4 First Trips to the Capitol

Well, we finally made it to Washington D.C. two weekends ago! Such a fun trip! Andy had a conference there, so the kids and I tagged along to hang out with an old friend. We played and toured and, of course, ate! First, we saw (accidentally) Iwo Jima. Love this. Of course, I started crying and couldn't tell the kids anything about it. Remember this from 8th grade history class and Coach McCalpin. Across the street from the Arlington Cemetary. The Capitol! We were on the side with the construction. It was cold and windy and we were hustling (after finding a parking spot) because dinner reservations were quickly approaching!

Beautiful. Beautiful! This is my friend, Hollie, who lives in Virginia and was our hostess and our guide for the weekend! This is me 37 weeks pregnant.

Visiting the Jefferson Memorial. Again, more tears from Lindsey. So beautiful and such a peaceful, spiritual atmosphere! This cutie baby is Sadie, who was very entertained by my three kiddos. I think she was only over-stimulated 3 or 4 times!

FDR's site. This was a cool hidden area that wasn't very well publicized, but was on the way back to the car. I loved this! Think it was my favorite part - filled with waterfalls and brass people. The kids loved running around (still amazed by how child-friendly DC is) and I cried (again) at all the beautiful quotes. In 8th grade, I had to do a research report in English for the teacher that only wore purple (what was her name???). I knew so little about history and just randomly picked FDR. I think the information I learned about him was the only thing I learned in class that year...

Lunch at a little garden across the street from the Museum of Natural Science.

Loved the museum! LOVED the rocks. The kids had so much fun picking out their favorites! However, my feet were so incredibly swollen, Emily was done walking, so we made this the end of the city stuff.

Yummy restaurants! I told Hollie I wanted to eat at DC type restaurants. (Like living in Texas and we take people to get BBQ from a gas station) Thursday night we went to the Founding Farmers. Fabulous! I want to go back there and order grilled cheese; it was simply amazing. Everything was good, but some things were incredible! I also had my first fried green tomatoes, which Ben loved! Friday we stopped at The Dairy Godmother for rich creamy custard and atmosphere. Saturday we had lunch at the 5 Guys, a hamburger place where you get to throw peanuts on the floor. Seriously - so much fun!!

Friday afternoon the kids tried to catch tadpoles in the pond near Hollie's house. No success, but I got some fabulous pictures!

Again, Sweet Sadie never lacking for entertainment. She has a huge smile that the kids loved to get from her!

Saturday Ben got to play with Jozsef, Hollie's husband. Ben now thinks he has a new best friend! They played chess.

And Lego Batman on the XBox 360 (with Andy until he left for another part of his conference).

The girls entertained (tormented) Sadie and dressed her up.

Then we had a short guitar show before heading to lunch and the National Pier.

We had a little car trouble as we were leaving lunch; for some reason the car door wouldn't close! We called patient Jozsef to come and fix it for us. While we were working on that, Andy finished up and came to meet us. Again, Sadie with her biggest fans in the girl car!

Ben and Jozsef in the boy car.

Saturday was the most beautiful day!!! The boys played football on the grass while Annie and Emily climbed on another statue and Hollie and I sat and talked. Such a relaxing afternoon!

We took a water taxi ride from where ever we were to the National Pier (I think?). This is just better documentation that Andy was actually with us.

The boys kept the kids busy climbing on statues while Hollie and I walked around for a few minutes to look in the shops.

Waiting for our water taxi (after almost boarding the incorrect taxi for an anniversary party, complete with a buffet).

Enjoying the wind rushing through their hair. What a peaceful way to travel...

Our last few minutes playing - more football, per Ben's request. Sadie got to join in the game this time - with cute Emily right next to her!

Super fun 3 days away from the real world! Thanks Hollie and Jozsef for being such wonderful hosts! The kids would like to come back 'next weekend!'

Surprise!!!

Wednesday is our church playgroup. Last week was my turn to host. I was running a little bit behind (finishing sanding a dresser and then showering), so I didn't get the house completely cleaned up like I would for a normal hosting of this activity. I was also getting everything packed for our trip the next day and had to prioritize. Thus, all counters filled with stuff, dishes filling the sink, etc. I figured people could just look past that. Well, 9:30 came and went. 9:45 - I'm dressed and ready and quickly sweep from after breakfast. Then, it seems like most of the people show up at one time. With food. And presents. Surprise!!! We had a fun baby shower...for me! I, of course, had no make up on and started tearing up a bit (welcome to pregnant world).

After make up - before food. I have to say, I think this was the most fun playgroup we had yet! Angie emailed everyone and got it all set up. (After having to reschedule it from the week before because I went on the field trip with Annie's class. Oops!) A bunch of people came that don't always make it out. We just had a great time chatting and eating while the kids ran around. It was a beautiful day, so a bunch of the boys played outside.

Very very fun!!! Thanks for planning and organizing! Baby will love all the treasures! I love all the friends!!!

Ice Skating: Round 2

Well, since Annie loved ice skating so much, everyone wanted to try it. Since additional children were 20% off, I said SURE! Emily had a blast. She is extremely cautious on the ice and loves to have the teachers help her. She is very sure and focused with each task she is asked to do.

Annie's class was extremely disappointing. I even went and complained during one class because I was so frustrated; that turned into a private 10 minute lesson for Annie, which was awesome! She had come to the the point that class wasn't even fun anymore. That would be because they didn't learn ANYTHING. I'm pretty positive she regressed through this class. 3 teachers and 7 kids - would make sense to break the kids up a little bit according to ability. Instead, the teachers spent 25-30 minutes of each class helping the 3 children that could not balance and walk across the ice. Annie spent most of her time skating back and forth between Ben's class and Emily's class. I tried to get her moved to the next class up, but she wasn't able to do all the skills for that class (lacking one of them). Shockingly (insert large amounts of sarcasm here), they didn't once go over that skill in the rest of her time in her class! GRRR!!! Talking the last day to some of the other parents, several were very frustrated with this one class. However, I will stop complaining here because Annie did come off the ice each time with a smile on her face. That is the important part!!!

Ben thinks ice skating is about who can skate the fastest. Those 'other things they teach you' aren't as important as SPEED (things like stopping and turning). He had a few kids in his class from school and had a great time racing with the other boys. The second to last week in class, they taught them a hockey stop, which he thought was pretty cool. Everything was great until the last week, after testing, when he found that he doesn't get to move on to the next level. It was pretty traumatic for this little 7 year old. We talked a lot about making sure we practice all the different skills. He passed everything except the forward and backward v things. I told him I would be shocked if he had come out and skated for 6 classes and was able to master all of the skills - that just isn't reasonable. Yesterday, he asked if ice skating was tonight. I told him classes were over. With a smile on my face, I reminded him of his previous statement that he was NEVER going to ice skate again!!! He laughed and said he'd like to try again.

So, maybe next January will find us again at the rink each Wednesday afternoon...

Annie-isms

Love 'watching' the kids' minds figure things out. Here are two examples of how Annie is developing and some of her thought processes.

1. She was telling me a story about something that happened at school. One of the people was a little boy in her class. I asked if it was the black boy. "No, Mom, he's brown - not black!"

2. This morning while reading scriptures, the plan of salvation was referenced. I stopped and asked the kids what the plan of salvation is. No answer. Okay, so who's plan is it? "Heavenly Father's" Correct. So, basics of the plan, we lived with Heavenly Father and Jesus before we came to Earth. We came to Earth to get a body and be tested. After we die, we will get our bodies back and live with them again if we prove ourselves worthy. Annie's comment, "Can we live with them in Texas?" Andy's response, "Well, we'll live on the earth again, so maybe it will be in Texas." That seemed to be okay. She would like Grandma's cat, Moses, to be there as well. ***I didn't have time to tell her that Texas really IS part of Heaven.***

Kindergarten Field Trip

Annie's class went to NickaJack Farms for a field trip last week. Emily and I were lucky enough to go with them. We had a FABULOUS time! We had a 40 minute hayride, complete with stopping at a pumpkin patch and talking about how pumpkins grow. (No, didn't put me into labor, but it was MIGHTY uncomfortable at times!) We got to pet some of the animals. Annie was VERY brave trying to touch everything, especially the apaca named bandit.

I think all of the kids loved playing in this pit filled with corn kernels. It actually looked really fun, except for the handful of kids that kept throwing the kernels! The girls loved burying each other.

Then they played on a giant playground. No pictures of Annie though; she was inside the teepee with a bunch of little girls from her class.

Then, they each got to pick the perfect pumpkin to take home!

Funniest thing: Emily thinks she is equal with the kids in Annie's class. So, when they lined up to take a class picture, Emily just assumed she was welcome also! (Thankfully we were running behind a little bit so they also got pictures without the stowaway.) When Em jumped in, Annie's cute teacher said they needed another picture with Emily. Then she had all the kids say, "We love you, Emily." It completely made her day. She's been with me a few times to their room to be the Mystery Reader, having lunch with Annie, and seeing Ben. The kids are all so intrigued by Annie's 'baby' sister! It's quite comical. A couple of them also liked to pat my tummy... Cute, busy, BIG class!

I tried and tried to get the girls to look at me cute, but the sun was so bright (unusual here), they couldn't look at me without squinting. So, they gave each other High 5 instead. Fun field trip; so glad we made it!

Some 20-21 Year Old Boys

These are two of our favorite missionaries that we've worked with in Ohio. Andy is the Ward Mission Leader and meets/talks with them a few times each week. The elder on the right is Elder Thornton who has been here longer. I love how completely straight-forward he is and honest almost to a fault. He will also throw the football for Ben a few times if he's playing outside when they come to store/pick up things from the garage. (Andy thinks he's a little brother and teases him accordingly...) Alas, we've been telling him for months about DoughBoys that we do on the fire. They had a few minutes to burn one night after an appointment and came to our fire. He isn't so great roasting (not a skill he learned in Idaho), so Andy did his for him. (Elder Haines on the left could hold his own.) They came inside to fill their DoughBoys with nutella, pie filling, honey, cinnamon/sugar, whipping cream and toffee bits. Elder Haines ate his the typical way.

Elder Thornton ate it in two bites! I don't know how he even tasted it! What the camera didn't capture was a little 22 month old standing in the doorway staring at the messy eater with HUGE eyes! Ahh, the joys of food!

Happy Birthday!

My sister's birthday is the first day of October. I had a great idea to make her a gift this year, with help from the munchkins. Emily (whom I don't trust AT ALL around candy) was deemed the photographer - thus the stellar pictures! I covered two wreaths with black duct tape, and then we were ready to work together! Ben and Annie each had a wreath (two different shapes because I didn't know what would work better). I had the glue gun. I put down glue; they put on the candy corn. Very fun!!! I was surprised that neither of them got bored and wanted to leave the activity, even after we'd been doing it for 30 minutes! It actually required a bit of concentration as they had to turn the candy corn different directions in each loop.

Super cute and very fun. However, I never made it to the post office. And then I left one down that my little candy-snitcher picked at (and ate - yuck!). Then the other wreath didn't fit into the padded envelope I bought. So - Aunt Jamie, enjoy the pictures; we'll figure something different out for your birthday. BUT - this totally would have been on time had I had a bigger box and driven those few precious minutes to the post office. At least we think of you each time we see the wreath hanging on the back door (as my reminder to send this silly package to you!)!!!

Coconut Fun

For some reason, Ben has really wanted to buy a coconut to cut open. One day I had to run quickly into the grocery store. Ben brought $3 with him to buy a coconut! We couldn't cut it open that day, so it sat above the fridge for a week until we had time to enjoy it. Finally, last Sunday, we cut it open! He and Andy drilled a hole in the top and got out the 4 oz of liquid. Apparently the milk was still sweet (I wasn't brave enough to try it). The best part was after Andy cut it in half with his machete! We scooped out the meat and all enjoyed that. Then, Andy and Ben got out my trusty Pampered Chef tool and shredded it to have on our dessert that night!

Everybody loves COCONUT!!!

Someday when we get to go to Puerto Rico and have Andy take us around, we can really drink from a coconut and all Ben's dreams will be realized!

Project Time

This is our kitchen table that I have wanted to refinish for a LONG time. It's been well-loved over the years and was passed to us from my parents. It's a nice sturdy table, just needs some TLC. For a week or so, I looked at How-to blogs and had a few discussions with Andy. This was my first DIY home-project. Typically, those are left to Andy as his patience with projects is much more extensive (I just want to get them done; he does all the prep and the steps to do it correctly). I think we were both a little bit nervous about my undertaking, but that's okay! This is my friend who gave me the confidence to do this project! She refinished her coffee table (and LEGS), so we both worked and sanded each morning for a week while the kiddos ran around and ate Lucky Charms.

So, the first morning I was sanding, my mind wandered a bit. At that same moment in Utah, my Aunt Virginia was being buried. 3 of my siblings were at the funeral while I was across the country in Ohio, sanding a table. Aunt Virginia really deserves her own post, another day, but the majority of my memories of her have to do with sanding and wood-working projects. The smell and the sounds of the sander made me feel included in the celebration of her life. It was a neat experience, and I'm sure she was one of the angels helping me with this project!!!

Here is our finished, shiny, smooth kitchen table. It's beautiful! But, now the chairs and legs are looking a little bit shabby... It was a fun project, and I felt so accomplished when it was done. Andy did the finishing touches of the polyeurothane as the stink would have put me over the edge, and he's a bit more careful. :) Happy day! Now I move on to the next project....sewing!

Oh, yes, and many thanks to the men at Home Depot who were so patient with Emily and I as we asked lots of questions, especially to the man who told me to meet him at the paintbrushes while he got the steel-wool and gloves for me. I think I was waddling just a little bit that day...

hAPPY bIRTHDAY TO mE

My birthday fell on Labor Day this year, which equaled a day off of school!We went to a ward breakfast while Andy studied. Then I had a nap. Then Andy and I went to Chili's for lunch and walked around the mall. That evening we had Cookie Bouquet cookies and Blue Bell ice cream. (We'd had a big law school thing at our house 2 days prior, so the house was full of treats, and with the 3rd birthday in 4 weeks, I decided to forgo the whole cake thing this year.)Sharing the cookie with the kiddos!