Missionary Dinner

A couple of Sundays ago, we thought it might be fun if everybody brought a dish from their mission. It was too bad that Brent, Luke, and Blake weren't there to add food from Cambodia, Russia, and Florida, but we will get them next time.

Didn't really have to do with dinner, but it was a rare moment where she looked calm and innocent :)

Abigail and I making cheese empanadas from Chile, while listening to Dolly. She's the only one in the family that shares my fantastic taste in music.

I was a little proud of myself, they turned out quite delicious, which I guess you could deep fry anything and it would be delicious

Cheering us on, while we make empandadas

We have....
Som Tam and sticky rice from Bangkok, Thailand, Jed's mission
BBQ chicken pizza from San Jose, California, Dad's mission
Hmong stirfry from Minneapolis, Minnesota (Hmong speaking), Matt's mission
cheese empanadas from Santiago Chile, Ben's mission

Everything was SO good, even if a little spicy! Jed said he toned the Som Tam down for us... can't imagine what it's like at full force spiciness!



My Grandma made dessert, which she got the recipe from a lady, while her and my Grandpa were serving in, Hartford, Connecticut.
Luke and Beau with ice cream faces

tickle torture


This picture cracks me up! Abigail is pointing at Adam, while obviously tattling on him, and Adam's just laughing. I love the look on his face!

Oh, and Luke's wearing his favorite outfit (I know, boys don't wear outfits) He likes polo shirts with bb shorts, and he especially likes the solid red.

This was probably our last outside dinner of the year, it's been a great summer!

The birthday girl!

The whole household has been excited for Carly's bday. I don't know why... but seriously Luke and Abigail were telling everybody weeks in advance about their little sister turning three. Sometimes I am surprised that Carly's only 3... she seems older most the time, but occasionally she thinks she's the baby still.
Like every birthday, some family came over and we had cake and icecream. She got toys and lots of clothes.

I love this... my Mom ties the ribbon extremely tight on her pretty packages. Carly was getting frustrated

So happy about her pet shops

Hailey was also excited about all the new toys.

The ladies

the gentlemen

yay for new toys! I love the days following bdays and Christmas. With so many new toys to entertain the kids.

Courtney said, "It's a good thing you put a bib on her."

enjoying delicious birthday cake... I never got a picture of the cake, it was nothing fancy. I was a bit rushed that day, so we headed down to Walmart and she picked out a Chocolate one with sprinkles. She loved it, it tasted good, and luckily she didn't even notice that they spelled her name wrong.

Fish Farm

Abigail had a field trip for preschool last Friday to the fish farm in N.O. ... I was a little under the weather, so Grandma and Grandpa Dawson volunteered to take Ab and Car.

Abigail was really excited, she said, "I'm going to catch my Dad some tuna!" which is funny anyways, because Ben really doesn't like fish.

Poor Sharla, she got hooked in the cheek by a little girl standing next to her. Luckily Larry got it out and there was only the tiniest amount of blood.

Carly loved her fishy

Abigail was happy until they cleaned it for her, and handed her a headless fish. She said she wanted to put it in an aquarium.

Dance class

Abigail started dance class a couple of weeks ago. She loves to dance... but I think most of all, she loves having her own thing. Something no one else in the family does. She loves her teacher, and her teacher's clothes. Each week on the way home, she describes in detail what her teacher was wearing.

This was taken right before her first class. She was obviously SO excited

This girl tends to live on a whole different energy level than my other kids. She's always so happy. Not that my other kids aren't happy, but Ab REALLY loves life

Luke didn't really want to be in a 'girl dancing picture'

When she gets home each week, so tries to teach Carly her new moves.

First day of school

It's Abigail's turn now!

She wouldn't hold still hardly long enough to take pictures, she kept dancing around. She's been going back and forth between excited and nervous. On back to school night she was nervous, and she wasn't super happy about it. But luckily this morning she was all excitement!

She was seriously so excited, she wouldn't hold still. She requested pink chocolate chip pancakes with pink syrup for breakfast, she drew some pictures for her teachers, and she walked around with her backpack on all morning.

We're lucky to have my wonderful neighbor, Mrs. Shelly, for her teacher. It's just a couple houses down from us, and there are some friends from our ward in her class. Carly also donned her backpack for the walk. Carly and Hailey have been a little out of sorts this morning without their ring leader, but I'm sure they'll get used to it in no time.