Its about "time" Lucas

When Gracie slept in her room for a month Lucas also wanted to do something to earn a watch so he had to make his bed for a whole month without being told or without any complaints. Well he did it. Here is Lucas with his new watch. Of course as you can see Lucas loves the color orange. To bad he has had a hard time making his bed since. I guess it takes longer then a month to form a "good" habit.

Nauvoo or Bust

As many of you know Rory's parents John and Judy Sandstrom are on their mission in Nauvoo, Illinois. We were able to go over Gracie's spring break to visit them. We left the morning of Saturday, April 3 and came home Sunday, April 11. We had such a great time visiting with John and Jude. We really missed them and enjoyed spending the week with them. We left Saturday at about 3:30 a.m. to avoid a bad winter storm but ended up being in the middle of it. We never went faster then 30 mph all the way to Evanston, Wyoming. When we finally got there they closed the road (because of the storm) and had a good 3 hour wait until we could continue with our journey. We made it as far as Big Springs, Nebraska the first night. We woke to good weather Easter morning. This is a picture of the kids at a rest stop in Nebraska enjoying the sun.

We ended up in Nauvoo at about 10:00 that night. We were really excited to see John and Jude. They live in such a great place right next to the temple. We ended up staying with the Dickson's who are also serving a mission in Nauvoo. They are really great people. Our first day there we visited the areas around the temple and the visitors center. We found out we couldn't go anywhere without talking to every missionary after they found out we were Sandstroms coming to visit John and Jude. Here we are in front of the temple well at least the bottom part of the temple.The kids enjoyed all the area to run especially being cooped up in a car for two days. We just let them run and run. We had really good weather all week and visited all the sights around Nauvoo. It only rained on us on Wednesday which was our day for Rory and I to go to the temple and on the wagon ride with Judy narrating. Lucas just couldn't stay awake, thank goodness for big sister to help him stay in the wagon.Thursday was John and Jude's PDay and so we went to visit the Amish. We watched them make cheese and also got to get Amish hats thanks, John. The kids loved it. We also went to a big Amish store called the Dutchman that had so many fun things we looked like kids in a candy store, which we ended coming out with too. What a cute family in their Amish attire.Notice the shawl Gracie is wearing, John made it. I also got one. Gracie wears hers to school and is very proud of her grandpas talents. It was finally time to leave and can I say the week went by way to fast. We ended up getting up at 4:30 on Saturday to make it back to Big Springs, Nebraska and lets say we made it back in plenty of time. We ended up stopping at a big park there and just letting the kids play all they wanted. These are our little monkeys just having fun and again enjoying the sun.It was such a good week of warm weather, spending time with John and Jude, going to the temple and feeling the spirit everywhere you go and some how feeling like you were leaving home. It is definitely a special place to visit. Thank you John and Jude for making our week so fun. We are so blessed to have you serving your mission in such a great place. We love you!!!

April Fools

Mother Nature really knows how to play a great April Fools joke. We woke this morning to a lot of snow. Here we thought spring was on its way and boy were we fooled. Lucas, Jesson and I had to go and enjoy by having a snow ball fight with Sadie (the dog) and making a snow man. This was Jessons first experience with playing in the snow. As you can see in the picture by the time the snow man was done he also was done.