Virtue

I found myself thinking during General Conference - does Father in Heaven consider me to be Virtuous?  I have made plenty of mistakes in my life but have I repented and become a more virtuous woman?

Only about a week or so late the young women from our ward showed up with this little gift.  The leaders in the ward assured me this was no small thing because the girls had voted on who in the ward exemplified the young women qualities and they chose me for virtue.  It made me cry when i walked in the door and realized instantly this was a direct answer to a prayer I had asked the Lord only a short time earlier. 

I felt so grateful for prayer and my testimony of God and revelation.  I pray I can always live worthy of this sweet gift.

Ella's Bday Party

Ella had a spa birthday this year with her friends after school.  She invited Mckenzie Lee, Macie Chugg and Alivia Johnson.  They did face masks and cucumbers, soaked their feet and painted toe nails, did make up, made flip flops, had lunch and cupcakes.

 

 

Molly and Alissa were glad to participate. 

 

Such fun girls!  Makes me excited for summer play dates. 

 

 

Painted toes and new shoes.  Super cute! 

Last Day of School & Discovery Elementary

This comparison makes me want to cry.  Ella has grown up so much!!  This was the first day and the last day of 2nd grade.  It's funny she had those glasses for probably the first month of school and didn't have any for the rest of the time until just this past week she got another pair.  She wasn't wearing them this morning for the picture though. :)

 

HOORAY for summer!

 

Alissa gets up every morning with Ella and watches her out the front window as the bus drives away.  I have to admit I'm glad she doesn't go to Kindergarten next year.  I am not ready for these kids to grow that fast.

 

Greeting Ella as she gets off the bus.  This is a weekly occurrence. 

 

We taped crepe paper for her to run through. 

 

For her class party yesterday they got to make tie dye shirts and wear them to school today.  The kids from the class, their teacher and principal signed their shirts.  Pretty fun!

 

A new school is being built in the subdivision immediately next to us which is where Ella will go to school next year.  It's called Summit Hills.  It is exciting to go to a new school but also sad to leave the teachers and staff at Discovery.  It has been a great experience to meet such great people.

 

Ella came home with her report card with straight Es (excellent) and As.  She couldn't have improved anywhere on her report card.  Couldn't even wish for more.  Way to go Ella!

 

Aldous Lake

Dustin's recent calling is Scoutmaster and boy does he LOVE it!  He had planned a hike for the scouts this past weekend and when he learned nobody was able to attend, he decided he'd take us instead.  We were all happy about that. 

It is one we have taken our kids on before so we pretty well knew what to expect.  It's 2.6 miles round trip and only a small amount of incline so pretty ideal for a family hike.

 

However, this past Saturday there was a lot of rain!  As we made our way up the hill the trail had water and hail just gushing down the center so we had to either straddle the center, walk on the edge or get really wet.  This picture really doesn't do it justice.  We were at the beginning at this point.

 

And near the end at this point. :) 

Thankfully each of our kids have rain jackets and we brought ponchos for us.  There was also quite a bit of snow to walk through so your pant legs got wet if they were not already from the water.

 

There was a lot of tree fall so we had to climb around it or if you are tiny like the girls you can just duck right under it.  

Do you know this 8 year old girl did not complain!  As we walked, we talked about our pioneer heritage and how much harder it would have been to have walked for 3 months instead of just 3 hours.  How they were pulling carts and we had a backpack.  How we had hot dogs with ketchup and jerky and granola bars and they had flour & water.  We talked about how because they endured that, we can face our challenges today because we are strong!  A year or so ago she came up with the name WheeWaite for herself and her sisters (combining both mine and Dustin's last names).  We talked about some of the trials our grandparents had conquered and how we can do hard things too. :)

Each one of our kids had backpacks they carried with a spare pair of socks, their water, some snacks, a flashlight, Kleenex and their rain jackets.  Ella chose to walk through the snow or take the harder looking path because she felt like that was a little more real to what the pioneers did and she wanted to prove she was strong.  We just let her.  Again, she didn't complain.

 

Hooray, we made it!

When we got to the top and stopped moving, everybody started to freeze.  They were wet, tired, hungry and sadly everything we threw into the backpacks was soaked.  There were no dry socks to put on, no dry underwear for the 2 year old and a lot of chattering teeth.  Pretty soon the kids started to whine.  Ella was wrapping her feet in the most dry head wrap she could find to keep them warm.  We had each of our feet inside Ziploc baggies to attempt to keep them dry.  It worked for the girls with boots, but with shorter shoes the water still got through the tops.  Dustin was smart and had waterproof boots so his feet stayed dry.

My good husband attempted to start a fire with flint & steel (just for the sake of teaching me) and within a minute the toilet paper we were trying to catch of fire was wet from the ground so after what seemed like 10 minutes of hearing the kids complain and watch no action in the fire area I insisted we use a match.  (Wimpy I know) 

Soon after our fire was going, it started to rain.  So as great as our attempts to dry out by the fire were, we had to find shelter.  Thankfully Dustin was able to move the fire over to a place where the trees were sheltering us from the rain and we could start to warm up and dry out and cook some hot dogs. 

When we got to the lake Dustin left to go fishing while the girls and I "played house".  Ella wrung out the socks and gloves and changed their position on the clothes line.  We cleaned up and cooked everybody some hot dogs.  Thankfully the girls and I got warmed up and our pants dried a bit by the fire and they got happy again.

 

 

 

 

Molly just goes with the flow.  She is happy 98% of the time. 

If she isn't happy, she is hungry or tired.

 

We carved Ella's name in the tree.

Because Alissa's pants were wet, she refused to lift her leg and walk.  So I carried her on my shoulders all the way back.  As I was trudging through the snow I twisted my ankle and fell to my knees.  Thankfully I was able to walk the rest of the way down still carrying her.  My ankle started to hurt and get stiff and swollen when I stopped walking. 

 

So thankful Uncle Kirk was there to pack one of the kids on the way up.  He was a great help!

 

Lissa found a worm friend.  And because I tell her to look at the camera she widens her eyes and thinks she is looking. :)

Overall, my kids had such a fun time and we made some great memories!  They were only sad for a few minutes while they tried to get warm.  I am so grateful for this opportunity we had to build memories and to let our kids prove they are strong and can do hard things.  I was so grateful again to be reflecting on our pioneer ancestors and all they endured.  We need to have that faith, we can endure. 

 

Talent Show & Piano Recital

Ella's school gave the students an opportunity to participate in a talent show where they would perform a talent in front of their grade and be judged by student council.  When she brought the information paper home I asked her if she wanted to play piano for the talent show and without hesitation she said, "NO!"  However a few days later Shandel Chugg called and asked if Ella would want to participate with her daughter Macie and another friend Alivia Johnson and do a lip sync.  She jumped all over it and was so excited.

 

They lip synced and did a small dance to Chipettes singing "Call me Maybe".  They did so great!  We were all pleasantly surprised by Ella being so brave.

 

That night she had to be brave again when she was the first of 20 to play in the piano recital.  She played a piece by memory and one using music.  She forgot the last few lines and I had to go sit by her to reassure her she could finish out the song.  :)   She did great though!  She has improved a lot since her last recital.

 

Good job Ella!

Alissa Joy School Graduation

Last Thursday night we celebrated the end of Joy School. 

 

It was fun to look at before and after pictures of the kids.  September to May.

 

 

They just look older.

 

They got to be such good friends.

 

Alissa has just a tiny crush on the boy in the blue.  I pretend like I don't know cause I really don't want to encourage her. :) 

 

We celebrated by having all the kids come to our house that night and I had made them all little graduation hats.  They sat in their chairs on our "stage" downstairs and introduced themselves and said their favorite color in the microphone.

 

Then sang their days of the week, months of the year and abc songs.  I had them memorize a little poem called "Summer's Here" which they stood and repeated and then they all got to talk in the microphone again and say their favorite thing they did in preschool.  They did so great!

 

Summers here, another year of school is at an end.

We've grown a lot, and learned a lot and made a lot of friends.

We'll say goodbye now summer's here it's time for us to part,

But we'll remember all our friends and keep them in our heart.

 

 

After the kids performed for the parents we showed a 10 minute movie of pictures throughout the year including our field trips, class parties and just normal days of school.    So much fun!  We were so proud of Alissa for talking in the microphone in front of everybody, it's a big step for her!  Also happy that she repeated the poem and songs with everybody because she WILL NOT repeat them for me. 

 

 

Love this girl!