So now for a little recap of this fall... Grace and Elsie both got older ... Sick days, Here is Ben on the first day of school sick on the couch. Everyone but mom spent some time here during the last month and a half. Everyone has spent a lot of time on the soccer field either playing or watching. Thomas is on 2 teams, Ben and Grace each have their own and mom and Elsie watch a lot form the sidelines. School started for everyone. Elsie loves preschool, Grace 1st, Ben 6th, and Thomas 8th. All is well for them. They are learning and having fun. G'ma Hull, G'ma Lewis and G'pa Lewis came to visit. We also made it to the fair. Now you know why I haven't been blogging much.. We've been making memories.

On our way home from Disney we stopped in on the Hunter clan... They were willing to put up with us for a night and the girls had a lot of fun (as long as the dogs weren't around.. We are working on Elsie's fear of all animals).

So the biggest part of our summer was our big family trip to Disney world. Apparently John has not down loaded the pictures from his lap top to our computer so a few pictures that I took our last day at down town disney is all I have. Who knows maybe I will add more of our fun pictures at a later time.. We took a lot. I think we filled our memory card every day. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN. The kids are ready to go back.. Too bad my budget isn't there yet!

Ok, so I haven't been keeping up... If you think my blog is behind you should see the rest of my house... Wow!! Is all I can say. Anyway here is a very short recap of our summer. It was filled with fun.... A trip to the drive in, a music and dance show performed by Ben, Grace and friends (they did a great job), a lot of gardening (flowers and veggies) a tip to Prince Edward Island (Mom only), a weinnie roast and many other things.. Also, a lot and a lot of rain but I didn't take that picture.

Ok its been a while

Wow how time flies.... We have been over our heads in dance recitals, Baseball, Lacrosse, piano, scouts, and every "end of the year" thing the school can throw at us... I also got a new calling, YW 2nd councilor so that has added a ton to my life! And to top it all off I have been sick for about 4 weeks so AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..(probably just allergies) Any way we only have 6 more days of school and 2 more baseball games before the playoffs so hopefully things will slow down soon and I will get out the pictures I took at all of the above and put them on the blog..

Until then we are alive, busy and missing you all!

We did it.

Maple syrup anyone? We did it. We got about 6 cups of syrup from our trees. Not bad for only tapping 4 trees and for it being our first time! We will enjoy it till it is gone! Yay us.

Because I can

Not everyone has wild turkeys wondering through their yard on a daily basis so I thought I would share.... The really loud turkey is my turkey husband. He likes to talk to them.

Spring

Spring--- finally!

oh yeah this is spring also

Yes both the picture of the flower and the picture of the snow were taken on the same day.. I took the picture of the flower and then turned and took the picture of the snow! It has been raining here since this was taken (Sunday) so it is melting away!! Ours takes a long time to melt because of all our trees.. Our neighbors are enjoying their snow free yards.

When in Maine....

This morning before church (yes it is at 9:00 and we weren't late), we all ventured out into the yard in our pj's and tapped maple trees!! Ok so we have lived in Maine for 7 years and this is our first time tapping our trees. It didn't take long to tap 4 maples around our house. We drilled the hole, pounded in a tap and hung the bucket. This afternoon we dumped all our sap into a big clean garbage can that John burried in the snow. We estimate that we got over a gallon. When we get a good amount we will boil it down to syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of syrup so we won't be swimming in the stuff but it will be good on our pancakes.. Come visit and maybe we will share some.

Thomas' girl advice

Thomas has found a way to get girls to throw themselves at him... Even older 8th grade girls!! He want's to share that advice to all those single men out there so they to can get tackled by very cute females!! Are you ready..... He is a photographer for the year book... Cute girls are coming out of everywhere attacking him so he will take their pictures.. Pretty smart kid!

Not the highlight of my week

I got rearended on Thusday... Not the funnest thing to do.. Luckly no one was in the car with me (which is very very rare).. The damage was just to the back door. I got cut on my neck from the seatbelt and my wrist hurt for a few days but other than that all is well.. Just waiting the insurance money to come so it can be fixed!

Elsie the dancer!

Watch out world she is coming! She loves to dance around the house. This seems to be her favorite move! Don't you just love the tu-tu.....

Ben's Basketball!

This was Ben's team. He is the one in black with the ball at first then he passes it off.. The team was Sacramento. They started out slow but toward the end they started winning games. However, the playoff's started and they lost their 1st game by one point in over time!! It was a great game they just couldn't get the ball through the hoop in the end!

Watch week

Here is our cute Gracie at her dance class yesterday.... This is a sneak peak of her recital dance, that she is learning....

boots

check out these boots... Way to fancy for cow girl work!

Thomas' new toy

So Thomas has been saving up all his money for a long time to get an electric guitar... He found it on sale the other day and he also got a 10% off coupon on the internet (such a good shopper) so he went a bought the whole starter kit, (guitar, amp, picks, tuner, DVD on how to play it). He is learning to play now! He is very excited. I woke up Saturday morning to him tuning it. Rock out Dude!

girls and snow

The girls enjoyed all the new snow... So did the boys they went sledding and the Ben went skiing but they are not in our cute picture! Today it is cold but no new snow. We actually had all 3 hours of church that hasn't happened for the past 3 weeks. Kind of weird!

Sunday Snow

We had a big snow storm... John measured 16 inches on our deck!! And we already had that much on the ground to begin with. I went to church with Thomas, Ben, and Grace, John stayed home with Elsie she's been sick. We were a few minutes late so we got there during the Sacrament hymn. After the the sacrament we had announcements a closing hymn and prayer then they sent us home. We were only in church for 1/2 hour but the roads were definately worse on the way home. Then it just kept coming all day... It is very beautiful and we were able to enjoy it from within our warm home only going out when we wanted to. John made some of the chickens come out. They hate him now. John and the boys are out shoveling now. Luckly it is powder so not hard to shovel.

Ben the Boy scout

Benjamin crossed over into boy scouts last night!! Very exciting for us all.. The arrow shows all of Ben's achievements!!

Christmas in Maine

Christmas morning in Maine.... It took place on Dec. 30th since we were in Utah but we still had a great day!! Everyone seemed happy with life. We had a really great Utah vacation and enjoyed new years here in Maine... Now were back to the crazy life and were freezing to death!

we are a live!!

Ok yes we are still alive although many of you saw us recently (we went to Utah for Christmas).... I keep taking pictures to blog and then never get to the blogging part... We have some great pictures that you would all love but alas another time... Any way one of my many new years resolutions (many many... why do I have so many faults) is to keep up with my blog. Who knows maybe I will even "customize" or something crazy like that!!