Zoo trip in PA

Most of the following pictures are from our outing to the Erie Zoo. We do this every year when we visit Aunt Carmella and Uncle John. We always have so much fun. This picture is so cute because Audrey couldn't find any dress ups that she could put on. She searched and searched and when she finally found this one she had a radiant smile on ther face.

Corinne, Lori, Abby, and Audrey playing in the air conditioned kids room. It was really hot this day. I think it was 90 degrees.
Corinne, Aunt Carmella, Ellen, and Thomas (the only boy grandchild so far!)
Audrey with Grandpa Thomas.

This was cute because Lily was really anxious about walking on these lily pads at first. She didn't know that they don't move.
Audrey can't resist pumping that water! She probably wanted to get in it!
Abby, Lori, and Grandpa taking a break. Sorry, Lori, I know this isn't your favorite picture! :) I must use it for our posterity! Hee-Hee.
Meredith dressing up and Alexis dressing up. Alexis put on every dress up they had even though most of them were too small.

Making mud pies in Aunt Carmella's backyard.
Enjoying a before bedtime snack! We get so spoiled while we are at Aunt Carmella's! We love it and are so grateful!
This is how Audrey fell asleep the second night we were there. So funny. It's like she collapsed from exhaustion. She told me when we got home that her favorite part of going to PA was "sleeping with Mommy in the big bed." I hate to tell her this but that was NOT my favorite part!
When we first got to the zoo we got our maps and Audrey opened hers up and walked around like this for awhile. She was really trying to read it. Too funny.
Playing in the water at the zoo. We let the girls get soaked because it was so hot and they dried off quickly.

More pictures to come!

Pictures from our St.Louis/Nauvoo Trip

We went to this awesome pool and had a picnic lunch inbetween our swimming. Doesn't Kim look great? :)
Audrey and Alexis swiming together.

Playing outside.
Having a blast on the trampoline with the sprinkler.

At the Pioneer Pastimes in Nauvoo. We couldn't pass up trying out the horse.
At the start of our wagon ride around Nauvoo. It was 90 degrees outside. Can you tell by their faces?
Not the most flattering picture but I thought it was a good idea to have a picture of myself with one of the girls. Alexis took this picture. I had to wear my glasses all day because Audrey scratched my eye in the hotel that morning. It really stunk not to be able to wear my sunglasses! Especially driving home.
Nauvoo temple. It's so pretty.

This is the actresss who played Anna Amanda in the short play, "Anna Amanda." The girls loved her and wanted a picture with her. So cute.
We loved these huge flowers and had to take a picture of them. Alexis wanted a picture with the white ones and Audrey wanted a picture with the pink ones.

Doesn't she look right at home on this horse? Too bad it's not real. :)

Gone and Back Again

Well, we went to St. Louis, MO to visit our dear friends, The Boyces. We had such a great time. Kim and I put together a sideboard for her dining room. It took us six hours and we only made a few mistakes! The kids had a blast playing together. The Boyces have a trampoline that Alexis and Audrey absolutely loved. We put the sprinkler underneath the trampoline and the kids jumped in their swimsuits. They literally jumped all day Tuesday. On Wednesday we went to a community pool that was a lot of fun. It had a deeper pool and a kiddie pool so it was perfect. Wednesday afternoon the girls and I drove to Keokuk, Iowa. We swam in the pool, had dinner, and went to sleep. Thursday morning we got up and drove ten miles to Nauvoo, Illinois. This is the first time we have been to Nauvoo and we loved it. We saw the play, "Anna Amanda" which the girls loved. It is a really cute play about a girl who is called "just plain Anna Amanda" and she doesn't feel important or like she is someone special. During the course of the play she realizes that when she has other people's "important clothes on" nobody recognizes her. She also gets taught that when people tell her she has her mother's eyes or her grandmother's chin she is inheriting their strong chin which is a symbol of determination. It is her legacy. Anyway, there were songs and it was funny. The girls sat in the front with all the other kids. I was really surprised that Audrey liked it so much and that she didn't get bored. We then went to play some old Pioneer Pastimes and went for a wagon ride pulled by horses that went all around Historic Nauvoo. We didn't make it to any other historic houses or the temple visiter center because the girls were really tired and ready to go home. It was 90 degrees out too so that didn't help. But all they talk about was how much fun Nauvoo was. We're definitely going to go every year. The girls got their picture taken with Anna Amanda. They loved that. Well, we are home now and just recovering. We are all pretty tired and just trying to get some rest. But we have really enjoyed all our trips lately. We loved visiting the Boyces. There is nothing like seeing your dear friends!

Trip to PA

Well, we are back from our trip to PA. We had a great time. It was a lot of driving but ultimately we had a lot of fun. The wedding that we attended, Ben's cousin John got married, was really nice. It was a lovely ceremony. The bride looked beautiful and the girls really enjoyed watching the ceremony. Audrey fell asleep during it. She was obviously very tired. We were up late every night we were away and up by around 8:30 or 9. Our schedule is trying to get back to normal now. I am just really tired and have been catching up with housework.

The girls loved going to the carnival in North East, PA. They rode all the kiddie rides. Audrey liked the roller coaster best. Alexis and Lily decided they wanted to go on the big ferris wheel. They went on that and on the bumper cars. They loved going on the big kid rides. I will post lots of pictures tomorrow or Thursday night. The girls also loved going to the zoo and ChuckECheese.

Audrey told me her favorite part of the trip was sleeping in the big bed with me. She just loved that she got to sleep next to me every night. She also loved her new swim vest. I bought her a swim vest for the pool at the hotel. She can now swim all by herself in a big pool and she is loving that freedom and excitement! She has a huge smile on her face the whole time she is swimming. So fun.

Missing Pictures

This is where Alexis went for Horse Camp. The ranch has 43 horses that are boarded and used for riding lessons and camps. Alexis absolutely loved horse camp. She still asks to go again and she can't wait to take riding lessons. She never once was scared to get on her horse and ride alone. It's like she is one with horses.
This was the main horse she rode. His name is Phoenix and he can be a little cranky. He wasn't always easy to direct around. He did his own thing sometimes. Alexis got to ride three other horses too and she liked them a little better.
She won first place in the decorating your horse contest. She and her partner gave Phoenix green polka dots to make him look like a ladybug (I think they only had green paint) and they put his forelock in a ponytail. We thought that was why he was so grumpy. :)
Getting judged.

Here is one shot of the hideous wallpaper that has plagued my kitchen for a year.
The double nightmare that was our view from the family room. My friend Elizabeth got snuck into the picture. She and I took down the wallpaper together. It took us seven hours from start to finish. Amazingly I was not sore at all the next day. I was more sore after painting.
It looked way better plain white but even better when we painted it blue!
Ta da!! Doesn't it look great? I love walking into the kitchen now.


I have been reading Dacia's, Catie's, Julianne's, Alyssa's, and everyone else's blogs and I miss all of you! I wish everyone was close. I wish my family was close too. It's hard to be away from everyone around a holiday. At least we get to have Ben's brother and family here for the 4th and then we will go to PA for a wedding and then to Aunt Carmella's house for our usual zoo, beach, and chuckee chesse trips. We get so spoiled when we go to see Grandma Thomas and stay with Aunt Carmella and Uncle John. The girls have been talking about it for weeks!

Well, it took me over an hour to post these pictures and blog so I am going to go for now. Have a happy 4th of July everyone!

Got the Blues!

We have finally painted the kitchen! We went with a lovely blue color. It is a little bit darker than periwinkle. (ha, fooled you with the title!) It looks great! I will post pictures when I can. Our camera is not working properly at the moment. The lens won't open. So as soon as I figure out the problem I will post before and after pictures. It should be pretty dramatic.

As I am taping up the kitchen and rocking out to Billy Joel the girls are in their bedrooms behaving very nicely. After awhile Audrey comes into the kitchen to tell me she had an accident in her room but she is cleaning it up. This is very puzzling to me because her clothes are dry. Then she tells me she is making soup. In retrospect that should have been my clue. But I innocently think she was playing with her plastic food. A few minutes later Alexis comes into the kitchen and says that she thinks Audrey got into the cream in her room because her hands are messy and she is getting toilet paper wet to clean something up. So off I head to Audrey's room. I find three spice containers open and emptied into a plastic basket and all over her carpet. She had been trying to clean it up with wet toilet paper. Huh. Should have known better!!!!

The other excitement of the day was Audrey got a big bed. No more crib! We bought the mattresses last week and finally picked them up on Friday night. Out came the bed frame from the basement (I found two identical flower bed frames last summer) and on went the pink sheets. Then we found a bright pink soft, velvet blanket to cover her up at night. She has had a huge smile on her face all day because of her new bed. She absolutely loves it. Again, I will get a picture when the camera is working.

Now it is time to clean up my beautiful kitchen!!

Random Thoughts

Almost finished with the best parenting book ever. It's called The Parenting Breakthrough by Merilee Boyack. It is a must read for every parent or will be parent, so everyone!

Got a brillant idea today. In the book I've been reading, The Parenting Breakthrough, has really emphasized how important it is to instill good habits in kids while they are young. Especially reading scriptures and praying. It is also important for your kids to see you doing these things. So tonight we started a new routine. After our family scripture study and family prayers we got on my bed and we all read our own scriptures for ten minutes. Audrey looked at a scripture stories book and Alexis and I read the actual Book of Mormon. Then we all went to our rooms and said our personal prayers. It was such a wonderful way to put them to bed.

Nice day today. Went to a park. Alexis got to cantor (spelling?) on a horse named Velvet today all by herself. She learned about the parts of a horse today too. She also hid in some hay during hide and seek and broke out in a rash all over her body. Could she be any more allergic to grasses and such? We came home, took a shower, and put lotion all over her body. She doesn't itch as much now but for crying out loud!

Alright, enough of this. I'm tired!

Old World Wisconsin Pictures

About two weeks ago my mom and two aunts came to visit and we went to Old World Wisconsin. I think I blogged about it previously but I couldn't put any pictures up. The girls loved feeding this big, gentle, 16 year old oxen. They also fed some horses. I had to drag them away from that.
Audrey was particularly intrigued with spinning wool. She loved taking the wool and spreading it apart with these combs. I can't remember the name of the combs right now. Oh well. She really enjoyed that.
Alexis with her great-Aunts Chris and Barb.

I actually caught the one moment when the girls were getting along! Whohoo!

Alexis' allergies were horrible at Old World Wisconsin. Her poor face and eyes were swollen, red, and itchy. Poor thing. You can see how her face is swollen in this picture. At least I can tell! :)
Feeding the horses.

Audrey with her great-Aunts.
I absolutely love this photo. I think I could enter it into a photo contest. Isn't it pretty? You can say yes even if you don't think so. :)

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!!

Horse Camp
Tired and sweaty after first day of horse camp.
In the barn at horse camp.

Pile of wood chips.
Our strong oxen!
I'm almost there!

Do you like my funny face?
Getting a ride from Daddy.

Queen of the mountain of wood chips!

How cute are these two pictures of Audrey?

Peek-a-boo!
Tired after being an oxen for an hour and a half!

Horse Camp

Today was Alexis' first day of Horse Camp! It lasts all this week from 9-3. She has been so excited for this and frankly, so have I. She got to lead and ride a horse today. His name is Felix. He is brown with a black mane. She loved it. She played some games with the other kids and learned about taking care of horses. Tomorrow I heard the instructor say they will be learning the body parts of a horse. They get to ride everyday. She also learned the proper way to hold the reins. So fun. I did get a couple of pictures but of course I can't upload them yet.

We had a nice Father's Day. The girls and I made him a stepping stone to put in the yard. Audrey almost gave the surprise away but luckily she couldn't remember what it was called. The girls also made him cards. I gave him a greatest hits Billy Joel CD. He has been learning how to play a bunch of his songs on the piano so I thought it would be good to hear them too. I also put together a scrapbook of our Hawaii years. I titled it "How I Met Your Father." It tells how me met, of course, and all about our life in Hawaii. He really enjoyed that too.

Hope everyone had a good Father's Day too!

Wood Chips

Oh man! I am sooo tired! We got a whole bunch of wood chips delivered courtesy of Brown Deer (for a $40 fee of course) on Friday afternoon so guess what we have been doing the last two days? Yep, lugging it all around our ridiculously huge yard and flower beds. It really reminds me of how some people (the lady who used to live here) go WAY overboard when it comes to gardening! :) The girls were very helpful Friday night and this morning because Ben created a wonderful game out of it. He is just so clever. We got out two sleds, one for each girl. I loaded the sleds and the girls would be different animals and deliver it to Ben around the yard. Audrey was a lion, tiger, panda bear, snake, zebra, giraffe, oh the list goes on and on. Alexis pretty much stayed with an oxen and a clydesdale horse the whole time. They had animal sounds and would pass each other talking in their animal language. When they ran the load to Ben he would give them a ride back to the wood chip pile. They thought this was hysterical! I got a good picture of Audrey pulling a sled. The girls were all red and sweaty and dirty. It was glorious. We did the exact same thing this morning. Each time it took us an hour and a half. Then Ben and I went out again around 3pm. The girls were now tired of our fun game and either chased each other around in and out of the house or were fighting about something. I think it took us about six hours total. What a project! Good thing it's only once a year.

Well, we are excited for Father's Day tomorrow. Ben keeps trying to get Audrey to tell him what his presents are but she looks at him and says, "No, No, No." He won't even try to get Alexis to tell because it is a lost cause!

Alright, time for a shower and putting the girls to bed. Ah, finally a relaxing time of the day! :) Happy Fathers Day to everyone!

It's Been So Long!

Okay, I know, I know. I have been sadly lacking with writing on my blog. But I do have some really good excuses! For the last three weeks I have been swamped with Enrichment nights and family visiting.

First, we had our Visiting Teaching Appreciation Night. I was in charge of the food, setup, and I was in the play. Then my dad came into town! That was so great! He came on a Thursday afternoon. The girls were so excited. They had so much fun with their grandpa. On Friday I kept Alexis home from school and we all went to the zoo. It was a beautiful day for it, not too hot but nice and sunny. Audrey got to see the Oragatang (how do you spell that?) again. She thinks he is fascinating. Grandpa bought them popcorn and we rode the train. Maybe I can update some photos when my comptuer gets fixed! I am using Ben's work computer right now.

Grandpa then left for two days to go back to where he lived before he moved out to NV. While he was gone we had our good friends The Beetz' over. They have two kids and we usually get together once a month. This time we got together to strip my kitchen of the ugly wallpaper on it! It took Elizabeth and I seven hours from start to finish. Now the walls are white and it is a huge improvement! I have before and after pictures of this and someday I'll upload them. We need to do a little sanding and pick out a color. My goal is to finish it by the 4th.

On Memorial Day we went to Chocolate Fest in Burlington, WI. It was about an hour away and it wasn't worth it at all. I thought it was a bust. It was definitely more carnivalish than anything else. We did get to see a Yo-Yo artist though. The kids all loved that. We were sad to see my Dad go but we were sure glad to have him here.

After he left I had four days to get ready for a visit from my mom, my Aunt Chris, and my Aunt Barbara. They were on a three week trip and I was on their route so I got to spend some time with them. That was so fun because I haven't seen my Aunt's in several years. We went to Old World Wisconsin on Saturday. It was really neat. We spent five hours there and didn't have time to see everything. I have some amazing pictures from this day.

After my Mom and Aunts left I had two days to get ready for one of our four big Enrichment nights. It was a progressive dinner and the evening was entitled "An Incredible Journey." We went to three rooms. The first room was our pre-existence, the second room was our mortal journey, and the last room was eternity or celestial glory. We had speakers in each room. It was a lovely evening and the sisters were all really touched. Needless to say, I was exhausted Wednesday morning but it was off to playgroup at a really fun playground. Audrey had a great time playing with her friends and I got sunburned because the sun was deceptive!

Anyway, I have been busy but have had lots of fun. Alexis has one more week of school and then we have all sorts of fun planned and some trips planned too. I think that is a long enough update for now!

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Today was around 85 degrees! We got out the pool and invited friends over. We were outside all afternoon. It was so fun and such a nice way to spend the afternoon. Right before we started to blow up the pool Audrey got two fingers slammed in the door. Poor thing. She was trying to come inside right as a big gust of wind slammed the door shut. Her two little fingers are like sausages and all bruised. We don't think they are broken though. She is still using them and I took her to a friend's house just to make sure. My friends' husband is a doctor. Isn't that convienant?

I wish I could upload pictures! We are still trying to figure out why our home laptop isn't working. So until then you'll just have to picture things in your mind!

Friday night is our Primary Talent Night. Alexis is writing and illustrating a book and then she is going to read it. Audrey is going to sing "I Am A Child of God." Should be fun!

Back to the norm.

Well, I was hoping to post some fun pictures from my trip to Utah and some of the kids but our home laptop has broken! Blast! I am going to have to install my photo software onto Ben's work laptop and I will only have access to internet at night. We'll see how long I can stand this.

Anyway, I had a great time with Kathy at the BYU Women's Conference. We stayed up late every night talking, just like we were in college. We stayed in the dorms which was just funny to me. I did feel like we slept on prison cots though. We had flimsy mattresses on steel frames and one super thin brown blanket. Too funny.

We got to listen to some wonderful speakers and to the Hollands on Friday night. They gave a wonderful talk to us and really inspired me to be a better person with less guilt. They focused on how we treat ourselves. How we put too much pressure on ourselves and don't give ourselves enough credit.

We had a lovely dinner at Outback Steakhouse with some our girlfriends from Stanford. We saw Emily Spencer, Carrie McEntyre, and Camera Matosich. It was so fun! Kathy and I would like to make this an annual girls visit. How fun would that be?

I came back home to some seriously spoiled girls! Ben had so much fun with them. He took them to Chuck E Cheese, to see Meet the Robinson's in the theatre, to eat sushi, then they went bowling, and finally to get some ice cream! Alexis actually like the sushi and she loved shrimp (even though she thought it was chicken) but Audrey didn't like the sushi. They had such a great time with Dad. He took great care of them and he had them clean the house before I got home. What a wondeful husband I have!

The girls really had a great time with Amy and her kids, Hailey and Brady. Amy was so great with them and I sure had so much patience with four kids seven and younger! Audrey is the bosom buddies of Hailey and Brady now. It's so cute. So thank you Amy! You are awesome!

Well, I haven't been feeling very well the last couple of days and I am really tired so I am going to go now. Hopefully we can figure out this computer issue and I can get some pictures up soon.