Excuse #22 for Not Saying Morning Family Prayer

Excuses #22 for not saying morning family prayer: It's morning until 12 PM.

Excuse #18 for Not Saying Family Prayer

This was a good one...

Excuse #18:
I've got to do my math homework.

Excuse #21 for Not Saying Family Prayer

We've been talking about doing this for several weeks now because it's just become humorous how often Emma comes up with an excuse for not saying family prayer. So we thought we'd actually start tonight.

soooooooooooo.....

Excuse #21 for not saying family prayer:
Ok, you said to go spit out my gum, now is a good time to do that.

Carrot Fruit Snacks?!

Joseph came up to me today and said he wanted some fruit snacks. I said we didn't have any fruit snacks. He asked me again and I gave him the same reply. So then he said he wanted carrot fruit snacks?

Carrot fruit snacks?! So I handed him a bag of mini carrots and he and Dallin happily chomped away on their fruit snacks. If only I could do the same thing with Emma:)

Shopping with Five Children

Perhaps if I were someone else, I'd entitle this post something like "Why I Love Living in Provo, Utah". But I'm not that zealous for or against the fact that I'm raising my family in Provo. This just happens to be where we are at this time in our lives raising our family. But I do have to confess that my experience grocery shopping yesterday could probably have never had happened anywhere else on the planet.

For starters, Macey's (the grocery store, not the department store) recently purchased these wonderful four-seater shopping carts. It's one of those shopping carts that's shaped like a car on the front end for two kids to ride in. Admittedly, Aaron is getting a little too big to ride in one of these, but he and Dallin faired pretty well on the front end. The back end was also a double seater allowing for the two smaller boys, Joseph and Jacob to comfortably sit on top. I think that Macey's must have purchased this shopping cart just for our family, but that leads to the second observation.

The reality is that we are not the only family around here that have enough small children to fully occupy a four-seater shopping cart. Myself feeling fairly well occupied with five children for the present, especially in a grocery store, by some accounts we're still not as big as other families in our neighborhood.

For example, as one of my children was throwing something of tantrum in the produce section of the grocery store, a sweet elderly lady comes up to me and says, "Are these all your children?" I acknowledged that they were, and mentioned how grateful I was for the four-seater shopping cart. She commented on how wonderful it was to have them as young as they were.

She then add that she was a mother of 12 children herself! Seeing me and my five children brought back fond memories for her, and her face was radiantly cheerful as she said so. That did something for me. I won't say that it made my shopping trip any less hectic or stressful. What I saw though was a woman who looked back fondly on those memories that I was now living for myself -- a bit of perspective.

Who would've thought?

So I realized that Jacob's word is actually a word, just spelled different(see previous most on Jacob's vocabulary). The word "meh" is an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring,'

So, Jacaob is just bored, who would've thought:)

He is branching out though, Ah, is now apart of his vocabulary. He says it when he sees the cats. I wonder what that one means?

Happy Birthday Emma

How to speak Jacob

I want that....Maa!
Take me there...MAAA
Lift me up.....Ma
I don't want to sleep...Ma, Ma

So I think we need to work a little bit more on his vocabulary...for right now though, we just pretend we have a little sheep in our house.

Gratitude

I was out shopping with my dad today ( my dad actually really likes to shop:)) It was fun. We talked about a lot of stuff and we really enjoyed being with each other. At one of the stores we stopped by, a lady said she thought it was really neat that we could be slow close. I stopped to think about that...I don't know that I had ever really given it much thought that I have a good relationship with my parents. But as I thought about that, I was very grateful for my parents and Brent's parents. I am grateful for their love and support and I feel that everyday...so thanks! I love you all! Rachel

Oh and Brent thinks we should build our roof out of legos:) I love telling on him:)

A pledge to fight for the family

As probably a lot of you know, Brent and I supported Obama in the elections. I did so, though, with a lot of concerns...specifically concerning moral issues. I won't go into the why's about this whole thing, but it was a difficult disicion for me to say the least.

I am writing this to encourage you to do what I have done. I have expressed my concerns to Obama through e-mail about my belief in the importance and preservation of family. I wrote about how important marriage is to our nation and expressed to him my beliefs about gay marriage and abortion and why I believe the way I do. I would encourage you to do the same. Here is contact information...

EMAILS:
://obama.senate.gov/contact/,
/www.barackobama.com/index.phpMYSPACE PAGEhttp://www.myspace.com/barackobamaLINKEDIN PAGEhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama

Address
CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS
Obama for America
P.O. Box 8102Chicago, IL 60680

Phone

OFFICESWashington D.C. Office (202) 224-2854 (202) 228-4260 fax (202) 228-1404 TDD Chicago Office (312) 886-3506 (312) 886-3514 fax Toll free: (866) 445-2520 (for IL residents only) Springfield Office (217) 492-5089 (217) 492-5099 fax Marion Office(618) 997-2402 (618) 997-2850 fax Moline Office (309)736-1217 (309)736-1233 fax PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS(866) 675-2008

I told myself that I would only vote for Obama if I worked hard to make sure that my voice was heard concerning issues of family and morals. I would encourage anyone else who reads this to do so also..as well as any local and state leaders that have been elected.

Here's our Gromet.














Aaron as a Ninja.
























Princess Keeha from a book series Emma is reading.

























The Cat Buss from Totoro.


















Happy Hallooween!