May 2016

Temples

May started off with a temple trip up to Palmyra.  It was so great to be in the temple and feel of the spirit, and Heavenly Father's love for us.  We had a remarkable experience and we are so glad we went.

I love the tulips that were in bloom there too.

Later in the month we were able to go to the D.C. Temple too.  I still cannot believe that we attended the temple twice this month.  That is quite the accomplishment for living out here.  Each of these temples is a 4 hour drive from where we live!

Tuscaloosa, AL

On Mother's Day, Nathan and I headed out for a business trip to the University of Alabama.  Nathan went out for a presentation and I got asked to accompany him (thank you UofA for the trip!).

We loved our little excursion.  After arriving at the airport, we drove by the Birmingham, AL temple. We couldn't go inside because it was closed.  In fact, the entire property was closed and gated off that day so we couldn't walk around the grounds, which was a bummer.

The university put us up in a nice hotel.  Even the public bathroom by the restaurant was luxurious looking.

We got to see a few of the sites:

The Magnolia trees were starting to bloom, which warmed my heart.  I love the south!

We also got to see around campus.

It was very warm outside so we got a driving tour of campus which is why I don't have much pictures.  But all of the buildings are built to resemble the southern plantations, which made me really miss the south.  I LOVE the southern plantations!

I even got to attend Nathan's presentation.  Now I know I may be a little biased, but Nathan KICKED BUTT!  He did such an amazing job and I'm so proud of him.  I can't imagine presenting in front of so many accomplished professionals.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was eating frozen yogurt while walking along the Black Warrior River there.  It was so pretty at dusk.

Zumba

Hannah came with me to one of my Zumba classes.

She was good for about 25 minutes, and then checked out.  One hour is too long for her.  But she enjoyed the first part of it for sure.  Especially Taylor Swift's Shake it off! song.

Daddy Daughter Date

Hannah and Nathan went on their first official Daddy Daughter date.  This is something we decided to start doing.  In the world today it is crucial that fathers date their daughters.  These girls need to know what a proper date looks like, and how they should be treated.

They went and got some strawberry ice cream at the PSU creamery, then headed over to the Arboretum, and then to target to buy some belts that Hannah has been saving up for.

Pre-school is over

This was a sad day.  Hannah has finished pre-school and is now ready to go to Kindergarten!  Where does the time go?  I can't believe how fast she is growing.

I'm also sad because pre-school provided a great outlet for her abundance of energy, and now it's gone.  So we enrolled Hannah in some swim lessons.  Too bad they start in June.


Garage Sale

The street that we live on did a garage sale one weekend.

Hannah liked the fact that she was able to go buy something at someone else's house.  She came back with a craft/project toy -- making crowns.

She made a crown for herself, and then she ended up making crowns with the sister missionaries later that night after dinner.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa came out for a visit.

It was really nice to see family and spend a day with them.  Hannah really enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa, and Scooter too (the dog).

She especially loved the surprises from Grandma.

FPU class #2

We are coordinating another FPU class!  There are 7 households taking the class (about 16 people), which is a good pretty good number for us.  We love coordinating these classes.  It is so motivating to see people get excited about becoming better stewards of their own personal finances.

As we were preparing for class one day we told Hannah that if she behaved during class then we would go get ice cream.  Well, we ended up stopping at McDonald's the next day to honor that promise.

While she was licking the ice cream, I started thinking this might be her very first experience with ice cream on a cone.  Remember folks -- she wouldn't even touch ice cream till about a year ago.

Miscellaneous

Hannah and I stopped by Nathan's work one day.  We walked around some and got to see LOTS of baby ducks.  They are all over campus!

Our ward here in PA had a painting activity.  We have several talented artists in our ward, so one of them walked us through how to do a water color painting.

Here is what the painting was supposed to look like:

And here is how mine turned out:

I thought for sure the next morning Hannah would tell me my painting was beautiful.  Instead, she said "Mommy, what is that?"  Clearly, I have no artistic talents.

The weather has definitely been warmer around here lately, which means Hannah loves to go out and play with the neighbors.  We like it too because it is an outlet for her abundance of energy.

One morning I woke up and saw that Nathan and Hannah were playing Sorry.  Hannah likes this game, but Nathan HATES this game.  He hates it with a passion.  What a loving dad.

University of Alabama picture courtesy of University of Alabama: http://dialog.ua.edu/2010/08/campus-changes-reflect-uas-growth-with-quality/ 

Active April

April was active, and we accomplished many things during the month!


General Conference

Wasn't that a great conference?  What a great way to start the month!  I felt like many of the talks were focused on how to be a better person and improve your life so that it will affect others.  And thank you Elder Holland for letting us know how much the leaders of the church care for us, and love us.

Nathan and I did out typical song pool.  I got 45%, and Nathan got 30%.

Hannah enjoyed snuggling with us during a few of the talks.  But she really enjoyed leading the music when the songs were sung.

Girls camp stuff

So I am on the Stake Camp committee this year which means I get to help plan girls camp!  I am not the camp director (thankfully!), but being on the camp committee makes your life pretty busy, especially with camp quickly approaching.

We had the Youth Camp Leaders (YCLs) throughout the stake come up to my house for a sleepover. We did some training, and they helped us plan girls camp as well.  It was a lot of fun, and the girls enjoyed themselves too.  Hannah especially loved having so many young women over at my house.

We also got to travel down to the camp we will be attending to check it out.

One of the things that our stake has asked the young women in the outlying units to do is to help raise money for girls camp.  So our ward had a fundraiser/talent show.  I took a couple of snap shots from the audience participation during one of the talents.

We had a great turnout for our activity, and we raised over $1000!  Way to go girls!


Other church stuff

Our stake had a women's conference toward the end of the month that was really good.  Nathan and Hannah came to help out with the lunch being served later that day.

During the clean up she enjoyed dancing around on the stage.

Ukulele

Back in March, Hannah had saved up enough money to purchase a ukulele.  When she met her goal, she gave Nathan and I the money while we ordered it online for her.

Well, it finally came this month and she was SUPER excited!

She has especially enjoyed playing her pink ukulele while Daddy plays his brown ukulele.


Preschool Graduation

Hannah had her preschool graduation.  The school always holds the graduation a few weeks before school ends because it's hard scheduling around the "big" students classes/finals, etc.

It was fun to watch her preform her songs that she learned throughout the year.  Can't believe that our little one is getting ready to go to Elementary school.

Rugrats resale

Last summer, I participated in a large kids consignment sale and I did it again this year.  I cannot believe how much stuff there is out there for kids.

One of the days there is a half price sale: items that are marked with the word "reduce" on the price tag are 50% off.  Yep!  I shopped for some clothing for Hannah, while Hannah and Daddy shopped for her to buy some things with her money.

Here is what I bought:

• White shirt = $1.50
• Gymboree jeans = $1.00
• Gymboree swimsuit = $2.50
• Children's place green skirt = $3.00
• Lands End Strawberry skirt = $4.00
• Old Navy Brown plaid skirt = $1.50
• OshKosh red shirt = $1.50
• Pajama set = $3.00

Total = $18.00

I also bought her a princess lunch pail for $3 (shh..she doesn't know about that yet.  I'm surprising her with that later).

Hannah was so excited for her clothes that she wanted to try them on immediately!  She also keeps asking "how many days until my swim lessons?"

As for Hannah, she purchased 3 things:

• An apron for $1.00
• A Hello Kitty memory game for $1.50
• A Princess birthday book for $1.00

She was excited for her own apron because she likes to wear them in the kitchen while she helps make pancakes with Daddy.

Painting

Our house is painted!  All of it.  It's done and it kicked my butt!

I finished painting an Armoire that was given to us.  Here's the before:

Here's the after:

Dining room before:

Dining room after:

I had an accident in the dining room when I was doing touch up paint a week later.  I lost my grip on the paint can and it spilled all over my hard wood floor!  I cried for about an hour.  It took about 8-10 hours to clean up.

Fireplace before:

Fireplace after (sorry, can't get a good shot with the lighting):

Living room before:

Living room after:

Miscellaneous

I often pick up a few kids on our street from the bus stop, and when we were walking back I saw what Hannah had done to her socks and had to take a picutre.

One Sunday morning I was getting ready for church in my bathroom. I came out to go eat some breakfast, and I saw Hannah sitting in the hallway.  She was patiently waiting there for Daddy to come out of the bathroom.  So cute.

That folks, was our April.

Oh, wait.  I had a birthday during the month of April too.  I'm combing through my pictures and I can't find any photos of the event.  Oops.  In fairness, I did request from Nathan that all I wanted for my big day was to have the house painted by the end of that week -- and it was!  And I told my family members that I all I wanted was some money so that I could have some girl time and go shopping for clothes -- which I also did.  So thank you everyone for honoring my birthday requests. Happy Birthday to me!