Thanksgiving at Grandpa's

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving celebration this year at Grandpa Baughman's house. The highlights were great food, Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jay bringing the largest assortment of pies ever, Aunt Janet teaching beading, Uncle Kevin treating the kids to Tangled (in 3D), everyone playing games and reading stories, staying in a hotel and going to get breakfast and hot chocolate (multiple times,) the Christmas parade (ok, maybe that was not much of a highlight, but we did it,) and of course just being able to hang out with Grandpa. We love you all. Thank you for such a wonderful weekend.

The Car Wouldn't Start-A Story From My Life

I often have experiences in my life where it is completely obvious to me that the Lord is blessing me. Sometimes it is finding a much needed item for our family at a thrift store. Other times it is an answer to a prayer to locate something lost. The scriptures tell us that the Lord loves to bless us. I saw that again recently when I was running a number of errands. I had to turn the car off and on at every location. I had gone to probably 7 different places and then decided to stop at the Goodwill trailer to unload my donations. I turned off the car, unloaded and then went back in the car to go to my next stop, but the car wouldn't start. I kept trying. The lights would turn on so I concluded that the battery wasn't dead. I opened the hood and saw that there was some corrosion on the battery. Even after scraping it off the car wouldn't start.

As I was sitting there in the parking lot I noticed a man walking his dog. He would glance over at me occasionally. At one point he called out, "Do you need a phone?" I told him the situation and he said that he was a mechanic! He took a look at the corrosion and asked for some pliers (which I happened to have in the car) and in twenty minutes he took apart the corroded part, cleaned it, and put it all back together. I kept thanking him and asked if this was inconveniencing him or keeping him from anything and he kept reassuring me that it was fine. He was happy to serve me.

The car started, we said goodbye and as I was driving down the road I realized that my car could have broken down anywhere. It could have happened at the bank or at the church or at my friend's house, but instead the Lord blessed me to break down right where he knew a kind mechanic would be there to help me.

Heavenly Father loves us and loves to bless us. If we just take the time to notice it, we will see that He is blessing us every day. In this experience I feel that the Lord wanted me to know that he loves me and is watching out for me. I am so thankful for His love and watchful care over me and my family.

Halloween

Here are some fun halloween picts. The dark faceless one is a dementor and the tall one is a dad who decided last minute to put on his dracula cape. Below are picts of the back of the car that Mr. M decorated for the trunk-or-treat and below that are picts of us at our friends' house making cookies. Marci is the queen of good sugar cookies.

Clayton and Bonnie's Wedding

Last week Dad's brother Clayton got married. After many long years of searching, Clayton has finally found the love of his life, the perfect match for him. We are so excited for him to have found Bonnie. We love her to death and love how she makes Clayton so happy and completes him. We love our new aunt/sister. Welcome to the family Bonnie.

More good news on Clayton for those of you that know and love him, He is working as a professional artist, doing contract work for the church helping with the designs of the temples and starting a series of temple paintings of his own to sell. He also had a paper he wrote put in the church archives. Finally, all the schooling is paying off.

Horray for Clay!!

Halloween Party

My friend Leanne and I did our second Halloween party together last weekend. We invited two families in our ward and a neighbor. It was pretty crazy with all those kids doing dance contests, wrapping each other up like mummies, feeling gooey things in bags and eating lots of creepy food. We all had a blast and of course were exhausted at the end of the evening.

Corn Maize

We went out to a local farm to run around in their corn maze last Sat. It was fun to get out in the fall air and have a little family outing. The kids are getting all excited for the Halloween parties that are coming up. Good times.

11 Years Old

We had a fantastic party for our number one son last weekend. He invited 13 friends and planned four hours of activities for those friends. First they played pictionary, then capture the flag, then they came in for pizza and cake and icecream (he designed the cupcakes himself.) Then they opened presents, watched a movie with popcorn and candy and then played until the parents came to pick them up. It was a lot of energy for one house, but Mr. M reported that it was the best party ever.

Sonatina Festival

Two weeks ago Mr. M and Lady K got to be part of a sonatina festival. It was a great experience for both of them to stretch themselves and memorize some hard pieces. They performed for an adjudicator and the top two in each level went on to play in an afternoon recital. Lady K ended up winning first place for her level. We were all so proud of her. Way to go you two. You make your parents and teacher proud.

Ryan and Carissa's Wedding

A few weeks ago we drove out to Utah to attend Dad's youngest brother's wedding. Ryan and Carissa were married in the Mount Tipanogos Temple. It was such a wonderful weekend full of great family time and amazing spiritual moments. We love our new sister/aunt. She is the sweetest, brightest, most wonderful girl. We were able to attend the reception, wedding and luncheon. The kids loved being part of the wedding wearing cute clothes to match the colors and getting to know their new aunt and her family.

In addition to the wedding festivities we celebrated Grandpa Vance's 60th birthday, spent time with the Baughman family celebrating Uncle Russ' birthday, went to see Yoli and Cesar's awesome new house, and hung out with family at Grandma Vance's house. Lady K even got a little violin lesson from her grandma.

It was a great trip. The kids were even good in the car. I am glad all went well, but I am glad we will not be driving out there again until summer...I hope.

Fall Recital

The four oldest performed so well at this Fall recital. J Man only had two lessons before the performance so we were impressed that he had the guts to get up there. The kids always impress me at how they are able to rise to the occasion and play well. Great job kids.

Pictures at an Exhibition

A couple of weeks ago our family was blessed to be able to attend the Eugene Symphony's performance of Pictures at an Exhibition. It was such a fantastic experience for all of us!! First, a youth orchestra opened with a one movement piece by Handel. It was very impressive. The Eugene Symphony then took the stage and performed Symphonic Espagnole by Lalo with Jennifer Frautschi as the soloist on the violin. It was breathtaking watching her play with such accuracy, speed and musicality. An amazing musician!!

After intermission we were so excited to hear Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. I was introduced to this piece as a child by my mother and remember loving to picture the person walking down the hall of the exhibition. I shared that with the kids and we had fun identifying each different "picture."

The greatest part of the evening was that it inspired this...

They joined the youth orchestra this week. I don't think their dad could be more excited.

Tender Mercies of the Lord

There is a fantastic talk by David Bednar called The Tender Mercies of the Lord. I have pondered this talk and just last week identified one of the many tender mercies of the Lord in my life. The kids had been given tickets to go see the Eugene Symphony!! I was so excited for them but realized that we would only be able to afford to have one of us go with them. A week before the symphony performance a friend emailed me out of the blue and offered Dad and me tickets to the symphony. I was so excited. I later asked her what prompted her to offer us the tickets and not someone else. She said that when she realized she couldn't go, immediately our names popped into her head. I know that the Lord wanted both of us to be able to go. I felt so loved by the Lord, that he would give us this little gift. Often tender mercies are little things the Lord does for us to show us that he is there and that he loves us.

A Sad Day

Last week our beloved bunny Daisy died. It was very sad for all of us. Little L and Baby R were crying. We buried her in the backyard and the kids wrote her name with rocks on her grave. She is survived by her sister Joy. Poor lonely Joy.

Tri Two

On Saturday the four oldest got to participate in their second triathlon at the YMCA. I call it a mini triathlon because they swam 25 yards, biked 3 miles and ran 1 mile. It was a much better race for them because this time they had experience and knew better how to transition. Not only that, but we had been training as a family going on runs, biking and fine tuning strokes in the pool.

I am sad because all of my video footage and photos from the day got erased from my camera! I don't know how it happened. I will share some memories from the day. Mr. M had a good swim, a lighting fast T1, accidentally missed the turn around and biked two extra miles putting him at the back of the pack, but finished the race like a champ and still passed people at the end. I was so proud of him for having such a good attitude despite being so disappointed. Lady K was the first out of the water for the swim, had a great bike and ran really well, coming in second overall. She was amazing. Little L did so much better this time in all areas. I could see that she was more focused on pushing herself and surprised us all with a fantastic kick at the end of her run and beat a few kids older than her. J Man was so excited to participate this year. He did the swim with a life jacket on (because mom made him) transitioned like a pro, completed the entire bike without stopping even at the big hills and started the run but then admitted he thought he would be too tired to finish the run. He still got a medal. All the kids were faster and had a much better feel for how to pace themselves because of their training.

After the race we all got ice cream and Gatorade and then our family finished off the morning by playing in the pool at the Y. It was a fantastic experience for everyone and I am so proud of my little athletes for doing so well. We are looking forward to the next mini tri this summer.