Mom's birthday!

We celebrated my mom's birthday on her birthday Sunday August 31st. We had a Mexican dinner we all helped make--but mom. We gave her gifts and she gave us gifts! They are always funny things. It was fun!

Stake Conference

I wanted to write about Stake Conference before I forgot. Saturday night our ward choir sang--Tim is the choir director and they did fabulous. I was planning on singing until I got this nasty cold I've been battling all week. They spoke about the spiritual nature of finances and showed some great tools on providentliving.org. I actually did one of the "lessons" today, it didn't take too long. Even though we try hard to be careful it's nice to have a good shot in the arm about it and to try harder. Then Sunday we had a satellite broadcast Pres. Packer and Pres. Uchtdorf were in the Marriott Center at BYU--most of Utah County had this same broadcast. Elder Jensen spoke first and it was very good about not judging others whatever their circumstances--he had brother born with brain damage so his experiences with him was his introduction. Then Sis. Dibb, Pres. Monson's daughter, spoke about being real, it was cute. She is her father's daughter! Pres. Packer spoke quite awhile about the history of Utah County and sort of the background of what we have been blessed with which was earned by those who came before us. Then Elder Uchtdorf spoke about 2 questions "What am I doing to strengthen my faith and testimony in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father?" and "What am I doing to strengthen marriage and family?" He gave 3 suggestions 1. be a current temple recommend holder 2. speak with Heavenly Father often daily 3. study the words of the prophets daily. This last talk was the subject of our discussion at dinner last night and we challenged the kids to think of one thing they could improve on. It was a great opportunity to hear the apostles speak. Even though I was feeling lousy because of my cold I did not want to miss the chance to hear them speak, it is a great privilege and blessing.

My new ring!

Tim gave me a new wedding ring--it was a surprise. I am so practical I would have put it off longer. My diamond fell out of my original ring about 4 years ago. Tim bought a diamond from my parents who bought some in South Africa when they went there in November (2007). He designed the ring and had my old ring made into this ring--they had to add some material to this but I love it! The ring is being fitted right now since it was made too small. I hope to have it back soon! But here is a photo of it now.

Soccer, soccer, soccer!

We are back in the soccer mode. We have 5 kids in soccer again only Timo is not playing and Zane is. I will put the video of Zane's first goal on here. All our kids have scored so far, not that it matters but it makes them feel good. Hopefully I get a photo of Taran in his cute blue and white uniform!

First day of school!

Taran started High School this year, he's in 10th grade and so far he is enjoying it. He has some hard honors classes but we think they will be great experience for him--he enjoys the teachers so we hope that's a good sign. Timo is in 8th grade in Jr. High and it's pretty mellow so far. Emily is in 5th grade and in A.L.L. the accelerated learning lab. She loves the kids in her class and her teacher so it's good and she's learning to be more responsible--we hope anyway! Izak is in 3rd grade and likes his class since most of his friends are in it--poor teacher! Micah is in 1st grade and he has adjusted to all day just fine. His teacher adores him and wishes all her students were like him--I wish he was that way at home all the time! Zane is in preschool and loves it! He can't wait for it! Gwen and I muddle around without him and she is very glad when he comes home!

Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance!

Taran and his friends frequent the dances, church and school. I guess the music is not that great at the church dances since they have moved to Highland. Owell, he keeps going even though he says he won't go again because the music stinks--no Muse or Talking Heads.

Summer's over! BAH!

So I am finally writing a summery of the last of summer. Sundays were filled with family visits which are fun but don't leave much time for writing. We enjoyed Tim's brother Hans and his son Griffin who came out to Utah for a week. We went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point--it's actually the Museum of Ancient Life which also happens to be the largest dinosaur museum in North America. The kids always love it and Amy one of Tim's sisters and her family also came as well as Tim's parents. I did a slide show of that. The next day we went to Lagoon for Novell's Lagoon Day. It was fun since Hans and Griffin joined in the fun. The kids really liked Griffin. Hans is pretty cool too. Anyway, after our free dinner we were ready to leave. I think us adults were more tired than the kids. We made it back just in time for Taran to go to a scout activity--they hiked around Bridal Veil Falls up Provo canyon. That was good timing because later in the week a fire started up there and it took until school started for it to be open again. We usually go there at least once but not this year due to the fire! At the end of the week we had our Cedar Hills Family Festival so Tim took the kids to the activities at the park while I got the house ready for guests that night. The teenagers hung out with their friends at the Festival. That evening we had invited family and friends for the big fireworks show. We had a dessert buffet while we waited. We had a wind and rain storm come through just in time for the guests to arrive and it didn't leave until they left so no fireworks UNTIL Monday. Owell, we enjoyed visiting and the kids had fun with all the friends and cousins! The next day we had a family dinner with Hans and Griffin at Tim's parents which was fun. They went home the next day to Boston. Monday we finally had the fireworks and it was really fun. Shellie's gang is the only group that made it back to see them. Tim took Izak, Micah and Emily to Seven Peaks our local waterslide Park. They earned a free pass by reading a certain amount of minutes. Taran and Timo were not interested in going—go figure! Tim took the kids miniature golfing with their free passes and I hung with Gwen. I got to visit with my friend Sherisse which I had included a photo already on my blog. It was very fun to meet her son Sammy and catch up on how things are going for her. She said that my kids were mellow, I tried to explain they are spazes like every kid. My mom, sister, Emily and I went to Park City school shopping so it was a fun trip. We got home later than I thought we would but it was still fun. Tim and I played tennis and went out for snowcones on a date and he gave me a new wedding ring! About 4 years ago I had lost the diamond when I went walking so I took it off. I have been wearing a pretty silver ring my sister got me in Wales. It was a surprise and I will post the photo of it soon. Emily had friends over for a lateover a couple of times before summer was over, they played games and had fun. Her cousin Maddie joined in one night. Cousins Maddie and Jeremy spent the night one night and they seemed to have lots of fun. We went to the Thanksgiving Point garden for family night one night and we saw our friends the Bernards (they live across the street) there. They were seeing the garden in a golf cart—it is a large area.
They told us there were golden eagles down at the bottom from where we were. We hurried there and saw 2 impressive golden eagles and learned quite a bit about them. Tim thought it was best! Our friends left their golf cart for us to use and walked back so we had fun driving around in the golf cart—Taran and Timo tried driving a bit. Our other favorite of the night was the huge man made waterfalls. There are the largest man made waterfalls in North America. We went to the Dinosaur Museum and the Children's garden later.
We took a couple of friends to the children's garden & Amy met us there. Another day Tim took the kids to the farm at Thanksgiving Point. We bought a family pass for a year so we are getting our money's worth! It really has been a wonderful thing! We also went one last time to the zoo before school started. The elephant show was awesome and we watched the gorillas for awhile and they were very active. We took the kids swimming at my moms a few more times and we had a family reunion at my parents' for my dad's relatives since many were in town for priesthood ordinations and weddings. It was a fun time. I was able to go to my cousin Gwen's wedding in the Salt Lake Temple, she was a beautiful bride and the sealing ceremony was one of the best I've ever heard! Their reception was a great party, we loved dancing and watching Gwen dance with her salsa partner—she was amazing!!! We also had gone to a reception for a girl from our ward just before so we had a busy night. Emily and I went to a shower for Amber my brother Keith's fiancee just before school. It was a fun and busy summer but I am sad it's over!!!