London Temple

We visited the London temple last weekend. It is absolutely beautiful. We were fortunate to go on a clear sunny day. The kids had a great time gathering acorns on the temple grounds and we had a picnic with our ward following our session. We decided that when the sun shines here, it's one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

"SO Good at school"

Our little Benjamin started school full day this year. It's earlier than he would've started in the states, so we've been watching him close to make sure he adjusts okay. So, yesterday when he got off the bus, I asked him how school was, and he said, "Oh mom, I am SO good at school now!" There's no need to be concerned, because he's got it down pat already!

Laundry, laundry, and yes... more laundry

Tuesday evening, in the middle of my normal dark load of laundry, the washing machine broke. Now, dirty clothes are one thing, but WET dirty clothes are completely another. I immediately got on the phone with my people (the relocation agency that worked out our housing contract) and the soonest they could get someone here was "sometime Friday morning". So, I did my best to wring out the wet still dirty clothes and set them aside until Friday. Meanwhile, kids are still kids and the laundry continued to pile up.

After our experience getting someone here to hook up our phone, I'm a little hesitant to have work scheduled on a Friday. After all, it is Friday and workdays are often shortened on Friday in this country. So, at 11am on Friday I was on the phone making sure we were still scheduled. At 11:30am, our appliance worker arrived! He mumbled something about replacing the pump and some other pieces that would also make the machine quieter. Then, he turned it on and it worked! Before he left he mentioned something about doing a few light loads at first so that the "old parts can mesh with the new parts". I thought to myself, "your version of a light load is probably a lot different than my version!"

I'm happy to announce that after 2 1/2 days, our original dark load that was starting to grow mold is now clean and in the dryer. I figure if I get each load in as soon as the machine finishes, I should finish sometime around midnight tonight!

Just wondering...

People are always asking me who Luke looks like. So, I did some digging and found this picture of Benjamin in the same outfit at the same age. Benjamin is the top picture...Luke is the bottom picture. What do you think? Do they look alike?

Then, the more I thought about it, the more I had to chuckle, because the amazing thing is not so much whether or not the boys look alike, but that I still have the same couch AND the same outfit through moves to 3 states and another country :)

Trying to help...

We came home from the grocery store the other day and Mary decided to unload the groceries while I changed the baby's diaper. When I came into the kitchen, here's what I saw. I had to grab the camera. That face is too cute!

In case you're wondering, egg makes tile really slippery even after it's cleaned up :)

Our month in review...

Mary has decided she loves to dance to Primary music...

The boys started school at this beautiful place... they love riding the bus together!

Luke is as cute as ever and getting so big...

Benjamin learned to ride his bike w/o training wheels... Michael lost his first tooth...

The London Eye on a beautiful clear day... Stonehenge on a very blustery day...

Wow! Has it really been a month since my last post?! It's hard to believe. I went through pictures trying to decide what to post and I came up with a list of 26 pictures. I think that would be a little over the top! So, this is a condensed version of the last month in London...