Just a Great Day

Today the girls and I got to participate in a great service activity. A lady in our ward (that sounds so impersonal. I don't like it.) named Gayle Sorensen (much better) had the great idea to bake and decorate cupcakes and color Easter pictures and take them to the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission. The girls and I baked, decorated, and colored pictures (well, I didn't color) and then everyone that came carpooled to the Rescue Mission. The older kids set up the cupcakes and the younger kids taped up pictures all over the four different sleeping areas.

Setting out the cupcakes




Decorating with pictures




The girls and I also had the idea to decorate cookies and take them to our neighbors. So when we got home we frosted and decorated those and delivered them. As we were walking out the door Audrey said, "No talking, just giving." I guess we talk too much when we visit our neighbors with treats. :)


Alexis went to a sleepover tonight so it was just Ben, Audrey, and me. So we had "Audrey Home Evening." It's two hours of doing whatever Audrey wants to do. So we went to McDonalds for dinner, played RockBand, and then played Twister and Pictureka. It was really fun to do things that she planned. This is a new activity that we've started. When we have a Friday night free one of us gets to have our "Home Evening" and plan all the activities for two hours. I thought it was a success! It was such a great day.

Shopping Extravaganza

Here in Fort Wayne, IN there is an event that is pretty amazing. It's the Vera Bradley Outlet Sale. It takes place in the Coliseum. I have never seen anything quite like it. Ben's co-workers got some tickets for the first day of the sale and gave one to me. So I met them at the Coliseum. The line was 3/4 of the way around the entire coliseum. It was unreal. However, once the line started moving it only took us 20 minutes to get inside. And the checkout line only took about 20 minutes as well. Considering there were hundreds of people there I was pretty impressed.

My friend that I went with told me that all the prices go down even further on the last two days of the sale. So on Saturday I took Alexis with me to find some more deals. I either ruined her shopping ethusiam completely or peaked her interest completely. She loved buying matching purses but hated waiting in line to pay for them. Here is the check out line:

It took us an hour to get from the end of the line to the actual check out. It was insane! I got Alexis a fancy lemonade that cost way too much to ease her check out pain.

I thought it was a really fun experience and I loved spending time with Alexis. She has never been a shopper and it was fun to see her get excited.

Young Authors Award

Alexis' school had a story competition of sorts. Everyone wrote a story and submitted it. A group of teachers picked some from each grade and they were awarded a Young Author's Award. Each kid who got an award went to the Young Author's Conference in Fort Wayne. The kids read their books to other kids from two other school districts and then we got to hear a presentation from the author Jerry Pallotta. He was a great speaker. Very funny and entertaining. He's also written tons and tons of kids books. Alexis and I had a great time and she was so proud of her story.



I guess I should tell you about her book. She wrote Goldilocks and The Three Bears from every characters point of view. Mama Bear, Goldilocks, Papa Bear, and last Baby Bear. She also made illustrations in her book. I will take pictures and post them another time. Alexis is a great writer and drawer and it is so much fun to see her grow in this area.

Spring Break

We took the entire 9 day Spring Break vacation and went to Wisconsin and Minnesota. We had so much fun visiting our friends in Wisconsin. Our first night Alexis had a sleepover with her good friend Emily and Audrey and I stayed at the Stewarts. I went out to see a movie with friends and we stayed up late talking. It was so much fun. Thanks Daniel for watching Audrey while I took your wife out! :)

The next two days we stayed at a hotel and the girls swam to their hearts content with several of their friends. Then we went bowling and played Dance on the Wii with friends. The last night I got to stay at Amy's house which was so fun. Amy and I stayed up late talking and we both wish we still lived closer!

Here are the pics from visiting WI:

On Tuesday we headed to Minnesota to stay with Andrew and Lori. We had so much fun and enjoyed absolutely beautiful weather. The girls played outside a lot. We took them to the zoo and playgrounds. Lori and I played lots of games, as usual. We even found a new game: Spicy Farkle. It's awesome! The girls and I also went to the Olive Garden with Drew and Carolyn. Thanks for dinner! And you'll just have to take my word on all of this because the minute I got to MN my camera battery died so I have no pictures. I know, so sad. But we still had a great Spring Break. Thanks Andrew and Lori for hosting us.

House Pictures

So I took some pictures of the inside of our house and thought I'd share them. Looking at some of them now I realized I should have made more of an effort to make beds and pick up. Oh well. Your seeing my house as it really is. :)

This is our stairway. I love that I have a shelf to put things on.


The living room


Another view of the living room. Notice the vase, sign, and greenery on the high shelf. I love having shelves to decorate! I also love the mirror above the fireplace.

Guest bedroom

Another view of the guest bedroom

Family room

Kitchen

Dining room

Audrey's room

Alexis room

When it stops raining I'll take some pictures of the front of the house. And maybe I'll put one up of the toy room. I do love our house.

Annie

The 5th Grade class at Alexis' school put on the musical Annie Jr. Alexis was cast as a Hobo in the Hooverville scene. After a lot of before and after school practices the class put on three performances. They really did a great job. Alexis loved being a hobo and was front and center for her entire scene. She memorized the dancing and singing routine perfectly. She told me that this is her favorite memory so far this year.

Pigeon

Alexis' most recent painting. She says it's a pigeon.

Closets

I got the girls bookcase headboards and then realized that I needed to get rid of their dressers so their rooms wouldn't feel so crowded. I decided to put their dressers in their closets. Their closets are are already nicely laid out but I love what I added. Now their closets are perfect. What do you think?

Alexis' closet before:


Alexis' closet after:

Audrey's closet before:

Alexis' closet after:

Alexis' 11th Birthday

Alexis requested a Percy Jackson and the Olympians birthday party so that is what she got! We did have a small family party for her on her birthday and then she had to wait a month to have her friend party. She had to wait because I needed to recover from knee surgery before I could give my all to her party.

This is the cake Alexis and I made together.


Party decorations---all blue of course!


We first played a game called Who Am I? The girls each got the name of a Greek God put on their back and had to figure out who they were by asking yes or no questions.

We made family crests. The girls got to think of a motto to put on it. They chose charges or symbols to put on it as well.

We also made laurel wreaths which you can see on this picture of all the girls.

Birthday girl. I can't believe she is 11.

This is what Alexis really, really wanted. She spent the afternoon putting it together and she did it completely on her own.

I can hardly believe that Alexis is 11. She goes into middle school soon! AHHH! Alexis is a wonderful girl. She is very spiritually minded which I find wonderful. She is very disciplined about reading her scriptures every night and with her homework. I never have to remind her about upcoming projects or tests. She is also an avid reader. I have been reading the books that she reads and it has been fun to talk about them with her. Alexis plays the piano really well. She is thoughtful and a good big sister. She teaches Audrey many things. I love having Alexis in our family.

More Christmas Fun

I found some more pictures from Christmas. This first one is what our van looked like on our drive back home. We were two hours from home.

This one is of Lillian and Alexis playing Dance on the Wii. They love to play this game together and there are now certain songs that when I hear them on the radio I immediately think of Lily or Alexis or Audrey.


Cute cousins.


Alexis playing outside at Andrew and Lori's house.

Tommy and Audrey watching a movie together.

Christmas

The girls got one big present this year from Santa and family members who drew their names. They both had a dollhouse on their Christmas lists so I thought instead of getting them little gifts that would clutter up the toy room they could get one big one! We set it up the week before Christmas since we would be in Minnesota on Christmas day. It took Ben about three hours I think to put it together. There are a lot of pieces to this sucker! The next morning we woke the girls up and had them come downstairs to the toy room. They loved it!



Alexis opening her stocking.


Audrey opening her stocking.

The kids listening to Grandpa read The Polar Express.

This might be my favorite picture that I got over Christmas. This is the result of having (I think) 7 kids all come inside from sledding at once. Behold Ellen the Coat Lady!

Ben sledding with all the kids in the backyard at his parents house.

Christmas is always fun and wonderful. It's not about the presents for me (although I love getting the girls and Ben great presents. Alright, I love getting presents too.) I love playing games with my sister-in-laws. I love eating the delicious food that Drew makes for us every year. I love hearing the cousins invent and play games together. I love seeing the Thomas siblings laughing and enjoying each others company. I just love Christmas!! I love family!

Girls' Christmas Pictures