I'm Ready

Almost two weeks ago, our little neighborhood got a shake down.  No, I'm not talking about the massive wind storm that hit our area yesterday and was the cause of much destruction.  I'm talking about arriving at church Sunday, Nov. 20th to find the entire Stake Presidency on the stand and being informed that our Bishopric was being released and that we were being invited to a meeting at the Stake Center later that evening to find out who would be called in their stead.  Well you can't live here and not know that when your Bishopric is released and they don't just take care of that right then in your very own ward that something bigger is at play.  In this case, ward realignments.  I had a bit of a heads up on this from a friend in another ward that informed me of the meeting just 2 days prior.  She had someone in the know on the stake level.  But it didn't change the effect such news would have on me.  All it did was make the anxious nervousness last for 3 days rather than 3 hours.  

I tried to prepare myself as best I could.  I tried to prepare my presidency as best I could.  I knew that there would be changes and a very real likelyhood that one or more of us would not be in the same ward after that evenings meeting.  
I was right.  Our ward was one of the largest (if not the largest) ward in the stake.  Our ward membership was around the 510 mark.  We were averaging about 365 people in attendance at our sacrament meetings while there were other wards in the stake whose total ward membership was 273.  That's not people attending but members in total.  We were huge.  And not only were we huge we were attending church in the smallest building in the stake boundaries.  So needless to say, our ward caused all the hub-bub.  We found out at the meeting that my family would now be in a different ward.  They took 2 different sections of our ward and put them in 2 different wards.  With the acquisition of our ward parts, the other wards had to do some adjusting too and the ripple effect took place in 4 wards in the stake.

As emotional as these kind of changes can be, this wonderful neighborhood took it in stride.  There were tears and some frustration but after the initial shock everyone is making the best of this small trial of faith.  I wasn't upset with the change.  I have many friends in my new ward and a good friend of ours was made bishop.  It was almost like coming home.  Unfortunately, I couldn't shake the feeling that others in our new ward kept looking at us like we were the enemy because we came from the ward that caused all the change.  Those feelings have blown over but it was weird for the first week.  

The hardest part for me was being abruptly released as Primary President.  If you remember my post from a year and half ago,  you may remember that I wasn't terribly excited about moving from YW to primary.  But like all things spiritual, I came to really love those I served.  Those sweet children really had a hold on my heart and I felt like I had abandoned them.  I knew it wasn't my fault but it still felt like everything was left hanging.  Which I guess it was.  It always takes time to fill openings that are left from boundary changes.  The good news is that my 2 counselors both remain in the Country Creek Ward to keep things going and moving in the right direction.  I have loved serving with them and couldn't be happier that they will both still be serving in primary.  What lucky kids to have more time with Kenzie and Ali!  My primary is in very capable hands, probably even better than when it was in my own hands.

This year has been great in our primary.  I was going to make an end of year post about all the fun things we've done this year but I'm going to do it a little early because I'm not there any more.  The theme for 2011 was "I Know The Scriptures Are True."  So we implemented a lot of scripture based activities.  One thing we started was the scripture treat jar.  Every week if the kids brought their scriptures to church they would get to put a treat into our scripture treat jar.  When the jar was full we would make them a treat and bring it to church the following week.  The fun thing was that we never had the same treat twice and we changed the jar to fit whatever treat we were filling it with.  For example: we started with a small jelly jar and used chocolate chips to fill it.  When it was full they got chocolate chip cookies.  Next we moved to mini marshmallows.  Mini marshmallows are significantly bigger than chocolate chips so we had a much bigger jar.  When it was full they got rice krispy treats.  Our biggest jar was actually a big vase because the treat was Hershey Kisses.  They loved that one.  I never got a picture of any of our jars but I did get pictures of our other fun things.

 This is our scripture chain.  If a child read their scriptures that week, either individually or with their family, they got to write their name on a chain link and add it to our primary chain.  We loved this.  It was a great visual to see that chain grow every week.  Some weeks it grew immensely and other weeks very little.  Each of those links represent a child that experienced the scriptures and increased their testimony by reading the word of God.  Our goal was to get the chain around the room by the end of the year.  That goal was smashed by August so we had a party to celebrate.  Then we challenged them to keep reading and see if they could get it around the room again by the end of the year.  Right now it's just past the half way mark.  It just makes my heart happy to see.

But my very favorite thing we did this year was our Scripture Hero board.

Every one of my primary kids are represented here (even the ones that moved in mid year).  We took their picture and put it on the body of our scripture hero guy and every week one child in Jr. primary and one in Sr. primary would get to stand up and tell about their scripture hero, someone that can be read about in the scriptures who is someone we can look up to.  They needed to share who their hero was, why they think they are a hero and share a scripture that tells about them.  We then would write the name of their hero on a shield and they would get to go put it on their hero picture at the back of the room. This, by far, was my favorite thing every week.  I looked forward to this more than anything else.  The good news is that although I'm not in this ward any more,we still share a building so I can go in the primary room whenever I want and see this board filled before the end of the year.
Here's a close up of one of our cute heroes. 

 Just and FYI: There was a surprising lack of Jesus scripture heroes. Most of our cute primary kids really thought about this and came up with different great heroes.

What a great experience our family has had in the Country Creek Ward.  We have loved it so much.  Which is funny because 4 1/2 years ago we did this boundary rearranging thing also and I was devastated by the outcome.  I didn't want to be in this ward.  But it has turned out to be the best ward we have ever in been in.  I guess I should say "so far" because we have a lot of life ahead of us.  Some of the best people I know, I have been privileged to know through this ward.  But I'm ready.  I'm ready to move forward.  I'm ready for new experiences and to make new friends.  I'm ready to put full trust in the Lord and go where he wants me to go.  We're not moving, we're still around, we'll still be seeing all the people we know and love and so it's really not about losing friends but increasing our circle of friends.  And who doesn't need as many friends as they can get?

As Promised

The rest of our awesome October went something like this:

October 26th

Field trip with Isaac's preschool to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  Wish I had remembered my camera because those darn kids are super cute.  

That night, a sweet Girl's Night with my mom and sisters to the So You Think You Can Dance Concert.  AMAZING!

Some of my favorites...

I L-O-V-E Tadd 

Also love tap dancing but these guys were

too fast to get an action shot .

Seriously? Who moves like this?

And of course....Melanie.

Enough said.

 

October 27th

Ethan's 11th birthday!
What a good kid we have in Ethan.  He is growing up so fast and in only one year he will have the priesthood and that is kind of freaking me out a little.  

We didn't do anything terribly exciting for Ethan's special day.  We just loved him lots and got the one thing he asked for for his birthday and that was the 3D Twister remote control car.  He was sooooo happy.  And after seeing this thing move I was pretty impressed too.  It's small but super fast and can do all kinds of tricks and when it flips over it still goes.  Here it is in action.  

Keep in mind these pictures were taken while the car was in low gear.  The instructions suggested that you get the hang of steering the car in low gear because it's more difficult the faster it goes.  Come to think of it I don't know if Ethan has even tried high gear yet...I can't imagine it.  Low gear is FAST.

Some stats about Ethan at 11.

*I have no idea how much Ethan weighs or how tall he is but I can say that he is only 3/4 a head shorter than me.  Around here that is pretty tall but, in case anyone is wondering, it's  pretty short everywhere else. He's one of the smallest kids in his class.  We're hoping puberty is good to him.

*Ethan is in the 5th grade and enjoys school even though it does not come easily to him.

*He loves Yu-Gi-Oh.  (Mom does not)

*He loves soccer and plays it at every recess at school.  Added bonus:  He made the only goal during last recess playing against the 6th graders to win...on his birthday.

*He favorite food is rice with butter and salt and pepper.

*He is the by far the most helpful of all my children.

*He has had a job mowing Grandma and Grandpa's lawn for 3 years and has more money in the bank than me. 

October 28th

Halloween parade at school.

I have no idea why I keep trying to take pictures of this event every year because I can never get my kids to slow down long enough to snap a picture without it being blurry.  Just chalk it up to me being a good mom? :)

 

October 29th

Family pictures at Memory Grove in Salt Lake.

No pictures yet but I'm sure they're going to be great! 

Can't wait to see them.

October 30th

Primary Program in sacrament meeting.   Always a little stressful for me and I don't know why because it doesn't matter how it really goes, everyone loves it regardless. This year was no exception.  Those sweet primary children of mine had me in tears by the end.

It was also pumpkin carving day.  It was lovely weather and we had lots of fun.  The kids each took a turn with the camera and these are some of the shots we ended up with.

Loving me some finger in this one.

And my personal favorite...

can you tell Isaac took this one?

Right at eye level. 

 

October 31st

Halloween!  We finally made it!

The kids didn't have school so they played the day away and waited patiently for night to fall to go trick-or-treating.

We had easy costumes this year.  Hallelujah!

From left to right:  Buzz Lightyear, Ballerina, 

Snow Princess and Detective

  

Something's wrong here, my bucket is empty.

It was Dad's turn to stay home and pass out the candy.

He hates getting up and down to open the door so he decided to camp out in the driveway to make his life easier.   The weather was so nice JayDee told me he almost got too hot sitting next to the fire. 

We had a lot of fun this October.  It was kind of a whirlwind but we loved it all.

Octoberfest

October is so fun!  We love this month.  After we got about halfway through this month I thought I would just wait until the end of the month to post everything but then I thought that would be one massive post (more so than usual), so I decided to post everything except Ethan's birthday (which is coming right up) and Halloween. So here goes....

We started the month like any other, putting up the Halloween decorations and then we waited for fall to set in.  Our first notable occasion in October is always Dad's birthday.  This year his birthday landed on a Thursday and Thursdays are the day that the USU Botanical Center in Kaysville, where JayDee spends at least one day a week, has their Farmer's Market.  This particular market day was their annual apple and cheese tasting night.  JayDee loves this night and he didn't want to come home, even though it was his birthday.  So we took his birthday to him. 

First we had to partake of the apple and cheese varieties.

And who can say no to freshly pressed apple cider?

Then we whisked JayDee off into his trees and had our own little birthday party.  Presents, singing, cake...

Modeling the new jacket and CD

(Yes, that's Adele's CD.  He loves her.) 

That is one nice cake!

It took me all day to make.

For the record, I did make his traditional Chocolate Chiffon Cake it was just a few days after his actual birthday.   

Plus, donuts travel much easier.

The very next day, we headed out for our annual pumpkin patch/hayride day at J&J Nursery with our friends.  It was a beautiful Friday with so much sun it was hard to get any decent pictures.

The hunt is on!

Next up,  Pack Meeting.  Ethan earned his Arrow of Light award, the highest award in the Cub Scout program, and is officially headed to the Boy Scouts in 2 days.  I really don't know how he got this old.

Part of the ceremony in our ward is to paint the kids' faces with all the 7 colors of significance in the Arrow of Light.

Luckily parents get to have some too.  Yippee!

After they are painted they get to go over the bridge.  The Cub Scouts line up forming an arch on one side of the bridge and the Boy Scouts line up on the other and then the boy getting the Arrow of Light gets to run through the arch up and over the bridge.  This is to symbolize the movement from cub scouts to boy scouts.  Then they get to sign and date the bridge.  They love this!

 We love this boy!

Check out our wisdom marks.

Yeah, we're wise alright.

Grandma and Grandpa came to celebrate too.

UEA was last week and there were no fun vacations for us so we had to find other things to fill our 4 day weekend.  One day we went with our friends, the Griggs, on a "hike" on the Farmington trail.  It was another beautiful day and we enjoyed being outside somewhere that we normally aren't so much.

 Another day we had a kid's Halloween party.  Costumes were optional and that's why half my kids are dressed up and the other half are not. 

This was the dig through the brains to find prizes game. 

I absolutely love this picture.

We couldn't let the kids have all the fun so of course the parents had to have a Halloween party too.  At this one costumes were not optional.  It was a holiday themed party.  Everyone had to choose a holiday to dress up like but no Halloween.  Can you guess the holidays?  There are a few doubles.

The dorky, overly festive neighbors with fruit cake.

Meowy Christmas everyone! 

Oh. Can't guess this holiday?  How about...

National talk like a pirate day?!

 Thanks for the fun Griggs!

That's it for now.  But there's more fun to come before this awesome month is over.  Happy Fall everyone!