Christmas Decorating 2012

We set out to put up the Christmas decorations while Scott was home for a few days.  Rachel was so excited to help and actually was able to put up decorations by herself.

Our Christmas Tree

 The stocking were hung and the mantle decorated.

 The nativity and our Christmas countdown.

 Look we even have our presents under the tree.  Some of our family members are over anxious and gave us our gifts when they were in Boise at the beginning of November.

Can you tell how excited she is about actually having to take this picture.  This is the red dress though that she loves to wear.

Rachel's Lesson in Money

During October I took Rachel to Arctic Circle to get a kids meal with the flashlight in it.   Well she went to bed with it all the time so of course it eventually died.  Scott looked to see what kind of batteries it took and was shocked to find out it takes 3 watch size batteries.  So we dragged our feet and didn't get any new ones.  Rachel was getting pretty upset about it and so we made her a deal that she could take her own money from her piggy bank to get new batteries.  I thought for sure she would be against this as she never wants to let money out of her sight once it gets into her piggy bank.  She was determined to get her flashlight working again.  So we got some money out of her bank and headed to the battery store.  We gave her the battery and she walked into the store, handed her battery to the guy at the counter, and told him she needed 3 of them.  He was pretty shocked about this.  He said to us that they were 3 dollars a piece and we shrugged our shoulders and told him it was her money.  So she ended up buying 3 batteries for 9 bucks.  (Completely highway robbery). She handed him her money and held the batteries until we got home.  She walked out of that store so happy.  I tried to explain to her that she could have had 3 kids meal for that much money and gotten 3 more  flashlights.  She said to me, "I don't want 3 flashlights I just want this one".  She doesn't totally get it but she was pretty proud of herself for being able to buy something herself.  Hopefully we taught her a good lesson but time will tell. 
Side note:  Scott and I have another flashlight that we will give to her when this one dies and it actually takes AA batteries so it won't be as expensive to keep going.  :-)

Boise Temple Re-Dedication

Today is the day.  It is the day that the Boise Temple is being Re-Dedicated.  I am so excited to be able to be a part of this.  It's always awesome to go to dedications.  President Monson, Elder Bednar, Elder Christensen, and Elder Walker.  They had some songs by a choir of 16 voices and then they had the Assistant Matron speak(Sister Bellinton), her husband who is the 1st Counselor of the Temple Presidency and then President Monson's Secretary.  She told us she had been his secretary for 47 years.  He's been in for 49 years.  How cool would it be to be his personal secretary?  She talked about what great character traits he has.  Of course all the talks were centered around the temple and the knowledge that the ordinances in the temple allow for us to be with our families in the next life.  One thought I had when they were talking about being able to be parents to kids that had passed away already; I wondered how many kids I will have in the next life since we haven't been able to have them in this life.  I know that I'm supposed to have sons and daughters so just how many are supposed to actually be in our family?  I'm intrigued by this but will have to wait and see. :-)
President Monson wiggled his ears to a young man that was in attendance to tell him he saw a future missionary.  It of course made us all laugh that he can actually wiggle his ears.  He told about a story of a family in Tongan that had only been able to get four of their ten kids sealed to them. His daughter who was on the seminary council took it to the council and for a Christmas service project they came up with the money for that family to travel to New Zealand to have the rest of their family sealed together along with several other families.  Now there is a temple in Tongan and several more in the area.   Temples are coming closer to the saints and we shouldn't take it for granted.  We need to visit often to do service for those who have gone before us.  I can't tell you how much I have missed being able to go there to find peace and answers to my questions.  I'm going to try so hard to go there this week.  I know it will be a mad house with everyone trying to get in but I just feel like I really need to get there.

Balloon Frog

Well we stopped in Twin Falls to eat dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.  While we were there they had someone who was making balloon animals.  He came to our table and we were like okay yeah you can make her an animal.  She wanted a frog.  I thought that was an interesting request.  I was even more shocked at what the guy was able to come out with as a frog. 

 Pretty Impressive the design.

Rachel of course loved it.

Crafts

Every week at Preschool Rachel gets to do crafts.  I'm so happy she gets to do this since I am not a crafty person at all.  This week she learned the letter "I" and they made the following craft.

Hannah told me that Rachel did this all by herself without any help from her.  I am totally impressed.  We came home and today she asked to do some cutting and gluing.  So I pulled out the scissors, the glue and pulled out all the junk mail that we had gotten the last couple of days that was in the recycle box.  This is her having some fun creating and playing with the glue.

 A little bit of chaos.

 Cutting with her left hand.  I laugh at how she cuts.  It doesn't seem to bother her though so I just let her keep on going.

 A better picture of the scissors.  So intent on cutting.

 She loves to squeeze glue.

 Putting her piece with glue on her creation.  

What her work station looked like when she was finished.  She especially loved filling the macaroni with glue.  I also taught her that glue will dry on your hand and you don't have to wipe it right off.  She has a little bit of her dad in her in she doesn't like sticky stuff.

Aunt Averil Sidwell

My Aunt Averil passed away on November 11, 2012.  She had been having kidney problems for several years.  They wouldn't do a kidney transplant because she wasn't bad enough but by the time it was all said and done she ended up being on dialysis for two years.  The last few months while on dialysis they weren't able to keep the pain under control and so finally she and my uncle decided it was time to stop.  My Aunt lived for 9 days without dialysis before she went to live with our Father in Heaven.  I'm guessing there was a great reunion on the other side though as she reunited with all those who have passed before her.  I am truly grateful to have had Averil in my life.  She was a great Aunt.

Scott was able to fix his schedule so that we could go down to Lindon to the Funeral.  The funeral was great with her sisters both talking and a grandson.  Afterwards we headed to the cemetery in Lindon where she will rest.  It turned out to be a nice day with no rain or snow.  In attendance from my extended family was Uncle Larry, Uncle Stan and Aunt Linda, my cousins Dana, Kristy, and Scott.  I was sad to not see more of us there but that's what happens when we are so far apart. 

Here are a few things about my Aunt.  She made the mints for my wedding even though she was having health issues at the time.  I got to spend some summers with her hanging out.  We got to shop and she always had the best sugar cereal.  (We always had rice puffs and wheat puffs growing up, so to get the sugar cereal at her house was a complete treat).  We played with her neighbor kids because she was like a mom to them they were always at her house.  She was a very patient person.

I have to say that I am extremely grateful to know that there is life after death.  I'm grateful to know that families can be together again.  I love knowing that I will be able to see my Aunt again.  Though she may be gone its not sad because she is out of pain and I will be with her on the other side.  Rest in Peace Averil until we meet again.  I love you!


OBITUARY
 Averil Ann Henson Sidwell

March 16, 1941 ~ November 11, 2012 Averil Ann Henson Sidwell, 71, of Lindon passed away Sunday, November 11, 2012.   Averil was born March 16, 1941 in Jerome, Idaho at her family home to Don and Myrtle Henson.  She married Eugene Sidwell on November 23, 1960 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Averil grew up in Jerome, Idaho and graduated from Jerome High School in 1959.   She enjoyed quilting, embroidery, working in her rose garden and collecting porcelain dolls.   Averil was a devoted member of the LDS Church and especially enjoyed working in the Young Women’s Program.   She is survived by her husband Gene of Lindon; four children: Teresia Byars; Tammi (Mike) Short; Mark Sidwell and Michael (Joy) Sidwell; eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren; three siblings: Darrell (MarJean) Henson; Pat (Red) Gregson; Beverly (Jim) Glodowski. Funeral services will be held Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 2:00 pm in the Lindon 18th Ward Chapel, 250 West 600 South, Lindon (1025 West 1600 North, Orem).  Family and friends may attend a viewing Wednesday evening from 6-8 pm at the Sidwell Family Home, 61 South 450 West, Lindon and at the church on Thursday one hour prior to services.  Interment will be in the Lindon City Cemetery.

Rachel's Favorite Outift

I have started to call Rachel my change artist.  Everyday I put her in an outfit and eventually at some point in the day she changes her clothes into something else.  This outfit is the newest that she puts on everyday.  Her Aunt Jamie sent it home with me after she spent a few days this summer down in Montpelier.

Thank you Aunt Jamie I love this outfit.

She even puts the right color shoes on when she wears this outfit.  She is such a silly girl.

Big Girl Bed

We have had Rachel's big girl bed for about three weeks.  Scott hasn't been around so we haven't been able to get it set up.  We decided before his family got here we would set it up so there would be another bed that people could sleep on.  After they left Rachel finally got to sleep in her bed. 

1st night sleeping in her bed.  

She was so happy to be sleeping in her big girl bed.  It doesn't surprise me at all that when I went into her room to take this picture she's not sleeping on it correctly.  She always sleeps in every bed sideways.

Boise Temple Open House

Yesterday we had the pleasure of going to the Boise Temple Open House with Scott's family.  They all came to our house for the weekend just so we could go to the Open House.  I was completely shocked when we showed up at our reservation time and the line was half way around the church house.  We ended up waiting in that line for about 1/2 an hour to 45 minutes before we got taken into the chapel to watch the movie.  After the movie we got into a group and headed to the temple.  We had another wait outside trying to get into the temple.  Once inside though we went through it pretty quickly.  The kids were getting tired and were hungry and so we had to hurry and take family pictures.  This was the best we could get trying to do them so quickly.

Our family picture.

Collage of all the family.

Halloween 2012

So I ended up babysitting Morgan while Kammi worked and I had wanted to try to make some mummies like I had seen on the internet.  I felt like the cool mom doing something for Halloween that was fun.  These actually turned out better than I had expected.

Mummies

Rachel ended up having Preschool on Halloween and they got to dress up for Preschool.  Rachel was pretty excited about it. Here is Rachel at school in her Halloween costume.

Monkey and grinning so big.   She loves her costume.

Here is all the kids in her preschool class in their costumes.

Scott was actually off today and so he got to go trick or treating with us.  We stopped 1st at Stan and Linda Peterson's house so she could see them.  They let her pick out as many candy bars as she wanted.  She picked only a couple and so then Linda filled her up with several more handfuls. We then headed over to Scott's coworker Sally's house.  The following are pictures of her yard and the decorations.

 Scott and Rachel walking up to the door.

 Door opening.

 The pirate and the coffin.  Totally cool.

 Coming back out of the house.

Sally gave her a whole ziplock bag full of goodies.  She sat right down on the driveway and started to go through it to see what she wanted to have first.  She could have been done at this point but I talked her into going to other houses.  She decided to go across the street.

She was ready to go and Scott was a little apprehensive.  I was like come on it's Halloween.  After she went to this house we headed over to our neighborhood.  We were heading to Kammi's house when I saw they were on their street trick or treating.  So we parked and hooked up with them.

 At the house that totally goes all out with decorations.  

 Part of the group walking the neighborhood.

 Rachel was always the last one at each house we went too.  She was trying to figure out how to do this but by the time we hit 10 houses she was finished.  It was to hard and her bucket was too heavy.  We actually started to take candy out of it and stuff it in our pockets so it wouldn't be so heavy.

She had fun playing with the decorations at this ladies house.  The witch made noises and she kept moving so that it would cackle at her.  We ended up carrying her part of the time but when she started whining more than moving we just gave up and headed home.  We did stop by her preschool teachers house and then went home.  We ended up with a total of three kids at our door trick or treating.  Two of them were our neighbor Deidre's kids.  We did last a little bit longer this year but she still isn't into it very much.