October 2016

Read to a Bear

The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach

Audie and Johnny Baby Shower

Max's Baptism and Confirmation

As Max came up out of the water he said, with great excitement, "That was fun!"
I love this sweet boy and his quirky personality.







Notes to Max...

Max asked cousins Logan and Korben to speak.
They both gave such sweet talks telling Max of what they remembered from their baptisms and how cool it was that he gets to have the Holy Ghost now.
They brought such a sweet spirit to the day!
As part of his talk Korben gave him a cute Kit Kat card to remember his covenants.

Confirmation by James Hill
Max Kian Hill, by the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood I confirm you a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and say to you, “Receive the Holy Ghost”.
Always remember you are precious, beautiful child of God, and how much you bless lives of all those around you.
I love you, Heavenly Father loves you, and your family loves you, and we will always love you need you very much.
Learn to listen for and know the Holy Ghost - He is real, He is your true friend, He loves you, and will always help you do what is right.
As you study gospel, pray, and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, the prophets, and the church, you will come to know and understand how important you are to Heavenly Father and his plan for you.
I promise that as you look for the Lord you will find him. He will give you in his wisdom all your righteous desires, and you will be happy.
I pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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Back at home the cousins had fun on the trampoline...

and the kids (and the adults) enjoyed Mario Kart Double Dash.

Max's Birthday Parties

Party #1 Thursday

We had originally planned to have Logan and Korben over for a sleepover but when Erika had her baby Kate and I decided to head to Rexburg for a quick visit. Max was so disappointed that he wouldn't be having a sleepover or have his cousins over for a party.

I turned to the queen of spontaneity Kate, and with her help threw together a party. We met at Cold Stone for ice cream. Kate brought a small brownie cake and a number 8 candle. We sang Happy Birthday to him and he blew out his candle. Logan and Korben gave him the new Peanuts movie that came with a little stuffed Snoopy. Logan was very excited for him to open it and kept saying "you'll see that it is even better than getting a real puppy."

Max said, "Mom, this is my best birthday EVER!"

Party #2 Saturday

Saturday morning while they waited to pick me up, James took Max to pick out scriptures with his name on them. He picked out a triple combination, the color and the font for his name.

As soon as I arrived home from Rexburg I started decorating the cake. Max didn't want to wait for it to be a surprise and was so excited to decorate his cake to so he helped ice the cake, place the candles and trucks, crush the Oreos and pour them on. He was so proud of the finished cake.

He has wanted some way to take his puppies on rides on his bike and scooter.
The bike basket was perfect!

Party #3 Sunday

On Sunday, his actual birthday he opened the present that Zane picked out for him; a Paw Patrol Everest puppy.

Max said again and again that it was his best birthday ever!

That afternoon we headed out to explore Black Rock Beach....

Black Rock Beach

Just 15 miles from Tooele is Black Rock Beach in the Great Salt Lake State Park.
We decided to take a family outing to explore, climb and play on the beach.

We drove fifteen minutes to the Saltair exit and then took another fifteen minutes to carefully drive the mile and half, rutted, rocky gravel road leading to the big rock and beach.

We had a great time climbing Black Rock!
(Max and Zane asked many times why it is called Black Rock. I still have no good answer for them.)

Zane is an intense and confident climber and we really had to move to keep up with him.
He kept asking to climb just one bit higher and was very put out that we wouldn't let him climb all the way to the top.

On the beach the boys built sand castles, moats and rivers.

 The views were amazing!

 

March

Zane went to his first birthday party. It was a Star Wars party and the Padawan training was a blast for all the little boys. Zane picked out a Star Wars Lego set and wrapped and decorated it himself.

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Zane's Lets Play Music Class

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Kimber and her family came to Utah to go to the Provo Temple Open House. I stayed overnight at Kellie's house with them and enjoyed a nice visit with Kimber. The next morning as we were talking about the Temple Kimber mentioned I should just come with them. We scoured Kellie's and Mom's closets, found me something to wear and I joined them for the long wait and a second tour through the Temple.

February: Provo Temple, Rootstech, Discovery Museum and V-Day

The boys and I headed to Provo for the Temple Open House tour and Grandma and Grandpa Fullmer waited just a few minutes for us so we could all go through together. 

It is such a beautiful Temple and I was glad the boys got another chance to see inside. Zane has already forgotten being inside the Temple when we were sealed or being inside the Ogden Temple Open House. He may not remember this one either but hopefully both boys are gaining a feeling of the spirit and the importance of temples.

Max's favorite rooms in the Temple were the two endowment rooms with the walls and ceilings covered with nature and animals. He was also really excited to see the sealing rooms. He doesn't really remember being there but we have talked about it enough that I think he has a sense of the event that he was a part of that sealed our family for eternity.

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Mom invited me to go to family day at the Rootstech conference. 

We enjoyed speakers like Sheri Dew and Wendy Watson and entertainment from the musical group The Lower Lights. We spent some time looking at the World's Largest Genealogy Chart and then printing out family fans and photo charts for Dad and Mom's families.

It was a wonderful afternoon spent with my Mom!


Aunt Kathy bought The Game of Genealogy.
I borrowed it from her to play with the boys on Sunday.
 We all enjoyed playing this clue-like game,
involving the places and circumstances
that might happen in a search for ancestors.



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The boys and I went to the Discovery Museum home school day.

The noise and chaos usually wear us all out (me most of all) so we only stay for a few hours.
This time I decided not to rush them and instead watched them run from area to area and play.
They had such a great time!

The construction zone is always a favorite. And they got soaked playing in the water.


Pretending to fly the medical helicopter and rescue the patients.

And fixing the truck.

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We had Valentine's boxes that I would put a little treat in each day. On Friday (our psuedo-V-Day) they found their Minecraft shirts and were super excited over them. They kept showing each other all the characters that they could find on the shirts.

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Before we went shopping for Valentine's cards for the party Max disappeared and came back with a whole bunch of homemade cards. He said, "They are more special because they are homemade."

I took them to the store to pick out cards and Max decided he wanted to get cards to give away. Valentine's, Zane picked Superhero and Max picked puppies and Paw Patrol. (Zane was so sad and didn't want to give the Valentine's away; it took several days and slowly helping him select more and more to give away but he finally did it.)

One of the moms in the Tooele Homeschool group put together a Valentine's party and I was glad the boys would get the chance to have a V-day party.



At the party we passed out the cards, ate lots of treats and watched Charlie Brown movies.

There were several creative boxes that inspired the boys for next year.

Max has talked so many times about the stuffed puppy he got last year for Valentine's Day. He was excited each day to see some fun little thing in his Valentine's mailbox, but each day reminded me that he loved the puppy from last year. He and Zane were both so excited Sunday morning to see their new friends.

I love their sweet expressions of excitement and affection!

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Another fun Crafternoon

Creating with beads and making geckos out of leather and beads.

Aunts, Grandma, cousins and friends.