first day of school

When Ana was 3 she asked me when she could go to kindergarten. Two full years she's been waiting.

Today she got on that yellow bus and drove away. She'll spend most of her days without me now. Weird...

She and Dad have to leave at about the same time:


Waiting for the bus (doesn't she look so big?):


There she goes. ...sniff, sniff... (From mom, not her.)

Jack told me he doesn't want Ana to go to school because he likes to play with her.


Me, too, Buddy.

irene and me

I mostly brushed off all the Hurricane Irene scares. I figured we'd have a rainy day. Church was cancelled, which annoyed me, since we were supposed to bless Katie and it was just going to be a rainy day.

And that's what it was. A very rainy day. The wind picked up in the afternoon, and we spent a cozy afternoon in our house - with Grandma and Grandpa as visitors - watching Tangled, having a mini-primary, eating a delicious shrimp dinner, and playing cards.

We didn't realize that across the street the power was out for 7 hours and they had water in their basement. We also didn't realize that this is the worst flood in Vermont since 1927. Roads are closed, cars have been floating down rivers, buildings are flooded all over the state.

In town, what usually looks like this:

(photo via)

Today looks like this:

I feel very lucky that we all stayed safe and sound. It is strange that we were here. That people called for updates on our weather because we were in the path of a major storm. It is strange that there is a lot of damage and it is close to us.

By the way, the average rainfall for Burlington is 36 inches a year. This year so far we've received more than 37 inches. Maybe we'll have a few more sunny days next year.

Today was a beautiful day so we headed to the county fair. Fun times. More to come...

at the end of my first solo week

We've had some regressive behavior in a child. We're back to hair-cutting and writing on furniture, and major "whatever-mom-says-I-do-the-opposite" syndrome. ...sigh...

I know why. So many changes for a certain 5 year old. Not just the baby (though I know it's the main reason), but daddy going back to school, visits from family, and upcoming first day of kindergarten. It's a lot to take in.

Either way, it is hard to know what to let slide and what to stick to my guns about. Staying calm and giving her as much control as possible seem to help.

But though her actions toward ME are less than desirable, she absolutely LOVES her sister. She holds her, bounces her on her shoulder, and calls her, affectionately, "Katie-Koo" in a sweet motherly voice.

Though the days are long, the years are short, and I'm trying to soak it all in. There have been several moments when the happiness of my life seems to stop me in my tracks and I wish I could capture it all. Like this morning when I was nursing the baby and Jack was quietly playing on the floor in the baby's room. Or the other day when the kids were doing races around the house while Dave and I cheered them on. They help me forget the frequent meltdowns and the bedtime battles and the yellow crayon on the the girls' dresser.

Life is good.

baby love

I needed to take pictures of my baby today. It was a necessity. She is beautiful and perfect and content and she already sleeps 6 hours at a stretch at night. we love her completely.

take me out to the ballgame

Yesterday was my first solo day. It was a busy day, so I didn't really have too much time to think - just DO. I think that was good for yesterday, though I am glad that I can just rest today. I think we'll be having a lazy day.

Last night we went to a Vermont Lake Monsters game. We had a good time. We got there a little late so we missed the rain, saw a home run, ate 25 cent hotdogs and 3 dollar popcorn, and afterward Ana got to run the bases.









Good American fun!

and now the real work begins...

Granny and Gramps left today. (They were supposed to leave yesterday, but - lucky me - their flight was cancelled a couple times and they got to stay an extra night.)

Anyway, they left today. Now I have the following thoughts running through my head:

How am I going to take a shower every (other) day?
Who are these children that suddenly have melt downs at every disappointment?
Can we afford to use paper plates/cups/utensils for the next year?

We sure had a good time with my parents. I was so glad they got to come see us. We tried to balance seeing sights with resting and relaxing at home. Among our tourist-y adventures were:

A trip to the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in Sharon, Vermont.


A jaunt down to Middlebury to the Morgan Horse Farm and the National Museum of the Morgan Horse. My Dad's dad was a great horseman and owned a registered Morgan Horse. We even got a copy of Revel's pedigree for my dad to keep. The Farm was beautiful and Ana even got to sit on one of the horses. She loved it!


We also visited Church Street Marketplace, got Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Creemees (really good soft-serve ice cream), went shopping, and Dave and I got a date while we had babysitters in town.

And of course, everyone snuggled the baby as often as they wanted.

We'll sure miss them!

we have visitors

Granny and Gramps are in town. Yay! We went down to the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial today and I think tomorrow we will be heading down to the Morgan horse farm in Middlebury. We are loving their company! I think the evening conversations are better than the housework/kid help. I don't know what I'll do when I have 3 kids to take care of all by myself next week.

could there be anything better?

Spending our days cuddling our sweet little baby.

girls' room

We have had a few projects recently to get ready for Katie to come and share a room with Ana. We painted a few things: their room, a free old dresser, and some 16x20 frames I got from Goodwill for just a few bucks. We are really happy with how it has turned out so far. And we haven't had to spend much at all.

Here is the crib with one of our wedding pictures printed at 16x20 in one of the frames we painted pink. Also you can see the awesome quilt that Erin's good friend from Rupert made for Katie!


Here you can see the dresser and the other frame we repainted. The thing on the dresser is a little changing table pad type thing for the baby.


Dave finally got around to designing a poster to use in our 2nd repainted frame. He found this quote in his book of quotes from President Monson's collection. It was a lot of fun to do. We are really happy with how the poster turned out! The colors don't look exactly right in this picture because of the lighting, but you get the idea.

while dave's holding down the fort...

I've been having fun looking at pics of my three little babies.

Coming home from the hospital:



Guess who Katie looks like:



Fun times! We sure are enjoying this little babe.