A Week of Celebration

Monday was my birthday! I have always looked forward to my birthdays. I have always felt it is the beginning of all the celebrating we do from now until the end of the year! So now I can start saying, "Happy Holidays!"

We started our fun filled weekend with going to the temple on Saturday. I love going down to San Antonio and spending the day at the temple and having family time. I was excited to see a wonderful friend at the temple that I haven't seen in years, it was a great surprise and blessing. Who knew we would meet up again in Texas! We have so much fun on our drives too, singing songs, reading stories, etc.

Clark took Monday off and we had a wonderful time together. I woke up in the morning and found that David and Clark were gone grocery shopping. (we had planned on doing that task since we were gone all day on Saturday) It was such a wonderful surprise. Then we spent the rest of the day enjoy the surprisingly cool weather! We visited some friends and then went out to eat. What a fun day, I wish everyday could be like that. Just spending time together.

Sick Days

Since the last post we have gone to a pumpkin patch. I really wanted Clark to go to the pumpkin patch (really a Christmas tree farm) that I took the preschool group to. We went on Saturday, when they had a pumpkin festival; it was so much fun to be all together as a family.

We have also had fun flying a kite at our little park. David loves standing there watching it fly. He has been asking to fly a kite for a while, but Clark needs to be home since it is hard to keep Rebecca close by while we try to fly our kite. She likes to wander to the swings.

The rest of the week we had to take pretty slowly. David didn't go to preschool since he, Rebecca, and I were all sick. We have done a lot of resting. Thankfully, I think we are through it and are on the mend now.

Relaxing Week

This week was a little relaxing, especially after doing Preschool last week. I can't believe it was only last week; it feels like it was two weeks ago. I guess that it how it goes when there are more activities in one week.

We enjoyed watching General Conference and learning ways that we can strengthen our family. I can't wait to read the Ensign edition that has all the talks written. Watching conference was fun and yet hectic with the children running around and not wanting to sit for two hour stretches, but we made it and tried to make it fun for them as well. I felt so happy inside when David would talk about what someone spoke of or a word he recognized. He especially picked up on the talks that the people would mention the apostle Paul. That surprised me.

I have also been having fun doing all sorts of reading. I love reading the Hymns and trying to remember the words. Now that I can't sit at the piano hours at a time and play all the Hymns, I am starting to forget lots of words. I am still reading "Fishers of Men" by Gerald N. Lund. I really enjoy that as well. I get a perspective of how people lived back in the day of Christ's ministry on the earth, also the culture and traditions of that time. Clark brought me a book home from the University Library called "Christy" by Catherine Marshall. So far I have found it to be a very interesting book, very addicting too. I love reading.

Preschool Week

I was able to take my turn this week in teaching our preschool group. I was lucky, though, and only had to teach one day and the other day we went to a Christmas Tree farm for Pumpkin fun!

I loved getting to teach about pumpkins since Fall, pumpkins, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are what make up my favorite time of year! The children were silly, but I think they learned a little about pumpkins. I cut a pumpkin open for them and they all looked at it and put their hands on their noses and said, "ewe that's stinky!" Some were brave enough to put their hands in. My favorite part was piling a corner with blankets and making a cozy corner for reading books. The children actually sat and listened and wanted me to keep reading! They were all so cute snuggled in the blankets and listening to the pumpkin stories. Then they made their own little paper plate pumpkins. In spite of being tired, things went very well.

The pumpkin patch was fun too. The hostess read the children a couple of pumpkin books, then we all climbed up on a wagon for a tractor hayride. Our group was so large we used three trailers. Then we ate lunch and went through a corn maze. I think the children were all worn out by the end, when we decorated the pumpkins and then went home. I loved that they have animals for the children to see as well. I wish that Clark could have come with us, that would have made the fun complete! Enjoy the pictures of the week.

Starting Fresh

I decided to start fresh with our blog. Here you can see the weekly progress of our family. Yesterday was a big adventure for me (Maryann) and the children. I took my turn in being the Preschool teacher (a group of six mothers take turns by the week). I had so much fun and I think the children did too. Tomorrow we will take a field trip to a farm that sells pumpkins in the Fall and Christmas trees in the Winter. I took the children last year and am excited to take them tomorrow. I will put pictures on later.

We are all excited to listen to the prophet and apostles this weekend for General Conference. I used to think these were the longest weekends of my life when I was young and struggled to pay attention. Now I feel it is too short and I just can't get enough. Thankfully I have learned that I can study those talks forever more and get more in six months. I miss getting to see it on our television in Utah, but at least we can watch it on our computer here.

We are doing very well right now enjoying the beautiful Fall weather (90 degrees still here in Texas). We are now in October, one of the greatest months in the year, with my birthday in it. Lots to celebrate now! Have a great time enjoying the Fall season.