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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Temple Open House

I was just on lds.org and found out that there is a Temple Open House starting tomorrow!!

It's so exciting that so many temple are being built and that there have been so many open houses and dedications in the last few years. We had had plans to attend both the Rexburg Temple Open House and the Twin Falls Temple Open House but didn't actually make it to either. So I would REALLY like to go this time.

Many of my friends with children the same ages as ours have gone and told us how much their kids enjoyed it and how very neat they thought it was. I had been worried about how my children would behave, but I think it would be a neat thing for them.

It's always great when you can attend a temple open house, especially for children and others that wouldn't normally be able to see the inside of a temple. When I was younger I was able to go to the open houses for the Bountiful, UT temple, the Mount Timpangous, UT temple and the Billings, MT temple, those were all wonderful experiences that I still cherish.

For all who, like me, would like to participate. Here is the information:

The open house starts tomorrow, Monday, June 1, and goes through Saturday, August 1, 2009, except for Sundays and July 4 (Saturday) and July 24 (Friday).

You can get tickets or make reservations by contacting the reservation call center at 1-800-521-5105, 801-240-7645, or online at www.lds.org/reservations.

Here are some pictures of the construction, just for fun:
http://www.lds.org/temples/construction/0,11437,1940-1-597-0,00.html

And if you're not sure where it is, here is the location and directions information:
http://www.lds.org/temples/location/1,11219,1922-1-597-0,00.html

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Preschool Programs

I can't believe that it's already the end of the school year already!!!
Tate's preschool put on a play - The morning class performed "Peter and the Wolf" and the afternoon class, Tate's class, performed "The Golden Goose."
Tate was the parson.

Here is a silly little clip. Preschoolers are kind of funny. (Ryan started recording once Tate came in.) I love the little "superhero" pose at the end. BUT I think the best part was the bow and we missed that one with the camera.



Canton's class had a little program for their last day of school, on Thursday.
It was kind of cute: here's my favorite video clip from his program:



I think my kids are cute.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Birthday Celebrations

We had two different birthday celebrations for Tate. On Saturday we went to Ammon Park and launched bottle rockets - all of the Bakes except Wes came and brought a bottle launcher so we had two!

Here Tate's decorating his rocket to send into orbit.

Decorating rockets and eating chips.





Oran and Ryan using the bicycle pump, and their big muscles to launch a rocket.

Tate got some "real rockets" like the ones the astronauts fly in.

We wore Oran out!!
I brought him in from the car and laid him on the couch and even all our loud noises didn't wake him.

See his clothes are all wet from the water in the rockets.
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On Sunday we invited everyone over for cake, ice cream and visiting. The Bakes came and so did Grandma and Grandpa White. It was very nice.

Iron Man in the making: Ryan was super awesome and painted fondant to look like Iron Man.

Ever since we finished the Spiderman party last year Tate's been insisting on an Iron Man cake - so Ryan made it happen!

Here is the cake all finished
Pretty awesome!

Tate and Matt at the table. Tate got the first piece of cake, of course, 'cause he's the birthday boy!

Oh poor baby with scars on his face - but he's still pretty stinkin' cute!

Tate is being silly. Can you believe he's FIVE!!?
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On Tuesday I took birthday treats to Tate's preschool and talked all about his life on Earth and different things he's learned and done since he got here. When I heard how Ms. Kris did birthdays I thought it was kind of weird - but I thought it was actually neat! I brought a picture from each year (birth - 1, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, and 4-5) and told some things he did each year I liked looking in Tate's scrap book and my journals to find interesting things to say - I like to remember.























And those were the birthday things we did.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mother's Day at Church

Canton gave a talk today in Primary. I helped, of course. He spoke about Heleman's 2000 stripling warriors and about how their Mom's taught them to have faith and to trust in God. He was super cute. We'd practiced at home, but he didn't want much help, so he kept improvising. "And they were really strong, and they had swords, and they killed the bad guys...." eventually we got back to 'because of their faith none of them died,' and that our Mommy's teach us and want us to be good. So, we should be good "so our Mommies are happy and sing songs and don't spank our bums."
I decided that it was good that not everyone in the room could understand everything he was saying. Sunbeams are great!

The Primary put together these really cute books for the Moms. They asked all of the kids a set of questions, wrote down their answers and gave them to us today. Some of their answers were pretty funny, here are some of my favorites:

What is your Mom's favorite thing to eat?
Canton - Macaroni and cheese
Tate - Cereal

How old is your Mom?
Canton - her birthday's tomorrow
Tate - 25, 8-5 months ago
(I am 25 years and 7 months, I thought that was way funny.)

If your Mom could go on vacation anywhere where would she go?
Canton - to the park
Tate - Camping
Michael - on a trip
Briana - to K-mart
(I thought those answers were cute too so I threw them in)

What is you Mom's favorite book?
Canton - "My Friend Rabbit" (more like HIS favorite book!)
Tate - the scriptures
Angie - she doesn't have any books

What's your Mom's favorite TV show?
Canton - Veggie Tales
Tate - the news

What does your Mom like to do to relax?
Canton - lay down
Tate - take walks
Anna - do the dishes (that's relaxing!?)
Cody - talk with Daddy

My mom looks pretty when....
Canton - Mommy looks pretty all night and all day
Tate - she goes to church
Alex - she sleeps (AWE...)

I love my Mom because....
Canton - 'cuz I love her
Jordyn - because I love my sister, and my mom's being pregnant again
Kaylee - cuz' she's sweet
Paige - she is good at telling me what to do
Molly - she gets me my food
Tate - she gives me hugs
Parker - cuz' she do that for me (TOO CUTE!)
Aftyn - she plays with me
Cody - she's pretty nice
Briana - she's special to me (I LOVE IT!)
Dallas - Love?
Daytona - she is FULLY AWESOME
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Ok, I got a little carried away, but I thought it was just SO cute!

In sacrament meeting the primary children got up and sang "I Often go Walking" and "Mother, I love You" it seemed like Canton had a solo as he smiled, pointed to me and proudly belted the first "Mother, I love you" all by himself.
I asked about it when we got home and Tate said that they were supposed to sing it that way, just the sunbeams first for "Mother, I love you..." then the CTRs came in on "...mother I do..." each line gaining a new row of kids (then it made sinse!) But this is how he told me:

"... first the Sunbeams, then the CTRs, and then the Violents... " I couldn't help but laugh as I told him it was the "Valiants" not the "Violents"

Kids are cute!
Now they are napping - I think I'll do that too.
Ryan is working today, but he got dinner in the crock pot, so I guess I don't need to worry about it! Yea for Mother's Day! Have a happy one!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

What a Weekend!

Friday we had Gavin and Callie's kids come and play. We made cheerio necklaces and then had a popcorn and movie party. We watched "Charlotte's Web" the boys and I picked it out at the library.
Then they all colored pictures while I made lunch. Our table is not designed for big families! We had four on each side (if you count me) so we sat extra close to eat our food.
After lunch we usually take a nap so we had a bunch of grouchy, antsy kids who were running up and down the hall (if you can call it a hall) from the front door to Tate and Canton's bunk bed and back. After a few of them got run over I decided to take them somewhere that they could run!
We all went on a walk to Centennial Park - where they were able to get out a lot of their wiggles. But we learned some new things about big kids AND little kids playing on the same playground. Dawsey and Rannon spun the merry-go-round very fast - Brigham and Duncan thought it was great fun and were laughing!! But Canton wanted to get off, instead of asking them to stop he just walked off (while it was spinning.) Ouch!
Then Tate was sitting opposite Rannon on the wooden horse thing - got bucked off and hit his head on the metal saddle.
Brigham and Canton had each taken off one sock, filled it with sand and were beating each other with them (Brigham said they were their "clubs") I was breaking that up when Oran walked in front of Rannon's swing. He got knocked down and drug in the sand - Dawsey was so great and gathered him up and comforted him until I could get there.
He was all bloody - and his mouth and nose were all full of sand and rocks. It was so sad. I tried to clean him up a bit in the drinking fountain at the park and then we walked home.
Gavin and Callie got there about the same time we did.
I spent all night (until about 1am) doing laundry and getting us all packed for our trip to Utah.

Saturday morning there was a free community breakfast, put on my the Lion's club, at the old town pavilion. We went there around 8am and had pancakes and link sausage - we each had orange juice to drink. A man and his son came and sat by us. The man had coffee in his cup Oran was pretty funny. He saw the steam coming off the cup and said "Oh, HOT Juice!" then he blew again and again (I guess trying to cool it off for him) then the man took a drink and Oran scream, "NO!! HOT!! OUCH!!" the man was a little surprised!
Saturday was also the opening day of the farmers market - right next to where we had breakfast. After we finished eating we looked around at all the neat things. We saw vases made out of gourds, and goblets carved out of solid pieces of mahogany, pottery thrown on a wheel, fired and glazed in magnificent colors - and, of course, plants! Tomato, red pepper, green pepper, cucumber - and all kinds of trees and flowers. This year they've invited flea market vendors to participate also (to make it a bigger event) so we saw a lot of antiques, books, and things with pealing paint and rust!
It started to rain, but we didn't mind.
We went home and found our coats and our favorite stuffed friends and headed to the hospital for the 28th annual teddy bear clinic. There were Shriner's Clowns making balloon animals! "Space" "Hippo" and "Squirrel" were all admitted, had their blood pressure taken, received casts, x-rays, and surgery! we visited the cafeteria for cookies and milk and then we came home for lunch. (We didn't watch the puppet show or have our faces painted - the line was too long and we were getting grouchy!)
After lunch we packed the car and hit the road (in the rain!) It was 1:00 when we left, we wore the kids out good so they all slept until we got to Salt Lake!

We ate dinner with Rob and Hillori, their kids and Barb (her flight got in to SLC at 7:45am) at Rob and Hillori's home in Mapelton. Then we all went to the Jr. High for Audrey's ballet recital. It was cute - lots of little girls in leotards and tutus. Oran loved it! He conducted the music, bounced up and down and clapped louder than anyone else, and kept yelling "YEA!!" Canton got bored and Tate was sad that he couldn't see better.
After the kids were in bed Ryan and I had fun "playing" with Rob and Hillori as they got all of the food ready for the next day. Barbara and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few last minute things (I don't like driving in an unfamiliar place in the dark, but Barbara is a great navigator and we had fun on our little outing to the store - without any children!)

Sunday was kind of crazy! We were glad that we all got ready for church before the crowds arrived! LOTS of people! LOTS of kids! We were so glad that it was a beautiful day and they could all play outside!
Grandma and Grandpa Green came with Lisa's son Colton. Grandma Stavast also came with Barb's brother Jim, and his wife Peggy, Auntie Gladys, Uncle Dean, and Auntie Ellenor. A lot of Hillori's family was there too - I had a hard time figuring out who was connected to who and how - I don't think I met them all.
The blessing was beautiful, Rob did a wonderful job. Rob, Hillori, and Barbara were all among those who bore their testimonies. It was a very nice meeting.
Sunday was also Barbara's birthday so we sang to her and had cake, lots and lots of cake.
We decided to stay another night - it was nice to have some more time with the Greens after everyone else was gone. We had a nice visit with Barbara. I got to hold Baby Elise a lot (she liked me lots and didn't cry at me at all. So I got to keep her for hours and hours!) It made Oran mad on Saturday, but on Sunday I let him see her and hold her hands and look at her toes, then it was OK for me to hold her. Canton wanted to hold her so I helped him - he was so sweet and held her so nice.
Lucy was my friend too! She is the cutest little girl! She has red hair and dimples and is ALWAYS smiling - she is only a few months older than Oran (she turned 2 in February.)



I'm an AUNT!!
I love having nieces and nephews!!

Elise had such a pretty blessing dress! This was at the end of the day after everyone else had left and she was still spotless clean! I was impressed!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

It's been a while...

I know, I know, I've been slacking off in the world of blogging!
We've been busy busy!

This last weekend we went to stay with Ryan's brother Rob and his family. While there Hillori informed me that she keeps checking my blog and is disappointed to see nothing new. Gee I never knew... now I'll feel all kinds of pressure (not wanting to disappointing!) j/k

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My baby is 2!!
I can't believe it's been TWO whole years since I was pregnant last! It has gone by so very fast. We had fun celebrating Oran's birthday. He's been such a great addition to our family and we all love him SO much!Our first fun celebration was the day before his birthday when the boys and I went to Preston to visit my parents. We played games and sang "Happy Birthday" it was fun!

For breakfast on Oran's birthday we had waffles topped with whipped topping and cherry pie filling - yum, yum!
For dinner we had baked potatoes [w/ a choice of toppings] Oran's favorite!
"Tatoes!? Tatoes!!"
We let him have the last juice box, 'cause he was the birthday boy!

Then we had cupcakes! Oran is saying "CAKE!!"

Ryan helped Oran read his birthday cards, He got one from Great Grandma Green and another one from Great Grandma Grant!

It was a good birthday for a good boy!

(More later, there's much to do)