Josh Graduated!

Josh graduated! YIPPEEE!! He actually graduated in December, but he went through the graduation ceremony May 23rd. He looked so adorable in his cap and gown. I can't believe how grown up he is! I love him SO much! He is now preparing for his mission in January.

Camping w/Dad!

Friday night (5/14/10), there was supposed to be a father son camp out and Sariah and Abigail were supposed to do an overnight camp out with the young women. Well, for some reason both of these events got canceled. The kids were SO disappointed! Tom decided he was going to just take all of the kids and let me have the house to myself. I LOVE camping, but I SO needed some me time too. They went to circle G campground about 10 miles south of Carthage. They had SO much fun. They rented paddles boats and canoes. The most fun they had was playing with they clay they found! What a muddy mess. I so enjoyed my time alone and ended up going to the movies with my good friend Lori. They came home this morning a muddy mess, but I was SO glad to have them back. Tom is such an awesome dad and husband. I am so grateful that he loves doing things with his family!

Making Noodles w/the neighbors!

Today our friend and neighbor, Annee Childs, came over to teach the kids and I how to make homemade (from scratch) noodles. The kids had so much fun, and some were even fighting over who could help. Annee made it so fun by actually making the dough right on the counter w/no bowl. The kids really got a kick out of that, but not as much as seeing the dough be cut into spaghetti! That was COOL!! After we were done and cleaned up, we cooked the spaghetti and sat down together to eat it. It was SO yummy and very filling! The kids LOVED eating there own creation. We plan to do all sorts of really fun stuff with pasta now. Thanks Annee for all that yummy fun! By the way, her sweet hubby comes twice a week to teach my kids and I Spanish. What would my homeschool be like w/out such cool, smart neighbors?! The Childs family ROCKS!!

Our home is for sale by owner!

We started a new blog for our home. The web address is homeforsalebyownerinnauvoo.blostspot.com. Below are the pictures we posted on the blog. Check it out!

And the rest of Christmas vacation. . .

This post will be broken down into three areas: Christmas Day, Extended family, and service at Grandma and Granpa Zumbrun's.

First, Christmas Day. . .
On Christmas day we were still in the house on Dauphin Island. Because of the expense of the trip itself we really didn't do much in the way of presents. Tom's mom bought them a few, but the majority of them were gifts given from each other (the kids). I loved seeing the excitement of the kids giving each other used and homemade presents. Tom bought me a beautiful love pearl that I got to pry out of the clam. I think the kids were just as excited as I was. I then put the pearl into the necklace and Tom put it on me. Then as tradition would have it, we had a huge Christmas breakfast. We spent the day hanging out, playing games, and of course watching The Christmas Story. What fun!

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Then a visit to see family. . .
After leaving Dauphin Island we traveled to Tennessee (8 hr drive) and stayed the night with my brother Jon and his wife and two adorable children. It was a short visit and their kids weren't feeling the greatest, so we were not able to take pictures. Actually, I just forgot to bring my camera in. Their little Alex ended up going to the ER. I felt so bad for them.

We left the next morning and drove to Indiana (7 hr drive) and got to see a bunch of my family. I LOVED seeing my family. I hadn't seen my brother Dave and his family for a while.









After some fun, we helped G & G Zumbrun move, clean, remodel, and organize their new and old house. They sold their home and bought a new one. They got a great deal on the new house, but it needed a lot of work done on it. The kids really pitched right in and helped (all the way down to Eliza). You'll see in one picture that they worked so hard Abigail even fell asleep right on Grandma. Cute! We really enjoyed having the opportunity to help. It was hard for us to leave with them having so much left to do. We ended up leaving Alexis and Cambron behind for another week in order to help them. G & G were SO grateful. Can't wait to see the final results!