School Days

I am really late on this post, but better late than never!

Jackson was so excited for his first day of school. I think he was mostly excited to wear a new outfit, but either way he did great! I was so proud of him!

Emma is doing a little "playschool" once a week for 2 1/2 hours. I thought she would be sad when I left, but she wouldn't even wave goodbye to me. I guess she was ready.

Here is a picture from the night before school. We took it right after the kids got their Father's Blessing. It was really sweet, both kids sat completely still the whole time.

This is just a random picture I took of the kids right before school one morning. Jackson was pretty excited because he got new jeans.

Trip to Grandma's House

Last week we were able to take a quick trip down to Little Rock. While we were there we were able to do some shopping, go out to eat, and play with the grandparents! We also got to spend some time with my good friend Jessica and her two little boys. Here are some pictures from our trip.

General Conference

This year we decided to invite some friends over to watch General Conference with us. We had everyone come over a little bit early so we could all have a little brunch together. We had a great time visiting with friends, but I do miss watching Conference at the Church. Atleast we had great friends to keep us company!

Here are the kids so reverently watching General Conference...

Just kidding! We had the kids watch a movie in Jackson's room.

Here is the table set for our Halloween brunch!

Pumpkin Patch

This year was our first year to go to an actual pumpkin patch. We had so much fun! We went with our friends the Hobsons and the Crowells. The kids had a great time at the petting zoo, but really had the most fun on a big pile of dirt. We rode on a really bumpy cow train, went thru a cute corn maze, and picked our pumpkins. We are so ready for Halloween!!!

Welcome to Rogers!

We are now in our new home in Rogers, Arkansas! We have been here for about 6 weeks.

Today I came home from Church early with Emma. She has had a fever and some sort of virus for a few days now. So, we decided not to expose her to all the nursery kids.I had a lot of time to reflect on this big change for our family sinse Emma has been sleeping most of the afternoon and the boys are still at Church. We have had so many wonderful experiences here in Rogers. The weekend we moved in my entire family came to help. Chris, me and my brothers and sister-in-law stayed up until about 2am the night before we left to pack up the moving van. It was really sad for me to say goodbye to the home where I brought my two babies home from the hospital in. After we moved everything in we all went to Red Robin for lunch and then said our goodbyes. It was a sad day!

Later that night Chris was trying to plug the washing machine in and the power to the entire house went out. Fortunately, we were able to call Chris' friend from college (at 10:00pm) and he came and helped us fix the problem. The next day at Church the very first family we met invited us over for dinner that night. We have had so many invitations to playgroups and dinners. We have really felt welcome here.

There are a lot of things that I love here. I love our house- it is beautiful! We have just a little bit more space and a great backyard for the kids to play in. I love the floorplan and the tall ceilings. I also love the weather! It is a little bit cooler than Little Rock and not as humid. Chris really likes his job which is such a blessing! One funny thing that I didn't realize until we moved here is Walmart is pretty much the only place to do grocery shopping. And we are definately the minority because we don't work for Walmart or a vendor of Walmart. I guess it's a good thing that I like Walmart!

Even though we love it here, I still miss Little Rock. After a few weeks we went back for a visit. It was great to see everyone but saying goodbye was really, really hard. Luckily my parents could sense my sadness and offered to give me a fathers blessing. During the blessing I felt the Spirit so strong. I am so grateful for Priesthood blessings.

Memphis Temple

Today was a great day! We had the opportunity to go to the Memphis, Tennessee Temple tonight. It was extra special to have Mike, Jen, and Steve there.

I love the Memphis Temple! It was the Temple I grew up with. I have so many wonderful memories there from the day Chris and I were sealed- I can't believe it has been 6 years! I felt sad to not know when I would be back sinse our closest Temple will now be in Oklahoma City. Anyway, it was a great experience!

After going to the Temple we all went to Chili's. And yes, here is a picture of us at our table! :-)

Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids!

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July this year. We had a yummy barbeque at my parents house, and then walked down to the golf course to watch the fireworks. I thought that this would be the first year that my kids would see fireworks and not be scared- but I was wrong!

The kids had a great time running around the golf course- especially in the dark. As soon as the fireworks started Emma started screaming. I had to walk with her for about 5 minutes just to calm her down. She was so desperate for the loud noises to stop that she pleaded "I just want to take a nap" to get out of the scary situation. When she was finally calm she kept repeating "I like that, I like that". The funniest part was that she wouldn't open her eyes. She probably sat with her eyes closed for a good 20 minutes!