Starting Preschool: Bridger and Angeli

Our little Elementary School's preschool had a later start this year and so the kids finally got to start school this week. I am really excited for them. I am grateful they get such a great preschool experience and that it is FREE. Major blessings. Bridger gets to go four times a week and Angeli gets to go twice - having good relationships with teachers and secretaries really pays off when there is a long waiting list. ;) I was a little nervous for them with it being such big change of pace but they jumped in so well and are loving it.

Here is our big boy on his first day.This is his superman pose. ;) Oh, it makes me laugh.

We sure love this kid. He loves school and I think it is mostly for all the social interaction he gets there. He adores his teacher and will do almost anything to please her. With Angeli coming along now too he feels like the big kid on campus and takes great care to teach her how things go at school. I hope this year he gets all ready for Kindergarten next year. He is not one to want to memorize anything! He hates it. He much rather be off playing some imaginary game like Star Wars, Narnia, prince and princess, or what have you then much anything else. I hope his teacher can motivate him to care a little bit more about letters and numbers. With him it has always been as easy as pie if he cares, if he doesn't care it just wont happen. I'm hoping this year he will start to care little bit more. :O)

And here is our little lady on her first day of school.

She has been growing up so much lately. I am so excited for her to have all these new experiences and see what she does with them. I think it will be so good for her to go outside her comfort zone and be pushed a little to learn new things in a completely new way. Having her big brother there is such a comfort for her when she feels shy. Thank goodness they are so close together - they are the perfect balance for each other.

So there you have the cutest kids that ever starting preschool! I love them like crazy and I am so grateful I have them as my own!

Bridger in Wood

This is Stewart. I don't know if I have written too many of these, but I wanted to try one to show off one of my new hobbies, scroll sawing. I know Emily has made a few posts in the past about my new love, but I thought I would make one displaying one of my most recent projects. This summer we took some cute family pictures together. I thought it would be fun to make some wood portriats of the family members. Here is my first attempt at turning a photograph of Bridger into scroll saw project. I'll have to get to work on the rest of the family.

If anyone is looking for their own wood portrait I could easially be convinced to do a commissioned project.

Here is a Christ picture I did earlier. Now that I made the pattern I can easily make more for anyone who wants to buy one.

Our Fourth Edition is...

a GIRLY one! Yup we are getting a baby girl. I am thrilled. It feels like it has been awhile since we have had a girly sort of baby but I realize as I admit those feelings that it honestly hasn't been that long. But, nonetheless we are happy and the kids are really pleased its a girl too. When we told them they all screamed and were so happy. Angeli said, "Now I wont be alone in my room anymore!" So sweet. I am really happy for my girls that they will have a sister. I think sisters are just about the best thing in the world, next to a hubby of course. ;) So I am glad they'll have one in each other. So happiness all around!

Stone Soup

This past week I bought the book Stone Soup from our school book sale where they were trying to clear out old books. 10 books for $2.50 is not bad. :) I read it to the kids and told them about how in first grade I had read the same book and then my class made our very own stone soup. The kids wanted to make some stone soup too. So yesterday we went to work making stone soup.

We went on a stone search around the neighborhood and found five smooth, large stones that were "perfect soup stones" - one for each of us. :) We made sure to add everything the book said to: stones, water, salt, pepper, potatoes, carrots,...

When it was all done and we sat down to eat it for dinner they were so surprised that the stones were still there as hard as ever. Bridger said, "Why, aren't they soft?" and Angeli was sad that we couldn't actually eat the stones. I realized I hadn't really explained the book that well. They were as tricked as the villagers in the book. They thought that the stones were what made the soup good instead of all the other yummy foods they had added to the soup.

After explaining it better they were ready to eat. However they still insisted that they should have the biggest stone in their bowl. They were fighting and fussing over who had the largest stone. I tried explaining it all to them again and they settled down enough to actually try the soup. With taste after taste they realized their soup was wonderful and began to find that having a big stone in their bowl was actually not a good thing at all. One by one they picked the stone out of their bowls and threw them back in the pot.

After I laughed in my journal today about the experience and how the kids had totally missed the message it hit me that in fact I had missed it too. Just like how the kids realized that a stone is simply a rock with no real soup value, that it was worthless and a burden to have in their bowl even though they had fought so hard for the biggest ones I realized that I have been so upset about what I and my family were missing out on I was missing out on what we are actually blessed with that is worth so much more.

I also think that often in life we get caught up in what we expect things to be like so much so that we can't enjoy the greater good we have just been given just because it wasn't what we planned just like the kids being so disappointed that their stones were not soft and editable. Sometimes I know I set my hopes and dreams on things that are of no real lasting value and in the end they are more obstacles then anything else.

Lately I have been so caught up in the fact that all the holidays, all our birthdays, and my baby's birth are approaching and we have absolutely no money to do much of anything for them to the point of it darkening my excitement of the season and events when I should be feeling joy instead. I had to remember what matters is not that I am having a baby who will not have much of anything but rather that I AM HAVING A BABY! I have to except that at this time I am not able to build up treasures here on earth but that I can certainly build up treasures in Heaven - right now, today, free of cost! With that acceptance and realization I have felt so much more peace about our poverty. Yes we still have the stress of paying the bills, repairing our van's transmission, fixing our broken computer, replacing our rain gutters that flew off our house last spring, and buying plane tickets for Stew to go all over the country for hopeful interviews but the loss I felt in mourning our "holidays" is gone. I am realizing how magical they can be in the simple meaningful ways like curling up with my entire family in a blanket, sipping hot cocoa together as we watch the snow fall outside. Or how fun it will be to watch our kids faces as we introduce our new baby to each of them for the first time and how we'll all pile on my hospital bed to take our first picture all together. Those are the things that are priceless. Not the outfits we are sporting or the number of presents under the tree.

Thinking of our situation as me crying over not having the biggest stone in my bowl really helps me put it in perspective. Who cares if there is a stone in your bowl when your bowl is full of all the soup you could ever wish for?!?!?! Our family's life is what it is and I think in the eternities to come we will thank our God for all of it. And for today...

we are better learning to enjoy our soup, stones or not.

Getting Out of Town

Have you ever felt like you really needed to get out of town? Well that was me last week. I really was antsy to get away from my dirty cluttered home and go somewhere else for a change. So Thursday night I loaded up the kids and we drove to visit Daddy and his Aunt and Uncle in Sacramento. Oh, it was so perfect for me! We love those people like crazy and they were so good to me in my worn out always tired state. I wish I was still there it was so nice. The kids were in heaven with cousins to play with and with their cousin's beautiful dog to pal around with. Here are some little memories and pictures of our fun time there.

Here we are going for a boat ride and swim...I think Stewart and the dog had the most fun. Stewart really wants a dog. :O) The dog didn't LOVE the water but she would jump in after you if you jumped in to try and save you. It was sweet to see her "save" everyone over and over again.

We headed to Apple Hill to get our Fall going. It was really fun and once again having a dogie in tow made it all that much more fun. I've got say apple doughnuts and fresh cold apple cider are now some of our Fall musts.YUM!

Here is Angeli competing in the egg race at Kid Inc. Farm. She was so careful to not drop it she came in dead last. :O)

Bridger and Siera entered the kids pie eating contest. I think Bridger came in last but our cousin Siera totally won. I know it doesn't look like that much pie but I promise you those things are beasts!

And the kids loved having the dog ride home with us. Stewart loved it too.

Our Time in Utah

Sorry I am still catching up with my Summer blogging. I was seriously so exhausted after the wedding and then our emotional roller coaster of a time getting home from Utah that I put my camera on the shelf and haven't really pulled it out much since. So when I scrolled through it today I realized I hadn't blogged about our Utah time.

And the wedding...I didn't take one single picture during the entire wedding time! Lame I know. I was seriously doing my best to keep it all together let alone try to take cute pics so it didn't happen. So maybe someday I can bum pictures from those who were more together then I and then I will share them with you all. It was really a beautiful wedding and reception with seriously the happiest little bride and groom I have ever seen.

Okay so after the very beautiful and exhausting wedding we RUSHED to Utah for a special baptism for Mr. Ethan :) and then moved in with my brother Bob and his really wonderful family. We had grand plans of doing this and going here but our van was handicap and decided to break down like four/five times in two weeks so we didn't do a tenth of what we planned but nonetheless it was a good two weeks. My brother and his family took great care of us and we are so grateful to them for welcoming us into their home like they did.

Hanging with the Smiths

Temple Square
This was one of my favorite things we did. We had a great day and visited lots of the visitor centers and the church history museum.

Holding to the Iron rod :)

He's a BOY.

No, we are not announcing the gender of our fourth but I am reiterating the gender of my third! :O) He is in fact a boy. He learned his first color this week (if I was telling this to you in person you would detect a hint of motherly pride in my voice as I told you that point) and what do you guess it is? BLUE. And it is his favorite. He wants everything blue whenever he can. I think it is officially time to go buy some more blue plates and bowls because we are going to have some major blue wars at our house if I don't. :O)