AUGUST

 

We snuck in one last play date with miss Kennedy before Tahoe & school started for Elim 😊

One of my FAVORITE pictures. 

These poor girls…these dresses are already in the donate bin 👎 GLITTER! Ugh. Not ok. 

I took them shopping because I had a bad feeling about them going to Tahoe early with Soph so I said no & of course they were upset with me. 

Gwinna got a little job watering our neighbors plants while they were away for a week:)

 Kitty trying to come with us. 

Truckee shopping

DRUNKEN MONKEY funsie with the boy cousins

Airbnb girls got their own beds:) 

Treasure Hunt fun 

My favorite part about making strawberry shortcake with the girls was that they reminisced so much about making it with Great Grandma! 

Hangin with the Mason

August 10- 

A great, long day today. Soph watched the kids so we could do an endowment session in Fresno temple. I immediately found TC (temple cat) while Michael was finishing a call. She’s so sweet & soft and she got gray hair all over my black dress 🤷‍♀️ don’t care. Many sacred and good truths impressed into my soul today. Nothing new really, just all the goodness & peace that comes with going to the Lords house with my eternal love. 

Chick fil a lunch. Always amaze & thank goodness for Michael Joe because he reminded me to check for my sauce & of course they hadn’t put it in! Could have derailed the day 😝🤪 not truly. 

Got to kiss & hug the Mack Murray & Mason baby. 

Family date to Donny Osmond! So much fun. Front row. Crowd was WILD which always makes it even more exciting. He sang Close Every Door & a flood of memories dancing for our stake production came to me & that, combined with his (still incredible) voice, made me unexpectedly emotional. Such a beautiful, still, dark moment ..my favorite. The rest of the show was lively & fun but that song stole the show for me! 

Donny Osmond! The girls are now listening to Donny Osmond and learning dances and songs! 

Me and Sia finally got our day date in! 5 Below, In n Out and Funworks! Mini golf, race cars, bumper cars, and boat rides…repeat and repeat. This adventurous baby. TOO much fun!

Arts with the Tia Sophia. Glue and chalk creations:)

Main Street shoppings

August 16th is ‘Joeys’ birthday starting this year:) ALL of Noelle’s sloths are Joey and she had so much fun creating party hats and decor for them:) We also got presents on that day from Aunt Lili!!! Noelle’s pillow that she drew out with her. Need to get a picture of it! 

One last swim day with the Tia Sophia. 

August 21st homeschool begins! 

August 22nd we ALL get the covid (not all…never MJ) 😖😝 

Finally! Haaa! I suffered the most. It wiped me out…every symptom. As I type this (Sept 3rd) I am still feeling the effects…gunk in my throat. 

It’s the most wonderful time… of the year!!! 👻👻👻

I wrote this IG story down for my Sunday School class because I loved it so much…did not end up using it so I’m going to leave it here until I need it. 

WHALE
Let me tell you something I learned a fact the other day that blew my mind.
Do you know how most whales die?
They drown. 
They spend their entire lives living in and swimming in a world that eventually kills them. 
You know why that is? 
Whales are mammals. Most mammals walk on the face of the earth but the whales live in a world that they are not of. They are in the water but they are not of the water. So while other fish can swim around for their entire life with gills breathing in the water. The whale has to come up out of the water to live. 
There’s a life source that’s not in the world that he lives in that he needs access to. 
This is going to go over some of your heads but I’m going to be obedient and tell you what God has told me to say. YOU are in this world but you are not OF this world. There’s a lot of you telling me Yo Russ I’m working on my mental health I’m working on my physical. I’m getting more rest, I’m eating right. I’m working out but I STILL don’t have peace. It became apparent to me that we are unaware of our needs. 
We know if we’re hungry, we know we need to eat we know if we’re thirsty we need to drink. If we’re tired we know we need rest if we’re stressed out we know we need to work on our mental health but you are completely unaware of how to tend to your spiritual needs. You are not just a mind. You are not just a body. You are a spirit wrapped up in the flesh of a man or a woman and in this life, you need God!
There’s no other way around it. 
You need God.
You need to pray. 
You need to worship
You need to seek his face
You need to read the word
Because in this life if you don’t learn how to come up for air you will drown.