Random

Just some random pictures from around the house. I switch this one was in focus, but I love it anyway. 

 When the girls noticed it was raining they ran outside and were so excited to play in it. They wanted to lick the drops but hated when it hit their eyes. They told me "It's like a bath.. but rain!"

 I'm sure I have other pictures on our blog of our kids laying like this in front of the TV. They love to "make beds" by the TV and watch shows. When they are so cute, how do you make them go to bed?!

Bentley's 3!

Sometimes I hate technology :(. I think all Bentley's birthday pictures got deleted. We had a cute little birthday party for him and invited some friends over. We had leftover hamburgers from Kyle's choir camp that was going to go to waste, so we had a BBQ and invited a few friends over for dinner and cake. I asked Bentley what kind of party he wanted and all he said was "blue". He wanted a blue cake and birthday decorations. I went to the dollar stores around and rounded up some party decorations and he had a blue cake- easy peasy! The birthday boy got to come home with a cute little Happy Birthday crown on his first day of school. He is so excited to be 3- he tried to up it when people ask how old he is. His normal response is 5 or 6. After a few seconds he says "I'm 3. Just 3." He seriously is the cutest little boy. He gets away with a lot at our house just out of his pure cuteness. Seriously, it's probably going to become a problem. He is such a loving boy- he always tells us how much he loves us and is just sweet. He has the softest heart. If he hurts someone or does something wrong he always says he's sorry without prompting. Potty training has been a struggle compared to Macy and London, but it's much better since he started preschool. He still has his accidents though. We were at a football game watching Kyle Ref and he tells me he really needs to go potty. We ran around trying to find a bathroom when he starts the penguin walk- we didn't make the bathroom. I took him back to the van to figure out what to do when he looks at me with the sweetest eyes and says "I sorry Momma, I sorry." It's just adorable and so sweet, you can't possibly have any amount of anger toward this kid. We LOVE our Bentley. Love love love.

2015-2016 School Year

This is kind of a big school year for us! All there kids are in school! Macy just started 1st grade, London is in 4yr old preschool, and Bentley is in 3 year old preschool. London and Bentley each go 3 days a week, three hours a day. Two of those are on the same day which means I get two mornings a week all to myself! I'm not gonna lie- I'm kind of loving it. Another new thing this year is I'm back on the substitute teacher list! I really just want to sub a few days a week and so far it's be going very smoothly. We are loving it. 

Bentley is pretty obsessed with his stuffed giraffe and after a lot of conversation we finally agreed that he could take it in his backpack- but he couldn't take it out at school. The first day he tried to take it out and his teacher made him put it back and we haven't had any problems since then.

 Since Kindergarten here is full day, moving up to first grade wasn't that big of a change. She has a brand new teacher and almost a completely new class, but the school and times are the same. She told me the other day she misses Kindergarten and her old teacher but I'm sure she'll say the same thing about 1st grade when she goes into 2nd. Her teacher this year is Mrs. Radzanowski. They just call her Mrs. Rad :)

 After we walked Macy to her classroom and dropped her off it was Bentley's turn to go. He's been looking at this playground for the past 2 years wanting to go to preschool so he was very excited.

 We walked into the classroom and he just went right over to the toys- didn't care about me much at all. He is loving Preschool. London's actual first day of school was the day after these kids. She is in the 4yr old class with Mrs. Ceccareli and loves it. We are lucky to have such a cheap/fantastic preschool program here. It's part of the joy that comes from living in a small town- in the valley there is no way we could afford to send just one to preschool let alone both.

Happy 4th of July!

We love the 4th of July here in Holbrook. Lots of small town charm and tons of things for the kids to do. The city put on their annual 4th of July carnival with lots of kid games. For the first time our kids were all old enough to go play. I didn't have a stroller or a diaper bag! We got our yearly 4th of the July family photo with the Larsons and we got the Nilssons in there this year. The Nilssons got a little photo-bombed by it was their best picture :)

 Kyle and Lorin had a little gunny sack race. It was quite the race! Lorin was in the lead and Kyle started gaining on him, so Lorin fell right in front of Kyle to slow him down, knocked Kyle down, and then hoped up and finished the race. I am so sad I didn't get it on video- it was hilarious.

After the little carnival we hung out at Marie's house, had a BBQ, and then went to the Fireworks. Like every year the girls loved it but Bentley stuck his head under a blanket and fell asleep. He wasn't a fan. Maybe next year :)

Sibling Love

Just some pics of the cuties :)

Day 11 & 12

Marie is a very avid reader and has probably read half of the Holbrook Public Library (if not more then that) and loves to read stories about the Amish. We did some research and found an Amish Village a few hours away and decided "We are here, we are going to do it!" (That was the theme of the trip and let me tell you, but day 11 we were TIRED. We did A LOT.) We all hoped in the car and off we went to Strasburg, Pa. The Amish Village itself was set up to be a little Amish homestead. It had a house, the buggies, animals, a school yard, all the little things you would find in a real Amish Village. The house to the left in the picture is an Amish home that we tour through. They showed us their clothing and the reasons they do and don't wear certain things as well as how they have come to cope without using electricity.  After the tour we decided to do the Bus Tour and go see some actual Amish homes- I'm so glad we did!

 The country side is just beautiful- fields everywhere and as far as you can see. That is an Amish farm out the window- they all looked like that. Huge barns and silos. So pretty!

During the tour we stopped at a little Amish farm and go to buy things like produce, homemade everything, and lots of garden decor. Here is Ethan with some buggies. The buggies were so cool! They each had like 5 buggies, all different sizes depending on how many people were going with them. We saw a lot of little kids riding scooters with siblings hanging on for the ride. So fun!

After the bus tour we did a little venturing off on our own. We found a little Amish owned quilt store that we bought some square from. The men were very happy to be there. 

Marie wanted to look at a store with some Amish made furniture and I fell in love with this little table and chair set- isn't it so cute?!

 By this time we were all super hungry and ate at an Amish owned restaurant. We had some interesting food- I had chicken cordon blue and wasn't impressed. The best part about the restaurant, by far, was this apple dumpling dessert. There is a WHOLE apple (cored) under that pastry. Mm Mm was it good. With a full day behind us we headed back to Kellie's for the night.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the airport for our flight HOME. By this time Kyle and I were both ready to see our kids and to sleep in our own beds. We got all loaded up in the plane when the pilot made an announcement that our plane didn't have any working fans that kick on in case of a fire. Ugh. We waited for 20 minutes and then were told that they had no idea how long it would take to fix the fans and we needed to get a new plane. Sad day. We were delayed about an hour.

From there on out it was smooth sailing. We made some time up in the air and were only about 30 minutes later then we thought. My mom brought the kids to the airport, our van, and a friend to take her back home and off we went to Holbrook. It was a super fun and very long trip. We were so happy that Marie and Kellie invited us along. Thanks guys for an awesome trip!

Day 9 & 10- New York and a Coal Mine!

 We woke up the next morning and Kellie got a little surprise and needed to entertain Karl's bosses Wife and kids while he went and checked on how the Restoration Project was going. We figured it would be a great day to head back in New York and visit Kyle's brother Brent and his family who live near Rochester. We spent the morning with this cute girl being crazy and then headed out.

It's a good 3 hour drive to Brent and Jodies and we tried to break it up by stopping at some National Historical Sites (I do a National Stamp Passport- super fun- check it out!) but the only one that was on the way was closed :( We met them at their house and then headed to a Mexican food place. Marie can't go too long without some good Mexican food. Kyle got a chimi and said it was okay- and I really liked my fajitas. I figured you couldn't go too wrong with that. We had a lot of fun chatting it up at dinner while playing games with their daughter Emmalie on the iPad. She is such a cute girl! Nate ran upstairs before we could get a picture with him and Tyler wasn't too into taking pictures with Grandma, but we got some anyway. Then it was back to Kellie's- that was a long day in the car!

The next day (Day 10) we spent doing a little site seeing. We went to the Lackawanna Coal Mine in Scranton, PA. It is an old coal mine that is no longer in operation but they run tours through it. We got the whole experience with going down in one of that metal cars and a tour guide that used to be an actual miner. 

 We stopped by Steamtown to get a stamp in my passport and then went over to a REALLY yummy ice cream place. The ice cream place is owned by a Manning Dairy Farm and they use their own milk to make the ice cream. By far the best ice cream in the East. The photos on the wall is a timeline of how the ice cream is made from the planting of crops to the milking of the cows. It was neat!

  While we were on that side of town we stopped at the Restoration Site again so that Marie could get herself a tour. Here is Kyle and I in the visitors center. After construction is finished this room will be filled with statues, exhibits, and people :) The room with the light on behind us is part of a small theater that will show movies about how the Priesthood was restored to the Earth.

 Here is a replica of the Joseph and Emma smith home. The red part is the first section of the house and the white is a summer kitchen add on.

 The only part of the home that is original is this pot holder in the fire place. We got to touch it before anyone put a "do not touch" rope up!

 Kyle and I standing in front of a replica of the Hale Home- who is Emma Smith's parents. I just wanted to move into this house- I love the red windows and the siding. So pretty!

The first day we came to the site (day 8) the hired wall-paper people we just barely getting this gorgeous wall paper up. I was seriously in awe about how much I loved the wallpaper! It's not original, but it is all stamped- meaning it painted on the paper. Not the screen stuff they do now. It is very similar to what would have been in the home originally- and SO pretty!

 I love him :)

Since the Priesthood Restoration Site is so exciting to so many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints they have had a lot of people walk onto the construction site and trying to see the sites before they are complete. Because of liability reasons, no one is allowed on the site without site manager (Karl) approval, a hardhat, and a reflective jacket. They have two of these signs up saying no visitors, but people don't really pay much attention to those signs. Karl has mentioned that being something very hard about this project- people are trying to walk onto the construction pretty regularly throughout the day and it's really frustrating for the construction workers. Thanks for letting us bug you guys!

 Across the way from the houses is a church owned cemetery where one of Emma and Joseph's infant sons and the Hales are buried.  The original headstones were put into these larger headstones to help and preserve them. The original headstones are here in the picture.

Then we went over to where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized in the Susquehanna River. I never realized how huge the River is! It was beautiful and I'm so glad we got to visit.