First Day of School

It's official, Savannah is a BYU Cougar! Her first day of school was today. Doesn't she look cute? 

By all accounts (hers) it was a pretty good day. Monday is her busiest day, by far, and she survived. 

I think it's going to be a great year!

A Chance Meeting

Savannah is diving right in to BYU. She and her roommate were on their way to the Women's soccer game last night when they ran right into Cosmo! She was pretty excited about that little meeting! :)

It's been quite a week. Saying goodbye was every bit as hard as it was when Sam left last year. We're super excited for Savannah. She's been looking forward to this for a long time and she's already having amazing experiences after only a few days on campus. I knew she'd make a splash!

(I should probably stop now because I can feel the tears welling all over again.)

I'll post more about our week together in Provo when I have a longer minute. Go Cougs!

Our Weekend

What a great weekend! The Youth Cultural Celebration on Saturday evening was so fun. The kids had a great time participating and it was a great show! I'll post a link later if there's a way to watch it in the days ahead. I hope there is. As fun as it was to be in the stands and see it live, I would love to see it from the camera's perspective.

President Eyring, Elder Ballard, Elder Andersen, Elder Hallstrom and two other Seventies were there for the festivities and temple dedication. Jeff, Sadie and I got to meet them briefly before the Celebration. They were all so nice and they each talked to Sadie, asked her name and age, and told her they like her hair or thought she was pretty. :) Three or four of them, including Elder Ballard, gave her a little stroke on the cheek or chin. It was very sweet. I'm glad she was with us.

We all enjoyed the temple dedication yesterday. Jeff said the opening prayer at the 2nd of three dedicatory sessions so he and I were seated in the Celestial Room. The kids were in the Baptistry. It was a really special experience and I'm grateful our family could be there together. Of course, we were missing Sam, but we know he is right where he needs to be.

We've been looking forward to this for so long, it seems strange to have it over with. I'm hoping the spirit and memory of it will stay with us for a long, long time.

You can read more about the Youth Celebration and Temple Dedication, as well as view pictures of both, here.

It's onto our next adventure. Savannah and I leave bright and early tomorrow morning to take her to BYU. More to come...

Gather to the Light: Indianapolis Temple Youth Celebration

This is it! This is the weekend we've been looking forward to all summer. The Indianapolis temple will be dedicated on Sunday and we'll be there.

Four of my kids are participating in the Youth Celebration the night before. They've been working on the music and dances throughout the summer. Bright and early tomorrow morning, we'll drop them off at the stadium on the IUPUI campus and they'll spend the entire day working with the hundreds of other youth involved (this is the first time they'll all be together) to get ready for showtime.

If you want to watch the Celebration, just click here. The live broadcast begins tomorrow, August 22, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time (6:00 p.m. Central).



To download the theme song, Gather to the Light, click here and scroll down a little. You should see it there. Do you recognize the female soloist's voice? Yep, that's Savannah!

It's going to be a great weekend! I can't wait. :)

Stormy Beautiful Weather

Hi, my name is Missy and I'm addicted to clouds. (Hi, Missy...)

I know, I know. How many pictures of clouds can one person post? Well, the answer is, a whole lot more than you can imagine. If you only knew how much restraint I've shown over the years. If you saw how many pictures of clouds I take then you'd know I am the model of self-restraint since I only post a very small fraction of those. You're welcome.

Anyway, we walked out of a restaurant about 15 minutes from home last night and this is what we saw:

It kind of reminds me of a UFO. The storm was moving pretty quickly and ended up following us home. 

The last picture was taken just after we pulled in (that is my next door neighbor's house.) Right after that, the sky got really dark and it started to rain. We had a lot of rain earlier in the summer, but it's been a while. We've desperately needed a good rain storm and, boy howdy, that's exactly what we got! It rained and rained. The streak lightning and gunshot thunder only added to the effect.

I love me a good thunderstorm. This one was awesome!

The First Day of School, 2015 edition

I sent this crew off to school this morning. The first day came a little too soon for me, but the kids were good sports and faced it like champions. Sadie and Soren just got home and it's so far, so good. :) Sterling and Spencer are at Cross Country practice for another hour, but both were optimistic when I dropped them off this morning so I'm confident they'll do just fine. 

As much as I love having my kids at home, they always do well in school and their teachers love them. I'm glad they are out there making a splash and bringing happiness to those around them. I think it's going to be a great year!

Sadie, our fifth grader, got a little crazy when we were
taking pictures this morning... ;)

 

Soren is in seventh grade, braving the middle school!

Sterling is in eighth grade, big man on campus!

Spencer is a junior. He's flying solo at the high school this year.

Orange Armor

The youth learned about purity and chastity yesterday at church. Savannah brought home this visual reminder:

"Orange" you glad you wear the armor of God? Decide now to be chaste. Let that decision
be so firm and with such deep commitment that it can never be shaken (or peeled away).

Savannah said that the young women loved their oranges. However, the symbolism caused several of the girls to comment that they were now afraid to peel them... :) 

I'm Silently Correcting Your Grammar

Paul, a good friend of ours, is SO smart! He understands the English language so well that he's the perfect go-to source whenever there's a question about tense or capitalization or any number of tricky grammar situations. (I had to look up whether or not to capitalize "English" in the previous sentence. Paul would have known.)

Paul is also one of the funniest people we know. I've come to the conclusion that it's impossible to be around Paul for any length of time and be in a bad mood. 

When Jeff and I were invited to Paul's birthday celebration, we wanted to come up with the perfect gift. 

Shortly before we had to leave for the party, we remembered seeing a version of the above t-shirt online. Obviously, it was way too late to order one for Paul so I decided to make him one myself. After a quick run to the store for a t-shirt, I worked up a simple stencil with my vinyl cutter. A little bit of gray paint, a stencil brush and about 20 minutes later, we had our gift. 

Paul loved it! I think things are funnier when they are true. :)

Baby Shower Appliqué

My friend, Jen, threw a baby shower for a mutual friend. Jen is super fun and has so many great ideas. The decor was bright and cheery and the food was simple but yummy. The only thing missing was the typical baby shower games.

Jen hates those games. :)

Instead, she purchased baby onesies in various infant sizes from newborn to about 12 months. Thinking ahead, she got long sleeves in the sizes that would likely be worn during the cooler months and short sleeves for the rest. She laid out sets of cute coordinating fabrics, some pre-cut stencils and paper backed iron-on adhesive. That's where the party guests went to work.

We traced the stencils onto the adhesive paper (or drew our own design), ironed it onto the fabric of choice, cut out the shape, peeled off the paper and ironed it onto the onesies. It was pretty simple, but super fun! The finished onesies turned out so cute. I love how Jen had them displayed on the wall as part of the party decor.

I made the "Y" (for BYU, of course!) and the giraffe on the right.

Inspired by this project, Sadie and I decided to dress up her plain gray pajama shirt. We love how it turned out!

We went one step further and stitched around each piece...because one ear barely survived the washing machine. This photo was taken after two or three washings. It is holding up well.

Thanks, Jen, for the idea and the fun baby shower project!

Dinner Table Conversation

Overheard at the dinner table last night:

"Hey guys, I have more money than the government. I have zero dollars." 

{Sterling}

"If heaven's water tastes like chocolate milk, what does heaven's chocolate milk taste like?" 

{Soren}

...apparently stolen from Sterling...

Machinery

When Sam was little, he loved construction vehicles. He knew them all and would call out their names every time we passed through a construction zone. When he was in grade school, I bought him some pajamas that said CONSTRUCTION ZONE with a front loader on the front. The bottoms were pretty busy with the words OSHKOSH, CONSTRUCTION and MACHINERY all over them along with outlines of bulldozers, cement trucks and other construction vehicles.

Sam loved these pajamas and, as they got passed down, so did each of the other boys. When they were finally placed on the discard pile, I couldn't let them go without taking a picture of the rear panel. Centered across the bottom was the word MACHINERY, only it was cut off so all you could see was HINERY.

Yep, right across their bum. It cracked me up everytime!

Welcome, Baby Bowen

I have a new nephew! My youngest brother, Jeff, and his wife welcomed little Bowen into the world on Saturday morning. 

He's a miracle, this one. He was due in two weeks, but Katie's water broke late Friday evening so they went to the hospital. When baby's heart rate kept dropping, they performed an emergency C-section. Bowen weighed in at only 3 lbs. 14 oz. even though he was practically full-term. Somehow, he stopped receiving nourishment and so he wasn't growing. It's a blessing Katie's water broke when it did or little Bowen probably wouldn't have made it. 

He'll spend some time in the NICU, at least until he gains some weight, but otherwise he's perfect. Everything is fully formed, he's breathing on his own and his body systems are all functioning properly. We're so grateful! 

Welcome, little Bowen. We can't wait to meet you and cuddle you up. 

Baby Bowen. Sterling decided his middle name should be Arrow. You know, Bowen Arrow.
Sounds like something Sterling would come up with. (That's not actually his middle name...)

Grandma feeding Bowen his half-ounce meal. 

Sibling Love

I was passing through the living room and I looked over to see Sadie and Soren sitting together. Sadie had her arm around Soren and they looked so cozy and sweet. I told them to stay right there, I needed to grab my camera.

Thirty seconds later, this is what I found...

Welcome to my world. :)