Happy Birthday, President Monson!

Isaac likes to make the recipe in the Friend magazine each month. In August, in honor of President Monson's birthday on the 21st, they published a recipe for birthday cake his mother used to make for him as a little boy. We decided to try it out! Isaac was so proud to share it with our family. He's such a sweetie.

Band Begins

Marching Band season began the last week of July with Band Camp. These amazing kids spent hours out in the terrible heat, learning how to march on the field, how to play the new music, and how to do both at the same time.

The Band Boosters served breakfast and dinner each day. The kids are always so grateful for every little thing the boosters do for them, and express it often!

The weekend before school started, the band got to relax a little at the bowling alley. The Bowl-a-Thon is such a great fundraiser.

The first football game of the season is a chance to show off what they have learned so far. No uniforms yet, but still lots of spirit!

Spencer and Kylie are both in the pit this year; both are playing keyboard, too.

As an incoming freshman, Noah was given the spot of 3rd Bass.

It's so fun to watch the energy of the drumline!

Go Noah!

Go Spencer!

We love to come to the football games as a family and watch (some of us are more interested in the band; some in the football game itself. Guess who?). Isaac was super excited to catch two Sonic footballs at one game so he could make huge muscles!

Reach Out to Rescue

The fabulous Niki suggested the theme for this year's stake activity day. She combined the stake theme "Reach Out to Rescue" with the 100th birthday of the state of Arizona and came up with: cowgirls! It was amazingly adorable and the classes all revolved around the concept of reaching out to others. In one class, Sister Olds spoke about keeping our baptismal covenants and being one (B-1) with each other.

They made these cool magnet boards for their rooms to help them remember to B-1.

Another class, taught by Alan and Tiesha Nesbit, was how to reach out to those around you.

They did little role-plays about walking in someone else's shoes.

The girls learned that you never know what someone else is going through until you reach out and be a friend.

"Rope 'em" was the name of the class where Cherise Halliday taught the girls fun ways to do their hair and how to reach out to a friend and do their hair, too. 

Kambi Strong taught the girls to say, "Come join us, pardner!" as they learned some super fun games that can be played as a group. They had a riot!

That afternoon, the girls had invited either their mothers or another special guest to join us for lunch. The menu was Cafe Rio chicken salad in a taco bowl and was a huge hit!

Bishop Cowgur had provided us with these incredible ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen to celebrate the day.

They were frozen solid and President McClellan valiantly stepped forward to help cut the servings. We just giggled when he got up to speak to the girls and had blue lips from licking his fingers!

The girls sang "I'm an Arizona star" and then it was all over.

What a great day! I'm so beyond blessed to work with these hard-working cowgirls! Love you MaryAnn and Niki.

Scrimmage

Jacob has begged us for years to play tackle football. I have always been so worried and thought I could put him off until at least Junior High. But this year he ramped up his supporting arguments, even saying that it was the ONLY thing he wanted for his birthday. We agreed to give it a try. What an investment it has been! Besides the fees and equipment we've had to pay for, they started 5-a-week practices the end of July. Two hours every night (in 115 degrees) hasn't even fazed Jacob at all. When other kids are crying and throwing up, Jacob is grinning and ready to go again. He never complains. He loves it. LOVES it. Every minute.

Their scrimmage game was on Aug. 18th. His practice jersey is #30. Watch how he is ready...

and set...

and INTERCEPTION!!

He just has a mind for the game. He can see plays coming and where the action will be. The coaches have recognized that skill and place him just where he needs to be to make those catches and interceptions. He's a great defender! More on the season later...

Amazing Jake

Jacob turned 11 this year! He wanted so badly to have his party at Amazing Jake's but we told him he could only invite 3 friends. He chose carefully! We spent the day with Emilio, Tucker, and Cayden.

You can never go wrong giving Jacob a football.

He also received his new BOY scout gear. This leaves us with a little gap where we will have no cub scout in our family for about 18 months.

Although we knew Amazing Jake's would provide all-you-can-eat food and desserts, Jacob requested cupcakes with vanilla wafers on top.

The boys spent the day as a group going from attraction to attraction. Here they wait in line for their first laser tag of the day.

When they rode the Frog Hopper, Jacob was stranded on the other side of a group of girls. He was embarrassed and we laughed and laughed.

Playing games was fun, too. Emilio scored on this one!

Then mini golf,

race cars,

and rock climbing.

Jacob didn't want his family anywhere near his group of friends but we had fun anyway.

Noah was so sweet to hang out with Isaac.

The most fun they had was with Jeremy on the bumper cars. Hysterical!

Meanwhile, Spencer was in his groove on the video games. He played with this cute little boy for what seemed like hours.

All in all it was a great day. Happy Birthday my amazing Jacob!