Sunday, October 23, 2011

The whirlwind of time we live in

This is going backwards but oh well. There is a girl that was in our ward before they split that gives riding lessons. Carol signed the girls up a while ago, but we had to cancel. We signed up again and the girls loved it!. Emmett wasn't part of the lessons but Alex let him take a short ride any way. I think he liked it!



Here is Maren riding. I believe the horses name was Selena, which Maren just informed me Selana starts with a C. She is learning to read, but I don't think she has fully grasped the nuances of English phonetics. Still she is one smart cookie.

Here is Jessica. Look at that form. If she let go of the horn, she would look like a champ!


Cora is having a blast. The arena was indoors and was quite dusty.

Cora was also nominated for Class President. She and her best friend and one other student all gave a short speech on why they should be class president. Her best friend won, and she came in second, so she is VP.




This is dated, but a couple of weeks ago we went down to Fort Hood to see Abe and his family while he is stationed there for about a month. The base has some cabins that are pretty nice and not very expensive. The kids loved seeing their cousins and playing on the playground.

Taylor was not at all excited about sharing her swing with the boy.

Emmett liked this circle ladder, but I think it freaked his Mom out every time he decided to go up or down!

This swing was just outside of the cabin. It took several tries just to get all of the kids looking in the right direction.

There is also a lake on base with a beach area. Carol is helping the kids make a sandcastle.

The kids loved the beach and swimming as always. It was great to get to hang out with Abe and Meredith. It is awesome to have so much family in Texas, even if they are several hours away. We can't wait to see everybody again. Meredith says it is Carols turn to plan the next outing, but I think the next one is going to be Thanksgiving, so sorry, but we hosted last year which means it is Leah's turn. (Unless Abe is going to be working, then we might want to come down there.)

Also, one of the reasons that no posts have been made lately is that about the same time we went down to Fort Hood, I finally got a sample size large enough to finish my dissertation. About a week after that I found out that I had roughly 4 weeks to finish it and turn it into the graduate school. As a result I have been devoting almost all of my time for the past month trying to get done. My defense is scheduled for the 25th, and as long as that goes well I will graduate Dec. 16th. I would appreciate your prayers, if you remember, as I prepare to defend my disseration. Thank you!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Maren"s birthday

I just wanted to post some pictures really quick of Maren's special day.
This is Mrs. Jones. Maren's kindergarten teacher. We celebrated Maren's b-day with cookies in the classroom.
this pic is of the kiddos right before Maren's friends arrived for the festivities. We had a pajama birthday party.

Chocolate Oreo cupcakes. Mmmm, I didn't eat one of these, but they smelled delightful!

This bow and arrow set is pretty awesome! I don't know who has played with it more. Josh or Maren. Sorry this post is so quick. Life is pretty crazy.
The End

Monday, August 22, 2011

Jess turns 7 and First day of School!

Friday was Jessica's 7th birthday! We woke her up at 6:30 am so Josh could see her open her presents before he left for work.






Here are some pics of Jessica's very first birthday party with her friends(for the past birthdays, we just have a small celebration with family and maybe neighbors. But this year we went "all out". We had a french themed party with crepes instead of cake. It was a little crazy with 13 girls running around. But Jess had fun and was so excited to share her birthday with her friends from school and church.



We were also honored to have two "real" frenchman join us for the festivities. Aren't they the most handsome frenchies you have ever seen?

Maren, her first day at Kindergarten.

I thought that this was so precious. (left to right- Cora, Emmett, Jess and Maren) I love that Maren wore shorts with her pink cowgirls boots!! I know that it doesn't match and that she will oneday ask me how and why I let her out of the door wearing that outfit. But sometimes you have to pick your battles. And clothes are usually not a battle I am willing to pick.

Well, I officially have three children in all-day school! It was so nice to be able to run errands today (one of which was a dr. appointment) with only one child to keep track of......oh, so nice!




Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Our Trip to UT...

Here is our trip to UT. We did a lot, and I don't feel like adding a ton of captions, so enjoy the pics.

Carol informed me I needed to add captions.

Swimming at my parents house.

We miss our Peyton Walter!





Swimming wipes you out!

Cora giving some wild flowers to Aunt B.

Mom and Dad at the canyon picnic.

The kiddos up the canyon. We miss the mountains a lot.

Roasting some mallows for some S'mores.

MMMMMMMMMM s'mores!
Mmmmmmm s'mores (again).

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, s'mores (and again)

How cool was it that there was still snow on the mountains.

Emmett riding Susie's dog.

We dropped in to see Grandpa Andrus, and he wheeled out the Doctors carriage for the girls and E.

We spent an afternoon with the Cardon's. I particularly like Bones' boots.



We also got to go see Carol's Grandpa.





Then we went Temple Square and toured the Supernacle, and the grounds.



And these are the end as we were getting ready to leave. We miss you all!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

quick update

So, I know it's been a while.....sorry.
I just wanted to post pics of some recent happenings. In mid june, we went to the Denton Air Show! I fondly remember going to air shows with my family as a kid. So I thought that I would share that with my family. It was quite hot and Josh was a little bored, so we didn't stay long enough to see the actual planes in the air, but we got more of a ground show. Emmett loved it though. When we were leaving he kept telling Josh that we needed to stay at the airport!
I don't have my knowledgable dad here to tell me what kind of planes these were, when they were made and used, etc. But here are a few pics to prove that we are still alive and well.


All I remember my dad telling me about is this plane below. I don't remember what it is, but I do remember that these were the planes used in the Doolittle Raid on Japan in the second war.
The kiddos in the belly of the plane
The weekend after that we went to San Marcos and San Antonio to see some newly transplanted Fish family. Here are the Fish Texans getting to "ride" the San Marcos river. We stayed two nights in San Antonio with Abe and Meredith! It was so nice to see them and we are very happy to have them so much closer!
We got home from Utah on Monday, and I have a ton of pictures that I need to sort through and post. I will hopefully post them with in the week
-Carol