Eight is great!

Today William turns 8 years old!

I can't believe it!!  I am so proud of him and his desire to want to choose the right.

Here is our annual birthday interview.

What is your favorite...
color? green
food?  pizza
toy?  legos
show? Ninjago
animal?  dragon
comic book? Ninjago
song? Ninjago theme song and Party Rock
primary song? I am a Child of God
What do you like to do? play legos, be outside and ride my bike
Who is your best friend?  Robby
What do you want to be when you grow up? a lego artist
Do you have a girlfriend?  No!


I am - 8 years old

I am afraid of - nothing!

I like -legos and beyblade

I like to eat - pizza and cake

I don't like -tornadoes and earthquakes

I know -dragons kill people in dungeons

I want to be -a lego artist

I like to watch - Ninjago

I like to go -Chili's and Disneyland

My hero is- Dad!

I cry when - I sometimes get hurt

Mom gets mad when -Alex wakes her up for more milk

Mom is happy when - we clean up the playroom by ourselves

Dad gets mad when -Alex keeps asking for milk over and over again and then starts going crazy

Dad is happy when -he goes to sleep

What I want to be when I grow up - a lego artist

I can't wait for - Christmas!!!

Something Mom says to me - "Clean your room"

Something Dad says to me -"Have a good day!"

My favorite animal is - a dragon

My favorite place to go is -Disneyland!

My Mom and Dad make me laugh by - tickling me

I know my mom loves me because -she pays me every week

I know my dad loves me because -he helps me build lego castles

At the beginning of the year an idea came to me.  The more I let it swirl around the stronger I felt about it.  So one night in March, when Rich was already living in North Carolina I told him my idea. He didn't seem confident that it would work out.  Next, I approached William with the proposition.  He was on board... but mostly because it meant he got to stay up late.  William will take any excuse to stay up late.

This was my idea: William and I (and Rich when he was around) would read the entire Book of Mormon before his 8th birthday.

It took a lot of dedication but tonight we finished. 

William was so excited to finish.  He knew he did something hard.  Something that not a lot of teenagers (or even adults) have done.  Last night after reading Moroni's promise (Moroni 10: 3-5) he acted on it and prayed to know for himself.  And I'm confident that he does.  This was not merely a lets-read-it-all-just-to-say-we-did-it kind of reading (which isn't to say that some days weren't like that--especially when we were trying to play catch-up).  After nearly every verse William would ask, "What does that mean?"  And then we'd talk about it (which really helped further my understanding as well.)

Not only did he gain a testimony and great understanding of this keystone of our religion, he grew in other ways as well.  At the beginning of this experience William hated reading aloud.  He would pick the 2 shortest verses in a column and that's all he'd read.  However, in the past several months he decided, on his own, that he would read every other verse.  And he's good at it--one of the best readers in his class.  I've also seen him gain confidence and become more loving.  All of which I attribute to his reading and studying the Book of Mormon.

I am incredibly proud of this goal that William has accomplished!  This is the beginning of a family tradition for the months leading up to our boys' 8th birthday.  James can't wait until it's his turn!

Fall Photos

I still figuring out my camera but I'm having fun doing it.  I took some pictures of the boys this fall.  Here are some of my favorites.

William was actually a good sport and gave me some great smiles!

James was surprisingly a little more difficult.  Usually he loves posing for the camera.  He did warm up after a little bit.  However, it wasn't until afterward that I realized that he had taken some scissors to the front of his hair early that morning.  I found out when we were sweeping the floor that night and found a nice little pile of hair hidden under the table legs.

A few weeks later I took the little boys out to our side yard and snapped a few pictures.  Alex was great but kept wanting to pose with his hand up like a claw... so I only got a few good ones.

And for some reason Henry was super uncooperative and I only got one.  Oh well!  It's better than nothing!

Don't forget!

It's election day!  William was very adamant that I make time to vote today.  And then he and James started chanting "Mitt Rom-ney!  Mitt Rom-ney!" at the breakfast table.

I'm glad I didn't wait in long lines last week to vote early because there was no line at all this morning!  I'm also grateful for a wonderful country that gives us the freedom and power to choose our leaders.

Tonight we will be having an all-American meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, (homemade) fries and smoothies.  And for dessert?  These lovely little patriotic ice cream sandwiches.

Are you doing anything special for election day?




**It's now Wednesday and while the results of yesterday's election have me teary and disheartened these two posts have given me a good reminder... here and here.

Number 6

Friday night, after leaving the Fall Festival early, we drove down to Greenville SC so that Rich could run his 6th marathon the next morning.  He crashed as soon as we got to the hotel and got up nice and early to head over to the starting line.  The boys and I didn't sleep in too much after that because William decided that he was going to race in the Fun Run.

It was so fun to cheer him on!  He told me later that day, "I'm so glad I ran that race."  He had a great time and was proud that he accomplished something challenging.  And he probably thinks it was really challenging because he keeps saying that he ran a marathon!

After heading back to the hotel for a little bit we came back to watch Rich finish his race.  We didn't have to wait long (although by looking that this picture you wouldn't believe it!)

Soon Rich was rounding the bend... it was fun to cheer him on!

After he passed us we hurried into the stadium so that we could see him finish around the field.

He did amazingly!  His past few marathons his leg has really cramped up and slowed him down... this time no cramping!  Yea!!  Congrats on #6 Rich!  And even though you say you're done we both know that you'll do it again in a few years.

While we waited for Rich to cool down and rest for a little bit the boys had a great time playing on top of the dugout.  William couldn't help but show off his medal once again!

I'm so proud of my racers!

Halloween Fun

Our Halloween fun started last Friday evening with the ward Fall Festival.  The boys kept changing their minds about costumes and in the end we were left with the cutest giraffe, Scooby Doo, Dracula and a vampire karate master.

 The boys had a great time playing all the games.... although Alex was not  a fan of the spook alley.

For family night on Monday we carved our pumpkins.  The boys first designed their pumpkins.

I never realized that the boys had never gutted the pumpkins!  I made them try it out but they thought it was too gross--go figure.

 On Halloween night we went trick-or-treating after a meal of our traditional jack-o-lantern pizza.  We have never lived in a neighborhood that had a lot of trick-or-treaters.  We were given the heads up by our neighbor that we would need a lot of candy here.  And he wasn't kidding!  People drive to our neighborhood to get their candy!  It was  c r a w l i n g  with people!

Before we left, Rich pointed out that underneath the giraffe costume Henry made the perfect Luke Skywalker so I just had to get some pictures.

We had a friend come with us and so we had two little vampires.

After traipsing around the block we headed back home (it was cold!) While I put the little boys to bed I had William and James pass out candy--I'm pretty sure it was their favorite part of the night.