Ward Christmas Party

We had a work Christmas Party.  Both of ours was scheduled on the same day, but we went to mine because it was inside.  However, we did not take any pictures.  So you'll just have to believe we did.
Fortunately we did take pictures of our Ward Christmas Party.  Well, only of the first part, the program that the youth and primary children put on.  It was fun to see the primary children that we teach up there.

Some of them were angels and some of them were shepherds.

 My camera is not that great and I was zoomed in all the way. So not that great of photos.

So Christmas Begins

 To start off we head to Aunt Martha's house to make gram cracker house.  It was a lot of fun.  I particularly liked it because I grew up decorating ginger bread house during the Christmas season. So a lot of good memories.  My mom pretty much spoiled us.  And I loved it.  I remember Mom making all the houses by herself (I'm not sure if I just didn't help or if I was not allowed to help).  And she would stress out that they were all going to fall, but I don't remember any of them ever doing so. Hopefully I can make as good as houses as her someday.  Going to have to practice.

 Anyways, We got some pictures of the houses, but not of the architects so there.

Rachel's village.

Laura's and Jane's front

Jane's and Laura's back view

Allison's front view

Allison's back view

Caroline's

Charity's side view

Charity's front view

Charity's top view

My new Laptop

 So my old laptop gave up the ghost. So I got a new one.
It's has a shiny black out side.  Which is good because I grew up with IBM laptops which are always black.

 However it does not have a DOT!?!?!? What's up with that? Now this is not good because I grew up with an IBM laptop which always have a dot.  I don't know how to use a pad!!  I have to move my hand off home row. And I have to pick up my finger to drag the cursor across the screen.  And then I have to move my pointer finger to the right click button.  Granted these things aren't hard and can be learned, but I feel like I'm going back a step in efficiency.
 I may have to move to one of these.

Which continues the annoying have to move my hand off home row and it adds more wires to my mess.
Yep there's my rant for the day.

Old Pictures

I found these in my drafts.  He has no hair back then.

Making the "Nu" face almost

and the almost smile.

Personal Progress--Faith

So I completed Faith Value Experience 5 and I wanted to share my testimony on the atonement.  Now I'm not as eloquent as some people.

I'm extremely grateful, impressed, and full of love for my Savior. Heavenly Father and Christ knew what they wanted in the end, they knew what path to use to get there, and they created a plan to make it possible. They thought of everything. They knew that we had to be able to choose and planed for the fall. They knew that because of the fall nobody would make it, so they planed for the Atonement. They know so much.
I know there was transgression from the Law and we fell because of it and are cut off from God. The Lord was merciful and didn't want us to live forever in our sins, so he made it possible for us to die. Therefore, we needed resurrection and atonement: to be saved from death and sin. And the Savior did that.
The Savior suffered our pain. We can be saved if we repent, are baptized, and have faith in Christ.
I am so grateful for the atonement that I am able to repent of my sins and not spiritually perish if I follow the Lord. I am grateful that Christ went through with the plan even though it caused Him great suffering. He went through it for us that he may know how to help us in our time of need if we will let him. When I remember that he took upon Him our pains (pains we feel because of life and because of our sins/transgressions) and he suffered for us, it make me want to be better, to try my hardest not to sin.

Labor Day Weekend

Saturday:
We went to Trafalga in Lehi with Erin and David.

 We played some Mini-golf

We played 3 rounds of Laser Tag.

 And we found out that Erin is a much better rock climber than Michael.

 

Sunday:

We had dinner with James & Charity and Clark & Sara.

Monday:

Played some games with Zach. and had Family Home Evening with the West at Aunt Martha's home.  It was a great time.  Hopefully we'll be able to go next month.

How we spend our time.

So Michael spends his time working, I spend my time looking for work. I had an interview today and 2 rejections last week.

We're also have 2 church that we do together.  Our Ward is in the same stake as the State Hospital Branch.  So we got called to work in that branch; this was probably at the beginning of June.  We teach family home evening there on Monday to a unit there.  We have had as many as 12 people and as few as 6, but we generally get around 8 people.  We also go to their sacrament on Sunday and then the last 2 hours of our own ward.
Our second calling we got 2 Sundays ago.  We got called to be primary teachers for upper primary.
However, we may not be able to keep both callings, so well see what will happen with that.

Birthday

 So Isaac had a Birthday and turned 2.  He had some fun blowing out those candles over and over.  Afterward we went down and watch Sherlock.

I've come a bit obsessed with it of late and I've only seen 2 of the 3 episode.  I found out that John has a blog and that Sherlock's web site The Science of Deduction does exist.  And the next 3 should come out sometime next year.

West Family Reunion

Of course we'll start out with some Isaac.

He reminds me of Linford in this picture.

 There's a smile!

We also did some Minute  to Win It Games.  I got some pictures of those

 In this one you needed to get as much toilet paper on your person in a minuet.

 She ended up with all the paper around her head.

 Linford got all the paper off the roll and won.

 This one is get the cookie in your mouth in a minute using only your facial muscles...and gravity I guess.

 They played this one over and over again but I think only Elna actually got it.

This one is pretty self explanatory if you watch it. 

 Mine is not that fun to watch.  But I think I got the 2nd fastest time.

Rachel's Wedding Reception (or Pictures of Isaac)

 So Isaac's cute and I don't have any other niece or nephew (I mean I have 12, but only 1 lives near me-- what's up with that? However, a new one is coming to Provo soon) to take pictures of, so you get to look at lots of photos of Isaac.
The reception was in a beautiful building with a good view of the Salt Lake Temple.

 When Isaac arrived he was a little cranky.

 Looking at the live band.

 It didn't take long for him to get into it and dance along.

 A little brake dance.

Acting a little goofy.

 Sorry I don't have pictures of the Bride and Groom.
 Anyways, we're glad Rachel got married and that we have another Michael to add to the list and that the West family got one person bigger!

Our 24th of July Trip

Michael had his 10 year reunion from high school last weekend what a perfect excuse to go up to Washington and to see family.  So we left Friday at noon, well 12:10.  I decided it would be fun to take a picture of where we were every hour (I only did this for the trip up).  I did that and also recorded the distance we went that hour and the distance of the total trip (I did this for both trips).  The car got roughly 34 miles/gallon both directions.

Starting Out at 12:10

 1:10-Near Layton. Have gone a total of 65 miles that hour.

2:10-Almost to the Idaho Border.  In that hour we went 75 miles, so a total of 140.

3:10- Near Burley. 79 miles that hour.Total of 219.

4:10-We're in Bliss.  69 miles for the hour.  And 288 miles for 4 hours.

Now this isn't the same bird.

5:10- A little past Mountain Home.  We went 55 miles for that hour (we did stop in Mountain Home for gas and we had to wait in line).  343 miles total.

 6:10-Sand Hollow.  69miles for the hour and 412 for 6.

The car happened to have a chip.

6:10 (yep we did 2 6:10s, but don't worry we skipped 2:23 on the way back, so we're back to normal)-Pleasant Valley. 72 and 484.

 

7:10-La Grande.  66 miles per hour and 550 miles per 8 hours.

 

8:10-Looking for the Junction. Yep we had the sun in our face. Not very good. But we went 70 miles the hour and 620 for the trip.

(I had a hard time to make the previous part look good. So sorry.)

We got to Pasco 8:55pm their time Friday night.  So about 45 minuets after the junction.  We went 43 miles in those 45 minuets.  Total trip: 9h45m and 663 miles.

Saturday 23 July:  There was a ward party at 1 that we went to.  They had lots of Ice-cream and pie.  There were a lot of left overs for some lucky people.  They also did some water balloon games.  These balloons were very precarious.  Some of them would pop if you picked them up.

We got there early so we played with the basketball.

Kylee

 Conner

 Michael and Dad

 Kaitlin

 And there was some make shift limbo.

After this Michael and Dad Anderson went golfing and Mom Anderson and I did some baking. Later that evening we all went bowling.  I was in the bumper lane so my scores are a little higher than they would normally be.  We were expecting Uncle Andy to show up some time that weekend, so when ever we went out we would leave a note for him on the porch with a map of where to go to get where we were.

Zach

 Kylee

 Conner

Kaitlin

Michael

My first Game (I'm the bottom, Conner on top, and Mom in the middle)

Michael's First Game (He's on top, Zach in the middle, and Dad at the bottom)

My Second Game (Conner on top and Me on the bottom)

Michael's second Game (they're the same).

Dad and Michael wanted to see if they could throw and catch a ball with both of their eyes closed (that's four eyes).  So the practice for a bit and then closed their eyes.  They succeeded a few times.  It was fun to watch because the person who was catching would be flinching because they don't know when the ball was coming or where it would hit.  So they started to count down.

Sunday 24 July:  So Church was from 11-2 and the high school reunion was from 11:30-2:30.  The rest of the family went off to church and we went to the park to look for the picnic.  And we Looked and Looked.  We walked all over, drove all over, and went into a building.  We saw a lot of families.  We saw a group but as we got closer we decided that that group was not there for their 10 year high school reunion.  So after 30 minuets of looking we gave up on that and went home.  We used the map for Uncle Andy to find the church and made it to the 3rd hour of church.  In the afternoon Courtney, Will, and Whitney stopped by on the way home from their trip.  And Uncle Andy finally made it.

Just chillin'

So while we didn't get to the School Reunion, we had a lot of fun with family.