Thunder and Lightning!

I told my mom that Claire might grow up to be a meterologist because she loves the weather. On Saturday night Nathan called us from work and said that he had seen some lightning off to the south. Claire pulled the chair from the computer desk out to the front porch and sat out there for about 30 minutes watching the lightning. She would have watched longer but it was bedtime.
On Sunday after church the wind was blowing so hard it blew some trees down and knocked out the power. Claire was outside twirling in it!
Last night and this morning we have had some fabulous thunder and lightning and it has been pouring rain. Claire wanted to go out and play in the rain as soon as she woke up! She wasn't very happy that her dad made her put some clothes on first. I am just glad that she doesn't get scared by the thunder and I am very grateful for the rain. We needed it badly!

County Fair

This week was the Box Elder County Fair and we had tons of fun. Claire has been counting down the days until the fair for the last 2 weeks. On Wednesday I walked in the parade with some other teachers from my school. It was hot and tiring but we had fun. I think I had more fun than Nate did watching the parade with the girls! Wednesday night we went to the fair and walked around and saw all of the animals. Allie practiced all of her animal noises and she touched all the different animals. On Thursday Claire and I went to the lamb show. None of our lambs ranked in the top of their class, but they all received blue ribbons. That night I took the girls back to the fair so Claire could ride on the rides. She was so brave! She didn't want to hand the workers her tickets but she rode on all of the kiddie rides by herself! It made me a little sad - sniff! On Friday night we met my parents at the hamburger stand for dinner and then Karen, Jim, Claire, and I went to the rodeo. I just have to say that Claire LOVES the rodeo. She cheers for the cowboys and her favorite part is the bull riding. Sometimes I wonder if she was supposed to be Karen's daughter! On Saturday my mom took Claire back out for the lamb auction, another hamburger, and a few more rides. I asked Claire last night if she had gotten to do everything she wanted to at the fair, and she said yes. That made me happy. I think I had almost as much fun as she did. I wish I had some pictures, but at least I have all the fun memories!

I am finished!

I have finished Breaking Dawn! I knew that since school is starting I wouldn't have time for reading so I stayed up until 1 am last night to get it done. Now I can focus on school. I really liked the book. I will say that I thought it ended almost too perfectly, but at least the story had closure. Now what are we all going to read?!

I promised pictures of my red wall in my room. The picture doesn't do it justice. The other walls are beige. I still need to put up some curtains so the blinds don't look so stark white! Anyway, Nate did an awesome job, and so far we haven't been fighting! (Some people say red in a bedroom makes you fight more)
I also have to add this cute picture of Allie. I took her out and put her in the swing while I was pulling weeds. After a while she got tired of swinging so she pulled her feet up and was just taking it easy. I had to have a picture!

What's new

Wow, where have I been? It seems like I have stuff for 3 or 4 posts all at once and then I go a couple of weeks without much going on. Also, now that it is August I'm starting to get back into 'school mode' so I probably won't be posting as often.

Let's see...We had a fun family reunion with the Kirkland side of the family on Saturday. My cousins came from Idaho and California so it was fun to reconnect with them again. I took my camera but I never got it out of the diaper bag so I'll have to get some pictures from my mom.

Nate also painted our room, we now have a red wall! I will make my bed and take a picture to post later! He is so great, the girls and I went and stayed at my parents' house for 2 days so he could move all the furniture and paint. It was a pretty sweet deal for me!

I haven't started Breaking Dawn, but I am patiently waiting for Karen to finish it. Hopefully that will be in the next couple of days!

That's the quick update of the Throops, I'll try to get some pics on later this week!