September 2014

I am determined to get caught up, and there's lots to tell you. You got a spoiler last post and so you can probably imagine that September was quite the exciting month for us. But I digress. Let's start at the beginning shall we?

 At the very beginning of the month we went with the Moores and Daelynn (not pictured for some reason....) to the Ogden Temple Open house. This is such a gorgeous temple and I feel so blessed to have so many temples in easy driving range for us. We had a glorious time.

 Sammy was extra cute in the little mini museum thing they had where they had a replica of the Christus on display.

 Also at the beginning of the month (right around the 6th, Daelynn's birthday) we went up to Brigham City's Peach days. We let Lindy ride on some carnival rides (Sammy didn't want to ride....) and two cousins had a glorious time.

Allan and I had the opportunity to help our youth get ready for the Youth Cultural Celebration that was the night before the temple dedication. It was an amazing experience and we loved getting to be a part of it!

 In the middle of September I took Daelynn up to Rexburg to start her first semester at BYU-Idaho. It was a fun day. :)

Rexburg Temple - right by Daelynn's Apartment

Daelynn is officially a student!

Daelynn in her dorm!

 This was the last rehearsal we had with our youth right before the celebration...so much work!

 Lindy was still in UT during September before heading back to Canada and so we went out for Pizza....

Most of our youth right before the cultural celebration began. They were amazing and it was such a neat experience to be there with them!

On the last weekend we had Lindy before she left, she and I made a bunch of Halloween decorations for the house. Spiders and Ghosts, oh my!

We also got to go to Sammy's 2nd Birthday Party. It was Daniel Tiger themed. :D

Rusha was obviously thrilled with all of the celebrating...

 On our last day with Lindy we were able to get Allan's sister Liz to take our family pictures for this year. I played around with some fun editing things in Photoshop and am quite happy with how they turned out. Here's a small sampling:

Finally the last thing we did in September, on the very last day to be exact, was to sign a bazillion (more like 150+) pages to close on our condo.

We are very happy to officially be homeowners and as you saw previously, have already started on the home improvement projects. :D

And that, my friends, was our September. Very eventful. Now hopefully to get up-to-date with our lives....stay tuned!!!

Valentine's Minute to Win it FHE

So, as previously mentioned, the husband and I are trying to be social with other people in our ward and so we want to have combined FHE activities.  Last night we hosted a Valentine's Minute to Win it FHE.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN.

I laughed so hard my cheeks were hurting by the end.

In case you are curious, here are the games we played that I gathered (thanks to Pinterest) from several different sites including this one. I don't remember the others. (thank you short term memory)

ANYWAYS. Here's what we played and a few pictures that I took (I didn't think of taking pictures until we were half way through....but I did take some!)

First off - we played Husbands vs. Wives. We had each couple go at the same time (with the exception of one game that they went one at a time) and whoever won that round got a point for their team.

1. First up, we played Heart Stack. Using small conversation hearts, the idea of the game was to stack the hearts as high as you could in one minute.


2. Next - Candy Corn Stick-up. Using candy corn candies, stand them upright on a flat surface (without biting off the bottoms) the most standing at the end of one minute wins!

3. Candy Pick-up. Using chopsticks move candy from one dish to another. Most candy in the plate at the end wins a point.

4. Marshmallow toss. Using mini-marshmallows, toss the mini marshmallows from a bowl into a cup on the opposite table. To make this one more fun we had one couple stand on each end of the table and toss the marshmallows into the opposite cup - we had marshmallows ALL OVER the floor by the end, but it was definitely a lot of fun.

5. Suck it Up. Using a straw, suck up conversation hearts and transfer them from a bowl to a plate. This one was harder than it looked. I almost died.

6. This Blows. Blow up a balloon and use the air to blow the cups across and off the table. We had 16 cups, and man was this one HARD! The girls had a harder time because we sucked at blowing up balloons. My husband was super awesome at this one. Also, this is the one we did one at a time.

7. Face the Cookie. A minute to win it favorite! Place the cookie on your forehead and get it into your mouth without using your hands.

8. Penny Hose. Place two pennies in each leg of a pair of panty hose. Using just your hands (one in each leg) AND NOTHING ELSE retrieve the pennies.

9. Cupid's Arrow. I think this was the favorite of the night. Using a straw blow "arrows" (aka Q-tips) through a heart hanging from the ceiling.

And now a few pictures and video!

this is the suck it up! game.

 this is the this blows! game. :o)

Candy Pick Up

aftermath of one round of the marshmallow toss

Face the Cookie

Penny Hose

 So there you go! We had lots of fun and had treats (as one should at FHE!) at the end. It was good times to socialize with others in our ward. :o)

a new year, a new us....

At the beginning of the year Allan and I sat down and decided on some "goals" of where we wanted to be a year from now.

This is kinda hard to write down and it makes sense in my head, so let's see if I can get this out right. Pretty much we decided what kind of life we wanted. Some of the things discussed were kids, our living arrangement, work, our bodies, money, etc.

We then decided to focus on a few areas and make goals that would help us improve. So we made goals - Emotional/Social goals, Healthy-Lifestyle goals, Money goals, and Spiritual goals. I'm really excited for our goals and where they will put us at the beginning of next year. :o)

So.....here they are, our 2014 family goals:

• workout every morning
• go dancing once a month
• have a combined FHE once a month
• kneeling couple praryer morning and night
• study the Old Testament as a couple 
• be WorldMark debt free

We have a purpose/ultimate goal/lifestyle that we want due to the result of these six goals this year. I'm so grateful for a partner that wants to succeed and will sit down and talk with me about these kinds of things. It makes me happy.

Happy New Year!