Summer 2013

This summer we did some fun things. Some of them we even thought to take pictures of! The first week of July we went down to Utah for a family reunion and to say goodbye to my little Niece, McKenzi. She's not so little anymore! She is now serving her mission in Posadas, Argentina. We're so proud of her. Not proud enough, though, to have taken any pictures. Dumb. Anyway, we had a ball down there and this is what we did take pictures of. TEMPLE SQUARE!

climbing the pillar in the tabernacle

single-handedly singing as the MO-TAB

feeling the marks in His feet

"That's a statue of Jesus!"

Outside the Conference Center boiling our faces off.

Stealing the phone at the Lion House Pantry

In August, we went camping for a Wilson reunion in Sylvan Lake. It was a nice campground, and the kids LOVED playing with cousins. There was even a time that Sam and Wilson were totally lost, and all of us were looking for them. We had fun at the campfires, waterslides, and the beach! Dustin, Ed and I drove up to Edmonton on Saturday morning for the End of Summer Volkswagen show. It was a bust, but we were able to pick up some VW parts we needed and got to stop and see Rem and Peg on Soy boy's Birthday Party. Dustin and Ed loved Becky's homemade corn dogs! Good trip.

Action shot: assemble the tent!

We were here!

"I'm three and I get to eat marshmallows!"

Ninja

Ady. After being eaten by mosquitoes with a  bewildered look!

His shirt says, "Who pooped in the park?" That was a family favorite.

Ady and Reggie resting at the Waterpark where snack Nazis reigned. 

You remember our post about Marlan and A&W? Well, at the end of August A&W does Cruisin' for a Cause to find a cure for MS. Anyway it's a big deal with a show and shine, and the fire department came with the big truck etc. The kids loved the burgers and mostly seeing Marlan. It was a good day. Here they posed with the fire gear on.

It was stinkin' hot. Even without the flames in the back ground!

 Next post: Elle's third birthday!

YW New Beginnings: Part One

This year, we planned our New Beginnings around a "Colour Carnival" theme. We decided that we could do eight carnival games centered on the eight values. This was very exciting for me because I had wanted to do a carnival for ages! It worked great. First, I talked to my very talented friend, Tess at the Burrfect design. Check out her blog here. She created some WAY cute invitations and the signs for each game. Like I said, TALENTED! The invitation was printed as a 5x6, and it worked great!

I printed these on 8x10 sheets from Costco. I wish I had made them bigger.

Orange- Choice and Accountability

Blue- Divine Nature

White- Faith

Red- Individual Worth

Purple- Integrity

Green- Knowledge

Gold- Virtue

Yellow- Good Works

She also made the tags for the food. These were printed as 4x6 and cut in half for display.

We made cotton candy with Marlan's cotton candy machine, ( I know, right?!) and little ice cream floats with different colour sodas. Colours, get it?

This was cute, because Marlan made little sliders and cocktail weenies. Her first time making buns and they turned out perfect!

I made the girls each a caramel apple to take home. They ate the popcorn during the games while they cheered each other on.

For decoration, I made a bunting out of really cute fat quarters I found at Village Quilts in Lethbridge. They have some really adorable stuff!

We were both proud of our artistry that day!

Set Up:

We met Wednesday night at 8:00 and stayed until 10:00 to set up. It was a blast to work with these two creative ladies!

The bunting up and stunning!

These were packages of the values, so for the coordinating game the girls could keep score on the back. The scripture that goes with each value is written on the front. The pages were colour co-ordinated, of course!

My chalkboard "art". It was to distract from my talk. =)

Cake Walk. Like musical chairs, but when the music stopped, there was a lego head stuck underneath random seats for a little cupcake. We changed them around each time the music started while the girls closed their eyes.

Hoop toss

Carol practicing the bean bag toss- or temple toss, as we called it.

Most of the gym set-up.

Marble Madness. Handmade by Marlan's dad.

Some pictures from that night.

Tamarin and her friend, Carli (both coming into YW this year) beneath the second bunting. Letters courtesy of Tess, again.

Nicolina. Our beautiful Laurel who LEADS!

Me, in my natural habitat among the balloons.

So, there you have it. That activity took a long time to plan! It was so worth it and when I do my second instalment, there will be pictures taken of the games and everything. Oh, and here is a little last minute treat, brought to you by the Helium industry.

"Ahh! My old shool- house"

Before we get started on the kids' school, here's our little Ady at 5 months! She loves Chocolate Moose-get it? And what can I say? She's adorable! She rolled over the same day as Max started school. She really wanted to have a big day, too! What a sweetheart. I seriously melt looking at her.

Here are the boys! Max started first, because the kindergarten kids had a staggered first week. They were way excited to go, and Elle didn't understand why she didn't get to stay at the school. Hopefully they get that whole preschool thing figured out really soon- SHE REALLY WANTS TO GO!!!

Second Grade- Rock on!

Madame!

With the lunch box, first day at Kindergarten.

Love that early Autumn morning sun. MMM!

She thinks she's staying, too!

I wonder who will get all the attention this year?

Superhero with sock model

"It's my first day, too...in the Spider Man chair"

Beef Cake

Living in Brooks is expensive! Buying groceries here easily costs 20% more than Edmonton. The only place comparable in price was Brisbane. That was less expensive, though, and WAY sunnier. And beautiful. And beachy. And ocean-y. Did I say beautiful? Anyway, the point is: We live here and it is COSTLY. A friend of mine here let me in on a little secret: wholesale meat. Duchess is a little community about 15 minutes north of here. It literally has a main road and not much else. It reminds me of Magrath, but with less mormons.

We went to a place called Alberta Prairie Meats. It is just that. There was a bumper sticker by the cash register that said. "EAT BEEF. ROPE CALVES. WELCOME TO ALBERTA." I'd like to know where to get one. It classed up the joint, for sure. There was a huge freezer there that you could buy pre-packed meat. Like, if you didn't want a cut in huge wholesale amount, you can try a smaller cut. They also butcher and process wild game, like moose and elk. So, if Dustin ever gets that Elk tag out here, that is where we're going!

We bought a freezer pack of meat  I'm way excited about it. There are different packages at different prices, with different meat and different cuts. We pretty well customized our order from the Winter Freezer pack #4.
-12 lb Lean ground beef
-8 lb Combination sausage--changed to 4 lb. pure pork maple sausage, and 4 lbs. garlic combination
-5 lb Stew meat--changed to ground beef
-10 lb bnlss Cross-rib/Blade roast
-8 lb Sirloin tip roast--changed to Boston Butt for smokin'
-5 lb Beef sausage--changed to smokies
-8 lb T-bone steak
          If you're interested, check out the link.
http://albertaprairiemeats.ca/freezer-pack-and-sausage.html

Our Freezer is full, ready for winter! I'm happy that we could get the meat that we might actually use.

New Beginnings: My Life

Recently, my friend in Young Women's gave a lesson wherein she included her journaling experience. We try to inspire the girls to journal their personal progress, and she stated her favoured way to do it: by blogging. It is how she remembers! I have books and books of notes and ideas that have no rhyme or reason. Therefore, I have decided that blogging is a great way to do it. I need to be better. I don't want to miss all the sweet memories of my kids' small, sweet years. We're planning for our New Beginnings in our Young Women's this week. I'm going to blog the invites, the games, the ideas and decorations. So I can REMEMBER! While I think of that, I'll remember it is a new beginning for me and my journaling. I want to walk the talk to the girls in my young women's group for journaling, and do my very best for my kids! Who knows, maybe one day, I'll make a blog book or some crazy thing like that.