Trip to DC

On October 15th we drove up to DC and took the subway (or sub as RJ likes to call it) to the National Mall where we saw the Lincoln Memorial, The World War II Memorial and the Washington Monument. Jared had seen these before and really wanted to see them lit up in the dark. This was the first trip for the rest of the family. And we had a blast. We are looking forward to seeing them again in the day light as well as the capital building.

This is part of the Word War II Memorial. It is a beautiful Memorial in between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. RJ enjoyed walking around and reading all the state names on the pillars.

It was a long day. This is Savannah trying her hardest to stay awake as we waited for the "Sub"

The next morning, we headed over to the Washington DC temple to do some service work. The youth from our stake were helping to put up Christmas lights and the children and their parents walked the grounds collecting bits of litter. The kids did very well helping to beautify the temple grounds. We also enjoyed some time in the visitor center.

Randomness from October

Fall is here in the East. The colors are beautiful!!! This has got be be one of the ultimate best thing about living here in Virgina. There are TONS of tree which makes the fall season simply gorgeous! These two pictures are views from our yard.

We started our October month with the 180th Semiannual General Conference it was a wonderful weekend full of spiritual inspiration and truths. Below is a photo of Zachery singing along during one of the rest hymns. He even has a pretend hymn book in his hands.

RJ's school had their Fall Fundraiser Festival. The kids had a blast riding ponies, playing small carnival games, doing the cake walk, and playing in the jump houses.
Savannah even won a round of Bingo.

Savannah's newest pass time is puzzles. She can't get enough of them. She will spend all afternoon working on puzzle after puzzle. She has been doing 24 piece puzzles to 150 pieces all by herself. I am so glad we can find puzzles on here level at the dollar store. Getting a new puzzle is one of the most exciting things for her.

RJ has been busy loosing more teeth. He lost one of his top front teeth the beginning of the month and at the end of the month he lost the one just to the left of it. He is very sentimental and has a hard time parting with things. He didn't want the tooth fairy to take his tooth away. He wanted to keep it and so he wouldn't but his tooth under is pillow. Lucky for him the tooth fairy was feeling generous and left him a gold dollar coin anyway.

And Zachery turned 18 months at the start of this month. He started going to nursery and has been doing pretty good. He is much more attached to Mommy and Daddy then the other two kids were. We also took Zach's Cowboy photos keeping with the tradition. I will post more of those later. But this one is a favorite.

Marshmallow Experiment

The kids watched this Mormon Message today on the computer: Continue in Patience and wanted to try the experiment. They both said they could wait patiently for 15 minutes with a marshmallow in front of them and not eat it. So we let them try it.

I first put RJ at the kitchen table his back to the kitchen and a marshmallow sitting in front of him. I tried to remove all the distractions as possible and then we all went downstairs leaving him with his marshmallow. I was able to sneak a peek at him every once in a while and he stayed in his chair, layed his head on the table, and tried his hardest not to eat the tempting marshmallow. After 15 minutes I entered the kitchen and the marshmallow was still there. He succeeded and so I gave him another marshmallow as a reward. It wasn't till later that he told us that he did nibble a few tiny pieces off it during his 15 minute minutes of silence. So, I guess it really wasn't a complete success after all.

Savannah then wanted a turn so we let her try. She lasted 7 minutes. She couldn't take it any longer. I first saw her nibbling a little bit of her marshmallow. Then I saw her out of the chair playing with some stuff on the counter. I told her to sit back down and that is when she said, "This is too hard, I can't do it" and she picked her marshmallow up and ate it.

And there we have it, our own marshmallow experiment. Patience is definitely a hard virtue to master. I know personally, this is an area I need to work on. Having patience is hard, in our society we seek immediate gratification, things are so much easier to obtain in this day of age. It isn't always a bad thing but in some areas of our life patience will give off wonderful blessings and rewards. Especially when patience is asked of us from the Lord.

Camping with the Mace's

The last weekend of September we went camping with some good friends of ours. Josh and his family like to camp in the most remote places they can find. So we followed them out in the middle of no where to go camping. I couldn't tell you where the heck we were at. We did a lot of gravel road driving before we got to our destination. But it was a gorgeous spot and we had a blast camping with them.

Once we set up camp and got a fire going the first request from the kids were s'mores.

All 6 kiddos enjoy breakfast.

We camped by a dried out creek bed. The kids had a blast being one with nature. They "created" Kid's World and the only access to this world and the camp site was by the this tree log. They were well entertained with their imaginations.

After a short hike we stopped by this bridge and let the kids play in the creek water.

Zachery isn't so happy that he has to watch the older kids instead of joining in the fun.

Maggie

Savannah

Sadie

Logan and RJ

Kim & Josh, Thanks for the fun weekend.

First Dentist Appointment

Savannah had her very first dentist appointment last month. She was very excited to go. She loves doing things like a big girl and has no fear of trying something new. She always surprises me with how willing and fearless she is. I worry sometimes about her future but also look forward to her "Let's Do It" attitude.

Wish our dentist appointments were this cool when I was a kid. They gave her sunglasses so the bright lights wouldn't bother her eyes and she got to watch cartoons on a TV above her head. How cool is that?!

No cavities and a bran new Princess Dora tooth brush, Way to go!