I just posted a video from YouTube showing Lee's brother playing in an Army Band in Berlin. Please watch at least the first minute. They are awesome! Lee's brother Keith is at the piano--the middle guy. Take a peek, or go to YouTube to see Keith yourself. Thanks for the email about it Cindy! Enjoy!

Lee's brother Keith at the piano in an Army Band

Tribute to Uncle Sheldon

Gordon Rose and Sheldon Bartholomew helping my mom in nursery yesterday.


This post is for Uncle Sheldon (my youngest brother and sibling) and how great he is. The picture above says it all. When we were in North Carolina, my kids loved it when Sheldon got back from Florida and was working locally. Sheldon would go outside with my boys and play with them and hold Shanna and Haley quite often. One time Sheldon left the living room to go to his bedroom and Shanna had a fit that Sheldon had left the room! And I was in the room right by Shanna. It was so cute.

Sheldon will submit his mission papers in about 2 weeks and we are so proud of him and also very excited for him and his upcoming mission experience. All of my brothers have served missions and Sheldon is right in step in following the Prophet. He almost has all of his mission money saved for too!

We are excited to see you at Christmas Sheldon! Thanks for being a great Uncle and brother!

On my way home from dropping Clark off at school, I saw an accident. Very weird. When I am leaving my home to go shopping or Clark's school, right before I turn right, there is a road that merges onto my road. There is a yield sign for the people merging onto my road. Somebody in a truck (I think it was) was coming up my road to turn right. I was just turning left to go home, so I saw it all. I saw a black Suburban merging onto the road, but was not stopping! I don't know if the truck saw the Suburban or not. If it did, the he/she may have thought the lady was going to slow down and wait for him/her to pass. But the lady in the suburban of course keep going and the guy/gal in the truck swiped off her front left headlight and bumper. It would have been too late for the person in the truck to stop at that point because I think he/she hit the suburban at the bind spot. (If that all made sense...)

I look at that intersection, but I will definitely be very attentive to it now. They will probably add a stop sign there now. I am also glad that I made the effort to leave earlier this morning because it would have been me that would have side swiped the Suburban! At least it wouldn't have been my fault, right? What a rotten start to a week for both of those drivers. Yuck!

Guess what? Fuel is $2.29! Plus, Lee filled up our van a week ago and it's at about 2/3 full still. That is how little we have to drive around here.

Highlights of last week:
Haley threw up
Clark had his first school conference and is getting top marks
No school on Friday and we went to a friend's house--Kelly--and she fed us all lunch too!
Had the missionaries over for dinner on Friday, and Lee went with them afterwards
Went to a Halloween activity at our community center--see pictures below
Clark, Cal and I went grocery shopping
Lee and I both spoke in church today about Reverence


Shanna

Clark, Dylan and Holly (her twin is Haley)...it was funny because besides one other person and her girl, we and two of our neighbors and kids were the only ones at the activity. It went until four, so more people could have showed up later.


My boys and the neighbor kids: Tyler, Luiz, Jose, Miguel, Dylan, Clark, Cal, Haley standing in back


Ruth and Cal


Haley and Shanna


Haley--see the sparkle on her jeans? The girls had on their sparkly jeans and they are super cute! (I got them for $4.99 at the Children's Place.)


Dylan


Miguel, Dylan, Clark & Cal


Clark decorating


Cal decorating


Cal and Clark


Ruth, Kelly--we went to her house on Friday, Claudia--our other neighbor & Cal


Shanna and Haley this past week both rocking. It was very cute. They are finally getting some hair. Shanna's is getting kind of wild!

Two things I forgot to mention in my last post. Friday night Lee took the boys to a theater on base that shows free movies. They saw Wall-e. We were all going to go, but then I started thinking about the girls and there is NO way they would sit through a movie and let me and Lee watch it too. Just sit by us in Sacrament meeting and you'll understand. So I stayed home with the girls. Lee suggested that I should go with the boys, but I am still a bit nervous about being outside after dark--especially with just me and two little boys. I know it's silly because the base here is very safe, but I don't think I'll ever get over it.

Saturday night I cut the boys hair. They both did really well. I cut Clark's hair with Lee's clippers and Clark thought that was so cool, so he didn't mind all the itchy hair. Cal did not want his hair to be cut with the clippers so when I cut it with the scissors he was quite content.

Anyway, I knew someone was dying to know this information, so there you go!

Lee has already posted these pictures on his blog, but I thought I would use a few on here too. On Friday Lee and Clark went to a farm/pumpkin patch for a kindergarten field trip. The farm sounded really fun and Clark had a good time.



Clark isn't looking at the camera funny. He really thought the pigs smelled gross and Lee caught it on camera.


Clark and Dylan. Dylan is one of our neighbors and is in Clark's class. We really like Dylan and his family.


Saturday two kids came over for a little bit and played and then we did some errands. I made some yummy pizza that night--probably our best yet! Sunday has been nice. Just one more Sunday and the girls will be in Nursery! Like I said, Lee is especially excited about it. Today while he had the girls with him in Priesthood, he saw Haley coughing and saw her wiping her face. Lee picked her up and her face was all wet. Lee thinks she gagged on something because she smelled like vomit. So Lee took Haley, with Shanna trotting behind, to the bathroom and washed her off the best he could. Lee is so awesome!

About Lee and taking care of the girls, I just love having twins. When I found out I was pregnant with them (at 20 weeks!) I was really stressed out about it--right up until they were born. The thought of two babies was overwhelming. But I love it! This past week, I got Shanna out of her crib and set her down. Then I got Haley out. When I set Haley on the ground, Shanna immediately gave Haley a hug. How sweet!

So if any of you ladies are wanting multiples, make sure your husband will do the following: let you lie in bed while he brings you the babies for midnight feedings (I was nursing) and puts them back in their cribs, always volunteers to change messy diapers, bathes the kids just as much as you, makes dinner for you at least once a week, takes the twins to Priesthood with him so you can go to Relief Society alone (that goes for singletons too!), takes them downstairs in the morning and gets them all going on breakfast, helps out with daily housework, doesn't mind staying with all the kids while you go shopping or to church functions (even when they're newborns) and helps put them to bed and you'll have a wonderful time with multiples. This is what Lee does for me ALL the time and I know that is why I have enjoyed having twins so much.

Anyway, we listened to a conference talk this evening and had popcorn. We are still working on April 2008 Conference, but we are hopeful in catching up. My boys are getting so excited about Halloween. Clark keeps finding out which day it is and how many days left till Halloween. Something else that is funny, Clark and Cal went to a fire-engine-fire-fighter birthday party a couple years ago. They each got cute fireman vests and a fireman hat. I was lazy last Halloween and just had them wear that for trick-or-treating. Clark noticed in his closet his fireman's vest and hat. He said something about it being his costume for Halloween. Hey, sounds great to me! One less thing to think about. Though I do need to start soon on the girl's Christmas dresses. I should have looked last January/February for some discounted ones, but didn't. I will make some this year, especially considering that cute, new ones are $25 and more, and that of course is just for one girl! Maybe I could buy one and cut it in half...Shanna could have the skirt and Haley could have the top!

Californians Vote Yes on Prop 8...Watch this video

This morning after dropping Clark off at school I found the library here on base. It is wonderful! There are lots of books (of course) and their media section is great. There are tons of movies that we can watch and I bet there are a lot of books on tape too. Plus it's all free. We can check out an unlimited number of books for 30 days, and we can have movies for seven days. I really enjoy living on base and having everything so close.

After Memphis, I feel like this is a safe bubble for us. Some other fun thing about the base is they show free movies--pretty new ones too, Friday and Saturday. There is bowling that is really cheap, plus a golf course and a place to go fishing and canoeing. There are a few communities throughout the base, and next week each family can go to their specific community center and get a free pumpkin. Also next Saturday at our community center they are having a Halloween craft thing, where everyone can decorate a pumpkin, do a craft, eat treats and play games. And the week of Halloween there will be trick-or-treating at the USO. I am not sure what the USO stands for, but in some major airports there are USOs where military families can go and wait for plane connections and they have free internet and game systems there. And maybe some other stuff, I'm not sure. I've never been to one. Anyway, there are some fun perks and Halloween will be really fun. Also our ward is doing a chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat.

We had a nice weekend. Friday night we headed over to one of our neighbors home for a fire and treats. They have a portable fire pit thing. No one was outside when we got there. I went across the street to ask the other neighbors about it, and they said that it was changed to Saturday night, but that they were making s'mores and invited us to come back. They too have a portable fire pit. One of their sons is in Clark's class at school, which is fun. They are a great family. They have two boys and twin girls. The parents are both nurses--he for the army, and she will be at a private practice.

Saturday we headed over to St. Louis. I did a session first and Lee took the kids to a park right by the temple. While Lee did his session I went to Target and Payless. On our way home we stopped at Aldi and got a start to our food storage! After we got home I woke Clark up and asked him if he wanted to go to the fire. As we were walking over he told me he was getting cold and wanted to go home. I think he was really tired. So we didn't go to the fire thing on Saturday, but I found out yesterday that it didn't happen anyway.

Our first week here we stopped at one of the parks on base and there was a lady there, Pamela, with her two boys. She was really nice and we had fun talking together. A couple days later we saw her again and realized that she lives just kitty-corner to us. Last Monday she brought over some rice krispie bars. Well, Sunday during the opening hymn in sacrament meeting, I looked over and there was Pamela! How funny! She helped us out in Sunday school with the girls. Only two more Sundays and they will be in nursery! Yeah! It was funny because when the Relief Society found out that we were going to be here at least three years, I overheard two ladies and one said, "Did you get her name?"

A family invited us over for dinner that evening. Jarett and Malee Skinner. Megan, they know of your brother Zach. They were in Hawaii at Tripler. The Skinners are a nice family. Their oldest boy reminds me of Jon. Jarett is an OB at the hospital on base, and head OB at the hospital is in the Bishopric--Bro. Fowers. Bro. Fowers knew that Jarrett was coming here and at the Skinner's first Sunday in church, Jarrett was sustained as the Young Men's President. Glad that happened to them and not us!

Monday Lee had the day off. I did the last of unpacking (basically) and we did some cleaning and normal kid stuff. Lee's LEGOs arrived on Monday and he has been having fun putting the different sets together. He sure was great with his toys when he was little. We are going to give one or two of the sets to Clark for Christmas and save the rest till later, probably a few years later.

Here are some pictures of the children. Enjoy your week!

Shanna Haley Cal October 14


St. Louis Temple


Cal October 14


Haley Oct 14


Shanna Oct 14


It is so cute seeing the girls play together and love each other, Oct 14


Self photo of Clark Oct 11


Haley Oct 11


Who is the more aggresive one???



Shanna Oct 11


The start of our food storage. We need to get some wheat to really get going.


Clark and Cal Oct 11


Oct 11


Oct 11


Oct 11

Here it is!

This is what you see when you walk in. Let's head down.


The very bottom of the stairs


Living Room. See the closed door on the right? See below for what it is.


An inside storage room. We have two of these rooms, but I only took a picture of this one.


Another view of the living room. One doorway you see into the kitchen. The other you see into a bedroom, which is the dining room and the door opposite the dining room is a door to the outside.


Eating Room


This is an outside storage room. You get to it by going out the door across from the dining room. Since we have the whole duplex, we have the whole storage room. This storage room is split into two--there is another door on the other side.


Guess what room this is???


Bathroom by the kitchen. There is a walk-in shower to the right.


Now we will cross over into the other half of the house. The 2nd living room.


Another view. The door by the treadmill is the other inside storage room.


The other kitchen that we use as a laundry room. But it has a fridge and stove, so we can use it when company comes.


Another bathroom off of the kitchen. It too has a walk-in shower. I actually looked at this shower today for the first time and it's really nice! It even has a little bench thing in there. I think the only person to use this bathroom is Clark.


Now we are heading upstairs.


This landing looks the same on the other side too.


Bathroom that is at the top of the stairs to your immediate left. This will probably be your bathroom Roger and Britt. I am not sure yet though...


If you are at the landing upstairs, this bedroom is right in front of you. See the tags hanging on the blinds? A lot of them are brand new. I haven't taken the safety tags off of all of them. And as you can tell, we don't go in this room much. Rog and Britt, this will probably be your room...maybe...


Next room down the hallway, sewing and ironing room.


This room is basically across from the sewing room. And this room and the next that you'll see is where the house connects up stairs. When I took the picture, I was standing in an open door way (with no door).


If you're standing by the girls' port-a-cribs, this is what you see. It's a little playroom/the rest of the girls' room. You can see the hallway on the left of the photo.


Here's the hallway.


Across from the little play room is the boys' room.


We're down the hall.


Bathroom at the end of the hallway. The bathrooms upstairs are nice and roomy!


There are also four big hallway closets with shelves throughout the house, plus two coat closets and two other normal closets in each hallway by the living rooms. We'll be shocked when we move again I think!