9onF

These are currently my pick for my ultimate dream home and of course to go with this home I would like Sam to have a job right down the street that he could walk or bike to.

We have been really blessed with excellent, amazing friends. Our friends are working on this project, which is another awesome green project. I love their "slogo":

Dream Big.

Live Small.

Do Good.

Teaching Spanish

Leila really wants to learn Spanish and so we are going to go for it. Does anyone have any good suggestions as to websites, books, methods, songs,  etc... that are good for teaching Spanish to Leila and Mia?

Sending Our First Child Off to Kindergarten

It's hard to believe that we are starting our fourth week of school already. Sending Leila has invoked a lot of emotions. All Summer I was filled with anticipation for Leila to start school because I knew she would thrive in a school setting, but then the evening before the first day I was so anxious (the same kind of anxious before entering the missionary training center. It is a new step and there is no turning back).
Day One
We got to school and I had to hide the tears that slid down my cheeks as we put Leila's back pack on the bench and found her teddy bear necklace name tag and her teacher. Then all of us parents huddled outside the gate taking pictures and videos of our lovely children on their first day. Of course there were a few crying/screaming children too that pulled on my heart strings.
Day Two
Leila tells me that she hasn't been playing with the kids on the playground because she is scared of the games they are playing (pirates and the like). That night I find myself crying my eyes out and questioning my decision in choice of school, whether Leila is emotionally ready for school, whether I should have homeschooled instead... all because she had not yet made a friend at school. She was always happy, but hadn't made a friend yet. I have always been around to help in that realm and now she is all on her own and I feel quite helpless. After a nice conversation and some guidance from my mom I am feeling a bit better and decide we will try day three.

Day Three
I pick Leila up and she is bursting with happiness as she tells me that she made a friend. She is in a very good mood all afternoon and so am I! Yeah!
Skipping to tonight
It is an amazing thing seeing what your child is capable of. I love taking Leila to school and I especially love picking her up from school and hearing about her version of the day. I love seeing how excited Mia and Leila are to see each other. I love watching Leila eat her lunch with the other kids in the cafeteria. I love that in her classroom hangs self portraits of the students and Leila's is the only one with yellow string for hair, and that Leila does not even notice. I love that her teacher is so organized and focused. I love that I got to see Leila hold the American flag as they said the Pledge of Allegiance. I love that this school is a thriving wonderful school against all odds as there are lots of ESL students and economically challenged families. I love that there were both mothers and fathers at the first PTA meeting. I love that I have more time to spend with Mia and Lucy. I love my Leila. This kindergarten thing is a pretty good thing if you ask us.

The Girls

You can never start too early with the dress ups in this house and with these girls. Here's Lucy.

Leila's grown her hair out and dyed it pink. 

Lucy is crawling all over the place and pulling herself up to standing. She recently discovered that she too can play on the bug bike, just like her sisters.  She still can't ride it around, but she sure can sit on it all by herself for quite a while as she plays with the bug's antenna.

Dress Ups! If you know our girls then you know that they know dress ups.

Happy Birthday Grandpa! 55 today! We love you!

Great Grandparents

While we were in Utah we visited with all of the kids' living great grandparents. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera handy when they saw Great Grandma Swenson and Great Grandpa Johnson after Mick spoke on Sunday. But we did get these great pics.

First Day of Kindergarten

Eating Breakfast before going to school.

Here we go!

Leila in front of her new school.

Lunchtime. 

A clapping song. Of course Leila had to be standing in front of the biggest girl in the class.

As I was dropping Leila off I found tears coming down my cheek. This is a new step in our life. The kids in her class didn't seem as big to me at the time as they do in this picture.

Still Here

I am still committed to this blogging thing. It's just been a bit hectic here and other things have been coming first. 

The General News-

• Sam's brother Mick is coming home from his mission tomorrow afternoon. We are all super excited to see him. We take off later this week to drive out there.
  
• Sam starts his last semester of school tomorrow. I am happy that it is his very last semester and am pleased that we had an action-packed, fun-filled summer. My goal is to take this last semester one day at a time, because it is going to be a busy one.
• Lucy is crawling/scooting well enough to go from room to room. She is a sweetie-pie and will melt anyone's heart.
• Mia is into the bathroom sink these days, literally. She likes to stick her hair under the faucet. Yesterday we found her in there with hand soap all in her dripping wet hair. She keeps us all entertained.
• Leila is getting really excited to start school on the day after we get back from our trip. She tells pretty much everyone that she is starting school. For me personally it breaks my heart a bit to see her growing up so fast, but we celebrate this new big step for her. She gave a really nice prayer in Primary this Sunday.
• There are lots of pregnancies in the family right now. Brad and Kelli are going to be having a boy either at the end of this year or the beginning of next (due around Dec 31). Rob and Kristi will be having their baby in January (I think). Laura and Justin are having a baby in November. and Shelly and Dave are having their little one near Valentines Day. I apologize if I got the dates wrong. I remember B and K's and S and D's the best because they are near holidays. All I know is in a 3 month stretch if time the girls will have 4 more cousins!!!! 
• Yesterday we had a great day at Funderland and went on Pony rides and forgot the camera! Can you believe it! Oh well.

More Photos of our hike at Sequoia (July 12-15)

Highlights at Sequoia

Mia's feet

• seeing the girls get filthy and love it!
• The Bear- You have to be super careful about food and anything else with a smell to it ( we were instructed to not even have things as small as chap stick, insect repellant, baby wipes...) and put them in the bear box. Our first night a ranger had  a camfire talk about bears. It was really interesting, like did you know bears eat 20,000 calories a day? Towards the end he started to talk about bear safety and then almost as if an cue a bear showed up down the road. Then we saw it to more times that night. It was a big bear and the first that I have ever seen in the wild.
• seeing Leila not giving two thoughts about going to the bathroom in the stinky latrine. Mia even sat on it a few times.
• seeing the little specks of dirt on Lucy's sweet face and to know that she was with us the entire adventure and was content the whole time. She loves to be outside.
• The friendly rangers.
• The good company, the waterfalls and great beauty that surrounded us.
• And everything that you see in this entry!

It was fun Nate and Heidi! Thanks for joining us!