Congratulations!

Time to catch up. I had to wait a little while, just to make sure we weren't spilling the beans for anyone. Last week was a big week for weddings and announcements. While Mark and I were in Snowflake visiting missionaries on Friday, we had two exciting phone calls/texts announcing engagements. First our nephew Josh finally proposed to his Brazilian 'goddess'....and she said yes. Way to go Josh! They'll be getting married sometime next summer. We're very excited for both of them-but Josh is going to have to figure out how to get her down here so we can meet her! The second announcement came in a series of texts and even a pic of an engagement ring from Steven (Hermann). So, technically, he's sent us a picture of Ceci, but I'm still waiting for a picture of them together. Actually, I just need to sit down with Jessica so she can show me some on facebook. (She did check his account to confirm our news, and indeed, his 'relationship status' has moved to engaged-and this time it's not a social experiment.) They'll be getting married in February and hopefully (fingers crossed) they'll be able to come down and see us, too.

The theme continued on Saturday at the Snowflake temple. President Tenney, one of Mark's counselors, was released and called as the new Snowflake Temple President. Saturday he performed his first sealing which happened to be one of his granddaughters and one of our missionaries-Nicholas Mallory. It was a beautiful experience. Nicholas was a fantastic missionary and his new bride belongs to one of the best families in Arizona. We love the Tenney's so much. We were so happy we could attend their sealing. We don't have that opportunity often. We didn't stay long, because we had an open house back in Phoenix that night for another returned missionary, Andrew Crozier. He and his new wife, Deonne, were married last week in the Idaho temple. Congratulations everyone! We wish you all the best.

OK, and since it IS fall, I took a walk around the city to try and capture some fall color. It was rough going, but I did find a little.

But Snowflake does boast about 46 of these beautiful historic homes. The one below is the inn that we stay in.

All this while Mark stayed busy working/reading all the missionaries letters.

Below is one of the little windows from our room.

And here is the view from that room....

and another view (this is the top of the first historic home pictured above)....

and another...

and another...

And I couldn't resist a few more pictures of chickens. These ones hang out in a pen between the museum and the inn. Fresh eggs for breakfast!

Moore visitors, yeah!

Last weekend Jen & Sherm came to visit. I couldn't believe how great it was to see them when they stepped out from the airport breezeway. It felt so good to have family close. We've been so lucky this last year and a half to have so many visitors.

They arrived Sunday afternoon, just in time to visit with the kids, eat {of course} and then go with us to one of our firesides. Even though it was in Spanish, I know they could feel the spirit-especially when the missionaries sang. There were some inspiring songs, including a duet with Elder Maxwell & Sister Lopez and a solo by Sister Lopez.

They liked it so much, that with a little 'nudge' we stopped by the LDS bookstore on Monday and bought the CD 'When You Believe' by Rebecca Lopez (Sister Lopez to us). [Was that plug too shameless? Hey-it's supporting a missionary!]

We had interviews all this week, so they met us at noon for lunch at Tortas and a trip to the Visitor's Center (and our stop at the bookstore). We met up at one of the church buildings, just in time for them to meet several of the missionaries and get an encore performance from Elder Pead [from Utah] and Elder Masima [from Tonga] of a song they sang to the missionaries. Here's a little video clip of their song [I don't know where they got the ukulele]. We spent the rest of the afternoon with the kids and eventually went back out to eat at the 5 & diner. Do all our events really evolve around food? There are some more pictures that Sherman took, but I still have to find them on the other computer so that post will come later. We debated the different 'themes' for a Christmas gift exchange and talked about all the great things that are going on in Georgia with their family and here with ours. Their visit was much too short-and we had to say goodbye Tuesday morning, but we hope to see them again soon.

Bassett Kid Olympics 2008

Mom and Dad were gone for the day and the little boys amused us with some friendly competition...well not that friendly.

The competitors:

The Judges:
Event #1: Lateral Teardowns (pull-ups)
Winner:Jeffrey 10 pull-ups(he had a little help)

Other competitor:Brandon 2 pull-ups
Event #2:Wheelbarrow Race

Winner: Brandon(by a hair)

Other Competitor:Jeffrey-he blamed the obstacles along the way

Event #3: 50 meter dash

The winner is obvious

Event #4:Jumping Jacks

Jessica had to teach Jeffrey how to do them correctly.

Winner:Brandon

Event # 5: Taylor Takedown-fastest time for getting Taylor on the ground without any opposition...wins

Winner:Brandon 24 seconds

Other Competitor:Jeffrey 42 seconds

Event #6: Karate-the Judges couldn't help but intervene

Winner:Jeffrey

Event #7: Endurance-the person that stops...loses

Winner:Jeffrey

The judges got tired watching in the unbearable heat and had to take a rest.You can see the discouragement on his face.

Event #8:Wrestling

Winner:Brandon

Tiebreaker:Dance-off

The judges could not just sit there and watch the fun...they had to join in.It had been a long day and the judges were exhausted.

-Photography by Amanda Bassett-

Crazy fun things about kids

My kids had so much fun while we were away meeting with the missionaries. They planned their own mini-Olympics. Here are some of the pictures. I'll let them comment on the highlights of the events.

This week Jeffrey has been looking for ways to serve his family. This is a note he tapped to Dad's office desk.

It was interesting to watch Mark try and find things during meetings during transfers the next week.

Kids, gotta love 'em!

Words to Live By

Sometimes teachers wonder what their students bring home from the classroom each day and how much of it sticks. Here's one hurrah for Mrs. Bauer, Jeffrey's 2nd grade teacher.

Jeffrey motioned me to come into the kitchen where we could talk 'in private'. With some trepidation, he whispered in my ear that he wanted to tell me something, but he didn't think he wanted dad to know. With an introduction like that, I knew what was coming. Jeffrey had a loose tooth... and Dad loves to pull teeth. After a little coaxing, I convinced Jeff it would be OK for Dad to know. He told Dad, and Dad gave him a week to get it ready. Over the next several days, Mark kept reminding Jeff to wiggle his tooth. In our review of the primary program, Jeff proudly announced that he had been wiggling his tooth the whole time. Monday passed. Tuesday came and went. Wednesday. This was the day.

And sure enough, Dad judged the tooth to be ready and called the boy over. Dad gathered his supplies; a toothpick, dental floss, a good lamp, and a towel. Jeff asked for a moment and ran into the other room. He stared at himself in the mirror and began chanting, "This is not the end of my life. This is not the end of my life...." 'Apparently' Mrs. Bauer has taught the kids not to sweat the small stuff by reminding them that most of the drama in their lives in not life threatening and gave them this little mantra to go over when they feel overwhelmed. It worked like a charm. When dad got to the point of knotting the floss around his tooth, we picked up the chant for Jeff, and before he even realized it, the tooth was out-with no pain & TEAR FREE!

Jeff is well on his way to learning to manage his problems. Mrs. Bauer words of wisdom have been a great reinforcement to his big brother's instruction. Taylor is helping Jeffrey learn not to cry over everything. When Jeff is whining or the tears start to flow-he takes Jeff by the shoulders, looks into his eyes and asks, "Are you bleeding? [no] Is anything broken? [no] Are you going to die? [no]" Sometimes this process has to be repeated; but more often than not, by the time the exchange is over, the tears are gone and Jeff's laughing at his silliness.

What would parents do without all those great people who help teach our kids? thanks

Ice Blocking

Yesterday for mutual we went ice blocking at a park near our house. I had never heard of this before...I eventually came to the conclusion that it wasn't something that people did in California. However, after talking to a friend from California and hearing that "the best hill to ice block down" was in Antelope...I decided I must have just been out of the loop. Out of the loop or not, we had a lot of fun at this activity. Afterwards we played Sardines. Chad was it so he went to go hide. After we counted everyone ran to find him. One of our leaders ran straight for a picnic bench and sat down next to someone in a sweatshirt that was laying down on the bench. She started to ask him why he hid in such an open spot and everyone(about 15 of us) crowded around him. I quickly realized that this was not Chad, but a man that had been sleeping there since we first arrived. Backing up, I waved for everyone to follow me and we ran away laughing hysterically and teasing our leader. When we finally did find Chad he bolted and ran the opposite direction. When we finally caught him and asked him why he was running he explained that he thought that was the point of the game. So we had to recap the rules of Sardines for him. Then we had donuts and talked for a while. It was a fun mutual activity!

Our Young Womens group

Laurels
Taylor slid down on his stomach on three ice blocks
Amanda's first time she slid off halfway and ended up chasing the ice block down. Eventually she did get all the way down and, much to her surprise, she enjoyed it and wanted to go again!
I got stuck my first time going down but this time was a definite success.
If any of my Antelope friends haven't ice blocked and I'm not the only out of the loop person...next time I come we will definitely have to try it out!

Post Wedding

Chicago Revisited

Lauren's sister, Lindsey, got married this past Saturday and I got to tag along to help with the babies. (Jackson was not allowed to fly because of ear problems so he had to stay home with his dad and Lauren needed some help with the twins)

Day 1: We got to Chicago on Thursday and had a pretty relaxed day just visiting and getting ready for the busy weekend.

Day 2: Lauren was Lindsey's maid of honor for the wedding. She went to the city on Friday to get her nails done and for the rehersal dinner and all that fun stuff...I stayed at her mom's house with the kids and played "mommy" all day.

Grace didn't really want to take a picture with me.

I'm guessing Luke didn't either....
Day 3: We woke up early Saturday morning and I packed up the clothes, food, diapers,toys, wipes, strollers, carseats and everything else we would need. At 9 we got picked up by a limo to go to the city!! It was my first time in a limo. Lindsey's boss arranged for us to be brought to the hotel for the day...how nice! I was having fun enjoying the calm before the storm
The didn't share in my joy of the limo ride...they slept almost the whole 30 minute ride to the city...the only good nap they had all day :/
The bride and bridesmaids were up in Lindsey's hotel room getting their hair done...and I got to have mine done too! I felt so special! Unfortunately it didn't last long with all the running back and forth I did all day...but it sure was fun while it lasted.
Lauren went for pictures at 4 and I was given the job of getting the twins ready and boy was it tough! Luke did not want me to put his tux on...but after a good half hour we were all ready. I had finally found a dress I loved to wear to the wedding and I only ended up wearing it for about half an hour but thats alright. The wedding was at 7:00. The twins bedtime is at 5:00. No good nap all day. That all added up to a long night. They were pulled in a wagon down the aisle..it was absolutely adorable. After that I took them outside for the rest of the ceremony because they were fussy. After 5 minutes at the reception we went back up to the room to get some sleep...
This is what I felt like at the end of the night as well. Poor Grace. They went to bed at 9 and then Grace woke up at 11 screaming and woke Luke up. Lauren came up at 12:30 and we were up with the twins till about 5AM. Needless to say we were both exhausted.
Days 4 and 5: RELAXATION...as much as we could anways
One of our favorite places to stop was "Loves". It has the yummiest frozen yogurt.
Lauren, Brian(Lindsey's new husband), Lindsey, me...at Walker Brothers Monday morning for breakfast
At the airport on our way home!

Here he comes!

The real highlight of the week was Jeffrey conquering a two-wheeler. Dad took the training wheels off Jeff's bike and spent a little time with him here and there practicing. Taylor jumped in and worked with him, too.He needed a push start for the first couple of days, until he figured out how to push off and pedal at the same time. Now he has it down.
The biggest frustration for all involved was stopping. Jeff had a hard time keeping his right leg from swinging over the bar and jumping off the bike while it was still moving. I don't think he trusted the break system or at least his ability to use it. Time and time again his coaches would call out, "Start breaking, slowly,slowly"-then somehow Jeff would end up jumping off the bike. He just 'didn't know how it happened.' This corner was the trickiest for Jeff. There must be magnets buried under the cement. For the first several rounds, instead of going around it-the corner drew him in and down. And the reward? A bike ride to the park on Saturday through all the big roads. Great job buddy!