HAPPY BIRTHDAY 'R'!

Ok, so I know I'm undoing this whole 'R' thing again, but these are the best pics we got! I am getting so cheap with the cakes nowadays, but she still thought is was the best cake ever with the mermaid on it. ;-) She had a fun day, I can't believe she is 3!

And here is a pic, below, from a couple weeks ago, that I just had to put with this poem for her:

There was a little girl,

who had a little curl,

right in the middle of her forehead,

And when she was good, 

she was very, very good,

and when she was bad,

she was horrid. 

Love you 'R' girl! ;-)

'E' has GLASSES!

'E' got a letter from the school nurse after eye exams, saying that we should get her eyes checked. I felt so bad for her, since I got glasses in 1st grade, and they got worse and worse and worse. Anyways, after calming her down , she got used to the idea of possible glasses, and we took her in. It turns out, that for now, all she has is an astigmatism, causing blurry vision. She picked some cute glasses with butterflies on the side. She looks so cute, and is taking good care of them!

MORE HAIR!

So, this weekend, we did a little bit of hair-styling. Every time I would look at "E" I could just perfectly see these side bangs on her, and so I decided to try it out. I think it fits her perfect, and she loves it! She looks way older tho. :'(  "W" doesn't have the same thing going with her hair, and I don't know how well bangs would work, but she wanted something too, so I curled her hair for her.

Then I finally cut "L" boys hair to be like daddy's! Here is a before picture first:

  He had little curls going for him in the back too, so cute, but it was time to get rid of the shaggy look.

Here he is!

He looks like a little boy now instead of a baby. Too cute. :)

More GARDEN FOOD!!

So we have picked tons of food over the last week or so, mostly tomatoes. Here is a pic of ONE DAY'S worth:

And this is what I did with 25 out of the 38 lbs of tomatoes:

It is a yummy pasta sauce with garlic and peppers, which aren't in the picture, but I did pick 4 that day too.

Here is another day when we had an eggplant, zucchini, onion, tomatoes and basil:

I made a Ratatouille of sorts, with Quinoa added as well.

Yum Yum! Now I just have to figure out what is for dinner tonight........besides tomatoes!

"R"'s first day of Preschool!

So, this isn't usually a big deal for us, because the older girls hardly did preschool and it is actually just a coop within the neighborhood. We all take turns teaching at our house, but it is still a great way to get them to socialize a little bit, since that is what I feel preschool is mostly about. We are doing a letter each week for them. I just had to share tho because she just looks so stinkin' cute! (I actually ended up staying the whole time because she was so shy, but by the end she seemed to be doing good)

TORREY!

Over Labor Day Weekend we went down to Torrey in southern Utah. My parents go there almost every weekend to work on their cabin they are finally able to build. This is their small side cabin that they are building first:

It is getting close! They are just getting the insulation and boards onto the roof now, which is what Will helped my dad with:

 

Another reason we were excited to go was because we finally got the two older girls fishing poles, and we were able to take them fishing. We took "R" too, even tho she didn't really fish, she still had fun tagging along. The fishing was actually terrible, it was windy, and the water was just gross and had tons of 'seaweed' or whatever it is called in a reservoir. We went to Lower Bounds on Boulder Mountain. Here's a few pics!

 On the last day, on our way out, we did some apple picking. They have a few 'U Pick' fruit orchards in Fruita, and the have these really delicious Ginger golden apples. Yum! Everything is $1 a pound, which kind of turns out to be a lot, but you can eat as much as you want to while you are picking! ;) We got a couple of bags full and I just made some applesauce with them today! Anyways, here are the girls helping me!

And here's my applesauce!

After that we made a pit stop at a park in Fruita, and when we drove in, there were tons of deer hanging out. The girls are looking at some here.

It also rained a ton while we were there. Here is a waterfall that came from all of the rain, and we actually saw a flash flood come down the creek, it was pretty cool.

Grandpa also made a little shelter for the girls to go play out in the rain.

And I can't forget my cute boy! He had fun too. We all slept in the cabin and he was an awesome sleeper, he just talked to everyone for a bit in his pack n play, and then he went right to sleep! We had fun!

"E"'s first day of SCHOOL!

 "E" started kindergarten! As you can see she was very excited! Here she is waiting to go in:

Here she is at her desk:

And hanging up her backpack in her cubby: 

(Sorry, taking pics holding a 1 yr old is not easy ;))

She is getting so big and she had so much fun!

"E"'s BIRTHDAY! AND "W"'s 1ST DAY OF 1ST GRADE!!

Here is a pic of "E" on her birthday! It is outside of the school because it was the same day as "W"'s first day of school!

The weekend before her birthday we went up to her cousin's house and had a little party. I didn't get any pics of them :(, but I got a pic of her cake. We also made a really cheap pinata out of a box with scrapbook paper on it, but they had tons of fun with it and broke it apart anyways. It was fun!

I guess part of her birthday was also going to the Museum at Thanksgiving Point the day before. They loved this giant turtle.

 Also, on her birthday, Grandma came, and since there were no good movies to see in the theatre, we MADE a theatre in our living room. (By the way, I would suggest doing this at least every couple of months to clean underneath the couches. After a whole year, let's just say it was disgusting). Here they are watching their movie. :)

Oh, and they had some treats as well. Popcorn for the bowls of course:

 And she got this present from her Wickert grandparents. Thank You!

Ok, so here is "W"'s first day of FIRST GRADE!

I know, I'm totally undoing the whole "W" thing, but this is the only other pic I have. ;) I might edit later, but here is her desk:

It was a busy busy day! 

Hiking and Backpacking!

So, we've been doing a lot of hiking and Backpacking this summer. The first two pictures were from when we went to Torrey/Capitol Reef, and we hiked Calf Creek Falls. It was an adventure. There were 7 adults, and 13 kids 10 and under! It ended up being a mile longer each way than we had expected, but we all survived (just barely). ;) The falls is very pretty, as you can see tho, and very popular.

The next weekend, Will and I did an overnight hike up Mount Timpanogas. Oh my goodness. This hike should never be done carrying 25 lbs on your back. It is pretty much all up hill, the whole way up, and then you get killed even more from coming down all of the downhill. Oh man, I have never been so sore, I couldn't walk up and down the stairs for a few days. Anyways, it was pretty and we had some visits from a herd of Mountain goats. Here's a few pics:

Only about a week and a half after that, Will and I went up into the Uintas for a two night stay. Although it was about 8-9 miles one way, this hike was much more doable and not so steep. We still needed a break every hour or so, but I wasn't totally exhausted. It was very nice to have two nights of rest before coming back down as well.

We made pizzas the first night:

Here's our camp site:

The first morning we were there, we did a little day hike up onto a ridge above the valley. It was a great view:

Pretty flowers:

And we each caught a fish! ;)

All in all it was a pretty fun trip, and a fun summer!