Lincoln Children's Zoo

Sydney and I went to the zoo with a bunch of our other Law School mommies and kids friends.  Sydney just loves going out with her friends and playing.

The best part of the day for Sydney was probably riding the train.  She was SO excited!

First Day of School

Some of us moms here have started a little "joy" school, where we rotate teaching our kids.  Sydney was so excited for "Sydney" school--to differentiate between her school and Charles' school.  This is her first first day of school picture.

Look at how tall she looks!

At school with her friends.

Broken

Well, fractured might be a better word.

The JRCLS at the law school plays flag football every fall.  Charles has been looking forward this since last year when they lost in the championship game.  Well, their first game was last night.  They played the ROTC here at UNL and apparently the game was pretty rough.  Charles came home with a huge bruise all around his pinky toe and with his toe and ankle swelling up.  We iced it and elevated it and gave him some ibuprofen and sent him to bed.  This morning, he got up and was getting ready for school, when he realized it hurt to put his shoe on.  And it hurt to even walk on with just flip flops on.  So, he contacted his professors and told them that he would miss class and we went up to the Student Health Center.  After some examinations and a few (painful) x-rays, the diagnosis was a fracture in his pinky toe.  He's got an wicked cool bootie thing that he has to wear for at least the next week and maybe up through the next month.  No matter what, he's not allowed to play football next week...wife's orders.

Apple City Days

We went out as a family to Apple City Days in Nebraska City.  They have a whole festival and it was super fun to go out and see what was out there.

This is the Morton Mansion, better known as Arbor Lodge.  I'm sure you have no clue who J. Sterling Morton is...but you may have heard of Morton Salt or maybe Arbor Day, (which is a fun Nebraska claim-to-fame) but his family is related to all of these.  This is his home, which is huge and gorgeous and a place where I went on a few field trips when I was in school.

My favorite part of the manison...the built in ten pin ally.

Sydney loved the display of little girl toys they had upstairs...maybe a budding historian?

We also went out to Kimmel Orchards and picked some apples.  We love the cider that they sell in the grocery stores here and it was just fun to be out and enjoying nature together.

Look at this gorgeous view!

Turkey

No, seriously, that's what's on her forehead.

What am I supposed to do with this girl?

Family Home Evening

Donuts and hot chocolate while watching the Ravens and our favorite tight end makes a perfect family night

Sydney agrees.  She loves "donalds."

Looking for Sunshine

Ever have one of those days where you just feel...sluggish? (I guess this would be snail-ish) Or off?  Or maybe just like singing "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me?"  Yeah, I had a few of them recently.  The chores at home seem to pile up, the three-year-old has been naughty and talking back, and you just don't have the energy to get ANYTHING done?  Life is just going so fast, yet you seem to be standing still, stuck in the same place?  And, while you know everyone feels like that at some point, you still feel like it's just you?

I feel like that's been the summary of my life the last few months...and I hate it.

Especially since I have been blessed with so much.  I have a beautiful family, with a wonderfully patient husband who holds the priesthood and an amazing daughter who continually delights and surprises me each day.  We have a great apartment with friends close by.  My husband has a job, which helps us get by and gives him a much needed advantage for a job in the future.  We have our faith and the knowledge that our family will be together forever.  And, while the timing may not have been what I wanted, things are looking better for our family than they have for a while.

I have so many things to be grateful for and it's time I remember it and do something about it.  That way, I can turn my life and emotions back  into something that feels like I want it to be.  

By the way, this isn't an attempt to guilt people into comments...though I do appreciate them

Goofball

So, every night, after we read our scriptures together as a family, we sing a song.  Tonight, we were singing Once There was a Snowman the normal way and then backwards (you know, where he defies nature and grows instead of melts).  When we were done with, Sydney turns around and shouts, "SIDEWAYS!!"  We just couldn't stop laughing, she's catches onto things like that so quickly.

Car Doctor

I consider myself very fortunate to have a very capable and handy husband who takes pride in taking care of his possessions.  Every time we've had to repair our car (which hasn't been often since we bought it three years ago) he's taken time out of his busy schedule and done the repair work himself.  This time, I made sure to take pictures of the destruction before he put it back into working order.

He and my dad took the whole dash off to fix one small part.

Various dash parts.

Completely taken off dash.  And the car was fixed for less than if we had taken it to a mechanic.

Children's Museum Playdate

I wish I had been able to get more pictures with the other kids that were there, but we had a fun time going to the Children's Museum with the other law school wives while all the papas were in school.