Olympic Triathlon, E piano teaching, Temple Thursdays, Salt to Saint, Recital, Morning scripture routine

Scott participated in his first Olympic Triathlon a couple of weeks ago on September 8th. 3 hours of intense exercise is hard and I am so proud of him for all of his work and preparation and for being willing to step outside of his comfort zone and make some progress! 

Most of the kids stayed home as it was an early morning and a long drive and Charles had a football game during the same time, but we agreed to let Jane come along and when Scott was finishing and she saw him running in, she jumped up and ran the end with him.

This is something I made for singing time. I have a few things that I make and laminate and use over and over again and I thought this would be a fun one for the kids. Bullseye Targets, and on the back of each one I wrote a song (with a dry erase marker). They use the bow like Enos from the scriptures, to hit a target and we sing that song. A fun review game.

Elisabeth had a "musical" themed piano recital recently and she played Rewrite the Stars from The Greatest Showman. They were supposed to dress up like their characters, so we made an Anne Wheeler costume for her. I'm not much of a seamstress so did some things with liquid stitches like put that tan piece on the purple leotard and put the sparkly gems on the tan pieces, and then Annabelle took the leotard and some fabric we picked up from Walmart, to her sewing class (she takes from a lady in our neighborhood who will do a class with 3-4 girls for a few weeks), and together they made a cape and they made a ruffled ribbon around the bottom of the leotard. It looked pretty cool.

We had her wear her dancing shorts as well just to cover up a little more. 

Annabelle is going to wear this costume for Halloween so we'll get more use out of it. 

Elisabeth started teaching piano lessons during the middle of this month. She started Nora and Evy (a friend of Nora's), and October, tomorrow, she'll take on 2 more students around ages 6 and 8. 

September 12th I began my Plant Based Nutrition, online course, through ecornell. It is a 6 week long program that has 3, 2 week long segments on various topics. You can take a break in between courses and begin the next course after a 2 week break (or longer), and I will be taking a break in October because my kids will have a week off of school and I don't want to worry about having to get in school time then. So far, I'm loving it! I am so excited to be taking a course put together by T. Colin Campbell who wrote, The China Study, and his son Thomas Campbell. They have done so much research and have so much wisdom on the subject. This is a certificate program and a continuing education course so if you're a doctor, pa, nurse or dietitian, it'll count towards youre continuing ed, but for me, I'll have a certificate at the end saying I've completed the course, and I can put this on my food blog and eventually the healthy habits blog that I intend to begin very soon.

Since the kids have gone back to school, Sugar Benedict and I have been going to the temple together each Thursday morning. I love it! I love the time I get to spend with her in the car, visiting, and I love the regular temple time each week.

Charles had a field trip at the junior high, and we visited a 'farm', more like the backyard of a house where there was a bunch of booths set up for teaching the kids about FFA, myplate, horse trainers, and veteranarians. They did have a horse at one of the rotations and the kids thought it was neat to brush her.

This month Scott also did his first bike race. It was a team relay and they started Friday morning in Salt Lake City and took turns riding (others followed in a car and a camper) all the way down to St. George. They finished Saturday morning and were home by around 3 or 4pm on Saturday.

Scott did this relay with some friends from our previous ward, and he loved it! He loved the time together with them, bonding, and doing something active and challenging. 

Scott, Brian Wilcox, Therron Blatter, Scott Neeley, Roger Kipp, Roger Gailey, Aubree Moody (roger gailey's daughter) and her husband Derek Moody.

Once school started, and all the extra curricular activities picked up again, we decided to switch our evening scripture study time to morning because some activities go later than the little girls bed time. I wasn't sure how we'd fit it in since our elementary kids leave around 715, but we've done it for a month now and it's worked very well. I love that no one ever misses! When it was at night, we'd often have at least one missing (for football, dance, tumbling, scouts, etc). I also love that we've had more discussion since changing to morning; probably because they're fresh and alert and not exhausted from the day. 

Extracurricular Activities, Cabin with Ludwigs, Hank Smith, Dates

Have I mentioned  before that we bought another bookshelf? We have three in the living room now and I love it! The previous two bookshelves were completely overloaded and we had books piling up in other random spots. The kids each have a couple of shelves in there room as well for books, but this is where the majority go. I love books and I love learning and I hope we pass on that love to our children and I think having them out and available and them seeing us read them, is a good start. 

 Here's our Charles, he's playing defensive line tackle or something like that. He's been working on his speed at home, doing treadmill sprints a couple of times a week. Since he is not taking private music lessons this year (just doing band at school), I told him that sports was going to have to be his thing then so if there's a day without practice, he needs to do some at home that way it seems more fair since the girls have to practice piano daily. Granted, he does have 2 hour practices 3 days a week and the girls only do 30 minutes, but we won't mention that to the children :). And I really want them to have something every single day, besides homework and chores, that they need to work on. Work is a blessing. And don't worry, we play plenty too and have fun together.

 I occasionally find selfies like this on my phone.

 Annabelle and Kiley were twins, I know, I know they go to a uniform school so they're usually dressed alike, but today they had crimpy hair, half of which they pulled up into a ponytail with matching hair bows.

 Here's Jane at her piano lesson with teacher Stephanie. We sure love and appreciate all our teachers.

 Each morning, as soon as I get up, I say a prayer and then read scriptures before exercising and then helping kids get off to school. I have really come to love and cherish the scriptures over these past 15 years. I have little gems like these highlighted verses, posted in random spots throughout the house. They're a good reminder to us all of what's important.

 Our good friends the Ludwigs invited us to stay with them in their cabin (in kamas? I think. Near Oakley) over labor day weekend. We sure love this family and have been good friends for 10 years so being together for a couple of days was so fun! It really didn't matter what we did. But some highlights were sitting around and visiting, kids playing games,

 and riding around the mountain on the 4-wheelers.

 Thanks Ludwigs for inviting us!

 This is my September calendar, when I put it on the board September 1st. Which means all of these things are scheduled prior and we of course have added many things since. Looking at it as a whole seems a little daunting, but in actuality, it's not so bad when you're looking at it day to day. I'm glad we have this out in the kitchen for all to see, because even though I have phone alerts for just about everything on here, I STILL sometimes forget to do things or take people places, so having it for all to see makes them accountable as well and they're super good about reminding me when I need to help them get somewhere or do something :). Families are a beautiful thing!

 Hank Smith, a very popular and fun LDS speaker (mostly for youth), came to our town and spoke with the highschoolers there before school one morning. I drove Elisabeth and Maddie and then stayed since I like his stuff and it was amazing. He spoke on facing trials and challenges in life while turning to Christ and learning and growing from them.  I loved the stories he related about Joseph and the Coat of many colors, along with Elder Uchtdorf and his lung problems and how he got us thinking about whether it was a trial or a blessing...and how it can be both.

 September is Jane's date month, and she asked if we could have dinner at Kneaders. Love this girl and I love our monthly dates with individual children!

 And a picture from Sariah's mom of Annabelle and Sariah at a BYU vs Utes women's soccer game.