Snakes & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

I just wanted to take a moment and record my feelings:

I had a great day and enjoyed my children playing with friends for hours. After hours of lunch, treats and playing outside, I surveyed my boys and had to laugh. Ricky was absolutely FILTHY because he dug in the dirt and kept his shoes off all afternoon. Jacob had managed to take his relatively new jeans and destroyed them by sliding on his knees and getting holes.
Dirty faces, dirty clothes, dirty noses. It never ends with little boys it seems. I get frustrated at times because I want to keep clean kids, a clean house and all, but the truth is that I love my little rough and tumble boys.
There is nothing like getting tackled and given hundreds of kisses, being pulled at for attention and spontaneous screams of " I love you".

There is NO femininity in these little guys. I love it, I love being their mom. I truly would not change a thing! I love you boys!

My Other Blog

A few weeks ago I posted about getting a new treadmill and wanting to get fit. I have so much to say on the issue, but I don't want it all mixed in with the family blog. So, I decided to start a fitness journal blog about what I am doing, how I am doing it and all that jazz. My hope is that I can chronicle my efforts and find humor and success as I go. If you would like to check it out, I am at http://gettingfithowimdoingit.blogspot.com/. I have it listed along the right column of this blog at the top under "My Other Blog About Fitness & Nutrition" . If you care to comment I would love to hear your thoughts as I go!

Our Ward- Pittsburgh 2nd, 2010

For years I have wanted to get pictures of the ward but never been able to do so. This year Bishop Haroldson took a large group picture for us and I thought it would be awesome to document it for us to remember. We have so many families that we love and with whom we have become great friends. Here it is, Pittsburgh 2nd Ward! Well, everyone that was there that day:

-PICTURE TO COME-

Sister Olsen followed suit right after and got the majority of the kids born around Rickys time all captured together. When it rains, it pours! Cant wait to get those guys into Primary! I guess if you can baptize them, you just birth them!

The kids shown are L-R (? Spencer, Olivia, ? Barrett, Zack Kimber (in the far back by his mom), Conner Waits, Ricky Shumway, David Rodriguez, Wynter Olsen, and Bella Garvin). We were missing Abby Machin, but we got most of them.

Here are just a few of the families that we have come to really enjoy spending time with and getting to know. They are in costume as they were taken at a Halloween Party by sister Wilson, but the families none the less.

L-R

1. Ben & Jamie Haner

Kids: Emma & Lilly

2. Josh & Jenn Olsen

Kids: Mia, Mckinlee & Wynter

3. Todd & Liz Waits

Kids: Connor

4. Brandon & Joyelle Turley

Kids: Jackson, Maddux & Capri

L-R
1. Friends of The Wilsons
2. Mandy & Brian Mancuso
3. Mark & Kelly Kimber
Kids: Josh, Bryant, Anna, Ethan & baby Zack.

L-R
1. Dan & Amy Spencer
Kids: Taryn, Hudson & Weston
2. Us

Kids: Jacob & Ricky
3. Neil & Mckinsey Lefler

Kids: Sofi & Kamber

Primary Program 2010 The ABC's Of The Gospel

Well, it is done! Our primary program wend wonderfully. I cannot imagine it going better if we tried. Each child said their parts in their own words and their pure little spirits just stole the show. I just love my primary kids! I just love my councilors and I sure appreciate my teachers! As time goes on I think that we have clicked and things run so well considering our small size and considerable challenges.

Barb and Dianne and Linda (councilors and Secretary) were awesome and found the format that we used during the program. Together we planned each child's part and I think we got it just right. Here is the outline in case you wonder what we did:

ABC's of the Gospel:

Intro: This year we have focused on our "Savior, Jesus Christ". His life. His ministry. His gospel. The children want to tell you what they've learned. The lessons taught by the teachers each week are sometimes have difficult principles for the students to understand, but we try to make it easy for them.......In fact, it can be as easy as the A,B, C's.

We have each child supplement the Letters meaning below with a scripture, experience, or testimony and an example or explanation of what it means to them. We interspersed songs that we worked on through the year as they matched the themes being shared.

A is for the Articles of Faith
B is for Baptism
C is for Confirmation
D is for Doctrine & Covenants
E is for Eternal Families
F is for Fun
G is for Goodly Parents
H is for the Holy Ghost
I is for Invite (others to hear the gospel)
J is for Joseph Smith
K is for Knowledge
L is for Love
M is for Miracles
N is for Nephi
O is for Ordinances
P is for Prophets
Q is for QUIET (this one was yelled at the crowd by a sunbeam-- it was adorable.)
R is for Redeemer
S is for Service
T is for Truth
U is for Understanding
V is for Virtue
W is for Wisdom
X is for eXample (this one was done by each Nursery child and parent holding a picture depicting Christs example for us. Lots of scenes from his life and they were announced what each picture was by the nursery leader.)
Y is for Young (I loved this one: "Even though we are young, there is much good that we can do.")
Z is for Zion (the whole primary repeated together: "Zion is a place where everyone is kind and fair and loves one another, just like Jesus taught." )

I closed the program with remarks that varied from thank yous, testimony, examples and finished by saying that "we learn a lot of important things in primary, but if we ever forget, just remember to go back to the basics, back to our ABC's.

I loved being a part of this program. It was rewarding to conceive of an idea, fill it in with the kids parts and watch it come to fruition. I love primary and I love my kids. I have thoroughly enjoyed this calling and really have enjoyed working with my presidency. I don't know how long I will get to serve in it but I sure do love it!

Hope yours was as cute as ours. Hope you felt the spirit like we did. Wish you were here!

Trick Or Treat!!! Happy Halloween Everyone!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

We had a great week leading up to the big day! Jacob and Ricky got to dress in their costumes so many times that when we got them ready to go for the real thing on Saturday night they were less than enthusiastic. They had already been to a Primary party on Tuesday, school on Friday and a party later that night. We were going to do some early trick or treating, but the kids were exhausted.

We met with friends at a Ward members parents house in Monongahela at 6pm and went until about 8pm. Monongahela is a super cute town about 15 minutes South of Jefferson Hills (where we live) that has one unique old home after another.

Kids roamed the streets with their parents and costumes were everywhere. I have seen more ferries and super hero's this year than ever! Jacob and Ricky were a Walrus and Super Mario and they looked adorable. They loved going door to door with our friends children and got bags and bags of treats. Mom and Dad appreciated the haul later that evening after the kids went to bed and the kids passed out cold.

Both kids had a great time and mom and dad loved seeing them play and laugh as they scored one great treat after another. Thanks Monongahela! Happy Halloween!

Kindergarden Halloween Parade

Jacob had a parade at school today. They got to dress up and walk around the school for the older kids in the school and parents that wanted to come. Of course, I wanted to go and so did little Ricky. Just to be fun, I dressed Ricky up too! Jacob looked so adoreable in his little Super Mario Costume and Ricky cheered his brother while dressed as a walrus saying, " yay - Jacob", (sounded like yay-cub) as he went by.
















































I loved the costumes his teacher Mrs. Vazikez (on the left in the picture) and the other Kinder teacher Mrs. Mattotz decided on: A pair of die.

My friend Tashas daughter and is his classmate friend Allyssa was Jessie from Toy Story and also looked adoreable! I tried to get him to dress up as Woodie from Toy Story but it was to no avail. The power of Mario was too strong. I am glad he was though because he looked adoreable.

Saturday Togethe & Fun At The Pumpkin Farm

Every year since Jake was about 2, we have taken him to the pumpkin patches and set him loose. There are always fun things to do each time we go. Here in Pittsburgh there is a great farm called Roselin Farms (up North) that is a pretty drive to get there and the grounds are beautiful. They go all out each year and have everything available for kids from hey rides, haunted barns, pumpkin picking, cute corn mazes, treats, and petting farms. We took Ricky this year for the first time and had a ball! Both kids enjoyed each thing that they could do. Rick and I were just there to watch their cute faces light up at each new thing. I cannot deny though, that the kettle corn is always an extra good enough reason for me to attend as well.

This year, we decided to hit the huge market downtown and go to our favorite Italian import store Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. If you have been, you understand why we go down, fight crowds, stand in line forever and pay for parking. It is unlike any market most people have ever been to. If you have not been there, come visit and I promise to take you!

Here is some proof of our mischief at the Market:

LATER AT THE FARM: