A New Roof and A Fieldtrip

This is the only picture I could find of the front of the house with our old roof. If you look to the right you can see how some of the shingles are curling up.
No curling shingles! I think it looks so nice!
A closer view. I must say this isn't nearly as impressive as it is up close.

This is a picture of the old roof in the back of the house. Again, look to the right and see the curling shingles.
Ha! Looks great!
One last view. I'm a little excited about this. But seeing as how we have had almost a week of this process it is really exciting to have it finished and safe for the kids to go out in the yard again. That was a killer. I couldn't let them play outside because of the nails and junk around the house.

Audrey had a field trip today for preschool. They went to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. I decided to be a chaperon and take pictures. The class split up into two groups so the kids you see in the following pictures are only half of her class.
Pretending to eat an acorn like a squirel.
Doing the hokey pokey while waiting for the other group. Audrey wouldn't participate because she was hungry and wanted me to pick her up. At my refusal she rebelled and sat out of the group. I bet she would never have acted that way if I hadn't been there! That's the price I pay being a chaperon!

These aren't the best pictures but the best ones I could get. The kids got to see a baby snapping turtle and touch him. The little girl to the right of me did NOT like the turtle. She hid half behind me saying, "I don't like that turtle. I don't want to touch it!" It was hysterical. It was such a small turtle! Audrey of course had no fear. She loved touching it.
They also got to touch a snake. You can imagine what the little girl next to me thought of this! :)
Audrey was one of only about six kids (out of 16) who wanted to feel the snake crawl across her legs. The next picture tells you loud and clear what she thought of it!
She probably would have let the snake slither all over her if they allowed it!
Taking our nature walk. It was a fun morning and great to be outside. It was cooler but I love being outside in crisp, cool air. So invigorating and refreshing!

Fun weekend

While my Mom and Dad were here this weekend we had a Church activity. It was a Harvest Fest. It was lots of fun. There was apple bobbing, a cupcake walk, bean bag toss, fishing for prizes, doughnut eating on strings, food, and dessert. The girls had so much fun. Alexis loved the apple bobbing. It took her about 10-15 mintues to get her apple but she wouldn't stop until she got one. She ended up with a soaked face and hair. Audrey wanted to try but couldn't sink her teeth in the apple enough to pick it up. I helped her out with that one.

I am so proud of myself for getting a picture of my parents. They don't like getting their picture taken, especially my mom, but I forced them to! I have started a Family picture wall in the house and I have Ben's parents picture and all the kids on his side of the family. Now I have this picture and hopefully I can get a family picture from all of my and Ben's siblings to hang. Then I can switch out the pictures every year and keep updated pictures up.
Audrey fishing.
Audrey getting her prize from fishing. She was thrilled.
Alexis pointing out some candy to Audrey. Don't waste any!
Audrey reading with Grandpa. Grandpa was the designated scripture and story reader at bedtime. This is a precious routine for Audrey and she loved having Grandpa read to her. Last night I reminded Audrey to say her prayers and she said, "Mom, you're making me responsible and angry!" I couldn't help laughing out loud.

Meanwhile, we have been getting a new roof. It has been finished tonight and it looks great. It's taken two full days and two half days. I am glad there will no longer be any pounding because I have had a headache for the last four days! It doesn't want to go away which is really cramping my style! But we have a brand new roof and it's gorgeous!

Chicago Fun

We have been having fun with Granny for the last couple of days. Yesterday we took Granny down to Chicago to meet up with Grandpa who has a conference in Chicago for two days. It was 88 degrees but we walked all around anyway. The girls were troopers. Their faces were beet red after walking a half mile so we went to the Buckingham Fountain to cool off.
The wind was blowing the water all around and we all enjoyed getting really wet to cool off.

Alexis saw this statue and of course we had to take a picture in front of it because it is a horse of course.

We walked to the Art Institute of Chicago and found out that the main entrance is being completely remodeled. We would need to walk all the way around the block to enter but the place was closing in 25 minutes and we wouldn't make it. It also wasn't the free day as we were told. Alexis was really disappointed because she wanted to go in so badly. The security guard we were talking to walked us into the building from the remodeled entrance and let us in for free. He was so nice. We only had 25 minutes but we saw the minature rooms in the Art Institute. It was very cool.

Grandpa and Grandma Thomas' Visit

I have finally finished uploading all my pictures to my computer and thought I would post some from Drew and Carolyn's visit in August. We had a great time with them. We went to the Botanical Gardens on a beautiful Saturday morning. It was so pretty. You can see which flowers where my favorite. The girls mostly enjoyed the big fish we found in various little pools of water all around the gardens.

For some reason I love red and yellow flowers. I love the colors mixed together in flowers but not in clothing, fabrics, paint, etc. Weird.
I love how the edges look pointy and sharp but really they are softest flowers and have lots of detail on them.

I really love these bell flowers. I have some in my backyard that bloom in the Spring.
I got a lot of these kind of shots. The girls running down some pathway or across a bridge.

Finally Some Pictures!!!

I finally uploaded all my pictures to my computer and thought I would post a couple. This one is when the girls made two kitty beds. They love to be cats and make all sorts of beds around the house. But laundry baskets always make the best beds!
We went to the Milwauke Public Museum a while back. They have this awesome butterfly exibit. We spent about a half hour in it. The girls loved holding the butterfly's on their fingers.


Well, my Mom is here this week with us. I picked her up today at O'Hare. I encountered terrible traffic and spent five hours in the car. Blah! But it's all worth it because now my Mom is here and we are going to have a lovely week. Tomorrow we are going to work on Geneology. Basically Mom is going to teach me how to do it and give me some assignments to work on. Then we are going to be sewing an apron, three kid travel pillows, and rice bags. We have lots of work to do! Should be fun though.

Knitting Time

I was going to upload a whole bunch of pictures tonight but I went to Knit Night tonight and now I want to practice! So now I will just update some info on the girls and then go sit and practice my knitting. Alexis and I have a knitting project to do together and we are both excited!

Anyway, Alexis and Audrey are still both loving school. Alexis loves her teacher. Her teacher brought her dog into the classroom for show and tell. Alexis wrote about it in her journal. She is also obsessed about getting all her homework done and making sure I sign all her papers. She is such a perfectionist when it comes to school work.

Audrey spent the afternoon putting various toys into ziplock bags. She also has become my helper in the kitchen. She loves to pour, mix, stir, anything I will let her do. She is really fun to have around during the day.

Well, now I off to practice knitting. I made an eye patch tonight. Such an accomplishment! :)

I Have Been Tagged

My sister-in-law Lori has tagged me. Here are my responses. I hope you learn a few new things about me!

Jobs I've held:
1. Wife, mother, homemaker extraordinare
2. Day Care Provider (I ran my own business out of our Stanford apartment for four years).
3. English Tutor to high school students all over the Bay Area in CA.
4. Housing Assistant at BYU-H.
5. Office worker at Western Mining Corp. (I did everything from photocopying, running errands, map splicing, filing, to organzing at my Dad's office all through high school. It was an awesome job and paid deliciously well.)
6. Tourist Shop Assistant in Virginia City, NV (I think I worked here for a week. I hated the shop, the people, everything about it.)
7. Babysitter, Dog sitter, House sitter (I made up flyers and sent them all over my neighborhood starting in seventh grade. I did all three listed previously for a lot of our neighbors. Again, a sweet gig. Totally easy to dog sit or house sit and I got paid nicely.)

Places for a Weekend Getaway:
Anyplace that has a nice bed, a tv, a pool, food nearby, and most importantly, my husband with me.

Guilty Pleasures:
1. Spending an entire day reading. (This is my favorite. I might occasionally have to fed some children but they can pretty much do everything else for themselves!)
2. Going out to movies by myself. I absolutely love sneaking off to a movie by myself right after I put the girls to bed. Or better yet, leave right before the bedtime rituals start and make Ben do all the work!

Movies I could watch over and over:
1. A&E version of Pride and Prejudice
2. Any season of Alias
3. What About Bob? (Ben and I love to watch this together. We often talk to each other like Bob does to his therapist. It never fails to produce laughing fits. Especially if we use his quotes during arguments or out of the blue.)
4. 13 Going on 30
5. Ella Enchanted
6. Ever After
I'll stop now before I get too carried away. I love to rewatch movies. I am going to buy Transformers when it comes out on DVD and watch it everyday!

Places I've lived:
1. Sanger, CA
2. Sonora, CA
3. Evergreen, CO
4. Virginia City, NV
5. Laie, HI
6. Nealtecan, Mexico
7. Roseville, MN
8. Stanford, CA
9. Shorewood, WI
10. Minneapolis, MN
11. Brown Deer, WI
Now, can anyone beat this impressive list? Lori, you sadden me with your three entries! :)

What was likely the first thing you thought of when you saw your husband for the first time?
My version is different from his but it was probably that he was funny and a little odd. We were in French class. My first day of class at college and I was late and sat by him because there was an empty seat and it was close to the door. We had to write down some info about ourselves and share it with the class. He put down and read that his favorite person or hero or movie or something was Hulk Hogan. He read it totally serious and everybody believed him. That should have been a big clue for me! Besides that I noticed his great curly hair and his really toned body! :)

Places I've Been on Vacation:(I'm including anywhere I have traveled to)
1. Orlando, FL (family vacation to DisneyWorld)
2. Austraila (got recruited to run in the Sydney City to Surf Race in high school).
3. Mexico
4. Portland, OR (have lots of family up that way)
5. Austin, TX (my wonderful and beautiful sister lives here).
6. I have been to too many other states to list them all here. A lot I have driven through.

Favorite Foods:
Mexican and Italian Food

If in a "jam" with your spouse what are your tactics to get out of the "doghouse"?
I am NEVER in the doghouse.

Websites I visit daily:
1. MSN to check weather and lame news.
2. My blog
3. All my friends blogs

Best first Kisses landmarks:
Alright, this will top everyone else's that you have ever read. Ben and I had our first kiss over the altar in the sealing room at the St. George Temple.

Places I would rather be right now:
I am getting really ansy to get back to Hawaii.
Since it is dinnertime, anywhere but here!

Now I get to pick 3 blog friends to tag:
1. Peggy
2. Amy
3. Kim

I believe I will add the following to tag: all who read my blog! HA!

School

Well, it has happened again. Alexis has gone back to school and is now gone most of the day. Audrey and I miss her. Audrey usually asks around 10:30am if we can go and pick up Alexis. Then she asks again after lunch and sometimes once more before we pick Alexis up at 3:45pm. With Alexis starting second grade I am feeling old. You see, most of my friends and my siblings are still 25. At least that is where I have frozen everyones ages. I don't plan on changing their ages until we are all 40. Then we will all move to the 35 age category. Not that I mind how old I am. It's just easier thinking I am still that young. It makes me feel like I have all the time in the world to complete all of my life endeavors. Plus I feel like I have more energy if I think of myself at that age. This is the first year that the school has asked the parents to just drop their kids off. No more walking Alexis to her classroom. Sigh. I liked that part. Audrey did too.

Audrey has started preschool again. She just loves it. After I picked her up the first day she asked if we could pick Alexis up. I said no because she doesn't get out of school until much later. Audrey asked why. I told her that once she starts Kindergarten she goes to school all day. She looked straight at me and said, "Oh. Well, I don't want to go to THAT school!" I thought that was so funny. Audrey has been trying to keep herself busy this week. I think it will take a few weeks for her to settle into having the house to herself. She and Alexis have been such playmates all summer. Especially throughout August since Ben and I were both sick or hurt all of that month.

Allergies

Well, Ben had a bunch of allergy testing on Friday afternoon. He is allergic to almost everything. He is severely allergic to cats, dogs, guniea pigs, molds (tree molds), and dust mites. Our lives are about to completely change because of this. We have to send Henry to another home. The girls were sad at first and now they are trying to figure out what kind of pet they can have that Daddy won't be allergic to. After we get rid of Henry we have to have all our air ducts cleaned. Then I have to order special mattress and pillow encasings that keep dust mites out. I have to wash all our sheets once a week, more if possible, in hot water. I will have to do a serious, complete dusting job every week. Now, for those of you who are not aware, I hate dusting. I especially hate it with this house because we have wood floors everywhere and they are hard to keep dust free. They are hard to keep clean period. I hate them with a passion. Anyway, this all so annoying. I suppose the positive is that I should always have a really clean house.

Last Pictures from PA Trip

We took several of these shots. I put them all on the blog because I thought they were all funny. Someone is doing something silly in all of the pictures. I had to bribe Audrey with ice cream to get her to smile in the pictures.

This was at ChuckECheese. The girls had so much fun here. I think Thomas did too! :) We were trying to get all the kids together to put in a photo book for Aunt Carmella. It was pretty dificult between Audrey turning to face the wall, Thomas crying/fussing (isn't Alexis doing a bang up job of holding onto him?), and Abby trying to army crawl back toward the adults (she had just learned that right before our trip at MY house! Yipee).
Audrey and Corinne. Audrey was practicing twirling a baton while Corinne gave her pointers.
Alexis and Corinne. Alexis and Audrey both love Corinne. They usually let her do anything with them.
I find these pictures very entertaining. Lily's expressions in these pictures are hilarous!
Now this is our favorite picture of Lily. I was laughing so hard when I saw in on our tv. If you can enlarge the picture you will not stop laughing. She is the second one in on the left. I believe Ben wants it as his screen saver. :)

The next pictures are from ChuckeeECheese as well.



Well, that concludes my pictures from our wonderfully fun trip to PA. I hope you all enjoyed them! Don't forget there are two more entries with pictures from this trip!