Jasmine, Annie and Skeletons, Oh My!!!

Once upon a time, in a far away land, lived a princess named Jasmine, her friend little orphan Annie and their favorite little skeleton.

They loved candy and decided they needed to go on a mighty adventure in search of their much desired sugar high! They set out on their way and came across a festival of sorts and decided to take a look around. At this festival was all kinds of fun and sugary sweetness. There were ghosts to make, faces to paint, apples to bob, and cakes to walk for.

Princess Jasmine surrendered herself to the sugar and enjoyed the festivities, while little orphan Annie opted for a much needed nap after such a long journey. The skeleton took everything in, and whilst he did not desire the sugary sweetness that his fellow ladies did, he still enjoyed himself immensely.

After little orphan Annie's nap, she arose and followed her dear friend Jasmine as they continued on their journey. The walked and walked and every once in a while would stumble across a town and beg for some of their sugar. They did this accompanied by a knight and his wife they met along the way to keep them safe.

After this leg of their journey had passed they met up with some of their friends, a space man named Buzz, a lion, and an Indian princess. When they were all together this group of travelers decided they were pretty much invincible and wanted to see how much candy and sugar they could accumulate! They ran from village to village and filled their goody bags with multitudes of sugary sweetness. They found all kinds of chocolates, and suckers, and various other goodies. They were cautious travelers though, and only went to the villages and towns that were well lit and well taken care of. After they had exhausted all of their resources they journeyed back home, where they examined all of their sweet treasures. They enjoyed some of their spoils and soon were wearied out from their travels and drifted off into dreams of dancing candies!

We had a wonderful Halloween, and hope everyone enjoyed their's as much as we did ours! We also enjoyed homemade chili and sugar cookies and had an awesome time spending time as a family!

Primary Program

Today was the primary program in our ward. We weren't sure if Aleece would actually stand up in front of everyone and say her part. Last Sunday they practiced in the chapel, and she didn't even want to go up there, she was so scared! But we are proud to say that Aleece did a phenomenal job today! She said her line (albeit very quietly!) and was reverent the whole time! We are very proud of her! She even had her line memorized. She said, "I can pray to Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere. I can and so can you." I will try to post a video of her saying it later! The first song the primary children sang was "I am a Child of God" and I couldn't help but smile when Lainey chimed in and sang along with them! After that about every two to three minutes, Lainey would say "I wanna sit by Leecy T!" What would I do without my sweet kids? They bring such joy to my life!

Writing

We took Aleece to the doctor's last week because she had had a cough for almost a month. Turns out besides the cough, she had two major ear infections also! They put her on antibiotics and we go in tomorrow for her to be rechecked. Anyways.....at our doctor's office they have multiple chalkboards for the kids to draw on out in the waiting rooms. Val was fortunately able to be there with me---sometimes taking three kids there on my own can be a little crazy! So he sat with them while I was at the main desk paying our co-pay. I started walking back to where the fam was seated and noticed that Aleece's name was written on the chalkboard, so I asked Val if he wrote her name for her. He replied that he had not and that she had done it herself. I know you are thinking Val must have pretty bad handwriting to be compared to a 4 year old's but in fact, it is just the opposite! I was astonished at how well she had written her name all by herself! I honestly didn't know she could do it completely on her own yet! I was beaming with pride and was so excited to know that she is learning so much at home and in preschool! It's always nice to know that something sticks when you teach your kids!!!

Visit to Marshall

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to Minnesota to visit family the past two weeks and we had a great time! We did so many fun things and went on lots of little adventures!

The kids were excellent travelers! We have been very fortunate to have kids who don't mind traveling by car! And we only heard "how much further?" a few times!!!

We drove up to the cities one day to pick up Mary Rose and Katchie from the airport. We met up with Patty and Eric first and were able to enjoy some delicious pizza at the park. The girls had a great time and had I been more prepared for the cold weather (it is Minnesota after all!) I probably would have enjoyed it even more! After eating our carbone's pizza we headed off to the Mall of America to go to their Underwater Aquarium. Now, anyone who knows me, knows of me extreme fear of sharks, and so while I was not necessarily thrilled at the prospect of walking through a tunnel surrounded by sharks, I did it for my kids. And you know what? I enjoyed the whole thing! I just kept telling myself that the possibility of a shark ramming through the glass tunnel (think Jaws people!) was slim to none! They had some amazing fish, turtles and yes, even sharks! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit but as we were leaving Aleece fell and hit her cheek against a giant Galapogas turtle replica (though we convinced her to tell everyone she had been attacked by Jessie the shark--it sounded cooler!) She had a huge bruise, but luckily she is pretty resiliant and was back to her old self in no time! After that we picked up Mary Rose and Katchie and headed back to Marshall for some more fun!

We had so much fun with family while we were in Minnesota! We love visiting Granny and Grampy and Trey, and having everyone else there, Patty, Eric, Katchie and Mary Rose, was an added bonus! It was so nice to have all of us sisters together, that doesn't happen nearly enough! And Granny and Grampy made it possible for all of this to happen! They were so kind as to help me drive there and home again, with the kids, so that I wouldn't have to do it by myself! They have been such amazing examples to me, and have helped me be the parent that I am today! I love my family so much and am so grateful to be a part of the family that I am!

We visited Holmberg orchard again while we were in Marshall. It has become a tradition for us in the fall and I think we have been every year since Aleece was born. They have a huge apple orchard, an even bigger pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, pony rides (the animals were new this year), food and fun! The girls got to ride on the Shetland ponies (named after the little rascals--Aleece wanted a girl, so she got to ride Darla) and Aleece loved it! Both girls absolutely adore animals, both big and small, so we were a little surprised when Lainey didn't enjoy the ride. She calmed down by the end of the ride and we still aren't sure what it was that scared her. She really doesn't have many fears, much to my chagrin at times! They got to pet some goats, chickens, bunnies, and ponies. Lainey liked the goats best--she tried several times to climb in with them! My favorite thing about the orchard is their honeycrisp apples. These apples are not too sweet, not too tart and have just the right amount of crispness to them. They are heavenly, as far as apples go! They don't sell them everywhere and unfortunately are only sold typically between the months of September and October. So we stocked up and have definitely been enjoying them!

We had so much fun being able to see Trey play football at two different games. He has such an amazing talent! He is so fun to watch and we are so proud of what a great player he is! The Marshall Tigers have had an awesome season! Aleece was one of their biggest supporters and probably Trey's #1 fan! She takes after her Grampy and cheered extra loud at both games, "Go Trey! Go Tigers!" Even Trey said he could hear her from the field!

One of the activities that we did was make sugar cookies! We had a grand time rolling out the dough, cutting out fun shapes and frosting our yummy cookies! Aleece was able to get in on a little more of the action this time around! She loved cutting out shapes and her decorated cookies definitely won the prize for most creative! She loved using all of the different colors of frosting, and sprinkles and more! Madelaine just enjoyed eating them this time!

We experimented with pumpkin on some new recipes, which all proved to be divine! But you know me, I love all things pumpkin! :) We made biscuits and pancakes and it has given me some ideas on what else to add pumpkin to!

On our last day in Marshall Granny, Grampy, Trey, Leecy, Lainey, Lennon and I got to make a scarecrow and we all had so much fun! The girls loved helping rake the leaves and stuff them into the different bags. The weather was beautiful and we got some great pictures!









Lennon learned to really laugh while we were gone and I absolutely adore hearing him giggle and coo!! He has the sweetest voice and he is so happy! Val was really excited to hear him do this when we got back! We missed Val tons and are glad to be back at home with him! We just wish we could have all of us in the same place, all of the time!

Articles of Faith

So this is my first post on our blog. Steph wanted me to put this video on here of Aleece saying the first and second Articles of Faith. She's so smart and we are so proud of her for learning them. It certainly strengthens my testimony (and I'm sure Stephanie's) to have our little girl doing right. We are blessed parents to have such valiant children.