This post is about the fun things we did from Oct 13-28. After writing all of this, I realized that most of the stuff we did during this time involved some type of service, so that was cool to realize.
I turned 33 years old! It was a great day to celebrate all the people and experiences that have given my life great meaning. This year for my birthday service, I made a special visit to a friend in town that needed some company. I hoped to take her to the Spam Museum for the first time, but she was sick, so my boys and I visited with her and kept her company. That evening, our little family was able to eat out at Applebee's.
I am so glad to be alive, to know God's plan for me, and I feel undeserving of the countless blessings I enjoy everyday.
I am so glad to be alive, to know God's plan for me, and I feel undeserving of the countless blessings I enjoy everyday.
The next day was Saturday, and we worked in the yard to get things ready for winter. Tanner helped collect all the clippings from our bushes in the front yard. Usually, Tanner is not excited about chores, but every now and then he'll get excited and focused about a cleaning job! Collecting the clippings was one of those exciting times for him,! It was a great service to me, because I didn't have to bend over so much!
After his chore, Tanner went straight to the sandbox. Dallin joined him. The weather was really nice.
Later that day, Tanner drew this adorable bird. He said it was supposed to be something else, but ended up looking like a bird!
Another evening, Jeremy helped keep the boys entertained while I cooked or cleaned up dinner. They enjoyed chalk on the driveway in the 70 degree weather!
Jeremy made a self portrait of power-lifting. I could tell he was getting excited and anxious for his upcoming power-lifting competition!
And a drumming self-portrait.
Dallin did a project with playdough. I think I took this picture to prove that my kids aren't complete TV bums, although they have been watching a lot of TV lately.
One morning, we took our house mates Lilia and Manny to the Nature Center. They really enjoyed it! It was great to be able to spend some quality time with them because they are always serving us. They keep my kitchen spotless and they often babysit the boys while I teach a few classes or go to meetings.
We took a short walk on one of the trails. We couldn't stay for too long because I needed to get Tanner off to school and me off to work! But the time was well spent, and everyone was happier because of it.
Little Buddies
Jeremy got all his biking gear ready for winter. He is now fully prepared to face the winter roads on his bike!
Tanner enjoyed another Taekwando class, and we plan to take a break from it for awhile and start up again after Christmas.
I hosted a playgroup activity at church where the parents and kids did a service project. We decorated Halloween cookies for the youth at Gerard Academy, a local institution for youth that struggle with extreme behavioral and emotional issues.
Our kids had to use a lot of self control to not eat any of the creations we were making. We explained to them that there are some teenagers that live at a school called Gerard Academy and sometimes they get very sad or just have a bad day, so we are going to make some treats to help cheer them up and let them know that we care about them. Dallin got very focused, and later, Tanner did too. Every child got involved in some way with helping decorate the cookies and making cards. It was really neat to hear the little ones say things like, "the teenagers are going to love this one!" and "I hope this makes them happy!" Lilia and several other friends helped keep all the treats organized, making the activity a huge success.
We had 8 families with kids there to help, and we made over 220 treats for the 80 students at Gerard. It's amazing how much good a bunch of toddlers and preschoolers can do!
The playgroup service project was the same day as Jeremy's birthday!!
The poor guy finally turned 33 like me. For his birthday service, Jeremy went to an elderly neighbor's house and did a ton of yard work and heavy lifting.
I tried making Jeremy a power-lifting cake with some of the boy's Legos and a music chime, haha. I couldn't frost the cake because it was so flopsy, but I was able to make flames come out of the dumbbell!!
Jeremy got a good laugh out of his cake!
(Tanner was mad because I didn't do his idea for the cake).
Dallin was really excited to give his daddy this card. Can you tell that it says Dallin? He is getting better and better at writing his name!
For Jeremy's dinner, we went out to Torge's Bar and Grill. We ate next to this fireplace and stayed cozy. It was a nice change of pace since we hadn't eaten there in a really long time.
The next day, we made Jeremy's cake the way Tanner wanted. Tanner was very pleased with it. Now it had some frosting and sprinkles!
Here's a fun track that Tanner made one evening.
And Dallin went crazy on the drums!
The autumn leaves were so beautiful in our yard and the neighbor's yard. We had a lot of fun raking them, but there wasn't much service going on here. We simply just played and enjoyed each other's company while making a big mess with the leaves! We're grateful to our neighbors for letting us use their rakes and letting us enjoy their yard!
That's our house back there! Isn't this gorgeous!? What a beautiful, warm autumn day this was to spend with my boys!
