Our Student of the Year

We knew that Paige would be eligible to apply for student of the year this year. She has awesome grades, but I worried that she would not want to do it. Happily, she suprised me and was excited to fill out the application and write a life sketch. We were so pleased when she was named a finalist (one of seven out of 36 applicants!) This was on a friday, that day all of the finalist wrote an essay at school. One of the topics was to present an award to a member of your family. Paige chose to award her dad the "Best Builder" award and wrote about all of the things he has made recently. Then came the long weekend of worry and sleepless nights. Monday morning was interviews. She did not want to just give up, because she wouldn't be able to talk to the interviewers, but we weren't sure what could be done about it. Dave gave her a blessing Sunday night and she was able to sleep and was much less worried, I, on the other hand, didn't sleep well at all. First thing Monday morning I called the school and talked to the counselor. She agreed to let Paige write her answers in the interviews. I was so relieved. Paige wanted so badly to do well and my only hope was that it would be a good experience for her. One of her best friends was chosen as Student of the Year. Paige was so happy about how she had done and was so glad she had done it.

Brett quote of the day

Brett: "I keep getting a bad word stuck in my head."
Mom: "Well, do you try to think of good things, or sing a song or something?"
Brett: "It doesn't work cause I can think of more than one thing at a time."
Mom: "Okay, what is the word."
No response.
Mom: "Will you spell it?"
Brett: "I can write it."
Mom; "Okay."

Any advice for my sweet boy who is feeling bad because he can't get this bad word out of his head? He didn't like any of my advice and says he has prayed about it! He is so good, I hate that he is feeling like he is bad.

Don't Bug Me!

I recently got to go on a field trip with both Paige and Brett. Their spark classes made a long awaited trip to the "Insectarium" in New Orleans. They have been learning about bugs and doing all sorts of projects for a while now. Although, I must admit some of the bugs were just gross. Most of them were really cool. They also have a cafe where you can eat a bug! Chocolate chirp cookies with crickets and flavored mealworms...we all passed on that. The butterfly room was fun. There were so many kinds and colors and sizes.

There were lots of really big bugs! Walking sticks and millipedes, beetles and ants.

A question from Paige

If Spongebob's last name is Squarepants, why are his parents round?

Bryce quote of the day

Dave and his family are not known for doing things the easy way. This often leads to frustrating, annoying and definitely funny occasions. This is how Dave's parents drove from Utah to Arizona to Louisiana to Maryland. The back seat and trunk are stuffed full, so everything else got strapped and taped under a tarp to the back end of the car. We laughed so hard when we saw it! Bryce said, "How did they not get arrested!"

Gone Crabbing!

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came to visit us last week. They are on their way home from serving a family history mission in Salt Lake City. We get very excited when we have visitors, because it doesn't happen often. We try to think of fun and different thing to do when we do have visitors. A few weeks ago the boys had a scout camp out at the beach and they went crabbing. They loved catching, cooking and eating them. So, we thought we would all try it with grandma and grandpa. We did not go clear to the gulf. We stopped near the Wetland Walkway of the Creole Nature Trail. Several other groups were there and all seemed to be having success. We got out our supplies (Chicken and String) and got started. We got lots and lots of nibbles. But, getting the crab in the net was not so easy. At the beach the boys could see the crabs in the water and scoop them up. Here we could not see them and they kept getting off before we could get them in the net. I think we just needed some instruction and advice from someone who has actually done this before. But, we did have fun and caught 3 crabs, 2 of which were too small so we threw them back. Some fishermen caught a couple on their lines that they gave us, but in the end we just didn't have enough to worry about. So, we didn't eat crab, but I think we will give it another try sometime. And grandma and grandpa got to try something new and have fun with their grandkids!

Paige caught this one! She was the most patient and had the best luck.

Prehistoric Halloween

Paige and Brett wanted to dress up together this year and decided on Cavemen. They had fun making the huge teeth and loved playing with the club. They collected tons of candy at the trunk or treat.

Bryce was the only one who carved his pumpkin all on his own, but everyone tried!

Pumkins carved by:Ty, Paige, Brett, and Bryce.