School!

Jessie's a kindergartener now! Her first day was yesterday. She was very brave about going even though she was "a bit nervous" and even though she's never been to preschool. I drove her to school yesterday (shed a few tears on the way home . . . .) and she rode the bus home with the big kids.

Here she is arriving home, she was very tired!

Today she rode the bus to school; I was really glad that the bus actually came to the right place at the right time. Her bus stop isn't up around the corner like the big kids, I can see if from our house. That makes a mommy happy.

And here's the other 2 on their first day 2 weeks ago.

They're both loving school and doing great.

Jessica's Birthday

Jessica is 5 now! Her birthday was on the 20th. On her birthday I was telling her about this picture and I thought I'd post it. I took it at 8:58 a.m. on her first birthday -- the MINUTE she turned one! Heh heh.

She had a party last year, so this year we just did family stuff.

Helping make the cake . . .

One of her presents

In the evening we went to canyon park

How cute is this?

This is totally my favorite park to take them to. When we get tired of

the playground we can go play in the shady stream.

We did the cake when we got home. Apparently Jessie has very bad blowing aim. It took her like 10 tries to get all the candles out!

All tuckered out at the end of the day.

Laughing Mandie

Fish Lake Vaycay

We went to Fish Lake for a very quick family vacation this week. Just 2 days, which was plenty with a tiny nursing baby. Fish lake is about a 1/2 hour from Richfield, only 2 hours from us. We stayed at a place called Bowery haven resort, and checked out the other resorts up there for future trips.

So here's the kids at the cabin. I'm sure you'll all be relieved to see that Melissa included her blanket in the fun. The people next to us let the kids play baseball with them.


View from the cabin. . . . . .

We played by the water in the evening. The kids find throwing rocks in the water to be GREAT fun. Especially lots of little rocks at the same time.

The next day we rented this boat and drove it around all day.

We saw this deer on the other side of the lake!

Mandie found the extreme head support of her life jacket to be very relaxing, and fell right to sleep.

The lake is really big, and there were only a few boats here and there, so the kids got to drive the boat wherever they wanted!

Final word to the wise: If it's cold and windy, you still need sunscreen! Yes, we already knew this, but since it wasn't hot we totally forgot about it! Now we're all fried. To a crisp.

First White Dress

Here's some pics of Amanda Karen's Blessing Day!

7 things

Okay, here's the "7 things you may or may not know about me" that I was tagged to do.


1. I am secretly in love with my husband. Yeah I know, you guys know I'm pretty ga-ga, but seriously I often have to restrain myself from talking about him too much. He is for sure the most amazing person I have ever met. And he becomes more amazing every year, and he has no idea how amazing he is. I love him. I love him love him love him.



2. I really like cross stitching. I find it incredibly comforting and satisfying. It's been especially theraputic when I've been really pregnant and unable to move much.



3. I'm currently trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.



4. chocolate chip cookies will someday be the death of me.



5. I'm white. As in, the personality type in "The Color Code." The section on whites describe me to a T. Jason's Blue. I think Nat's blue too, Josh and Jess seem pretty white, and these days Melissa's acting very red.

6. I love hiking. I used to love camping. I'm sure I will love it again once my kids are a little older.

7. I love to read, but I'm a very picky reader.