Trip to Houston

Kim and I went to Houston with our kids a few days ago to the children's museum there. It was really cool! Well, for the kids anyway. I couldn't play with all the neat stuff they had and Avery was too young to really enjoy it but it is definitly a place you should take your young children to someday.

We were finished going through and letting the kids play at about 2pm, so we decided to drive an extra 45 min to the beach. That was fun too! We got sand all over the place but the kids REALLY enjoyed it. It was Avery's first time to the beach, but I didn't let her touch or play in the sand because I want Alex to be there for that! I got some cate pictures of everyone playing in the water and I'll post them once I get them on my computer.

We started to head back home at around 4:45pm and didn't get back to Burleson until almost midnight! It was a crazy long day but I really enjoyed it! Pictures will be coming soon. Laura

My nephew got locked in!!

Just to give you the background of my story, I watch my 3 year old nephew, Carter, during the day while his mom goes to work. It's a ton of fun spending time with him. He's just soo cute! Now when he and his sister get together, that's a whole different story. They always end up fighting!

So last Friday (Feb. 18) me, Kim, and the kids were enjoying the weather outside when Kelsea and Carter decided they wanted something to drink. They went in, we heard the traditional yelling and screaming that we always hear when they are alone together, and then bam! Carter slams the door to the back porch after Kelsea walks out.

No big deal right? Wrong. He ends up locking us outside and he couldn't get the door unlocked somehow! So Carter's trapped in the house by himself, balling because all he want's is to "Be outside with YOOOOOU!" and we're all outside. The front door was our only chance to get back in. Unfortunitly, the gate is locked and the key is inside, Kim is in her dressy work clothes, and I'm barefoot. I decide it would be best for me to go so Kim wouldn't ruin her nice clothes. I hand Avery over to her and start the climb. I don't know how many of you have climbed a wooden fence barefoot, but it's not the most comfortable thing to do. And to top it off, once I got to the top of the fence, I realized there was a six foot drop to contend with. I couldn't get myself to jumb that without any shoes on, so I deside to use my neighbors chain link fence as a step before jumping to the dead grass. Again a pretty painful thing to do when you're barefoot! But alas, I made it over and got to the front door. Locked. Dang it! All that work for a locked front door!

Carter had heard me trying to open it and ran to the door. I gotta tell you, it was pretty sad. I heard him crying and telling me to "Just open it!!" and his cute little hand was pressed against the textured glass like in a scary movie. I coached him in turning the handle to open the door (it's one of those doors that locks only from one side so he didn't need to unlock the door) and after a few minutes of trying and telling me to open it for him, he finally did it! I opened the door to a teary eyed 3 year old saying "I just wanted to be outside with you!" I wiped his wet cheeks and we opened the back door for Kim and Kelsea.

Afterward, Kim taught Carter how to unlock a door after you've locked it and they left for the evening. The one thing I learned from the whole experience? NEVER go outside barefoot.


-- Laura

We're BACK!

So I haven't been blogging in forever. I originally stopped because my camera got stolen when Alex and I went to Jackson Wy for a weekend get-a-way in 2009. Who wants to read a blog that has no pictures anyway? I finally got a new camera for Christmas 2010. YAY! Now I can continue. Lauren Taylor, I'm doing this for you! Start following and I'll let you know what adventures our family is up to.

I strongly believe that people live for their blogs and facebook pages. How many of you have thought, "I'm totally going to do this goofy thing and post it on facebook. It'll be hilarious!" Maybe keeping this blog updated will make my life just a little more interesting. Can't hurt to try!

Keep Reading,

Laura

it's FINALLLY summer!

So it is finally summer here in Rexburg. The past four weeks it has been rainy almost every day and the weather was always chilly. The last couple of days however have been pretty nice! In the 70's and nice and sunny. It's too bad I lost my camera in Jackson Wyoming.... or I'd post pictures! Maybe Alex and I will be able to buy a new camera sometime before the end of summer, maybe when we go back to Texas for vacation.

I can't wait to go back to Texas and feel what a real summer should be like! I posted some pictures of water that I took last summer... these remind me that there was once a time when it was hot enough to swim....

long time no see!

Oh my it's been a long time!!!! We have been really busy lately. Summer semester has started for us and we are both taking a couple classes, and trying to work as much as we can.

Alex is now on salary at sonic!! It isn't much, but he worked really hard to get this far. I am also the President of the newly formed Earth Science Society! It has been challenging to get the society running at school, but I'm so glad to be a part of it and contribute all I can!

Alex and I moved out of our apartment for the summer to housesit for a friend.I think I'll scrounge up some pictures of the new place soon and I'll post them here for all to see. It's a basement apartment and the kids upstairs are sooo loud sometimes, but free rent for a few months? who could give that up?!

peace. and don't contract swine flu :-)

6 things about me

Ok Libby, you got me feeling all guilty because I haven't done this yet! So here goes...

Here are six interesting things about me

1. I have had the goal of being the first woman on Mars since I was six years old. I have always loved studying Astronomy, especially planetary astronomy.

2. I will be graduating soon with a major in Earth Science Education, minor in History. I hope to continue my schooling though and maybe be a curator at a museum of science and history one day. Either that or a principal of a high school.

3. I love dogs.

4. Alex and I knew each other in High school since I was in 9th grade. We dated for a long time before we were married.

5. My favorite type of food is Lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli, pretty much anything with a sauce on it.

6. I want to travel the world with Alex someday. I really want to go to India, Nepal to see the Himalayas and the Sherpa, Hawaii, Rome, Athens, Anywhere in Europe where I can see all the castles, I want to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, go to Beijing and see the Great Wall, travel to Egypt, Go to Lima and see the house that my dad grew up in, Belize, Jamaica, and there are probably a thousand more places I'd like to visit.

HMMM.....

There isn't too much to write about.. so here are a bunch of random facts.

1. I was asked to be the Earth Science Coordinator for the Geology Society, along with a friend of mine who is also an Earth Science major. It is pretty cool because it looks GREAT on your resume', and I finally can do something that will help the Earth Sciences stand out (because of course they are the coolest sciences!). So far, I designed a web page for Earth Science (info, announcements, facts etc), and it's going to be put on the Geology Society web page for the school. We are going to get our school involved with some nationally acclaimed science organizations too. And maybe have a trip or two this summer!

2. Alex and I are both doing alright in school. We are just glad that this is the last winter we'll have to deal with in Rexburg!

3. I want a dog. But we can't have one! (darn apartments!)

4. I'm waiting patiently to see where my placement is for Student Teaching. It would be awesome if I were placed in Rexburg!

5. Our little plant is dying because we haven't had sunlight in several weeks. Poor thing. At least we only paid $8 for it.

6. Rent is due tomorrow!

7. Our house is messy and the laundry needs to be done.

8. I have to take pictures of clouds for my oceanography/meteorology class. The bad thing is that there are two types of clouds present here in winter, snow clouds or no clouds. We are required to take pictures of 8 different types though. I did manage to get a good picture of some fog. That counts as a cloud right?

9. Alex got an official name tag that says "assistant manager" for sonic. Exciting huh!

10. We hope that we can go snow boarding soon!

Well, thats about it. Make sure to tune in next time!

Sky in Motion

I saw this video when I was looking at my "Astronomy Picture of the Day" online. I thought it was so spectacular so I posted it for everyone to enjoy! It's about 4 minutes long, but all the shots are worth the time. There is also music that goes with it, so turn up your speakers!

Our New York Video!

This is a short video of ALL the pictures we took while in New york/New Jersey. It's fast, but fun. Enjoy!

You should probably watch it a few times to get the full effect.

Laura and Alex's New York vacation!

Here are some of our favorite pic's from our trip to New York. Soon we'll post a video of ALL the pictures we took while there!!

SNOW!

Well we made it to our final destination.... a day later. We traveled to Chicago and were planning on flying to Buffalo New York next but our flight got canceled due to a huge snow storm. Then we waiting in a long line a finally were able to get new tickets to Buffalo. We waited and waited for our flight, which kept getting delayed further and further, and then it was suddenly cancelled too!! So we went back to the customer service to find that everyone in the airport was in line too. I'm not even exaggerating. It was crazy! It would have taken us until 6am to get to the front of that line.. and at that point it was only 8pm. So we waited for a bit until Alex overheard a lady mention there was another customer service line in a different terminal of the airport. We took the shuttle there to find NO line at that customer service!! We were able to get on a flight to Syracuse New York at 6am the next day. So yes, we spent the night in the chicago airport. It WAS NOT fun!

Once we got to Syracuse, we found that our luggage didn't make it (even though we did all the luggage transfer stuff right). So we are luggage-less, and exhausted. They told us they would mail our luggage to us as soon as they find it. So now it is just a waiting game. Hope they find it soon! We will update more on our fun adventures later!

New member of the Family?

Nope! just babysitting a friends puppy for a few hours. He was very cute, but loved to nibble and bite. We played with him at first for a while and he was SUPER active. After that we took him inside and after a little exploring he found the tiniest spot he could and conked out. He shifted around a bit and finally got to a spot where there was enough light to take pictures of him. So we did, and here they are:
And here is our beautiful (yet tiny) Christmas tree ^_^

I can see!!!

So I have been getting a lot of headaches lately when I where my glasses at school.... and when I take them off in the evening. I decided that my eye prescription wasn't any good anymore so I went to the eye doctor. After blowing air in my eyes and telling me to name a bunch of blurry letters (well I think they were letters, I could have sworn some of them were just square dots...) he told me my eyes have gotten a little worse. He was able to check the prescription on my current glasses by putting them on this little machine thing that told him how strong they were.

While I was waiting in the lobby before my appointment, I was looking at a lot of glasses that they had on display and they were EXPENSIVE!! So when he told me I'd have to get new lenses, I asked him how much contacts would cost. They would only be about $100 a year. I thought about it... and decided it would be much better to have contacts! So I walked out of the appointment with my new contacts on. They took FOREVER to get on and off while I was a the eye doctor, but the second time around was much better. I can now see all the time! It is amazing what I've been missing! When we walk out of our apartment, the Temple is right in view and before I saw a huge white building that looked more like a blur but when i walked out last night with my contacts in, I actually saw detail and individual lights that were shining on the Temple. It was so pretty!

My next step is to get colored contacts once I get used to these ones more. Of course I wouldn't want to hide my "beautiful" brown eyes, it would just be nice to just enhance them a little! lol.

I really like the smiley face contacts on the bottom row... what do you think?!?

Beautiful sunset

I took these pictures right out of my bedroom window. Our old apartment had great views of the pretty mountains and sunsets right out the front door... but at least in this apartment we get somewhat a view! This sunset turned our whole apartment an awesome orange color until the sun went down all the way. It was cool! If you look closely, you can see the Menan butte on the horizon. It is a volcano that last erupted 2000 years ago. There is another butte right next to this one that is also a volcano. Make sure to click on the pictures to make them bigger!

Fall, Harvest, and Snow

Alex and I went out last week and took pictures of the pretty trees on campus. There are a lot more pictures we wish we could have taken but it was so cold out and we gave up. Some of the pictures are sideways because I forgot to flip them... sorry!

We also went to my boss's house this last saturday and picked fresh fruit and vegetables from her garden. We got lots of delicious plums, apples, huge carrots and onions, and two pumpkins. Her youngest son harvested the pumpkins himself in their backyard and was selling them to make a little money. We got two big ones for only $11! I thought it was a great deal and he really appreciated it. The picture of the fruits and veggies doesn't show the vibrant colors that they really are. I washed all the dirt and stuff off of them before I took the picture too.

The last pic in the slideshow was taken right when it started snowing for the first time this season. It started right after we got back from the garden on saturday. We would have gotten even more produce but it was soo cold and the wind was blowing about 25 mph. Today is snowed all morning too.

LOOK AT THESE CHILLY TEMPERATURES!

It is only the beginning of october and the temperatures suddenly drop a lot! We are expecting snow this weekend too! BRRRRRRR I'm cold just thinking about it!


10-Day Forecast

Tonight
Oct 07 Partly Cloudy 39° 20 %
Wed
Oct 08 Partly Cloudy 59°/27
Thu
Oct 09 Partly Cloudy 52°/27°
Fri
Oct 10 Rain / Snow Showers 46°/28°
Sat
Oct 11 Rain / Snow Showers 39°/23°
Sun
Oct 12 Rain / Snow Showers 43°/17°
Last Updated Oct 7 08:05 p.m. MT

Scripture cookies!

My new ward is pretty neat. The relief society does a lot more stuff than my other ward did! One thing I think is really cool is that they have a blog for recipes. They post all kinds of recipes for us to try. One of them was scripture cookies. I think this would be a great activity for family home evening with kids! You guys all should try it and let me know how they turn out! I'll try it sometime soon too.

Enjoy!

Scripture Cookies

This is a recipe and a FHE all rolled into one. You have to find the ingredients in the scriptures listed and then follow the directions. :)
Beat together:
3/4 cup Psalms 55:21
1/3 cup 2 Nephi 26:25
1 1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20
2 Isaiah 10:14
Add:
2 cups 1 Kings 4:22
1 tsp Song of Solomon 4:14
1 tsp Doctrine & Covenants 101:39
1/2 tsp 1 Corinthians 4:6
3 cups Doctrine & Covenants 89:17
1 cup 1 Samuel 30:12

Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, BUT not before reading Joseph Smith History 1:37 and Doctrine & Covenants 133:11!

Random pictures from Summer Trip

I thought that I should post some more pictures from my expedition this summer! There were a lot of really cool things I did, I wish I could post all my pictures! About a month ago Alex saw Havasaupi Canyon on the news. Havasaupi Canyon is an Indian reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. My expedition group had hiked the ten or so miles to the base of this canyon and camped for a few days. Just one month after our visit, a large dam upstream broke and flooded the entire canyon. Almost 40 people had to be air lifted from the canyon one at a time in the middle of the night. Many of the indians in the Havasaupi tribe also had to be airlifted out. I feel so lucky that the dam didn't break while we were there! You can view some pictures from my trip to Havasaupi in my post from June 22.

Our new Apartment!!

Here are some pictures of our new apartment. We lost the awesome view we had of the mountains, and we are much further away from campus... BUT the place is a two bedroom and comes with a washer and dryer and big pantry! I can't believe that I could be excited to have a washer and dryer in the apartment.... I'm growing up so fast! ha. Oh and this place also has a bar at the counter so we don't have to eat on the floor or on the couch anymore! We haven't been able to get bar stools to put there yet, but we will soon.

HI!!!!!

Don't worry, we didn't fall off the face of the earth, We are still alive! Right after school ended this summer, we went to Texas to visit our family, and since then we just haven't had much time to update anything! And on top of everything we are moving into a new apartment this weekend. Once we get moved in and settled, I'll post some pictures of the new apartment. It is a two bedroom, one bath apt. It also has a washer/dryer in it, and that is SOOO nice. No more quarters and trips to the laundromat! I think the best thing is that there is a pantry too. The bad thing is that the new place is 1 1/2 miles from campus so we can't walk to school anymore. Our current apartment is right across the street so it only takes a few minutes to walk to class. I'm going to ride my bike as much as I can until it gets too cold or it snows, and then it is going to get tough since we only have one car. Hopefully it will all work out well though. I'll also try to post some pictures of our family vacation as soon as I can!