It's Been A While

It's been a while since I have blogged anything. I am so glad that I decided to post something tonight, because while I was searching for my cord to download pictures from my camera, I found my checkbook. I have been looking for it all week. I will sleep better tonight with that cleared from the back of my mind.

We have had a great couple of months. The highlight was a visit from my sisters and three of my nephews. We went to the zoo, saw a movie, did some cosmic bowling, sewed matching pajama pants for all, and just had a great time. Thank you so much for coming ! Here is a picture of all of the kids at the zoo.


This next picture is of Will blowing out his birthday candles. It is hard to believe that he is seven now. I am not sure why he doesn't have a shirt on. He didn't want a cake. I even offered to buy a nice ice-cream cake. He wanted a puff pancake filled with ice-cream. It was alright, probably not as good as an ice-cream cake.


And here is a picture of Aud today, dirty face and all. She is a speed walker now and gets into everything. Her hair has grown a lot lately and she is sporting a great faux hawk, slight mullet look. Fortunately, she is cute enough to pull it off.


And a picture of kitty-cat Sophie on Halloween. She loved trick-or-treating and figured out that she could get extra treats by being flirty at each door. Yikes. You can also see our new bedroom wall color in this picture. It is a huge improvement and we now have a large mirror in that big empty wall space there. I will have to post another picture.


I had planned to post more but it takes a while to up-load pictures and I am not feeling patient. I am excited for Thanksgiving this week. I bought all of the ingredients for our feast today. We asked the kids if they wanted pizza instead of turkey or if they wanted to go to a nice restaurant instead of eating here and they insisted that they wanted the traditional thanksgiving meal at home. It is a nice tradition. We have so many blessings for which to give thanks.

Now on Display

Today after school, we went to the local museum. They have a display of local artists right now and included a few pieces from the elementary school. One of William's paintings from last year was selected for the display. It is called "Under the Sea".



Then we had Cub Scout Pack Night and Landon was awarded his Wolf Badge. Way to go guys!

"Twinners"

Last Sunday morning, Sophie decided that her white blouse looked like my white blouse and that if we both wore our boots and denim skirts, we could be "twinners". Well how could I say no to that. Landon took the crooked pictures and they really opened my eyes to the fact that I need to paint and re-decorate our space here. I really never expected us to be in this house this long. Stay tuned for more on that. We need to do the bathrooms and the master bedroom first.

Henry Doorly Zoo

Saturday morning, after the boys soccer games, we headed up to Omaha, Nebraska to the Henry Doorly Zoo. This is a great zoo. The animals have a lot of room to roam. We have been so busy lately. We needed a good family day.

Here are the kids with an orangutan statue. The real orangutans there are awesome. We stood and watched a few of them for about 30 minutes. One orangutan had a long stick that he was using to reach through the fence and pick up popcorn that people had dropped. He was very skilled and patient.


Here is Sophie with some rhinos in the far background. My pictures from the day aren't very good. I am not so skilled and patient. Maybe I should have let the orangutan give it a shot.


Here is Audrey reaching for a butterfly in the butterfly exhibit. She really enjoyed the whole day. I can hardly believe that she will be a year old this week.


And here is one of the boys in the jungle exhibit. Come and see us, family and friends. We'll take you to the zoo.

These boots were made for walking

Thanks for the great boots, VanFleet Family. Sophie LOVES them and would sleep in them if I would let her.

Memories

The kids had picture day this week at school. Remember what that was like. "What should I wear?" Here are some classic yearbook photos from my family.


















LOL. My friend Amanda did this on her blog and I got such a kick out of it that I copied her. I wanted to yearbook more of you, but I have already wasted more time than I care to admit on this nonsense.

Did anyone guess them all?

Back To School

Sophie's first day of pre-school.



And here they are after school. All three of them go to the same school this year. Landon will be at the Middle School next year, so this will probably never happen again.


The kids going back to school is definitely bittersweet. It is good to get back into routines and learning, but I am going to miss them. And I can't believe Sophie is old enough for pre-school. That happened way too fast. But she loves it. No turning back. The boys enjoyed their first day too. What will Aud and I do?

Cute Sophie Quote: "And mom, we went to recess. Recess is the name of the park that lives by the school."

Lots of Pictures From Our Trip Part II

A few more from Southern California







Baby Samuel's Blessing Day






Bear Lake, Utah