Thursday!Thursday!Thursday!Thursday!Thursday!

Thursday this last week was a crazy day. Christian was scheduled to go to Colorado but rearranged his schedule to help with the craziness. I am so thankful.

Brooklon had acheivment days at 5pm. where she made the cutest pumpkin. I did'nt get a picture. (Sorry)

6:30 Madison had Young Women in Excellence. It turned out so nice. The theme for the night was "The Golden Glow Awards" . Like the "Golden Globe Awards". There was a red carpet which all of the girls walked down and they recieved an award for their accomplishments. The award was shaped just like the ones they get at the"Golden Globes". The whole night turned out so nice. All of the girls wore prom dresses.

We found this cute dress for $12.00 and Madison looked like a million dollars. She looked beautiful.

We started curling right after school. Soooo cute! Madison loved her hair and so did everyone else.

Right after the "Golden Glow" we had to rush off to Landons game that was already half over. We did'nt get any pictures of Landons football game but it was a great game. Landons team won which puts his team in the championships. We are so proud of Landon and how well him and his team have done. Go AF Cavemen.
As soon as the game got over we had a Utah map to build. Never! Ever! Procrastinate something of this magnitude. We were up late. Once again I am so thankful that Christian could be home to help me with this night. SO THANKFUL!


I'm not sure what he's building but he is sure proud. (He makes me smile every time.)

Our littlest love just got a new chair so he can sit right up to the table with the family. We opened the table up to the full capacity and bought three chairs so we can all sit together. We love it.

(Our littlest love also just got his first tooth)

While our Dad works on the front yard, the boys decide to have a mud fight. It was all so fun until Mom made us strip off and sprayed down with the hose before we can enter the house. (I just cleaned the tub)

It was a lot of fun though!

Boys!

We love boys! Dirt and all.

We get one really warm day and you would think that it's summer again.
The boys climbed on the roof and while our dad put the cover on the cooler the boys enjoy tanning and Popsicles.

We made these bats last week with our hands traced as the wings.

A glance back at our week:
We had a Family Home Evening lesson on Monday on testimonies. Our testimony is a spiritual witness of the gospel's truthfulness given to us by the Holy Ghost. There are essential parts to a testimony. If you have a desire to believe those things, your belief can grow into a knowledge that they are true.-As you develop your testimony, don't be afraid to share it!- Your testimony will grow stronger when you share it with others. Isn't that what we want? (Friend 2008) We encouraged our children to share their testimonies in church on Sunday. It was great to hear and feel their testimonies. They all did a great job.
Landon's football team played against Juan Diego on Thursday. There are sadly no pictures being that it was FREEZING!!! They sure gave that team a challenge. Christian wasn't able to be there but Grandma Brooks came and froze with me. Thanks Mom/Grandma. It was such a great game I wish I would have at least taped it. (continue down to see/read the rest)

Brooklon and Maron decided they needed bangs. (Such cute smiles)
Sneaking a bite of snow. Yes I said snow. It snowed last night.
Snow!
Trenton ran home from church and decided he would make a snack on his own for the family. We were able to sample some sweet pancakes with some nice add ins.

I LOVE being a mom and spending time with my favorite people!We painted grocery sacks orange one day.
We had extra paint so we painted paper plates as well and set them outside to dry.
We then decided to make homemade playdough. We colored it orange.
I have some great helpers.
We got all of the cookie cutters out and rolling pins. We're going to try edible playdough next time.

This is actually the next day after everything was dry. We drew faces on our bags with crayons.We stuffed our bags with crunched up news paper. We accidentally drew Jordons face upside down. Jordon didn't seem to care and it still turned out great.We had so much fun together.We tied up our bags with a pipe cleaner.

And we set them on our front porch for all to enjoy.

We then finished our paper plate pumpkins.

We fixed our hair today all by ourselves. Very Cool!

Quick Note: Our computer died over the weekend. My brother in law gathered it up and fixed it in about two hours and we were back in business. Thanks Ken!

Landon had an awesome game this last week. The score was 14 to 6. Grandma and Grandpa Wray were able to come and watch with us. We don't get to see them very often and enjoyed having them here and spending time together. Jordon enjoyed having grandma and grandpa time. Thanks for coming.

Madison made a great dinner of meatloaf mashed potatoes, and green beans, for Sunday night.

This meatloaf recipe is great if anyone is looking for a great recipe.

Easy Pleasing Meatloaves:

2 lb. ground beef

1 pkg. (6oz.) Stove Top Stuffing Mix, any variety

1 cup water

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup bbq sauce (we love Famous Daves), divided

Mix all ingredients except 1/4 cup of bbq sauce.

Shape meat mixture into two oval loaves, side by side, in 13x9 inch baking dish. Top with remaing 1/4 cup bbq sauce.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 min. or until center is no longer pink. Makes 6-8 servings

Enjoy!

Another recipe-Christians Famous Cinnamon Rolls

bread machine recipe:

Dough:

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, room temp.

4 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp. yeast

Filling:

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

3/4 cup raisins

Icing:

3-ounces cream cheese, room temp.

3 Tbsp. butter, room temp.

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch salt

Make dough and let rise until double. Roll dough out on floured counter into a large rectangle. Spread filling mixture evenly on dough. Roll up dough from the longest side. Cut into rolls about 1/2 inch thick. Place in a greased 10x14 baking pan. Cover and let rise until double, about 1 hour. Bake at 375 for 20 to 25 min. or until done. Let cool slightly, then ice. Enjoy!

Conference Weekend!

Conference weekend is a great time to spend together as family. It is one of our family traditions.

It is a great time to feast upon the words of the Prophet and others speaking. We also enjoy feasting on Christians famous cinnamon rolls for saturday morning breakfast. Yum!


Another tradition we have for conference weekend is a packet for each day filled with "conference bingo, how many times do you hear a certain word (scripture, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, etc.), Speaker name/message etc... -here the kids are busy at work listening and writing. Sometimes there are prizes.

Sunday we had a breakfast casserole. Eggs, sausage, cheese, etc... Yum again!

Treat bags were a big hit. Maybe they upstaged conference a little.

During the break we went on a family walk and had a simple scavenger hunt to find things like:

A bird. A red, yellow, and green leaf. A welcome sign. A flower. A red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, white and black car. A stop sign. A Motorcycle. A car with a bumper sticker. A halloween decoration. A windmill. An American Flag. A BYU flag. A wind chime. A mailbox with their names on it. An animal. Etc.....

We then came home and had some good tickle time. What could be better.

Is he not just the cutest baby! Everyone enjoys conference weekend, Young and Younger. We hope you all were able to enjoy conference and fill uplifted, renewed, and maybe a little more committed. - If you have any fun conference traditions or just traditions that you love and would love to share, we would love to hear them. Our family LOVES traditions. And we love to hear all of your nice comments. Thanks! Love the Wrays