Pictures in a Packet

My in-laws have been doing some cleaning out and organizing and gave us some of their extra photos we've sent them over the years.

It got me thinking about how many more pictures I should be taking and how much more journal writing I should be doing because time is slipping by increasingly fast.

It seems like yesterday we were at Sunset Beach, North Carolina

enjoying my favorite family beach ever!

This Christmas photo was obviously snapped quickly.

This one makes me laugh because it looks like Hannah (on the right) is about to cry and I wonder if it has anything to do with how Emily is gripping her little hand....hmmm. Or maybe it's a guilty look Hannah has because she has pulled of her shoe again.

We have a lot of pictures like that when the twins were babies--

almost all of them taken in our Murrieta, California home.

And we all laughed so hard when we pulled out these two photos from the packet...

I wonder who she looks like :)

And then we found a family picture we took spontaneously with our "Atlanta Braves" hats and visors. I remember Dan set the timer on the camera and we all grouped together on the deck outside our house in Georgia. No one "matched" or had even combed their hair, but we ended up using this on one of our Christmas cards.

I love walking down memory lane...

Mondays

This is how I feel about Mondays...

I really love them.

It's not that the kids are back in school or that a weekday schedule resumes.

Mondays mean that it is one guaranteed evening I have all six of us together, even Emily.

No work, no classes, no church meetings, no answering the telephone.

I'm still working on the not answering the door...because the doorbell usually rings.

However, I love that nothing gets in the way of Family Home Evening.

I love that we can eat dinner early or late because no one is dashing out the door.

I am savoring Monday nights this school year especially.

Because whether I like it or not, my girls are growing up...fast.

So right now, Mondays are indeed my favorite day! 

Friends

Emily took these cute high schoolers on a fun photo outing and

here is part of what she captured...

I love all these girls!

 

Orcas

Being in the 5th Grade entails giving a lot of oral reports.

Last week Julia completed her animal report with the study of Orca Whales.

She was thorough, dedicated and stayed on task until every last detail was planned and prepared.

Julia had complete command over her audience and made sure she had prepared an "attention getter" for her introduction, as well as a visual activity to help her fellow classmates really grasp how large orcas are.

She measured out 32 feet of twine to illustrate how long orca males can grow and had the class spread out on the playground with the twine in hand. She concluded her oral report with a quiz and Swedish fish for her audience. It was so fun to see her in action!

Last but not least, we got to see her completed self-portrait in the hall way.

Great job J.J.!

Op-Ed Piece

A great op-ed piece appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune today.

If you live in Utah, this may interest you.

You can read it...

here

Thanks to my father-in-law and Mr. David Irvine for expressing clearly and concisely what I feel is so important as it pertains to Utah politics.

The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden...

so that's what we did over the summer. 

I really must give full credit to Dan though.

The kids and I made our suggestions as to what to plant,

what new things we wanted to try and then...

well, let's just say that Dan took over from there.

We jokingly refer to the garden as his "fifth child." 

When he'd get home from a trip, after changing and making the rounds

with all of us, he'd head out in the backyard to survey his little plot of land.

In recent weeks, I've almost forgotten we had a garden unless I needed something out of it.

I love being able to run out the backdoor and pick fresh tomatoes or peppers for dinner.

The seasons are changing and the garden is starting to dwindle.

Until next year...

Weekends

The past few weekends we've had a few more college kids around the house...

and I'm not sure what's come over me, but I've neglected to take pictures.

So, a picture of my college student.

First, my awesome nephew Chris has made time for me on Saturdays to go over Econ 110 with me. I would be lost without his help. He's an Econ Major who is really good at explaining concepts that are confusing and refreshing the quanitative side of things that my old mind has buried deep inside my brain. I owe him BIG!

Another weekend we decided to have all the college kids from both sides of the family and college friends from Atlanta over for Sunday dinner. It was so fun to listen to all their many interesting pursuits and experiences. We definitely need to do that more often.

Last, but certainly not least, we got to spend Sunday morning of General Conference with niece Tia and her boyfriend Brett from Arizona and Kimberly too. We know how little time and how many things they needed to squeeze into one weekend and so we were excited that we got to see them, if only for a few hours.