November 23rd 2017 Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving was at the Websters. They are such fantastic hosts not many people would tolerate a  household takeover. As always the cousins had a blast and we ate like kings.

 I brought rolls these are them proofing, 60 plus homemade rolls. Yum!

  Holman posing by the rolls.

 This is the kitchen after math of rolls, two different kinds of candied yams and a store bought caramel apple pie.

 Kicking my feet up with Luke on my lap.

 On our way to Thanksgiving dinner.

 The Websters pony that they board.

Little Norman and Bella.

Calvin, Olivia and Noah photo bombing in the back

Joshua, Collin, Parkin and Desmond

Teens teening it up.

Lindsey made Hillary and John a cow quilt in honor of there cow they bought. Lindsey designed this herself. It really needs to be in a County Fair contest!

 Each cow has different accessories.

 Lindsey also made these turkey hats years ago. Who is this talented?!

 Teens and dads playing volleyball while the women are slaving away in the kitchen ( I slaved at home so I got to just help not slave).

Moms adorable place settings with Julia homemaking each place setting!

 

Sarah Potter had her baby today!! It was a super fast delivery! Congrats Potters!

October 31 2017 Halloween

October 2017 Fall break in California!

We love California! It's so close and is a great quick break to the beach. We rented a Church camp campground with Scott and Suzie, Barbara and Ron, and Pet and Dan. It was amazing. Scott found the place, I didn't realize you could rent campgrounds outside the city/state you lived in.We had use of a huge pool with slide all we had to do was provide a lifeguard, and lucky for us Bella is a certified lifeguard. There was a rock wall, shooting range, hatchet throw and a bunch of playgrounds. The best part was it was so affordable! We rented a cabin for the adults and the kids stayed in two yurts. Renting the cabin, yurt and use of all facilities was $125 a night!! All the activities at the campground were included too!

Do you see the bird shadow on Bella , that same bird saw that her big toe was sticking our of the sand and swooped down and bit it, Bella is deathly afraid of birds. This was a worst case scenario for her and you see her two photos down covered in sand and crouching and crying, it was so very sad and amusing...

 

Holman is the very far kid in the photo above, didn't get much photos of him because he loves cold water and he was in the waves all day long.

September 19th 2017, 19 years and counting!

I was in charge of our anniversary this year. We want to have a big 20th year celebration so we were trying to keep this celebration on the frugal. I wanted it to be inexpensive but sentimental. Since we met and dated in in Tucson and have basically lived here our whole adult life I thought it would be fun to visit a lot of the significant spots of our life with a fun scavenger hunt. Benjamin was a good sport.

Fist kiss

Favorite breakfast joint, we researched this for months (for real)

First house! The property manger droe up as we were looking in the windows. Luckily he wasn't put of by it and he let us go inside for a tour. Man that place was small!

 One of our first dates. Went' went bowling with his dad, my  mom and his brothers, equally yoked with our attachment to our families.

 Neighborhood park of our second home in Tucson, right next door to our kids swim team. Many nights at this place.

 Were we got our best dog! We had four others dogs before Luke. Benjamins dad asked him to go home teaching with him, we were living in Benson at the time. It was a close friend of the Howe family (the Gardners) and they offered Benjamin their puppy. What a blessing Luke has been. A good dog is hard to find but worth their weight in gold! 

 Location of our first date in High school back in 1995!

We went to the movies cause we love a good movie (this particular movie was alright).

 First apartment, what a hole in the wall!

 Golf n Stuff, we love to take our kids to this eastside Tucson treasure.

Visiting a park that we got kicked out of...

Since we got married so young we are almost at that age that we have been married longer than we were single. I love you babe. What an adventure we have had. Should have driven down to Mescal to visit were we lived without running water and electricity. That chapter in our life was pretty big. % kids later, a dream home and too many memories to even remember I am so grateful to be by your side. My love forever and a day.

First Day of school August 2017

Another year older, sigh, time flies! I love these people so much! My kids go to a very challenging school, I included their school schedules so that they can look back and remember how hard they worked and that they can do hard things. The following is a quote I want my kids to live by:

"I urge you to not take counsel of your fears. I hope you will not say, “I’m not smart enough to study chemical engineering; hence, I’ll study something less strenuous.” “I can’t apply myself sufficiently well to study this difficult subject or in this comprehensive field; hence, I’ll choose the easier way.” I plead with you to choose the hard way and tax your talents. Our Heavenly Father will make you equal to your tasks. If one should stumble, if one should take a course and get less than the “A” grade desired, I hope such a one will not let it become a discouraging thing to him. I hope that he will rise and try again.." - Decisions Determine Destiny, Elder Thomas S Monson 1979

Isabella Jules 11th grade! This will be her toughest year yet. AP Literature, AP Calculus, Post-AP Macro Biology, Art, AP US history, 5th year Spanish and Honors Physics

  Olivia Jane, 9th grade! First year of High School!

Honors Lang, 3rd year French, Pre-Calculus, Honors Lit, Honors Bio, AP Government and Art.

Adrianna Joyce, 2nd grade! Engineering, Mandarin, Kempo, Math, History, Humanities, PE, Art, Drama, Music, and Connections. Not all of these classes are on the same day ;)

Parkin Joshua 5th grade! First year at the big campus. Yikes! Good thing he has 3 older siblings to help navigate the new school.Science, Math, Classics, Geography, Art, Kempo, English, Latin, and Music.

 Holman Howe 7th grade! Logic, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Guitar, 4th year Mandarin, US History, Calculus AB.

Tender Mercies during the Tucson Temple Open House June 17th 2017

What a week it was! The Tucson temple open house is in full swing during the next 3 weeks. Our family volunteered to help with it on Wednesday. Benjamin and I volunteered for 3 four hour shifts, my feet were more than just a little tired. I might have to buy new shoes before our next volunteer day (oh darn!). Bella, Olivia and Holman volunteered for 2  4 hour shifts, what awesome teenagers they are!

Before I get to the miracles I have to share an embarrassing story. You think once you hit a certain age these things would stop happening but a las I'm a kid at heart and I think these things will never stop happening...My first shift of the day was in parking. I asked the most questions in my little group so the head parking guy made me in charge, oh joy. Well unfortunately that job required a walkie-talkie. I knew I could not be trusted with this and probably should have protested more.

I was drinking water like mad that day because it was well in to the 100's with no cloud coverage. I of course had to use their fancy port-a potty and you know where this is going....I went to use the foot flush lever and before I knew it, the walkie-talkie that was secured to my skirt waist band fell right into the toilet, right down the shoot.. I stood in awe what are the odds it would go straight down with no possible retrieval allowed. Oh boy. I found a friend who was working security and asked if he had a walkie talkie and he said yes. Then I asked if I could have it. He then asked what would he use. I said he can be the person who has to tell someone that they flushed the walkie talkie... Only me.

It was during this parking detail that I met another volunteer named Itzel, upon hearing my name said, wait are you Lesley Howe? I said yes. She then said that she has a book of mormon that I wrote in that she reads regularly. She quoted some lines, I then asked her if the "Lesley" name was spelt with an "ey" not "ie" I had no memory of this. We exchanged numbers and she sent me a a picture of the dedication...It was me! She joined our church 10 months ago. She said she always wanted to meet me. What a tender mercy for both of us. What are the odds?! I wrote a dedication in a Book of Mormon over two years ago and gave it to a missionary from my church. I do not do this often and this may have been a one time deal. What are the odds that in a city of over half a million people, I would meet the lady who received this book? And that we both would be assigned the glamorous job of working outside in the Tucson heat managing traffic and the tour guide flow outside? And that because we were working the outside job it allowed for more casual conversations so we were able to talk about this inspired serendipitous coincidence. Elder Bednar said this about tender mercies:  
"the Lord’s tender mercies do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Faithfulness and obedience enable us to receive these important gifts and, frequently, the Lord’s timing helps us to recognize them.We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord’s tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance (see 1 Ne. 1:20)." 

The scripture he referenced at the end of his talk is a scripture that my family has memorized and is often quoted.

It was such a great day! I recently started working out with Robin every morning at 5:45 am, man that's early! The day after the dedication I so didn't want to wake up to workout, my legs were so tired. My sho joice wasn't good and I was on my feet for 12 hours. But since we are new workout buddies neither one of us have cancelled and I didn't want to be the first :) So I got up we did a fantastic workout. When I was driving home looking at the beautiful dessert I thought, Heavenly Father I love my house so much and the thought came to me "Thank you for working in MY house " 

On friday we took our family for a tour. Bella and Olivia each invited two friends for a tour. Benjamin invited his co -worker and I invited one of my oldest and dearest friends Alexandra. We have been friends since age 7, over 30 years of friendship!

One of Liv's friends  was challenged by some sister missionaries to go to the open house, he contacted Olivia the Mormon girl he knows and hinted at wanting to come. Liv of course invited him! We where at the church waiting to start our tour. One of Bella's friends was running late.  And because of that delay, Benjamin met his co-worker and his wife who he had previously invited to go after a lengthy religious discussion but they couldn't make a day and time work. This Co worker knew Liv's friend, what are the odds?! 

It's been so great to hard all the temple miracles, I'm sure we will hear many more stories to come.