Back to School 2010!

This is a pic of the balloon launch they did at school. The kids love it. It was super windy, so they all went sideways instead of up.

Our little friend who likes the apples in the neighbor's yard, and the nice construction they started the day school started. smart!

How excited was Isabel to see the monkey theme! She loves kindergarten.

We walked her over to school.

Abby in Second grade, in her new class. Her teacher is Mrs. Keyes.

Abby was so excited to go, too.

School started on August 18. Both girls were totally ready to go. They haven't looked back since. Abby likes everything, but already has a lot of homework. It think it is more to force parental participation, which bothers me, but I guess it's necessary these days. She is reading very well and now is starting spelling and a lot of math and science. She had quite a few friends in her class, so no problems there. Abby also started piano lessons and is doing amazing, she picks up the little songs so quickly and then can do them by memory, so we have to work on reading the music and playing at the same time. It is crazy to realize we will have piano practice every day forever, but I really hope she sticks with it.

Isabel's kindergarten was lopsided between the am and pm classes, so after a request from the school,we decided to change to afternoon. It is working out pretty well. Just a lot of "is it time for school yet?" going on. It is nice for her to walk over when there are less people, and then Abby can bring her home. We certainly love being right next to the school. Her teacher is Mrs. Garcher.

Sara misses the girls when they are gone, but she also enjoys getting a little time to be with me. She also gets a little time with Dora, which the big girls are way over. It's all iCarly and older shows now.

Whitney is walking everywhere now, thank goodness! it took her a while. We also just took her binky (pacifier) away. I had to throw them out so there's no going back. She has always been so good at putting herself to sleep that now it is hard. We never rocked her, sang to her, or anything like that, so it's been a little rough. But it was time. She still doesn't talk but she understands. She can fold her arms for prayers, copies her sisters and likes to pick in the garbage. She is also getting jealous, if anyone else sits on my lap.

Isabel's Hair

The girls with their super-straight hair curled for church. It takes a lot of hairspray and a lot of time and then pretty much lasts an hour. oh well, they were excited

This is Isabel's "after" shot. I decided to do bangs to cover her workmanship, and then just layered it a bit to cover the rest of what she did. NOw she wants to grow it really long, so hopefully she can not be so scissor happy in the future

"Before"This is the nice chunk of bangs she cut to the scalp, and on the right side ( the side the scissors connected with) she also added so VERY short layers, it's kinda hard to see in this picture. Love that crazy girl.

New Piano

A company came to Monticello with some pianos for a few days sale. We went to look and actually found the perfect one! It is exactly what we were looking for, matches the house and will work well for us while the kids are young. Great price, too. I hope they like it, and odds are good we will end up with at least one player in the family. The best part about the piano was they delivered it right to the front room and Scott didn't have to lift a finger! He's not even home today. We have been looking online for quite a while, but the delivery was going to be the hardest part, we would have to travel to find a piano store or get a used one from somebody. In that case you never know what you are going to get. The girls all seem to love it, we are wishing we had doors on the front room now! It was an option when we built, but I wasn't thinking it would be the piano room. We may install some since this piano has no "quiet" pedal. The bench is brand new and I think overall it will be awesome. I might even take lessons myself!

It is a Wurlitzer. Somewhere around 40 years old. It sounds good, and they fixed some problems on it, it was a trade-in. We also have the option of giving it back and getting our price we paid towards another piano in the future. it seems like a win-win! yay!

July flew By!

Whitney is now standing! She does it quite a bit but still isn't sure about walking on her own. I am betting in a few weeks she will be running everywhere. She is now 14 months. She crawls like a Komodo dragon and is pretty quick. She now only wants to be up on the couch and has fallen off a few times,we put pillows all over the floor, but now she is attempting to crawl over the back of the couch and fall off that way, too. She is entering the phase of toddlerhood that tests me the most, the "let's see how many times a day I can hurt\maim\kill myself" She still doesn't really talk, but understands a lot. She is getting 3 teeth on top at once, not in the right order, so that has been kinda miserable. It will be good for her to finally be able to chew things, since she is past most baby food.

We moved the big girls into the basement a few weeks ago. Sara got the dollhouse in exchange for Isabel. She still ask for someone to sleep with her, but then crashes a minute later. it's good. I also finally refinished her bedframe which we got for free a while ago. It needed some love. Luckily I have all the little cans left from striping the room, and so she now has a cute purplepink bed. Another project checked off the mental list.

I found this dresser on the online classifieds and had jane bring it down for us from Salt lake. When I started getting ready to paint it, i found that it was solid cherry wood, so i kindof felt bad about covering that up, but the other finish just wasn't going to work. Sorry, i forgot to take a "before" pic. I removed the icky hardware and painted the base hot pink, then the girls voted to just whitewash the drawers. it turned out pretty cute, and will be perfect for them. I hope this will be their dresser forever. I ordered handles online and they weren't here when I took this picture. They are here now, and things are looking good in the basement room.

I wasn't up for painting their whole room right now, so i looked online and found these cute polka dots for less than $20. The girls picked the green and pink, they had tons of colors to choose from. Luckily the quilts we made them are so colorful, almost anything would match.
We have really been working on keeping the room clean and getting organized down there, and so far it has gone well.

Most of Scott's family came down for the 24th of July, which is Pioneer Day, the state holiday. Monticello had a pretty good parade and we all watched it. Scott got pulled away to catch someone doing something stupid on the mountain (the story of our lives lately) but made it back for the end. All the kids got lots of candy, and that's what's important, right? Then Scott, his parents, brother and nephew went on a long ride while the babies napped and all the girl cousins played. We had a BBQ and then watched the fireworks out in our backyard. The perks of a small town. It was a crazy but fun weekend, and we love having people come visit.

On Sunday Ashley and Whitney ended up in the same dress, which I think Grandma Jane gave to us on previous daughters....They were pretty cute together. Having Ashley as an 18 month old walker in the house gave us a taste of what's to come soon.

Scott has been super busy all summer, and especially the last few weeks. One day he ended up with 950 miles logged. And the rest of the summer may be the same, then into hunting season. He still loves it, and i guess we are used to being on our own, but some days are hard, especially when he always works all the summer holidays.

I have just been busy with the kids and house. I am feeling better every day about getting house organized. i just went through our food storage room and unpacked a bunch of stuff that has been sitting for a year. We have a great cold storage room, but it does not have a great light in it, so it has been a bit of a problem. Yesterday i just took a lantern in there and got things more organized. We still have a lot of yard things to do, but we're taking it one thing at a time. The sod is turning into a real lawn and Scott is excited about that. this fall we plan on putting in our trees, and I am really happy about that! Scott also is making plans for framing the basement, and starting on The Man Cave.

Challenge**** If you read this, please comment. I will continue the blog just for the grandparents, but sometimes i wonder who checks this thing!!****

happy summer everyone!!!

Abby turns Seven

Yes, I found some chipmunk pajamas

cake with the cousins visiting for Pioneer Day

friend party

mud cup "cake"

opening "Alvin and the Chipmunks:The Squeakquel"

Finally got the swings on.

Abby had her birthday and it was fun. We kept it pretty simple and decided to just have a late night with a few friends, instead of a big party. She chose this option and we spent the money saved on a new, big bike. Somehow I don't have a picture of it, but we'll get one. She got to go to wal-Mart and choose it. It is a pink, ladybug bike with streamers. Grandma Jane got her a bell for it, so she is set! She is obsessed with chipmunks lately, so she also requested nuts for her birthday. Grandma and Costco came through on that one, too. I keep telling myself, if she was this excited about horse, unicorns, dogs or cats it would be normal, so chipmunks it is. Anyways, the girls came to the party, we had mud cups, painted nails and then watched Alvin. The squeakquel has the chippettes, that is why they like it so much. We had lots of popcorn and finished the movie and sent the girls home. it went well. We also had a cake when everybody came down for Pioneer Day, so they could sing to her. Abby is definitely growing up. She can get her own breakfast and some for her sisters. She is reading like crazy and loves chapter books. Her favorites are "Fiona and Frieda's Fairytale Advenures." It is a series, check it out if you have older girls. She is starting to love to watch the older shows on Disney channel, iCarly being her favorite. Poor Sara isn't too happy about the transition up from Dora the Explorer! Abby is so ready for 2nd grade. She is very smart and I am not at all worried about her at school. She loves riding her bike and scooter. She is generally good but also tends to do a lot of "it was Isabel's idea...i told her not to...." after the deed is done. Oh well. She is a good helper and is already becoming smarter than mom, throwing out her solutions to any problem I might have. She loves her sisters and is loving watching Whitney grow up. She has two loose front teeth, so watch out for some cute pictures coming up. We love our Abigail!

Dad Life (Father's Day Opening 2010)

This is the funniest video! We love our Dad!!

(scroll up and pause the background music before you play this)

More Canada Trip....

These pictures are out of order. This is inside "the Biggest dinosaur in the World" in Drumheller, AB. Scott was napping with Whitney, so we girls just went. We dragged mom along after we left Wainwright.

Big dino foot

In Edmonton we got together with a lot of my family at Auntie Jean's house. My gran was able to come and it was good to get a visit in, and for the girls to get to know her. She will be 97 in September!

Beautiful Isabel the monkey, was loving the monkey bars at Riverdale Mini Park, where we all went to take family pictures. A girl mom knows took them, and I will post when we get the CD.

The result of asking Isabel and Brennan to hug.

Cousins on the merry-go-round. The good old unsafe equipment is the most fun!

Some Mountain Goats on the road....

Looks comfortable, right?? Whitney didn't sleep very well in the car, but she was happy to be facing forward.

This is a glacier truck wheel.

So, After we left Hinton, we went to visit Auntie Jean in Edmonton. She is nice enought to let us invade her house. We got to visit Gran and see her new apartment in the city. it was hard for her to leave Wainwright, but it seems like a really nice place. We went to West Edmonton Mall and the girls each made a Build-A-Bear. We left the next day for Wainwright. There we met back up with my Dad, and he brought Dan. Peter and Pam arrived and after mom was done work, the whole family was together for the first time in years! We hung out, ate, and looked around all the new development in my old home town. It has grown so much! I never would have believed that there would be so many big stores and restaurants and hotels. On the next day, Saturday, we all went out by the river to take pictures. It was fun. I was able to get some cute outfits for the kids here at Target and so we all coordinated. The weather was very cooperative and we knocked out the pics and then just played. After that we were able to visit a friend of Mom's to see her horses. The rest of the time we pretty much hung out, attempted to do a few house projects and just let the kids play. We ate a lot and were able to see more friends and family. After church on Sunday we headed back to Edmonton for a get-together with more family. it was good to see them all. Scott and I also got to go on a mini-date and meet up with my old friend, Ryan and his new wife at the Cheesecake Factory(scott had already had two slices of pie and ice cream). Ryan and I drove back and forth to college a few times and hung out in the summers. There's nothing like a roadtrip to bond. i am so happy he finally found an awesome girl. Wish they lived closer!!
Mom came up in her car later and the next morning we went to Drumheller. They have a huge dinousaur museum and the whole town is dinosaur themed, so it was fun for the girls. We hit the museum around 6:00 on a monday night and it was DESERTED! It was so nice to just wander and let the kids run around. Before that, while Whitney napped we all went to see some fossil shops and the big dinoasaur which you can climb up in. The girls all loved it. They got some glow-in-the-dark dinos for souveniers. The next day we headed to Calgary and met up with my friend Stacey. We went to the zoo and after about an hour started to get poured on. It was fun but crazy. We left and went to Stacey's.She has 2 little boys. The kids were able to play and we were able to visit and it was fun. Nice to be somewhere with toys instead of an empty hotel room. That night we said good-bye to Grandma CC (my mom) and she went and stayed with her friend Brenda, who then took her to the bus station in the morning so she could head back to Edmonton and get her car. We headed south and made it to Pocatello, ID. We slept and then went home. it was really good to go, and really good to get back. The girls all behaved as well as can be expected at their ages and I think we made some good memories. Hopefully it won't be another 3 years before we come up, we also hope to see more Canadians down this way!