Maybe...??!!

We had another wonderful fun filled weekend. We made some cute cookies and some fun things for Cora to give to friends.  I will post pictures of that at Halloween since that is what it is for.  Leah had a friend over that she has really missed since she moved.  They had a great time together.  Gymnastics and dinner then we headed to the farm to take long over due family pictures.  We figured it was either go to Champion and take them or photo shop Dave in.  I don't have photo shop.  It was nice to have a leisurely morning getting up and eating breakfast.  Dave did not feel so rushed because we were closer.  We worked on the house all day.  It was unbelievable warm.  Worked in our shirt sleeves most of the day.  The night before Dave had asked me to bring out the wheel barrow and shovels. We got there late and it was dark.  After unloading everything, we shut off all the lights and looked at the stars.  My kids love to sit there and talk about and point out all the constellations.  It was getting late and we still needed the pictures, so we hopped back in the car and started to drive away.  There was a really weird sound.  Yep, I totally back over the wheel barrow.  I really wrecked it.  I feel really bad, but Dave thinks he can make it work.  We will see.  I also got an amazingly huge rock chip this  week in the Tahoe.  Maybe I should stop driving.  Anyways it was a nice day.  Gilbert was there to play with Blake and he got right in and helped us all morning. Amber then invited us to the famous scones and egg cup lunch. (I don't know if she calls them egg cups I will have to ask)  It was fabulous.  We then worked more until dinner.  Blake and Leah went back to play with everyone after lunch, but Cora stayed with us.  After dinner we got home and found we had a lot of messages to return, then got to bed.  Sunday it was raining a bit as I left for early morning meetings. Still raining when Dave came.  Then the snow began. I was supposed to have auxiliary training that evening but it was cancelled on account of the snow fall.  We had a wonderful, cozy, warm, evening in.  We snuggled up and had hot chocolate and watched a movie. Today the kids are out of school.  They have been through snow stuff, did some chores, and finalized Halloween costumes.  So far it has been a great day.  Blake decided he wanted to shovel the walk for us.  He got all dressed and out he went.  A bit later I went to help him.  He was almost done ours but I didn't see him anywhere.  Blake was over shoveling the neighbors driveway.  Later he came home with $5.  He said, "Mom, I didn't do it for the money, but when I told him I didn't want it he said I needed to take it. I didn't know what to do.  I guess I will stick it in my missionary fund"  It is things like that that make me think that maybe... just maybe I am doing somethings right.

Warning: Picture Overload

I LOVE this time of year.

My beautiful peacock.

Nice smiles Blake and Cora.

It was still so warm.

Higher!!!

Yipee!!

Soar!!

Swan dive! Kinda.

Work is so exhausting.

Fun is over.  Back to work.:(

Years ago Dave made a headless man when raking leaves.  Cora has been asking every year since to do it again.  Last night she got the other two and they did it themselves.

Cora took this a couple days ago.

This tree is going to be the most missed thing about the house when we move.

Stake Dance and a few thoughts

Cora had her first stake dance last weekend.  She is not into the whole boys and dance thing yet, so I really didn't think she would be interested.  But another YW told her she had to go because it was her first and told her she would pick her up.  It was a Halloween dance and they had to dress up.  She ended up having a really great time. She said the kids actually danced.  The ones I attended when Dave was in YM they didn't so much.  Champion was hosting so she knew lots of people from there and she went with some fun people. It was a great first experience.  She had wanted to dress up as a stick figure for Halloween (still will on the actual day) but this was all very last minute.  Cora did not even have a dance card but was told she could be interviewed there.  We got out our costume boxes and started looking for things to wear.  She put on many different outfits then found the lady bug costume I had made for her when she was one.  That is what she decided to go as. I found it pretty funny.

One Year Old

Fourteen Years Old.

We had another stake youth fireside last night.  Dave had to leave to go to a course in Calgary and so was unable to come with us.  I really, really did not want to get dressed back up and go.  But as always it was wonderful.  The speaker was a seminary teacher from Raymond (I decided that would be a nice job.  You get paid to teach seminary if you work for CES and if you teach early morning think of all the free time you would have the rest of the day.  Sweet deal.) Anyways he talked on how we can do missionary work through social media.  It is as easy as re posting something on Pinterest, or sharing something on Facebook.  Then all your 'friends' will see it also.  He also talked about blogging and twitter.  In closing he gave a few warnings about the dangers and how to avoid them but said that the Lord had prepared this age for this type of work.  He shared with us what the apostles had said about it and showed how to see if it was an official church site we were following. He pointed out that missionaries are not in every country yet, but Facebook is:)  Then an elder bore his testimony and told his conversion story.  Basically he followed a friend on Facebook and she would just put up a little sentence about what she learned in church that Sunday or re-post a quote from a church leader.  He saw them and started asking questions and is now serving a mission today.  Cool huh!

As we have been going through Cora's True to the Faith book we got to modesty the other day.  There were some interesting thing that I had not thought about before.  Besides the ones we all know and discuss like not to tight, or low cut, or revealing there was greater detail.  If it is so tight the you can see every curve then it is revealing even though no skin is showing. So just wearing leggings as is the style right now is not modest. Or a shirt that is very tight. There is a difference between fitted and too tight. Plus too low in front, if you have to hold your shirt in place when you bend over so people can not see down, or low in back and not to show the shoulders.  The part I had not thought about said 'inappopiratly casual for the situation'.  So wearing pj's to school, yoga pants shopping, jogging pants to the church on youth nights, does that mean they are all immodest?  Seems like it.  Blake asked how boys could be immodest, since they always seem to stress it more with girls.  I guess wearing muscle shirt to the store or no shirt when out??  It talked about attitude, behavior and language are also all points of modesty.  You can be beautifully dressed and fully covered, but if you are not acting in accordance with God then you are immodest. I knew all that in my head because that is how I feel comfortable, but to actually read if from church authorities was interesting and made for a great discussion with my kids.

Canadian Thanksgiving 2013

It was a beautiful perfect autumn day.  Dave and I got the kids up at 5:30 am, loaded up the car and headed to the farm.  Dave wanted to be working by the time the sun rose at 7.  I had the kids set out their winter gear the day before.  We packed breakfast, snacks and the things we were taking to Thanksgiving dinner.  When we got there the kids did really good and got right in to help.   We were working on getting the first floor on.  Dave had three drills.  We carried lots of boards over, Dave made a walk way and then we started gluing and drilling screws in.  The kids really had lots of fun helping.  It slowly warmed up and we slowly removed hats, then gloves, then coats, till we were down to sweaters.  Leah even opted to stay and work on a few more instead of going to Amber's, she was having so much fun.  We finally found some work Leah likes to do. Amazing!!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Amber and Jared's.  All the Puzey's were able to make it.  It was a great dinner and we enjoyed being together.  Once again the kids played well.  A while after dinner Dave went back over to work on the house.  He wanted me to come with him but I didn't feel right about ditching all my kids on everyone. And I didn't think it would be fair to pull them away from cousins they don't get to see often.  So I stayed and hung out.  Time flew quickly and soon it was late and time to get everyone back home and  in bed.  I have noticed the last couple of weeks, just like my mom said about us growing up, it is not really hard to get my kids in bed anymore.  They get up early and are working hard or doing things all day.  Usually by bed time they are very willing to climb in bed and go to sleep.  The only problem is getting them in bed at a decent time with cubs, YW, volleyball, etc. They all sacked out pretty fast when we got home.  It really was another great day.

14

 Cora had a great birthday.  It ended up being a week long celebration.  Starting last week with her friends coming and doing the mall dares.  Thursday we opened presents.  Because of her volleyball schedule it was either that or do it when only some of us were there.  Dave changed his schedule and came to her game that night. Saturday was her actual birthday. Cora had a tournament in Pincher Creek that day.  The first game was at 10 and the second game ended up being at 5.  Grandpa and Grandma Smith came to watch the first game and had brought cupcakes for Cora and her team.  They sang happy birthday to her.  We had such a long wait that we decided to go to Hill Spring and wait in between.  So we invited ourselves to my parents house and had a really fun afternoon.  Cora, Kailey, Star, and Leah played volleyball and basketball in the garage and we had lunch.  It was a very fun impromptu day. (Blake and Dave were at the farm)

Sunday when we were all together again, we had pot roast and green beans for dinner and Cora's favorite dessert.  Angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries.  She had a wonderful week and is now a little panicked about taking her learners test.  I really should make an appointment sometime.

Happy 14th Cora!!!

You know that saying about filling another mans shoes?  How about filling your dad's pants.:)

Friends and Conference

All summer Cora had planned to have a back to school party with her friends.  With vacations and me breaking my ankle it kinda ended up being a birthday party.  She had 4 friends she invited.  They came right after school.  We had Panko Chicken, oranges, and chips.   They are a really great bunch of girls.  One of her friends wanted to make a cake as a surprise.  Her mom dropped it off earlier and we hid it.  They ate dinner and went downstairs for a bit then we headed to the mall.

Cora wanted to go to the mall and do mall dares.  She had seen a couple of cute ones online but most of them were a little disruptive or mean and they would probably get kicked out.  So we ended up mostly making up our own.  They had a list of 20 to do.  Some examples were:

1. Have an animated conversation with a movie poster.

2. Find a baby shoe and ask if it comes in your size.

3. Put a chocolate bar on lay away

4. Stare and point at the ceiling for 2 mins and see how many people look up.

5. Hide in the middle of the clothes rack and when someone comes to look whisper "pick me".

They had a blast and got some shopping done.  We took them home just in time to turn around and get Cora to gymnastics, then we ended up looking at a few house for Parade of Homes.  One had my shower and all had my baseboards.  Guess I know what I am doing so far with this house:)

Saturday was the beginning of Conference weekend.  It was perfect weather and there is not going to be many left, so we headed to the farm in the morning to work on the house. We actually were helpful this time and got some things done.  We brought snacks and some sandwiches to eat while we worked.  Then we cleaned up and got home in time to watch the afternoon session. As Dave went off to the priesthood session, the kids and I had a picnic downstairs and watch the morning one.  Dave got up at 6 Sunday morning to watch the Saturday first session then we were all back on track to watch Sunday.

Once again it was a wonderful conference.  I enjoyed every talk.  When Blake was 4 we decided that he was old enough to stay home to watch conference.  We used to load them all up every session and go to the church. But at that age we knew he was old enough to sit and watch without getting up and down.  We had so much fun.  Most of us had a little project that we worked on during the sessions.  I got treats for the Sunday afternoon session.  We all showered and changed right back into our PJ's.  We were warm and comfy and enriched all day.

Cora worked on her puzzle and did some designing.  She is thinking about being an architect at the moment.  I mentioned I thought she would be good at that, then Dave showed her a book filled with German Buildings.  She is hooked, only a little scared of the math.

I finished the Christmas tree decorations I have been working on.

Leah knitted an outfit for Salia.  And made one to give to Emry for Christmas for her doll (Shhhh!)

I love conference.  I love spending time with my family.  I love that Dave was there and somewhat relaxed.  I love that my kids look forward to watching conference.  I love the messages.  I love the peace that comes with sitting there and being together.  When it was all over and we had made plans for the week, we got the kids in bed and Dave and I went for a walk.  It has been a long time since we did that.  I have missed it.  I wrapped my ankle and we went slowly and not very far, but it was the perfect end to the perfect weekend.

Shoe Swapping

For the moment, and I am sure that is as long as it will last, both my girls and I are all wear the same size shoe.  They love swapping shoes with each other and myself.  I won't let them wear my high high heels, they are not old enough for that, but most flats and tennis shoes.  This morning Cora's ride for seminary was a bit earlier than usual.  She had just come up stairs and so quickly just grab my shoes that slip on easily and ran out the door.  45 minutes later I go to pick her up.  I went to grab my shoes and find I have been left with 2 left shoes. I found this extremely funny.  I was not sure that Cora, who was early morning rushed for the first time (she is always on time), stilled miffed about volleyball practice the day before and will be bummed for a long time about not going to Germany next year, would find the humor in the situation.  But in true Cora form when I got to the church she was walking out in her sock holding up her two right shoes, laughing.