September update- Anniversary, Temple Date, Conference and more!

September has been a pretty busy month for us Stanley's! Jonathan and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on the 24th. We are in "mud season" right now with his job and so we had to have a pretty low key Anniversary. It was still pretty wonderful! We made a picnic dinner and took it and the kids to Eagle Rim park. We played around and took a few pictures then went to the mall to get some much needed clothes for the two boys. Picnic dinner and shopping?! I loved every minute of it.

The next morning we met my Mom, Grandma Noorlander, and Jen and Kelly out at the Fruita Fall Festival and spent the day with them. It was a fun day. Jon and Zoey climbed the Army rock wall until they got scared and let go. Gavin tried too but didn't weigh enough to keep the rope from pulling him up the wall. It was so cute to see him try.

Then the kids rode the carousel and we looked at a few more booths and listened to some music in the shade. I went to my mom's house Saturday night and enjoyed the Relief Society General Broadcast with her. Can I just say that I love President Monson? His facial expressions and little jokes he cracked melted my heart! What great messages were shared at this meeting. I loved the story about the family who saved all their money and traveled for over 24hours for their family to be sealed in the temple. On the way home both of their small children passed away. What a HUGE test of faith. It made me want to be that much more faithful, especially while we prepare to attend the temple.

The kids are doing great!

Tanner Royce just turned 9 months and is officially crawling! He is in to EVERYTHING! He has also cut his 3rd tooth this week. We were having some major problems with him waking up 5-6 times a night until he spent the night with my sister. Ever since that night he has been sleeping through the night. Not sure HOW that happened but I'm cool with it! He can pull himself up onto the bottom stair and can side step along it pretty good. He loves to "talk" and is still such a happy baby. So far he can say "Da da, Ma ma ma, and Hi" I don't know if he is aware of what he is saying but they come out pretty clear. He also does this really cute thing when he wants something or wants you to pick him up. He will open and close his hand really fast. It looks like he's waving and it's pretty stinkin cute!

Gavin is about to turn 4! I can't believe it! He still loves music and dancing and as always loves to make us laugh. The other morning we were getting ready to head out with some family and he wanted us to come and dance to the radio. We went into his room and danced for a few minutes and when we left he goes "You're welcome for that awesome dance party!" LOL Yes, Gavin. It was an AWESOME dance party! Gavin wants to be a robot for Halloween and I'm soooo excited to make his costume. It's going to be SWEEEEEEEET!

Zoey is doing great in first grade! What a change from last year! She loves her teacher and is doing really great with her reading. We read 20-30 minutes a night before bed. She can pretty much handle all of our level 1 books and is starting to work on some level 2 books. She does get a little discouraged when she gets stuck on a word and occasionally will have a meltdown. But for the most part she's a great reader! We took her out last night and got her hair done and picked out a new dress for school pictures. She looked so cute this morning! I'll have to post a pic later today.


We had a great time watching conference this last weekend. I had read on a few LDS blogs some ideas on how to make conference more enjoyable with kids. We tried out one of these ideas and had a little success with Gavin. I took two large blankets and pinned them up to our ceiling in the living room to make a tent. We talked a little to Gavin about how a really long time ago people would pitch their tents to face the Prophet to hear him speak. He was more excited about the tent than listening to the significance but it was kind of fun. We got him to sit quietly through one session of conference with the help of doughnuts and toy cars.


We definitely learned a lot this weekend. Probably one of the biggest things that I walked away with was that I need to give up two of the shows that I watch pretty regularly. I've felt this way for awhile but I'm pretty much addicted to them. Sad, I know. We have just basic cable here at the house and so I'm pretty limited on entertainment choices throughout the day. Lifetime shows back to back episodes of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. So after this weekend I am determined to eliminate these shows from my house. They don't send a good message to me and I need to set the example to my children. Aslo, I learned that I need to spend much less time goofing off on Facebook and spend more time on my other priorities.

How lucky we are to have a modern day Prophet to help us keep ourselves in check! I love President Monson's facial expressions. I first noticed them at the Relief Society General broadcast but this weekend he made me giggle with them as well. His genuine tears melted my heart and undeniably brought the spirit into our living room.

Our original goal was to be able to attend the temple on our anniversary. We started taking temple classes and had the most amazing teachers. They taught us so much and brought such a sweet spirit every time they came into our home. We learned so much. As September 25th got closer we realized that we had a few more things to work on and we probably would not make our goal. It was really hard and disappointing to tell all of our friends and family that we weren't quite ready. BUT we have amazing people routing us on and encouraging us. We are so lucky to have so many people who love us.

These last few months have been a real struggle for us. I've always felt like Jon and I had a great relationship and that we could talk through anything. But these last two months have really been a test for us and our communication skills, which luckily I feel like we've passed. We are communicating better than ever and have been able to use these trials to grow closer to each other and to our Heavenly Father.

This is my promise to all of you who have been so great and supportive to us: YES we are still diligently working on making it to the temple. We're getting so close! We will be there... and soon I hope! Thank you for loving us!

That's pretty much it for now! I'll have to update more often so that my posts aren't so dang long!
Thanks for hanging in there!