Courtney Starts Kindergarten!

Yesterday was a difficult day for me. My stomach was tied in knots but Courtney seemed fine. I worried that she would be scared or overwhelmed. In the end, when we walked her to her class she seemed shy but excited. We gave her a hug and I was the one holding back tears. Later, we walked out to her bus stop to wait for her to come home. When I saw her coming off the bus safe and sound I almost started crying again. I'm sure it will get easier at least I hope so!

Clint's new shed!

Hooray for Clint! He is quite proud of his newly finished project. It is the result of so much hard labor I guess it is fitting that he finished it on Labor Day. It seemed like there were always things going on to keep him from it. I guess that is just life. It has been a pretty big undertaking for us and the kids thought it was super fun to play in and on it during the many stages. I am sure Clint would have had an easier time also if he'd had a more capable helper than me. I probably made things more difficult because sadly I am so weak! Anyway here are some pictures of the various stages.

Paige is 5 months!

Here are Paige's new pictures. I'm trying to get as many pictures of her as the other two, but it is getting to be more of a challenge the more kids we have to keep up! She is five months now and I am trying to start feeding her rice cereal, but she hasn't much interest. She can roll and grab her toes. In fact she is quite the busy little thing. Her favorite thing is to be held and she knows how to get what she wants. She loves toys and watching Courtney and Dylan play really makes her laugh. Life is crazier around here and Clint and I don't get as much sleep, but we don't know what we would do without her!

Family fun!

Ahh! It's been a while since I have sat down and posted some pictures so here are some of the best of the summer. We took the kids out to Silver falls for a little hike one Saturday. We couldn't believe it was the first time we'd gone since Courtney was a baby. They loved the falls especially the one you can walk behind. But I still think the most memorable part for them was the squirrel we fed grapes to, during lunch, while sitting the back of the van!



Here is Clint with the girls during the parade on the 4th of July. This is the 2nd year we have gone to the parade in Mt. Angel. I know my family thinks I am a traitor for not going to St. Paul, but we have really come to love this little parade. We've already got our own little corner that we claim as our own.








I hadn't been to the Enchanted forest since I was a kid. Of course Clint had never been, so I got him to use a vacation day so we could take the kids. We saw all the old stuff I remembered from when I was a kid and there was a lot of things that were new to me. We didn't go in the haunted house, but the kids loved all the rides. Clint and I took turns holding Paige while the other went with Courtney and Dylan on the Bobsled ride. Courtney, our little shy girl, was laughing through the whole thing and ready for more. Dylan, the brave one, was a little afraid of all the speed, but enjoyed it as well. We panned for gold and saw a little play--it was a full day.

Dylan's Quilt

Hooray! I finally finished his quilt. I ended up having to handstitch the binding and that took me a while, but I actually put it on his bed this morning. This quilt is the biggest and most complex I have ever done. It had a lot of little pieces and there was definitely some learning experiences along the way. The most recent was that the top ended up being too big for the batting and so I had to scale back some of the border pieces. Thank goodness for mom she gives great advice. Also thanks to her for lending me the pattern.

Family Pictures

Here's our new family picture. We also did some individual pictures of Paige in her blessing dress. She did such a great job posing. I was so grateful to have Clint there to help me keep everyone where they needed to be. It also helped that we had the first appointment in the morning. We didn't have to wait around as much. And we had a great person doing the pictures. She was so patient with the kids and wasn't in their face so much as to intimidate them. I have to thank Clint for sacrificing his Saturday to do this for me. It was part of my Mother's day gift to get this done. I remember going to get family pictures done as a family for mother's day a lot when we were kids, so I guess I am keeping up the tradition.

Sister's Weekend & Paige's Blessing

This last weekend my sisters, mom, and I went to the beach for our annual sister's weekend. We were gone Thursday and Friday nights. We rented a little house in Lincoln City and it was perfect for us. Thanks to Ericka for taking the initiative to do the planning as usual. We had a blast. I think we made use of every minute we were there. We watched girly movies and highlighted each other's hair. We ate junk food and took turns preparing the meals which were very healthy to offset our not so healthy snacks. We talked and talked and didn't get much sleep. On Friday we went on a hike in the mountains, but mostly we shopped and shopped like you can only do when you have no husbands or children. Paige was the only baby along for the ride and she did pretty well. She spent most of the time in the front pack. I think it'll take me a week to recover from the lack of sleep, but I wouldn't have missed it. The only downside to the trip was that Emily and Laura weren't there. We hope to have them next time.

Then we came home and the next day was Paige's baby blessing. I had to feed her just before the meeting and of course she chose that moment to get her diaper overflowing. Luckily I caught it before it got on her dress but I had to rush to clean her up in time for the meeting to start. Then when Clint went to do the blessing she starting screaming and didn't quit until the blessing was over. I had left the binky in the mother's lounge on accident and she just wanted to go to sleep, poor thing. Ah well, we made it. I was so happy to see all my family there--or at least all of us that are here in Oregon. Afterward we went to mom and dad's to eat and hang out. We are getting to be such a big group!

We plan to get some family pictures taken this weekend. I'll be sure to post them when I get them back.