the never ending project....DONE!!!

Way back sometime last fall, I ran into a friend at Walmart who was telling me that she was going to make a quiet book for her son. I loved the idea and quickly jumped on board with her and we decided we would do it together. We looked on pinterest and got lots of ideas, and then got together and decided on which pages we wanted to do. We decided that we wanted the pages to be really fun, which in all reality turned out to be the most complicated and thickest pages. So needless to say, this turned into what seemed like an never ending project. We started about the middle of November, in hopes of having them finished and give them to the boys for Christmas. Well, Christmas came and went and so we changed our time to finish to Valentine's Day, then Easter, and that didn't happen either. But I decided it had to be done before school got out or it might be one of those projects that gets pushed to be back burner and forgotten. So I finally finished a few days ago! YAY! I am so glad to be done! And a new goal I have for myself.......never, never, EVER make another quiet book! Here is the finished product.



See how ridiculously think it turned out to be?! Crazy!!



And because each page is seriously like a mini masterpiece, yes, I took pictures of all of them! I love the Armor of God page because each piece unsnaps and you can dress the little soldier.



The airport page is pretty fun because not only can you fly the helicopter and little airplane, but the little blue truck has luggage in it that you "drive" over to the big plane and load it up.



Treasure Map page and shapes page.



I'm really in love with how cute the treasure map turned out. And I love the little lock and key that keeps my boy busy.



The Road page is fun too and has little cars to drive all around the neighborhood.



Tool box page. My little man loves tools. And yes, there are more inside the tool box.



This page was a much better idea in theory than in reality. If I had to do it over again, I would probably skip this page or at least use lighter beads. These sports beads are so cute, but too heavy.



Love the beach page.....



......cuz you can build a sand castle!!!



And finally the fishing page, which the kids LOVE!!



The first Sunday we took this to church for John David to play with he was SOOOO LOUD! Hahaha! Help! My quiet book is broken!!!

Pre-Camp Campout

Last night was the Pre-Camp Campout. It was at Claiborne Park and it was a great night for camping....not too hot and a nice little breeze.



Here are the first years learning first aid.



Katie brought her friend Kylie from school.



And my picky eater didn't want a foil dinner, so she cooked some deer sausage for herself and Kylie.





And here's our cute and photogenic Laurels.





After dinner, they did more classes, then smores (cuz you can't have a campout without smores), and then they played sardines in the dark.





It really was a perfect night for camping.



Here are the sleepy heads this morning after staying up til crazy hours in the morning.



It was a great campout. Bring on girls' camp!

The Beehives visit Maw Maw

Tonight the Beehives went to visit Maw Maw.



She talked to the girls about what her life was like growing up, and how her family joined the church. She then shared her testimony with them. It was a great experience for these sweet Beehives.

Houston

We let the girls skip school yesterday and brought them to Houston with us. We dropped Aaron and Katie off at the Bishop's Storehouse to work a few hours, and then I took Sarah and John David over to Mike and Tiffany's house to hang out while they were working. When they were done working, I went and picked them up and brought them back to Mike and Tiffany's house. Katie really enjoyed working in the storehouse. They put her in charge, so she went around telling everyone what they needed to do. That night Katie babysat all the kids while the adults went out to dinner. When we got back, she had everyone in bed asleep. Quite impressive, considering there were six kids 10 and under. Her first service hours to record in her personal progress. Yay!



We got up the next morning and met our ward youth at the temple. John David stayed behind at Mike and Tiffany's to play with the boys. He was in heaven with so many boys and boy toys to play with.



It was a beautiful day at the temple.



We got there a little early, so of course I had to take some pictures of my handsome husband and beautiful girls while we were waiting.











This was Katie's first time going to the temple with the youth of our ward, and I had planned to go inside with them. But the Achievement Day girls had planned to come too, and they were a little behind the rest of the group. The youth needed to go inside to be on time for their appointment, so I had to stay outside with Sarah while we waited for the Achievement Day girls to get there. I was a little bummed, but at least I had been there with Katie on her very first time in the temple in Birmingham a few weeks earlier. So, Sarah and I walked around and took more pictures while we waited.







When Sister Graves arrived with the girls, they watched a video about the importance of the temple.



After discussing the video, we walked around and took some group pictures.



Silly girls!



Then the youth came out. Here's our beautiful young women that were there that day.



Katie sat down with the Achievement Day girls and talked to them about her experience doing baptisms. It was pretty neat.



Then....more pictures.





It was a beautiful day!

13 years later

Today we celebrated our 13th anniversary. Aaron gave me this awesome card that says, "For the One I Love.....The moment I saw you, I knew we'd fall desperately in love, get married, have kids....



......and drive each other crazy for the rest of our lives." It made me laugh so hard.



I know we do make each other crazy at times. I think that's pretty normal. But I sure don't know what I'd do without him. He keeps me laughing and makes me smile, even on the hard days.



Thanks for a beautiful beginning to our eternity Aaron! I love you more and more everyday!

Sunday Evening Drive

We have enjoyed this beautiful Sabbath Day hanging out together at home and watching General Conference. It has been such a blessing to listen to our amazing and inspired church leaders and feel the peace that their words of counsel bring. One of my favorite quotes of this conference (which may have something to do with the fact that we are celebrating our 13th anniversary today) was from L. Whitney Clayton. He said, "Marriage is a gift from God. The quality of our marriages is a gift from us to God." I just love! After the session this afternoon, we decided to go on a little Sunday evening drive down to Choupique Bayou, which is the setting to the "Ted & Linda Lou" stories that Aaron makes up and tells to the kids. We used to drive down there more often when the kids were younger and Aaron would tell them to look carefully to see if they could see Ted or Linda Lou. It was a beautiful evening and I couldn't help but think of how much our Heavenly Father loves us as we admired the beautiful things he created for us to enjoy.









Then Katie got the camera and started taking pictures, and this is what I found on my camera when I got it back.







Silly girls. And John David didn't want to be left out of the picture taking, so here is the picture he took.



I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heavenly Father created for me!