Lassere France

We made it to Catelnau de Montmiral in southwest France! Our journey took us from Salt Lake City to Minnesota to London. We rented a car in London and began the drive. FYI: the steering wheel is on the right side and we had to drive on the left side of the road in England until we got to France! Why are the British the only ones who think this is the right way to drive? Anyway, we crossed the English channel via the Eurochunnel. It was a cool experience. We felt like we were riding in cattle cars with miniature windows that were only for viewing the dark tunnel. We can check that off the list of things to do. It was cool but expensive. I think we will try the ferry on the way back. We are in the Tarn region of France and it is beautiful! We are amongst rolling hills of wheat fields, farms, vineyards,etc. The farmhouse we are renting was built in 1829 and it is a typical French farmhouse. Thick stone walls, tiled floors, huge wood beams on the ceilings, stables attached to the farmhouse, stone steps, etc. We love it! I have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming! We do not have any neighbors, ie. Vendras, so we miss that daily interaction with the "frenchies". The children are loving the wide open spaces to run, play, ride bikes, etc. This is a little piece of heaven!

Happy Easter 2012!

Happy Easter! We got so spoiled with a beautiful, warm sunday! All the kids looked so nice in pink and spring colors! We missed having Julia home with us but she sent me an "Easter" picture in her sunday dress with a few of her friends. She looked cute and tan!

We had a wonderful Sunday church service and a relaxing day as a family, including Aaron. He did not have many sunday obligations :). We had a nice dinner and then the older children hid easter eggs in the backyard for Jack and Sophie. Jack was so excited to participate in this! He talked about it all week and quickly gathered as many eggs as his basket could hold. Sophie was intrigued by the whole affair. She would follow Tristan around and pick up eggs and then walk over to her basket and put them in. She would occasionally check her basket to make sure the eggs were there. They were both so fun to watch!

This Easter was especially difficult and comforting. A year ago was the last time my Dad was in our home and I had so many emotional moments on Sunday. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that this earthly journey is not the end. I know that Jesus Christ was resurrected that we too can be resurrected and if we live righteously we will be with our loved ones who have passed beyond the veil. I know God is our Eternal Father in Heaven and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and willingly overcame death so we might live again. I know I will see my Father again and I look forward to the joyful day! :)

Picking Up the Pieces

I have not blogged in a year! Yikes! I always check in with a few blogs I follow but always forget to visit my own! (How sad is that?) Maybe I should set a new goal... to blog once a week, maybe twice? Who knows...

My life in a year has changed ALOT!

1)My oldest daughter, Julia, graduated from high school last year and began attending Brigham Young University in June! That is Julia in the picture below as our whole family was watching her walk away and begin her new chapter of life. It was very emotional for Aaron and me.

2) My father passed away suddenly on May 18th from a heart attack.

3) Sophie Ann is now 13 months old. She is a beautiful little girl who adds so much "noise" to our family! (As if we didn't have enough before her!) We all love her to pieces!

4)We survived another Christmas...

I will add more later. Sophie is making her beautiful noise...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! My Mom bought AJ, Austin and Tristan fun hats to wear today! They were so excited to wear them to school. Tristan came home a little sad because he said some of the kids were laughing at him and it wasn't a nice laugh. Sophie looked so cute in her "I'm a McCutie!" and one of the cute bows her aunt Dore' made. I am a little occupied with other things this year so I am not making anything green for dinner except asparagus! Oh well, there is always next year!

College Bound!

Julia got accepted to BYU! She will start in June! I have already shed tears as I will miss her so much even though she will only be 2 hours south. Julia is an awesome daughter and I have enjoyed every minute with her (ok, not during 9th grade and a little of 10th)! :) She is so smart and fun and I love all the conversations that we have. They get more and more interesting as she gets older. I love you Jules!

SOPHIE

BABY SOPHIE ANN!

Sophie Ann was born Monday, February 7, 2011 at 6:01 pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. ; our lightest child! She weighed one ounce less than Alexis. She has beautiful, long fingers and big hands and feet! She has lots of dark brown hair and I am hoping it will be curly! :) After being in this world for 18 hours she decided to turn yellow! Well, after testing she was Coombs positive which means her and I had a blood incompatibility. I am O+ and Sophie is A+. So, my red blood cells were acting as an antibody against her red blood cells which caused her to have a high risk case of jaundice. Her count got up to 16.2. 20 is critical and can cause brain damage. We were very lucky we noticed her coloring when we did. She was able to come home with a light table that she had to stay under for 10 days. We had to take her to the hospital every day to get her blood drawn. It was hard because no one could really hold her and love on her. I could take her out to nurse her but then it was back under the lights. Sophie did awesome that whole time. We are so lucky to have her in our home! She is darling and we love her!

HALLOWEEN 2010!

Halloween this year came and went! I was on top of the costumes! A few months ago I was talking to my sister, Dore', and we discussed Halloween costumes and she mentioned the M&M idea. I loved it and I accomplished it! These were the EASIEST costumes to make and they were so inexpensive. I spent a total of $3.30 per costume. So, under 20 bucks for 5 costumes. That is a bargain in my mind, considering I have spent a couple hundred in the past on poor quality costumes.

This was so fun to see all my M&M's. Ok, not all. Julia decided against it and Alexis had decided to not dress up until Halloween Eve. Aren't mothers always running around finding or sewing something for Halloween up until everyone walks out the door? This is the story in our house.

Jack wasn't quite sure what was going on. He did not want to try on his costume all week but when the big day came and he saw his brothers getting dressed up he immediately wanted to join the crowd. He looked so cute! At the annual Fox Ridge neighborhood halloween party Jack was very timid about all the masks and people in costume. After we all had some soup and the rain clouds began doing their thing we all went out for the evening. AJ and Austin hooked up with a bunch of friends, Tristan went with Drew and his family, Alexis and her friends hung out at our house and then went out when the rain subsided, Julia stayed indoors and passed out candy (ok, maybe once she stopped Monk to get to the door!), and Aaron and I drove Jack around to a few houses in the neighborhood. He was so cute holding his little pumpkin bag and going to each door. We visited the Browns, Sis. Miller, Sis. Clark and Sis. Neilsen. He was thrilled when they each handed him a piece of candy to put in his bag. Even after 4 houses Jack and I were wet. It was raining pretty hard at times. Everyone had a spooktacular night!

PINK! PINK! PINK!

We are having a GIRL! YEAH! It has been 14 years since we have had baby girl clothes and things laying around our house. I had convinced myself that it would be another boy. When the technician said it was a girl I asked her a few times if she was sure. She had a big smile and knew this was exciting for us. I am so excited! I have to dig up all the old containers of clothing (yes, I did save everything) and see what is salvageable! I know I am going to want to shop 'til I drop for "pretty in pink"!

Broken arm and Eggs! All within a 24 hour period!

Jack broke his left wrist! The poor little guy had to sit with me all day on Sunday until we could get into the doctor on Monday morning. He screamed while taking x-rays because another nurse had to hold him due to my being pregnant. He did not like this at all. I felt so bad for him. He was very interested when the nurse put the cast on. He is so cute. He keeps looking at it and moving his arm up and down. I think in a few days he will be so tired of having it on his arm.

Sunday night at 12:45 am (technically Monday morning), I was lying in bed, wide awake when I heard a car pull up, something hitting our house and then the car sped away. Well, needless to say someone decided to egg our house. I, of course, had the pleasure of cleaning it up. I wish I had a hidden security camera just to shock the heck out of whoever did this! Pay back as an adult... that would be funny!:)

Friends, Fun and France!

We love spending time with our friends in France. They are wonderful people and we love them. We spent a few occasions with the Riberia's. We had a picnic at Pont du Gard, they had us over for a Monday Night get together, and they we had them over to the Gite for swimming and dinner. Also, Patrick came and stayed with us for a day. It was wonderful to see him. And we spent some time with Aline et Jean- Louis. We went to the Uzes market and then had a picnic in a beautiful park. Plus we got together with them at the Riberia's. So many good times!

Swimming at the Gite!

We love to relax in the southern France sunshine! The Gite has a great pool but it is NOT heated. The first week of our stay the pool was FREEZING! The kids would be shivering as they swam. They were very determined to use the pool. As the weeks went by the temperature got warmer and the water was so refreshing. Jack was very hesitant to get in the water until the last few days. He finally would get on Alexis' back or sit on the edge and put his feet in.

Ryan Air

The kids thought this was amazing! We flew between London and France on Ryan Air. It is a very inexpensive way to travel around Europe and because of this the airports were small so we had to go outside to board the plane. It was exciting for the kids because they have only seen this done in movies! :) We were all so tired because we had to leave Aunt Jenni's flat at 4 am. London was cold and overcast and we were praying for that southern France sunshine!

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

We were all so excited to find the old Avignon bridge were they still have the locals dress up, dance and sing. We wanted to sing ourselves especially for Jack since he has listened to this song so many times. Well, we got there and we had to pay a huge amount of money just to walk on the bridge. I told the children we would have to pass. It was just to expensive for all of us to go. So, we took a picture with the Avignon bridge as our back drop. It worked even though there were a few tears. :( & :)

Fun in France 2010

Spring 2010!

All the sights, sounds and smells of spring! Flowers, freshly cut grass, rain, "popcorn trees", baby animals in the fields, and of course, soccer! These are just a few of the things I love about spring! Alexis plays on a competitive soccer team, the Bulldogs. They are number 1 in their division. She is going to try out for the high school soccer team and I hope she makes it. Alexis has great field positioning and she knows where she wants to place the ball. It is so fun to watch her play! She usually plays left mid and she has scored twice this season. (You can tell I am a proud Mom!) Go Alexis! When we go to watch her games Austin loves to run up and down the field to cheer his sister on. It is fun!

The above picture is of Jack smelling some beautiful tulips that I had purchased at a store. We have deer in our neighborhood that like to eat tulips so I have never planted any in our yard. So, I love to buy them and put them in vases in the house.

Junior Prom!

Wow! I can not believe that Julia is off at her Junior Prom. She looked absolutely beautiful! Her date, Tyson Oswald, was very polite and nice. They both looked so cute! He asked her just this week so we were frantically trying to find a dress. Her friend Tiffany let her borrow the one she is wearing and I think she looked amazing!

"What flavor of ice cream are you?"

Last week I took all the children to Salt Lake City to watch the Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration movie at Temple Square. We had all seen it before but I wanted the boys in primary to see it again as the theme this month is on Joseph Smith. We all really enjoyed it, even Jack sat still the entire movie. I think the gigantic screen helped!:) We then walked around Temple Square for a minute before heading back to Logan. It was very relaxing.

On the way home I told the children I would stop and get them some ice cream. I decided to take them to Farr in Ogden. It is the original Farr ice cream shop. Tristan picked a flavor called "Playdough". It was different shades of blue, pink, yellows, red, green, and orange. I felt like I could have jumped into the ice cream and been a child again. It was fun to see Tristan indulge in the fruity blend of flavors and colors. Julia then made the comment that if she could be an ice cream flavor she would be "playdough". Alexis, AJ, Austin, and Tristan then proceeded to tell everyone what flavor they would be. AJ would want to be "peppermint stick", Austin would want to be "chocolate marshmallow", and Alexis and Tristan both said they would want to be "playdough". It was a great day!

SPRING! :(

Cache Valley is so great in the spring...NOT! Last night as a family we went to the Sports Academy so the children could swim. As we were leaving it was snowing so hard. Picture this... Austin and Tristan in shorts, t-shirt and flip flops with wet hair, Alexis in shorts and a t-shirt, Julia with wet hair and AJ had on jeans and a t-shirt with wet hair. It was a blizzard. We could barely see the road and it was accumulating quickly. Well this morning we woke up to 6-8 inches of snow. Yes, spring is here! Only in Cache Valley. I always say that it does not get warm here until July. In the last 5 years of living in Logan it has snowed every June. Why am I living here again?! Did I mention it is the children's Spring Break?! Snow, snow go away!

First Post!

Okay I have taken the first step! I am going to attempt to blog... I think more for a personal family journal. We will see how it goes! :)