young womens.

i took that picture at a stake youth beach day a few weeks ago.
i thought it was so neat that the youth got to go to the beach as a church activity.
i got to do a lot of neat mutual activities at the lakes and parks around me growing up.
but going to the ocean just seems extra neat to me.
the youth played in the waves, played tug of war, football, frisbee, and flirted.
{oh, the flirting!}
it's cute! but it makes me feel real old.

another fun stake activity we did recently was a modest fashion show.
there is a movie that was made for it. i hope to post a link on here when i get it.
the fashion show was so well done!

i am absolutely loving being around the young women.

the girls are fun, and sweet, and smart.

they make me want to be better.

matt and i are actually both thrilled to have the opportunity to spend time with the youth.
[although, matt probably wouldn't use the word 'thrilled' to describe his feelings. for anything.]

pinterest has actually been super handy for this calling.
despite some of the frustrating fails i have, thanks to pinterest, it really is a good place for ideas.
as the personal progress leader i was in charge of 1 activity/month that encouraged the girls to work on personal progress.
our most recent activity, we made conference journals.
this was the pin:

this was our book:

and we made a watermelon cake for dessert.
this was the pin:

and this was our cake:

the month before, we learned how to conduct music.
and then continued on with the music theme, by playing a routy game of muscial chairs.
to taylor swift songs, of course.
the girls took no pity on me!
i got knocked out first almost every round.
i made conductor wands, in hopes of making leading music more fun.
this pin made me want an excuse to make yarn pom poms:

so i made an excuse:

they were green for 'knowledge'.

the month before we talked about prayer.
i was going to have the girls make prayer rocks to help them pray morning and night.
but i wanted to be more creative.
so we made prayer bracelets.
this was the inspiration:

this is how mine turned out:

the girls are actually wearing the bracelets, which makes it that much better.

here is a group shot of almost all of the young women.

we are small in numbers, but we are big in awesomeness!
[i was going to write 'but we are big in wickedness!' - as in wicked cool, not wicked bad - but it wouldn't sound right!]

chet van gogh.

i have always loved artsy things.

i'm not and outstanding artist - or even an artist, period, for that matter - but i like it.

i took art classes outside of school when i was young. (2D art)

and i took in-school art classes all through high school. (3D art)

i loved it. even if it meant i was in class with a bunch of weirdos.

to this day i can still spend hours coloring in coloring books, painting, or doing crafts.

and i have always looked forward to doing those things with my kids.

unfortunately, chet has never had a ton of interest in artsy things.

so sad.

i always give him opportunities to create, and he takes them.

 but he doesn't get caught up in the joy of it all.

he loses interest pretty fast. or he just wants me to make something, while he watches.
not his thing.
and that's fine.

every week, when we pick chet up from nursery, we laugh as chet's teachers hand us the picture he *didn't* color.

it's like this on-going joke.

sometimes one of the teachers will have colored it for him.

and sometimes, other then his name, it is absolutely blank.

but, either way, chet is always proud of it.

and wants it displayed on our fridge when we get home.

so.. you can only imagine my joy when i found an art medium that chet enjoys!

i made the discovery when a pinterest craft i had found failed miserably.

it appeared to be a simple craft.

[1.squeeze white glue on paper. 2.cover glue with table salt. 3.paint salt with watercolors.]

but it didn't work. at all.

it just wasted a whole lot of salt.

luckily, there are worse things to waste.

and, even though this craft didn't work, i found out that chet likes painting with watercolors.

silver lining!
he ended up painting for hours. [after we cleaned up the salt mess.]

he would request an animal, i would make a lousy outline, and he would paint away.
it was so fun to watch his little brain working.

he was really trying to color in the lines.
and he wanted to choose appropriate colors. [of the 4 color options he had!]

in the end, i loved every one of his 13 paintings.
[yep, we got carried away!]
here are some of them:

[FYI. i didn't help with the painting one bit.]

side note : chet does most things with his left hand, but some things with his right.

i noticed that when he was painting he was using both hands 50/50.

i am curious to see if he will turn out to be a righty or a lefty.

cousins.

cousins were part of our dinner conversation tonight.

they are actually part of many conversations.

if there is one thing chet knows, it is that cousins are super fun.

tonight, matt told chet that he would get to see lots of cousins at christmas.

and chet was really excited about that.

after dinner, we asked chet if he would like to go to the park.

and he replied matter-of-factly, "nooo.. i just want to go to christmas."

umm... well, it's just that...

we are in for a long 3 months.

good call bringing that one up, matt!

but, on a positive note, we have a few months to re-teach chet what christmas is.

for starters, it is not somewhere you go.

matt is 28.

matt turned 28 on sunday.

when i asked him what his feelings on turning 28 were, he said he didn't really care.

boooring.

i suppose it is just a number.. but it's an awfully big one!

that's alright, though. even if he is inching his way dangerously close to 30,
i still think he is as handsome and as loveable as ever.

he is my favorite.

and i enjoyed making a little extra fuss over him for his big day.

he got cards, a couple cakes, and lots of birthday wishes.

we made his birthday 'dinner' while the boys were taking their sunday afternoon nap
so we could enjoy it alone.

 selfish? maybe..

as for actual gifts, matt got none.

he has decided to use all his birthday money when he is in vegas next weekend with his brother,

so he didn't have any gifts to open.

if he wasn't going on a trip, i would feel bad for the lack of wrapping paper.

but, since he is leaving me for 3 days, i don't feel very bad!

thankfully, so that i don't have to be alone while he is away, my mom has planned a spur-of-the-moment trip to cali to keep me company.

i appreciate that. i am excited to see her.
and the day after she leaves my friend cortney is coming into town!
woohoo for visitors.

happy birthday matt.

hope 28 is your best year yet.

yep, we still make tank dress up for every birthday celebration.

 this is the card chet made for matt.

he glued on the balloons and told me what to write inside.

the message is so chet. matt and i were dying laughing.

venice beach.

matt volunteered to help a lady in our ward move on labor day morning.

it was supposed to take 1-2 hours.

it took almost 6.

we should have seen that coming.

we have moved a bunch of times and it always ends up being more work then we expect.

how does that happen?

when matt was done helping, we went ahead with our labor day plans of exploring venice beach.

we had heard it was an interesting place.

and interesting it was, indeed.

i couldn't capture the oddest part in pictures - the boardwalk.

from what we saw, the boardwalk is every type of crazy and every type of creepy,

all gathered together.

although there were other kids there, we did question if we were bad parents for bringing ours!

it felt like a never-ending line of shops - rotating between tacky souvenir stores, tattoo parlors, hotdog stands, and marijuana dealers physicians.

literally.

we ate dinner on the beach next to 100+ hippies dancing around drums.

we caught a glimpse of a real live body building competition at the infamous muscle beach.

we could have played 'is that a boy or a girl?' all day long.

it was madness.

perhaps it was extra busy because it was a holiday?

but busy it was. and loud. and beyond dirty.

but also kinda fascinating. in a strange way.

especially for a family who has spent the last few years in the rexburg bubble.

observing all sorts of alternative lifestyles makes me all the more grateful for mine.

simple. clean. safe. with hope. and love. and a knowledge of who i am. and why i'm here.

i am so grateful for that.

because this world can get kinda crazy. and scary.

and i know i may sound super naive...

the world certainly gets more crazy and scary then the venice boardwalk.

on a monday. in broad daylight.

but i don't even want to know that.

and i don't want my kids to know that either. ever.

once we got away from the boardwalk, venice seemed less odd.

we liked the actual beach. it much less windy then the beaches we have been visiting lately.

we would like to try it out sometime.

the pier was plain, but had a nice view of the coast.

we were at the VERY end of the pier when chet informed us he really needed to go potty.

that was super.

..RUN!

and the neighborhood more inland has nifty little canals running through it. like the real venice.

[not that i know anything about the real venice.]

so ya, our trip to venice beach was fun. [really, it was!]

but, in all honesty, so much as matt didn't have to leave me to go to work it would have been a happy labor day.

holidays are the best.

i'm ready for the next one..

letters.

i found a blog, via pinterest, that shows you how to make the letters of the alphabet into animals/objects [using construction paper], as an aid in teaching kids their letters.

ever since i had my little stress-out over starting preschool, i have been making extra efforts to teach chet more at home.

i figure, if i teach him good things at home, then there is no need to worry about him missing out at preschool this year.

so we started on our letters.

and i can't get over how well chet is doing.

it is fun to watch him learn.

kid are quick learners, huh?

it has really helped him to associate each letter with an animal.

chet has memorized A through J.

[plus he knows any letter after J that he has dubbed as neat - O, S, T].

for the craft, i get all the pieces ready and then chet is in charge of gluing them together.

and coloring when needed.

here are a couple close ups:

one night, when i was away for young womens, matt and chet hung the letters up in the boys' room.

[our fridge was looking too busy..

especially because we have to hang everything up out of holden's reach!]

i know the letters are just construction paper hung on yarn, but i love them.

fun fact:

chet's favorite words to spell are 'LEASING OFFICE'.

because we walk past the leasing office at our complex at least 6 times/day and chet insists on practicing those words every single time!

he rocks at it now.