Little Artist

Molly loves making art and creating things.  She can spend hours drawing on her Boogie Board (like a Magna Doodle).  She makes watercolor paintings for all of her friends.  She adores coloring.  She loves everything related to Play-doh.  She also makes up beautiful little beds or houses for all of her toys.  These are cute 99% of the time and occasionally involve taking every single item of clothing out of her dresser to make a mountain.  Creative, but not quite as cute.

This is why art class at the MOA is one of her favorite places to go, period.  You can only go once every other month or I would try to get her in there all the time!  She loves going into the galleries and learning about art and doing the activities, and then adores the studio time at the end.  Our most recent theme was about alternative mediums, so this is her special paper art.  I love seeing what she comes up with.  My policy is to be totally hands-off and just let her do the project.  This is partly to promote creativity and partly because I'm spending my entire time picking up the bowls of tiny wiggly eyes that Elliott dumps on the floor.

Personal Progress v. 2.0: Virtue

This was the last of the value projects.  I remember telling my sister that I was going to start doing my Personal Progress again when I got called to Young Women's.  She said "Oh yeah, anyone can finish that in three months."

It took me three years.

Things go a lot more slowly when you have a challenging pregnancy, full-time charge of three small children, a husband, a house to clean, and a part-time job.  Honestly, I'm really proud of myself for finishing this at all.

There's not a flashback for this one because I never did this project the first time.  The program was changed about three years after I finished it the first time, so I wanted to do this one last.

Required experiences:
* I read scriptures about chastity and virtue
* I also read scriptures about the Holy Ghost and taught my kids a lesson about the topic
* The official experience talks about preparing to enter the temple and reading Alma 5.  I've already done the first part, but I did read Alma 5 and then keep those questions in mind when Gerrit and I went to do a session at the temple.
*There are also scriptures about the sacrament and a commitment to partake thoughtfully each week.  It went right along with several lessons I was teaching in Sunday School so this was a great one to share with my class.

Value Project
*The project for this one is the same for everyone.  I read the Book of Mormon from beginning to end, paying special example to Christ and his examples of leading a virtuous life.  It's always so wonderful to read the Book of Mormon and see what themes and inspiration are different each time.  I really recommend looking throughout specifically to focus on Christ...it was a great experience!

Go Cougars!

We love the Homecoming parade!  It's my favorite of all Fall events.  It was extra fun this year because we ran into my old roommate Ana.  I hadn't even seen her in two years!

 Blue pancakes, the breakfast of champions.

 I told everyone to show me how excited they were for the parade.  Miles and Molly were very excited.  Elliott just wanted it to start already.

 Elliott also spent a lot of time playing in the dirt and in his stroller.

 The parade got off to a little bit of a later start this year so Gerrit took a nap while he was waiting.  Molly and I were not amused.

 Cosmo AND Pikachu in the same parade?  Miles was in heaven.

 This parade is a candy bonanza.  Elliott started eating the candy still in the wrappers and was blue and sticky everywhere.

 Poor Miles ate too much candy and decided to take a rest in the stroller.

 We made a bonus stop afterwards to the Mighty Baker, a local bakery that won the Halo episode of Cake Wars.  Miles was so excited to see that they were able to keep some of the figures off the original cake!

Go Cougars!

The Three of Us

Elliott and Molly get a little lonely sometimes without Miles and Gerrit at home, so I try to make sure we have plenty of fun things to fill the time.

We recently went to Hee Haw Farms for Molly's preschool field trip.  We've been here so many times in the past four years but the kids still really enjoy it!

We ran into Molly's best friend Lexi and the girls got to down the slide together for a while.

So, it turns out that Molly is terrified of goats and this is the closest she would get to one.  Later, they sort of stampeded her when we were already trying to leave and it was traumatic.

Elliott adored these pigs.  He tried to pet them, but they kind of knocked him over and almost walked over him until another mom held them back.  The petting zoo was not a big win for us.

Luckily the corn maze, hayride, and the pumpkin patch were a hit!

One of our favorite things to do is go to the playground.  They just opened a new indoor-outdoor playground at our mall.

Elliott thought this bridge was a slide.  It really was pretty steep!

I told them not to play in the fountain.  Yeah, they both got completely soaked and we had to go home early.

Sometimes it's just me and Elliott because Molly has preschool and classes.  I signed Elliott up for toddler gym so he wouldn't feel left out from all the fun :)

When Miles gets home, I love seeing what he's been up to without the rest of us.  One day he wrote this giant story about a tournament and even illustrated it!

Nature Walk

Our family took a beautiful walk in the mountains to see some fall colors.  You could really only call it a hike if you were feeling generous, but it was perfect to do with a toddler.  Also, none of us are particularly enthusiastic hikers so it was a better fit for all five of us.

 It's so pretty up the canyons!  This particular area is right by Timpanogos Cave.

 Excited for nature!

Elliott was obsessed with being on the bridge and looking at the water.

 Hiking buddies.

Miles really liked reading all of the nature signs about habitats and plants.

 This was called Swinging Bridge, but it definitely is very stable :)