Evelyn's Birthday: How has nine years passed?

9 years ago...

Excerpts from her journal this year ....

October 20, 2015
Tomorrow is my b-day!  I cannot wait!  It will be fun!  I hope that today will go by fast!  I am so curious.  Gaaah!  I cannot hold it in!  I love my b-day!

October 22, 2015 (the day after her birthday, since we don't do school on birthdays and because she was too excited about her birthday....)
Yesterday was my birthday!  It was fun!  I got a bag.  I got a journal.  I got some books.  I got some shirts, some Strawberry Shortcake dolls, and a lot of other things!  I love birthdays!

Leslie worked hard at decorating the cake like a favorite book

Working on a birthday collage

Yay!  Cake!  

Still waiting for presents...

Worth waiting for!

Playing with Mom the next day...

The Ten Commandments

We're studying the Old Testament this year for homeschool, and we recently took a week and a half to focus on each of the Ten Commandments.  The kids did acrostic poems, except for Owen who wrote a song to the tune of Yankee Doodle.  It is pretty awesome, so I am introducing it here!

1) Number one is honoring and loving Heav'nly Father,
Having life without Him would make life a lazy bother.

2) Never having idols is commandment number two,
Worshipping a book or game is what you should not do!

3) Three is using your own words to be an honest Saint,
Swearing, cursing, lying are all ways for Mom to faint.

4) Sunday is the day of worship, that's rule number four,
Reading Sunday books is good; not going to the store.

5) Five is loving Mom and Dad, and not complaining at all,
6) Six is killing nobody cause if you do you'll fall.

7) Honoring your marriage is commandment number seven,
Hearts and flowers, rings and kisses get you all to heaven.

8) Stealing is a thing to do when going to a jail,
Eight is going to the store and buying things on sale!

9) Nine is that you should not say things that are not so true,
That is saying that your shoes are old when they are new.

10) Last of all there's number ten, (it says you should not covet),
If you want a happy life obey these rules and love it!

Reuben's new smile

First tooth lost!

A couple of weeks ago Reuben came to me with a wiggly tooth.  I thought it would be a while before he lost it, so we were truly surprised when he lost it during a dinner last week.  He was eating macaroni and cheese, one of our softer meals, so it was pretty hilarious when he was complaining about how hard it was to eat and then pop!  He showed us his tooth!  He was thrilled, and is now excited to take care of his "real" teeth.

General Conference October 2015

How can I summarize 12 hours of awesome inspiration and encouragment generated from this past LDS General Conference?  

I can't.  

However, Micah said a prayer this morning thanking Heavenly Father for the opportunity to now study each talk one by one.  We do this as part of our daily homeschool routine, and I am grateful that he and the other children are excited to review and act upon what we learned this past weekend.  

This quote stands out, as well as some of the moments pictured below.  I loved hearing Gideon sing along to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, watching my children take notes and whisper "WOW" to each other, and reading texts from Jonas like "I love you Mom" during Elder Holland's talk. 

Food preparation like making S'more monkey bread!  

I also simplified our meals so that I wouldn't be working in the kitchen.

Taking notes (and pictures!)

We really missed having Jonas with us this past weekend.  As a family, we have always enjoyed and been excited to share General Conference with each other.  His absence was keenly felt.  We are supremely thankful to our extended family for taking care of him in their homes and for offering him the opportunity to spend Conference with them.

Taking care of our garden...

Nothing really grew in our garden this year.  Our theory is that the pest control sprayed around the gardens and kept the bees away.  So it was quite fun to take the zucchini plant out and spread it back and forth across the yard...  The plant itself was huge - no zucchini though... :(

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