AUGUST, SEPTEMBER and OCTOBER 2025

SO MANY PHOTOS FROM THE PAST 3 MONTHS  This is a link if you want to see more than this big bunch!

One of my great joys is keeping up with former students.  Coleman Peterson invited me to his baptism and this was a sweet time to reconnect.  

Speaking of reconnecting, we had a visit from Devin Lynn and his cute family visiting from Canada!  We had such a fun time together!

I never get photos of me in action teaching so when a parent grabs the camera, it is rather nice!

Making a mess with rice at school!

Lori treated us to some ABBA tribute band in September.  It was a lot of fun!

Aaron and family were there too and it was just a great evening together.

We went with Braden and McKenna while Caleb took their family photos...ADORABLE!

And we got one of our own!

We went with the kids to the Riverwoods Chalk the Block weekend.  AMAZING art done in chalk!

But Sydney's favorite place was seeing the puppies on this piece.

Lori helped me host a BABY SHOWER for Bree and Elliot.

We went with a Western theme...

ACTUALLY, THIS IS THEIR FIRST RODEO!!

The very excited parents to be!

It was fun making decorations and planning what to serve.  

It was a wonderful family celebration!

We are so blessed to have such great support!

When the boys were in town, we all went to a BYU Football game!  Good times!

One of our favorite finds was one evening when we met up with KC Child, a birder friend, and accidentally found this Long-eared Owl, which is rare for the area.  Fun find!

We went out on a limb the next Saturday to go with him and a ton of serious birders to Fish Springs on a field trip!  We quickly realized when they all started just spouting off names of birds as they were flying overhead or chipping, that we were out of our league.  Then when we stopped and they all grabbed their scopes to look at everything, that was another big indicator.  HA!  We know a lot, but NOTHING compared to this group!

Took my new class on their first field trip to Spring Creek Park.  They are really cute kiddos.  Crazy but cute!

Griffin invited me to one of Tad's soccer games so we reconnected...he is in kindergarten now.  They are the cutest parents too!

A sneak shot of our Primary presidency...I really love these ladies!  So much positive energy for the kids!

Late September we hosted our annual BBQ for APM returned missionaries.  We were delighted to have Curtis Brown and family come for the first time.  We just love them!

We had a bunch of beautiful friends!  It was a wonderful afternoon!

When it was over, we had a late arrival of Devin Pierson and his girlfriend Eliana. They came in and visited for about 30 minutes and it was sweet to reconnect with him!

My cute and crazy kids at the Pumpkin Patch with me!

I love having Timothy Hunter in my class and cute Lizzie helping and bringing along Lucas...so LeAnn could survive...highly allergic to hay!  

We were so excited to have Austin and family come for Conference weekend and a BYU football game.  We love to go to the pre-game activities!

Got our photo taken with Cosmo!

And Scotters going solo!

The kids went to a Conference session on Saturday and then we all went up on Sunday afternoon.

Here we are before the session with cute Clara who got to spend the session with Grandpa at his work.

Playing Conference Bingo on Saturday.

The famous organ at the Conference Center.

The next week was the most exciting thing of the year...

WELCOME BABY SYLVAN!

We got to be at the hospital while we awaited his birth and it was so amazing getting to be there for that miracle!  Although a C-section was what ended up needing to happen to get him here safely, I was able to be helpful in labor with amazing Elliot, and to be with Bree while Elliot stayed with baby in the nursery for an hour after delivery.

If I look like I have not slept in well over 24 hours, that is because it is real.  Staying overnight in a chair after the birth was just fine!

Grandpa came the next morning again to meet Sylvan and it was sweet!

FINALLY, we got our additional October birthday in the family!

SYLVAN GARDENER LOF born October 8 at 9:37 PM weighing 9 lb 3 oz and 20.5 inches long.  Just beautiful and changing before our eyes!

This is one happy Daddy!  So invested in every aspect of caring for Sylvan!

I got to go up and help at the house a few times and we went on their first walk with Kaia.

And so much fun with all the little baby clothes.

These are prepared and invested parents!

It has been fun watching him grow and change so quickly!  He is just beautiful!

Meanwhile, we had the kids come over to meet us at our house and they got there before we did and Sydney immediately went for the closet and pointed at it, knowing what was inside! SMARTIE!!

We love meeting up with friends at the BYU games.  We got to see Crystal Turner this season, beautiful as ever!

This is us after the BYU- U of U football game...where the fans totally stormed the field after a big win!  It was so fun!

Speaking of fun, we got to fly out to Iowa for the BYU Iowa State football game...we had planned to do this for several years, as soon as we got into the Big 12.

We decided to go to Nauvoo first. We went over that first night to see the temple.  This used to be just a pile of rocks and a cornerstone and sunstone when we were kids.  Now it is completely rebuilt!

We did find one of the old sunstones by the lime quarry though.

We stayed long enough to see the temple at dusk and it was very cool!  Scott got this shot of the Joseph and Hyrum statues with the temple behind it.  Lovely!

The next day we drove around Keokuk again to get to Nauvoo again from Fort Madison.

Lo and Behold, when we arrived at the visitor center, we ran across an Elder Rieske, who looked familiar, so I asked if he was from Provo which he was, and I asked if his wife was Rose and it was.  

When she arrived, she was so excited.  She told me she had prayed that she would get to see one more person she knew before their mission finished the next Monday!  YAY!  So glad it was me!

We loved seeing the old homes of Joseph Smith and the Red Brick Store that were recently purchased from the Community of Christ church last year.  Really interesting tours there.

I connected with some old high school friends and we met up at Amy Stohlmeyer Davis' home.  Cindy Birdseye O'Neal joined us and we had so much fun talking and sharing photos from the past and learning what we are all doing at this point in our lives.  I was excited to find our Amy is a huge quilter now and Cindy still loves photography.  

Scott and I loved exploring our old stomping grounds.  We went to Ledges State Park to bird the next morning and that was fun. 

Then we went to the BYU-ISU football game with pre-game tailgate hosted by BYU Alumni at the Reiman Gardens near the stadium.

It was a lot of fun!

It was really interesting exploring the stadium.  Fans were respectful to us as we walked all around.  

We sat way up high in one of the 3 BYU sections in the huge stadium.  And we were right in the wind.  WE WERE SO COLD the entire game!

I went over to visit with Amy a couple times in the game and crawled over a row of ISU fans to get to her...and no one made fun of me even though both times ISU was ahead.  

Amy left early once BYU came back and went ahead 2 touchdowns with no chance of them coming back.  I think she and Greg will come to Provo next fall to the ISU game!

CYCLONE POWER!  It was fun seeing the band and all the things that they did to make the game day fun for fans...although I felt that BYU does it up a lot better!  We go a little crazy.

Final score and BYU pulls off the win!  This was really a fun game for us even though we were freezing. I could not wait to get into a warm car and go get some warm food!

Church the next morning we met so many people we knew!  Linda Flatt something, Clytee and Charlie Gold who were visiting.

Bob Hutchison was there too, but he really did not know me.

Kim and Jan Sharp, Ted and Rae Okiishi with us.  Okiishis insisted we come over for tunafish sandwiches and Kim dropped off fresh Great Harvest Bread from his business for us to use to make them.  We spent like 2 1/2 hours at Okiishis talking about everything.  They have been temple presidents and missionaries...the best people ever!

My old church building

1413 McKinley Drive

Scott's 21st Street home

Scott's Carroll avenue home.

My 13th Street Cape Cod home

Lake Laverne and Memorial Union building on ISU campus.

The Camponile on campus.

Brookside Park, the fire struck was still there!

We stopped to visit Chris Stott, one of our RM's from Ames.  He lives in Ankeny with his cute wife TIffany from England.  They have 2 older adopted foster kids, Kaelynn and Sam (with severe autism) and the little Ellie and Jared.  It is quite a story how they ended up with kids only 10 years younger than them!

You can see Sam loves Scott!!!

We had a LADIES NIGHT taking 3 sweet ladies in the neighborhood to this cute play!  We were so happy to get to share with them!

Our cutest pumpkin in the patch!

Tired Sylvan!

And we got a visit from the HUNGRY CATERPILLAR!

She came right in and chose as many treats as she wanted from the treat bowl!  It was so funny!

Scott in his David Pumpkins suit.  Yup!

We love babysitting so Braden and McKenna can go to the plays.  We went on a walk to the park since it was SO NICE out!

Sydney loved to swing and we went on the slide and she loved the little merry-go round spinner if I would take her really slow.

Dinner was fun.  She ate all her pizza and fruit so I got her some mac and cheese...she liked the bowl more than the food inside.

We have had the best months with a new grandbaby and with family visiting and getting to babysit and knowing more kids are coming to see us soon. 

We love our family and friends and look forward to so many more adventures to come!