Great News!

WE have the greatest news to announce, just in!!!

Boo passed the New Hampshire bar exam.

We're so excited we poohed our pants! ha ha ha

But really we're so proud of him for letting us spend a long time in Utah so he could study even though he missed us so, so much. He's so smart and doing such a great job as an attorney. (he even went to Federal Court for the first time yesterday!) We sure think he's swell.

Princess Playgroup

Yesterday was the beginning of something new at our house...Princess Playgroup! Yep, that's right folks, one day a week for 2 1/2 hours I get to drop my Jelly Bean off for a little time with her gal pals and I get to do whatever the heck I want. Then every fourth week they come to my house to check out our books and toys and music while the other mommies ditch out. What a great system.

They even got to watch the popcorn shoot out of the popper!

Annielle, Noelle, Buddha (Lauren), Bea Bea

Playing with the jewelry and getting their hair done.

What is that face my baby is making?

I love Craigslist!

We were recently given a new table! Hooray, it will not only fit our small family around it, but if we were to ever be so kind to invite more people besides the missionaries over for dinner we can now expand it to fit a few more. It will add 24 more inches of hosting love may we ever need it. However, the very best part is that I sold our old table that we've had for as long as we've been married, which- let's be honest is a long time now, and it only took 24 hours!! Thank you Craigslist.com! Rock on Shockacon!

Now if only we could replace our floor, how's that for ugly?

Don't worry, driving with us is safe.

So Boo and I are officially the coolest people in the whole world. If you haven't been out to visit for a while then you probably haven't seen our "new" car. Yes its just a couple of steps up from good ol' Rusty, the Ford truck that I drove for five months before moving east. Even a little newer. But our 1990 Honda Accord aint nothing to shake no sticks at. It cost us less than a new TV and works fine. For a few bucks more we scored a fix it yourself book on Amazon. The first project was the air conditioning, which I mentioned a while back. Now tonight we got to tackle the bumper. It came to us mangled so we just had to make sure it didn't fall off. However some unkind person who will have their day in you know where, backed into or clipped or whatever to add a few more scratches, a new crack and made it so the bumper would come off in a strong wind. How it managed to stay on while driving on the freeway is a mystery to us. Any how, Boo and I managed to re-secure the bumper, figured out how to take the turn signal lamp off, and figured out that the light was in fact not broken, just burned out. How smart are we? And we are even still friends! So needless to say with some wire and a few odds and ends screws that I found the bumper should be just fine for the time being and we'll even fix the light. So come and visit anytime and if you're lucky we might even give you a ride in our "new" car.

7th Annual Family Fun Days and Labor Day Weekend

This past Labor Day weekend we went to Maine to compete in the Mitchell Family Fun Day event. I'm sure many of you perked up and said to yourselves, "family fun day, what is that? I bet it was fun?"
Well basically its a weekend of planned events which over the weekend help to proclaim one family as the overall winners. The events were as follows (in order of play):
badminton - which we played wrong according to Dictionary.com - too many players at once. Next year I'm looking up the rules for every event so that we don't get cheated out of a win. This would also have helped since we could have rotated in players instead of needing all four representatives to play at once. One family member was none too excited for badminton and decided to loose the game for us, not once but twice (it was double elimination.)
Horse Shoes - I'm a weakling. I couldn't throw to the pit or else they would go all crazy and nearly kill a spectator. Next year the above mentioned family member will sit out badminton and only play horse shoes. He was actually very good at this one. Boo was also pretty good.
Wiffle Ball - Ok so we did girls against boys and got spanked. Luckily it was scored by number bases touched and then divided by number of players for each family. We didn't do so bad at this considering two played and one was designated pitcher. Boo had some great hits and I only hit pop flies. I had however been practicing with some of the kids in the 'hood' and realized that wiffle ball was easier to hit with only one hand.
Archery - For the most part our family did really good at archery. We each got four tries to hit the targets to earn points for our family. I only went once considering that I nearly lost my elbow and now have an ugly bruise to show for it. I even cried a little because it hurt so bad. Grammy Albertsen got some good bruises too.
Mormon Cranium - This was our game to organize. It was hard to compete when you typed up all the questions. The little kids couldn't have cared less about this game, however in a small group it will be a great FHE activity. We did ok.
Scavenger Hunt - This was a relay event and we had to find certain items from around Grammy M's yard or shed or garage. We actually won. We happened to get the longest green bean to knock the Mitchell's out of first place. I thought it was a lot of fun.
This year it was decided that the winners would take home a poking stick, to be used with camp fires and such. Only Papa Mitchell would have saved a branch from a tree that was hit by lightening during hurricane Bob in 1991. The stick will have the winner's names carved on it and they get to keep it until the next Family Fun Days.
You might be wondering where Noelle was during all the fun? She was everywhere. Climbing, escaping, napping, playing with Grammy A or the cousins. It will be a few years before she's competing.
Hopefully next year we'll be able to get more of the Albertsens out here to help represent.
Also while we were not laboring, Boo and I got to get in a game of golf. He did really well. Now when I say well, its relative to the number of times we actually get out and play each year. Bogey golf is great! I on the other hand chose not to keep my score. However, we did have a great 9th hole. Thanks Boo.