (I'm just doing this way with Bella and Noah.  I have a different system going on for the older kids.)  Anyways, I write the question and then help Noah write out his answers.  (Bella can answer on her own without my help usually).  I was really impressed with how well this was going and how much they enjoy doing it, so I thought I'd share.  

February 6th and 7th

 Since our anniversary fell on a Sunday this year, we went out to celebrate on Saturday night.  We went out to eat at PF Chang's and then went to see the movie, "The Finest Hours" with Chris Pine and Casey Affleck.  It was pretty good!  He got me these flowers and card and balloon.  We had agreed that we weren't going to buy gifts for each other since we were going to Mexico at the end of the month, but he bought these anyways.  

Friday February 12th

 We packed the trailer and headed out to go camping for the weekend at Mt. Hood Village.  Someone took pictures of beautiful Portland as we drove by.

 The clouds were beautiful as the sun was going down.  When we got closer to Mt. Hood and the sun went down, it started pouring rain!  Ugh!

 So, we went to the little restaurant that they have there and had dinner there.  

Saturday Feb. 13th

 This was a really, really low-key weekend with swimming and playing games and reading books.  I don't even have that many pictures!  

 Playing skipbo--one of our favorites.

Sunday Feb. 14th

 Garrett's a saint and takes the kids swimming so I don't have to!

 It was Valentine's Day, so I brought Valentine's pictures to color, but that was the extent of our celebrating.  

 Sitting out by the fire, out in the rain.  Thank heavens for our canopy!

 Monday Feb. 15th

 This picture reminds me of the noise and chaos that is usually in our trailer.  We were getting ready to go hike around before we left to go home.  It takes forever to get ready because no one listens, they all do their own thing and they are either fighting or being silly and loud.  

 I love this shot and I'm not sure who took it.  

 It's the fam!

 Looking at the river...pretty exciting!

 Throwing rocks in.

 It's hard to tell in this picture, but when Garrett was lifting up big rocks to throw into the river, he found this little crawdad.  The kids thought it was interesting but they didn't want to touch or hold it.  

 Then we came upon this big old tree that had fallen down--so cool to see the root system and how they obviously weren't very deep.

 then some of the kids took turns walking across  it. We're so adventurous!

 Sunday Feb. 21st

 We spent the previous day packing and buying last minute things for our trip to Mexico on Monday.  Funny picture of Noah with Garrett's scuba gear on.  

I have to share this story about Lydia.  When she turned 12, they asked her to speak in sacrament meeting.  She agreed and we helped her write her talk.  But when Sunday came and she was supposed to go and sit on the stand, she couldn't go up there.  She was scared and crying and kept saying that she couldn't do it.  I even offered to go up and sit with her, but the Bishop told her that he wanted it to be a good experience for her and if she was this worked up about it, to not worry about doing it.  He didn't want her to feel this worried and scared about it.  So, she didn't give the talk.  So, it had been a little over a year since that happened and they asked her to give a talk again and she agreed (on the 21st).  So, once again we helped her write her talk, prayed for her, encouraged her and she really felt like she could do it.  So, Sunday comes and she had to go early for a meeting since she was Beehive president at the time.  She was saving a row for us since we hadn't gotten there yet, and when we walked up to her before the meeting was going to start, she was crying and starting to freak out saying that she couldn't do it.  We took her out and said a prayer with her and tried to calm her down and encourage her.  But she wasn't going to do it.  So, Garrett asked Maggie if she would give Lyd's talk for her and she agreed, so she went up on the stand and told the Bishopric.  Before the sacrament portion, they confirmed a new member and gave them a blessing.  Lydia had still been crying, so she went out to go to the bathroom to blow her nose while they were passing the sacrament.  She didn't come back in until the sacrament was done being passed.  The bishopric member got up to announce that Maggie was going to be speaking and at that point I saw Lydia walking up the aisle towards us, but then kept on walking up to the stand.  The bishopric actually said, well never mind, Lydia is going to give her talk.  My heart was bursting at this point and I'm sure I had the biggest smile on my face.  It took her a few minutes to start and when she did start talking you could tell that she was trying not to cry, but she delivered her talk and got more confident as she got through it.  I cannot tell you how incredibly proud I was of her.  She has a legitimate fear and she did something that was extremely hard for her.  I hope she remembers that experience and knows that she can do hard things!  It was a proud parenting moment for sure!!  I did ask her what changed her mind about speaking and all she told me was that she heard something in the blessing that helped her decide to speak.  I thought that was pretty neat.  I sure do love her!!

Random things from January and February

So, I thought I'd post some random things from the last month and a half that don't have to do with birthdays or holidays.  It's crazy how busy things have been.  You think that after Christmas and the other holidays, that things will slow down.  But, they never seem to.  With church and callings, school, dance and now basketball, it seems we hardly have any free evenings.  We still manage to squeeze in some fun now and then though.

I was up doing laundry the other day and passed by Bella's room to see these two sitting on her bed.  She was reading him books.  It was so cute...especially since she can't read yet and she was telling the story in her own words. 

Maggie snapped this cute picture on her phone one day.

Garrett signed us up for free Intel tickets to go see Phineas and Ferb Live in one of Intel's suites.  It was cute, but I was glad we got the tickets for free because it wasn't really worth however much tickets are going for.  The kids liked it, so that's all that matters.  This was the only picture I got.  

Garrett also got us tickets to go see a Portland Winterhawk's Hockey game through Intel.  It came with free food vouchers, too, so that was nice.  I had never been to a hockey game, so I quite enjoyed it.  There was a great fight that we got to see, too.  :)  

At one point, the Intel bunnies (people in that work in the fabs) came out and were dancing around the stadium and then at the "half" they came out riding in a zamboni.

 Lydia and Maggie started basketball in January.  Lydia plays for an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  This is her first year and she is really liking it.  Luckily, she has a few girls on her team that she knows from school and one from church.  Their team name is "Bobcats" and she is number 8. 

 Jim and Georgia came over for dinner on Tuesday and then went with us to watch Lydia's game.  I think they got a kick out of it.  Jim's a really big basketball fan and used to play a lot of basketball when he was younger.  

 This is Maggie's second year of playing.  She LOVED it at the end of last year.  This year, she wasn't very excited to start playing.  Mostly because she found out that her practices/games were on Wed. nights and Saturdays.  Wednesday nights are our mutual nights, so she was going to be missing young women's activities for awhile and then she'd have to spend part of her Saturdays, not lounging around the house.  She really wanted to quit, but we wouldn't let her.  And, now she loves it again.  Go figure. 

Her team name is "Pink Pride" and she is number 1.  

 I also took some pictures of some family home evening lessons that we've had recently.  Paige taught one at the beginning of the year and I can't remember what is was about.  She did a great job though, I just have a bad memory.  Lydia taught one awhile back about Joseph Smith and the restoration for her Faith in God.  She did a great job too.  I didn't get any pictures of either of those though.  Maggie taught her lesson about prayer for her personal progress.  I took some pictures because I thought it was cute how they were helping her.  

When the girls teach their lessons, we've been trying to teach them that at the end of their lesson, it's really effective for them to bear their testimonies at the end.  For some reason, they really have a hard time with this.  They are getting better, though. 

 Then, last Sunday I taught the lesson on Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem.  I used little people to help the little kids visualize what was going on.  (I found the idea online.)  This is Lehi and his family (in the castle) telling the people of Jerusalem to repent or be destroyed.  

 This is Lehi and his family setting up their tents as they are camping in the wilderness.  

 I asked them how they would react if dad came home one day and told them that they had to pack some clothes and food and leave behind their toys and clothes and their home to go live in the wilderness and never come back.  We talked about how hard it would be and how we might complain some.  I tried to emphasize how Laman and Lemuel complained and didn't believe their dad.  But, Nephi obeyed first and then tried to find out through prayer, whether or not what his father said was true.  I thought it was a good lesson, and I think it really made them stop and think.  For our treats, we roasted marshmallows over the stove and made s'mores, like we were camping in the wilderness.  

Garrett's parents sold their house and just got back from packing up the rest of their house in Ohio.  So, Garrett helped them unload their moving truck on Friday and Saturday.  So, they are here for good now and working on getting completely settled.  It's nice to have them back.