Sticker Store

Sunday afternoon Corrine spied her Princess stickers in the kitchen. Within minutes an idea formed between her and Ammon. They would make a sticker store. So she got a piece of paper and asked me to spell "Sticker Store" and "Princess". Then I heard her and Ammon say we need tape and scissors and they ran to her room.
When they were finished they called me over to the opening of the store. Corrine knows that she isn't allowed to put stickers on her door, so she covered the sign with extra tape, and put the stickers onto the tape. Smart Girl!


They sat in front of her door, and gave away stickers. When they didn't have enough customers, they starting bringing in the stickers to me while I was cooking dinner. My shirt had 4 sticker groups on it.



We just recently had 4 rolls of tape, now we're down to 1. Anyone know where all that tape has gone? The kids just love tape. I found a tape ball on the floor the other day!

Ammon Disappears

The other day as I was cleaning up the kitchen, I heard a paper bag being opened, then when I turned around I couldn't see Ammon. He had disappeared! I could hear him, but I couldn't see him. All I saw was a paper bag.
I heard giggling, so I knew he had to be somewhere close, but still I couldn't see him.

Then I heard "Mom, I'm in the bag!"
WHAT?!? He's in the bag?

I peeked under the bag, but all I could see what blackness. Where was that sneaky Ammon? I searched all over the kitchen, and all around the paper bag-but NO Ammon.

Since I couldn't figure it out, he decided to come out for a minute to help me out.



But then he disappeared on me again. This time he left a bigger clue-his red shirt was hanging out!



I thought I knew where he was hiding, but couldn't figure it out, so he again came out to give me some help, and that was when I caught my sneaky Ammon going into his hiding place.



Game over-Mom now knew the secret to Ammon's disapearing Act!

Fall Flowers

Fall is my favorite season! I love the changes that take place: the leaves changing colors, then dropping, the crispness in the air, the apples ripe on the trees and the beautiful flowers whose blooms stand out again the changing background.
This past week Ammon and I went and picked out some mums. Our mum from last year died in the extreme winter we had, so we needed to replace it. Ammon loved helping pick out what colors to get. We decided on getting 4 plants: red, yellow, pink and purplish-pink. Ammon was a great helper carring the plants to the cart.

When it was time to get Simeon & Corrine from school, I didn't say anything about the mums. As soon as we got in the driveway, Corrine spotted them and went right over to them. She was excited to see pink mums-picked out especially for her.

The kids were all excited to help plant them. Simeon picked the yellow one, Ammon the red, Corrine the pink and then she assisted me on planting the purplish-pink one too.

Ammon making sure his flowers are "tucked in" just right.

While we were digging the holes for the flowers we found some worms, which Corrine promptly scooped up, and placed them lovingly into a Pooh-bear cup.

This is the final product. The hostas are going to be dying back soon, so we should just have the mums left in the next few weeks.

Light the Night

This years walk was at the antique car museum in Coralville. Our group may have been small in number-but great in purpose. Simeon's good friend Carson and his mom, Grandma Smith and TNT member Dan walked with us. It was a very nice night. They had a light dinner, games and you could go into the museums before the walk. The night was beautiful and comfortably warm. The lite up ballons against the dark night sky is always such a neat sight.

Our Family's Blog

I've created this blog to keep others updated about our family, and also to have a journal of our family. I am going to keep Simeon's carepage going, but it will just be for his medical treatments. Our family activities and such will now be here.

Nani & Papa House

The pool is always such a highlight for the kids at Nani & Papa's house in Lakeside. We didn't swim in it as much as we would have normally since Simeon couldn't get wet and we were paranoid of his cast getting wet. Corrine and Ammon did go awimming a few times.
While we were there Papa celebrated his birthday so we got to have al ittle cupcake party with him. The boys thought Papa singing his version of Happy birthday was pretty funny.
The whole time we were there I had wanted to take the kids down to the shcool to play, but we ran out of time. I did take Corrine down for a little bit. We went to the

La Jolla Shores Tidepools

We headed back to La Jolla Shores to walk down to the tidepools. The sky was overcast, but still comfortable. The tide was really low when we first got there and there were shells covering the beach. We found lots of perfect sand dollars and other shells. We stopped at the pier to take some pictures and to look at the muscles on the pier supports.
When we got down to the tide pools the tide had started to come back in, but there was still alot of area we could look at. A man was fishing and had caught a sting ray and 2 tiger sharks. He had them in a tidepool that we could get a closer look at. The kids enjoyed climbing over the rocks and touching the sea life. My favorites from a kid are the ones that have little pieces of broken shells stuck to them and squirt water when you touch them, and the kids got a kick out of touching them too. We found lots of crabs to look at and little fish to watch swim. As we were just about down at the tidepools, Corrine slipped and cut her foot. It ws a little cut but it bleed alot.

Temple

10 years ago Johann and I were sealed in the San Diego Temple. What a neat time it was to bring the kids and to let them see the Temple and to feel the spirit even out on the lawn. The day was overcast, but still nice and warm. We played on the front lawn, then went to the distribution center.

Simeon loses his 1st tooth

Simeon's permanent bottom front tooth had grown in behind his baby tooth without him saying anything to us. The dentist said to give it a few months to come out, or they would pull it out. While we were on our trip his tooth was so loose that it just needed one good tug, but Simeon wouldn't let anyone near it.
Simeon had just said good night to Nani & Papa and was in our room with us. Johann told him how he had once swallowed a tooth that was really lose while he was sleeping. That gave Simeon enough courage to pull it out. He was so excited to loose his 1st tooth. He went and showed it to Nani & Papa.
The California tooth fairy came early due to a comment he had made "INSERT COMMENT HERE FROM CAREPAGE". She didn't want to be shown as poor, so she came with $2 gift certificates to Basket Robbins ice cream. The day after the tooth came out we went and celebrated with ice cream. Simeon decided he liked loosing his tooth in CA, because then he got double the prize from the tooth fairy!

San Diego Zoo

We went to the Zoo with Papa, Jake and Mandy. We recieved free passes from Give Kids the World passport program. The passes also included the guide bus tour around the zoo, and the cable cars that go across the park. We started the day by taking the bus ride. The kids all wanted to sit up on the top of the bus-which gave us a great view of the animals. Then we saw a sea lion and dog show, then some animals near the front of the zoo before taking the cable car to the other side. We got off and worked our way back UP the hills to the front of the zoo. Some of the animals we saw were the polar bears, zebra, okapi, cougar, bears, camels, meerkats and elephants. By the time we got back to the front of the zoo the kids were really tired and ready for a slushy. We said good bye to Jake since we wouldn't get to see him again on our trip. We got to see Mandy one more time!