FHE

Yes, Rian is playing dress up and totally posing for the picture :)

In our Church we do something called Family Home Evening (FHE). It's usually done every Monday night and it is an opportunity to spend time together as a family and enjoy one another. Many times we use it to learn a lesson or gospel principle and have an activity and treat, but sometimes we can take that opportunity to do other fun things like go bowling or something, as long as it is done as a family.

So tonight, I had the lesson. Rian is OBSESSED with marriage, brides, wedding dresses, etc. She has been asking to watch our wedding DVD. So I thought I could incorporate that into my lesson on temple marriage. We were telling Rian that not everybody gets married in the temple. And the difference between a temple marriage and a civil marriage. If a couple is married in the temple, they are married for now and forever. But in a civil marriage, they are married for this life only, once they die, they are no longer married.

After the lesson, we watched the DVD. When it was over, I asked Rian what she learned tonight. This was her answer: "If you get married in the temple, you will be a family forever. If you don't get married in the temple, you die." Not quite....but at least we got half of it right?! I mean she is only 3 :) Looks like we will be going over this one again tomorrow!

Bowling

Yes, we are all still alive! We've just been busy enjoying our little baby and when he is sleeping, we are either giving Rian tons of attention or spending time together just Matt and me.....oh yeah, or sleeping too!!

But everyone has been begging me to update the blog. I'll start with our fun night out last night. And go backwards from there. Matt is the Scout Master and 1st Counselor in Young Mens at our Church. For the mutual activity this week, they planned a bowling night. Matt invited us to go with! Rian was so excited, if you can't tell from the picture! And Miles was such a good boy!

I loved watching Matt and Rian bowl together! It warmed my heart!

She is my little model! I love her!

Yep, they got a STRIKE!!!

Miles did wake up, but was content in his carseat. Matt scored a 194. Not an all time high, but pretty impressive none-the-less! I think bowling might be our new popular FHE!

Did You Miss Us?!

WE ARE BACK!!! I know you all missed us :) Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Life has been so crazy. Here is a little glimpse of what we have been up to the past 6 weeks. Warning: It's a long post!

Rian has been busy with lots of birthday parties. This is a collage of Joah's party. They roasted a pig, had a blow up waterslide, had a fairy come to paint faces and make balloon animals, had this awesome Yo Gabba Gabba cake, and played lots of games. We had a good time!

My mom flew in at the end of September and the first weekend she was here, we had another b-day party to go to. It was a tea party themed party for Kylie. It was such a cute idea!!! The girls had tea (lemonade) and little cookies and tea sandwiches! After the tea party, it was swim time! Rian had a lot of fun!

The party was at this amazing house!! Not only was the location perfect (right on the beach), but it had the most amazing features. I could seriously live on Guam forever, if I lived here! It was a fun day for all of us and I was excited to finally meet Kylie's parents, who are very cool!

We attended another birthday party the next weekend. Emma, a friend from church, had a Halloween themed party. This was also a very cute party! All the kids had fun painting pumpkins and making caramel apples! I loved how Rian ate her ice cream after dinner. It was so frozen, she stabbed it with her fork and picked the entire scoop up.

Next up was Halloween. We went to our Church's Trunk-Or-Treat on Friday, the night before Halloween. We had a potluck dinner and then the little ones played a few games. Then we all went outside and the kids went trick-or-treating from trunk to trunk. Rian was wanted to be a princess, of course, does that really surprise any of you?! Her favorite one at the moment is "Cinderbrella". I just love how she says that :)

On Halloween, I made these mummy hot dogs for lunch. Rian loved them :) Then we went trick-or-treating with the Vines, who are our friends from church. Kenzie dressed up as Dora and it was such a cute idea for a costume. The Vines had a wagon so we could pull the girls around the neighborhood. I loved how 'Dora' ran from door to door, and 'Cinderella' always came back to her Royal Carriage (ie: wagon) and had her dad pull her from door to door. Very typical of each of their personalities!

We met up with more friends from church as we walked around the neighborhood. I just loved this little boy in his superman costume, it was awesome!! As we were walking from door to door, Rian told me "Mom, I just love, love, love Halloween"! What three year old doesn't?! When we finished that neighborhood, we drove over to our other friend's house for a BBQ. I was excited for my mom to get a taste of what the locals and their BBQ's are all about! Rian passed out on the way over to the house. Once we got there, Matt took her trick-or-treating around that neighborhood. There were so many mobs of at least 20-30 kids all over the neighborhood. It was pretty crazy. We left the party at 930 pm and those mobs were still out in full force! I think it's safe to say that Rian had a very, very fun Halloween and the best part is that she seriously has no desire to break into her candy bag. What a good girl!

We took my Mom to Chamorro Village of course! It's a must when you come to island. I was excited to have her get a feel for it and sample a few of the local foods. And of course, Rian's favorite part of Chamorro Village is the carabao ride.

Something we have never done at Chamorro Village is take Rian on the little rides. Bama was happy to let Rian experience them for the first time! Rian loved the rides and then my mom and her played a very silly carnival game. They won a wannabe barbie doll named Julia.

Here are a few random pics. Rian loves to play mommy and we caught her in the nursery rocking her pooh bear and feeding him a bottle. I think she is going to be a great big sister! We got a package in the mail full of these peanuts. Rian loved playing in them. She immediately pretended it was snow. She is constantly telling us that it doesn't snow on Guam, so I think she had fun frolicking in her version of it :) She even made snow angels!

On Veteran's Day, we went to a party with Matt's co-workers and their families. It was a fun day and very nice for Matt to have the day off work. This group of people got together for a softball game. It was fun to watch them play, nothing's better than a fun, competitive softball game!

We also took my Mom to Jeff's Pirate Cove. The view is beautiful and the burger was pretty good too! We will definitely be taking my Dad back here when he comes onto island.

We have also been busy with my Mom exploring the island, swimming, going to the beach, shopping (as much as you can on this island), getting ready for the baby and the baby shower (which was on the 7th), playdates, tumbles, dance class. The time has flown by. I wish it would slow down a little bit...the thought of my mom leaving makes me so sad :(

New Calling Update

Thank you so much for all your wonderful words of wisdom on my last post! I'm grateful for all the encouragement and great ideas. I should have clarified this in my last post, since I have many friend and family who aren't members of my Church and who do not know what a CTR 8 teacher is. Primary in our Church goes basically from ages 3-11. CTR 8 are the kids who have or will be turning 8 yrs old this calendar year. This is such an awesome age in our Church because it is the age that a child is baptized! So basically I will be teaching lessons to 7 and 8 year olds. I am so excited to be working with this age specifically! I have 5 boys in my class and hopefully 2 baptisms next month :)
I'm not sure what I was so worried about honestly. I feel like Sunday went amazingly well! In fact, last minute they combined the CTR 7 and 8 class (the other teacher did not show up to church) and I was very scared to take 8 very rowdy boys and 1 girl on my first day of class, but I stepped up and did it. All I had to do was lay down the law, and they basically behaved from then on. Matt says that primary here is just a little different from stateside; they seem to be very wild here! And that I just need to teach them how and when to be reverent. Easy enough, right?!
The kids are really great and I am already starting to love each one of them. Amazing how quickly that works, huh :) They were participating and pretty interested the whole time, so I feel really confidant!
Matt (who I made stay with my on Sunday, even though I didn't even need him!) said I was a natural! I mean, I have worked with elementary age kids since I was 16 yrs old. He said he was pretty impressed with me, my lesson, and the kids behavior and participation! Last week they were pretty rowdy in class, so I am feeling really good!
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who commented and let you know how I did on my first day of teaching primary!

New Calling

So I had this feeling that I was going to be called as the CTR 8 Teacher, when the Primary Presidency called last week and asked if I could substitute until a new teacher was called. When we were asked to meet with the Branch Pres last Sunday, I knew for sure it was happening. I am so embarrassed to admit this, and I will blame most of it on my pregnancy hormones, but I cried when he called me. I converted to the Church when I was 21 and have never even attend primary, let alone know anything about it. I didn't want to say no to the calling or anything, and I totally accepted the calling without hesitation, however, I was sick to my stomach with nerves and uncertainty.
After attending last Sunday's classes, I feel a little more comfortable with the idea, but I am still really nervous about the whole thing. How do I keep 5 boys interested and engaged in my lesson for an hour? The manual is very helpful, but at the same time, some of the lesson ideas just won't work in our group setting. Anyone have any good websites or ideas on lesson planning? Or just words of wisdom in general?
I haven't held a calling in over a year and I know that is part of why I am so nervous. Ever since Matt graduated and we left Logan, we have been floating from home to home and ward to ward. Now that we are finally settled down for longer than 3 months, and our records are finally in our home ward (or branch in our situation), of course, I am going to get a calling. I know I'm not alone when it comes to getting nervous about a new calling. But I can't help and think that every Sunday these boys' parents are going to ask them after church "what did you learn in primary?" and it is up to me to make sure that they can answer that question. As I type this, though, it doesn't seem like it is that hard of a question to answer or a task for me to deliver. They are basic gospel principles and I know that I will honestly learn a lot from these kiddos and the lessons. I can do this!!! Right?!?! :)

Branch Christmas Party...Island Style

Our Church Branch held a Christmas Party unlike any Church Christmas Party we've been to. I was pretty much in shock when the curtains were parted and the Elders Quorum sat on stage with ukuleles, several different types of drums, and a conga! It was awesome! And something we would never have seen stateside

Pictures from top to bottom, left to right: The Elders Quorum performing.

Ukulele's and Hula Dancers....Rian dancing along in video below :)
The Missionaries sang also. Can you believe how many we have in our Branch?And lastly, the ukulele performers.

Sorry this video is from behind and sideways, but I uploaded it anyways because it is so dang cute. Rian tried to copy all the moves of the Hula Dancers. She did a pretty good job considering she is 2! Everyone around her was getting a kick out of her dancing!

Okay...it was the cutest video ever, but I can't upload it.

CAN ANYONE HELP ME??

The only way I can upload pics or videos now on my blog is by using picasa. Any time I try to upload directly from blogger I get kicked off the Internet completely. What the heck is going on??? Anyone have any ideas? Please help me!

I am trying to upload the video at the moment to youtube so I will post the link when it is done uploading. Nevermind, I can't even upload to youtube. What is going on? It kicks me off whenever I try to browse through My Pictures. The same thing with blogger. Any help is appreciated!!!

Rian's 1st Portrait

Click on the picture to make it easier to view.

In nursery today, Rian learned that Jesus has a mommy too, the Virgin Mary.

After coloring a picture of Jesus and His Mommy, the leaders asked the children to draw a picture of their mommy on the back.

This is what Rian drew! It is so cute, but funny too. She was excited to show us her portrait when we picked her up. When I was scanning this onto the computer, she says, "Look, there's mommy!".

She honestly looks at this picture and knows exactly what she drew. Her mommy :) How dang cute is that, seriously!!