Date in Idaho :)

Nikki saved me!

I got my nervous genes from mom and started sweating really bad right before my date! Good thing Nikki was there to help! :)

We made yummy home made pizza and played games, it was a blast!

I couldn't find a really good picture of him cuz he is kinda a goof ball but this is Bobby by the way!

Me waiting for my date to come! haha :) I came out in my normal clothes but of course my roomies had different plans for me so they dressed me up in their "cool" clothes! Ha ha it was fun to get out of my plain saraness and try something new! :)

This week has been another great week in Idaho! Physiology is stressing me out a little bit because my teacher is just not as good as over the summer unfortunately but I will get through it! My weekend was a blast!:) I got asked out on my first date in Idaho this weekend by my good friend Bobby. He was brave and even came and knocked on the door to ask! :) I had a blast on Saturday for sure! Bobby is from San Diego, although his Grandma lives like 5 minutes away from our house apparently! I am loving Rexburg, and have made some pretty great friends here! :) Anyways  I hope you are all doing well! I miss you like crazy like always but it sure is fun to see all your fun pictures so keep posting, it is great to hear from you all! 

luv ur guts

-Sara :)

A Great Sunday!

Hi everyone, Thanks to Dad I can actually write something this week.  You know me I have to practice things like this a few times before I get it.  Sorry I am so slow at technology. 
 I hope you have all had a great week.  My week was long.  Dad was on his Madison trip and I picked up a weird bug at school, and I  just couldn't shake it.  When Dad got home he made me sleep and I am feeling great again. 
 Church was excellent!  I am really looking forward to getting back to my temple assignments.
 School is more of a challenge this year,  I feel like my kids are further behind this year than in the past.  They have some really behavior issues so I know I will be ready for a break soon.
 My harvesting is almost done so I have been cleaning out the garden and flower beds.  I started pruning the trees and need to seal up some of the bigger limbs that I cut off.  I guess that is what I will do for family home evening, finish my pruning.
 Nothing really exciting is happening around here with all of you gone.  We did figure out that dad is allergic to dust. So now I have to keep things wiped down.  
I am really looking forward to General. Conference this weekend.  Dad and I are still trying to decide whether or not we are going up to the cabin or not. We will let you all know when we decide. 


I thought I might try to give you a first grade funny each week and my inspirational thought of the week.  We'll see how it goes.  
First Grade funny:  I was testing this little guy in my class and we were sitting fairly close so I could whisper when all of a sudden he looked up and said, "I like your breath!"  Good thing I had brushed after lunch. lol


Inspirational thought: Today our home teachers came and we were talking about President. Eyerings challenge to make the Book of Mormon part of our lives.  We were asked about the great men/missionaries of the Book of Mormon.  We talked about Nephi, Alma the Younger, the Sons of Mosiah etc.  BUT did you know that Aminadab, an unknown missionary,  whose name appears only once brought about 300 people the gospel.  Helaman 5:41

Daddy's Girls

This week was another week. Nick is still crazy busy and we are trying to remember why we chose this. :) We know it will be good for us in the long run, but it has been quite the adjustment for all of us. 

Annalie is taking it hardest.  She longs for daddy-time and rarely leaves his side when he is home.  For example, Nick is tucked away in his "blue room" as Annalie calls it, attempting to get some reading done for Tuesday's class, and Annalie and Brookie are both sitting on the floor beneath his feet. :)

She did get some daddy-time on Saturday while Nick was working on a video project for class.  He and a partner were supposed to display a "hidden talent" through a video.  Nick chose teaching sports to a girl as his talent.  So his partner came over to video tape Nick and Annalie playing football, cheering on a team, playing Madden on the XBOX and drinking out of their sports mugs.  It took most of the day for his partner to get the footage she wanted, so Annalie got a lot of time with him--which is good for me. 

She also helped him mow the lawn, a new tradition forming.  She likes to pull the grass and put it in front of the mower for him.

The girls and I have found joy in our weekly trips to the temple.  Every Wednesday morning we go have a "picnic" at the temple, with Aunt Suzanne and the cousins. (Really we walk around the grounds and then sit down and have snacks while the girls play).  It is a good chance for us to get out of the house for a bit. The girls love being outside and although it is still horribly hot out, we are trying to learn to enjoy the warm, fresh air.

Brooklyn is continuing to grow up before our eyes.  She now not only pulls up on things, but walks along the edge of the furniture as well.  She has discovered eating ANYTHING she finds off the floor, including these post-it notes Annalie was 'making a book' with the other day. We are looking forward to celebrating her birthday next weekend (a week early, but we are sharing the party-day with cousin Andy born only a few days before her) during conference, and having her 1-year photo shoot sometime soon. We will make sure to share the pictures as soon as we take them.

 

Annalie is getting more and more curious each and every day.  She is always finding something new to get into.  Today she found some paper circles from the 3-hole punch and asked us if we had any more 'gravel' for her to play with.  She still loves building temples with her blocks (please note the 'Angel Moroni' at the top of the blue one).  She reminded us this week that she needed a white, married dress so that she could get married in the temple to Prince Brenton.

We are all doing well.  The girls love each other and are learning to share and play together kindly.  We hope you are all doing well and know that we love and miss you all more than words can say.

News from the Grumpy Bear

You all have done such a great job keeping us updated on what you are doing. I am pretty boring though. No pictures or anything like that. I do have to say I miss getting up at 1130pm to tell People to be quiet in the kitchen. I sometimes wake up and hear Annalie or Brooky crying. It is not really them but for an instant I get excited that I will get to see them then I realize that their mean parents hauled them off to purgatory.

Mom is great, but it is not the same without all of you. I miss Sara and her wild singing and loud laughing. I miss not being able to tease Brittany about Zach. Chris and Nick seem to be pretty busy with school so it is just mom and I. Pretty weird. One day last week during dinner, she browsed the Internet on her computer and I browsed email on my Ipad. We didn't talk much I hope she plans on keeping the grumpy bear around for a while cause I get lonely without all of you. Maybe it is time to get that new puppy! She is by herself this week,( mom not the puppy) so I have my fingers crossewd that she will let me come home.

I am in Wisconsin for the week so nothing exciting going on. I have to speak tomorrow so I have to get ready today.

I have found it entertaining to follow Nick on Twitter. I will have to a get some lessons from him. Keep posting everyone.

It Could be Worse :D

Well,  I'm back...and feeling like I write too much since everyone else writes just a quick paragraph, but it sounds like everyone is doing well. 

The highlights from our week:
1. I may have burnt the roast, but at least I tried...and will have to try again!

Or, maybe I will have Annalie try next time.  She sure is a good cook, Grandma taught her well!!!

 2.  Brookie started signing.  She says "eat" and "more" when she wants food. AND she ate real, grown-up mashed potatoes (mixed with baby carrots) for the first time.

3.  Annalie has developed a 'sibling rivalry' of sorts and is trying desperately to get our attention, through good and bad ways, especially by taking Brookie's things, including her bed!  So we started a sticker chart when she makes good choices, AND it's almost full! Yay for her!

4.  We got to see Nick for a while on Friday night! Yay for us all!

I hope you all have a great week! We know that we will! We love and miss you ALL so very, very much!

Temple to Temple Relay

First Demolition Derby

Me headed out for my leg of the relay!

Me and the Girlies waiting for the next runner

Our Friends Bobby and Zac

Hey Family!
This week has been really good so far with school! I am loving BYU-I a ton still, it is just amazing! I have made a few good friends which is always a good thing! This weekend was a blast and very eventful! This weekend was the Temple to Temple Relay! We started at the Rexburg Temple, and ended up at the Idaho Falls temple. (about 37 ish miles) We had an 8 person team which consisted of Nikki Christensen, Alyssa Ballash, Alyssa's Cousin Micha, Thomas (a boy from our ward), Erianne (my room mate), Bobby and Zac (some of my buddies up here) and me! We did awesome and had such a fun time! :) Then, after we got done with that we found there was a demolition derby in hickville St. Anthony and went to that which was pretty cool and a new experience for me for sure!
I hope all is going well with you! I pray for you always and miss you tooo!
luv ur guts
-Sara :)

Fun With My Roomies

At the Marriott center before Regional Conference

Fun at the state fair with my roomies

My roommates at the concert with Nik Day, one of the musicians. From left to right Jessica, Natassja, Nik, Me, Bethany.

These past two weeks have been such a blast! I finally have AMAZING roommates. We have so much fun together! Last week we went to a "concert on the roof" on Center Street. They had great music from local artists. On Sunday, we had Regional conference and Elder Holland, Sister Beck and President Packer spoke to us. This weekend it was fun at the State fair. This semester at BYU is going to be a great one. I am loving Clinicals- right now I am doing mother baby at IMC which is a blast. In two weeks it will be up to Primary Childrens for my Pediatric rotation. I hope you are all doing well! LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!!!

Busy Busy Busy!

Hi family, I thought I would try our blog out to see if I can do it correctly. What a week! Two days at the temple (fun stuff), one night with the young women and school stuff that I am really behind on. I guess that is about it. I still have my garden stuff to do before the frost hits and all the flower beds to clean. I haven't gotten to the outside windows washed blah, blah, blah. nothing changes around here.
My kids at school are wonderful and also a challenge. It will be a long year. I hope that all of you are wonderful and well. Talk to you all soon. Have a super great week. Love you all, remember who you are!
-Mom

Crazy Week

Hey all!  

I thought I would let you all know how things are going and hopefully I won't overwhelm you.  

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes...and sorry I missed some of you.  Annalie was quite the little rascal this week, into all kinds of mischief.  It gets a little bit crazy being home with her and it's harder than I thought it would be, but at the same time I know she needs it.  She asks for Daddy every morning as soon as she gets up and sometimes cries when I tell her he is in class.  She has also been known to tell him he "can't do homework" in a very forceful voice when he does finally get home.  He is trying to make sure he spends some time with her, but it's hard with his schedule, being in class or on campus until late 3 days each week.  However, she has really enjoyed watching BYU football with him at Nana's house on Saturdays and he has taught her to say "Game Time!" every time he asks her "What time is it?!"

Brooklyn is now 11 months old!!  Does it feel like she should be that big yet? Her 1st birthday is less than a month away now and I am trying to figure out what we can do to make it special for her.  She learned how to pull herself up on things this last week... all the way to a standing position and has started to walk along the edge of the couch while she holds on.  She babbles A LOT and has discovered her voice, which means she has a very high pitch squeal whenever she is excited.  She loves this goofy little elephant that my dad gave her and LOVES babies.  She also likes to color and read books and she is starting to dance on her own when she hears music. And I can't believe that she grew 2 inches in the last month...I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep these kiddos in clothes!

Nick is working like crazy, up till all hours of the night doing homework, and out the door again bright and early the next morning.  He seems to be handling the workload pretty well and says it isn't really that hard, just very time consuming.  We don't see him much, even on the weekends, but we try to make as much as we can out of the time we do get to see him.

I am trying to get the girls on a schedule so that I can get things done while they are sleeping.  If only I could get them to go to sleep before 10 so I had the energy to work after they are down.  Things are going better in that area though.  I have also tried out some new recipes and am looking forward to trying more since the past few have turned out pretty good.  It's silly, but I have to take pictures to document my domestic progress since it's so exciting to me.  I am hoping to finish the odds and ends unpacking so I can take pictures of the house for all to see.

Annalie wants to say hi really fast: ze4rinvvnvnnvnvvhhjtuioiftrdk4erugjgvffjueieiuehrfmg vjfjfgrgrigobufjhvf fmirifyfrnhfijf hvmufjdncjm  4   AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.  -- nte She just told me that "A is for Annalie."  :)

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa -- She says, "These are my other a's."

Anywho, I thought I would share some pictures, if there are too many just let me know and I will put less next time.  

Here's Brookie taking her first bubble bath.  We finally got brave enough to test out the bubble bath solution on her goofy skin, and luckily, no reaction!  She really enjoyed herself too!

We went to the temple last Sunday so that Nick could take come pictures for a class.  Brookie was really happy...

...and Annalie was thrilled to be there, as always. But it really bothers here that there is no Moroni on the top.

This is Annalie saying, "I HAVE TO GO POTTY!!!"  Ha! Isn't it a cute face?

And here are my beautiful girls riding horsey on Daddy and loving it!

Missing you all and hoping someone else besides me will use the blog! :)

Roomies from left to right: Rafaella, Nikki, Sierra, Brianna, Erianne and Me! :)

I really hope I am not the only one who is going to use this blog! Upload some pictures so i can see and hear how all you are doing! I miss you all tons! School so far is going great for me, I haven't really been to all my classes yet so we will see how it goes after this next week. I am taking Physiology, Child Dev., Personal Health & Wellness, Mission Prep and Culinary!  I played basketball this week with some of my buddies up here which was awesome and just like old times with the priests on Wednesday nights! :) My room mates are pretty cool too so far which is a relief! I hope you all are doing great and wish you a wonderful week!
Luv ur guts
Sara :)

WELCOME FAMILY! :)

Hello Newmans! :) We decided to make a blog so we could keep in touch more and see how everyone is doing! If you guys would please write a little something about your week and or post a picture or two every Sunday i think we all could keep in touch better! Love you all and have a great week! 

-Sara