Song Ideas

So, I got called to be the nursery music leader in my new ward a few weeks ago. Surprise, surprise, another music calling. :) Anyway, I'm actually pretty excited about it. John and I were both called to be in Jared's nursery class with a few other teachers, and then I get to do the music in both of the nurserys also. The good thing is that I never have to do the lesson. :) Anyway, it's been kind of nice to be with John and Jared for the whole block. I never thought I would want a nursery calling, but it hasn't been too bad so far.

So, the reason for this post is that I'm looking for some cute visual aids for the song, "Give Said the Little Stream." The kids love looking at pictures and having something to see while they're singing. I can't seem to find anything good for this song. If any of you have any ideas, let me know!! Thanks!

Backyard pictures

I couldn't get these pictures of the backyard in my last post. So, here they are. The yard needs a little TLC, but it's getting there. John all ready took out 4 smaller trees that were dead or dying. Now we just need to do some weeding and pruning. We love having a back yard!!

Here's our apple tree. They're filled with worms this year, but next year we'll spray it and have lots of apples! And our neighbor has peaches too! I can't wait to be able to outside and pick some snacks for the kids. Next year we're going to plant a big garden too. Lots of fruit-strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, melons. And some veggies too-squash, cucumbers, lettuce, potatoes, corn, peas. Who knows what else. We have plenty of room for a garden without taking from the kids play area. We feel so incredibly blessed!

Pictures of my house!!

So here it is...my house! It looks small from the front, but it's not. It's actually about 2300 sq ft. The yard needs a little TLC, but John will take care of that in no time. We've only been here for about a month, so we haven't had time for all the finishing touches yet. :)
This is our family room. These are new couches and a new furniture set. In the left corner, you can also see part of our new computer desk as well. We still need to get a rug for in here and some decorations. :)
Here's the rest of the family room furniture. I LOVE having the armoire for the tv! It's so nice to be able to close the doors and not have the tv staring at you, calling your name!
Here's our front room. The couches are new also. That's Joshua taking a nap. I love when he does that!
Here's our basement. All we have down here right now are the kids toys. So, basically it's just one great big playroom. I love it! I can just send the kids downstairs and they can make a big mess, and I don't even have to look at it! There's also plenty of space for them to run around. It runs the length of the whole house. They've played soccer, chase, dodgeball, and done somersaults across the whole room. Did I say I LOVE this room!! The laundry room is also down here, as well as the 4th bedroom.

So, we decided to go to temple square today. We thought it would be a nice family activity for Sunday evening. And we live so close now! :) So, we took the kids and went on a tour of the conference center, which was nice, but longer than I expected. Then, we decided to let the kids play by the fountain to the south of the temple because they just couldn't get enough playing in the water. Here they are getting as close as they can...

And here's Jared.....

Yes, Jared actually fell into the fountain! He was soaked all the way through and heartbroken! I love the huge puddle of water you can see in the last picture. It was hilarious!! Luckily it was only about a foot deep and he went hands first, so he didn't get hurt. Just swallowed a bit of water. Anyway, so that was our peaceful trip to temple square. Although, it did get better after that. Jared cheered up a bit when we went to look at the reflection pool over on Main Street Plaza (between temple square and the Joseph Smith Memorial building).

As a side note, the company John is working for designed Main Street Plaza if any of you have ever been there! They've also done a few temples and are working on the new Church History Library next to the conference center. Pretty cool! :)

So, I didn't want to start this blog, but I've been reading everyone else's for so long, I just couldn't resist any longer. So, for those who I haven't talked to since we moved, I'll give an update on where we're at.

When we moved up to Utah in May we stayed with some good friends of ours in West Jordon. We all had really good intentions, but it just didn't end up the way we had hoped. Our friends have 3 kids. The older 2 are about the same ages as my boys. They played great for the first day, and then it was all downhill from there. They constantly fought and were at each other. We ended up staying in the basement for most of the day so that we could try to avoid the conflicts. Anyway, we were there for about 5 weeks while we were in the process of buying our new house. This picture is one of the VERY rare moments when everyone was smiling and actually playing nicely together.

When we finally moved out, I think we were all happy to be getting our own space back. But, we still love them and are so grateful that they were willing to let us invade and stay there for so long! Anyway, so we bought a house in Layton (about 25 min. north of Salt Lake). It's wonderful! It's everything that I hoped for and wanted. It's an older house, but that's what we love. We love the houses that have a little character. It's a brick rambler with a basement. It has 4 bedrooms/2 bathrooms. We've got the family and living rooms upstairs, plus the whole basement for the kids playroom! It's awesome! I don't know how many of you ever came in our house in Mesa, but this is a HUGE step up! AND, of course my favorite part of all is our yard!!! We have a nice big yard with grass, grass, grass, and more grass! We have a little deck we can sit on and enjoy the cool summer evenings. It actually cools off at night in Utah! We are absolutely loving it here! It was definately the right choice! It hasn't come without it's difficulties, though. We actually still haven't sold our house in Mesa yet, but we still feel good about everything and we know that things will work out. Whatever that means! :)

John is loving his new job. He loves what he does and we are so grateful he was able to get this job so easily! We feel so blessed to be here and to have the things we need! I even got to go Craigslisting and get some new furniture! I'll get some pics up of the new house as soon as I can!