New Family Addition

I am really busy with life right now so unfortunately this probably won't be as detailed as I would like it to be.
We stayed with Kenn and Donna. They were so wonderful to let us stay with them for 4 weeks. Matthew and Allison warmed up to them very quickly and then just melted when we did actually have to leave. Allison was Kenn's little buddy and Matthew was Donna's little buddy. Kenn could just hold Allison and she would just lay on her shoulder. One time for over an hour. I wish she would do that on me.Every morning Matthew would wake up and ask, "May I go find Donna?" It was very sweet. He loved climbing in bed with her and they would watch cartoons. This is usually how it ended up though, Donna asleep.
Donna did so many different things with Matthew. A couple of the things she did was play hide-and-seek, which is now his favorite game ever, and read stories to him.

She would even lay on the floor with him to read to him.

Matthew loved being around Donna. She was so sweet to him. He was sitting in his chair while Donna was laying on the couch. Matthew walked over to her and said, "May I lay with you, I can see better from here." I just had to get a picture.

Allison and Kenn

Allison, Kenn, and Matthew

Allison, Donna, and Matthew

Kenn and Donna took us to a little park that has a train ride and Matthew just loved it.

Matthew in front of the train

There was also a little carousel that Matthew really enjoyed.

Kenn and Allison

Donna, Kenn, Matthew and Allison at the park.


Since Matthew all of the sudden is in a snake craze. Donna and Kenn then took us to see some snakes and other reptiles. Matthew loved it.

At night when we sang songs to Matthew we would let him pick what songs to sing. He wanted the Family Song: I love mommy, she loves me. However, when we got done with Matthew and Allison, Matthew added another verse Donna and Kenn. Matthew has included them into our family.
Like I said, my kids were very sad to leave Kenn and Donna's. They loved living with them. We are going to have to visit them again.
Thank you so much Kenn and Donna!!!

Our Last Friday

Our last Friday we went into the city again and went to the Jefferson Monument. All the quotes around this statue makes you think that he is the most Christian person there ever was, but that is what they want the public to think. How could a founding father not be Christian? However, having a Historian as a husband, Jefferson actually was a Deist. It is amazing what one could believe if they don't actually have any knowledge on the subject. Either way it was still cool to be at the statue.

Allison, Matthew and I in front of the Jefferson Memorial

Chris and Matthew standing on the outside of the Jefferson Memorial.

We then walked to the American History Museum and spent the rest of the day looking at everything. There was so much to see and do.

Apolo Anto Ohno's Gold Medal Speed Skating Skates

Kermit the Frog
(So American)

Oscar the Grouch

Looney Tunes

Dorothy's Red Slippers from The Wizard of Oz
Once we got a colored tv growing up, I watched that movie every year when it came on.
I still love that movie.

This is Abraham Lincoln's original top hat.

Our very adorable little boy.

These were pieces of the World Trade Center from 9/11.
When I saw this and read what it was, I got choked up remembering everything that happened that day. Even now just writing about it gets to me.

I thought it was cool to see all these different presidential signs. Notice there isn't a Clinton sign, is there a reason for that? lol
I

Matthew in front of a real train. It is amazing just how large these things really are.

There were two different areas strictly for kids, sort of like a Children's Museum type place. Matthew loved playing in both areas.

We left the museum and as we were walking down the underground mall in Crystal City there was this guy so we just had to take a picture with Matthew next to him.

Matthew and Ronald McDonald

Bureau of Engraving & Printing and Iwo Jima

Since I don't see myself getting to scrapbook anytime soon, I need to make sure I write down all the small details somewhere so I don't forget about them when I do finally scrapbook. So unfortunately the two of you who do read my blog have to suffer through all the boring small details. One day though I will get to scrapbook and put all of this information in Matthew, Allison, and our family albums.
We tried to go into the Bureau of Engraving and Printing but when we got there at 10am the next tickets they had for that day was at 5:30pm. I didn't want to stay in the city that long so we just went to the Holocaust Museum. You aren't able to take pictures inside so we don't have any but we got a couple of the outside. This is the museum that Chris spent all of his time. Chris actually got all the information that he thinks he needs with 2 days to spare. He is sure that after he looks through everything that he copied he will have missing pieces and will have to go back again to do more extensive pinpointed research but for right now he was able to get everything he needed. It was good that we were there for that amount of time.

Chris in front of the backside of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This was Chris' "home" for the last month.

Chris and Matthew in front of the US Holocaust Museum, front side.

Chris went into the city early and got tickets for the tour of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing for us at 3:30 that afternoon so I met him in the city. It was fun to meet him in the city and it was the day that he completely finished all of his work so we just got to enjoy the rest of the day.
In the gift shop of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing they had this so I wanted to see how much Matthew was worth or tall. They were actually wrong, he is priceless but it was still fun.

So it says that Matthew is $932,000 tall in $100 notes.

Then we rode the subway to Rosslyn and hiked to the Iwo Jima Monument. It was really big. I was very surprised.

Matthew flexing his muscles in front of the Iwo Jima statue.

Matthew, Allison, and I in front of the Iwo Jima statue.

It was really hot for DC, high 90s so it was a hike but boy being back in Texas, it is so much hotter with even more humidity. I am glad that I don't go out as much in the Texas summer as I did in DC.

Washington D.C. Temple

So kind of a funny story. (Bonita you will have to laugh):

Since I was so focused on cleaning our house before we left, I only grabbed my credit card and driver's license out of my wallet. When we got to D.C. I realized that I should have brought my insurance cards and also my Temple recommend. As I was emailing Bonita (who stayed in our house for a little bit) and telling her that I forgot those things, she mentioned that she could send them to me. After I thought about it, I thought that would be awesome if only I knew where they actually were. I put a lot of things in different places so that they were not in their way. One of those things was my purse. Thankfully I put a lot of stuff in the office closet so that is where Bonita found my purse. She so willingly sent my cards and recommend to me.

I was so excited when I got them, however not wanted to climb the 3 stories of stairs to put them away, I just put them in my pocket. No know what happens next, yep, I did the laundry and since I never put anything in my pockets and Chris always takes everything out of his pockets before putting it in the laundry, I don't check for things in pockets. Later that night, Donna came in with one of the two of my insurance cards she had found in the dryer. I was so glad she found it, but then I started thinking, where is my other insurance card and my recommend? After finished my laundry I found the other plastic insurance card in the washing machine. The only other thing I found was a piece of the plastic that my temple recommend is usually in. It was completely destroyed. I figured, well, I would at least like to see the Temple but Kenn being in the bishopric informed me about the loops I could go through if I really wanted to go to the Temple.

Kenn and Donna have been so wonderful to us. They are so willing to take the kids and play with them and give us a break. I am going to have a rude awakening when we get home. Saturday night I put Allison to bed and then took Chris and I took off to the Temple. Matthew was very happy to stay with Kenn and Donna, no problems there. It was so wonderful to go to the Tempe together. We went and did sealings. I LOVED it. We have done sealings one other time when I was 4 months pregnant with Matthew and the guy spoke SO fast. I also became VERY pale and almost pasted out. This experience was so good to remember our marriage.

We got there when it was still light so we got to take pictures of it during the day and then we we came out it was dark so got to see it with all the lights on. It was so wonderful!

Washington D.C. Temple

Me standing in front of the Washington D.C. Temple

Washington D.C. Temple at night using my flash

Washington D.C. Temple at night without my flash.

Washington D.C. Temple at night

Real Fishing

Our friends Dwain and Christina called me up and asked if we wanted to go fishing with them. I was totally excited though not a huge fisherman. We drove to a nearby lake and went out on the boardwalk type thing. (For any followers that remember my fear of water going to New Orleans might remember that I am not a big water person). I was a little nervous at first and so worried about absolutely everything. I was definitely an overprotective mother and Matthew probably gets sick of me sometimes. I eventually eased up and had a great time.

Matthew with his fishing pole. At first I was too worried about putting a hook on his line because I was afraid he would get hurt but he didn't know any differently.

Less then 10 minutes after we got there and put Spencer's pole in the water someone started yelling that his bobber was going under. At first I was a little scepticle but when it kept going under, Dwain jumped up from putting another fishing pole together and starting pulling that fish in. There was so much excitement.

Dwain reeling in Spencer's fish.

After Spencer actually caught a fish I decided that Matthew really should have a hook on his line just in case. I also was a wimp and had Donna cut the worm and put the worm on the hook.

One of the greatest things about being here in D.C. is that I get to be close to SUPERMOM herself. I am so amazed with everything that Christina does so it is fun to see her again and learn from her.

Christina was a little weery about touching the life worms but she as a supermom overcame that fear. She cut the worm with her bare hands and nails and put it on the hook. I even have a video of her doing it but I will let her put that up on her blog, if she wants to.

This is Christina's own hard work. Cutting and hooking the LIVE worm. I was so proud of her.

The other fish that we caught was this big catfish, we kept it and ate it for dinner that night

Ha Ha

No not really.

Another guy caught this fish and I just thought it was fun to watch him reel it in and then he put a nail tied to a string through his gill and came out his mouth and then wrapped it around a pole and put it back in the water until he was completely done fishing. He said that that was dinner that night and he uses liver for his bate. A little more advanced then we were.

The catfish that was caught in the same lake.

When we first headed out it was actually sprinkling a little. I wasn't sure how the weather would turn out. However, it cleared up and then eventually the sun came out and it was a nice day. Since it was rainy when we left the house I didn't put sunscreen on my kids. When the sun came out, Donna came up with this little tent for Allison. As long as she was eating crackers she was completely happy and she stayed out of the sun. Thankfully, I was the only one that got sunburnt.

Allison in her little tent. Thankfully she stayed in her stroller the whole time we were there.

Spencer's fish was the only one we caught went made us feel successful. It was so much fun being out there with Dwain and Christina. They are such a fun couple to be around.

Thanks so much for inviting us! We had a fabulous time!

Arlington Cemetery

I went into the city one day to try to go to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. We got there at 10 and the next available tickets were for 5:30. I didn't want to stay in the city that long so we decided to go to the Holocaust Museum instead. We did that and then my bus doesn't start running until 3:50 so we ate lunch with Chris and I had to figure out something else to do to to wait for the bus. The metro always stops at Arlington Cemetery so I decided to go there and check it out. It was quite warm and there was a lot of walking. I finally called it a day after walking up different hills carrying Allison and pushing Matthew. I can at least say I have been there.

I didn't realize how close it is to "the city" if you look closely, you can see the Washington Monument in the background.

Here is Matthew standing in front of John F. Kennedy's grave as well as his wife and a spot for his daughter.

I thought it was interesting that some of the tombstones were shaped like the Washington Monument. I still don't know the story behind that.

My cute, adorable sweethearts

As you can tell, it was a bright day, I took Matthew's hat off for pictures so that you could actually see his face, and well, he is just squinting, so I am not sure which is better.

More D.C.

On Saturdays the bus that we normally take doesn't run so we had to walk to a different bus stop. It is suppose to come every 30 minutes but one bus must not have shown up because we waited an hour before one finally came. We got into the city and went to the Air and Space Museum. Matthew liked looking at all the airplanes. He even got to sit in one in the children's area.

Matthew in the cockpit

In front of airplanes

After the museum we walked to the capital and sat on the lawn and ate our lunch. I just love Allison's sweet smiles.

Our sweet baby girl

Then we walked up to the capital building but as you can see you can't go up on the steps.

Matthew, Allison, and I in front of the Capital

Matthew, Allison, and I on the lawn in front of the Capital

Looking out from the Capital you see the Washington Monument and then the Lincoln Monument is behind that.

Since I was familiar with how to get to the White House we decided to go. By the time we got there I was so disappointed. (I thought this was the front of the white thinking I had already seen the back of the White House but after searching on the internet just now I have learned that this is the back.) I see so many pictures where you can see so much of the White House and then when we got there, there wasn't a whole lot to see, there were so many trees hiding it. It was good to at least see it though.

The White House

By the time we got home, it had taken us about 3 hours because the bus coming home stopped every 20 feet. It was crazy, and a long ride home. Though we had a fun time.