Lauren Dancing

We were inspired by Kristen's blog and the video of Oliviana saying "awesome" and dancing. We had Lauren do her dancing for everyone. We couldn't get her to say "awesome" though, so Oliviana has one up on Lauren. Enjoy... (Hint: scroll to the bottom of the page and click the pause button on the music playlist so you can really appreciate the dancing.)

Back To School Night

I made chocolate chip cookies for Landon's class last year for Back to School Night, and they were quite a hit. He had several requests for the recipe. He asked me to make them again this year, so yesterday I made 150 cookies. Last night when I was leaving his classroom, I found the mildly retarded custodian standing outside the classroom waiting for me. He was clutching a handful of rice crispy treats and asked me if I would trade 3 cookies for 3 rice crispy treats. I went back in the classroom and got him his cookies. (I gave the rice crispy treats to Emma and Lauren!) When I tried to leave again, a lady was standing outside waiting for me. She told me another teacher down the hall had dared her to come ask me for a cookie. The teacher had had one last year and told the lady that they were really good and wanted one. I went and got her 3 cookies too. Landon came home and told me they had all been eaten, and he had several requests for the recipe again. This recipe is the one I put in the first edition Cookin' Fevre cookbook.
One of Landon's students has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a mild form of autism. Well, this kid is really funny (to me), but causes a lot of stress for Landon. The other day he told Landon, "Mr. LeFevre, I want you to leave right now and I'm going to start counting to 5." Fun times for Mr. LeFevre.
By the way, I made a good dinner last night! I used the recipe Kristen posted on her blog. It is a Beef/Broccoli Calzone. My turned out to be a Turkey/Spinach/Peas Calzone. It was tasty. Everyone loved it except for Lauren who said it was disgusting and spent dinnertime crying and screaming like a two-year old in her bedroom. Here's the recipe:
Beef & Broccoli Calzone:
1 lb. Ground beef, browned until crumbly and drained
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained
1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
½ c. chopped onion
¾ c. sour cream
¼ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Garlic powder
½ tsp. Italian seasoning
1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
To FREEZE: Combine ground beef with other ingredients (except bread dough) in a bowl. Roll our bread dough to a 9”x13” rectangle. Spoon filling onto one side of the dough, leaving a border of dough on three sides. Fold over bare side of dough and pinch ends together. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
To COOK: Allow to rise, but not double. Cook 20-30 minutes in a 350 degree oven until golden. Slice and serve.

Regular Routine

When I went to wake up Lauren this morning, this is what I found.

I think the big bump is her legs, but she was sound asleep under the covers like that. She has been so tired lately! As soon as she walks home from the bus stop she begs to go play with her friends outside. Then at about 5:00pm, I make her come inside for dinner, homework, bath and bed. By bedtime (7:30pm), she is whining and crying because she is so tired. Tonight our goal is 7:00pm bedtime.
Emma comes home really tired, but her friends don't live in our townhouse community, so she tends to spend her after school time on Webkinz World (website), watching TV, talking on the phone to her friends, doing homework, reading or doing some kind of project. She tends to be happy to go to bed, happy to wake up and happy to do whatever we ask her to do. I should start calling them Yin and Yang.

This week I worked Monday, but now I don't have to work until next Thursday (Fall check in day). Today I went for a 3 mile walk along a road bordering potato fields on one side, wheat on the other, the very tippy tops (the "teats") of the Tetons ahead of me, while listening to Sheryl Crowe, REM, and Barenaked Ladies. I'll spend today cleaning, cooking and running errands. I love being home, free to do whatever I want.

Landon starts his graduate classes tonight in Idaho Falls. He'll be gone Wednesday and Thursday nights until 9 or 10 this semester.

Our ward was split and we were assigned a brand new ward (The Willowbrook Ward) a couple weeks ago. It's kind of fun to have a ward that's beginning from scratch. We both got new callings this past week. Landon is the membership clerk and I'm a RS teacher. We feel pretty lucky to have callings don't take much time or need to go to regular meetings.

Yesterday I bought two big bags of tree ripened peaches from a farmer who sells them out of the back of his truck down by the freeway. He had both donut peaches and the regular kind. They tasted like candy! They were so ripe and juicy. The farmer was quite a character! He told me he has made $10,000 selling his peaches this year, and that he hasn't had anything to do with the IRS since 1974. He was wearing striped overalls (like a train conductor) with a crazy patterned shirt underneath. The peaches were incredible.

Fun Day in Jackson

Today we went to Jackson, WY! The Teton County/Jackson recreation center has the best pool! It has a big water slide, a little water slide, a regular Olympic sized lap pool with diving board, and a really fun kids' pool ranging from 1-3 feet. We spent about 3 hours swimming and sliding. After swimming, we walked around Jackson a little bit and ate dinner at one of our favorite Jackson restaurants, The Teton Steakhouse. We stopped at the Yippy I O candy store, then headed home. The drive is about 80 miles and it's actually part of the fun. It's beautiful. I saw a great bike path that's flat and smooth between Driggs and Victor, and I think Emma and I are going to ride on it before the snow comes this year.

During the drive Emma was quizzing us about some Idaho state history she's been learning in her first 3 days of 4th grade. She asked why the elk has a shield on the Idaho State Flag. Lauren guessed that it was because the elk farted and had to cover up the sound and the smell of the fart with the shield. (The actual reason is that Idaho protects wildlife.)

Landon and I have been really tired since school started last week. We've gone to bed a little earlier each night. We went to bed at 9:00pm last night! I hope we start to acclimate to our new, busy schedules.

This is how Landon spent an hour after school on Friday.

First Day of School

Today the girls started school at Kennedy with their dad. I took them to meet their teachers and find their desks, then picked them up after school. Tomorrow they'll start riding the bus to and from school everyday. Evidently I have a conditioned response to choke up and cry on my way out the door of the school every year on this day. Unfortunately Landon was standing there holding the door open for the little kids to come in when I walked out the door. I got a nice "eye roll" on my way to the car.
Today I started working at the Housing office 8:00am to 2:00pm while one of the full time employees is on bed rest and maternity leave. She actually was released to come back to work this week after being on bed rest for 2 weeks, so she is training me and I'm helping out with special projects. It was a busy, tiring day for all of us.
Lauren said her teacher is kind of strict (perfect for Lauren) and Emma's teacher is funny and nice. They both found new friends and got back into the school groove. Lauren's favorite part of the day was taking a test, and Emma's favorite part of the day was winning a tootsie roll for not getting her name written on the board.
Landon says he has a good class this year. 24 kids, 14 are girls, 2 IEPs (that's code for "special" kids). I made an appearance at the end of the day and met everyone. I'm always amazed that Landon has worked so hard in life to get to supervise 24 little kids all day. That's my worst nightmare, but lucky for us he loves it and is really good at it.

Lauren opted for cut-off shorts on her first day of school. She says she looks really good in them...I'm just glad she has a healthy self esteem.
Emma wanted to be girly and pretty on her first day of 4th grade. She looked really cute.
Mr. LeFevre wanted to look red, blue and bald on his first day of 3rd grade. Mission accomplished.
Pictured above: cutest girls at Kennedy Elementary.

Killing Time Until School Starts

Today Landon went back to work full time! The girls and I tried to stay busy so we wouldn't get too bored without him. We went to Kennedy (the girls' new school) to play so the girls could figure out what to do when they have recess. Then we went to the Christensen's house so the girls could swim with Ketti and Jens (and so I could spend some quality talk time with Heidi), then we came home to take care of my friend Bethany's 3 kids while she went to a Head Resident's meeting. Bethany is really amazing...she has 3 kids 3, 2, and almost 6 months. She also works as a head resident and she is always in a good mood. I don't know how she does it. It was fun for the girls and me to watch her kids for a couple of hours.

Madison County Fair

Emma entered four 4H projects at the fair this year (cookies, meal planning, health and art). She received ribbons for everything, of course, and we went to the fair to take pictures of them as they were on display.

The Madison County Fair is unlike any fair I've ever been to. It's pretty much the best fair ever. No admission, no carnival games or rides and you park about 20 feet from the entrance along the street. We saw lots of chickens, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cows and goats. There were about 5-6 commercial displays, and the fire department was there with their smoke trailer. We were there about 20 minutes and saw it all. When we were done, I think I felt the Holy Ghost. I was so happy we live in Rexburg and have county fairs like this one.

Today we went to Idaho Falls for some shopping. Landon bought some books at the ISU extension for his classes which start the 27th, went to the teacher store for some frog die-cuts, bought me some sweet dress pants for $9.99 at Lane Bryant, ate at Fazoli's, then dropped some cash at Super Walmart, of course. We came home and went to Landon's classroom to help get things organized. He's got his "Welcome" bulletin board up, all the desks labeled with the kids' names on nameplates, etc, etc. It was productive time.

New School Clothes!

We've been doing a lot of preparation for school to start next week. We're slowly acquiring new school clothes so the girls will be ready. I've learned that I need to shop a little now, and a little when the weather changes in October or so. Then I need to shop again in December/January because they've usually grown out of whatever I've bought in August. Lauren wears a size 10/12 and Emma wears a Juniors size 7/9 as long as it isn't a clingy style, otherwise she wears a size 6 petite in Misses. I found size 16 plus at Walmart the other day and she can wear that too. (She's in a really difficult size category right now.)

As everyone knows, Emma rises with the sun. Well, I've just learned that she's been catching rerun episodes of TLC's "What Not To Wear" when she's up at 6:00am. She already had lots of opinions about her clothes, but now she's got "experts" to quote when she looks for clothes. For example, she knows that a bright pair of shoes or handbag can really make your outfit "pop."

This week Lauren recovered from her mystery virus right as Emma came down with it. Emma had a fever, chills and throw-ups, but like Lauren, she was pretty much over it after 48 hours.
Landon kept trying to tell me he was getting sick too, but everytime I felt his forehead, it was cool. He has given up and decided to act well again. Nice try. He was a really good dad today and played board games with the girls for a couple of hours while I got my hair cut, colored and highlighted. I knew it was time to do something, because Landon kept staring at my hairline (and my 2 inch gray roots) and asking when I was going to do something about that.

That's it for today...watch for photos of the Madison County Fair...we'll be going tomorrow to see if Emma won any ribbons for her 4H projects.

Best Vacation Ever!!

POZOR: THIS IS A REALLY LONG POST!

We had so much fun this week on our little vacation! We have found our new favorite place to go for fun. We left Wednesday morning and headed north on I-15. Our first stop was Dillon, Montana. We visited the Patagonia outlet and had no luck finding anything to suit our sedentary lifestyle, but lucky for us there was a bookstore right next to the outlet. The girls bought Madlibs and Landon and I each found good books to read on the trip. We hit the road again and got to Butte, Montana around lunchtime.
We stopped at the visitor center, gathered all the brochures we could carry, asked about where to find pork chop sandwiches then went hunting for Pork Chop Johns. We found it in the historic, old part of Butte. I was nervous because there were bars on the windows and in our experience, that's never a good thing. Of course our desire for fried food won out over our desire to protect our children from a potentially dangerous part of town. This little family-owned fast food place turned out to be a great find. We had pork chop sandwiches (pounded, flat pork which was breaded and fried and put on a bun with all the fixings) and french fries with homemade white fry sauce that tasted very oniony. The workers were all really nice to us and recommended that we go check out the World Museum of Mining next. They also recommended that we try "pasties" before we leave Butte. Pasties are like homemade hot pockets with beef and veggies. We never did get a chance to try them, but we will next time we're in Butte. Next, we visited the World Museum of Mining. It was hot and most of the museum was outside, but we still had fun. The museum is basically a mining town out of the late 1800s/early 1900s, which they've rebuilt. You walk along the sidewalk and peek in windows of all the shops and see artifacts from that time period. There was a church, school, saloon, doctor's office, blacksmith shop, etc. We got to explore the old mine stuff (I don't know the terminology) which was left over from the actual mine that was where the museum is built. They have underground mine tours, but we weren't there at the right time for that. It was really educational and interesting to see all that old stuff.

After the mine, we were more than ready to get to Fairmont Hot Springs and get in the water. We drove about 12 miles west on I-90 and checked into our hotel room. We had 24 hour access to the 2 olympic size swimming pools, and 2 hot pools. We also had 4 half-day passes to use the water slide. They also gave us 2 bags of animal food for the petting zoo area, and a bag full of water toys. We spent the rest of the day in the pools swimming and playing in the water. We brought plenty of food from home so we ate sandwiches and fruit in our room for dinner.

The next day we used our waterslide passes all morning and got our fill of going up the stairs to ride the slide down. We swam all morning and ate sandwiches in our room for lunch. After lunch, Landon took the girls to the petting zoo area to feed the animals while I read my book in the hotel room. Then Landon and the girls went swimming, but by that time a storm had rolled in and we had a lightening storm and heavy rain. They ended up swimming in the inside pool while I read my book in the hotel lobby. I made friends with a nice lady from Maryland. She had been playing golf and wanted to come inside to rest. She ended up snoring on the chair across from me while I read. It made me think of Nana.

For dinner, we all got dressed and went to Butte to a pizza place we found in the phone book. It was gourmet pizza, so we had a carribean jerk chicken pizza. It was sweet and spicy, yummy!! We had ordered a small cheese pizza for the girls, which they each had eaten a piece of (and Landon had one too). I picked up the last piece and looked at the bottom, and there was a spot the size of a quarter that was greenish black. MOLD! I showed the manager who just happened to stop by our table to see how our dinner was. I was really glad I didn't have a bite of that pizza. I guess the small pizzas are made with frozen crusts. The pizza we had was hand-tossed and not frozen. It pays to ask for thin crust, I guess. The mold didn't freak us out as much as it would someone else. After all, I drank a glass of bleach water at Macayo's in 1995 and survived.

We spent some quality time at Super Walmart after the pizza experience and bought some school clothes for Emma. We love us some Walmart.

The next day the girls and Landon went swimming for an hour in the morning, while I cleaned up our room and got us ready to go. When they got back from swimming, the girls were so tired! I made them take baths and use a pound of conditioner on their hair from all the swimming. After her bath, Lauren couldn't get warm, which was kind a red flag but I thought she was being dramatic. We checked out and drove east on I-90 heading toward the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park.

On the way, we saw a billboard for Wheat Montana, a bakery and deli and wheat processing plant about 18 miles past our turn off for the caves. All I needed to see was the word "bakery" and I was OK with a detour to check it out. What a find! It was like the Tillmook cheese factory except it was a grain factory. We shared a carmel roll, a chocolate croissant, ate sandwiches made with the yummy bread they make there, then shared macaroons for dessert. They sell all kinds of oats, grains, wheats, flours, breads, rolls, etc. in their cafe/giftshop.

Next, we hit the road again and headed back to the caves. We got there and Lauren was really sick. She had a fever and had slept off and on in the truck up to this point. She couldn't get warm, even with all the blankets and clothes we piled on her. Landon was convinced she just didn't want to go in the caves because she was scared, so he went ahead and bought us tour tickets for the caves. I knew Lauren was sick and was willing to stay with her in the truck while Emma and Landon did the caves, but since we had the tickets, we convinced Lauren to give it a try. Big mistake. The hike to the beginning of the cave was 3/4 of a mile, 600 feet up and in 90 degree heat. Lauren was panting heavily and whining all the way. I felt so bad for her, but was hoping when we got there she'd be OK. We got to the front of the cave and our tour guide explained that there were bats, pack rats, mice in the cave, it was very dark, very steep and we can't touch anything. Lauren was crying and begging to go back, but we thought we'd go a little farther. We decended 128 steep steps into the cave, and at the bottom, our tour guide said it was the last chance we had to turn around and go back. I raised my hand and said Lauren and I were going back. We climbed back up the steps and down to the truck. Lauren panted all the way back, dry heaved a few times and stopped at every single bench to rest. I even carried her on my back for part of the way. She immediately went to sleep in the truck while we waited for Landon and Emma. Poor little baby. She was a little trooper even though she was sick. Landon and Emma had fun and agreed that it's a good thing Lauren and I went back when we did. They had to scoot on their butts a few times and stoop way over in order to get through certain parts of the cave. I'm glad they had fun.

We got home at about 6:30pm last night. We had so much fun on this trip! It wasn't a lot more expensive than our trips up to Gardiner, Montana to visit Yellowstone. I think we'll be back up to Fairmont this winter when we get tired of the long winter. The hot springs are open year round, so hopefully we can squeeze in a quick trip in February or something.

Chukars Game

BYU-Idaho sponsored alumni night at the Idaho Falls Chukars game against the Ogden Raptors Tuesday night. Emma had just spent 4 hours swimming with the Activity Days girls, so she was pretty tired, but we went anyway. As Mormons, we were attracted to the free tailgate picnic prior to the start of the game, so we got there in plenty of time to get our food. They had a raffle at the picnic, which we were lucky enough to win twice! The girls each won a BYU-Idaho hat. After we ate, we headed over to the stadium. We found good seats in the shade and taught the girls how baseball is played while we watched the game. We bought peanuts and enjoyed the activities between the innings. We stayed for 5 innings, then hit the road. It was already 9:00pm and the girls had had enough fun for their first baseball game.

Fairmont Hot Springs

We're going to Fairmont Hot Springs Wednesday night and Thursday night. Here's a link to their website: fairmontmontana.com Landon found us a good deal where we can stay 2 nights and get waterslide passes and a water tote/gift bag with water toys for under $300. I guess I've been working at the Housing Office so we can go do this. We're excited.

Lauren didn't understand that I actually get paid to go to the Housing Office and work. When I explained that they pay me to go work there, a little light bulb went off in her head. I asked her why she thought I was going there everyday and she thought I was just going to help out. I told her the only reason I would leave her everyday was for money so we can buy school clothes and go do fun stuff together. She seemed to feel better about the situation after I explained it. It's been really hard for her to have me gone 9 hours everyday (even though she's with Dad), so I feel like crap whenever I leave the house. It will be better after they're in school. I'll only work the hours they're gone then.

I hope to have some fun pictures to post after our trip. I bought a new swimsuit for myself so I hope to pose in some provacative poses and get those posted right away. We're also going to a baseball game tomorrow night (the Idaho Falls Chukars), so maybe I'll post some photos then too.

For those who are interested, Landon has lost 18 pounds since July 1st when he first started trying to lose weight. Go Landon!

Lauren's new haircut

BEFORE

AFTER

So I've been working full time at the Housing Office for about 8 days. Well, before I started working, Lauren was dedicated to growing her hair really long. Landon spends all day with her everyday for 8 days and all of a sudden "she really wants to cut her hair because it's too much of a hassle to deal with." I get home from work on Friday, her hair is all gone and evidently it was all Lauren's idea.

Lucky for Lauren short hair is really cute on her.

Our Blog

Hi everyone,

I like the idea of a blog to keep in touch with friends and family, but I didn't like the idea of allowing everyone in the world to view it. That's why this blog is by invitation only. The idea is for just our family to see it, which in our world also includes the Lukes, the Christensens, the Jones, and the Martins.

I've seen some really cool blogs since this trend has taken off, but I'm not really creative or inspired to make ours more than just pictures and descriptions of what's going on with us. Maybe I'll evolve as time goes by, but this isn't the place to look for cheese. I promise to leave the cheese out of the LeFevre blog.

Love, Erin

A Mediocre Day for the LeFevres

Because Lauren begged literally everyday this summer to go to Riot Zone, we went to Riot Zone today. It was kind of disappointing. We paid for the girls to play on the inflatable toys and to do one ride. We couldn't really afford more than that. It was stinkin' hot and Landon and I couldn't wait to leave. The girls said they liked it, but I think they felt obligated to say that. I don't think they had as much fun as they said they did.

Then we went to Idaho Falls and did a little school clothes shopping at ShopKo. We bought a few things for the girls then went to Sams Club. That's when it got fun. The samples were so good! We ate quesadillas, pizzza, turkey, pastrami, shrimp and jerky. For people who just started a low carb diet, we did really well for ourselves. After buying some good stuff for our diet, we ate a hot dog at the food court. Sadly, that really was the highlight of our day. But it was so good!

Then we drove home in our non-airconditioned car in 91 degree weather. Overall, not the best day of our summer, but we still had some fun. We're really looking forward to the girls going to bed at 7:00pm tonight. They're so tired and it's really time for one of those days with an early bed time.