It's Autumn Time!

Well, nothing like pressure to post...just typed the title and somehow after I hit "enter," it posted!!! So for those who are looking at this right now, SO SORRY! I'll have something a little more exciting ASAP!!! :) Sunday afternoon, Sept 27th

So here we go...

Last Sunday was High Council Sunday and we all went with Edd to the Jefferson Ward. Edd had asked Bethany and me to speak with him. As we were crossing the bridge, Thomas said, "This is a BIG BRIDGE!!!" I looked out the window for the next mile marker to see how far we were and a few minutes later, there it was...MILE 11~so we were just barely half way!

Driving into New Orleans is always an adventure! Edd was following the directions from our GPS and said they were totally different than the directions he'd gotten from mapquest....hmmm. When the GPS announced that we should enter the roundabout Edd was not happy!!! Luckily, the exit we needed was open and we went on our merry way, unlike the last time we had to use the roundabout! :)

The Jefferson Ward meets in a church building that is really little but the congregation was a good size. We were very surprised to see some familiar faces at church!!! Bro & Sis Stansel, from the Kingwood Stake, were there. They are serving their mission in this area! Another missionary knew us too!!! Elder Davis, walked in and came over to say hi!!! He is Brittany's little brother, Miles! Brittany is married to Joe~one of Edd's brothers.

This is a picture of Elder Davis and Edd in the back of the chapel.


Sunday afternoon was NAP TIME!!! After working hard to get some good pictures of the kids, Edd sat down for a minute in the papasan. Well that minute turned into quite a few minutes!



















Later, Sunday night, I put Thomas in the papasan after his bath and ran upstairs to get his clean clothes. When I got back downstairs, Thomas was fast asleep! Edd told me a few weeks ago that once you sit in the papasan, you can't help falling asleep!


















I have had loads (hee hee) of fun doing laundry with my new washer and dryer! :) The red makes me so happy! :) Thomas has always loved to help me with the laundry. But this week we had a little problem with some shrinkage...




OPPSSS!!! What happened??? :)


Friday night, Edd and I were in Best Buy and I saw the exact washer and dryer, except in WHITE. I'm so glad I got RED!!! :)



It's AUTUMN TIME! :)

Tuesday, September 22nd was a special day!!! It was the first day of Autumn! It was also my Grandpa's birthday...he would be 114 this year if he was still alive. He turned 100 the year that Bethany was born. He was 103 when he died, just after Andrew was born.


Grandpa was a special man! He was always happy to see us when we came to visit and greeted each of us with a smile and a kiss! :)

I loved it when I was a little girl, he'd give me super long horsey rides on his foot...he must have had super strong legs because I could only do it for a few seconds with my kids!

I loved his treat drawer in the kitchen...he'd ususally let us pick something when we'd come over! Sometimes he had petrified marshmellows...which were the BEST!!! Most the time it was licorice...black is my favorite. Sometimes he'd treat us to blackcherry floats!!! YUM YUM YUM!!! One time he gave me a box of powdered doughnuts, what a treasure!!! :) But, unfortunately, I couldn't keep them...that's another story.

I loved it when Grandpa would push me really high in his swing! I felt like I could touch the sky! :) He was always whistling some tune while he pushed me!

I loved looking at Grandpa's worms in his worm box! Grandpa even tried to teach me to fish. What patience he had trying to teach me to cast. Over and over again, I'd get my line stuck in a tree and he'd untangle it and let me try again!

I loved all the family outing we had. Picnics and pingpong out on the patio with all the cousins...which wouldn't be right with out the "orange water!" Grandpa liked his TANG on the mild side! :)

One time Grandpa even showed me the wooden oxen he had in his garage, which he'd used when he went on the commemerative Pioneer Trek.

Grandpa was a great example! :)

Autumn came to our neighborhood with a big splash! We had a HUGE downpour!!! It only rained for about an hour, but we got tons of water! It flooded the backyard and filled the ditches! The kids couldn't resist having a little water fun!

Thomas was so cute...he came running up to me and said, "Don't worry, we are watching out for snakes!"

Can he read my mind or what!!! I had just been thinking about snakes!

SWEET SEPTEMBER :)

So far we have had a SWEET SEPTEMBER! :)

We have been blessed with "COOL" temperatures...low 90's and upper 80's.

One of these nice cool mornings Thomas and I went to the Mandeville Tammany Trace Trailhead park, where playgroup was for that week.

I was surprised to see these beautiful leaves there! Most of our trees still just have a little hint of orange.

Thomas had so much fun at the park that he insisted that we take the kids there.

So Labor Day morning we went back and played. The kids had a great time! :)

One of the things we are most excited about is FOOTBALL! :) We caught the tail end of BYU's first game against OU, and they actually won!!! Wow!!! The kids had fun watching and were hooked! So we got tickets for the BYU vs Tulane game, which we had such a good time at!

Aimee and Mattie had their beauty shop open. Edd was a lucky recipient of their beauty expertise! :) We have been blessed with foot massages all month long! :)

Andrew was a great big brother one afternoon. He kept Aimee, Mattie, and Thomas entertained for quite a while! He found some site on the computer that had pictures of strange beasts. They all had fun checking out the weird creatures, especially "el chupacabra!" Unfortunately, there were a few scary dreams afterward.

Thomas is sporting the spiky hairdo, compliments of Aimee and Mattie's hair salon! :)

Edd has had a busy time at work lately. Maybe since May???? Anyway, he came home from work wearing his "UNIFORM." We hardly get to see him in his "FRC's" (the official name: fire retardant clothing) which is what he has to wear along with his steel toed boats when he goes into the refinery. Mattie thinks he looks like Uncle Scott Zogg in his uniform! (he's a fireman!)


Lately, we have been blessed with the presence of "the twinkee twins!" It is always fair weather when the twinkee twins are visiting. It's been a long visit this time! :)

Unfortunately, my dryer gave up the ghost this month. It has given many good years of service along with the washer.

I was very sad to have my dryer go out. I had to dry laundry on racks in my bedroom, which took forever since it is so humid down here!!!

Aimee asked me the other day if her sock was ok...it was crispy. I told her it was dried on the rack and it was fine! :)

To make things a little more exciting in the laundry room, my new washer and dryer are RED!!! :)

This week I got to be Mattie and Aimee's grandma! :) It was Grandparent's BINGO week at their school.

I didn't think it was a big deal, but I didn't realize where I live!!! Everyone has their whole family here!!! I sent a note to school saying that our closest grandparents lived in Austin, TX. The teacher wrote back asking if there was a friend that could come, or even me???

So I went! The day I played with Mattie, we won two times!!! The day I played with Aimee, we got really close to winning. We had a lot of fun!

TOUCHDOWN!!!

Yesterday, we went to the BYU vs Tulane game!

We had a lot of fun! Bethany went to sit with her friend, Faith and her family! They were sitting in the middle section full of all the BYU fans! A bunch of people from our ward were sitting over in the middle section.

Edd and I and the rest of the kids had fun over by the BYU end zone.

We were just a few rows up from the field, which was fun! Edd took the kids down to the wall to see Cosmo.

By half time, we were turning into popcicles!!! They had the A/C cranked down really low to cool off the Superdome for the Saints' game they have today. I was even getting cold!

To keep warm, Aimee pulled her arms into her shirt. Mattie did the same for a little while, but said they said they were still cold.

Well, Thomas decided to be like his big sisters. He started playing around with his arm, pulling them in and out of his shirt. Before he knew it, he had his shirt and arms all tangled up! It took a little help to get his shirt straightened out!

We had fun watching BYU kick a couple of field goals and make a ton of touchdowns!

This touchdown was at the end of the 3rd quarter! It was cool to see it right infront of us!

At the beginning of the 4th quarter, Thomas was ready to go home. He was thirsty and cold.

He started walking up the stairs and wouldn't come back, so we had to go with him.

When we left BYU had like 40 pts and they were starting to put the second string players in.

On our way home, Thomas crashed! Aimee said she wasn't going to because she took a nap on the way, but a few minutes later, I looked back and this is what I found! :)

Bethany was having too much fun to leave early with us. So she stayed to see the very end of the game and came home with the Bishop's family. When she got home, she told us the final was: 54-3!

August Highlights...

Bethany is in the Northshore Philharmonia Orchestra!

Bethany tried out for the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra. She was pretty nervous. Her audition was at Loyola University, Saturday, August 15th.

Finally, it was Bethany's moment of glory! Bethany played the piece that she'd prepared, which sounded great...through the door, I had to stay out in the hall. Bethany also had to do some sight reading. Bethany said the sight reading piece was SUPER HARD!!!

When Bethany was done, she walked out with the orchestra's artistic director, Jean Montes. He told me that she was "a keeper!"

About a week later, we got the official call, Bethany has been accepted in to the Northshore Philharmonia! She is so excited!!! This orchestra is just under the Youth Symphony, which played in in Carnegie Hall this summer! Maybe Bethany will be playing there soon! Her first rehersal is this weekend.

CHECK OUT THE COOL DINOS!
After the audition, B & I joined up with Edd and the kids, who had been out exploring.

We went to the Audubon zoo to see their dinosaur exhibit! It was so much fun!







Thomas was pretty nervous around all the dinosaurs. They seemed pretty real to him! He was excited to see T-Rex, but wouldn't get too close so he wouldn't get eaten! :)






















ELEPHANTS!!

Another hightlight of the day was seeing the elephants!

We got to their exhibit right before their daily demonstration! It was fun to see the elephants take their bath and do tricks!

The best part was that we actually got to touch one of the elephants!!! That was really cool!!!














BEST BUDDIES!

Andrew and Thomas have become best buddies! Andrew is such a great big brother! When it is time for bed, he helps Thomas get ready, then off to their room they go.

One night when I went to check on them, this is how I found them!!! :)

The other night, while we were talking about how alike Andrew and Thomas are, Edd said, "They are like identical twins born 6 years apart!"

So true!!! :)























A NEW SMILE x's 2!
Aimee has been busy working on her smile this month! She lost a tooth on the 17th! But just a few days later, on the 23rd, she lost another one! Cute "pumpkin smile" just in time for Halloween! :)

PLAY DAYS

Thomas has been busy making some friends. A few of the moms from church with little kids have been getting together once a week.


Our first outing was at the Abita Springs park. Right after we got there, it started to rain!


Fortunately, we came prepared to get wet...the have an area where the water squirts out everywhere for the kids to play in.


The boys had fun playing in the rain, with the wet sand, and running around the squirting water!


Our second outing was at the "park beach" at Fontianbleau state park which is right next to Lake Pontchartrain.


The kids had so much fun running up and down the beach and playing in the water!



The best part, Thomas to a LONG nap afterwards!!! He fell asleep on the way home and slept until 3:30!!!








BIG TEASE!!!
Thomas has become quite the big tease! His favorite target: ANDREW!
Thomas loves to take anything of Andrew's and wave it infront of him. Once he has Andrew's attention, Thomas takes off running to get away! Sometimes it will be Andrew's book that he's reading and Thomas will take out the bookmark too!





One morning, Thomas was licking his big sucker when he decided to tease Andrew with it. It was pretty funny to see Thomas in action!
So much fun! :)

We as a family are adjusting well to our new life down here in Louisiana.

It is definitely quite a cultural change from Houston. But mostly in a fun way!


Last Sunday, we were at the dinner table when Edd asked the kids what they had learned about at church.


When it was Mattie's turn, she said that they had talked about the Last Supper. Then Mattie told us that she actually learned something!!! She learned that bread and wine actually came from Louisiana!!! Hmmm... :)