Recent art

I did this for one of my friend's neighbors.  Their little 17 month old got ran over in their drive way. So sad.

Two big things

"A Mother's Hope"

 This is the picture I just finished for the Church's 9th International Art Competition. The theme this year was "Make Known His Wonderful Works."  It was inspired by the Gundersen and Hansen families. Both of them very dear friends to us. Both of them buried babies this year. Many prayers and 9 months of working on this, mostly in my head. I feel very blessed to have had the experience.
In the next post I will show the pictures I did for them.

Sarah loves Taffy's crate. She is a silly girl! Taffy got out last Monday night and spent the night at a stanger's home that picked her up on a dangerous road nearby. Thankfully we got her back on Tuesday. She hasn't even tried to dig again.

I fly out on Wednesday, my race is Saturday!!! Can't believe I am ready, I hope it goes well. So excited to see my family. Sort of nervous to leave my kids and Joe though. I think it will be good for all of us. :)

Our weekend

I got my lost sunglasses back in the mail this weekend!!! (Temple Square--found them and mailed them to me!)  I had a baby shower here for my cute neighbor Amber! I watched Brigham play in his first tackle football game! I watched BYU's quarterback CHOKE in one  of the ugliest games EVER! I am going to fly to UT now with Sarah to run the St. George Marathon, Joe is staying here with the rest of the family. Lots happening around here.

Amber--sorry I was trying to do too many things at once.

Dena and Ashley ( my other cute neighbors.)

Darla and Kylee--two of Amber's friends.

Brigham throwing the ball.

His teammate did catch it. This was in the warm up. I didn't get any pictures during the actual game. It was a little chaotic, but they did well. Brigham played Quarterback and Corner the whole game. He was the smallest one out there. The opposing team has the biggest player in the league, he did take Brigham down a few times. I am so glad he didn't get hurt. :)

More pics taken on Labor day/Ward Service project

Makaya Simson, Maryn McMurdie, Mary, Lucy, Brayler Simson, Addie and Gabe Barton



Gabe Barton, Vincent West, Mary, Maryn McMurdie, Makaya Simson, Lucy, Brayler Simson, Addie Barton leaving.

Lucy

Lucy was recognized last week in Dinobeat. The first and only one from her class so far. I didn't know about it but her teacher sent me what she said about her. "Lucy is a ray of sunshine in my classroom!  She comes to school with a smile on her face and ready to learn every day.  I'm so glad you're in our class!  You rock Lucy Lou!!! " 
We are proud of you Lucy. She wanted me to straighten her hair like one of her P.E. teachers.

Mary's hair is braidable! Yay!   Sarah pulled herself to standing the other day. She waves bye bye and tries to say it too. She is a jabber-jaw. She is also starting to shake her head yes and no. Not sure she knows what each direction means yet though. :)

Labor day

Today was a great day!  It started out by me realizing what beautiful light I had coming through my bathroom windows. So I took a few pics of my Beautiful Sarah! She is 11 mo. old tomorrow. Wow.

Joe and Spencer headed off to our ward service project at a local cemetary. Me and the rest of the kids headed to Liam Rogers' baptism where Brigham said the closing prayer. (He did so cute, I was a happy momma.) Then we met up with Joe and Spence at the Cemetary. Walking in I felt a wonderful feeling, being there with so many friends, watching everyone working so hard together. I was immediately directed to the resting spot of our dear friend's baby that died a few months back. All of the kids took great pride in being there and working around this little one's spot. It was a really special day. Not to mention the INCREDIBLE weather. It was in the 60's this morning and only got to 85, making our work/play day totally do-able. It was a wonderful blessing. We haven't seen those temp.'s for a really long time.

 Brigham, John Somoza, Spencer and Scott Roper w/ Chloe Tanner behind Spencer and Thomas Bates down in front.

                                                        Brig, Brayler, Lucy, Mary, Camber Simson

After we all met at the park and had a potluck lunch. We had a really good time. So many came out too. Very fun!

And Brigham is at football practice right now, this time in pads. They were required to have 2 practices before wearing pads. So here he is. Very excited.

Mary

Mary and I have a had a great time together this last week. She is a funny girl. A few days ago I had gotten after Brigham for not putting any of the Wii discs away and must of said Dang Brigham. So today she came up to me with a Wii disc in its case and she said, "See Mom, Brigham is not a dang."

I got a good laugh from that. She is looking so grown up to me and her hair is really growing. She is such a pretty girl!  Often when things don't go right for her you will hear her utter "poop" under her breath. And when things go right it is "yesss". So funny.