Labor Day service project

At the last General Conference, the church was celebrating 75 years of its welfare program. A challenge was presented to all of the wards around the world to participate in a "Day of Service". We were to plan and carry out a service project in our community. The point was to allow us to show loving charity to others, benefit our community or those we served, and to build unity among those in our ward as we worked side by side.
Our ward participated in a cemetery clean-up at the Wylie Cemetery on Labor Day. We cleared away weeds and growth around the perimeter fence, cut down shrubs and trees, cleaned weeds and overgrown plants from around the graves, picked up trash, raked, cleaned and painted the gazebo, fixed the metal fence, and did some refurbishing of table skirts in the funeral home. The project started at 8:00 am, and went until noon. It was a lot of work, and we had about 200 people there helping. Our whole family helped, and I was so very proud of our girls. I heard little complaining, and they were great workers!The project was a great way to help our community, and we were able to feel good about our part in it. Dave got poison ivy, which has been really difficult for him, but otherwise it was a really positive experience for our family!

Where does she get this stuff?!?!

My conversation in the car with Autumn this morning:

Autumn: I think that was Devin's mom in that white car.
Me: Oh?
Autumn: Devin likes to kiss me. He always kisses me.
Me: Really? Well, maybe he thinks you are so cute.
Autumn: You mean, he thinks I'm so hot.
Me: (laughing) Yes, you are cute.
Autumn: I am cute to you, but I am hot to him.
Me: ...
Autumn: Hot means they like to kiss you.
Me: ...

Really? Where did she come up with this??? And she is only 4. Yikes!

Mommy's helper

Since the three big girls have all started back to school, Autumn has been my little helper around the house. She loves to do stuff with me. We like to do preschool activities, go shopping, play together, do stretches and exercise together, but most of all we like to cook (mostly bake!) things. This week, we tried a new recipe for chocolate cookies made with Nutella. They are DELICIOUS! Autumn licked every utensil I used (including the measuring cups for the flour, sugar, etc.)! She is so much fun to have around... I enjoy having her keep me company during the daytime. What am I going to do next year when she starts school?!?

My thirty-something-th birthday

I never post pictures of myself. There are many reasons, but one is that I am always the picture taker, not in the pictures. Another reason is that I never feel like the pictures of me turn out that great... I am always making a weird face, or my hair looks bad, or something isn't right about the lighting... it's always something.
Well, I decided that I want my posterity to actually see me in pictures and know that I really did exist, so here is one for the kiddos. Not this one immediately following (that is a cake...), but the one after. :)

For my birthday, my sweet family made me a triple chocolate cake. The girls worked together to make the cake batter, I helped them bake it, then Dave frosted it. Yes, that is a skull and crossbones on the top. What a funny guy! We didn't have enough candles, or room for the candles even if we had enough (Man, I am getting old!), so we put on two candles instead. Ciera wanted to take a picture of me blowing out the candles, like I always do for them... so I said to myself, "What the heck... I can always delete it if it turns out bad." But, lo and behold, it wasn't too terrible. So here I am, on my birthday, blowing out my candles, with my crazy Chloe.

Here is to a great year!

First day of 2011-2012 school year

My little girls are growing up so fast.
Brooke started 1st grade. It is hard to believe that she will be seven this year. It seems like just yesterday that she was going off to Kindergarten! She is such a cute, smart, fun girl... and really likes school. I am sure this year will be a great one for her!Chloe started 4th grade, which is the highest grade at the elementary school. She has two teachers this year, and is so excited about that. They both seem like really great teachers. She is such a great student and a good example to all her friends. I have no doubt she will find this year to be a success!Ciera is in 6th grade, and in her second and final year at the Intermediate school. She will be doing band this year, which she is really excited about. She is such a bright girl, and is excited about the teachers she has, and about the subjects she will learn. I can't believe she will be starting in the Young Women program at church this year... she has grown up way too fast! I am sure this year will be a great one for her too!

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa Elvester

Before school started, Grandma and Grandpa Elvester came for a week long visit. It was a great visit. We were able to do a lot of things during the week. We went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner one night, which my kids loved since they don't ever get to go. We went shopping for school supplies and clothes. We went to the Dallas Museums of Natural History and Science, the Heard Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary, we played Wii dance games that they brought for the girls, and we played in a pool a lot since it was so hot! We are so glad they were able to come and look forward to more visits in the future!

Utah Trip, week 2

The second week of our awesome vacation was spent in Logan. We stayed with our good friends, the Hamblins. It was a really fun week, but we actually ended up working quite a bit too. Our house in Logan is still for sale, and it needed a lot of weeding and yard work, the trampoline needed some help (actually the hole it is sitting in needed help...), the outside door jams needed repainting, and we had to sand and repaint the deck ("we" being Scott and Dave). When we weren't working on our house, we were playing games and eating junk. It was a great week with great friends, and we can't wait until we can do it again. (Minus the work part.)
We were having so much fun that I took only a few pictures... but here they are.