Young Women in Excellence

This past Sunday was Young Women in Excellence. At this program the girls highlight one of the many projects they have been working on towards their YW Medallion. The theme of the night was found in the book of Luke "Choose the good part". The girls learned about Mary and Martha and were encouraged to go serve others and be a shining example.

Mackenzie decided to highlight "Individual Worth". She displayed and talked about how music has had a positive influence in her life. She talked about how she helps lead a children's singing group called Singer's Company and that she has performed in many musical and choirs. She also pointed out how music can help invite the spirit into our lives.Madalyn highlighted her project from the value "Good Works". She talked about Mosiah 2:17 "That ye may learn that when you are in the service of you fellow beings you are in the service of your God". She spoke about quiet acts of service and how serving others makes her happy and can turn a bad day good.
As parents we are really enjoying watching the girls grow in the gospel as they build their own testimony of Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. Our hope is that their testimony continues to grow as they grow into adults.

Soccer 2009

Another season of AYSO soccer has come and gone...YEAH! I do enjoy soccer games, it is just the practices that aren't so fun. Anyway...Meredith had a great year playing on the Ladybugs. She thought it was cool that when Madalyn was her age her team was the Ladybugs also. Meredith loved running up and down the field. She is not a very aggressive player, but had lots of fun!

This is where she spent her "break time" when it was her turn to sit our during a quarter:


We have a tradition of tickling our kids as they run through the victory tunnel at the end of the games. Here Trevor is tickling Meredith:

Meredith with Coach Gasgow:

The best part is the trophy! However this year I am not so sure if that was the hightlight (judge for yourself).

Trevor was on the Black Dragons. He had wonderful coaches this year who know the game well and taught the boys with lots of positive feedback.

Trevor's favorite position this season was defender. He played goalie at the last game and did a great job, but he really prefers to be out in the action!

After Trevor's last game Jerry's Dogs catered the party at the park.

Trevor with Coach Tyresup. He really knows the game!

Halloween 2009

Halloween weekend started with carving pumpkins at Randy and Cathy's house in Carlsbad. Keith was in town so it was fun to get together for pumpkin carving, dinner and a movie. Dallin and Mackenzie's pumpkin was an asian samurai- pretty cute! Unfortunately I did not take pictures of any completed pumpkins.
Halloween day was filled with soccer games, more pumpkin carving, a block party, pictures, parties and trick or treating.

Mackenzie and some of her friends all dressed up at "Things" from Dr. Seuss. They won first place in the "group costume" division at the Youth Halloween Dance!

Madalyn and her friends were the "Fanta Girls". Each girl wore a different color. She and her friends won first place in the "group costume" contest at the Middle School.

Trevor was a BYU Football player. He was so proud of his uniform! At our ward's trunk or treat he came home with twice as much candy as the girls. We thought he had gone around to the cars more than once so just as we were to remind him of candy etiquette he said-- "Everyone was giving me two to three pieces of candy because they thought my costume was cool". I guess it helps that 3/4 of the Ward are crazy BYU Fans! Here he is posing with the pumpkin he designed:

Swee Meredith was a ladybug. Her soccer team this year are the "Ladybugs" so she got her inspiration from that! It also helps ($$$) that Madalyn was a ladybug last year so she could wear her costume. This is the first time I was able to recycle a costume :o)!

Before we went trick or treating our block held our traditional pot luck. It is the parents way of getting something healthy in the kids before they pig out on all the candy! My parents and Richard were able to come and celebrate with us!

Here are all the kids on our street before they embark on Trick or Treating (or if you are one of the older ones to a Halloween Party).

Future Profession?!?!

My parents gave my kiddos a bag of "shapeable" balloons. They thought that the kids would like to play with them. The bag of 100 balloons were all used up in two days! They had so much fun creating things that they would not stop....at least they have this to fall back on if they can't get a job. Now if I can just find a "balloons $5" button!
They were so proud!

St George Marathon

Ryan had a goal to run a marathon before he turned 40 years old. So this past weekend he ran in the St. George Marathon. This was his first marathon so the older girls and myself came along to support him. Here is Ryan and the girls infront of the Convention Center ready to go in and get his number. Funny story...they could not find his number because they had filed it in the "weight" catagory because they had him listed as "overweight"! If you have seen Ryan you know he is anything but overweight!! I think because of his height it pushed him over the limit. It has become a little joke in our family now :o)! The night before we drove the course (big mistake)...26.2 miles is so far...Ryan did not need to see that the night before :o)! Anyway once we made it to the start line here is what we found:

About 82 porta potties:

Flags from different countries:


The Start Line:

A common questions board:

Since the runners have to line up between 4:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. they have over 50 fire pits set up. The run starts at a higher elevation and it is about 30 degrees so the runners are freezing! The run begins at 6:45 a.m.

After we explored the course Ryan needed to load up on the Carbs. so we had dinner at The Pizza Factory. Yummy! The pizza was soooo good and the breadsticks, well see for yourself:

Ryan set a goal to complete the race anywhere between 3 hours 45 minutes and 4 hours. When he did not make it through in that time I was getting worried. An hour later he still had not come through...I was starting to think I needed to call first aid and see if they had him. Never fear... at 5 hours he came running in! He hurt his knee around mile 11 and by mile 13 he was in so much pain- poor guy. He pushed through anyway- walking downhill and running uphill. Here he is on the home stretch:

He still looks GREAT after running 26.2 miles!

Off to the finish line!

Ryan crossed the finish line at 5 hours 7 minutes. Not what his goal was and he was frustrated with his knee, but to be able to run 26.2 miles is an amazing feat! We were so proud of him!

After the runners cross the finish line they have a row of misters for them to run through to cool off. There are also people handing out ice cream to all the runners.

Here Ryan is with his medal about five minutes after the marathon:

Here Ryan is with his running buddy and also a friend from our ward Paul Cook. Paul finished around 3 hours 40 minutes.

I had to add the picture below. The boy wearing this shirt looked to be about 15 year old and was super cute. I loved his shirt :o)!

The big question still remains.....will he do it again next year??? I will keep you all posted!

More St. George...

While in St. George we were able to do lots of other stuff (besides the marathon). Our Bishop's daughter (also our neighbor) Alyssa attends Dixie College so she hung out with us for the race. After the marathon we took Ryan back to the hotel room so he could recover and the girls went out to lunch. Alyssa took us to this darling lunch spot called Twenty Five Main. It is so quaint and the food was delicious!! The decor at Twenty Five Main had turquise/Tiffany blue, brown and yellow. There were these cute chandeliers and a collage of blue frames. Too bad I did not get some good pictures of it!

Later that day we took a tour of Brigham Youngs winter home. It is really a nice home- I was surprised! In the yard there are pomegranite, pecan, almon and fig trees, cotton and grapes. We were about to pick some almonds off the tree and eat them. They were so good!!! We all agreed we need to plant an almond tree in our yard. Too bad the pecan tree was not in bloom.

Here are the girls infront of the almond tree:

We also visited the Temple.

Of course we ate at Cafe Rio and had ice cream from Icebergs and Nielson's Frozen Custard. Infact we ate so much that I have not been able to eat a thing all day today...so full.....

We drove home on Sunday after the morning session of General Conference. This is what the weather was like on the way home:

Tons of wind!!!

We were so thankful to be able to go and support Ryan in the marathon. It was a perfect little get away and the weather could not have been any better!

They DO know how to work!!!

Why is it that whenever I ask my kids to help me work in the yard they have an excuse not to or they whine and let me know that I am the "meanest mom ever"? Why is it then that when I walked outside this past Saturday I found my two youngest kiddos across the street doing this: My neighbor was working in his yard and my little angels decided to help him out!

The enthusiasm was so cute! I just had to document it so I can prove to them that "they DO know how to work"!!!

Of course the neighbor (who is a grandpa himself) had to reward the kids with a popsicle! Made working in the heat of the day all worth it to a 5 and 7 year old!

P.s- Thanks Dan for letting my kids "help" :o)!