Cultivating faith

Last spring we had a family night lesson where we talked about what a testimony is and faith. We talked about how both can start very small like a seed, but when properly fed and cared for can grow into something wonderful. That night we planted seeds in paper cups, and then a few weeks later we transferred those seedlings to the back yard. We also planted a few extra seeds just for fun. I was later so glad that we planted those extra seeds, because our first set of seedlings didn't make it, which could have been quite a blow to the effectiveness of the object lesson, but after a few days we saw a tiny green plant poking up through the dirt. It was a new seedling! Hooray! Mason carefully watered and regularly checked on his plant, and at the end of the summer was rewarded with this.

Favorite memories

A few days ago I asked the kids what their favorite memories were.

Mason said it was the day that we brought Sasha home. For those of you that have not met the newest addition to the family let me introduce you to Miss Sasha.
(Holding still isn't really her thing so getting a good picture has been tricky.)

The day we went to get her the kids and I had driven all the way to Salt Lake to see some puppies that I had found online. When we got there I knew that there was little chance that we would leave without a puppy. Mason was in love, and held Sasha all the way to Grammy's house. It was about a twenty minute drive and every few minutes little Sasha would stick her head up and whine a little bit. Mason would sing her a little song and she would lay her head back down. It was super sweet. We've now had Sasha about three months, and I have to say that Mason is her special boy. Every night after the kids are in bed and I am running around the house trying to straighten up and make a game plan for tomorrow, I'll notice that Sasha is missing, and without fail every time I find her sleeping in Mason's room. I feel happy that both my kids get to have the rewarding experience of having a dog.

Max said that his favorite memory was when we rode in the boat. He was referring to a quick trip we took this August up to Island park and Yellowstone. The first night we rented a boat and floated down the river near Mack's Inn where we were staying. We had such a great time the weather was pleasant and the boat ride was slow and peaceful. The water was fairly shallow most of the way so the kids had a great time getting in and out of the boat and splashing in the water. Unfortunately I was worried about getting my camera wet so I left it behind, but it was a great day that I hope the kids always remember.

Campout

Tonight we had a camp out in the backyard. I have been promising the kids all summer that we would so it was time to finally follow through. The kids were having such a great time out in the yard playing in the tent and running around like wild animals. Until it started to get dark and mom went inside for a few minutes. Suddenly I had two frightened boys telling me that there was a ghost AND a wolf somewhere outside. So I went outside with them and we all climbed into our sleeping bags and started telling stories as we watched the stars come out. We had a great time, but I could see that there would be little sleeping on this adventure, until Max announced that he was ready to go get in his bed and both boys happily packed up their pillows, trekked inside, and climbed in their beds. It was the perfect night I was the cool mom, and I still get to sleep in my bed.

What I did today

What you are looking at is a months worth of freezer meals. I did this at the start of summer two years ago and it was so nice. Thirty meals lasted through much of the summer (since we didn't use them every night) and it really took the pressure off me to be in cooking dinner while my kids wanted to be outside playing. I highly recommend it, but be warned this is what my kitchen looked like after I was done...

In other news when I was finally cleaning up this atrocious mess I asked Mason to run some things downstairs for me. He told me very sweetly that in his scriptures he had read about how Jesus loved the little children and so he was very sorry, he would not be able to run my errand because he had to stay upstairs and play with Max because Max is a little child and he wanted to show love for him by playing transformers with him. Oh my goodness that kid is something else.

....AND you smell like one two!

The other day Mason was singing that extra little verse that sometimes goes with Happy Birthday... You know the one I mean, he sang, "Happy birthday to you, you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey, and you smell like one too!" Then he stopped and looked at me intently and said, "Does one two even have a smell... they're numbers?"

TrackMap is here!

Last fall we took the kids out and did this. Like I said before I've never really understood the point of corn mazes. The particular one that we went to had twelve checkpoints that we were supposed to find, we found one and declared our outing a success and headed toward the entrance. Afterward Shane and I were lamenting that there wasn't a iphone map tool that was of better use to us in the corn maze, and an idea was born.

Shane invented TrackMap an app for the iphone that records your steps and allows for adding points of interest and photos. Its a fun little tool, you can save your tracks and share them with friends. It also has an option that will let you sell your tracks if you want, and the best part is the TrackMap app is completely free in the app store.

The kids and I have been enjoying helping with the testing phase. A few days ago we mapped out a disc golf course in town. Mason had a ton of fun using Shane's iphone to map the course. For a kid who loves being outside almost as much as he loves electronics it was right up his alley.



Maybe next year at the corn maze we'll be able to find all of the check points.

A summary of Mason's weekend