Boyd's photo shoot

My very favorite one! I just want to smooch that cute face!

The invitation pick (it was so hard to choose!)

His "handsome new clothes"

One of my favorites!

Oh my GOSH, this is one handsome kid! I just love this amazing boy! Aunt Jenna took these great pictures at the Provo temple for his baptism invitations. He took this thing seriously! We weren't allowed to make him laugh with such highly inappropriate words such as "pickles or boogers." This is a spiritual place, but we were allowed to talk about cats and make cat noises... that was an acceptable subject to smile about! Boyd is so funny! I am so happy to see him get excited for his baptism.

Young Women

I found some more pictures of the girls and it makes me miss that warm weather! But, seriously I have such pretty little girls! Can't stand their cuteness!

I got called into Young Women's recently and I really love it! I had a great time at Girls camp this summer and I'm excited to hang out with these cool girls again. One of our activities was ice blocking! Pretty much all those pictures were blurry because they were all in constant motion. Good times!

This one needs some explaining, huh? My partner in Young Women's has a ton of dresses from various family members and had the girls try them on to wear for another activity. There were some interesting old school dresses, but it was awesome!
That brings me to my activity for Young Women in Excellence night. We spent so much time and energy planning this and it turned out so great!

First, we had a "Red Carpet" (actually it was bright pink) with the "Star of Fame" walkway. We also had a little paparazzi crowd (activity days girls cheered as the Young Women came in)!

We had an interviewer and cameraman, of course!

We decorated the cultural hall all snazzy! It actually took about 5 hours to blow up all the balloons and set up the place, plus days and days of making centerpieces, gift bags, and stars. (It did look a lot better with the dim lights and lit centerpieces, etc.)

One of my favorite things was the photo booth! Obviously we had some fun props and even a polaroid camera there!

I wish I had taken some more pictures, but was busy helping run the show. We had a great MC host and did an amazing "Emma Award Show" (like the Emmys, but Emma for Emma Smith... I thought it was obvious, but had to explain that several times). We had performances and "celebrity" guests and speakers. I don't think it could have gone any better! We have such wonderful, talented young women. I just love them!

Pirates! Aaarrrr!

My man sure looks sexy in eyeliner :)

This is my favorite!

We had such a fun time at Ken's boss' pirate party last night! I love having this event every year, it was our 4th time and it was the best yet!

Pretty girls!

I sure love these beautiful girls! I'm not sure where they learned to pose, they are so funny! They couldn't be cuter if they tried.

Daisy's dance and our cool hike!

Daisy started dance class last week! I think I was more excited than she was! She did so great, didn't yell at her teacher or cry, and did everything she was supposed to do! The 3 year old class just killed me with cuteness! She got to hold a tiny teddy bear for her dance, I just love it!

Last Saturday we went on a family hike up to Stewart Falls (by Sundance) and it was very beautiful! A little bit on the hard side, especially having to carry Daisy and our backpack for a lot of it, but it was still awesome!

There is a cool amphitheater at the base the kids call the "fortess" they love to play around.

We had so many great views along the hike!

I'm glad there were a couple places to have a rest, though!

2 miles each way, with lots of ups and downs, but we made it!

We were up on the cliff looking at the waterfall, but Ken and Mia went down a super steep way to get to the bottom. Pretty scary!

Lucy found a fuzzy friend up there. It is pretty cute for a crawly thing!

Boyd

I signed up Boyd for soccer this year. It's been pretty good for him, I think. It's something brand new that he wouldn't normally be into, but he's been so good to try it. Overall he likes it, with just a couple of times of getting upset. He's starting to get a little confidence. Tonight at his game, he kicked it a few times (his first game he didn't touch it once), he likes being the goalie or defender, but not so much getting in the crowd of kids. I'm not sure if we'll do soccer again, but I'm very proud of him for giving it a chance!

Last night for our family night we had a picnic at a park just a little up Payson canyon. At the camp spot we noticed how trashy it was right there. There were a hundred cigarette butts, empty cans, tons of trash, and worst of all the people left a fire in the pit (I'm pretty sure there wasn't supposed to be any fire at all). So, we cleaned up that small area, just filling up the bag and empty pizza box with trash, and poured water over the fire. We had a short walk around and it was really nice! Beautiful weather and the leaves are all ready changing up the canyon.

Every new school year, I get super worried about Boyd getting used to school and all the changes. He just keeps getting better and better with everything, just has a few hang ups here and there. Today after school we sat down to do homework and he finished the math page no problem, reading time great, but he would NOT write his sentences and spelling words! He cried and whined and fought with me for over an hour. I was threatening and getting mad and finally asked him what will make this easier... neither of us were happy and I hate being the meanie. He said he was just too upset, his sisters are loud and he needed help to calm down. Just last night Ken put on an Enya song in the car and he loved it. So,I got the idea to put headphones with Enya, and not a second later he wrote all of his spelling words and sentences and was done in under 5 minutes! He smiled and said, "Thank you mom, I feel happy again." Good ol' Enya, I could just kiss her on the lips and thank her for saving me so many, many times! I haven't  thought about Enya for a really long time because he hasn't really needed it.

When Boyd was little and going through the worst of his autism troubles, nothing in the whole world could calm him down! We tried everything under the sun and somehow we discovered the magic of Enya music was the only thing that could stop his huge, crazy, tantrum fits. It was complete hell being so frustrated about every single thing in life for several years. Boyd would immediately stop screaming, let one of us pick him up and rock him to sleep. His whole body would just melt like butter, his eyes sort of glaze over and he was completely still for a good hour!
This one was his favorite he called it "Hi-Yah!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6jPGleYH6E

First day of school!

Yesterday the kids were ready to go 30 mins before it was time. They were pretty excited to get going. We were so glad to meet the new teachers on Monday. Boyd told his teacher she has cute hair.

I never did get a normal smile out of Boyd, he wanted to be silly and then go to school, nothing else. Okay then, good thing he's still a little cutie.

It was very weird having only Daisy home with me. What a quiet, chill sort of day we had. We better find something more to do everyday! Daisy is such an angel at home with me, but out in public she's such a rude child if anyone tries to talk to her she yells no, or whines and refuses to even smile or talk. I'm seriously hoping she'll get past that phase once she gets used to preschool in a couple weeks.

After school, the report was "Good!" I didn't get much else out of Boyd and Lucy, but they seemed to have a good day and the school year should turn out well! (crossing fingers)