Conner Is a Sunbeam

On January 2 my baby became a Sunbeam! I was excited for him to take this next step in Primary, but also sad because it means he's growing up. I can't believe I'll never have another child in nursery! Conner was the most adorable Sunbeam despite the big bruise on his forehead.
All of the kids in his class are so cute. They are on the best Sunbeam classes I've ever seen. They can sit through all of Sharing Time and their lesson this early in the year. The girls are absolutely precious and I can't believe they are all so smart. They truly must be a righteous generation!
I got to teach the Sunbeam class for the first few weeks of the year since they hadn't called a teacher yet. Then I got called as the Primary Secretary. I love getting to see the Sunbeams every week!

Our Christmas

On Christmas Eve we had the missionaries and Jayne over for a turkey dinner. We had them join us at the block party and Jayne helped the neighbors put out the luminaries. After dinner we watched "Mr. Krueger's Christmas" and read the Christmas story from the Bible. We loved having them in our home!

Here are the kids on Christmas morning wondering, "What did Santa bring me?"

Courtney got a leather jacket, Katelyn got Just Dance 2, and Kylie got Toy Story 3 and fun slides. An unexpected gift was finding a Wii remote that had been lost for a couple weeks. We found it in the back of our closet.

Santa brought Cameron and Conner legos and a lego table.

A tradition from when I was a little girl is to always have sweet cereal on Christmas morning. This is a real treat because the rest of the year we try to eat less sweet cereal.

The kids always buy gifts for each other at the dollar store. This year the boys got these knight accessories from the girls.

We spent the Christmas evening at Grandma's house. We had a nice dinner with Bryce, Chareen, and Ray. We also got to open more presents!

Kylie loved this Littlest Pet Shop shirt from Grandma and Grandpa.

Cameron's favorite gift was this Star Wars Lego Wii game.

The girls were thrilled to get dozens of headbands and hair accessories from Grandma. She had been collecting them for weeks and the girls loved the huge variety.

What cute boys wearing the stocking caps and gloves from Grandma. Cameron got Star Wars and Conner got Toy Story.

Kylie got an art set. It will be perfect for writing all her stories!

Lloyd surprised me with an electric blanket to keep me warm in the winter. Lloyd was thrilled with his Belgian waffle maker from Mom and Jay. It was a great Christmas. We love being together and celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Thanksgiving

I love all holidays. I enjoy decorating, creating traditions, and celebrating in fun ways. I especially love Thanksgiving because of what it represents. I love focusing on all my blessings and expressing gratitude for them. I believe that true happiness comes from gratitude. This year I heard a Relief Society lesson given by Sister Mack on gratitude. I loved that lesson and tried to carry it in my heart throughout the entire holiday season. The lesson was based on President Monson's talk, "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." This year we were able to watch Cameron perform in a kindergarten Thanksgiving program. Al the kids looked so cute dressed up as pilgrims and Indians.

After the program all the students enjoyed a "feast."

Conner and I enjoyed seeing Cameron's Thanksgiving celebration. Cameron loves kindergarten and we are so grateful for his amazing teacher.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at my mom's this year. We were so grateful that Bryce and Chareen were expecting their first baby in April.

Of course, my mom and Jay prepared a wonderfully delicious meal. They are both such talented cooks!

I consider my marriage to Lloyd one of my greatest blessings. He is such a loving, righteous, hard working, and sensitive husband. I am truly blessed!

Young Women In Excellence

On November 3 we had Young Women in Excellence. This was my third one since being called to serve in Young Womens with Sister Regina Reavill. I made a very simple invitation that focused on this year's mutual theme. Actually, we tried to make the entire evening simple, yet spiritual. We held it in the chapel again this year. I love having it in the chapel because it really invites the spirit and you don't have to worry about decorating. Each of the girls either gave a short talk about a value experience or project they had worked on this past year, or they shared their projects with a table display. Courtney and Katelyn both chose to give a short talk. Courtney talked about a value experience for Good Works. She explained how she served our family by making dinner for us for a week. Katelyn spoke about the importance of Virtue and learning what it means to be virtuous. I was so proud of my girls and all of the Young Women. My favorite part was when they sang "I Am His Daughter" for the closing song. The young women are so beautiful, unique, and righteous. What a privilege it is to work with them.
The Young Women of Modesto 8th Ward

The Young Women leaders. I am so blessed to be able to serve with these amazing women.

My two "favorite" young women.

After the program we went to the cultural hall to enjoy mini fruit pizzas, the table displays, and the video slide show. I was so grateful to Lloyd who helped me make the video slide show that showed pictures from all our activities this past year. We made copies for each of the girls too. What a great memento of their young women years!

Halloween

We were so excited when Brad and his family surprised us with a visit on October 16. We took their family to Del Osso Pumpkin Patch in Lathrop. We had a lot of fun at the petting zoo and on the hay ride.
Cameron and Cayden are only a couple months apart. They loved laughing and playing together.

Conner and Dylan are six months apart and they also loved being together. Dylan is such a cute chatterbox. It's too bad the boys only get to see their cousins a couple times a year because they really do love playing together.

For Halloween our theme this year was to try not to spend any money. The only costume I had to buy was Conner's Buzz Lightyear and I got it pretty cheap off of ebay. Courtney and Katelyn used my cheerleading uniforms from high school. Kylie wore a pixie fairy costume we already had. Cameron was Woody last year, but he didn't mind being Woody again. Halloween was on a Sunday this year so we celebrated by going to the ward party and handing out candy. We also had our traditional dinner of beef stew.

I think my Woody and Buzz were pretty cute!

I joined in with the girls and wore one of my old uniforms.

Lloyd and I got to go to a party at our friends' house. It's always fun to see how the couples dress up. We used the costumes we had from our Peter Pan year.

Time Out for Women

This was my fifth time to go to Deseret Book's Time Out for Women. What a special treat it is to attend these events. They give me such a spiritual boost. They also help me to reprioritize my life and set new goals. This year it was held in Sacramento on September 10-11 and the theme was "Infinite Hope." I was only able to attend the Friday session because of my race on Saturday. I was able to hear two of my favorite speakers, Ardeth Kapp and John Bytheway. Sister Kapp spoke about hope and how we should never lose it. She also quoted one of my very favorite scriptures, "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward feasting upon the word of Christ and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." (2 Nephi 31:20) She explained that the verb "ask" appears in the scriptures more than anything else. We need to always be asking Heavenly Father to give us the faith, hope, and charity we need to get through life. John Bytheway said we should pray daily for the Holy Ghost to be with us. We should Appreciate all our spouse does and not Expect or Demand our spouse to do things. When we hear speakers speak we should remember not only what the speaker says, but the spirit we feel and the commitments we make. I was grateful I was able to be spiritually fed by another Time Out for Women. I was also thrilled that twenty sisters from our ward were able to attend this year's Time Out for Women. I hope each one of them had a wonderful experience. After the Friday night session, Regina and I were able to go out to the Spaghetti Factory with our husbands. I was excited to go to one of my favorite restaurants to carb up for my big day. It was so fun to go on a double date with the Reavills.

Kylie's Luau Party

Aloha! Kylie decided to have a luau party for her ninth birthday. Our friends, Jeff and Sherry Vail, made this amazing cake for her. They have become real experts in cake decorating and offered to share their talent. Kylie was so impressed with the cake and wrote them the most sincere thank you letter. The detail work is what is so amazing about the cake. Each flower is decorated with tiny detailing and the chocolate sea creatures were so adorable. The cake was both white and chocolate and tasted absolutely delicious!

All the girls looked adorable in their leis. What cute girls they are!

They had tons of fun playing in the pool.

Eating pizza was fun too!

We did a little hula dancing.

The party would not be complete without a pinata!

"Happy Ninth Birthday, Kylie!"

It's hard to believe my little girl is nine years old. She is growing up way too fast! Kylie is such a sweet and responsible girl. She does great in school and is such a gifted writer. I let her walk home from school every day and she loves being independent. She also loves to push herself to do her best and has already memorized all the Articles of Faith. She loves to help around the house and is so eager to please. Thank goodness she is still a little girl in some ways. She loves making clubhouses, playing with her Littlest Pet shop stuff, and imagining with stuffed animals. Kylie always says "I don't want to grow up. I want to stay your little girl forever." I wish she could stay my little girl forever!