Hiking

It was so nice to get out before it snows. The kids had fun feeding Michelle's dogs sticks and were good troopers. I carried Pips the whole way and carried Evelyn for about a third of it.

Scanning

As I'm scanning papers and pictures from my Grandma Wilcox's house, I'm finding all sorts of things.  She has things for grandkids, things she enjoyed reading, but my favorites are the written testimonies that I'm finding.  I read them and I love them.  It also makes me realize that my kids rarely hear me talk about my testimony outside of Family Night.  I'm grateful that Family Night gives me the chance to talk to my kids about what I believe and know and what I hope for them as they grow.  This also gives me a chance to re-evaluate what I want for me and my family as we grow together.  What I want is to be surrounded by my wonderful kids, their kids and their kids... I want my husband to hold me tight and enjoy the kids as much as I do.  I want to look at my family 40 years down the road and honestly say that they all know Christ in their lives and are moving towards Him.  I don't need them to be perfect, just trying.  I want to feel like I did in the temple the other day, looking across the room at the wonderful men standing straight and tall, knowing that they all are different but they all were worthy to be there... and know that my Dad was right in the middle of them.  I want my kids to know the value of work, independence, charity, dependence, faith, education, love, and family.  I want them to know that what God wants for us is very attainable.

I really like how Jer's dad puts it.  We don't "earn" heaven, we create our heaven.  We create the relationships with those around us that will endure into our lives after death.  We create the qualities that we possess and contribute to the qualities of those around us.  I want to create my heaven filled with people.  Some people can't understand why we've been doing fertility treatments even after having three wonderful, beautiful, and loved children.  It's because I want to share my heaven with as many as will have it.  My children aren't my only heaven though... my brothers, sisters, friends, parents, grandparents... I even have an intense love for my great-uncles and aunts and their children.  I want to share my heaven with all of them. 

Cousin Melissa

My cousin just went through the temple for the first time!  I was so excited to be there with her and her families!  Loved every moment of it!  I loved sitting by my mom and looking across the isle at my dad.  Love it.

Sammy

So Sammy likes to do tricks... he's bouncy like Tigger.  He's started doing fancy jumps and yelling, "A!A!"  hehehe.... too much Wii time.

Robertson Halloween/Fall leaf party

The upside and downside of a large yard with lots of trees are the leaves when they fall.  The upside is that it makes for a killer leaf pile to jump in, the down side... you have to rake them all and get rid of them when you're done.  We had a very low key but fun Halloween party this year.  We played 'Don't eat Frank', played in the leaves, ate candy, and ate soup with mashed potato ghosts in them.  Sam brought me his mashed potato ghost and said, "Mom look!  This ghost is smashed potatoes!"  Don't ever grow up Sam! 

Why do my nieces keep growing... knock it off!  You're reminding me that my littles aren't going to stay little long!

Who remembers twirling like this?

Ada and Rachel tried to make the leaf pile as big as they could... here they're doing it like dogs.

Sam being Spiderman!

Grandma and cute baby Tay

Wearing Grandma's candy witch hats.

Helping grandma

Kids first symphony

 

My friend Michelle plays the trombone.  She invited us to a performance.  It was an organ concerto.  I loved it and the kids were pretty well behaved too. 

 

32 year old dress

My mom made that little red dress for my older sister... It's still stinkin cute.

Love Seth

Free donuts for good grades... Yes please

I took Ada to Krispie Kremes for their good student donuts... Luckily she was willing to share with the other kids.

Cornbelly's

We just had Jer's HalloLAN... his computer game party that we invite everyone to play games with us.   That means that not only did I get to geek out, but I also didn't get a chance to finish catching up with my blog.  Jer took the kids to Cornbelly's with Diane and crew last week while I was sick.  I choose lots of pictures because it feels more like I was there... They had a blast and couldn't stop talking about it for days.  I'm glad it wasn't as cold and windy as it had been the time we tried before.