Oh, Relief!

Relief Society that is. General Conference is just a week away which means that the General Relief Society Meeting was this weekend. Our Stake had tickets, so after receiving a personal invite, I thought Why not? It turned out to be a really fun and uplifting evening. We traveled to SLC, enjoyed a delicious meal at the Olive Garden and made it to our seats with plenty of time to spare. I've never been to any of the Conference sessions either in the Conference Center or in the Tabernacle, so it was my first time to witness how amazing it is when our Prophet enters the room. The whole, huge room went quite, and I thought to myself, this experience alone is worth the travel to be there in person. It was truly amazing to be in the presence of a Prophet of God. The talks were very good, and I especially liked Pres. Uchtdorf's. I'm now very excited for next weekend when we get to enjoy more inspirational messages from our leaders.

Open Barn Day

Saturday morning we went to the Blue Moon Ranch which is located just down the road from were we live. Blue Moon Ranch is its name, but we affectionately refer to it as "going to see the alpacas". Even after living here for a while now, the kids still get excited to see the alpacas each time we drive by (which is quite often). We went to the open barn day last year, and both Bentley and Emma have asked multiple times about going back. Emma is still a little nervous around animals but did OK, and I think she enjoyed it. The only problem with Bentley was that I couldn't find him half the time. He just took off and basically followed one of the very nice caretakers around looking at the different animals, feeding them carrots and apples, and just having a great time. He really seemed to be in his element and definitely did not want to leave when it was time.
It was fun to learn more about these amazing creatures. Alpacas are very calm, docile animals. They ate carrots and apples out our hands, but they didn't like to be petted or even touched. One of the men there caught a baby alpaca, so we could touch it and see how soft they are. It was really fun to see how concerned the mother was, and after the man let the baby go, the mother alpaca came over and nuzzled the baby; it looked like she might be asking if he was alright and even comforting him a little bit. Click here to learn more about the alpacas we got to enjoy yesterday.

Gold Medal Walk

We joined Bentley and the rest of his elementary on a walk on Friday morning. Bentley had quite the day. His school day consisted of the walk, watching the homecoming parade, watching a skit put on by the fifth grade, and then after school going to a birthday party. I think he had a pretty fun day!
Pictures are of:
Just taking off on the walk. I almost thought I'd missed his class. It was the last one to leave. Then probably because I was caring a 21 month old in a baby sling and pushing a 2 and a 4 year old in a stroller (which I actually had help with most of the time, thanks Stephany), we were the very last ones to get back.















After the walk the kids rested for a minute on the grass before heading into back into the school.

Preschool field trip

Emma's preschool class had a field trip to the park on Thursday. The kids looked like they had a fun time. I stayed for all of it except when I had to pick up Bentley because he had a half day due to parent-teacher-conference. The kids played and ate lunch. Emma was so excited about taking a PB&J with her to school; we even made it in the shape of an E. It was nice to be able to go and let Ali and Paige (who we had for the week) play as well. I worried that it might be too cold, but it felt like summer. We all had on jackets but had to shed them pretty quick. It was a really fun day.

Thirsty?

This is just kind of random, but I thought these pictures were funny. We were snapping a few, when Emma really started hamming it up with the big water jugs. She is the cutest girl ever and is always doing and saying the funniest things. Ali, I think, was genuinely thirsty. That or she just loves a Sonic slushy as much as does her mom;)

Rock Cliff State Park

Saturday we went over to Rock Cliff for their appreciate your museum day. We made some fun fall crafts, did an activity about the relative sizes of the planets, saw a pretty cool bird, and went for a fun walk/hike over the boardwalk and trails. The weather was perfect and the area is so beautiful! It was very refreshing.

Curls are for Girls

I don't know what this title really has to do with anything other than it's something Tom likes to say to Emma when we're doing her hair.
We've been having a lot of girl time while Tom's at work and Bentley is at school. We play dress up, with our babies, do hair, and just hang out. Whenever I do Emma's hair Ali comes running over and says, "do, do, do", so we do her do too. It really doesn't take long to do the 1/2 inch she's grown over the last year and a half, but she likes to have it done just the same. She also likes makeup and whenever I do my makeup she comes up and says, "me, me, me too, me too". I never thought I'd put makeup on a one year old, but when she asks in such a cute way, I can't resist.

She's dancin'

Dance class started on Monday. Emma loves to dance at home and was excited for her new dance clothes, but when it came right down to it she was a little nervous about the actual class. Still, she is pretty cute in her getup.

Preschool Princess

Emma started preschool on September 2. She was a little hesitant at first, but now she goes happily and is doing a great job.