tell it to my heart

Today a friend of our family passed away.  Even though we knew he wasn't going to make it, I still feel very sad.  Death at times is peaceful. However, after going through a few family emergencies which were life and death in the last two years, it leaves me on edge. I have full faith in the Plan of Salvation.  I know that their family will be reunited.  I guess in the words of the steel magnolias mom, "I wish someone would tell it to my heart." It just aches for the family that he left behind. You will be missed GP.

wanna wrestle?!

I am really excited about my new calling at church as the Weblos Den Leader. Only having 2 fellas in my troop, we get to do lots of fun things. Last night, we were working on our athletics badge. The boys ran, did pull-ups, curl-ups, vertical jumps etc.  One of the physical games the book had suggested was leg wrestling. I think the boys loved this game the most. 

I had the boys lay on the ground head to toe and lock arms. Then they pumped their leg in the air and on the count of three, they locked legs and attempted to throw their opponent over. The pictures are fuzy, I know, and I didn't even think to film them.  The boy scouts were laughing so hard during this game. Good times

must dance

Tuesday was an early release day for our wee wardlings. Since the day was beautiful, we hit the local Science Center here in the Emerald City. The highlight of the day were the water sprinklers.

Jacob was running on the way to see the tigers, and I asked him to stop running because I didn't have the first aid kit on me. It was in the car.  As soon as those words came out of my mouth, Penny took a tumble.  The sad part was that this knee was just healing from a previous scrape. Penny screamed and screamed. Thankfully some staff members drove by and gave us some first aid supplies. I was on Penny's crap list for a while, especially after I had to clean it.

The boo boo didn't stop her for too long.

Penny loves Beyonce.  So much in fact that she has asked be to Beyonce for Halloween.  She just had to dance when she heard, "All the single Ladies."

jacob is 7

Jacob is now 7.  His birthday was on Sunday.  He fell asleep on my lap in sacrament meeting. Oh how we love this 7 year old! Happy birthday buddy!

Yes, we are total suckers. Clyde and I got Jacob and Joshua a puppy to share for their birthdays. Needless to say, Opa won the lottery of all lotteries with these two little boys.

(We got Opa from the Greek festival and thus he needed a Greek name. We decided upon Opa, meaning hooray, being easier for Penny to say than Hercules.)

painting projects



I have been working on a few projects while the wardlings are in school. I am hoping that the project comes out as nicely as i have envisioned.



morning sky

So, I have figured out how to email my pictures directly from my cell phone to blogger. This is pretty cool I must say.  I was amazed @ this morning's sky and thanks to the bonus of being able to text my photos straight to my blog, we all get to see it.

penny's art

Sunday during sacrament, Penny wanted me to draw her.  She in turn, drew me.
Aren't we beautiful.

courtesy flush please, because you stink!

Yellow, the beetle, is in need of a few repairs. Today I took her into the VW dealership in the Emerald City.  This sign was the first thing I saw when I went into their bathroom. I just had to giggle. The stinkiness of their customers poops must have been overwhelming for them to add a courtesy flush note to the bathroom walls.

new 1st grade teacher

We got a letter on Monday from the Principal @ the young wardling's school, informing us of a new development.  The enrollment for second grade is up, requiring the formation of a 1st/ 2nd grade combination.  Since Jacob's current 1st grade teacher was the most experienced in teaching the 2nd grade, her class was made into the 1/2 combo.  This meant that Jacob was moving to a new 1st grade class with a new teacher. I have to admit that I had my frustrations. Josh gave Jacob's new teacher 2 thumbs up telling Jacob how nice she was. Today was his first day in his new first grade classroom.  Josh was right.  Jacob's new teacher is very nice.  This may be the perfect switch afterall.  (However, she gives more daily homework and that's not on Jacob's thumbs up list.) Let's hope this goes well. :)

birds and bees

That was an awkward experience.  I waited to explain how 'things' work until I could talk to both of the big girls together.  They were having a YW's lesson on the law of chastity and I figured it was time to get things out in the open, in full detail. I totally appreciated the girls' Beehive advisor, giving me the heads up on the lesson. (Cyndie you are wonderful!! Thank you!!)  They took the information well, with several "ew's" and giggles.

erin & libby go to the temple

Saturday was a special day for our big girls.  It was Libby's first temple trip. Our girls are loving being in Young Women's!

I absolutely hated not being there.  I was asked about 3 weeks ago to speak in our Stake's Primary training meeting on children with special needs.  This was the 2nd time I have given this talk.  I was grateful to be able to do so, to help primary teachers be aware of the children with special needs in their wards. When I agreed to speak, I was unaware that the youth temple trip was the same day.  The girls were in excellent hands and I thought about them the entire time I was speaking.  I was so glad that my friend Jenn, from our previous ward, was able to come and speak with me.

penny is 5!

Penny turned 5 last Wednesday.  She kept telling us that it wasn't her birthday because she had to go to school. She still went to school and I brought cupcakes into her class to celebrate.  She was adorable in her class. She loved getting sung to.

This year she wanted a puppy cake, even though she asked for a real kitten for a birthday present.

We invited a few of Penny's friends over to help us celebrate.  We played a few of the minute to win it games that we played @ girls camp.  These little girls loved the games. 

They got a big kick out of the cotton ball stuck to the nose with vaseline game.

After the games, we celebrated with her cake and some ice cream.  Penny was in heaven!

She even got 2 surprise visitors for the party! Thanks Papa and Grammy for her birthday surprise!

Happy 5th birthday Penny!!

the scarlet letter

In the 10th grade we were required to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. It was a story of lust, love, adultery, imprisonment, illegitimate children...etc etc.  The things teenagers love to read about.  Anyway- the main character, Hester Prynne, had to wear an "A",  scarlet red, that was sewn onto the front of her dresses because she committed adultery.  Ever since reading that story, I have not wanted to wear anything monogrammed on my sweaters/ shirts because of the "A". Even though the A in my case is for Ashley, I just couldn't seem to get the 'adulterer' part out of my mind.  However, Clyde totally changed my mind with the above ring that he gave me for my birthday.  He and the Wardlings went to the mall in search of the most perfect birthday gifts.  I got sweatpants...hooray!!, 6 bottles of B and B works lotion. (The store was having a sale on and so each of the Wardlings got to choose a fragrance for me.  Josh went into the store, ran to grab my favorite, warm vanilla sugar, gave it to Clyde and said, "I'm done.") I also got some beautiful Swarovski, sterling earrings...absolutely stunning and the ring above. Clyde said that Penny chose the earrings and the big girls helped with the ring.  I'd say I have an awesome husband and family and all of them have fabulous taste. Happy birthday to me!!

goody stuff

The other night at dinner Jacob asked, "Mom, can you make my sandwich smaller because I don't have much time to eat my goody stuff." It was just one of those moments I wanted to remember.

watch out pre-k...

...Here comes Penny!  She was so excited to go to her first day of staggered pre-k. Clyde picked out and bought her a new outfit.  She was in heaven.

Really...what's one more lunch box to pack?

Penny felt like such a big girl going into the school today.  Josh and Jacob walked her into her class to see her off.  We unpacked her backpack and she ran to her seat to color.  She barely made the time to look up @ me, so I could  take a picture.  She is going to love this year! She just waved bye and that was that. Our babies have all grown up too quickly. {tear}

meet the cecil's

Saturday was such a fun evening filled with family.  We had a Cecil family gathering here @ the brown house.  All my brothers and sister were here along with my folks, MeeMaw and niece and nephews.  We were missing 2 sister-in-laws and 3 children, but we loved seeing those that came. We had so much fun visiting with everyone.  We broke out our bouncer and let the children bounce their hearts away. We also attempted to charge the battery for the escalade, but alas it didn't have enough juice to work. My brother D, SIL T, and I along with Libby and Erin pushed the cousins up our hill and let them go. They all had so much fun riding down the hill. Erin gave wheel barrow rides and Libby was such a good helper with the babies.  All the boy cousins linked their DS' together and played video games once it was too dark to play outside.  Clyde was one awesome griller too.  We had a very nice meal thanks to his grilling skills and the potluck items everyone brought. I loved spending time with everyone!