Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a very busy day. We started out with our traditional breakfast of ziplock omelets at Aunt Lauralyn's house. It was just as tasty as always and lots of fun to visit and play with cousins that we only see twice a year. I think it's funny how the kids can pick up right were they left off playing last time and always have a good time together. Maddie, Jeni and cousin Madie really enjoyed having Bob swing them in the hammock.
The very low hanging hammock! Looks like fun to me!
Later on we went over to the Bountiful Cemetery with Steve and Sarah to visit Grandma Laura's grave. We had a few flowers and some pictures the girls had drawn that we left.I loved this picture that Jeni drew for Grandma. The picture is of Grandma Laura holding Jeni when she was 6 months old. It has been hanging on our fridge for a long time so Jeni took it down and drew a picture of it to leave at the grave site.Then we went over to Arlene's grave where the girls left more flowers and the pictures they had drawn for Grandma Moultrie. We admired the newly placed granite slab that had been put over the plots (while we wondered how they will put a far-off-in-the-future casket, or four, underneath it?) and we admired the beautiful temporary plaque that Dave made. The girls carefully spread flower petals that had fallen from the snowballs that Dee left all over the granite and then the kids played chase for a while. I wondered if that was appropriate but yet I'm sure if Arlene could see the kids she would want to see them running and playing instead of moping and crying. All though, after a while I did gathered the kids up and we made our way back to the car and let Bob have a few minutes alone with his mom.
Sometimes I enjoy walking around a cemetery. It's fun to see how old some of the graves are and to wonder about the lives of those buried there. Most of them where men and women who lived and loved, worked and played, celebrated and struggled and sometimes made the ulitmate sacrifice for our freedoms. What were they like? What is the history hiding underneath those headstones? It's always heart wrenching to see the graves of people who died way too young, especially babies, but it's tempered a little bit when you see how long most of the people buried there lived. Cemeteries can be interesting places to go.

After we finished at the cemetery we went swimming at the rec. center with Steve and Sarah for a while and then we finished off the day with a nice barbecue over at the Moultrie's. All in all it was a very nice day.

The Moultrie Family Flag

Nathan has been talking about the "Joy of Family Security, Identity and Pride" in Joy School these last couple of weeks. As part of the unit it suggests that each family create a "family flag" so that is what we did for Family Home Evening tonight. First we talked about why families are important and then we talked about what to put on our flag as we were eating dinner. We took turns talking about things that are important to our family as well as things we like to do together. After dinner we found pictures of everything and then the kids got busy cutting, taping and writing on our flag. They did most of the work on the flag and when they were done they carried it around while they were singing "It's a Grand Old Flag"!

So without further ado, I would like to present to you the Moultrie Family Flag!!
We started with our family picture centered in two rings that symbolize Bob and I as well as our unending love for each other and the eternal nature of our family. Then we found a picture of Christ because we want to have a Christ-centered home as well as a picture of the Bountiful Temple where Bob and I were married. Then we found a picture of Dart because he's part of the family too, a piggy bank because we are trying "to live life on a budget" as Maddie calls it. There's a trailer because we love to go camping together, pictures of our home full of love - most of the time anyway ;-)! There's a robot because of the Robot Game that the kids love to play with Bob, Friday night sleepover's in Mom & Dad's room, going out for ice cream and going to church together. Nathan wanted the flag to be red so that was his contribution. I'm glad we had some red paper since we did not put milk or bananas on it like he also wanted us to do...

I've been doing Joy School for three years now but this is the first time we've done this activity and I'm really glad we did. It made us stop and think about our family and brought a sense of unity and love to our home. Next week I think we will do another Joy School activity where we make a book with 12 pages and then we go through and list or draw our family traditions that we do each month. I love Joy School!

The Legend of the Rubies of Rosevall

Jeni had her ballet recital last Saturday and she did a great job. The story was cute, it was about a prince (they have one male dancer and he is very good) who is about to be wed but the castle is in disarray because a) there has been a drought that has dried up the streams, flowers, gardens and driven away all the birds, etc. and b) the ruby necklace that his deceased parents left for his betrothed has been stolen! Gasp!! Oh no!! Various pixies and sprites come to the rescue bringing rain showers that restore the ponds, flowers and gardens as well as summoning back all the animals. They also track down the thief in the end - those naughty blue jays... Anyway, it was a really cute show and Jeni did a great job as a goldfish.The kids have all been practicing for several months now
But of course the best part is dressing up in pretty costumes, wearing makeup and the treat they get at the very end after the show is over!
Way to go Jeni, you did a wonderful job!

More Tricycle Rides

So the popular thing to do lately is give Grace a ride on various tricycles. Here are a few more pictures.Maddie had to work pretty hard with her long legs.
The tigger-plane is fun too!
Several people have mentioned seeing pictures of Maddie and Jeni similar to the ones of Nathan and Grace on the tricycle. So here are a couple of pages from a scrapbook of Maddie giving Jeni a ride on the very same tricycle almost 6 years ago.

It's only been 11 years...

...that we have lived here in our home. I've always meant to hang up pictures in the living room and I finally did it today. Yay!! Maybe next I'll finally get around to painting like I've always wanted too - or maybe that will be in another 11 years, I mean why rush things?!We went and had family pictures taken in all our pretty, matching pink wedding clothes and here they are! They turned out really nice.