Day 72

We get to have James and Janie over to play every Thursday morning. Jake and Lucy love it. This morning Lucy was reading to the boys. I love that she can read so well!

Day 71

Today I was able to stop using my crutches and start using this

It is nice to be mobile again. Even if it is with this hideous thing.

Day 70

I thought the expressions on the kids faces were funny. Lucy is holding a small frog.

Day 69

This morning when the kids left for school we made a plan for me to pick them up from school and head straight downtown to see some sites. Grace's friend Ashley had sent her a project that her class in Nebraska is doing called "Flat Stanley". The idea is to show "Flat Ashley" around the city you live in and then send her back home to report to the class what she saw. So we decided this would be a good day to get some pictures to send back to Nebraska. After school I picked up the kids and we realized we had forgotten a few things at home. So we made what was supposed to be a quick stop but what turned out to be a real downer. I was running in and out of the house in a hurry and ended up rolling my ankle on the stairs. It hurt really bad. I thought I should probably not go anywhere because it was so painful, but the kids were in the car, they were ready to go. So I put on a tennis shoe and tied it up really tight and headed out the door. Well, 2 hours later my foot was killing me and was nice and swollen. So we headed home and to make a long story short I ended up calling Jeff and Brenna to help me get to the ER for xrays and to take care of my kids while Aaron was in class. Results: Not broken but a severe sprain. I left the ER on crutches with the dr. telling me it was going to be this way for 4-6 weeks. Lesson learned: slow down.

Day 68

Today we started talking about Lucy's upcoming birthday. Can you believe she is turning 6? After dinner we watched some family videos of Lucy when she was little. I think it would be better if time slowed down a little. She is growing up too fast.

Day 67

We went raspberry picking today. Yummy.

Day 66

Jake and Janie are getting to be good friends. Jake likes to "take care" of her and she seems ok with that, most of the time. Have I mentioned we like living by cousins?

Day 65

Lucy has been catching butterflies in our front yard.

Day 64

Grace had to do a project for school called a "Me Collage". She had to put together a collage of things about her to present to the class. It was so fun doing this with her and I was again reminded of what a fun and happy girl she is! As we were going through pictures of her to put on the collage, these were a few of what she picked out.


Grace really wanted to talk to her class about her shopping trip in McCall with her girl cousins and Grandma! She loved that trip.

She is such a fabulous dancer.

Such a fun personality.

When her class saw this picture they thought it looked dangerous! Grace is turning into a great chef.

Day 63

Every day we get to walk to and from school. It is about 3/4 of a mile one way and at first the kids would complain the whole way. Now it has become "normal" and I find myself really enjoying this time with my kids. I get to talk to them without any distractions.

Day 62

Found these pictures on Grace's camera.

I could not get this picture to rotate. Oh well.

Day 61

Day 60

Tonight Aaron and I had cupcakes from a very popular little cupcake shop in Georgetown. We waited in a line for 40 minutes to place our order. We learned that this cupcake shop is the location for a reality show on TLC called "DC Cupcake." We ordered 6 cupcakes all different flavors and shared them....all. My personal favorite was the pb fudge. But the Salted Caramel, the Coconut, and the Key Lime were a close second.
Totally worth the 40 minute wait. If you come visit, I will buy one for you.

Day 59

Every Friday we celebrate the end of the school week with cookies.
We love cookie Friday!

Day 58

Growing into our barstools.

We have started having each of the kids take turns with helping me make dinner. I love it.

Day 57

The pep talk


Dad letting go

She did it!

Day 56

Grace has been helping me can tomato soup. I love having a helper in the kitchen.

Day 55

Noah was very excited this morning to learn that Monday's are only half days around here. He loved getting home just after lunch.

Day 54

New Beginnings...

Today we had our first invite to dinner from someone in our new ward. We had a fun time and look forward to meeting more people.

But we miss our Omaha friends.

Day 53

Today our kids learned that the ocean does not always look like they imagined it would. We went to Annapolis Maryland to see the Chesapeake Bay. It was beautiful and we had a great time on a paddle boat and also a good workout. But Noah was so disappointed because there was no beach! Even with all of our explaining he was still looking for a sandy beach and a big ocean with big waves.

Day 52

Today we learned 2 things.
1: It is kind of fun and exciting to take 4 kids on the metro downtown. But it is definitly not cost effective.

2: When one steals something from a Smithsonian Museum gift shop, one must return it. And that is hard.

Day 51

I think Jake is especially happy that Lucy has half day kindergarten. It is so nice for him to have a friend in the morning and he adores Lucy. After we take Lucy to the bus, he takes a nap and wakes up just in time to play with me for a little bit before going to get all the kids from school. I think he (and I) are liking this routine!

Day 50

Enjoying lunch before catching the bus.

Day 49

First Day of School!



Noah is in 5th grade. Grace is in 3rd. And Lucy is in Kindergarten!

Lucy is in half day afternoon kindergarten. I think it is just perfect for her. She gets to ride the kindergarten bus and has 2 friends on our street that are in her class.

Well, it finally happened. I think we may have been the last people on the planet to start school this year. And I am not sure there are many kids who can say they had a summer that lasted 4 months! We have had one busy summer that at times seemd never ending. But here we are, finally starting school.

Days 40-48

The next 8 days were a whirlwind of events. My Mom helped me get my house pulled together during the week and then on Friday my sister Wendy and her husband Gary came for a visit! My Dad returned the next night and we had fun celebrating his birthday with him. We have six fun filled days with everyone and we were busy for all of it. Here are a few pictures of the week.


Aaron's Aunt Kathy was in town and stopped by for a quick visit.


A day at the National Zoo



The panda was especially fun to watch.




A free concert by the National Symphony Orchestra that was truly amazing. We were also able to spend some time with my cousin Richard and his wife Jo.



And the grand finale.....BSU VS Virginia Tech. I would like to think that all of these family members came all the way from Idaho just to see me. But something tells me they were actually coming for this big game. We had a lot of fun with everyone and hope we can get them all to come again. Is BSU playing here any time soon???