An edition of "the things they say"

Pace praying: "I'm thankful that Kami and Caden are on a mission and that they aren't around "deeps" (creeps)

Pace: "There is a violent baby at the gym!  It whacks people on the head and pushes 4 and 5 year olds!!"

Nolan: "Isabelle just slobbered all over my arm!  And I haven't pinched her bottom for a few minutes!!"

i don't even know....

While Pace and I waited for Nolan in the school office so that we could take him to an appointment, a little girl came in with a tooth that she had just lost.  The secretary said, "just a minute and I will get you something for that.  Pace leaned over to me and said, "Wait...are they getting her a different tooth to put in?!??"

Pace spending a lot of time lately wondering "what his Amy will be like?" And asking if grandpa's "Amy" does this or that?  So cute that a wife in his mind is called Amy:)

Pace when we were looking for vinyl to make floor pillows for the "hideout":  "I can help you look for it with my "sensing eyes" if you want!"

Oh you busy, beautiful week!!

Pace and I get to spend a lot of good, quality time with each other during the day.  I am so lucky to have him home with me for six more months, and I am trying to enjoy the time as much as possible because he will be going to school and I will be home all alone before I even know it:(

My visiting teacher invited Pace and I to lunch on Monday and we got there a little early so we took a picture while we waited:

Almost every day, Pace asks to go on a walk. We only have time to go a couple of times per week, partly because once we get out there, he doesn't want to come home. He keeps saying, "mom!  We aren't done adventuring yet!!"  This particular day, we were enjoying the nice warm weather and I was marveling that we have had spring since February.  And NOW there are flowers blooming.  Our grass stayed green all winter long, too!!

On Wednesday the school called and asked if I could help with school pictures.  It ended up being a great deal, because I got free pictures just for helping.  Pace helped a lot too - our job was to help kids write on these chalk boards and clean them afterwards.  Pretty easy-peasy and Pace enjoyed it:

And he was particularly excited when a fifth grade class came through and he saw this girl:

 I go pick the boys up every day after school and Pace waits for this girl to walk by the car. When he sees her coming, he asks to unbuckle, rolls down the window, and says "hi" to her.  If she notices him, she says "hi" back and sometimes she says more, like, "I like your mohawk!!"  After she walks off, Pace does a fist pump and says "YES!!!" So Pace got to really meet her, and we learned that her name is Chloe:)

Wednesday night was the Pinewood Derby.  Shawn had texted earlier that he was worried about the cars.  I asked why, and he said he hadn't wanted to worry the boys, but the pin stripes that they had painted on them had bled through and he wasn't sure how to fix it.  I told him I would take care of it.  Unfortunately I never got a finished picture of the cars, just these when I asked Shawn if they were looking ok. I ended up putting another strip on the left, too:

Turns out the boys probably won't care to remember these cars because they were some of the slowest there...poor guys. Hopefully next year will be better!!:

They were really good sports, but it was hard to see them lose over and over again:( I guess some years are like that!

Still at the hopeful stage:

Friday I was invited to the school because Abram was receiving an award in his school assembly:

I thought he received the most important award of all!:

It seemed like there was something every evening this week: Monday night was FHE, Tuesday night was the RS birthday celebration, Wednesday night was mutual, Thursday night was the Pinewood Derby, Friday night we went to Lagrande for Isabelle's lesson and met up with my family to celebrate mom and dad's birthday (I looked forward to this for DAYS):

l-r: mom, dad, Ivy (who put this all together) and Joseph:

l-r: Ori, Adam, Steve, Katie, Heidi, Kevin:

l-r: Aaron, Kelly and on down.  Not pictured were Tia, Shawn and I:)

March 11-17

Sunday is a great blogging day...except for when it's not!  This was last week in a nutshell:

I was called to be Young Women's President in our ward!  L-r: Elaina Solomon - second Counselor, Amanda Robinson- secretary, Natalie Crowder- first counselor:

I am really excited to serve with these neat ladies and to serve the Young Women in our ward! This was a picture that the bishop took of us when we were at his house for a presidency meeting that he wanted to join in on.

We had a lot to take care of right off the bat.  First off was mutual and a tri-stake dance.  Maddie made an awesome poster for the dance.  Have I mentioned how awesome she is at writing beautifully?  She is so talented at this!:

For mutual, Maddie was already in charge of the activity.  She had chosen to have the girls make modest wedding dresses out of napkins.  All I had to do was pick up supplies and make cupcakes, per her request:

I was pretty happy with the cupcakes...

All of the Young Women had a great time with this activity! I was amazed what they could do with these napkins.

The beautiful gown creations, on Cassidy Welch, Jenna Welch, and Adelaide Tesch:

On Wednesday night Isabelle had a choir concert.  I was really proud of her, because she tried out for a solo part and got it!  It ended up that her "solo" part was to be sung with four other people, but she was brave enough to do it. Also, Isabelle is so cute and tiny.  Notice how the other girls are in flats or short heels and Isabelle is in TALL heels and still a lot shorter:)

Isabelle got the boys all excited about Leprechauns and St. Patrick's day and helped them build traps.  I'm not entirely sure how any of them work.  They weren't good enough to catch a Leprechaun, but every single one of them had rolos in them when the boys woke up on Saturday morning. 
Pace's trap:

A slide into a dead-end shoe box by Nolan:

Ever random Abram made a trap over the sink. This is AFTER the Leprechaun fell into it...:

Saturday morning Isabelle and I also drove over to Walla Walla to a Beehive conference that I was asked to speak at a month ago.  I don't think I like anticipating something like that for THAT long!  But it was fun and turned out well.  We drove over with these gals, l-r: Julianne Jones, Adelaide Tesch and Isabelle:

That night, we went to a St. Patrick's Day party with the Wares.  Aaron ware smoked some great ribs, and Brittany decorated everything and made a fun dinner! Some of us in our required party clothing:

I had more people send me pictures of Caden. I love receiving these surprise texts throughout the week - it's a definite perk of him serving in the states!!

I commented on their matching ties in this picture, and was told that they wore it to sing at the assisted living center that day:)

Saturday at the coast

We had a hard time getting moving Saturday morning.  This was Belle and I having a hard time getting going right after we woke up:)

I could get used to strolling along the coast every morning....

Then after breakfast we went tide pooling and had so much luck finding agates and shells that we could have stayed there all day!

Shawn:

Shawn and Isabelle with the boys in front of them:

Pace and Nolan:

Maddie was specializing in finding shells everywhere she looked:

small sampling of what she found:

The rest of us were mostly searching for agates:

At first Nolan and Shawn were the only ones that could spot agates, but before long we all started seeing them.  Our combined efforts!:

Nolan's China hats and shell:

After lunch we headed to the Tillamook Cheese Factory! The factory is remodeling, and we were a little disappointed that we didn't get to tour the whole thing and see all the cheese on conveyor belts and what-not, but we still got to sample the cheese and have their amazing ice cream!  Plus Isabelle found a boyfriend...:

And she even got her dad to pose with some of the farmers there:

...So I guess it was a pretty worthwhile stop!:

After that, we left for home because we needed to be in church Sunday for my new calling.  I think, we should start memorizing something else right away, so that we can have an excuse to take off again soon!!