Dallin turns 4!

Today is Dallin's fourth birthday!! I can't believe he's already 4!! It doesn't seem like too long ago that Aaron and I were in the hospital (for 3 days) waiting for him to arrive. He is such a fun kid. I don't know what I would do without him!

We had a combined birthday party for him and two of his friends - Callisto and Brynn - whose birthdays are all a couple of days apart. In NY we had always combined his party with Collin Donahue's since they were only a day apart and I was wondering what we would do here in Mankato. But it turned out nicely and hope it works out for next year also (although I don't know how long Brynn and Callisto will stand having a non-girly birthday party - we'll see!)

Anita made this adorable balloon cake and Rebecca had some very cool activities - ice sculptures that the kids built with colored ice cubes in all shapes and sizes and bubble painting and "erase the face" (the kids drew faces on the sidewalk and then threw water balloons at them).

He got some fun presents from Grandma & Grandpa Jeffrey - 2 Nerf dart guns and a very cool Adidas warm-up outfit that looks soooo cute on him! We got him a baseball, a glove and a tee that he's been begging for. His sisters got him an over the door basketball set and Tanner got him underwear (what a thoughtful brother!!)

Anyway, we had a great time and realized last year he got gypped (we closed on our house and moved in the day before his birthday) - so this year was a much better celebration (minus family and the Harpers not being here to help us party!) I can't believe we've been in Mankato a year! I feel like we're still newbies here in MN!Y

Girls Camp 2008

I just got back from Girls Camp yesterday - I had such a blast! Here's a pic of all of us by our sign that Mikaela made. From left to right we have:

Me - with my famous bandana on (I never take it off at camp!!)

Lydia - made us a wonderful Snoopy doghouse for our play - she is the craft queen

Erica - shares my love of They Might Be Giants and was a fish in the pool

Marian - YCL - she was such a great mentor to the younger girls and an incredible help to Mikaela and I!

Lisa - YCL - saved Lydia from drowning our first day at camp! her testimony was also pretty powerful

Sydni - what a pretty smile and beautiful eyes!!! she caught on to making friendship bracelets faster than i ever did!

Missy - our camping expert- she was such a crack-up!

Michelle - YCL - she was our "goddess of love and beauty"! always had an eye out for those boys!!!

Amy - YCL - always thought of the smart way to do things and her testimony was absolutely beautiful - i notice she was very compassionate and thoughtful of others

Mikaela - my partner in crime

Brianna - she made a great charlie brown in our skit and was always ready to pitch in and help and had very good ideas (she's in the red shirt on the climbing tower)

Laura - my buddy - she would be escort me anytime I needed to go anywhere and helped me haul anything heavy - she was the fire master

I was called towards the beginning of the year to be the ward camp director and Mikaela Griggs was called a couple months ago to be assistant director. I was so excited to get to know the girls better (I had several of them in my Sunday School class last year) and I've always loved the experiences I've had at girls camp. We had ten girls go from the Mankato Ward and by the end of the week I was absolutely amazed at how great they all were! They were so helpful and kind to each other and so fun to be around! The camp had a climbing tower, a swimming pool, a bb gun and archery range - one day they even had a petting zoo open and some of the girls got to ride horses - so we had lots of fun. We also had COPE exercises, which is teambuilding activities - it was very cool. Mikaela and I were a good match - she is very creative and kept us busy playing games or doing something fun. She was so organized (you could see a line down the middle of our tent - her side nice and clean, my side not so much) and made the cutest signs for us to mark our territory. I think my favorite part was testimony meeting we had around the campfire - our four YCLs (youth camp leaders) all shared something they learned from a conference talk and then opening our meeting by bearing testimony and then we got to hear from most of the young women. I loved hearing what they were thinking and feeling - we have some pretty incredible young women here who are going to be great mothers and leaders and teachers someday! I am excited for next year - if they decide to keep me!!!

It was nice to get home and hug and kiss Aaron and the kids and take a long hot shower and then we went to Culver's and I pigged out on a bacon cheeseburger!!! Y

let's try this again...

i know it's been way too long, but now that tara has helped me to make it cute (thank you tara!!!) i think i'm committed. things have been crazy around here lately. i just finished a class at msu - now i'm preparing to go to girls camp next week and aaron has a week of high adventure with the young men the week after that. we're all having a good summer, though. kaylee is glad to be done with her session of reading academy and all four kids are loving being outside every minute they can. we've recently discovered the pool here in mankato (thanks to half the ward moms - kids or no kids - being there almost everyday!) so that's helped to cool us off a bit. aaron has been seeing some clients and goes to the university for a couple hours here and there, so it's been nice having him home so much. we're trying to get as much done on the house as possible, but there's always something...

anyway, i hope to get better at this and i will post some more pictures soon. Y