October 2019

October was such a busy month for us.  Between just regular life, the girl's baptism and then we decided to go to California for Fall Break all while trying to fit in our regular October/Halloween traditions it felt a little crazy.

I got to go with Siena and Aria on their field trip to a farm.  It was fun because they had about 15 rotations every 5 minutes about all different things.  It was great because it totally kept their interest moving every 5 minutes and each station was different.  Then we ate lunch and played at a park for a while.


Siena and Aria got to go to their first Women's Conference since they're 8 now.  They weren't that excited to go but I got to take them to dinner before and since they chose pizza, their favorite, then it was ok I think.


The girls entered their first Reflections contest this year in photography.  The them was 'Looking Inside'  Siena did a picture and essay on our trees in our backyard how they might look scary but when you go inside them you find all sorts of pretty things in nature.  Aria took a picture of an apple and talked about how you would never know from the outside how good and juicy an apple is on the inside.  Aria ended up winning 2nd place for her entry and both had fun going to the awards ceremony and getting a ribbon and some fun prizes.


We went to the Witch festival at Gardner Village on the coldest day of the entire year it felt like but we made it!


By the time we made it to the pumpkin patch this year all the pumpkins were green or rotten.  So wen played with some corn and went on a couple slides and called it good.  We ended up buying them at the grocery store and I don't think I've ever done that in my entire life.


The kids were all random things for Halloween..no theme, sad!  Siena was a bunny, Aria a horse and Jaron was Dracula.  And of course we always love the Halloween parade at school.  That night we trick or treated.  Both Shane and I went out this year since we get so few trick or treaters on our street so it was fun to all be out together.  We keep saying how we only have another year or 2 before they won't let us go with them.

Fall Break to California

When Christy called me and asked if I wanted to come down to California for our Fall break because it just happened to be the same week her and Brett had booked a trip to Spain, I of course said yes.  She was leaving her 4 girls home and they thought they were old enough to just stay by themselves, which really they were.  But she was hoping someone could just be there just in case and mostly to help Emmy.  It was the perfect plan.

We left Tuesday after school and drove to Las Vegas.  We got in late and left early except we had to stop by Techna glass to get a huge rock chip repaired we had gotten on the way down.  It was right by the airport so we were very entertained watching planes land.


We got to Christy's and the weather was of course perfect, warm and sunny.  So we heated up the hot tub and the kids went swimming and decided to catch lizards.  They of course had to jump into the freezing cold water of the pool but they didn't care.


The next day we went to Sea World.  Emmy got to hang out with us and miss school and it was so fun having her along with us.  My kids have never been there and we had a great time.  They have so many more rides there then when I was there last (probably 25 years ago)  The bummer was a dolphin had given birth the night before so the dolphin show got cancelled.  But we saw the sea lion show (and the sea lions weren't performing very well.) but the Orca show was amazing.  The kids insisted on sitting in the splash zone having no idea what that meant.  When one of the orca's came by pushing waves of water on us, they were screaming.  We had a few tears from Siena but after that they thought it was fun and cool that we got so wet.  Such a fun day and not crowded at all.




The next day we went to the beach.  Emmy got to skip school that day too...yay!  It was fun to relax and let the kids just play.  We had this aggressive bird eat Aria's sandwich right from her hand and then kept pacing in front of our stuff and as soon as I would turn my head it would try to charge in and grab something.  It was seriously the most aggressive bird I've ever encountered at the beach but was pretty enteraining.


Saturday we went up to Newport after we dropped Emmy off at her gymnastics practice and had fun walking around Balboa, eating ice cream at the pier, riding the ferry, etc.  Then we went and found a few tide pools even if it wasn't the right time of day for the tide.


Sunday we went to church and got to listen to Emmy give her part and sing in the primary program.  We went and walked along the beach for a while after church and then my friend Konstantina came down to eat dinner with us.

Monday we had to drive home all day...boo!  We made a long stop in St. George for lunch and to play at the park.  It was such a fun trip and the Brian's are always so nice to let us stay with them.  They were so polite the whole time even if the older ones didn't think they needed us, we were happy we got to come.

Siena and Aria get baptized

I can't believe this day actually happened.  I remember the day they were blessed thinking that their baptism day was so far away and here it is.


They were so excited to be baptized and it was so special to be able to help them learn and prepare for this special day.  We had monthly FHE lessons getting ready for it all year.



A few weeks before their baptism President Nelson announced that baptismal witnesses could be any baptized member of the church.  Before it had to be a priesthood holder.  So the girls asked cousin Abbey and myself to be a witness.  It was fun to be a special part of their day.


They asked Jennifer to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and Grandma to give a talk on baptism.  Both did such a good job.  I couldn't help but think how amazing it was that my mom was there and giving a talk on this day.  When she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer the week they were born and they gave her 1-2 years to live, I never thought my girls would be old enough to remember her and know her and yet here she was speaking at their baptism 8 years later.  A true miracle and blessing that I was witnessing that day.


The girls decided for the musical number to play 'I Am a Child of God' duet on the piano and violin.  They practiced so hard to be able to get that song down.  Not an easy thing to do by themselves, let alone get the timing down.  Even up until the week of their baptism I wasn't sure if they would be able to pull it off.  But they did it perfectly.  It was so cute to watch them.  The biggest mistake of the day was that I thought I was filming it but for whatever reason didn't hit the button and missed the whole thing.  Luckily Shane got a video of them practicing it before we left and they were even in their dresses.


The actual baptism and confirmations were great.  Siena got baptized first and was great.  Aria then was baptized and her little toe popped up right at the end.  I think she was all the way under before her toe popped up but the bishop wasn't sure so they had her baptized again.  They had both told me before that they did not want to have to be baptized twice but afterwards Aria told me that she was glad she got to be baptized twice because it was so fun.  Then Aria got confirmed first and Siena was 2nd.  Both got beautiful blessings from their Dad.



Afterwards we went to my parents house for lunch and had a great time celebrating them.  Aria told me several times 'Mom I felt the spirit all day'.  Siena has been a little more quiet about it but she did tell me she felt the spirit as well.  I know I felt the spirit all day and mostly I just felt love.  Love for my family, love for Heavenly Father, love for their decision and I felt Heavenly Father's love right back.  I just felt like the day radiated with love and will always be a day I remember.