Birthday Sunday at the Davis'

After the Sunday morning session of Conference, most of the Seamons' family came up to the Davis' for a Birthday Sunday Lunch. We got to celebrate Alex, Dixon and Brett's birthdays! Yeah! We haven't been to a birthday Sunday for years.
Cheri made the most amazing dinner! Lemon butter Chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, salad, mandarin oranges with bananas, home-made rolls, home-made cheese cake and apple crisp! Holy moly! Who is this woman??? LOL And the boys even made home-made sushi. Delish!!! AWEsOME!!

It was a short visit but so fun to see everyone. So glad that they could make the trip to let us see them! Luv you guys! XOXO

GNO with Seamons' girls

I'm always jealous that Shelly takes fun pictures of her family GNOs. So this time, I made the girls pose for some pictures. I luv these ladies! Here's a few of my favorites! LOL

"She did it!!"

In honor of Jake

Gorgeous Seamons Ladies

While the boys are away, the girls will play!

While the guys were off to the Priesthood Session, Lori graciously allowed the chaos to continue at her place. The ladies and all the kids had a great time making and eating home-made pizzas, visiting, playing inside & out and picking veggies from Lori's garden. What a fun evening! Thanks Lori!

Priesthood Session with Dad

It's been forever since Brett got to attend a Priesthood session with his Dad. Tonight, he finally got to! Yeah! Here's the menfolk heading out for he night! Silly Rasmussen boys! LOL

They grabbed a bite to eat afterwards. Fun times!

I Hope they Call Me on a Mission

We had the opportunity to be at the Rasmussen's home this afternoon to watch Jake open his Mission Call. So cool! He had tons of people there to support him. I think he had more people in that room then I had at my Wedding reception. LOL

He has been called to serve in the San Antonio, TX mission. We are very proud of him. The Rasmussen boys are such great examples to our kids. We just adore them! Congrats, Jake! I mean, Elder!

*Shay actually guessed Texas. Wahoo! Go me!

Hugging Lou (Dad)

Checking out the map!

Lunch at the Crumps

We had a pretty full weekend but some of the Crump family made time to meet us at Grandpa & Grammy Crump's for a quick, late lunch. It was way fun to see everyone and the food was awesome! Thanks for hanging out with us, guys!

General Conference Oct 2013

It was fun to be in UT for General Conference Weekend. We haven't had the chance to watch General Conference on TV for around 9 years! Oh the things we take for granted sometimes! It was a great morning. We got to hang out with the Davis' family, braid the little girls hair and be filled with the Spirit of the amazing messages from the voice of the Lord's servants. It was a lot of fun!

Part of the reason we decided to go down for the whole weekend was because Aunt Shauna offered to take the nieces and nephews that were eight and older to a session of General Conference in the Conference Center. How cool is that? She ended up having 8 of them go with her. She ended up with Alex, his girlfriend, Laura, Jake, Anna, Chandler, Ethan, Liberty & Justice. So fun! What a special experience for them.

While some waited in their seats, a few took a short tour of the Conference Center. I love all the pictures they took! Justice and Ethan are great friends. They are so excited to be together when we come to UT.

After the morning session of Conference, Shauna took the Conference Crew to The Roof for lunch. What an awesome aunt she is! Thanks Shauna for taking them!

P.S. What are the chances?! At the Roof, the kids ran into our good friends, the Stephens from Fargo! Turns out that they came down for the game & Conference & lunch at the Roof as well! Isn't that crazy? Too bad the parents didn't get to see each other- but the kids were way excited! Miss you guys!

Touching the Logan, UT Temple

I couldn't stand the fact of making a trip to UT and not touching a Temple that we haven't before. I mean seriously... we are lame if we can't make it to at least one! LOL (especially because we drive by at least 10 of them on our family travels to UT)
So Brett let us quickly make a stop at the Logan UT Temple. I love all the Temples! They are so beautiful. Yeah for an addition to our Touching Temple List!

Aggies vs. the Cougars

When Brett found out that BYU was playing Utah State in Logan, he started making plans on how to get there! He called his Dad and his brother-in-laws and invited them to join him. Because it was Conference weekend- Brett wanted the whole family to make a weekend of it with a trip to UT. It seemed like it was going to be A LOT of driving for a very little amount of time but it turned out to be way fun! Let me tell you- a 6 1/2 hour drive beats the Fargo to UT 20 hours ANY DAY of the week! LOL

We took off Friday morning to drop Brett & Justice off in Logan. Some of the boys men met at the A&W on Main in Logan for dinner before the game.

Good job, Shay for taking a picture of the restaurant since there was no pics taken at dinner

The girls continued the drive down to the Davis' while the Football Gang bundled up for a chilly night at the Stadium.
They had a great time! Especially because for most of the group- they were cheering for either team! That's the joy of being BYU fans that attended USU. ;)

 What a fun GUYS Night Out!

Walk to School Day

All the schools here have the Tiger Mascot!

"Children, parents,school and local officials walking and riding bikes to school together on a designated day. It's an energizing event reminding everyone of the simple joys of walking and biking to school. WHY: The health benefits of regular daily activity and the sense of safety and community that comes with being out together. Many of us realize that what we really want is for children to be able to walk and bike to school everyday in a safe, friendly, healthy community. When you and your child arrive at the designated crosswalk, a school staff member will greet you with a ticket for a drawing and invite you to a free breakfast at the School Cafeteria. Please come and participate with the
"Walk to School Day" activity."



We got the chance to walk (not from home but from where we left our cars) to school with the kids today. Brett walked with Justice and Victoria. Mom walked with Glory. Then we both joined them for breakfast. It was a fun morning!

At breakfast, we found Glory's best school friend, Aliana so we all got to eat together.
 In this picture Aliana looks exactly like our Fargo friend, Elle Frienderichs. They could be twins!

Staggering Ox GDO

I've been lucky enough to be invited and attend several GDOs (Girl's Days Out) lately. I'm so lucky to have met Allie and spend time with her ward girls.
Today, we went to the Staggering Ox for lunch. Such a fun place to eat. They serve these interesting sandwiches that they hallow out and put your ingredients inside. It was way good food.
It was also fun to get to know some more ladies. We ended up with 12 woman. Everyone wants to make it a regular thing so hopefully they'll keep inviting me. ;)

Here's one part of the Staggering Ox Menu. Yum!

Allie and I also stopped by Ben Franklin Crafts to check it out. There used to be one of these in North Fargo. But it was sort of like a D.I. Craft store (bins of products on the floor and not very clean)- pretty much a hole in the wall shop. It almost made me NOT want to check this one out. But here in Helena--- It's like a Michael's Arts & Crafts on Pottery Barn steroids! ;) So fun and fancy! The fabric section... FABULOUS!!! I ended up finding this super cute line of Owl Fabric. So darling! Maybe it will help me find my Craft Mojo cuz I'm pretty sure that I left it in Fargo.

Nested Owls by ADORNit girls

Sunday Walk: Ten Mile Creek

For our Sunday walk this week, we took the Payne Family with us up to the Ten Mile Creek Picnic Area. We wanted to make sure we checked out the changing leaves before they are all gone. It's not quite Sardine Canyon (due to the fact that Helena is made up mostly of evergreens) but it was gorgeous! It was a perfect, chilly, Fall evening to enjoy God's creations. Beautiful!

As Justice as our guide (ok.. it was really Mom because he kept taking us the wrong way), we took everyone on the same hike we did for his fieldtrip. It's an easy little hike but through some gorgeous trees. We may have to try out the longer trail another day. 

With all the trees, we thought it would be fun to have the kids "hide" in the trees for a picture. It turned out pretty neat! Can you find all 7 kids?

I think most everyone's favorite part of the night [especially the Dads] was throwing rocks into the creek. LOL Let's just say that more than one person came home wet! ;)

We also spent the evening taking the Payne's Family pictures [they turned out so CUTE! I'm trying to be brave and start taking pictures of other people's families] and checking out the Moose Creek Campground down the street. We have big plans to both buy Pop-up trailers next Summer and doing some camping. This would be the perfect place! Thanks to our friends for joining us for a fun Fall night!

Relief Society Broadcast

Date night with the Payne's was to the Montana City Grill & Saloon. A little expensive but way yummy food! And so fun to have started a little tradition of going out with Brian and Allie. We love hanging out with them.


After dinner, the ladies left the men to pay the bill while we headed to the Church for the annual Relief Society Broadcast. We made it there a little late but I'm so glad we went. There is something about getting together with the women of the Church. And actually getting to sit and listen (who can do that at home with children or hubbys in the mix?) to a Prophet's voice. We also got to stay after and visit with some new friends over Ice Cream and brownies. What could be better?

A few things that really spoke to me this time were:
1- People need People! Being baptized means that I have covenanted to reach out to others and be an answer to prayers. I need to ask myself- Who needs me today that I could share God's love with?
2- I need to PREPARE to take the Sacrament each week.
   *Review my week
   *Repent of wrong doings
   *Pray to be prepared to be washed cleaned through Christ
3- The Lord allows us to be tried and tested. Even if we feel like we are being burned to the ground- God will not leave me in the ashes. He is building me in a beautiful temple! "After much tribulations comes the blessing"
4- Did you think to PRAY?  Prayer is one of the most powerful tools God has given me IF I choose to use it!

Helena Outdoor Fest

While Brett took Liberty to Billings with the Youth group, I took the younger kids to the Helena Outdoor Fest.  It was held out by Spring Meadow Lake. We only made it for the last hour because the kids didn't really want to go. But I dragged them away from their electronics anyways! ;)
It turned out to be a bummer that we went so late because once we got there we realized they had some really fun things to do. Next year, we'll go on time and try out the rafting, kayaking and the kid's Ranger Station.

But... this year, we got to try out a few neat things!

Our first stop was at the Bear Safety Exhibit. They had tons of things to see and do. We got to fill out a Bear Safety Sheet by visiting "bad" campsites and "good" campsites, a non-safe backyard, and checking out a couple bear hides.
They also had a Bear Olympics but we wanted to try a few other things out before they shut down. By the time we finished everything else- we missed it. We'll have to add that to next year's list as well.
Justice also got to become a certified Bear Sprayer. It's like pepper spray for bears. The kids learn to spray the can. Then the people send a fake bear screaming down a track at you going at a very high speed. As it gets close- you spray him!!! It's pretty freaky but a fun thing for the kid's to try!

As a reward for filling out the Bear Safety Sheet, all the kids got a poster to take home. Later on in the day, they spent an hour playing "I Spy" with their posters. Too cute!

 Next, Justice tried out the Archery Station. You had to be at least 9 years old. He liked it but said he needs some practice! ;)

While Justice did archery, I took the girls down to the lake to do a little fishing! They would have liked to actually catch something but it was mostly just to practice casting and holding the pole. Brett will have to bring them back sometime, for sure!

Unfortunately, once Justice finished Archery and we walked around the lake to check out some other things, everyone was cleaning up their stations. Dang! We did get to take some supplies home to do the Leave Art Project. Which made Victoria one happy girl! On our way back to the van, we collected all kinds of leaves to make our Fall Wind Chime? (You can see finished ones in the left top corner of the collage)

Flag Football

Since we moved into the area at the end of the Summer, Justice missed the chance to sign up for football with his age group. Bummer! 

Brett did however manage to get him on a flag football team with the fourth graders. The coaches were not that experienced with kids so it's been a rough season. (on more than one occasion, Justice had to ask them to watch their language. What a brave, good example kid!;) But it's been a growing season as well.

Justice is usually a defensive player. He loves the game! You'll find him often outside practicing catching with his Dad. He loves the roughness of tackling or grabbing flags and the thrill of catching and running for a touchdown. 

This season however, he got the chance to play Quarterback. It's not his thing at all but he stepped it up! He's quite the leader and a quick learner. He worked hard practicing plays and strengthening his throwing arm. It's been a great experience for him that he may have not otherwise ever tried.

Way to go, Justice! We are very proud of you!

1st MT Youth Temple Trip

Brett and Liberty had the chance to go with the Youth Group to the Billings MT Temple for Baptisms for the Dead today. They had to leave Helena at 5:45 am. Ouch!

Despite a few little mis-communications about the times, they had a great time! One of the youth that just got the Melchizedek Priesthood did all the baptisms. It was pretty special. 

After the temple, they fed the youth lunch before heading home. Liberty got a special treat when her car load decided to go to Cafe Rio for lunch. Yum!

We are really lucky to have such a great youth group here in Helena.