Brandt, Kylie, and I rode to Cokeville with my parents to watch Rylie play football.  Kylie and Kenzie had fun playing together and Brandt had fun playing on the playground.

No Training Wheels!!

Buddy has attempted to take the training wheels off his bike a few times over the past couple years, but he always ended up getting too nervous to ride without them and Bryce would have to put them back on for him.  It has bothered him more lately that he still has training wheels since other kids his age don't and he asked Shaun to help him out with it at their counseling session this week.  He helped his dad take them off and then was off and riding without ever crashing even one time.  It has been such a blessing to see him overcome so many of his fears!

The kids and I attended a celebration for the Paris tabernacle the past couple days and then Brandt helped write his own talk for primary today:
"I got to go to the celebration at the tabernacle.  I liked hearing stories about my ancestors.  We got to go on a wagon ride and see the first houses built in Paris.  I liked the story about the grasshoppers that were eating all the corn and food in Laketown.  The people prayed and Heavenly Father blessed them with a big wind that blowed the grasshoppers into the lake.  I liked the candy cannon and carrying apples under my chin.  I'm thankful for my ancestors and we should always remember them."
We went to a program Friday night and then an all day celebration yesterday.  There were all kinds of pioneer games and stories at stations done by each ward's primary.  There were log sawing contests, a beard growing contest, wax candle making, horseshoe nail ring making (by Billy Gay), horse drawn wagon rides, dinner, and more.  Jolie and Bridger spent most of the day with us and then Maleri met us for the dinner and the street dance (that ended up being in the school gym because it was cold outside) afterward.  Brandt was the one who had the most fun and was the most attentive to the program and all the stories.  He danced his little heart out with his friend McKenna Johnson and had the best time.

It's been a couple years since we've had a garden, and despite our busy schedules, I was determined to have one this year.  My dad and Bryce were a huge help in putting the perfect little garden spot together in the back corner of our yard.  Bryce built a miniature fence around it using some of the old posts that have bordered my grandparents' property (which is now ours) for years but they were starting to rot away and would no longer work to keep the horses in.  I love that he was able to find a way to incorporate the history I love into something beautiful as well as useful.  The kids and I had a great time working (and playing) in our garden this summer.  We left space in the front corner of the garden for Brandt and Kylie to use as their own dirt pile to dig and play in.  The kids and I enjoyed watching our plants grow.  Of course the best part was harvesting and then eating our yummy veggies.  Unfortunately we got a late start in planting and our melons didn't get big enough to eat, but we loved eating everything else.

This was a big year for canning because we were all getting low on our food storage items.  So we got together at mom's house a couple times and got a ton of soup, salsa, spaghetti sauce, Italian tomatoes, and marinade sauce bottled.  Since Maleri lives so close now she came and so did Jana, so we had a pretty good crew.  Dad even joined in on the fun and added a little speed to the process by using his power tools.  The kids had a great time playing of course.  At one point Brandt disappeared and didn't answer immediately like he's supposed to when we call for him.  When he finally hollered back we found that he was on top of grandpa's hay stack out in the hay shed.  Somehow he had scaled the huge round bales that were stacked 3 high to get up there.  It took me and my dad to talk him into coming down and to get him to stop running back and forth across the top of the bales.  When he did come down we had a good talk with him about the dangers of falling down between the bales.  I then told him the story of when I was younger and staying down at my Grandma Bodily's.  My cousin Kent, who was my best friend down there, was up on top of their hay stack and was accidentally knocked off.  It was super scary!  While he had some injuries it definitely wasn't as bad as it should have been. I still remember my uncle Steven and Bishop Hall giving him a priesthood blessing in Grandma's little TV room after he got home from the hospital.  It is one of the first times that I really remember feeling the spirit and it strengthened my testimony of the priesthood. One funny thing about Brandt getting in trouble for climbing on the hay stack was that Jana said of Amanda that she knew better than to do that because she had talked to her about it ahead of time and told her never to do that.  Later on we found out the truth when Amanda said she'd tried to follow Brandt up but it was too hard and she couldn't do it.