Fun at the Reef

Since we didn't get done watching kids for the Trek to the Temple until about 5 pm- we decided to spend the night in Billings. The Paynes & us took the kids to the Reef to do a bit of swimming! Fun times!

Everyone took turns on the slides (everyone could ride them this time! Hurray!)

Lilly Pads & Bucket o'Water

Wave pool & Hot Tub

We took a short break and ate pizza together outside. We were chilly!

Glory & Korbin were the very last kids out of the pool when it closed. They did NOT want to leave! LOL

We took our kids to DQ afterwards. What crazy people like to eat cold ice cream when they are wet & chilly??? ;)

We went back to our hotel- showered some people and sat by the firepit outside. What a great day!

Trek to the Temple & Justice 1st Time

Our Stake Presidency has been planning a big Trek to the Temple for this weekend. They scheduled it for a Friday and asked everyone to sacrifice and make the effort to attend. They scheduled all the wards at different times and setup for us to rotate and watch each others kids at the Stake Center after our time in the Temple.
We decided to get up early Friday morning (Brett took the day off & we kept the kids home from school) and head down to the Billings Temple in time to make it there by 11:30. We even drove through the clouds to get there. LOL

It was an extra special experience for our family because it happened to be Justice's 1st time inside the Temple. Since he turned 12, he was able to participate in the Baptisms for the Dead. Brian Payne was the Bishopric member in charge of our youth group so he pulled some strings so that Brett & I could be there with Justice & Liberty. How neat! I can't tell you how amazing it is to watch your kids make righteous choices and to be able to be there to watch them in the Temple. There's nothing like it! It turned out that 23 of our Youth came to participate in the Temple. Wow! {The youth groups before and after us only had 3 to 6 kids) It made it so it was a lot of waiting but so inspiring that so many would make the effort to come!

What a beautiful day at the Temple!

It was the 1st time for all three of these boys- TJ Smith (Fife's boy), Justice Seamons & Caleb Tubbs

So glad we could be there for Justice's 1st time!

It also turned out to be Jada Pierson's 1st time. Her family couldn't come down so we drove her down with us. This is the 2nd time that Liberty has been able to be there with her friends on their first trip to the Temple. SO special!

So fun to be at the Temple together & with friends! Can't wait until Victoria & Glory can join us.

P.S. There was a mis-communication about child care so we ended up leaving the girls & the Payne kids together at the Church without people to watch them. (The group of youth that was supposed to watch our kids got dropped off at the wrong Church building.) They eventually worked it out but we have some pretty awesome kids that would look out for each other while we were gone.

SIDENOTE: We calculated. It will be cutting it close but there is a slight chance that we will ALL be able to go to the Temple the 1st time that Glory can go. But Liberty will turn 19 a couple months before that. There is a chance that she would already be gone on a Mission before Glory turns 12. The next year Justice would turn 18 and then leave on his mission & be gone for 2 years. We're hoping that Liberty's mission call comes after June 2020 or it won't be until 2023 that our whole family could go to the Temple together. Oh trickiness of timing!

Family Prayer stack

On most nights-- Brett will find someone on his back for Family Prayers. Tonight everyone wanted in on the action! Silly kids!

Early Morning Bel-Av-Vis-Ex

Since September 25th, Liberty has been volunteering every school morning to participate in this program called Bal-A-Vis-X. She does it with her friend, Mikal under the direction Mr. Predmore. They help younger students do these special exercises each morning to "wake up" their brain.

Bal-A-Vis-X is a series of Balance/Auditory/Vision eXercises, of varied complexity, all of which are deeply rooted in rhythm. Bal-A-Vis-X requires focsued attention, demands cooperation, promotes self-challenge,  and fosters peer teaching. It is school friendly and just plain fun!

Liberty decided to make it her Good Works Project for Young Womens. She has volunteered over 12 hours of her time so far. Way to go, Sis!

Memorial Day BBQ on Faith Lane

Can I just say... I love having a home where we can have people over!!!!
We decided to throw a Memorial Day BBQ and have some friends over. It turned out to be quite the crowd! We were lucky enough to have the Posts, Fifes, Paynes, Earls, Tubbs, Ochsenbeins, Weavers, and Prescotts over to party with us! The skies threatened for a few moments before the guests arrived but then it was like a hot Summer Day! Love it!
My favorite thing about hosting is the fact that I don't have to make anything extravagant but always end up having a glorious meal! People are always welcome when they bring food! ;) We started up the fire pit and Brett turned on the Grill. We had tons of sides and even home-made ice cream! Awesome!

We are in love with our backyard. We had basketball games, trampoline fun, bug catching, visiting and kids even enjoyed the basement. It was really a perfect day! So glad our friends could spend time with us! We have so much to be grateful for. Happy Memorial Day!

We were all in love with my neighbors little girl. She was a up-ity "cheeser" at everyone but if we laughed at her too much- she would get pipping mad! It was so darling! love her!

Seamons' Basketball Court

It has been a huge and expensive project that has taken several weeks but we officially now have a Seamons' basketball court in our yard! Here's the process we went through.

We debated for several weeks over where to put it. We measured, marked it with flags and moved them all a couple of times before we made a final decision.

While we got it excavated and leveled, we also brought in 6 truckloads of dirt to even out our backyard a bit.

Then it was time to find someone to do the concrete. We called several people and ended up going with the guys who did our basement floor. We were going to do a lot of the work ourselves and then have them just come back and pour the concrete. But we finally decided that it was too big of a project to experiment on so we let them do the whole thing. They first came and framed it up:

Next they brought in gravel for a base and leveled it out:

Here's a closeup of how they framed up the base for the hoop. We had a 4 foot hole to be filled with cement. 

Next they place Re-bar sheets all across the court.

Here's a closeup of the edge. We allowed for an extra 2 inches of concrete on all the edges.

Then came the Cement work.

First the poured the base for the basketball hoop. They stuck it 4 steel poles in the concrete and then placed a metal pad attached to 3 foot base screws onto the top. That hoop isn't going anywhere!!!

They worked in 4 separate sections. They would spray it down first and then pour in the cement. Then all the guys worked together to spread and smooth and level it out.
Corner 1:

Corner 2:

Corner 3:

Corner 4:

They came back later that day and used a machine (that little green thing on the left side of the court) to smooth out the top.

The next day they came and took off all the forms. Whoala! A Basketball court: {We still need to bring in a lot more dirt to slope up to the court but we shoveled a bunch of dirt up against it to cover the gravel areas after the form were off.} For now- it works!

The next week, Brian came and helped Brett & the kids put up the hoop.
{Side story about this hoop: About 12 years ago, Brett & Dixon found this killer deal on commercial grade hoops. It was "too good of a deal to pass up" so they both got one. We have lugged this HUGE, HEAVY bugger everywhere for the last 12 years and through 4 moves. The box has been falling apart the last couple years. I'm actually surprised that we still had all the pieces. But here it is and it's gorgeous!! Only problem is... that how the heck are we ever gonna find a matching one that we can afford for the other side???? LOL}

Justice and Brett figured out how to get the rim and net all hooked up. Then Brett made the final tweeks to the adjustment handle. It's pretty sweet!

We are pleasantly surprised but everyone LOVES it! They are out there all the time playing basketball games (like Lightning), roller blading, and riding their bikes. We're so excited! Good choice, Mom & Dad!!! Next up... Fort, Zipline or grass???? Decisions, decisions!

Decades Dance

Liberty went to her last dance at Montana City School tonight. It was a Decades Dance and she went in a Poodle Skirt.She's such a cute girl! She had a good time!

Here's her with some of her friends:

Broadway Spring Band Concert

Liberty & Justice had their final Band Concert for the Year tonight. It was a Broadway themed night.They did a fantastic job!!!

Liberty did a solo on the piano as prelude music before the concert. She chose to play "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera. She has an amazing talent on the piano! She taught herself the song over the last several weeks. Awesome!

Here's the 6th Grade Band. Justice is on the middle of the back row playing the trumpet.

He also had a speaking part in which his acting skills were exemplary! ;)

Here's Liberty in the 8th Grade Band on the drums.

We had no idea that she was playing piano parts for a couple of the pieces. One talented girl!

Bittersweet that this is their last concert together at Montana City School. They are growing up way too fast!

Liberty's Locks of Love

For part of Liberty's young Woman's goals- she has been doing some research about Locks of Love.

What is Locks of Love?

Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics. Most of the children helped by Locks of Love have lost their hair due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, which has no known cause or cure. The prostheses we provide help to restore their self-esteem and their confidence, enabling them to face the world and their peers.

Liberty made sure she met the guidelines for donating. She found several salons that supposedly participate in the program. We made phone calls to them all. We found out that some did not participate and other charge tons for a haircut. So Liberty decided that she just wanted Mom to cut it for her. We cut off 12 inches!!!!!! Then she packaged it like they instructed and sent it off. What a brave kid!

 Before:

After:

Donated Ponytail:

Victoria's Mentorship

In the Gifted & Talented Program this year, Victoria got to participate in a Mentorship. Each student in the class decided on something they wanted to learn about and did tons of research on it. Next, Mrs. Ferst helped set them up with a Mentor to actually experienced it. Then presented what they learned to their class.
Victoria learned about Oil Painting and then got to meet with Carolyn Caldwell to do a little oil painting herself.

It took some phone tag but we finally set up a time to meet with Vistoria's mentor in her studio downtown. Carolyn Caldwell (a local landscape artist) was very helpful and patient with Victoria. She set up an easel for her, and taught her some basics. Victoria was lucky because Grandpa Randy had sent her home last Summer with her own set of beginning oil paint supplies. We only had to grab a couple things and she was all set up to paint. She did a still life painting of a cube and learned how to mix paints.

Victoria's homework from Carolyn was to make color charts with the colors that she had in her paint stash. It took quite a while to get her motivated but she got them done. They take a lot of work and lots of white paint. But man! they are super cool looking!

Here's the Speech Victoria prepared to share at her class:

Hi I’m Victoria. I did my mentorship on oil painting with Carolyn Caldwell. She’s a local artist that does mostly landscapes and has a studio downtown. She was super nice an way patient with me.

Here’s what I learned: Oil painting is pretty complicated so please listen closely.

Oil Painting takes a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of practice and a lot of equipment.

I’d like to show you some of the equipment you need to just get started in oil painting.

Here’s the EQUIPMENT you need

1.Easel –at eye level when standing up (lots of kinds- Caroyln’s costs about $160) It’s best to stay standing up and step away from your painting a lot for a different perspective

2.Canvas-to paint on (different sizes and thickness) Canvas paper stretched over a piece of wood. Pass around Canvas paper so they can feel what it feels like

3. Palette- For oil Painting it should be flat to mix your paints on

4. Paints- There are tons of colors. It’s good to get a starter pack with some basic colors and you always need lots of white!!

5. You for sure need a palette knife. It’s for mixing and scraping your colors on your pallete. (Show how to scrap)

6. Brushes. So many sizes and types. Hard & soft bristles. Flat & round ends. Just depends on what you want it to look like.

7. With oil painting, you need paint thinner. Preferably the odorless kind so it doesn’t give you a headache. It’s to mix into your paint to make it easier to spread and also is used to clean up the oil paints. Paint Thinner Tin- comes in handy. attaches to the side of the palette

8. Paper Towels- Way handy for oil painting. You’ll need a lot of them to make color charts! (I’ll tell you about those in a minute)

9. Paint Smock or apron to protect your clothing.

Next, you need a SUBJECT

!. Decide what to paint. Still life, landscape, animals, etc

2. Show Cube painting.

I painted this with Carolyn in her studio. (Pass around the photo) It’s a still life. She set up a background with some light and a paper cube for me to paint. We practiced perspective and drew the cube on my canvas with some brown paint. (Don’t use a pencil or pen to draw on the canvas) Then we mixed some black and white paint to get the right shades of grey for my painting.

Now, I’d like to talk to you about COLORS.

With just a few colors you can make any color you need.

Carolyn gave me homework to make my own color charts. (Show)

1. Start with one color. Mix white and make different shades.

2. Mix with another color. Then add white to get different shades.

3. Label everything so that you can make those colors again.

4. These charts help you when you are making paintings and need a specific color.

After all of that- I realized that Oil Painting is way more work than I wanted it to be! Luckily, my Grandpa came to visit for a few weeks. He is a great artist and oil painter. BUT- He brought up a different project for me to do with him. He showed me how to do Acrylic Painting. It can look a lot like oil painting but to me it’s way easier and takes a lot less time.

(Show Painting)- Explain blending on canvas. Drys faster. Less money. Easier to clean up.

In CONCLUSION-

I am really glad that Carolyn taught me about Oil Painting. It was fun to learn about it and I love having my color charts. But I also learned that I really like acrylic painting and hope to do more of that in the future!

Victoria also got to give her presentation to her own 3rd grade class. I got to go and see her present. Good job, Sis!