Our little Builder!

Andy got to spend a little bit of time not studying today so we decided to go take advantage of the Home Depot kids workshops. Tayla and her Dad built a picnic caddy! Tayla had a great time her favorite was the bang banging (hammering). Andy was trying to get her to glue the sides and she keep saying I want to do the bang bang.

Our sweet little builder love the little orange apron they gave her and also the little pin to put on it when she completed her project. She didn't want to take them off.

That annoying look Andy has on his face is because Tayla was being silly and wouldn't sit still so we had to take multiple pics so she wasn't a blurr. The girls get so excited when they get to spend some time with their Dad so who could blame her for jumping of the walls!

Rain Update

As the day went on I heard really how bad the rain we had today was. Checkout these links to see ...

Click here to read about a friend from the ward whose car was taking on water! Scary!

Then the news has a story too, click here for that.

I'm so grateful that our family is safe.

When it Rains it Pours!

All last night we saw flashes of lighting and heard thunder so loud that it shook the house a couple of times. So this morning this is what we woke up to...

Puddles! Not little puddle either but BIG Splashing Puddles!

So it was just to temping not to pull on our boots and go puddle jumping!

We love the rain. Andy made to comment that it uses to down pour like this in St. George but it only lasted couple minute here it goes all night!

Tayla jumping down our own waterfall

If you look close you can see the water fall a little better in this pic.

Our neighbors lake.

If all the raindrops where Lemon Drops and Gum drops Oh what a world it would be! I would stand outside with my mouth open wide singing ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!

These pics don't really give this rain storm justice. It was pouring! And Tayla loved every bit of. When she came in I had to dump a couple inches of water out of her boots. We also had a planer with flowers that Tayla and I planted that was full to the top with water because it was rain so much sorry I didn't get pics of it I was to worried about getting the water out and the plants to someplace that was safe.

DC Day Two

Amerie has become a natural on the Subway

Our partners in travel the Ewings

The three stooges
We went the Arlington Cemetery on the Second Day. I love the spirit there. You can feel how sacred this place is. I am so grateful for all the soldiers who are willing to give up their lives for us to live in America a free country!

The tomb of the unknown solider, right before the changing of the guards they played taps for a child that had passed away from an elementary school. Andy said that it was pretty amazing( I was keeping kids quit away from the tomb at the time so I didn't get to hear it)


After Arlington we went back into DC to hit a few more monuments, This time Andy and Tayla decided to ride in style!

They took out the paddle boats to see the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

and the Washington Monument( forgot to turn it sorry)

Amerie and I walk the loop instead (they wouldn't let Amerie on the boats because she couldn't were a life jacket) We also got to see the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. After the ride Tayla of course had to pick up another bug, this time it was a unsuspecting caterpillar. She has a tendency to squeeze a little hard when she is trying to pick them up so usually they don't survive the ride. If you look close you will see this one was no exception. So Andy told her to throw it down the drain grate and she asks why of course so Andy comes back with it is his home. Which would have been fine if we didn't see 100s of more caterpillers that Tayla wanted to take back to there "home"


With living back here we don't get to see a the Temple as much as we would like to. It hard to go from living some where and being able to look out your window and see the beautiful house of the the Lord to have to drive a while to be by the temple. So when we have the opportunity to be close to a Temple we jump on it. The Washington DC Temple was a nice ending to our DC Trip. Even though we didn't get to attend a session because we had our sweet daughters with us we got to walk on the hollow grounds.

We had a wonderful time in DC. Still more to come from our travels to Nauvoo and more.

Fire flys

I just want to let everyone know that I saw my 1st fire fly of the season tonight yeah! Silly I know but this was one thing I was so excited about when we found out we were moving to Erie. I loved watching them the July I was in Chicago. We would watch them when we would walk home at night. I'm so excited!

As a side note I had a friend that would catch the poor thing and swash them then write on the side walk with them, kinda cool to see your drawing glow not so cool for the bugs.

DC Here We Come!

We got to go to Washington DC on Andy's Semester Break! It was a lot of fun we even convinced the Ewing Family to come a long! Our 1st day we got there and checked into the hotel and of course had to go swimming! This was Amerie's 1st time swimming! She loved it! I wasn't surprised though she has always had a blast in the tub, when ever she hears the water running she get so excited.Amerie waiting to get into the poolTayla of course loved it too! She swam for an hour and a half before the Ewings got there then she swam with them for probably another hour or so, I think she would live in the water if she could.

The next day it was time to see the sights we got up early and hit the Subway. It was the girls 1st ride on the subway, I think it was also Andy's 1st ride on the subway! It is the easiest way to get around in a city and the cheapest, plus the kids love it.

We hit the Smithsonian and some of the monuments the 1st day.

Museum of National History

We picked a few of the Smithsonians to see: The Museum of National History, The Museum of American History, and The Air and Space Museum. The next day we also went to the Holocaust Museum but when we got in there we decided it was to much for Tayla. Tayla really liked the National History Museum but I think we wore her out, she decided to sleep through the American History Museum. We saw the Flag That Inspired the National Anthem which I thought was pretty neat. We took a break from the Museums to hit some of the monuments. The 1st day we hit the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, and the White House ( from a distance)

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

The kids (minus Jack) Tayla and Dylin with their swords(their umbrellas)
World War II Memorial/ Lincoln Memorial
It rained off and on the whole 1st day we where there. Jody and I thought it might rain so we ran to Walmart the night before and bought some umbrella's the whole two they had in the store and thought we would do the cost efficient rain coats with some good old garbage bags. When Andy tried to put his on we realized we probably should have got a bigger sized bag.

It was definitely spring this whole trip we saw baby ducklings and baby Goslings. It was amazing on how close they let us get.

Well we decided to get out of the rain and hit the Air and Space Museum. Tayla really loved this Museum there was a lot of hands on things to do there.

The ball floating over there head, how cool is that!



Pilot Tayla was taking all her Passengers for a ride. Watch out Grandma and Grandpa she is on her way! She played in this plane forever

This wrapped up our 1st day in DC. It was a lot of walking and a lot to see.

More to come on our other days in the Nations Capitol.

Hairy Hairy Larry

This conversation went on today as Andy was shaving:
Tayla:Mommy is old as you
Dad:Yes
Tayla: (looking at Andy's hand)She doesn't have hair on her hands?
Dad: No she doesn't
Tayla Mom had hair on her head, Like I have hair on my head, (then there is a pause) but you have hair all over?