Sunday Pants

So I am still trying to get caught up. :) Life in the BIG EASY has been a little busier than I like during the month of OCTOBER...it was over almost before it started....crazy, I know, especially since it is a LONG month!!

Anyway, I'm back on the computer! :)

So you are probably wondering why I'm doing a blog on Sunday pants...well, let me tell you why:

Have you ever wondered what your kids would do if you were not around???

How about a SUNDAY MORNING without Mom, Dad or oldest sister to help the kids get ready to leave by 9am...

Yes, that actually happened at our house one Sunday!

The weekend Bethany and I were in NYC, Andrew was the oldest at home! He was in charge of getting himself ready (he is 12) plus making sure Aimee (who is 10), Mattie (who is 8), and Thomas (who is 5) all get ready too!

I have to say they all did a great job getting ready and out the door! :)

I was very proud of them!! :)

Bethany and I arrived back in NOLA Sunday just before noon. Of course I was excited to see the kids again! :)

I was a little surprised to see that Thomas wasn't in the outfit I'd picked out but didn't think anything of it since he still had one of his Sunday shirts on. I had given Edd a note with instructions on what Thomas should wear. Thomas' clothes were all nicely ironed and hanging in the closet with his Sunday bag.

Easy Peasy!! :)

Sunday morning, Andrew went into my room to get Thomas' clothes. He saw Thomas' blue shirt folded and laying on top of what looked like a normal laundry pile. Next to it were some brown bottoms. So he got Thomas dressed in this:

Success!! :)

All kids were dressed and ready for church on time!! :)

I was a happy Momma for sure! :)

After arriving home and being around the kids for a while, I realized there was something a little strange about the pants Thomas was wearing...the bottom of his pant leg looked like this:

Can you see it?

Here are the two pant legs of the brown pants together...

Pant leg on left is Thomas' pair of Sunday pants and pant leg on right belongs to a pair of capris the girls had grown out of! The capris have a slit in the hem!

After I'd been home for awhile, I was holding Thomas in my lap, I realized that his pant leg had a split in the hem!

We all had a good laugh when we realized the mix-up!! :)

The "laundry pile" Andrew got the clothes from was actually my pile of clothes that were getting too small that were on their way to the garage.

Andrew didn't know about the note I'd left saying that Thomas' Sunday clothes were hanging up in my closet. I was glad that Andrew was able to get Thomas ready!

What a good BIG BROTHER!!

:)

Catching Up, part 3: Little Miracles :)

One beautiful, Spring morning in April, my services were needed in our family dig. Apparently, our in-house paleontologist, Thomas, could not find 3 dinosaur skulls.

The day before, Thomas had taken his set of dinosaur skulls out to the sandy section, "the dig," in the front lawn and buried ALL 12 of them. I'm sure Thomas had fun digging in the sand trying to uncover the hiding treasures! Unfortunately, 3 of the dinosaur skulls were really good at hiding!!!

Of course, Thomas had forgotten over night exactly where he had hidden the bones...he was able to give me one clue...he pointed to one section and said he thought they were here...

Great!! No Problem!! You may be thinking...Thomas told me right where to look, it shouldn't be that hard!!!

Well, this picture just doesn't do the story justice...so I'm adding a bigger picture...

this section of sand was about 2 feet across and maybe 3 feet long...about 1/3 of the entire sandy area...NOTE THE SMALL SHINEY OBJECT ON THE LEFT...this was a AA battery I placed on the sand to give some perspective!

The missing dinosaur skulls were about as long as the battery. So I got my trusty rake...

and started raking through the sand, hoping that I could find the dinosaur skulls pretty quickly. Well, I didn't realize how much sand there was!!! The sand was about 2-3 inches deep in most parts. After a few minutes of raking and finding nothing, I was starting to realize I was looking for a "needle in a haystack!!"

After raking the little section Thomas had showed me and finding NOTHING, I realized I would have to rake the whole sandy section, which was about 8-9 feet long. After awhile, my rake hit something hard...it was a dino skull!! :)

A little while later, I found another dino skull!! But after raking through ALL the sand quite a few times, I was starting to wonder if there was indeed a 3rd skull hiding. Sure enough, Thomas assured me that it was his Brachiosaurus head that was still missing. So I kept raking and raking and raking and raking....

As I raked, I had a flash back of another "needle in the haystack" I'd been looking for!!

Another day, a few months earlier, during the winter, Thomas came running into the house, in tears!!! He'd lost his brand new, most favorite shark!!!

This time the "needle" and the "haystack" were much bigger! Thomas had taken his shark next door and was playing with it by the neighbor's play set, which is surrounded by a TON of pea gravel!! Think 8ft x 16ft of gravel!!!

Thomas had buried his shark in the gravel, ran off and played for a few minutes, then went to get the shark, but he'd forgotten where he buried it and couldn't find the shark!! So being the nice mom that I am, I got my trusty shovel...

and started digging in the gravel. After digging a while, I was getting pretty discouraged. So I realized that I needed some help finding the shark. I knew that Heavenly Father knew where the shark was so I said a little prayer and asked him to help me find the shark. When I finished my prayer, I kept digging for a few minutes, but stopped and walked around to the other side of the play set. There was the shark!!! Sticking out of a mound of gravel!!! It was almost perfectly camouflaged, but even in the fading sunlight I could see it!! :)

This memory reminded me to pray for help! So I paused and said a quick prayer. Then continued to rake the sand, looking & hoping I'd find the Brachiosaurus head soon!! A couple of minutes later, my rake hit something hard!!! I was so excited!!! I bent over and poked my fingers into the sand and retrieved a ROCK!!!

Boy, was I disappointed!!! I was so ready to be done raking!!! I asked Thomas if we could just paint the rock to look like a Brachiosaurus head...it was about the right shape and size...but Thomas wouldn't go for that. He wanted the real thing so I went back to raking. I'd lost track of the number of times I'd been up and down the whole sandy area, but I knew I had to keep looking.

Finally, my rake hit something else hard!!! This time my fingers pulled out the missing Brachiosaurus skull!!! :)

Here is the Brachiosaurus head and the rock next to the battery...

Needless to say, I was VERY THANKFUL Heavenly Father heard and answered my prayers!! :)

This post is very fitting for today!! In Primary, our lesson was about prayer. I told my class this story about trying to find the Brachiosaurus skull and how I couldn't find it until I prayed for Heavenly Father's help!!

As I was typing this up, I started thinking about that little rock I found!! I'd been through that sand so many times and didn't feel it there at all...was it there the WHOLE time I raked that area and I missed is each time??? It was a test of my faith...which is another thing that was talked about in church today.

What if I'd settled for the rock? I never would have found the Brachiosaurus head!! How often do we short-change ourselves because the going gets rough and we want to quit and just settle for what we have...or achieved thus far???

Another talk today was about the prophet President Gordon B. Hinckley and how he was such a hard worker, even when he was in his 90's!!! If we work hard, we can endure the trials of our faith and obtain our goals. :)

I'm thankful for the little miracles that come along my way to remind me that Heavenly Father loves me and will help me! I'm thankful for trails and hard work too!! :)

Catching Up, part 2: SWEET 16

Once upon a time... two very special girls were born within a day of each other! Bethany Prince was born, Tuesday, April 18th at 4:59 MST...Annie Howell was born, Wednesday, April 19th at 12:43am MST.

Their paths finally met at the Goodwill parking lot in Covington, Louisiana, of all places!! The Young Women of our ward were meeting there to head off to Girls Camp for the week. We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of two new girls...Lexi and Annie Howell, who had just barely moved into the ward...like days before! Bethany & Annie became instant friends! :)

Angel, BETHANY, Faith, Lexi, ANNIE, Laura, Aubrey, & Tiffany

As their 16th birthdays approached, Annie's mom, Jen, and I tried to think up a fun way to celebrate their birthdays together. One night as we were brainstorming, it hit us...although it was a little cRaZy...we thought it would be a blast to take the girls to...

NEW YORK CITY!!!

We decided to go for it!!! :) We took the girls during our Spring Break...

THURSDAY ~ April 28th

Thursday morning started SUPER EARLY...like before 5am! Edd offered to drive all of us to the airport so we picked up Jen and Annie around 4:40! Our flight left at 7am so we had to be on the road to the airport by 5am!!

After we checked in at the airport, we grabbed a quick breakfast, then boarded the plane and away we went...SO EXCITING!!! :)

We arrived in NEW YORK CITY around 11am. Carlynne, my sweet sister, took off from work so she could be our personal tour guide!! :) We did some people watching while we waited for her to meet us at the airport. Once Carlynne found us, we headed to her apartment.

Carlynne had to show us the proper way to take a suitcase through the subway gate!! :)

After hopping onto our second subway, we walked a few blocks to Carlynne's place!

Carlynne moved to NYC in 2004. She was a student at F.I.T., Fashion Institute of Technoloiges, which is a part of S.U.N.Y., State University of New York. Carlynne's dream is to design wedding gowns! :)

We were treated to a yummy lunch that Carlynne made us! It was fun to see Carlynne's "new apartment!" She's been living in this apartment for 2 1/2 years. The last time Bethany and I visited Carlynne, she was living in her "old apartment."

Once we had our tummies filled, it was time to hit the town!! Our first stop for the afternoon was the MET, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was so much to see!! Here are some of my favorites...

We also had to stop at FAO SCHWARZ toy store and look around!! Bethany and Annie had fun playing on the BIG PIANO!!!

We went to eat dinner at CARNEGIE DELI! Bethany's violin teacher highly recommended it!! She was right, the diner and food was amazing!! :)

Then we were off to BROADWAY to see WICKED!!! What an incredible experience!!! WICKED tells the story about Elphaba, who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West and Galinda, who becomes Glinda, the Good Witch of the North before Dorothy drops into Munchkinland. Of course it was an amazing production!!! :)

After WICKED we walked around TIME SQUARE for a little while and did some window shopping! We asked one employee how late they stay open...because it was already really late...about 11:30pm! Our answer: 1am!!! cRaZy!!

FRIDAY ~ April 29th

Our morning started off with festivities for THE ROYAL WEDDING of Prince William and Kate! We went down to TIME SQUARE to watch a DANCE FLASH MOB perform. You can watch the performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkJknTNGW-0&feature=player_embedded#at=74

One of the dancers, Amber, is a friend of Carlynne! Carlynne helped her coordinate the Dance Flash Mob, which was part of National Dance Week in NYC! Carlynne and Amber have been friends for years!! They met at Ricks, way back when, they were in the MTC together, and Amber found Carlynne at church right after Carlynne moved to NYC!! :)

We watched a live fashion show for the TV show "SAY YES TO THE DRESS" here are some of our favoritedresses...

Before we left the wedding celebration, we had our picture taken by the carriage and guards!

Then we walked around TIME SQUARE for a little while. We were trying to find the Yankee's Clubhouse store so we could do some souvenir shopping!

After that, we took a boat tour to see some of the famous land marks in NYC. Here we are on our tour boat...it was nice to get a rest from all the walking we'd be doing!! :)

ELLIS ISLAND

STATUE OF LIBERTY

SKYLINE

EMPIRE STATE BLDG AND CHRYSLER BLDG

BROOKLYN BRIDGE

After our boat tour, we walled along WALL STREET!

We stopped at a diner and grabbed some lunch, which we ate outside of the TRINITY CHURCH. This was the 3rd building built for the Trinity Church, the first two were destroyed by fire. When it was finished, in 1846, it was the highest point in NYC!

The grounds of the church were beautiful! We even found a tombstone for William Bradford...I'm trying to figure out if we are related to this William Bradford.

We also saw ST PAUL'S CHAPEL! George Washington worshiped at St Paul's' on his inauguration day, April 30, 1789 and continued to worship there the two years that NYC was our nation's capitol.

We walked past GROUND ZERO, where they are building the 9/11 Memorial. We saw the cross made out of beams from the towers.

We also got to see the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site, where Jen and Annie found a flag with all the names of those who died that day in the attacks. Annie's uncle, BRADY K. HOWELL, lost his life in the Pentagon attack.

EVENING STOP: Yankees vs Blue Jays @ Yankee Stadium
On our way from the subway to the stadium, we ran into some missionaries and talked to them for a few minutes! The tall missionary was from S America somewhere and the other missionary was from Italy!!

Bethany finally made it to YANKEE STADIUM!!!

Before the game started, we were able to walk through Monument Park...at first we didn't think we would get to see it. When we got to the entrance, this is what we found...

We just barely missed getting in. But Jen worked her magic and one of the security guys led us through some halls to the back entrance of Monument Park!

Our view of the field...

Annie & Bethany :)

Bethany & Carlynne :)

Jen & Anne :)

Bethany, intently watching the game!

Bethany loved being in Yankee Stadium!! It was pretty incredible to be there watching the Yankees play!! :)

What a great way to spend FRIDAY NIGHT in NYC!!! :)

SATURDAY
Saturday morning, we went headed over to Central Park with Carlynne to go walking. Carlynne LOVES walking through the park every Saturday morning!! She wanted to share it with us!

A few minutes into our walk, we had to stop. Bethany was already getting blisters from the shoes she'd borrowed from Carlynne. I let her borrow my socks!!

BLACK SOCKS

Black Socks

They never get dirty

The longer you wear them

The stronger they get

Sometimes I think I might wash them

But something inside me says,

"NO, NO, NOT YET!!!"

We could have traded, but after hearing Bethany's poem about black socks, I decided to pass!! For further blister protection, Bethany tucked her leggings into her shoes. :)

The park was so beautiful!! All the trees were in bloom and the leaves were starting to come out!!

Every now and then, we would stop to enjoy the view...

Annie and Bethany tried to get lost while we were in the park!! We were all doing a great job keeping together, but I got busy taking pictures, Jen and Carlynne got busy talking and before we knew it, Bethany and Annie were no where to be seen!! We tried to call them, but they didn't answer their phones. So we stopped and waited...

Finally, they came around the corner!! After that, we did a better job sticking together!!

Along our way, we happened upon this swing set...of course we had to stop and swing for a few minutes!! :)

After walking through the park for a while, we started talking about how crazy it would be if we actually found someone in the park that we knew!! A few minutes later, as we were about to enter the Central Park Zoo, Bethany was doing a double take...

Isn't that guy over there the same one who painted our faces for Mardi Gras???

Hmmm..he sort of looked like the guy...so I went up to ask him.

Sure enough, it WAS the same guy!!!! We chatted with him for a few minutes. Turns out he used to live in New Orleans! After Katr

ina, he had moved to NYC!!! He goes back every year to paint faces for Mardi Gras. The rest of the time, he paints faces right outside of the Central Park Zoo!!!

We loved walking all around the park! There were so many different places to see! One of my favorites was the BELVEDERE CASTLE!

When we got to THE MALL area of the park, we saw a pretzel vendor! Bethany HAD to have another CHEESE PRETZEL!!! They are delicious, especially when the pretzel is still warm...definitely one of Bethany's favorite things in NYC!!!

After our pretzel stop, we kept walking and found this lady playing her violin. We stopped and listend to her play for a minute. She was an amazing violinist!!

We stopped at the ALICE IN WONDERLAND statue...

Annie and Bethany were most excited to see BALTO!!!

After walking through Central Park for 5 HOURS we were starving!!! So we headed to the SHAKE SHACK for some delicious hamburgers!

We ate our lunch outside of the AMERICAN MUSEUM OFNATURAL HISTORY...where the movie "Night At The Museum" takes place!!

For our last night on the town, we were planning on going to the TOP OF THE ROCK to get a bird's eye view of the NYC at night! Before we left, we got some pictures in front of MAGGIE'S GARDEN, next door to Carlynne's apartment building.

Here's a link about MAGGIE'S GARDEN: http://www.nyrp.org/Parks_and_Gardens/Community_Gardens/Manhattan/Maggies_Garden

On our way to the Rockefeller Center, we had these 2 Lamborghinis zoom past us! We were across the street from MACY'S! :)

We had to wait a while for our turn to go to the top ~ so since we were hungry...we went on a hunt looking for a diner! On our journey, we walked past Radio City!

Here is the view from observation deck of the Rockefeller Center!! We are 70 floors up! Pretty spectacular!! :) Great way to end our whirlwind trip!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BETHANY & ANNIE!!! :)