St. Louis

On our way to Nauvoo, we stopped and stayed in St. Louis for a few days. Some of our friends from our ward (Ryan and Shauna Hinckley) recently moved to St. Louis for orthodontic school and graciously allowed us to stay at their home for a few days. It was so fun to visit with them.

Our children especially had lots of fun just running, swinging and playing super heroes with Nathan and Aerin in their backyard.

After Family Home Evening the kids had a pretty intensely crazy game of Twister. Luckily, there were no injuries.

We also went to Grant's Farm (where Ulysses S. Grant grew up) and had a nice train ride of the property, saw lots of animals, fed goats and watched a bird show. The best part was that it was all free. St. Louis actually has quite a few activities for families that are free! Thanks Hinckleys for a great time (and good food).

Here is Carter snuggling with Wesley. It is cute now, but we hope he grows out of this before his mission.

We also visited with one of my friends that I grew up with in SLC (Matt Lyman and his family) since they live in St. Louis as well (duh-we forgot to take pictures). Actually, they were leaving the next day to vacation in Utah and then move to Ohio. The last time we were able to visit them was about 5 years ago when they lived here in Ft.Worth, Texas and the next day they were moving to Michigan. The funniest part is that we had no idea they were moving both times. If we ever go on a trip to Ohio, I'm sure they will move the next day! We had a nice visit with Matt and Rosemary and the kids had lots of fun climbing trees and playing in a stream (really dirty but lots of fun).

Me and My Kids

So, it is happening whether I like it or not. My children are losing their cute little teeth and will go through the how many years of awkward big teeth until they grow into them. But with a space it is still pretty cute.

And Wesley is really trying to be grown up. See the cut above his lip? It is a shower shaving accident.

I just realized that I didn't have very many pictures of me (even though I am the typical woman and don't like my picture taken) with my children, so here are a few:

We were trying to take a picture of ourselves, so we didn't quite get the right angle.

This is my birthday celebration at the Normans and all three of the boys blew my candles out for me before I even got a chance to blow. I hope they made a good wish for me!

Then me and my girl:

This is one of my favorite outfits for Bethany. Doesn't she just look like the cutest little package? Yes, the bow is a gift bow (made out of material) that I converted into a hair bow.

Her brothers sure do love her!

Bethany has recently started eating rice cereal and she can not resist putting her hands in her mouth everytime I put a bite in and so this is the result. She is mommy's little piggy!