{Alix's First Sick Day!}

A few weeks into school Alix stayed home because she was sick.

Alix's morning prayer went like this . . . .

Dear Heavenly Father . . . . Please bless I can feel better by tomorrow. If not it's okay. I don't mind. . . .

{Here I'm thinking either she really understands the Will of God or she is really milking this sick day.}

Alix is really loving her new school up here in NY. Going from 1/2 day Kindergarten to a full day of 1st Grade really wears her out. She will come home grab a snack then I let her play for an hour then while dinner is cooking we sit down together to do homework. It seems like right after dinner we get showered and ready for bed and sit down and read books as a family. The moment it's bed time she never complains goes straight to bed around 7:30pm and sleeps till 7am. One day I even had to wake her up so we wouldn't miss the bus. Alix going to school has been really bitter sweet to me. Part of me loves this new adventure she is on cause she is so excited to go. I also love having alone time with the two little ones. {I am now discovering who my biggest mess maker is which confuses me a bit cause she is also my biggest helper- so I am enjoying a cleaner home while she is away}

Another part of me is so sad to see her gone for so much of the day. When I registered her for school they told me that she had school from 9-3. I almost fell out of my seat quickly following tears in my eyes. All right in front of these ladies. I knew they went to school for a long time but not that long. And then I found out her bus comes an hour before school starts. So Alix is gone from 7:58-3:16 EVERYDAY. That is so long.

I'm not sure how I would be sending off one of my kids on a mission. I think I know why my mom cried the day my brother left for one and the day he came home. Anyway 1st grade is to warm me up for that I guess.

1ST DAY OF SCHOOL!

A GREAT FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

She did really good got a sticker and she put it on her nose.

Coming Home to Eat her Apple Pop she got from the Magic School Bus this Morning. Her outfit was also from the Magic School Bus.

GOOD LUCK THIS YEAR ALIX!

AND

LET'S HOPE YOU WONT HAVE ANYMORE SICK DAYS!

{Can You Say GARBAGE?}

OKAY OKAY OKAY Seriously you have not had pizza until you try NY Pizza. It really is so different. They have two different styles. I'm not sure what they are but I'll call them gourmet and your everyday pizza. They are BOTH DIVINE!

THE GOURMET PIZZA we eat there at the restaurant. We get their NY famous pizza Grandmas Pizza. It's thin crust with fresh tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese pieces on top. It's so YUMMY.

THE EVERYDAY PIZZA- This crust is AMAZING! I know why it's the thing to fold your pizza cause the slices are so large. Sometimes I think the crust is just deep fried. I know it's no healthy for you but oh is it so good. The gourmet pizza crust is the same yummiest. The pizza we get is Regina's Special. The guy who I ordered from said "OH THE GARBAGE PIZZA" I looked at him confused a bit and asked, (I really said this --LOL) Does it really taste like Garbage? He told me No he just calls it that cause it has everything on it. It's his favorite pizza to -- to eat; as well as, to make. So I was glad we cleared that up.

SURE ENOUGH IT IS OUR FAVORITE PIZZA HERE

SO FAR!

Can you believe my kids love this pizza too and don't pick anything off!

I love good eaters!

{A Fun Craft Project}

My kids love crafts and I love that they do. One project we worked on was a project I did I believe in 5th grade. We got a huge paper and drew a sunflower on it then filled it 100% sky and all with sunflower seeds, pastas, and beans we created what I thought was one of my favorite masterpieces.

Anyway I thought we mock it with these. We are planning on doing another project like this in the fall.

This ones mine : )

I can't just sit and watch my kids have all the fun!

This one is Addisons

Emberlynns

& Alix's

I THOUGHT THEY ALL TURNED OUT GREAT!

{A New Kind of Insect}

One day Alix told me there was a huge bug by the hose. I told her I was on my way and not to touch it. Then when approached I may or may not have screamed. I was so scared and didn't begin to know what to do. Alix noticing my fear took a stick and said, mom there's nothing in it. Let me show you it's just a shell. I thought she was a looney and told her to stay away from it. Really this thing was 2 inches big. After a while of acting like the biggest wimp in front of my girls I took the stick from Alix and sure enough SHE WAS RIGHT. Nothing was in there it was the bugs carcass.

SO IF YOU KNOW ME WELL I DID SOME RESEARCH. I talked to my neighbor and he told me what it was and laughed at me too. I then got on my computer and did some research on the little bugger. This is what I found.

this is the annoying bug you hear at night on the East as well as in Kansas on the farm. They are so LOUD. Some cicadas produce sounds up to 120 Db Which is loud enough to cause permanent hearing lose to humans. They are the loudest insect.

They are also known as the "June Bug"

They say you know when you are in the peak of the summer when you start hearing them and when you stop hearing them it means FALL IS COMING!

I NO LONGER HEAR THEM AND I'M GETTING EXCITED FOR THE FALL!

{Behavior Summer Charts}

Bribes work really well for me and my children. With the summer I each made my kids a thermometer to allow them to know how they are doing. Every day they would start cold and work themselves hot. The reward was A OTTER POP!

They would get rewarded for stuff like

making bed

brushing teeth

prayers

picking up

helping mom

helping sister

etc.

I got this idea from my Primary Chorister Teacher, Sister Pam Frost. She had this on a big poster and the thermometer would get hotter when we sang loud and good. I thought it was the coolest thing EVER!

{District Winner Ribbon}

Labor Day our District (Stake) had a Picnic. It was really fun. They asked me to organize the activities. I made these ribbons for the winners. Very easy to make and then I stuck vinyl on the top.

{Our First Visitor}

We were so excited to have our first visitor since we moved to NY. Jon's sister Amy came to visit us with her friend Lindsay. They played so much in the City. The joke was "I think you guys will know NYC better then us by the time you leave here and we live here" the girls were so excited for them to be here and couldn't wait to wake up every morning and peek in their room to see if they were awake yet.

One day we headed to the city with them. They played with the girls in central park while Jon and I did some sealings in the Temple. We got sooo lucky and ran into the Temple President and his wife and after talking with them he offered to do the sealings for us. It was amazing. It was a bit funny cause when I first starting talking to them I had no idea who I was talking to until later I looked down at their badges. Maybe it's more common to run into the Temple President in the Manhattan Temple vs. The Salt Lake Temple. You think.

Across the street from the Temple where I took this picture I saw my FIRST FAMOUS PERSON IN NYC or at least recognized them it was VICTOR GARBER. He was walking by himself down the street but in a fast pace. Probably so people like me don't stop him. He walked right by while I was trying to flag down Jon so he would notice and a less obvious way but I didn't do a good job cause he only saw the back of him.

a Favorite movie he is in of mine is LEGALLY BLONDE!

KIDS PLAYING IN CENTRAL PARK. I LOVE THE BUILDINGS IN THE BACKGROUND.

AFTER PLAYING IN THE PARK we headed on the Subway to SoHo to go SHOPPING!

We found this "Sooo Good" Store which I absolutely went wild about. Got the girls some darling headbands and myself one too along with this darling necklace I'm holding. The best thing the PRICES ARE INCREDIBLE! And the shopping is FUN!

Amy is planning a trip next March to come back and visit. We are very excited for her return.

Thanks Amy for Visiting!

F.Y.I.

visitors always welcome

hint hint

{Free Swim Lessons @ Hewlett Bay}

Alix was old enough to have FREE SWIM LESSONS at Hewlett Bay Park. You heard that right twice a week for 45 minutes Alix got free swim lessons. Addison will be old enough next year to participate. While Alix would swim the girls and me went to fun baby pool with fountains. It was lots of fun.

My favorite --the BAY being right behind us. Usually we would arrive early and play in the bay and the sand then get the sand off of us in the pool it was nice. Seriously some days I was here and look out and think "THIS IS AWESOME"

One day we came with our neighbor Liz and her kids Thomas and Sarah. This particular day there was free entertainment at the Bay. It was a fun day.

Alix was able to participate too with Sign Language Song. She did great. I was so proud of her.

Another time at Hewlett Bay Park Addison got stun by her first and lets up her last Bee. She was so sad. The Life Guards were so cute with her and took really good care of her. She liked the attention from all of them.

A half an hour later Emberlynn fell down and skid her knee. I had no band-aids so back to the first-aid clinic. I felt like such a horrible mom.

All the other days except for this day was wonderful. Addi still tells everyone about her bee sting.

{Some Hanging Places for us this Summer}

Gries Park in our Village of Lynbrook

Hewlett Bay Park

{5 minutes from our House}

{The Sacred Grove}

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I went to the sacred grove. The Sacred Grove is where we believe Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. It's an area behind the Smith Family house. Quite a Large area where you can walk around ponder and contemplate. It's the perfect place for that (well as long as there are not a ton of people there) It's very quiet and when you walk through it our of reverence you are reverent. For my experience not knowing really what is was going to be like was walking the path. Along the path were a few plaques describing the area. We finally approached the "SAcred Grove" and with out knowing I knew first by the feeling I got not so much the area. I knew without anyone telling me to be reverent. To me it felt like a Temple outside of a Temple.


We don't know the exact location where Joseph prayed, so it leaves you speculating a little bit and then you realize it doesn't really matter that we know the exact spot. We had a wonderful experience it was a beautiful Sunday Morning too. I was really glad I got to experience this with my family.

This tree above is called something like the" The Tree of The Twelve Apostles" I didn't know what it was until I saw someone take all these pictures and nosey me had to ask and they told me. Glad I asked cause it's not marked.

I really wanted to snag a leaf from a tree for keepsakes. In the past they would let you do that but they don't anymore because it started to get a bit overboard.

The Threshing Barn

The Smith Family House

Poor little Alix was wiped out from the night before and wasn't feeling at her best this day.

Palmyra, NY Temple

I love that the door have Stain Glass of Aspens like the Sacred Grove.

{Palmyra, NY}

Towards the beginning of the Summer we headed to Palmyra, NY to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I have enjoyed the Manti Pageant a few times and I was very excited to see this one.

It was a last minute decision to go. It was Saturday morning and I came back from a run after talking to a neighbor who told me I should go upstate and enjoy the country. I then remember my Institute Instructor telling me about this was the last week for the pageant. It finally clicked that we should go up there. I came home told Jon about my idea and he jumped on board and we headed out by 10am. With Jon's schedule I just thought we wouldn't have time to do it so I just put it on the back burner for another year. We were so excited and thought it was so much fun to be so spontaneous. On the way up there I did all the research and after a while we decided lets wing it and we were excited to do that which if you know me is not always my style. I can't believe how much fun it was. Jon and I decided we need to "wing-it" more and be more spontaneous. Who cares if things are perfect (I'm telling this mainly to myself). But surprisingly with funs attitude the trip went perfect. We all had fun!

SO WHAT'S THERE TO DO IN PALMYRA?

HILL CUMORAH PAGENT
We drove straight to the paegent to start saving our seats for the big night. We were excited to sit center left three rows back. After saving our seats we took a hike up the hill wear the monument is for where the plates were buried. This is the view.

Then we hiked back down. The girls love hiking. Something I found out on our way to NY. Anytime Emberlynn can be out of her stroller she is a happy camper.

At the bottom of the hike was the Visitors Center. While waiting for the next tour I took some pictures of the girls playing with the flowers.

An Almost Oops!

Shortly after arriving in NY we visited the Manhattan Temple. When you walk in the adjacent wall in front of you as a similar stain glass window like this. Being in the trip camera mode I pulled my camera out and almost took a picture and then realized I shouldn't be taking pictures in the temple.

After the Visitors Center we then decided it was time to find a place to stay for the night, so we went to the nearest hotel and they had 2 rooms left and they said they just had cancelations and we got lucky and and snagged one of them. AFter settling in the hotel we took a short drive back to see the Pageant. We walked around waiting it for it to get dark and met some of the characters.

Joseph Smith & Moroni

Lehi

We also ran into a wonderful family from our Branch. It was so nice to see a familiar face. What a small little world we live in if I'm running into people from my small branch in the crowds of NY.

The Pagent was REALLY GOOD. While I was watching it I was so glad we made it up there. Our favorite seen was the boat seen. I was so amazed how good the special effects were and their stage and crops were incredible. I'm thinking we might just go back again next year.

Lehi's Family crosses the ocean.

Favorite Scene.

The Waters of Mormon was another favorite part. Water was rushing off everything and the lighting effects made it all more realistic.