Trunk or Treat

Honestly, I really don't like Halloween. It is really just a big pain for me. I love the smells and the season it ushers in, but the pumpkin carving and costumes and candy and scary movies and such, I could TOTALLY live without. However, like all kids, Aileen and Parker love it, so I try to put on a smile, for most of it, anyway. :)  Last night was the ward trunk or treat. It was a reminder on why we needed to split. I loved seeing all my friends from the other ward, but it was packed. My poor sister was with me and the cultural hall was so packed and loud we couldn't wait to get outside. :) The kids had a blast, and I enjoyed seeing all the kids, youth and even adults (Nice Bishop!) in their costumes.  Here are a couple pics......I'll post more tomorrow night after the kids Trick or Treat for real. :)

Gorgeous Song

Hillary Weeks is one of my favorites.  This video features Stephanie Nielsen and another sister I saw at Time out for Women this past March who lost all her family to war in Africa. Her story is amazing. Love this song.

Amazingly beautiful

I was looking around online at LDS art and came across this. I know of Mark Mabry, but for some reason I have never seen this picture before. Can you imagine?  That Nephite looks like he is never going to let go. How amazing it must have been to have the Lord of all creation come to you and hold you, for what I imagine was as long as you wanted Him to. The look on the Savior's face is just as compelling.  I see relief. Relief that He was finally able to appear to His "other sheep" and minister to them, bless them and personally testify of the truthfulness of the prophets of His coming. I see the love and tenderness Christ has for His brother, His friend.....for this man who He has know literally forever. I love this picture. It's amazing what emotions beautiful art, music, written word and spoken word can evoke. THIS is what our talents are meant to be used for. To testify of Christ.     

Little boys are awesome

I can not describe how much I love this picture.  I LOVE little boys!!!  

Even Captain America like to watch cartoons!!

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend my mom came to visit! The kids waited all morning for her arrival.  Aileen was wondering what goodies she would bring for them. :)  My mom always stops at the cracker barrel in Joplin (it's almost halfway) and she always brings us valomilks.  Do you know what these are??? They are chocolate cups filled with marshmallow cream.  Delicious. The only thing better are the ones my sister makes and maybe a cherry mash.  (I kinda like old fashioned candy).  So, it's become a thing when she comes to visit.  It reminds of me of when we were little kids and my Grandpa use to come by the house on his way home from work and bring us candy bars. Everytime, He always had them in his front shirt pocket. I miss him.  Anyways, my mom loves to go to the pumpkin patch with her grandkids. So, we trucked it on up to Happy Hollows in Crocker. It was a cute little place. They had fun games, a big slide, a hay maze and a pumpkin slingshot! It was a lot of fun. You got to ride a tractor down to the "pumpkin patch" portion and each kid got to pick out a pumpkin. They also had a little petting zoo. They had some alpacas which were really cute. It was a lot of fun.  After the pumpkin patch we went to El Jimadors and then came home to watch a troubling OU game. (They really should have won by about 60).  We had a great time the rest of Mom's visit going to church, hanging out and a shopping spree. :)  We like it when people come visit us. :)

Here are some pics of Happy Hollows.....

The awesome slide. The kids said it
was really fast. The beam up there Aileen is
walking on has a mattress under it, so the kids were jumping off

Getting Parker to look at the camera
was impossible. There was just too much to look at

Going through the little hay maze was Grammy

Digging for Gold

Parker loved the corn hole game

This was a super fun game.  You pumped the water to
move the duckies to the other side. This Parker's very favorite
thing at the Pumpkin Patch.

This was suppose to be "bowling",  but
Parker thought chucking the pumpkin at the gourds
was a way better idea

Parker was not a fan of the animals
eating out of his hand

Aileen, on the other hand....LOVED it

The tractor ride was nice touch

Pumpkin slingshot was super cute

He was very particular about his pumpkin

She too, took quite awhile to select the perfect pumpkin

REALLY looking forward to this :)

We had our first young women's activity tonight as a new ward and it made me even more excited! I know the girls, they are awesome and I always love being with them. Tonight, though, I was most excited about the new leaders called to serve with me.  Holy Moly.....I feel so blessed and excited to get to work with these awesome ladies. Tonight we started off having fun doing get to know you activities and eating yummy snacks, but I wanted the girls to know right of the bat that we are going to focus more of our Weds night activities on the scriptures and feeling the spirit. I don't want them only feeling the spirit on Sunday. So, I thought we should end the activity by each of the leaders sharing their favorite scripture or scripture story.  It was great! I loved what each of the leaders had to say and I am so excited thinking about how they will each touch these girls lives. They are awesome women! I want the girls to get use to hearing their leaders bear their testimony.  I want them to recognize that a testimony doesn't have to be a 10 minute long cry fest. It doesn't have to be a deep pouring out of your heart.  It can be a simple statement or a sharing of a scripture that means something to you. I am so excited for the girls........these new leaders are in love with them already and are going to give their all to help reach my goals for our YW........help the girls discover their own testimonies, help them recognize the spirit and follow it and help them realize their great worth as a daughter of God.

Content

Sometimes it's nice to sit back and think......"ahhhh.......life is good". That's how I'm feeling right now. No, things aren't perfect and our life is crazy right now with Sam in the bishopric and me as the YW president, but life feels like it's right where it's suppose to be.  It's a really nice feeling. :)

Two cool dudes!

We were taking Ashton home from Preschool
 and they were just too cute....I had to take a picture. :)

Tummies and Souls sufficently filled!

On Friday night Sam and I went and celebrated our 13th Anniversary. I CAN NOT believe it's been that long. Sheesh. We are boring and just went to dinner and a movie (but lets face it, there's not a lot to do around here). It was nice spending a little time together. I feel really blessed to have to have a great husband who takes care of me and our kids. One who honors his priesthood and tries his best to do what the Lord wants him to do.  I feel blessed that he chooses to serve our country and I am so proud to be a military wife.  I am so grateful for the good, fun and loving Daddy that he is.  I am grateful that he chose to love me. :)



Saturday and Sunday was General Conference.  Sunday was our "actual" anniversary, so I made Sam's favorite.....roast.

So our Spirits and our tummies were sufficinetly filled that day! I love coming away from conference feeling so uplifted and happy and optimistic and full of love for my Savior and those sweet sweet Apostles.  I always feel rejuvenated and ready for what may come in the next 6 months. I think Sis. Dalton's talk was my favorite. I LOVED it! Maybe it's because I am a new young women's president and everytime I heard "youth" or "young women and young men" my ears perked up! I just loved how she made a talk about the challenges our young women face today focused through the eyes of her father. How important it is for a young girl to see her mother loved. To see how a woman is suppose to be treated.  How it can truly shape the kind of man she brings into her own life. I thought it was fantastic.  I heard on Dr Phil (yes, I know.....we can talk about this later, but I sometimes watch Dr Phil) that sometimes a girl needs a "Father" and sometimes she needs a "Daddy".  I LOVED this.  What a great quote.  I also really enjoyed the talk on Elijah, I think it was Elder Bednar.  How family history and temple work are so important and we all should be working fast and furious on it. I loved how he challenged us to get the youth more involved.  I will tell you.....St Robert 1st ward young women will be doing this!!! (I got lots of ideas from conference). There's no reason our youth can't be indexing, helping some of our older generations learn to do it and going to do baptism more than just our scheduled twice a year time. I loved conference and that Aileen watched all of Sunday!!  She listened alertly and laughed at Pres Monson when he made jokes and I could really see that she was listening and developing a love for our sweet Prophet.

Now, I also felt a little jipped because Elder Holland spoke at the Priesthood Session and not in a general session. He is always my favorite and for some reason I always really connect to his talks, and although I've never met him, I feel like I've know him forever.......and maybe I have. ;)

It was really a great weekend!