Granddad's Birthday

Our family tries to get together each month for dinner, 

usually on Fast Sunday.

This last month we all met at my parents 

to celebrate my dad's birthday,

on his actual birthday.

We had dinner and then played some games.

playing the "plate" game

This was pretty fun and everyone could play.
If you'd like to try it, you can find it here.

Susan giving the directions for the game.

showing off their drawings

My brother Paul won with a score of 20

After the plate game we played charades, 

one of my dad's favorite games.

Most of the kids had never played 

so we had to explain how to play.

And they loved it.

Jadon taking a turn at charades

I'm not sure what Jaxon is acting out

We all had a good time and it was fun to play games together.

More Bragging

to be fair I wanted to brag a little on Jared too.
On Thursday I was at Kohls with Jared, Kamryn and Taylor looking for a gift for my mom.  I was looking for something specific and the kids were kind of just messing around while I was looking for this gift.  Then all of sudden Jared holds up this box and says "is this it mom?"  It was exactly what i'd been looking for :)
Then when we got home I just set the box on the table in the kitchen and it was even in a bag.  Soon after that my dad came over to watch Amazing Race with us and unexpectedly my mom came with him.  I didn't even think about her gift sitting out on the kitchen table but Jared did -right away.  And he ran in the kitchen and put it away in my room.
I have great kids!

I just have to Brag!

I just have to brag a little, okay A LOT!  About something very sweet that Kamryn did today.
It was the 2nd grade store today (more on that later) and all of Kamryn's class had a great time.  At the very end the kids were able to buy raffle tickets from their teacher for 4 cute plush animal hand puppets and 3 cool hats.  One girl used all of her money (pretend money of course) to buy 40 tickets.  Kamryn bought 13 tickets.  Well the very first number pulled out was one of Kamryn's tickets - her face was beaming and she was so excited to get to pick the very first prize - she chose a cute elephant.  It went thru all the numbers and the kids who's ticket was pulled out were very excited and some kids were sad they didn't get to choose a prize.  The one girl who bought 40 tickets and happened to be one of Kamryn's friends, hadn't any of her numbers pulled - until the very last ticket and it was one of her numbers. But she was still sad because the only thing left was an XMen hat and she really wanted one of those cute puppets.  I quietly mentioned to her mom that Kamryn would probably trade.  So this girl quietly went up to Kamryn and asked her if she would trade.  She hesitated for a minute and then said sure.  It was so nice.  And then she gave the hat to Jared.

Layton Christmas Party

Every year we look forward to going to Paul's company Christmas party.  The last several years its been at the barn at Thanksgiving Point.  Definitely the nicest barn I've ever been in.  Its always a good dinner and we enjoyed sitting with some of his current project team.  We didn't win anything this year - they always give away great presents and I always hope to win.  It was fun that the very first name called was the superintendent on Paul's job, he was sitting with us and had just said he's never won anything.  He won a camera and his wife wants a camera for Christmas - lucky for him she wasn't there so now he's set.
The photo booth is always fun, as you can see.
And then there is always great entertainment and this year was no exception.  We had Gerard Senehi, a mentalist, flown in from New York. It was amazing, interesting, freaky/spooky.  You can check him out here.

A Narrative Poem

I had an interesting sub assignment yesterday (and today and tomorrow too).  I am rotating through all the classrooms at my kids' elementary school, 30 min at a time, while each teacher meets with the principal - kind of a PPI, if you will.  So I started out in 4th grade yesterday morning and they were working on writing narrative poems.  We went over what it is and read a few examples and then they were supposed to write their own poem.  So I challenged them to finish their poem before I could write my own narrative poem.  Only 2 students finished before me.  I was pretty proud of myself - especially since I hadn't written a poem since I was in school myself.  I share it now:

I was born in Utah
in the year of 1967
I was a cute little girl
that came straight from Heaven.

My name is Lisa
I was named after a star
on a TV Show
In California that is so far.

I am the oldest of five
3 girls and 2 boys
I learned to play the piano
and I loved to play with toys

I grew up to be a mom
with 5 kids too
I love them all so much
no matter what they do.

Answer to Prayer

Two nights ago I was catching up Justin's photo blog of his mission.  I like to keep it in chronological order and I needed to put a couple of memory cards on the blog.  I went looking for the memory card he sent in July.  I remember we were at the cabin when we first looked at it on my computer and then hadn't seen it since.  I looked all over for it - in the safe place I've been keeping all of his memory cards, not there.  In all sorts of other places it might be - not there.  I was really starting to get stressed about it.  It wasn't backed up on my external hard drive.  I hadn't ever put that specific memory card on facebook - my other backup place.  I was getting panicky - what if I'd lost the memory card and all those great photos on it.
Finally I dropped to my knees and pleaded with Heavenly Father - please help me find that memory card.  And I was specific in my prayer - "please put a thought in my mind of where I should look."  As soon as I was done with my prayer the thought came to my mind "look in your camera bag."  I hadn't looked there but right when I had that thought I was comforted.  I found my camera bag and inside there is a zipper pocket and I opened and in there was a memory card.  I put it in my computer and it was Justin's missing memory card.  I was so relieved.  I said my prayer of thanks and slept well that night.
Answers to prayer are real.

Kamryn's a Winner

Every year Paul's work hosts a safety calendar contest and any relative of a Layton employee can enter.  Our older kids have entered when they were under 12 and now Jared and Kamryn have entered drawings the last 2 years.  Last year neither one of them were picked.

This year they put a lot of effort into their drawings and Kamryn even started over on hers to make it better.  Well, this year Kamryn got 2nd place in the contest.  They have 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and then 9 more honorable mention to make up the calendar for the next year.  It was pretty exciting that Kamryn did so well.

The director of safety and his assistant came to our house last week to present Kamryn with her prizes. She got her own Layton hard hat and safety glasses, the boring presents.  And then they gave her an iPod shuffle, a $10 gift card to Toys R Us, and a big, soft stuffed dog. She was pretty excited with all of this.  At first she seemed to like the stuffed dog the most but now that the shuffle's full of music she listens to it all the time.

Paul and I were worried with how Jared would handle it and if he'd feel really bad not winning.  But he was a great sport and was happy and excited for Kamryn.  And of course she's been sharing everything with him.

Chris and Kamryn with her prizes

Jared's Thankful Web

Jared's thankful web that he did at computer lab last week.

1st Snowman of the Season

Jared and Kamryn didn't have school today and were so excited to go out and play in the snow.  Kamryn actually went out first thing this morning, before breakfast even.  She tromped around the yard and even did some shoveling and cleaned off the truck.

After a fun playdate with their friends they made a big plan for the rest of the afternoon.  They were going to:

• have a snowball fight
• build a snowman
• come in for hot chocolate and nachos
• go back out for sledding
• then play video games, watch a movie, and go to bed

Things didn't quite go as they planned but they've had a great time.  They built a snowman all by themselves for the first time and did an awesome job.

I just LOVE this picture - it makes me smile :)

Happy Halloween

Kamryn as a gypsy

Jared and Kamryn had fun doing a little acting
in their costumes

The Hulk stopping the car from going off the cliff

Jared with his scary pumpkin that he carved all by himself

working on their pumpkins

Kamryn also carved her pumpkin all by herself

Taylor even got in on the act and said it was the very first time he'd carved a pumpkin

Kamryn at school on halloween after the parade

Jared in his class after the Halloween parade

 

Kamryn and Jared at Paul's work for trick or treating

Great shot of the kids with their dad

Jared and Kamryn had a super fun Halloween.  They hauled in a huge amount of candy.  This year I offered to buy their candy from them and Kamryn sold me hers but Jared kept all of his, just the opposite of what I thought would happen.

Thoughts on my Birthday

Look at these cute cards my family made me for my birthday:

If you're curious, the blanks to be filled in on Kamryn's card were:
1. book, The Happiness Project, 2. spaghetti scooper 3. ghost earrings
4. iTunes card 5. cute red jacket

Its hard to read Taylor's card but this is what he wrote:
"Dear Mom, I love you so much for all that you do.
I like spending time with you.
You're an amazing cook.
J'adore ma mere."

from my sweet husband 

I had a great birthday - week long celebration really.  On my actual birthday I subbed in kindergarten.  Then in the evening Brooke took the bus home from the U and we all went out to dinner at La Cocina.  It was a great evening out and we all had such a great time together.  After dinner we came home and I opened presents and we had had some cake (which I made).
On Wednesday, my friend Erica organized a wonderful lunch with several good friends.  It was so fun to go to Zupas and have yummy food and visit and laugh.
On Thursday, most of my siblings met at my parents for lunch.  We all had a good time together and decided we need to do that more often.
I received very nice gifts from my family and friends and felt very loved.  It was fun to get all the happy birthday messages on facebook.  I truly felt surrounded by good friends.
The only downside to my birthday was turning 45 which put me into a new age bracket - you know when you fill out surveys and they have you mark the age group you're in - before I was in the 35 - 44 group, now I'm in the 45-54 group and that just makes me feel old.  I guess I'll concentrate more on what people tell me and be happy when people are shocked that I'm old enough to have a missionary out.  I do know that most of the time I don't feel too old and actually feel like I'm in the best physical shape I've been in, in a long, long time.  I'm also very happy with my life right now.

Favorite Halloween Video

We have watched this video several times lately and it is still SO FUNNY!
And now, its really funny to Jared and Kamryn and they love watching themselves when they were little.

He did it!

Just before school started this year, Jared decided he wanted to start reading Harry Potter.  I was all for it and told him we could read it together.  2nd grade has been the year for Harry Potter - that's when Justin and Brooke both started reading it too.
Jared has a bit of unfair advantage - he's seen all the movies and knows what's happening.  So that's made it easier for him to start reading in this magical world.  I remember starting to read the first book with Justin and it was a bit hard to get into at first - since it was all so new to each of us.
Its been great Harry Potter with Jared - its been a family affair. He's read with everyone in our family (except for Justin, of course).
When he started out his goal was to read the first 2 books during 2nd grade and I thought that was a good goal.  It was kind of slow start and in the beginning he would just read a page or 2.  Many times I would read a page and he would read a page and that's all we would do.
But the last couple of weeks he's really been into it and we would read several pages or even the whole chapter.  I started telling I bet he finished the first book by Halloween - and then he finished it last night!  That's over 300 pages for a 2nd grader :)
Now on to the next book - at least we don't have to wait for them this time around.

He's Got SPIRIT

Its been spirit week at Taylor's school this week.  He's been pretty psyched for the "United Assembly" - which is a competition type assembly between the 7th, 8th and 9th graders.  7th grade wears blue, 8th grade wears red and 9th grade wears white.  Of course, the 9th graders always win :)  Taylor was picked to chug a 2 liter of 7UP and of course - he won!

Don't mess with this "white" boy

Crazy Hair Day

 It was Red Ribbon Week at our school last week.  Jared and Kamryn were very excited for the last day of it - which was crazy  hair day.  They got up extra early on Friday so they could have time to get ready and then do their crazy hair.

it's CRAZY hair day!

Kamryn went for the medusa look with pigtails all over her head
and then we sprayed it purple and pink

There wasn't much we could do with Jared's buzz
other than color it

He went with orange, blue and red

these kids have spirit, yes they do!

Missionary Mondays

I didn't used to really like Mondays too much - it's laundry day and a day to try to recover from the weekend.  But now I love them because its the day we get Justin's letters by email.  He is a very faithful writer and we almost always wake up to a great letter from him every Monday morning - early, like 5:30 am or so.  Its such a great way to start the day and week.  We are very grateful that he likes to write and continues to tell very funny and also spiritual stories. He always shares a spiritual thought every week.

He sure makes it easy to be a missionary mom.

Elder Adams and Elder Foote