Want to build a snowman?

While in the bathroom tonight, I heard a little spencer trying to get in the door. Unsuccessful at opening it because the door was locked, he tried another approach, "Do you want to build a snowman?" I heard him ask.

I of course responded yes!

I notice that the last post was from October 2013. Well, the update: we finished the first year in the MBA program, are expecting baby three, are on the way to Philadelphia for the internship.

So happy to be visiting president and sister cutler in the Wisconsin mission home. It feels like the temple here. I love waking up to the large painting of Joseph Smith and the First Vision. Jane and Bence love being here too!

Watching some really jumpy squirrels tonight out the window. They were doing flips! J and B were laughing hysterically.



We love spending our days with john while he is not working or in school. A little piece I heaven!


Quite the expert fisherman, J pulled this beauty out of the river with his bare hands. Too bad it was dead.


Brooke has been so nice and taking us all over. This is at a Catholic Church Holy Hill. 178 steps to the top of this tower. Beautiful view!


We love being with the cousins!!



Here we are in May and thrilled to be part of 2014.

safe play

October is safety month. So our community apartments arranged to have policemen, firemen, and other safety officials come do some demonstrations. It was a dream come true, naturally. 

Thankfully for Jane, the fire department updated their colors to include hot pink fire hats.

Poor contrained little man. Learning to be safe. 

 Of course for safety month, the safest thing they could think of to do was to land a helicopter in a field where there would be lots of small children. Thankfully, it was super safe and super fun. We all really enjoyed seeing a helicopter up close. 

I'm not sure what pose Bence is doing in this photo:

Later that day, we ditched the fire hats for some dress ups. John thinks we need to invest in some manly costumes. 

Ta-da! 

Loving the little "stage" in her closet. Definitely luxuries here that we will not have for years to come, like each person having a personal stage.

It's a good life and we are feeling very blessed. We were so thankful to listen to the words of prophets this last week and enjoy reviewing them on lds.org. It's uplifting to remember often our Father in Heaven who cares for us. 

The state fair

We had such a great time at the state fair with Grandma and Papa. How fun to have papa take us on tracks to the fair!


We of course wore our pink cowgirl boots. The bunnies liked them.


And of course had to try out the giant bubble making wand.


And see the smelly pigs...they were really stinky.










It was an adventure for sure. There has never been so much hair product for animals in one location. And blow dryers and makeup. The animals looked amazing. No wonder they were getting awards.


If there was an award for being excited about riding on a train, Bence would have gotten it. He loved it!





It was a state fair to remember. thanks Grandma and Papa!

Goodbye work, hello school

Goodby to our old friend, the stable where we lived for three years. Jane took her first steps there and eventually wrote her first letters. We brought Spencer home there where he enjoyed his new room in our large bedroom closet.




Watching Jane and Taylor become good friends is one of the sweetest blessings of living at the stable. They were really fun to play together a lot. We will miss Taylor!








We enjoyed learning about vegetable and flower gardening from grandma Hughes and our wonderful associations with her. We thought she would be proud of this watermelon we grew this year, until we found out it tasted horrible. Darn. We have a long way to go until we reach professional Joyce Hughes level.




Now we are on to a new phase of life with John going back to school. It's going to be an adventure. We're back in a student ward and enjoying cinder block housing.




Yesterday Jane prayed, "help me to find new friends and help them to make friends with me." I'm pretty sure her prayers will be answered since half the child population of our city lives in our apartment building. There are children everywhere!
This is how we often find bench after his nap. He just graduated from pack n play to crib.




Closet of happiness. Loves to play here.




Our new place even has a playground right outside.




I'm learning to trust in our God and that there is a good path for our family. Here we come, school!

4th of July eve

I am truly glad to be an American so let the patriotic juices flow tomorrow as we express gratitude and joy for this marvelous county our God has given us.

I especially appreciate our Heavenly Father when out in the mountains. So tonight after a good hike, I am a grateful, patriotic, God-fearing American.


John and the kids. He looked so good and cute helping the kids up the trail. They had lots of fun discoveries, like moss. And rocks.





We made it!


Jane picked these for me!


Loving aunt Lizzi


Asher came (Jeremy's nephew). He is good to Jane.


The first of many...

The grand Grand Canyon

John and I hiked the Grand Canyon with our cousins Jane and Kessler and some of their family and friends. It was an adventurous and fun day.

Here we are starting out: happy on the shuttle over.


The south rim


Friday, we arrived at the south rim around midnight. Our plan was to camp on the side of the road. i was really encouraged when i saw a yellow warning sign with a cougar on it. Other animal life: a large moose and a deer buck. Well, if we were mauled in our sleep i didn't notice. We woke at 5:30 and started on the trail by 6:30. Late start.






John was in wilderness survival heaven with hundreds of tall yucca plants. We learned that you can eat the flowers, start fires with the dry stalks and make antibacterial soap and shampoo from the roots.











Crossed the Colorado river and some people dipped in.


Thank heavens for my marvelous husband and his endless optimism and kindness. When we ran out of water, he pulled out his water purifier and ran down to the river and pumped water for everyone. It was our saving grace.


The long, endless stretch at the bottom is called the hot box. Aptly named.





After the hot box, it was 5000 ft climb to the top.








We made it! So so happy !