Welcome to our World

Way too much time went by before we made it back to Coot Lake.  My dad joined us and Kaelah and Danny sure took advantage of that.  First they got their hands wet and used his knees as a towel.  Then they went in up to their waists and sat on him, laughing hysterically the entire time.  I'm glad he's a good sport and can ham it up for his grandchildren.  There is no way I would have let them do that to me!  The last picture is of Michelle's feet to prove she had a great time too.  Let's just say all of my kids, even the black 4 legged one got baths asap.  It was a wonderful time.

Choosing preschool was super hard for me this year.  I love Waldorf education but Dan and I decided it just isn't worth the tuition when you already pay for public school with your tax money.  So, for Kaelah's last year before kindergarten, and Danny's first year as a preschooler, I had to decide what to do.  I felt it would be a major shock to the system to go from a 3 day Waldorf school to a 5 day public school, so a more modern main stream approach was what I had to find.  I originally signed Kaelah up for the preschool program at the elementary school I want her to attend.  I felt that would be the easiest transition, but we were #2 on the waiting list and told there was no hope of getting in.  So the search continued.  Extra long story short, Kaelah attends an at-home preschool on Monday/Wednesday with a friend in the ward who used to be a kindergarden teacher.  On Tuesday/Thursday both Kaelah & Danny participate in a co-op preschool w...

Jessica had the idea to go on a field trip to the Butterfly Pavilion the week Kaelah & Danny learned about the letter B in preschool and I couldn't resist.  I was super proud of Kaelah for being willing to hold Rosie the tarantula this time.  She was so brave Michelle & Danny did too.  I had to suppress a giggle when Danny had Michelle go before him.

 A view at night time.  Only brown left is the wood floors.  We had to get creative with the picture frames because either Meigo or Kaelah stepped on one of the 16x20 frames, one of the 4x6 ones had fallen off the wall & broke, and an 8x10 was chipped.  Luckily we had picked up 3 for $6 ($2 each) while shopping.  Dan is in charge of watering those.  This lamp might be our favorite part (other than the sofa & pillows).  Daylight shot of the artificial plants in the window. Complete with Meigo's seal of approval.  It's so fun that all 6 of us can enjoy the sofa at the same time.

Just to drive Chelsea G. crazy, I'll talk about the rest of the painting first.   We hadn't planned on having the kitchen painted, but when we realized our Kraft Mac & Cheese colored yellow totally clashed with our new colors, we switched to a lighter yellow called Rice Paper.  In the photo below you can see the lighter yellow above the cabinets with the original yellow below.  I insisted the painters not touch my stripes.  When it came to painting them over again, I wished I had. Why?  Because I had to paint them twice!  I decided to do a darker blue to complement the lighter yellow.  This is what it looked like.  I promise it looked like I had left painter's tape up.  It was terrible.  I ended up grabbing my paint from 7 years ago & doing a thick/thin pattern.  It's not great but it's good enough. Luckily that same blue did work for my calendar holder.  It used to be our Kraft Mac & Cheese colo...

After 9 years of marriage & hand-me-down furniture, we decided it was time to have a living room of our choice.  Yes, we're spoiled.  I neglected to take "before" shots of our living room, so here's a picture I found of my children playing in it recently.  Gotta love it when they can make a great big creation together.  Kaelah was actually a major catalyst in this project.  Sometimes we would leave a friend's home and she would ask me, "Why is their house prettier than ours?"  After many homes where she would sometimes ask this and sometimes not, I realized she liked homes with lighter paint colors.  Didn't matter if they were clean or not, just the paint was enough for her. Step 1:  give away the pink sofa (Craigslist) and green chairs (neighbor).  Find a different place in the house for the camel chest (basement).  Easy. Step 2:  pick paint colors.  The hardest part of the entire project!  I don't kn...

After that marathon of a post, I'll give you a nice short one.  All summer we meant to go to Rocky Mountain National Park but didn't make it until almost the end of August.  We had a fantastic time!   The children were so excited that as they hit the first down hill they ran with their arms up in the air and yelling, “A roller coaster!   We’re going on a roller coaster!   Wheee!”   We weren’t the only people getting a good laugh out of that one.   Sooo wish I had caught that one on video.   The big rocks were ships and we went to all sorts of places on them, even China.  When we had FHE tonight and talked about Jonah in the Old Testament Kaelah reminded us of the ships they found at RMNP.  (: This sweet sunset photo melts my heart.  Makes me want to go hiking way more often.  I'm so glad the children kept reminding us to go.

What happens when you're super behind on your blog?  You get a random post like this!  Here are some photos from the fun we had during the second half of our summer:  Our family loves going to Kanemoto Pool, especially with friends.  We went 4 times this summer.  Not worth the pass we bought, though.  If we had gone just one more time before it closed we would have saved money.  Live and learn.  The children really enjoyed Serena's hula party for her 5th birthday.  Serena was the one friend she invited over for cake a couple weeks later when it was her birthday.  We've produced lots of art work and creations around here.  Michelle's favorite medium is paint.  She asks for it almost every day.  This summer has been a lot hotter than last summer, so we have spent more time inside than we did last year.  That's one reason why the doodle pad below, purchased at a garage sale for $2, has been such a great thing. ...