Adventure Gear

In case you have any upcoming adventures, here's a picture of Emery, showing exactly what you need for adventuring.

"Mom! Let's go on an ADVENTURE!"

Yep, she's ready for anything!

Doll carrier? Check. Stick horse? Check. Old BYU hat soaked in years of sweat and is so gross I can't believe she's wearing it? Double check. Bring on the adventure!

A Fun Mess

A few weeks ago Emery accidentally spilled a huge box of macaroni noodles on the floor. So we swept them up and put them in a tub for her to play with. It has been the best entertainment for at least a dozen kids that have come through here and played with them for hours, but there are stray noodles over my ENTIRE HOUSE. I've swept them up so many times I've lost count.

Despite the mess, it's been really nice to have because I've significantly cut down Emery's tv time. It just started to get out of control, an episode or two while I showered and got ready, one a few hours later because she didn't nap, one while I fixed dinner. The episodes were only 20 minutes, but it added up and she was getting super cranky and asking to watch tv all the time. One night I was browsing pinterest and this quote said: "Happy kids sit down in front of the tv, cranky kids get up and walk away." I have no idea who said it, I think she has a blog or something about why she doesn't let her kids watch tv, but that really resonated with me. I saw more clearly how much tv Emery was getting, and I knew it was because I wanted an easy entertainment for her. It was a cop-out for me. So I stopped letting her watch tv. Now she plays with the noodles while I shower and get ready, and we go for a walk or read more books than we used to. It's been nice and I've noticed improvement in her behavior. Not a lot, but some. We still watch tv or movies sometimes, especially if Gavin's gone at night, but now it's rare instead of every day. I'm not saying everyone should do this, I don't care if your kids watch tv, I just know that at this phase of OUR life, we needed to cut back. At least we still have the noodles...

Some Funny Things

Emery said, "Look! I'm an 'ooh-da-lally!'" She used to love Disney's Robin Hood, and for whatever reason this reminds her of the show. Maybe it's Maid Marian?

The stuff she says these days cracks me up. I've been excited for this age to come, she does and says such funny things. It has it's challenges, but her cuteness, curiosity, and sense of humor definitely outweigh the struggles. 

The other day EVERYTHING had a momma and a daddy and a baby. All the fishes we saw at an aquarium, the rocks we walked by, the chips she ate. It got even more extreme when I was taking her to the bathroom at a restaurant and she says excitedly, "Oooooh look! I pooped a little baby poop! It's just a little one, see momma?! And here comes the momma! [grunting]. Wooooooooo!!!" I was laughing soooo hard. Luckily it was a single occupancy bathroom so no one else heard our conversation. 

Shark Fishing

Last weekend we were invited along for quick trip to Winnie, TX for some shark fishing. Despite all the men's efforts Friday night and Saturday morning, the sharks weren't biting. But we had fun with friends, even if it was a little chilly on Saturday.

Church Open House

The missionaries in our ward recently put together an open house/tour for our church building. I was asked to be the primary representative and give a 2 or 3 minute presentation to people who came. It was really fun to put together. I probably spent more time on it than I should have, but it was fun to have something turn out the way I envisioned it. That rarely happens for me.

Here's some pictures of the tables I put together. The cell phone pictures make it look a bit hokey, but it was actually pretty cute in real life.

I started off sharing that there are approximately 1 million kids throughout the world that are members of primary. No two are the same, but we all have at least one thing in common: we are Children of God and He loves us very much. Primary is a place where we learn what it means to be a child of God, how we should act, and the choices we should make to become more like our Savior. 

I had a little CTR table and I talked about Choosing the Right. 

I also had an activity day/cub scout table and talked a little bit about those programs.

Here's the room all together:

There weren't a ton of people that came, but enough to make it feel like a success. I really do love primary. It is such an incredible program and I am always impressed at the goodness, kindness, and faith of those kids. Primary is a great place to be!

Emery Goes to Preschool

I can't believe it, but Emery started preschool. Where did the time go? These pictures simultaneously make my heart ache and swell with pride. It's not an "official" preschool, it's more of a joy school type co-op with some friends, but it still makes her seem so big! Just look at her:

All grown up!

A cute smile, she was so excited!

Two thumbs up!

Showing off her back pack!

She isn't quite 3 years old yet, so she's a little bit young for this. Most of the kids we are doing it with are a year ahead of her. But she speaks very well and can follow directions...if she feels like it...and I think this will be very good for her. It's going to take a few weeks for her to get used to it, and she'll take a bit more helping than the other kids, but I think eventually she will thrive. There are 5 kids in the group so I will teach every 5 weeks or so. Not too bad! I get to teach this next week and I'm ridiculously excited about it. I've spent an unhealthy amount of time on pinterest looking up science projects, worksheets, and art projects. It's going to be so fun!

Here's the little "discipline" chart I made for us to use. This is the idea the Joy School curriculum uses. A school house with windows. The kids open up their window when they arrive and if they start not listening/misbehaving you close their window. Then they can open it again when they are ready to listen.

We want to keep the window open, Emery! Not closed!!!

 I love the concept, but it didn't mean too much to Emery. Her first day she was just trying to go play, she didn't understand that she had to sit for a lesson first. My friend kept asking her to come sit and finally said, "Emery, do I need to close your window?" Apparently Emery nonchalantly said as she was walking away, "Yeah, you can close it." She didn't care about some window. Once my friend convinced Emery to sit down with the rest of the kids she did well. Or so my friend said. :) We will see next week when it's at our house how she does!

Her second day was great, she came home so proud of this alligator she made and was telling everyone, "A says ah! A says ah! A says ah!" It was so cute. 

Lawyer by day...

In case any of you might be tempted to think that Gavin is getting soft from all his office work, I'm posting some of the amazing physical feats he has accomplished in the last few months. Prepare to be amazed!

First up is Keith, Gavin, and Tobin from the "Summer of Seals" competition they completed this summer. It starts with a 500 meter swim, followed by 2 min push-ups, 2 min sit-ups, as many pull-ups as you can, and you end with a 1.5 mile run.

Here's his stats:
Swim: 10 min 20 sec
Push-ups: 85
Sit-ups: 84
Pull-ups: 10
Run: 10 min 9 sec

Impressive!

Smiling because the race hasn't started...

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

He also rescued a pair of shoes from this gigantic tree that you can see he is climbing, with help from spikes on his feet, rope, and a harness. It was a big tree though, and it was difficult to get the rope to go up the bark. I think my brother in law ended up getting a big pole to help him from the back so he didn't lose his grip and fall to his death (ok, ok, not his death, but possibly a sprained ankle! He was really high up there!)

Aaaaaaand here he is wrestling a 7 & 1/2 FOOT shark. That shark is alive in that photo, they had just fished him out of the water AND GAVIN IS STICKING HIS HAND INCHES FROM HIS RAZOR SHARP TEETH! The man is crazy. I had to make the picture extra big so you get a feel for the size of this shark. 

I don't have a picture for the last one, but he did a Spartan race a few months ago and he did really well. It was about a 10 mile run with obstacles throughout. The picture I wish I had was of his feet when he was done. They were so torn up, but he pushed through and finished well. 

In conclusion, my husband is super strong, manly, and very nice to look at. He's the complete package folks!