Autumn, I have missed you!

 I love the view from my windows every day. I forgot how gorgeous Fall can be. The girls get excited about every leaf they see fall.

But the weather is odd here. In the morning it is cold, so I turn on the heat. But then it's hot again by the late evening so I want to turn on the AC. I have yet to figure out the middle ground.

The only downside to this weather is that we are all getting colds. And Jonathan's eyes have been so dry that his corneas are scratched. He can't wear contacts and has to put in special gel eye drops.

But I love making soups and breads. It's fun to have the seasons. But not winter. I don't want that to come. Ever.

Sami's Dream Come True

Sami has been asking for us to go camping. I have been the party pooper. Changing diapers outside in a tent? Not so fun. Not to mention that I am a worrier so I worry that one of our girls will wander off and get lost.

But Sami's runner-up dream has been to roast marshmallows on a fire. (Okay, so she wanted hot dogs too, but all she got was marshmallows.)

Some friends in our ward live in the "country," and invited us for a marshmallow roast and Sami could hardly contain the excitement.

 The Applegarths invited us over at 7 pm. Which is late at our house. So Lucy was so lucky she got to come. Although she didn't feel lucky, I think she mostly felt tired. But she did pretty good. Except she kept trying to touch the fire, which kept all of us adults on edge.

Jonathan is the "fire king," so he build a huge fire. Looking at this picture, I realize Sami looks so hot. And the fire was mesmerizing for a girl who had never seen one up close before. The little boys sitting next to Janie is Nathan and he is in her preschool class. She tells me he is handsome.

 I love that I got this picture of Jonathan explaining how to build a fire.

 One of the best parts was when Sami asked to tell a spooky story. It went like this: "I am going to tell you about Pinkfoot. He is a monster. When you give him a smore, he will sing you a song. The end." Now those are the kind of spooky stories I like. :)



The Determined Child

Lucy thinks she is five. Or maybe ten.

She doesn't really care what other babies are doing. She only wants to do what the big girls are doing.

She doesn't want to play with "baby" toys, but isn't quite ready for big girl toys yet.

 She wants to use silverware. She throws a fit if she doesn't get to strap herself in her high chair or car seat. (I let her buckle herself in the high chair but not the car which has started a few very strong protests on her part.)

She is the most independent little thing. And messy. Sami nicknamed her The Messer and it has kinda stuck. This morning I found her opening dish washer tabs and putting them in the dishwasher, then shutting the dishwasher. She is so, so smart. Scary smart.

 She turns 18 months this week. (Yay for nursery!) We can't imagine life without her. Her laugh is so contagious it makes us all laugh. Her smile is so cute and lights up the room. I can't imagine life without her. I hope she knows how loved she is.

The First Parade

This weekend we took the girls to their first parade.

It was such a small town parade. We laughed a few times. Like when a politician couldn't make it so she had her office just hold up her head shots.

But the marching bands were so fun. And the candy. There were lots of candy being given out/thrown. It almost felt like Halloween.

 The parade was supposed to last for two hours. But it was hot! And Lucy was getting really tired so we went home early.

 

This is Janie being upset that we wouldn't give her more candy. Check out all those politician stickers.

While we were walking back to the van, Jonathan said, "Look girls, trees. You should go hug a tree." We didn't expect them too but they did! It was funny and a bit humbling. Children are so trusting.



I am excited to take them to another parade. I just need to remember to bring water and bags for their candy/stickers/can insulators.

 



What a week!

So Sami started kindergarten. On her first day I cried. I kept it together until it was time to say the prayer and leave. Then I started crying. Then Janie started pretend crying and saying "Sami, Sami." Then Sami started hugging everyone. It was almost comical. But we did it and she LOVED it. In fact, she has told me twice that she loves kindergarten more than home. That almost made cry too but in a totally different kind of sad way :).

And everything was going great until Wednesday. Wednesday is an early out day and I FORGOT!!  they get out an hour and half earlier on Wednesdays than other days. Her teacher called me after they had been dismissed for 15 minutes and I felt SO BAD! To make it worse, I had told her teacher I would pick up her up at a new spot, so she was confused to begin with when teachers took her to a new pick up spot and then she got scared when I wasn't there. I ran down to the school and into the office where Sami was quietly crying. I felt so, so bad. When she saw me she burst into sobs and I just hugged her and told her how sorry I was. Then we went out for ice cream and that really helped us feel better. I feel so bad just thinking about it. I guess that means I will never forget again, I hope.

Her teacher was so nice and said lots of families forgot since it was the first week. Needless to say I now have reminders on my phone and it is in big bold letters on the calendar. 

Sami's teacher is Mr. Greve. To be honest, I wasn't totally thrilled when I found out her teacher was a man. I just hadn't heard of that before. But he is great. Sami adores him and tells me all the time how funny he is and how he tries to trick them. He sends home emails almost everyday to all the parents telling us what they are working on. I think it's going to be great. 

On Thursday Jonathan took his internal medicine boards. This very, very expensive test has been haunting us for months. He has studied every day for months for it. We found out in three months if he passed. I hope he did. I think he did. 

And then on Friday Janie started preschool. 

When I went to pick her up after her first day she said, "Mom, some kids are coming over for a play date. I told them where I live." Uh, probably not going to happen, Janie. Then she says, "I have a new friend. He's a boy. He's so handsome. He gave me lots of hugs and a kiss. But I didn't kiss him because no kissing at school, Mom." 

Oh, dear. 

To top off our fantastically stressful and full week, we decided to go to the Iowa State Fair on Saturday. We got up and started getting ready. Jonathan went to make sure all the people who signed up to clean the church were there and got in the building. 

Nope, they weren't there. 

Two people showed up. Jonathan stayed and cleaned for 3 hours. 

So instead we went to the zoo. It was kinda disappointing but after two and half hours at the zoo, the girls were whining and saying how tired they were. We realized that maybe a all day fair trip would be better next year anyway. 

So here's hoping for a good week. I won't forget to pick up Sami on her early out day and know I know that all my kids love where they are. Phew. Now I can get some sleep. 

School Pictures

Sami starts kindergarten tomorrow.

 I think she is ready for it, but I am not.

I just put her down for bed, and it's like the night before Christmas for her. I don't think she is going to sleep well, she is so excited.

 

I needed to take new pictures for her teacher and some tags I put on the girls' backpacks. I realized that I need to practice my photography more. Thank goodness for photoshop. But I did a few good pictures.

 

 

 

Lucy didn't need a picture, of course, but I am so glad she sat still for a second and let me snap a few pictures. And it was just a second too. She doesn't stand still for long.

 

Quick Update

Summer is flying by. I register Sami for kindergarten on Thursday and just the thought of it makes me so sad and anxious. But she is so excited and asks me almost every day how many days until kindergarten.  I have thought and thought about homeschooling but that just doesn't feel right for our family right now, so I will just have to trust God and turn her over to her teacher. There is no half day kindergarten in the whole state of Nebraska so she will be gone from 8:30 to 3:45. That seems like too long for me. Gratefully we have a great school district (we actually chose this house for the school district), and that helps my anxiety. 

I got called as the Primary music leader. It is a fun job but a bit overwhelming for me. I know that Sami and Janie love music time and I feel this pressure to make it fun while teaching them the songs. Plus the sacrament program is next month. Thankfully there are so many wonderful primary music blogs that so far I haven't had to come up with a single idea on my own. :) 

Jonathan's new calling is the building maintenance coordinator. That means he is in charge of organizing the cleaning of the church every third month and snow removal. That also means I will probably be cleaning a lot of bathrooms every third month. But I don't mind too much. My mom told me once that every time you clean the church you help build a temple. I will just think about that as I clean toilets. 

Jonathan is super busy studying for boards. He takes so many tests and they are all expensive. This one coming up is for board certification in internal medicine and he studies every day for it. He is super nervous but I am sure he will pass. He always does, thankfully.

And the best part is that I finally feel like we are "settled." I still have boxes in the basement that I have to go through but I don't have them in bedrooms or obvious places. It's nice to feel like our house is homey.