The week in pictures...

Some random shots... It has been quite a week. A few milestones and fun tidbits listed below and the occasional A/C scare - who would have though that my house climbing to 94 degrees inside would be due to 2 dead AA batteries in the thermostat? That was $75 well spent on a service call! I was car-less much of the week and my dear sister and almost sister Maddy rescued me several times - helping to schlep me or my children places and babysit in a pinch! Thanks - I love you both and owe you big time!!! Yes, it as been quite the week. Phew. I am pooped. (Though I am not the "Poop Bandit" - maybe some day I will get the nerve to blog about that story!)

31 Flavors after the first day of school

Lost tooth number 5 that night (and #6 on Friday!)

Brynley, Hayden, and Caroline "watch" the tooth get yanked.

Kate thinks she is a pin-up girl!

Kate keeps telling the girls "I am not a dolly!"

Caroline got some fancy hair inspired by this blog and others linked to it. (And promptly asked for it to be undone - girly hair is just not her thing.)

Kate got stuck getting into the back of Molly's van. (Rest assured no babies were injured in this incident!)

Playgroup with Hayden at Espee Park splash pad.

Saying goodbye to Daddy's car. (A 1998 Honda Accord we have owned for nearly 8 years.)

Say hello to Daddy's new wheels. The week started shopping for a used 2006 Blue Toyota Corolla and ended with a spankin' new 2008 Black Honda Accord. Thank you Paul!!!

Can Sunday be a day of rest? Oh, yes it can! Last Sunday I was released as the Primary President of our ward (congregation.) I have enjoyed serving the children and families of our ward for 2+ years and will miss being with them every Sunday. My great friend Heather succeeds me - she will be fantastic! I wonder what is in store for me next? First order of business - work on my attention span for "Adult Church!"

First week of school!

I started a tradition of taking a picture each day of the first week of school - it is fun to see how Lindsay has grown up each year! I think we will keep doing this. A lot of people are not a fan of a uniform dress code but look at how dang cute she is in her pleated skirts and polos and shorts and knee socks! We like it - it works for us. (BTW - first grade started on a Tuesday...hence the break in the pattern!)

Um, Seriously?

Caroline, Ellie & Lindsay

I will admit, it wasn't perfect to start with. I had started organizing their closet over the weekend and that got put on hold part way thru...piles of sorted clothes to be put away/given away etc. (We are working on buying a car for Steve and that is somewhat time consuming.) Anyway, they kept playing over the last couple days adding mess on top of mess. I guess I made the mistake of saying I will finish my organizing projects (translation - toss their special stuff junk and get rid of toys and clothes...) so they didn't have to clean up. Well, it went from kind of untidy to a mess to "Holy crap! I literally cannot see the floor!!!" I think I have said it before but never truly meant it. What do you even do at this point? I am thinking of renting a bulldozer.

Shorts and polos and skirts...oh my! (Or, "2nd grade, here she comes!")

I guess this means back to school. Yikes! Where has the summer gone? Not that I am going to complain or anything after having spent more time outside of Arizona in the past 4 weeks than in the state! (Watch for our blog essay titled "What I did on my summer vacation" for more fun details!) Our big girl starts 2nd Grade today. I say today because it is 1:30am and I should be in bed getting a good night's sleep but alas, Here I am. I am sure by mid morning I will have added some more pics of Lindsay off and running. We are so proud of her. I cannot believe that when we moved into our home a little over 6 years ago we would have such a grown up daughter. A constant refrain in our home comes to mind: "Don't grow up too soon!"

Time to wake up, get dressed, eat some homemade waffles (because Eggos just aren't the same on such an important day), new backpack in order, fix hair & brush teeth, and Smile!

Mommy and her Mini-Me!

Lindsay and Ellie - they both chose the same first day outfit, just accessorized a little different! Their mommy's shop together...can you tell?

More Special friends...clockwise from top left: Hannah & Ethan, Abby, Lizzie, and Paige.

Oh, my heart was aching inside as I watched her walk away with this worried face. I just wanted to hug her one more time and say "Baby, Mommy and Daddy love you and are so proud of you! I know you are a little nervous but I promise you will have a great day! Just keep being the sweet girl you are and nothing can go wrong. I promise!"

Ode to Fatty

I have a cousin named Neil and he lives in New Jersey. Neil just turned 18 last week and is a great guy. During our family reunion in Oregon, our kids all grew quite fond of him. In fact, early on in our trip, the kids named him "Fatty." I am guessing it has something to do with his hefty size! LOL! Anyway, the name stuck! Neil was such a great sport with all the little kiddos. He played games, watched movies, played at the beach, supervised all the children in the hot tub, (He is a lifeguard after all!) and even sat with them for meals on occasion. I know little kids can be a drag sometimes, but Neil didn't seem to mind, as long always has he had his phone near by so he could txt msg all his peeps in NJ! Neil stayed in Portland several days later than the rest of his family so he could "study" with his sister Alison for the SAT. During that time, we spent more time Fatty - he came with us to see the Dam, Fish Hatchery and Multnomah Falls and we rode the light rail train from the airport back to Beaverton after dropping the rental van and getting Steve off to catch his flight. Things we will remember about Fatty: Sunglasses. Hoodies. (When he wears them together he looked like the Unibomber and he doesn't even know who that is!) Skinny and tight jeans. text messages. Crazy shirts. Swooping hair. Wearing Lindsay's Hannah Montana Wig. Spilling caramel corn on the floor and eating it.

I Wonder if he wants this collage on his Facebook page...

Superstar!!

OK, this is funny - we were able to have Bill's (Steve's dad) car to drive when we were in NC and we went looking through the console looking for CD's to listen to while driving to Chimney Rock State Park. Perry Como was out, as was Glen Campbell, but we struck Gold: A two disk set - Carpenter's Gold! Lindsay and Bobby (AKA our nephew Everett) were great sports and listened, all of us singing together...good times! We have a couple clips of the real performance at the cabin Friday night but the rehearsals in the car are way better! (Pay no attention to the shaky video shot from the front seat of the car turning around behind me OR the horrid voice coach. )

And, I am learning the video editor/compressor software and this was my first attempt with a trial version of the software before paying $40 for the full version download (hence the goofy green text tag across the shot). If there is a better, more free or cheaper way to do it, I hope to find it! I probably already have software that will compress the video, I just don't know it!! The original video was about 240 MB which is huge for a little tiny clip...dinking around with the compression software I got it down to about 22 MB but quality degrades. I have a lot to learn in this area. Any tips???

Kate is 2 months old!!!

As of yesterday, our baby girl is now 2 months old!!! I cannot believe how fast time goes by. I really cannot imagine our life without her. Lindsay put it best when yesterday she said "Ever since she was born, she is the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about at night." Obviously, she is in love with her baby sister. We all love our baby Katers...she is starting to smile and coo and is finally coming out of her "sleep all the time" phase so we are getting more awake time with her. She is up to sleeping about 8 hours straight through the night - we love that! I cannot go anywhere without getting comments on the girl with all the hair. My mother in law Shirley calls her the little girl with the big hair! All that hair comes at a price...constant bed head! If I spray it down once in a while, it does OK. But, if we are constantly petting her head, well, it sticks strait up!

Oh, I did have a funny experience in NC at Wal-Mart - I made a quick Wal-Mart run one morning with just Kate and while checking out, two older women working as cashiers started oohing and aahhing over "HIM" and how cute "HE" was and after a couple more male slanted pronouns, I couldn't take it anymore! You know me, I will say almost anything to anyone! I said, "Why do you keep calling HER a HIM? She is dressed from head to toe in pink, has a pink blanket and pink in her hair!" Oh, and another one...while walking through the Houston airport on Saturday, a woman walked by, taking notice of Lindsay and Caroline and asked, since Kate was mostly hidden in the sling, if "we finally got a boy in there." I said "No, I am thoroughly enjoying having my 3rd girl!" We get all kinds of "poor you - no boy yet" comments about having 3 girls, lots of them directed to my "poor husband." But we agree we are all so thrilled with our family of girls. I wouldn't have it any other way. (But we love sharing most everything we do in AZ with Hayden and if Jeannie would let me have him, I would take Everett in a heartbeat!)
(Kate and me on the left) Where Kate spent much of her time while out and about in NC...in her Peanut Shell Sling! She loves it in there ...it is a great tool for a baby that loves to be swaddled - we flew on the plane and went sightseeing and hiking and to a baseball game with her just like that and she was never happier or more content then when she was in her sling.
Kate and her cousin Cozette who is 10 months old - we had to get a picture of both pretty babies in their 4th of July finest! (With my sister in law Jeannie, Brad's wife. )
Couldn't leave the handsome daddy's and their baby girls out of the action! (Steve and his brother Brad. )

Stay tuned for more pictures from our trip to Asheville, NC!!!!