An Exciting Day at Church

Anna was sooooo funny at church yesterday. It started during the sacrament when she was singing a little too loudly while the deacons were giving out the bread. Stuart shh'd her and she yelled, "No! It's not quiet time!" I'm not sure how many people heard, but it was funny. Needless to say, she wasn't really quiet during the sacrament. Then the water came around and she quickly grabbed a cup of water and proceeded to gargle it loudly, a skill she recently acquired under the tutolage of Elliot. It was funny, but we tried to be mad so she would stop....through stifled laughter of course.

Then came testimony time. A few of the primary kids went up and bore their testimonies, and when she saw them, Anna said "I want to do my testimony!" She insisted very loudly that I take her up, and then Elliot decided he needed to come too, so I took them up and helped them bear testimony. It was incredibly cute and they both did a good job. Of course then I had to bear mine as well, but I was very proud of Anna and her desire to bear her testimony, even though I think she really just wanted to be at the front talking in the microphone.

Stuart took her for a walk in the rain yesterday because she wanted to use her Dora umbrella. She had her snow boots on, mittens, a hat, and her warm coat. Stuart was a good sport and took her a few blocks until she announced that she was all done with the rain, so they came home. Both were absolutely soaked...despite the Dora umbrella....and we had to hang everything up to dry. But she had fun walking with her daddy.

Trick-or-Treat Customers

Halloween seemed to be a big success at our house. Anna had a lot of fun at the ward party where they had games and activities for the kids, trunk or treat, and a chili cookoff. There was a good turnout and we were able to be home by 7 to recieve trick-or-treaters from the neighborhood.

Anna was so funny. As soon as someone would knock, she would run to beat me to the door and talk to the kids, ask them about their costumes, tell them Happy Halloween and send them on their way. She said to me after one big group, "phew....we've had lots of trick or treat customers, but we need more customers cuz we have lots of candy left."

Another funny thing she said this week was when she and Elliot were having a bath together as they sometimes do. As they were getting out and the water was draining, Elliot cried "oh no, I'm going down the drain." Anna looked at him expressionless, then looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and said "oh well, guess we have to get a new kid..." and went into the living room. I laughed so hard.

She just gets bigger and smarter everyday. I love every minute of it.

Hi Ho Halloween's Here

This year has been more fun with Halloween as Anna understands more and I am home during the day to do more activities with her. The other day my friend Emily (who has a son the same age as Anna) and I attempted to do sugar cookies with them. They were soooo excited and then lasted through about one cookie. As you can see, Emily and I ended up doing the rest of the cookies by ourselves. Oh well, nothing wrong with reverting back to childhood, right?

Then on Saturday we made the trek to the Zoo Boo at the Pocatello zoo. They had a lot of fun, but tired quickly, so we didn't last long there. We still haven't figured out why we attempt to do such things because it either ends with screaming children or screaming mommies, but Saturday went suprisingly well if you can get over the broken stroller, the crying baby, and two tired three year olds who had absolutely no interest in the animals.

New Job...

For those who don't know, I got a new position in the College of Education. I got the position as a graduate assistant. I will be running a tutoring program called America Reads. They pay my tuition and a monthly stipend, so I will not be working at the Post Office anymore. I'm a little sad, but looking forward to this new experience in my program. I will now graduate in May as it's a 9 month position....but it's worth the delay!!!

The best part of it all is that I will home with Anna more. That's the absolute BEST part!!!!

Dancing Queen

If this isn't the funniest thing you have ever seen, I don't know what is....

Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime....

These are just some random pictures of Anna, Riley, and Sam out at my sister Alison's new house. They had a blast!

The day Stuart, well, the pics do the talking...

So this Monday Stuart lost control of his van when the steering went out. He was coming down Pocatello Creek Road and going around a curve, but instead of his van turning, it went straight. The ground along the creek is so soft that the van rolled onto its side into the creek. He was knocked unconcious and when he came to he was under water, almost drowning. He couldn't get out on the passenger's side (which was the side facing the sky) because so much stuff had come forward pinning him in. The window of the driver's side was open but facing the bottom of the creek. So he pounded the door open away from the van ( as you can see from the pics) and shimmied out. Then with face bleeding, no phone, no glasses, soaking wet and only one shoe, he started wandering down the road until someone picked him up and took him to the hospital. He's fine.....very sore, bruised, and tired...but he's recovering quickly. He's very lucky and we have been blessed to have a lot of friends taking care of Anna and looking in on us with concern.

so that was our week....exciting.

Life is good...

I had one of the best weekends I can remember having in a long while. Saturday I was able to spend loads of time with Anna...we went shopping, cleaned the house, played outside, etc. Then on Saturday evening I went out with some old choir friends who were in town....we call it the Diva Reunion. We had dinner at Elmer's and just chatted and caught up on everyone's lives. It was so fun....and good to see that we're all in good places and happy.

Sunday morning Anna and I made rolls for Sunday dinner. She helped knead the bread as you can see from the pics. She had to narrarate as she did it, saying "turn it over and then smoosh..." It was so fun. I'm convinced that the rolls turned out so well because Anna helped. We made a roast dinner for a new friend of Stuart's who's working with him on the carpet cleaning, but also investigating the church. After dinner Anna and I made cookies with my friend's little boy Elliot. They had a blast taking turns putting in the ingredients and turning the mixer on. It was just such a pleasant, if domestic, weekend!

My Pretty Anna

Some recent pics of Anna

Playing Hopskotch...which really consists of running/jumping over the sidewalk drawing whilst saying "hopskotch" over and over.

Grandpa's a Sheepdog

Anna continues to make us laugh with the funny things she says. The other week we went to my sister Alison's house for a barbeque at her new house. They have a new puppy named Gunner who's pedigree is unknown. My dad was commenting that Gunner looked like he had some border collie in him and said, "maybe his Grandpa was a sheepdog." Anna picked up on that immediatly and said, "Grandpa's a sheepdog!" "Grandpa, are you a sheepdog?" Oh, I thought my dad was going to fall out of his chair laughing.

It's no secret that my husband is British and is constantly using British words around the house. Anna of course has picked up on some of them like "boot" instead of trunk and "dummy" for pacifier. Well, apparently she's picked up on another phrase. Tonight she told her dad to "bugger off." We were too surprised to tell her that that was a naughty phrase.

Anna's funny things

So we're sitting in the car the other night ready to go in the house and a big sigh came from the little one in the backseat. I turned around and she looked at me and said, "Mom, I'm tired of my life." I have no idea where she got that from, but it was soooo funny.

And then the other night at the grocery store I dropped some change on accident. I asked Anna to help me pick it up and put it back in my change purse. She helped me pick it up, but she started putting it into her pockets. She said, "You dropped it mom. It's mine now." I think she got it from me saying, "if you don't share, it's mine. Or, if you spill it's mine." The cashier about lost it.