General Women's Meeting

On Saturday evening, I got to take all of my girls with me to the General Women's Meeting.  The church used to have meetings for the Relief Society and Young Women alternating on the weekends before each General Conference in April and October.  Last year they changed this.  Now, the meeting is for all girls and women age 8 and up.  Every General Conference.  So, because Autumn is now 8, we all got to go.  We went to dinner before the meeting (girls' choice was Panda Express), and then went to the church building for treats and mingling before the broadcast.  The broadcast was wonderful.  It was all about families, and strengthening our family relationships, and supporting family values, and protecting the divine nature of the family.  It was truly an inspiring evening... and I am so glad I got to spend it with my girls!

So close!

Our house is scheduled to be done in two weeks!  It is crazy how long it seemed to take, and how quick it seems to have gone the last little while.  We have carpet now!  The paint is done on the outside, and we have a driveway!  There are a few things that need to be touched up or finished inside, and we need a yard... but otherwise, it is pretty much done.  We are scheduled for our walkthrough inspection in 2 weeks!  It is so exciting!  (Although, that means packing, moving, and cleaning...)  In 3 weeks we are moving into this beautiful home!

Mito Walk 2015

Our neighbor and friend, Isabella, has Mitochondrial Disease.  We have known her since she and Brooke were in Kindergarten together, and were friends when she found out that she had this disease.  She has gone through so much in these past 4 years... more than any 10 year old should have to.  We have been able to walk with her in the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation walk since it began last year.  We really hope a cure is found soon!

House Progress

Our house is getting so close to being done!  It is getting so real.  We took the girls over yesterday to look around, but we couldn't go in... we had to look in the windows.  They had just hand scraped and stained the wood floors.  Yay!  In 4 more days, we can go in to look around again!  We only have a month more to wait!

Family History Event

Last Saturday was our Stake's Family History event, "Roots Tex".  Dave was one of the speakers, and it went well!  There were activities for the kids and different speakers throughout the day.  Brooke and Autumn had a picture taken in the old time photo booth.  It turned out really cute!  It was a fun day!

Texas Missions and Art

For a Social Studies project, Brooke had to make a model of a Texas Mission.  She used poster board and card stock and did a wonderful job!  I love the farm animals!

Brooke also had an art project in the Wylie School District Celebrate-the-Arts.  She made a clay bowl in art class.  Very creative!

Fourth Grade Honor Choir

Brooke made it into the 4th grade All-district choir this year.  Only 15 kids from each elementary school were chosen, by audition, and Brooke was one of the Dodd representatives.  They have been practicing for a couple of months in their own schools, and then Friday they got all together and practiced for the day with a performance in the evening.  I helped during the day, so I got to see the progress.  It was really good!  The kids worked so hard to bring it all together.
The performance was great!  The kids all did really well, and sounded awesome!  I am so proud of our little Brookie!

Luck o' the Irish!

For Saint Patrick's Day, some little Leprechauns came in and turned our breakfast oatmeal green!  It tasted great, but looked a little weird!  For dinner, we had corned beef and cabbage.  It was really delicious!  Hopefully, we all got a little bit of luck too!

"Camping" Trip- Spring Break

Because we had to cancel our camping trip over spring break due to sickness, we had a "camping trip" at our house.  We had dutch oven cooking (lasagna- it was wonderful!), roasted huge marshmallows, and made a tent fort in the living room.  It was not the real camping experience, but fun anyway!!

Spring Break Activities

Since the girls were sick at the start of the week, we could only do things at the end of the week.  I took the girls to the movies to see the new Cinderella on Friday morning, and then we met Dave at the Rainforest Cafe for dinner.  The girls really liked it!

Happy Pi Day!

It's Pi Day!  Pi, the value used to calculate the area and circumference of a circle, is 3.1415...
Today is 3/14/15.  It will only be this "Ultimate" Pi day once in a century!  To celebrate, we made pie!  I made 3 Thursday night, and Dave brought two (the coconut creme and the pecan) to work yesterday to celebrate.  I made a peach pie today to add to the lemon meringue for us to have for dessert tonight.  Yum!  Happy Pi Day!

More Progress...

It seems like every time we go to look at the house, something else is completed.  We went today, and the light fixtures, switches, faucets, etc were on!  It looks so good!  I am getting so excited!

Our home is almost done!!

Here are the latest photos of the house...