Camping!

Bryan and I felt jipped for not getting to go camping this summer so we decided to go for it. WOW- what an adventure! We went to the Big Cottonwood canyon (about 40 minute drive south) and it was gorgeous! Fall has begun and some trees were already all red and it was very beautiful. It would have been perfect had it not been raining. The rain came off and on all night and at one point it turned to hail. Other events that made it interesting- cramming our car full of stuff, Ashley turning grouchy in the car ride there, and not enough room for all our tents at our site so Spencer was Emily's bed buddy. The Foster family came too and they seriously saved the trip. They had supplies for smores and peach cobbler and Emily was in heaven. The morning before camping Emily decided to make a list of stuff we needed. She included marshmallows, suckers and chocolate. The other factor that made our trip hard was Ashley not liking to sleep in her portable crib. She and I both went to bed at 11pm, awake from 2:30-6am and then awake at 8:30. She was surprisingly a happy kid all the next morning. After camping, we went on a small hike and threw rocks in a river. You have never seen happier kids-just throwing rocks in the river. We decided to alter our Texas Christmas camping plans after our experience here. In the end we are glad we did it and we definitely had the get-a-way experience that we hoped for.

Daddy is so fun!

Just a fun night of being silly!

The Lion, The Princess and The Couch

This was another fun day of dress ups. Ashley loves the Disney princesses! I still am not sure if I should be happy about it because it is so cute or repulsed at how I am letting our media culture influence who my kids love. But whichever it is, Ashley says "Rella" for Cinderella and "No White" for Snow White and she will point them out wherever she sees them. Emily loves being the lion to scare all the princesses. Perfect playmates.

The Deck

The wood work is all done! The first coat of deck protector is on and we only have a few more hours of work to do and then it is really done! Hooray!

First Day of School

My baby went off to her first day of school today! Okay, so it was only at my friend's house 3 doors down but it was still school. Joyschool preschool is a group of moms who decide to be the teachers and then rotate who teaches throughout the year. I will teach next week and I am excited to see what it is all about. There are 5 kids plus everyone has a younger child that will be there too.

We've been talking about school a lot (on the calendar, bought school supplies, got her show & tell ready) and Emily has been nothing but excited, except for today. She was so nervous- it was cute (kind of, mostly it was annoying). I told her it was time to get shoes on and she had a big fit and as we walked over she kept talking about Ashley being all by herself. But in the end she had a great time and told me all about playing playdough, a puppet who makes funny faces, melting crayons with an iron, and all about the rules of school. It's two days a week and I think I will really like just having one kid again for those few hours. Today when she was gone, Bryan and I worked on the deck.

Ashley got a hair cut!

Oh my goodness, my child changed from a baby into a kid in one 30 minute haircut. She just got her first haircut tonight by my cousin Tiffany and got 4-5 inches chopped off. She sat pretty still with the help of two suckers. We are so used to seeing her with long hair that she looks like such a different kid now!

She is still definitely the same kid though- opinionated, persistent, makes the funniest faces, and loves Emily and wants to do everything she does. Right now she loves to carry around little toys, especially Little People toys. She even knows all their names and it is so cute to her talk with her sweet pronunciation. She also loves to try on clothes. Her latest trick is to take Emily's pants and panties and run away while Emily is on the potty. She loves to wear the pack-pack (backpack) around too.

Emily plays violin

We got Emily her first violin on Saturday. It's so little! (size 1/16) I wanted to have her do a fun class and told her some options and she chose violin. A friend/neighbor of mine will be her teacher. She said to start young and they learn by watching and mimicking. We will start lessons on Saturday.

Already she loves to put on a show, especially with dad accompanying her on the piano. She has three sounds: the regular slow, a fast fiddler kind, and the guitar type plucking sound.