Just Another Day in Paradise: October 2014

October started off with our first Stake Practice of the Temple Cultural Celebration Dances with 300 excited Phoenix Stake youth!

Sarah and I finished sewing the jalisco skirt.

There was so much fabric!

Sarah had fun testing it out.

Rachel enjoyed it too.

Adam finally finished saving up for the toy he wanted.

He was so excited Ken could come on vacation with us.

Friday morning we took off to Aunt Luise's for General Conference and the beach.

We drove straight to the Corona del Mar beach. It was so beautiful.

Ah, it immediately felt like vacation!

We changed in the bathrooms and hiked over the rocks to the little secluded spot where there are caves and a tiny beach.

Sarah especially loves the beach, just like her Aunt Cheryl.

Adam wanted us to bury him. Later in the car he was really sandy and itchy, he says he doesn't want to do that again.

As the sun set we headed to Aunt Luise's house.

At Aunt Luise's house we enjoyed relaxing, sewing and listening to conference.

Adam was being silly.

We enjoyed playing conference bingo, making spider cookies, and eating apple pie.

We went to the Seal Beach on Monday. We thought Uncle Ross would like to see that we parked by his dream car.

Tyler taught Sarah how to boogie board.

There were a few wipe-outs.

We had a picnic, and chased the seagulls away.

We played in the sand, collected shells, ran in the waves and enjoyed every minute.

The waves were so high and beautiful.

We had to get home early on Tuesday morning so Tyler could attend the Phoenix Temple open house with his friend in the VIP tours. I also had dance practices to be at that night. It was a short vacation, but a great and much needed one.

My friend needed a babysitter for 3 days, so we had her adorable daughter with us. We also had one of my Sunbeams over to play...I got a new calling by the way. I'm the new Sunbeam teacher. We had extra spider cookie supplies so we made good use of them.

Saturday we had the Regional Dance Practice with 700 kids from Phoenix and West Maricopa Stakes. This is my favorite part, where they flood the field. Its like they are flooding the earth with righteousness.

This is Liz. We watched her for her mom to go to doctor appointments so she would get used to us. She'd never had a babysitter before. We had to get her ready for when her parents would go to the hospital to have her baby sister.

Columbus Day Ty worked at temple while I watched Liz and got school done with the kids. Tyler worked at the open house often and I went with him once as a temple usher. I stood in the basement stairwell for 3 hours. I had so much fun watching the people go down the long hallway enjoying the pictures. One lady was in raptures over each one and took 10 minutes to walk down the hallway. Tyler was in the Celestial room. I had clothes in my car to change into, because I had to go straight to a dance rehearsal after. I'm instructed to make two formations. One with the 300 kids in rows of 16 and another in rows of 10 and they need to be by their ward so they can make ward circles and be able to move from one formation to the next they are marching on the field. Precision. Impossible, but I'm trying. Tyler says to wait and they'll realize it's impossible and cancel the idea.

He is so smart, at the last minute they totally cancelled the idea and all was for naught. Oh well. I have learned to ALWAYS listen to the wise advice of my wise husband.

For dinner one night the kids were served...presents? They each got a Halloween movie to watch during the season. Rachel got Pirate Fairy, Adam got Toy Story of Terror, Sarah got It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

The little violinist turns ballerina.

Rachel has officially quit violin lessons, with permission of her parents, to pursue her dancing.

Hannah's class.

Shoe shopping with Liz, her parents were at the hospital having the baby. Sarah needs black tennis shoes to dance in the celebration.

Liz loves bugs. We saw this giant grasshopper. I love how it looks like it is attacking the lady in the store.

Liz trying out her owl costume for the Halloween trunk or treat.

Saturday morning Tyler and Sarah did baptisms in the Mesa Temple while we did chores with Liz. Then we all headed to the State Fair for Rachel's first performance. The ballroom dance group that was before Rachel's had a dancer that reminded me of my friend Mandy.

When Liz saw all the girls in their red sparkly tutus she said "oooh" and reached out for them. She wanted Rachel to keep holding her.

Rachel's group danced all together to the Rapunzel song. Rachel danced beautifully.

Then she had a solo to Judas Maccabeus, ironically one of her Suzuki violin songs that she loved.

The cheering audience.

The kids could go on 3 free rides if they turned in 3 book reports. They chose a wild mouse ride, which they rode twice.

Liz waited with us, she wasn't tall enough.

Then Adam and Rachel went down the giant slide,

and Sarah chose the swings. She loves wind.

We went straight home from the fair, and changed lickety split. Half of us in Halloween costumes and the other half of us in Symphony attire. Long ago, before we knew we'd be having a dance performance, ward party and babysitting going on this weekend....we bought tickets to the symphony for Sarah, Tyler and I. So we couldn't cancel. We went to the party, but left early, handing off Rachel, Adam, and Liz, and our car full of car seats to our friends the Hills. We went downtown to the Symphony and they took the kids home and put them to bed. Rachel was very glad Liz favors her. The Tchaichovsky concert was amazing and Sarah was so inspired.

Sunday Liz was so good in sacrament meeting. She went with Sarah to Sunday School, then with Rachel to Primary, and I could focus on the Sunbeams. I am glad they are so helpful and that she loves them so much. I could never watch all the kids we do without their help. They are going to be fabulous mothers.

Sunday night Liz's parents came home from the hospital and we took her over to meet her new little sister who they named Rachel. Then I had to jet with Sarah over to the Stake Fireside that I was in charge of to practice all the music and sign language for the temple celebration. I made it in time. The whole family decided to come so we could all be together.

Then we celebrated Rachel's birthday.

She woke up to a Spongebob balloon in her room just like the girl in her favorite book, 12 Finally.

The kids played Barbie camper and then we went to lunch at Chick-fil-a.

Rachel went to a doctor appointment with her little Abegg friends and then got home in time for Skittle cake and movie night where we watched The Pirate Fairy.

We did a little extra Halloween decorating with special things Grandma Cole sent.

Yay.

We went with Dave and Darci Myers and their son Seth to the temple open house. We met them through Adam's soccer team last year. Then we started Rachel in their daughter Hannah's dance classes.

They took pictures of us at a pretend backdrop so it wouldn't slow down the crowd moving through the temple.

Dave is a pastor. Darci keeps books for a few churches. It was fun to have friends of faith be interested with us.

Sarah got new pajamas. She said the other day, "Jammies are supposed to be crazy." I decided it was my fault for never having provided normal pajamas for her. Doing school at home we wear jammies a lot. I felt it would be good for her to have some cute ones. I picked up this pair of Mickey jammies, and ice blue pajama pants with an Elsa t-shirt. Now she says she feels cute even when she is in her jammies.

We took Liz to Orchestra with us to help her mom out. She had a terrible sickness after coming home from the hospital and had to be rushed to the hospital. She is slowly recovering, so we try to take Liz out with us sometimes so she can rest.

Halloween night we ate candy and watched our movies. Dad had to go to a football game to support one of the priests in the ward. Rachel dressed up as Zerina from the Pirate Fairy, Adam was Fred from Scooby Doo, and I wore a purple shirt and scarf to be his Daphne.