A happy labor birth day!

We had a blast at Bear Lake this year celebrating Troy's Birthday over Labor Day weekend. Tom and Diane, my parents and siblings plus families all joined us for one last getaway.
The weather kinda-sorta cooperated with us with bouts of sun mixed in with a little wind and rain. Of course, the most beautiful day was Sunday. Go figure. We made the best of it by going on a nature walk to Bloomington Lake. It is absolutely breathtaking!!!

FHE failed again...

I am seriously just about to give up on Family Home Evening around here. Hallee is the FHE Nazi and does not let us forget about it and talks about it all week long. You would think with that kind of excitement we would have some really meaningful moments but they always seem to backfire. Our lessons are SUPER short and yet they still seem to extend beyond their attention spans. For example, this week Troy talked about Joseph Smith's First Vision and it's significance in our lives. At the end of the lesson Troy asked the girls, "So, if someone were to ask you what church you belong to, what would you say?" Hope's response, "NONE OF THEM. BECAUSE NONE OF THEM ARE TRUE."

And now you know why we struggle with FHE around here.

HGTV Hodges Style Vol.1

I am seriously so behind on my blogging. I still have over 100 pictures to sort through and post from our trip to Bear Lake over Labor Day. Nice hey? But we have been busy around here. We finally finished (okay the bathroom still isn't done) the basement, we have an official office once again, and Caymbree got a big girl room complete with the bed and all which meant that we had to do some serious rearranging and redecorating.

Caymbree's room turned out better than I expected thanks to five cans of spray paint, a little hard work and money earned from a garage sale. Stay tuned for more pictures to come...

Miss Hope goes to pre-school

Miss Hope finally got her turn for school. Too bad it isn't Kindergarten. She is SOOOO ready for Kindergarten. Oh, well. Pre-school it is. The good news is that she is at a fabulous preschool with an amazing teacher. It is the same school that Hallee went to and she LOVES it.

Mrs. Johnson does parent-teacher conferences throughout the year to keep you up to speed on how your child is doing. I remember her telling me that Hallee was so quiet in class and that she would really like to see her become more of an active participant in class. I don't think we are going to hear that same comment with this one...

On the registration form it asked, "Is there anything you would like me to know about your child?" My response, "take everything you knew about Hallee and throw it out the window. Hope will be a complete opposite." Not good or bad. Just complete opposite. Hope looks forward to school everyday and counts down the "times I go to sleep" until the next class. Like I said before. The girl is ready for Kindergarten. All day Kindergarten would even be better.