Alice's last week as a 1-yr-old

 One of Grace's classmate's dad is a firefighter. He came to visit the class last week.

  Grace's class in front of the fire truck.

 On Monday, Alice and I took Grace to school on the bus, and Paul worked at the Sentinel. Alice and I did laundry, and worked on animal sounds, then I did the calendar and budget. When we went to pick up Grace from school, it was 97 degrees! Thankfully our Chilean neighbors gave us a ride home. I gave Grace a piano lesson and read scriptures with her, then she did her chores and started a skeleton workbook. When Alice woke up from her nap, it was 100 degrees. I couldn't think or move - we have no cooling system at all! The power went out at Paul's work because they were using the A/C too much. When he came home, we had FHE on sharing, and got out the Halloween decorations. The girls always love that lightning ball! Paul's first 2 articles were published on the newspaper's website that night, and in print the next morning.

 Rough night that night due to the heat. I was miserable all day in the 100-degree weather. Alice was good playing with the Halloween decorations, and Paul had class. I made homemade sweet and sour chicken for dinner, then we all got on our swimsuits and got in the cold shower/bath together. When we got dressed, Grace asked if her clothes had just come out of the dryer - that's how hot they were just from sitting on the bed! I went to Relief Society that night, and Paul did tons of homework.

 On Wednesday, it was a hot night/morning again. Paul got a flat tire on his way to the news office.I babysat our neighbor, Maria. She and Alice loved it, though they didn't actually play TOGETHER, and they don't even speak the same language. It was pretty quiet, and I was able to get stuff done.

When it was time to pick up Grace, the sun was blazing down on us. Then as the bus headed toward the school, I saw across the field what looked like smoke billowing in. It was fog! When we got off the bus, it was freezing and dark and misty. The sky was totally white. So fun! Grace loved telling us all about her teddy bear picnic she had at school that day, and the girls had great fun riding the bus home with our Chilean neighbors. Grace and I made a dancing skeleton in the afternoon, and we went to the food pantry. When Paul finally got home after writing an article and getting a new tire, he spent some time with the girls before putting them to bed. I went grocery shopping while Paul did homework.

On Thursday, I was really sick and nauseous all day. Paul had class, Alice liked the fish at Grace's classroom, and Grace loved doing her show-and-tell using her monkey puppet. Paul made dinner that night, and I made a ton of M&M cookies for the next day.

 Friday is Paul's day off, so he did homework all day long. He also helped with the laundry, and let me take a nap (or two). I took Alice to playgroup to celebrate her birthday with her friends. She played in the sand.

 She played on the slide.

 She shared M&M cookies (and got super embarrassed and covered her face when they sang Happy Birthday to her!).

 She swung on the swings.

 She loves all her nursery friends!

 What could be cuter than this?

 How about this?

Or this?

 After picking Grace up from school, I made tons of pepperoni rolls and potato soup, and we had our Chilean neighbors over for dinner. They loved the food (thanks to Sarah for the suggestions), and then our girls and their girls ran upstairs and played while the adults talked. It was a nice evening. Paul and I watched BYU beat Utah State that night.

On Saturday, Paul got up early to do homework. We had a nice day watching General Conference. Grace even watched a lot of it. In the afternoon, we got a huge package from Mom/Dad Gabe for Alice's birthday. We decided we could open some of it already, so we gave the girls their Halloween socks, and dressed the monkey puppet in Charlie's onesie!

When Paul went to the priesthood session, the girls played out back.

Alice loves that beach ball!

She really loves any ball. Check out that outfit! I let Grace pick out her clothes since we weren't going anywhere.

Grace loves the beach ball too. When Paul got home that night, we made donut dough, wrapped birthday gifts, and looked through the new book Mom/Dad Gabe sent us about the unexplained. We LOVE it!

 This morning, the girls were a little less interested in General Conference.

 Between sessions, we made corndogs, complete with our own batter!

 They were a hit, along with the tater tots. (Can you tell we're having a fry day?)

 We didn't have skewers, so we had to use forks. Alice demonstrates the problems that arose from that decision.

 Then we cut out the donuts.

Grace loves helping in the kitchen! It's been a great Conference weekend. Wish us luck on the donuts.
Happy birthday to Sarah today, and to Alice tomorrow!