Yes. We were there. And I miss it. Hopefully during Christmas break I will have some time to catch up on my blog and post all about our amazing trip.

Election Day

 

 

I have always made it a point to bring all of my kids with me to vote. We arrived at my polling place around 7:15am, and there was a line out of the door! Thankfully the Church that it was at, had an outdoor playground the kids could play on. When we were further along in the line, and actually made it inside, I tried playing a few games with them. One was 20 questions. So I would say, "I'm thinking of something and I want you to guess what it is..." Cannon's only guess was "Mitt Romney!" It cracked me up, and the people standing around me too. Once I finally made it into the voting booth, I showed the kids the ballot, what each part meant, and then had them help me put the ballot in the machine. We all got stickers!

 

 

 

And to say I was disappointed by the election results is a HUGE understatement. I was in shock. I couldn't believe that the majority of Americans, with such stark choices, would not choose Mitt Romney. It doesn't make sense to me that a President with such a bad record could get re-elected. But I guess I'm in the minority now, and our country got what we deserve.

Happy Birthday Brenna

 Brenna is 9 years old! That blows me away!!! We decided to do a last minute birthday celebration with a few of her friends. We took them to see Wreck It Ralph (pretty cute movie) and then had pizza and cake afterwards.

 

It was a pretty easy day, and she loved the party! Looking forward to a great year with Brenna!

Mobile Family

 

Our kids LOVE to ride bikes. And we have had pretty great Fall weather to do so. On a few occassions we have taken them to one of our local parks, and they have riden circles around us, while we sat and enjoyed it. They LOVE the independence, and so do I!

Happy Halloween!!

 

Happy Halloween from the Bushmans!!! 

 

 

Brooklyn as Alice in Wonderland, at our ward Halloween Carnival.

 

 

Cannon as Clark Kent/Superman

 

 

At my school we have Fall Parties, and have a Halloween Parade in the morning. Brooklyn was pretty excited for it!

 

 

One thing she was the most happy about was that she could wear her dress up rings. She wants to wear them every day, but I say not to school. But Halloween was the exception, and she kept holding them out to people, showing them off!

 

 

 

Ryan's work had their annual Halloween Costume Party. Guess what him and a buddy dressed up as? Mormon Missionaries! They had pass along cards, and a couple Book of Mormons. He said he did get a few "confused" looks, but the best part is he got a $25 gift card!

 
Here's our clan Trick or Treating. They had so much fun, and they are old enough that we as parents had some fun too! I love my three kiddos!

 

A+

 

 

Brenna is fantastic at Math. I don't get it. I'm awful at Math. But she keeps easily flying through her 3rd grade Math assessments. When they have tested her, she tested in the 5.2 level (5th grade, 2nd month) and it gets higher and higher each time they test. I'm so glad it makes sense to her. And to  Ryan, because he's the one who will have to help her with her math from here on out!

While Cannon's reading

The girls play! Cannon is taking reading from a great friend, who has a fantastic backyard. One lesson we had some fun on the trampolene. I still have it!

(But pay for it later!)

Young Women

 

I've been a little absent. In a lot of areas! Blogging is the last on the list of things being neglected by me. And the majority of the reason is because I have adopted 23 girls! My calling has been more demanding than I had expected. But more rewarding than I could have anticipated. I love all of these young women. They are all so different, but have the same goodness within them. There have been a lot of late nights, meetings, activities, phone calls, TEXTS, tears, and spiritually uplifting experiences. I've seen a few of them make drastic changes in their lives and become better women. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

 

(By the way, they are doing the E3 sign, for our Edmond 3rd ward!)

Watching Conference

 

Kids made a fort. We stayed in bed. And loved every second of General Conference.

Going Boating

Cannon's ready!

We had a great time out on the boat with some great friends from Church. We had a world champion helping us get going! She was able to convince both Cannon and Brenna to get out there and "surf".

Surfing behind a boat is a little different than wakeboarding. Instead of being 20 feet behind the boat, you are right off of the boat, to the side of the wake. You have the boat and rope help pull you up, but then you are able to let go and stay behind the boat, "surfing" with the wake keeping you going.

Brooklyn's 3rd Birthday

The day started with lots of decorations.

Brooklyn wearing her fantastic 3rd birthday dress that I found at a consignment sale.

We celebrated in the morning with yummy donuts at a little shop in Guthrie, Oklahoma with some friends.

I made a really yummy cake.

It was WAY too hot to go to the zoo, but Brooklyn wanted to spend some time with animals. So we visited the local pet store. And the great worker there brought out some animals for Brooklyn to play with and hold. She held a few dogs, a gerbil, a ferret, etc. It was actually preferrable to the zoo!

Brooklyn asked for Chick Fil A for dinner. Her birthday was the same day as the Chick Fil A appreciation day. We wanted to just see what the store looked like, and of course it was completely packed. As we were trying to decide whether or not to stay, a woman came up, handed us $10 and asked us to use it to help pay for our meal. She couldn't wait in the line, but wanted to show her support. We decided now we have to stay! Kids loved it, had a few friends there to play with, and it was a very enjoyable dinner.

We then took the cake and presents to our family's house to celebrate there. Which, after a long day, the kids were a little on fire! Cannon and Leif ran into each other, Cannon getting the bad end of accident!

Had a few conversations with my dad, to make sure we knew what would be red flags to look for. But, it turned out to be a VERY bad black eye. Poor Cannon!

A Day in Salt Lake City

Every trip to Utah, I want to bring my kids to Church history sites. I didn't realize how much I took advantage of having access to Mormon culture and history while I lived in Utah, but being in Oklahoma and removed from that, I want to instill in my kids the appreciation of our Church's history every chance I get. So, this trip was Temple Square!

Happy couple 10 years later!