Peter turns 29 again!

Today is Peter's birthday!

He is out of town though and so we surprised him last Thursday and had a special dinner for him.

 I actually bought steak, we grilled it and it came out perfect!

Lily ate at least half of one- she is a carnivore!

 We also enjoyed broccoli salad, baked asparagus, real mashed potatoes (ranch flavored) and bottled root beer.  There is a brand of root beer that Peter really likes but I have not been able to find it here in Lewisville so we settled for IBC. 

 Happy and surprised man with his bleeding rare steak!

Peter has become the fancy cake maker and since I was making this a surprise he got store bought Halloween cupcakes. (I had made homemade apple pie earlier in the week that made him really happy so he was not too disappointed). Kudos to Peter for making sure Joey took a picture of the candle portion of the evening, I had to leave for Stake training and missed this part. 

Peter, you are an amazing man! I feel so blessed each day to be married to you. Our kids love you and love to play with you. You are such a help to me with the house, kids, work, church, whatever I need of you, you are willing to do your best to help me! You are one in a million!

So Excited!

I am a slacker and have not posted anything in a while but this was too exciting to pass up!

Last night, Peter and I booked a trip to Washington DC for November- just the 2 of us!

Peter has flown so much this year he earned a companion pass which means anytime he gets a ticket I can fly for free for the next 14 months (through this year and all of next year).  Way cool but we have to use it to make it actually cool. 

We have wanted to go to DC for a long time and wanted to go without the kids so that we could enjoy reading every little plaque or sign or whatever without worrying if one of our kids had disappeared, wandered off, or was touching some priceless piece of history. We will take them someday but for now I can not wait to spend 4 days with my husband. It is the longest trip we will have taken without any kids (we spent 6 days with baby Arabella when Peter moved to Dallas).

Flight- check; hotel- check; itinerary- mostly check; and babysitter- check!

A Fun Friday with the Fam

Friday the kids did not have school.

We had a picnic at the park with friends.

Then, I told Peter that since he did not have to travel that day for work he was getting off early and playing with us! (He still left for work at 5 am and worked 7 1/2 hours.)

 Our zoo pass is getting close to its expiration so it was the perfect place to go. 

We even ran into some friends there.

 I ended up with more than one picture with someone's finger suddenly pointing across it.

 The water feature is always a hit! 

We fed the birds as well and it was an experience. They are trained that when the door opens there will be food and they "attack".  I think each of us had one land or try to land on our heads. The kids freaked out and the zookeeper was irritated that the kids would not be calm. But in the end we fed the birds and bought one new stick of food so that one sad boy who dropped his mealworms when the birds attacked could actually feed the birds. 

 This is purely to document how Jon wore his socks for most of the time at the zoo. Not sure why.

 I love to ride the monorail at the Dallas Zoo. The animals you see on it, are some of my favorites there. 

We finished with a ride on the carousel.  The older 3 are in that spinning nest which was really had to capture from my up and down perch. 

We left the zoo at rush hour and so decided just to eat dinner downtown- Pei Wei- Yummy!

For me, the most memorable part of the afternoon and evening was as we were heading to the freeway on the frontage road we came upon a car stuck between lanes. The woman inside was waving people around her and she was near the intersection but definitely stuck in a spot that was making it confusing for people to get in the right turn lanes to get to the freeway.  My amazing husband instead of just going around put the van in park, turned on the hazard lights and got out to see if he could help.  Then I see my good-hearted husband begin to push her car up the road that is not flat but on an incline.  He pushed her to a diagonal lined triangular spot in the intersection where she would be safe and traffic could safely move around her. The kids asked what dad was doing and why he was pushing someone's car and all I could say (with emotion choking my words) was that he was being a good man and a good scout helping someone who needed help and could not do it for herself.  It turns out her car had overheated and she was not strong enough to push it up the hill and out of the way.  The zoo was fun and I hope to remember it but I know I will remember that and also that my children saw their dad helping his "neighbor" in action.

Warm Fall Days

Last Monday was just too beautiful to stay inside. I packed a lunch and loaded the girls in the stroller for a walk to the park.

It has been warm here for a really long time and I know I should be grateful but it would be nice to feel that chill of fall a bit more often.  But, I was trying to remember that come January or February I will be wishing it was warm enough to go to the park again so we enjoyed!

 I love when my kids pick weed flowers to give to me!

Lily mastered the climbing wall by the time we left.  Arabella led the way and Lily was determined!

Conference

We had a great conference weekend!

Lily was so happy to see her Dad after he had been gone all week that she sat on his lap for most of the day.

These are from Sunday morning and we had made sticky popcorn! 

This makes for a happy family!

We loved hearing great counsel from our leaders and feeling the spirit through music and word.

We finished our weekend by having the missionaries over for dinner. 

That is always fun! 

New Hampshire

Peter flew out last Monday to New Hampshire. 

Tuesday through Thursday he was in classes most of the day learning how to use Ground Penetrating Radar.

Thursday he was done at 3:30 so he headed out to see some of the beauty that surrounded him. 

 The church at the top reminds me a bit of the architecture of the Nauvoo of St. George Temples.

 The picture in the bottom left, the plants are actually growing in a tire. 

 The fact that there is a picture of a graveyard shows me that Peter is truly his mother's son; there is family history in his genes.

I miss leaves changing colors but i am glad I got to see these pictures.  Next time I hope I get to go too!

Reasons

Peter is out of town this week in New Hampshire for a conference.

He is learning how to use ground penetrating radar.

I am not really certain what he can use it for but he uses it for his job and now he will be certified.

I don't mind when Peter is only gone for one night here or there but I miss him quite a lot when he is gone for multiple days like this.

This week I have thought of several reasons that I wish her were home this week.

1. I sleep better when he is home.

2. He helps fold the laundry, when it is all over our bed it kind of has to be done before we go to bed. The other night I put it back into baskets and decided to face it the next day.

3. Tonight when I work, we have a babysitter coming to stay with the kids. She is great and I trust her but tomorrow morning when I am exhausted from being awake for 24 hours I will wish Peter is here because I don't function well.

4. He could have been the one to deal with our dead guinea pig last night. Chester has seemed sick for awhile but he was still eating and moving around.  Well sometime yesterday he crawled under their new chew tunnel and died. Guinea pigs can apparently be carnivores and so once I realized it I had to get him out of there because Rusty seemed to be nibbling at his ears. Lovely. I recruited Joey's help to get him in a box.  I told the kids as we took Joey to scouts. I dug a hole while Joey was at scouts and then we buried him once we got home. Farewell Chester. You were a cute little piggie! And I loved that Arabella called you Chestard.

5. When leaving to get Joey from scouts, I noticed something in the driveway after we pulled out. I stopped rolled down my window to get a closer look and then it moved. It was a rat! Double lovely! Our neighbor put a shed in his yard in the corner that is next to our driveway.  He has had lots of problems with rats and mice since.  This unfortunately means that we too have had a few problems with mice and once a rat but I have never been so blessed to see the rat! (sarcasm there) Our neighbor about a week ago said he had put out a bunch of bait because they had been more active well I think he may need more.  Since he is a pest control guy I have confidence that he will get it well under control.  

I thought for sure the rat would be gone when we returned but no, it was in the driveway waiting for us. I knew it was not dead because it's little head was moving around. I had Peter on the phone and he said, "Get the square nosed shovel and scoop it up and fling it out by the train tracks." 

Doesn't that sound so simple. Until you are a girl (I did not feel very womanly) and you are the one scooping said rat and flinging said rat with its long tail and beady little eyes. 

I gathered my courage and went to scoop the rat and it ran off into the grass and under my neighbor's fence. 

I am not certain that I felt relief that I did not have the "fling" the rat but it was heading to the supposed poison.  But the rest of the night I had to force myself not to think about rats in my garage and possibly in my house. This also led me to remember the coyotes I have seen and heard behind our house as well and I hoped that Chester (who was buried back by the tracks) would not be dug up and be a snack for some animal. 

Peter is enjoying his conference and he says it is gorgeous back there with the fall leaves and the cooler air. He will be home Friday afternoon and I am hopefully that no more pets will die before then and even more that there will be no more signs of rats! I will deal with sleeping alone and folding the laundry.