"How Joshua Became A Pirate"

1st grade had "Character Day" and Joshua was so excited. Each student had to choose a book, dress up as a character, and do a book report on the book. He loves the book "How I Became a Pirate", so mom pulled out the old Halloween costumes and turned him into a pirate! Ahoy Matty!

Soccer Parties

Hurray, soccer is finally over. We really have enjoyed watching the boys play this season, but our schedule has been really overloaded and we are looking forward to some down time, at least until basketball starts. We had end of the season partied at a local Pizza place. The boys had a great time.

Jared always wore his Iowa Hawkeye shirts to games and practices. Jared's assistant coach gave Jared a LSU shirt and said "if you're going to coach in Louisiana, you have to have a LSU shirt!" Guess we are on the road to being converted!

Veteran's Day

What would you do if you had a day off from work?

Sleep in, go shopping, watch TV, go out to lunch?

This is what Jared did......

Got up at 3:00 in the morning and sat in the pouring down rain (bucket loads), in a boat, freezing, all day long.

For what?

One lousy duck!

Now does that really sound like fun?

BOYS!!!!

Don't worry, the boys had FUN while I was gone!

Vacation!

Moving to Louisiana has been a hard adjustment. It's not that I miss Iowa, I just miss my friends. I felt I left so fast, that I didn't get a good chance to say good-bye. Half my friends were in Utah or Washington when we moved, so I really needed to get back to see them. I know, no one ever thought they would here me say I wanted to vacation in Iowa, but I did. Jared worked out his schedule and we were able to make it work. I had a great time. I stayed with my great friends Gary and Gwen. I was so excited to visit the Stringham's, especially the girls and little Clayton (no offense Jenn)! As you can see they were so excited to see me. As Lauren's bus drove up, she noticed me and just went crazy and of course I started to cry. Izzie was excited too and I got a great big hug. Clayton was only a week old when I left, so I was so excited to see him. He has gotten SO big! I have another friend who is going to have a baby this Spring, so maybe I will have to plan another trip.





We had TONS of fun! We went shopping, got pedicures and our eyebrows waxed, stayed up very late (sorry Gwen), played games, and ate, ate, and ate, some more. For those of you who know Iowa, you know there really isn't a ton to do, but we had fun just hanging out and talking. Gwen had a party at her house for a bunch of friends. It was so great to see everyone and eat yummy food.

It was a great trip, but I realized that Louisiana isn't so bad.... 30's in Iowa, 70's in Louisiana. Not a hard choice!

Music Man

This weekend Nathan played in his first piano festival. It was held at a college here in Shreveport. He played "Pirates of the Sea" in front of a judge. He scored a Superior. He was so excited to get to play on a grand piano.

HELP, HELP, HELP, HELP!!!!!!

Tell me why.....

Why do my pictures not get bigger on the screen when you click on them?

I have tried everything I can think of, so all of you computer whizzes, HELP!

Halloween comes to an end!

The kids didn't get to have Halloween parites at school or wear their costumes, but they did get to have "Pumpkin Light Night". Let me explain....

Every class at the school creates a pumpkin display. The room mom (aka: Me) comes up with a theme and creates a huge spectacular production. This is a huge deal here and parents and kids really get into it. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. After hours of brainstorming and decorating it all came to a close, and it turned out okay. They have a Halloween type carnival with food, entertainment, and the displays are all lit up for people to see. I was amazed at some of the ideas and displays people did, so I had to take pictures to show just how crazy it gets.

On Halloween night we did the traditional "Trunk-or-Treat". The weather was wonderful and we had our Chili feast outside. The kids came away with SO much candy that a lot of it miraculously disappeared to the freezer. The mom in this family has NO willpower! Nathan was Harry Potter and Joshua was an army man (same thing as last year, but that was what he wanted). I got a picture before we left and then didn't take another one (what was I thinking)!