1/7/18 Home Teaching

      Today, after church, was a time for Home Teaching. Papa and I visited the LeSeuer family first. They seemed to enjoy sharing their knowledge of the history of the neighborhood. Brother LeSeuer told us that one of his grandfathers had been the Stake President when the Mesa Temple was constructed. The street the temple is built on is even named after him. Then we visited the Ruddell family. When Papa asked, at the end of our visit, to make an appointment for the next month Brother Ruddell declared that we were the most prompt home teachers he'd ever had. Papa's pattern of making appointments at the end of a visit certainly makes for more consistent home teaching visits.
     Shortly after we returned home it was time for our home teachers, Brother Lewis and Brother Postert to come. They are also very punctual home teachers. They always try to visit the first week of the month. We are blessed to live in such a faithful ward where people do their home teaching.

1/6/18 New Glasses and a Party

Today Rebecca's new glasses arrived in the mail. It's a good thing too because one of the lenses in her old pair popped out. Now she has glasses that are not scratched up. They came with a case so these ones will hopefully be better protected.

The evening the Stake held a social for the High Priests. Gram, Papa and Becca B took Heidi and I. It made for a fun double date.

1/5/18 Temple Trip and Creative David

This morning we had a lot going on. We still felt that it was important to make it to the Temple. I went and did initiatory. It was a little rougher morning than usual so getting to spend time in such a spiritual place was a big help.

This afternoon David felt inspired to create a device with his Lego robotics kit. He built a machine that launches miniature marshmallows. It works kind of like an automatic pitching machine. To wheel spin close together in opposite directions launch the marshmallows. Then he created a chute system so that he could load several at once. It was fun to see him using his creativity to think outside the box.

1/4/18 VDO Train Park

Today Gram and Papa invited us out to enjoy the train park near their park model at VDO.

Becca B. likes to refer to herself and our Rebecca as "twin Beccas". She is a good Aunty.

Peter is having a great time in this photo.

Gram was on hand to teach him about the trains.

One corner of the train yard was dedicated to toys and kids themed trains. You see TJ on the left and Joseph, in his Batman jacket, on the right.

After a while, the kids expanded their circle of interest to include the nearby rocks.

Notice anything unusual in this photograph? This morning Heidi offered Joseph the choice of two pairs of socks to wear. He decided to wear both, one pair per foot. This boy certainly has his own personality.

Joseph seemed to think that this rock looked like food.

One of the train engineers spotted David and decided that he looked responsible. David was given the reigns of one of the trains and he helped the conductor navigate through a series of railway switches from one side of the yard to the other. As you can see, David very much enjoyed this opportunity.

After the trains, it was time for lunch. Gram and Papa kindly treated us to hot dogs and pizza at the nearby Costco.

This evening Heidi went to the first Scout Roundtable of the year. This one was special because Heidi was awarded the first knot that she can sew on her uniform. The award is her religious knot. Among other requirements, this patch requires 5 years of service in your Scout related calling and an interview with the Bishop. Look at that pretty smile. You can tell that she is very happy. Photo credit goes to our friend Anna Phelps. She took the pictures and texted them to me.

We are proud of Heidi and her dedicated, selfless service. The Cub Scouts are lucky to have her.

1/3/18 Pioneer Park Visit #2, Good Friends

We decided that we liked Pioneer Park well enough to visit again and invite friends. Here are Rebecca and Sarah. Unfortunately, coordination fell through and only two friends were able to go with us. Two more were going to meet us there. Unfortunately, again there were so many people at the park that we never found the other friends.

Here are Joseph and Peter on the slide. They are good buddies. Peter has started referring to his siblings as his friends. If the other kids go outside he'll say "where did my friends go?" We love seeing that our children are close to each other.

TJ and Joseph race down the parallel slides.

Joseph waved his hat as he slid down.

This is the tallest slide in the park and there was a long line to ride it today.

If you squint you may be able to make out Rebecca and Sarah waiting in the long line to the top.

Here Joseph is playing with his good friend Colby. The day of the Kindergarten Christmas party I spotted Colby walking around the room with a trash bag cleaning up for his classmates. As far as I could tell no one asked him to do that. I'm glad that Joseph has a good helper as a friend.

After a while, we grew tired of constantly losing and finding each other in the massive crowd. We took our frisbee and took it out into the open field. You can see the Temple across the street. David had fun with his friend Rushton Shirts. That enjoyed riding their scooters around the many paths.

On the whole, we had a good time. We will think twice next time about going when so many people are there. Maybe we should have a backup plan ahead of time.

1/2/18 New Year Day 2 and Megan's Birthday

     Today was a quiet one. We mostly hung around the house. Heidi and I got some work done for the accounting business. The kids played and tried to take advantage of a day off of school.

1/1/2018 New Year's Day

Today we started a new year. Here Becca B, David, Heidi, and Papa work together to take down the Christmas decorations.