8/31/18 Friday Temple Trip

Today Gram & Papa Connelly and Grammie and Grandpa Mangum went to the Temple. We did Endowments for our ancestors. It is a blessing to have a Temple so close by.

8/30/18 Painting and Planning

Today Heidi climbed up a ladder to help paint Grammie and Grandpa Mangum's kitchen.

Sarah solved Rebecca's pyramid puzzle for the first time on her own.

This evening Heidi went to commissioner meeting. They are working on ways to make RoundTable better for the leaders who attend. I am so glad to have people working hard to train our leaders. We need good leaders to help us learn and grow so it's great that people have a place they can go to learn to be a better leader.

8/29/18 Peter Dentist, David Palm

This morning Peter had a follow-up visit at the dentist. He had to be put under by an anesthesiologist because he was so fussy last time. This time they got all the work done. It was expensive and the poor kid is still sore. Hopefully, though it will help him avoid pain in the future. Now we need to continue teaching him about brushing.

 

Tonight David was awarded 6 merit badges that he earned during the summer. This was more than enough to earn David his gold palm. This indicates that he has earned 10 more merit badges beyond those required for Eagle. We are so proud of David and how hard he has worked to learn and earn his awards. We know that these skills are helping him in his life. Way to go David!

8/28/18 Pack Meeting st Bishop Schenpf's House

Rebecca is a planner. She likes to know when things will be happening. To that end, she requested that Heidi buy her a planner so that she can keep track of her school work and Young Women events.

This evening we went to Pack Meeting at Bishop Schnepf's house. The kids got to swim and then they gave out awards. TJ earned the "Code of the Wolf". To earn it they learned about creating and deciphering coded messages. Great job TJ!

Then it was Heidi's turn to give awards to the Bears. Each of the boys in our group earned the Robotics belt loop.

Rebecca got to have a turn holding and feeding Baby Z.

Beautiful Heidi passed on swimming but she was ready should the need arise.

Peter and Sarah loved the in-ground trampoline.

8/27/18 Visitor(s?)

This morning Heidi spent some time with Peter cleaning up the boy's room. It looks very nice now.

Later on, Zachary aka Baby Z came for a visit. His foster mom, Sister Ellsworth has a Mondy class. Heidi volunteered to watch Baby Z on Mondays during the class.

And who is this visitor in our home? Could it be flag maker Betsy Ross? Heidi is using her sewing skills and her love of service in yet another endeavor. The stake will be sponsoring a patriotic event in September. Heidi has been asked to be on a committee that is helping to plan some activities for those who attend. It looks like it will be a fun event.

8/26/18 Sarah's Owl

Today, as we tidied up, we found this drawing that Sarah made.

Here is a close-up view. I love the detail. She makes some cute things.

8/25/18 A New Office

Today it was time to assemble our new desks at our new office. David, Sarah, and Heidi came along to help. The other four kids hung out at Grammie and Grandpa Mangum's house.

We built both desks at the same time.

Here is David at the completed desk.

We didn't think about bringing our office chairs this time so David and Sarah are modeling pretend chairs.

This is the front reception desk.

We may put up Valiant Accounting LLC in this window.

Here is what the office looks like from the outside.

8/24/18 Pool Pump Problems and Temple Visit

Heidi noticed that some of the pipes connected to the pool pump have started leaking. It appears that one of the older pieces has developed a crack. She is hoping that we can pick up a replacement part and fix it.

This morning Heidi and Gram and Papa and I went to the Gilbert Temple. We did an endowment session for 4 of our ancestors. Gram has been doing a great job of finding and preparing family names so that we can take them each week. 

8/23/18 Birthday #41

It was a nice birthday this year. Much better than last year. Today was also Sarah's first-day attending orchestra at Franklin Elementary. She gets to ride the early bus because her class is held before regular school starts.

I got an office for my birthday. Heidi and I went and signed the papers. It is a nice, quiet, professional place to get things done. (More pictures to come on a later blog)

Next up Heidi went over to help paint Heidi's Parent's kitchen. It feels good to give service. I can recommend service as a solid birthday activity.

This evening Heidi and I used a gift card and went on a date for dinner. The food was yummy and the company was wonderful.

Ahead of family prayer, the family sang me a happy birthday and we ate cake.

Papa gave me this nice BYU/Captain America shirt. It will give me a fun way to show my school spirit. It is also super comfy. Thanks Papa!

8/22/18 Franklin Videos and Bear Robots

This morning I did some service at Sarah, TJ and Joseph's school. They needed some parents to help record the kids reading. At the end of the school year, they will record again so that the kids can compare and see their progress.

At Cub Scouts today, we worked on robotics. In the above picture, the boys are using an app that teaches basic programming skills to program an on-screen robot. The highlight for me this week is that David came and demonstrated how his LEGO Mindstorms robot works. For next time we need to remember to plan in more hands-on (and maybe some running). The boys got distracted at one point and started running around. We did still cover all the requirements so mission accomplished.

8/21/18 A New Spring and Slow Homework

     This afternoon, Darren of Valiant Garage Doors, came by and replaced our broken spring. It now goes up and down like anything. He joked that his lawyers would be contacting us about the copyright infringement of using Valiant in our name. He was pretty funny. He had his boy, about David's age along to help him.
     The kids, especially TJ and Joseph, have been struggling with getting back into the habit of getting their homework done right when they get home. Due to this today we had homework all the way until bedtime.

8/20/18 A Spring and Some Cleaning

Today when Papa got home the garage door wouldn't open. Heidi quickly diagnosed the issue as a broken spring.

Luckily no one was in the garage when it happened. We've heard that it can be dangerous with metal flying around. Also fortunate is that Papa's car is on the outside so he can still go places while we wait for a repair person to come.

The kids have been doing much better lately at helping clean up after dinner. Today Peter wanted a turn helping wipe off the table. This extra bit of effort from our children makes our kitchen a much more pleasant place to be in.

8/19/18 Youth Mission Calls

Today Rebecca and David both received letters with missionary calls. Apparently, the Youth program is doing a missionary theme for the month of September. The two were both excited about their calls. They are each holding maps of the mission they've been called to. I'm supposing that they will be learning about what it is like to serve in different parts of the world.

8/18/18 Blood Drive and a Swim

This morning Heidi and I participated in the Stake blood drive. It was the first time we've donated since we moved to Arizona. Perhaps we'll do it more often now that we live in a Stake that sponsors a drive each year. It is a good thing to do although we've been a bit delinquent.

This afternoon we went swimming as a family. Gram and Papa came and did their exercises. Heidi has been doing ongoing battle with the elements to keep the pool in good condition for swimming. I had no idea that keeping a pool was this much work.

8/17/18 Papa's 75th Birthday

This morning we went to the Temple and did Endowments. Heidi's parents met us there.

Later on, Heidi and I went and looked at a possible office space to rent. David and Heidi helped paint at Grammie and Grandpa's. I helped take down the hardware from the old blinds so that they can be ready for the new ones. When they heard that it was my Dad's birthday they pitched in some money for ice cream.

After dinner, we sang Happy Birthday to Papa and had cake and ice cream.

Happy Birthday Dad!

8/16/18 A Door and A Necklace

Today it was time to re-hang the pocket door at Grammie and Grandpa Mangum's house. The door had been non-functional for years. While it was down Grammie repainted it. Now it is good as new.

Last night, Rebecca lost her "Peace in Christ" necklace in the grass at mutual. Her leader helped her look for it but they couldn't find it. Today, Sister Black sweetly went to Seagull Book and bought her a replacement. This was very thoughtful and unexpected. We are fortunate that Rebecca has such caring leaders.

8/15/18 Robot Hands

Today Heidi decided it was time to clean the pool filter cartridges.

As you can see they had quite a bit of dirt built up.

At Cub Scouts, Heidi had the idea to have the boys build "Robot Hands" out of straws, yarn, and tape. I'll admit that I had a hard time catching the vision of how much fun this would turn out to be. One of the boys wasn't sure at first either but once we got into it all the boys were engaged.

By the end, they were having so much fun we couldn't even get them all to look at the camera for a picture. They were having to much fun with their creations to look. I don't think I can remember seeing Rio (on the right) looking so happy. The other boys are (R-L) Dallin, Ted, and Max.