What Can You Say To That?

Fred - "Daniel, why did you paint the dog?"

Daniel - "Betuz it was funny"

Artist's Protege or Evil Genius... Sometimes We Wonder!

Daniel got into the craft paint and we now know that green acrylic paint stains tan/brown carpet but fuchsia acrylic paint stains tan/brown carpet AND white dogs worse!

This was after a loooong bath to clean up the paint. We're going to have a pink pup for a while!

Yasir...

Daniel got playdough in his hair (also, all over my stairs I found out later). He washed it out and dried his hair with a towel but got interested in a tv show so this is how I found him - laying on the floor looking a little like Yasir Arafat...

Can You Say Ham?

Abby's first day of preschool was September 7th. Can you tell she's excited?

Daniel and the Freezer

So, I know it sounds totally boring but I've wanted a freezer for a very long time. This year for my birthday I finally got one - yippee!

Yesterday the man delivered it, got it in place and opened it up to give me all the paperwork, etc. Daniel puts his hands on his hips and says (very frustrated)

"Hey, where's all the food?!?"

The delivery guy said that was the funniest thing he's heard all year!

Mikkel's Latest

This email was very touching... I teared up a bit when he spoke of the young man he baptized last week. Above is the picture he sent.

Hello Family,

Someday, I'm going to write you in Spanish, and you'll have little idea of what's going on. What an idea.

So, we had a fantastic week, I kinda love my area right now, we're working like dogs here and we're seeing a TON of results. We measure progressing investigators here, and on Sunday my comp and I determined that we had 7 investigators that are progressing. We had 7 investigators in Church and 3 of them we didn't even know before Sunday morning, that means they came out of nowhere, and that we are going to baptise them. I'm really REALLY excited here, when will the fun ever stop? The other companionship in my district though kinda worries me though. I think we're going to have to do divisions, I wnat to know what's going on out there. I kinda feel like they are 2 good Elders, but neither are leaders, right now they're more followers, and with two followers and no leader, they're kinda workin blind. I'm going to go out there tomorrow to see if I can't help them out though. The good news is that they have two baptismal interviews, from out of nowhere, for this week. Pretty cool. I hope they've been prepared well, we'll see. I like the two missionaries, they just seem like an odd pair.

Anyway, we had a baptism on Saturday, did I mention that? He's an AWESOME guy, I REALLY hope that he goes on a mission, he'd be such a good missionary, when he prays, I kinda just want to cry, you can just tell that he's as earnest as he can be and he's just talking with his Heavenly Father, really cool experience with him. He commented to me that he got baptised in part for the faith that "I have in my eyes" sounded kinda like your "I could see the light of Christ in your eyes" story Dad. So, it was a way cool experience, baptising is great, but every now and then, you baptise someone extra special. He's one of them.

So, this is the last week of the change, I kinda feel like I'm staying here, of course, I thought that last time. Maybe it's more of a hope that I can stay here because of all the success that we're being blessed with. I thought the city would be harder, with people that are more closed, harder of heart but I guess I was wrong, this is one of my favorite areas of my mission. Although, I've never really had an area that I didn't like... what luck I've had.

So, I think I might come to terms someday with the going home thing, thanks for the advice, I'll certainly keep working until the end, that's a promise I made myself from the beginning, this really is my chance to show the Lord, and myself, what I'm made of. For now, I'll just work, and we'll cross the "going home" bridge when we get there.

I hate writer's block, it's like hitting a wall.

So, I didn't tell you last week, 2 Sundays ago, I ate something that Jacob will be fascinated to hear about. It's called "Mondongo" it's a soup made with lots of tasty things, and then to make a good thing bad, they toss in cow stomach. Yep, it's true, I ate cow stomach, it was chewy and skin colored. Tasted pretty weird, but the worst part was the chewiness. Probably on the bottom 10 list.

That's all folks, have fun, train the dog well, eat your vegetables and don't forget to wash behind your ears, Love you guys,

Our Labor Day Weekend - part two

Then we drove home and saw this gorgeous sunset.

Okay, so the first one has dead bug juice all in the picture but it really was beautiful!

The sky was on fire!

The kids LOVE their new puppy. Yes, at 100 pounds she's still considered a puppy. She's 18 months old and big dogs are considered puppies for the first two years.

She's actually probably as tall as she's gonna get but might gain a few more pounds.
Her name is Cutie-Pie-Honey-Darlin-Punkin but we call her Honey. So far she's super sweet and loves the kids as much as they love her!
Oh, by the way, she's a Great Pyrenees. We think this one just might work out for us all!

Our Labor Day Weekend - part one

We were going to take the kids to Port Aransas for the holiday when tropical storm Hermine derailed that idea so we decided to go to Dublin, TX. This is the site of the oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant and the only place they've always only bottled it made with real sugar... SOOO YUMMY!

Every year, in June they are officially known as Dr Pepper, TX. Here's the fam showing off that fact:

Then we ate some lunch at Old Doc's Soda Shop while we waited for our tour.

Then we saw how they bottle Dr. Pepper and several other sodas.

And learned how to tell if it's good enough to sell.
After that we drove up to Granbury (a small town outside of Fort Worth) and adopted ourselves a puppy.

Daniel Math

Daniel - "Mommy, dis is five."

Me - "No, that's three"

Daniel - "No, dat not fee, dat five"

Me - "No, Daniel this is five" (showing him five fingers)

Daniel - "No, mommy dat not five... dat's just a hand!"