Family Night

Before we went on our trip we had a fun Family Night with the kids. Earlier in the day I needed the kids to be busy doing something, so I let them make pumpkin bread (from a box mix). They really did it all by themselves except pouring the mix into the pans. Later, I thought it would be fun for them to deliver the bread to a friend.
Olivia chose Milles of course, but Sam wanted to do Miles so Olivia let him deliver Miles bread.

Olivia chose another friend, Lilly.

We chose Chloë's friend, Derek.

And Daniel chose his home teaching companion, Justin.

Everyone had fun that night!

day 1

This is my first dinner as an official non-eater of meat. Something has happened to me over the past few years and I cannot stomach meat, chicken, pork, and some fish. Last week I reached my limit of meat intake and I am done with it all!* Below is my first try with red lentils.
They are pretty good.
I hope my family does not mind the change!

*I will eat some meats if my stomach is up for it and it is high in quality.

Lulu can almost walk

That is the good news. The bad news is that she will probably take her first good steps while we are in Spain! I will be so sad to miss them. Hopefully Grandma Ann will catch them on the camera.



I love you Lauren. You have the cutest laugh. I am going to miss you.

Is this a journal or not....

I always say I want this to have more journal entries, but I never do it. So here are two thoughts...

First, Daniel is the Elder's quorum president in our ward. So he likes us to have new move-ins over once a month for dinner. Last weekend we had three families over for hamburgers. We had a great time. Daniel is getting really good at the grill! Anyway I am sharing this story for a reason. We were almost out of ketchup so I went into the garage to get more ketchup. It happened to be Organic. (I bought it b/c the label was pretty) So I set it on the table and said, "Oh, here is the Organic ketchup!" Then one of the wives jumped out of her chair, reached across the table, and said, "OH THANKS!" Now here is what I am thinking... You mean someone cares about Organic ketchup. With all the other JUNK we have on the table how is Organic ketchup going to change things!! I mean really, to me ketchup in itself screams anti-organic. .... But I did feel really bad about how excited she was about the Organic Ketchup that I made a quick recovery talking about the differences in the levels of Organic. It is very fascinating... certified organic, organic, locally grown organic.
In case you didn't catch it... I am not politically correct about the whole 3rd breast issue!

Just so you know the end of the story, I visit teach this girl and we hit it off great!

The other thing I wanted to enter in my "journal" is that I am SO EXCITED. Daniel and I are going to SPAIN in 8 days! I am finishing up last minute items, such as getting from the airport to our first hotel! FUN FUN. Actually I do LOVE this kind of task.

Family picture...NOT

We tried. Thanks, Todd and Spencer.




As you can see, Daniel looked great in every photo!
"Oh he's so handsome"
(recognize that phrase?...it is the little rabbit in Robin Hood)

Lula's bath

Lula is getting so big. Bath time is still her favorite part of the day. She screams when it is over in protest!

We all love having Dory around. If I am out with the kids they say, "I want to go home with Dory." or After Dory leaves Chloë always asks where she is. We are very blessed to have found someone who helps me, but also loves the children so much that they can see it.

Pigeon vs our Costco cart

So we are in Costco and there is a pigeon in the back of the store. I stop to show the kids the bird and then we continue on our way.

Then Sam said, (very innocently)

"Why did you not run over the bird with our cart to kill it?"

I am glad I have at least one boy!

Labor day weekend

Labor day weekend had a great start. After Daniel made pancakes and homemade syrup for us we went out to wash the car. Sometime later I came into the house and found Sam helping us put the syrup into the bottle after it had cooled. He did a pretty good job, but the still was a big syrup mess on the floor and counter from him trying to transfer the syrup with the ladle.


On Monday we went to the stake Breakfast and bike rally. It was a lot of fun.


After naps the kids and I went to Mandy's house and rode our bikes around their street. Olivia and Miles are still great friends.