The Girls' New Room

I had a lot of fun doing this. The girls gave me input as to what they would like on the shelves--the dolls are from my childhood and the books are vintage from Ben's great-aunt's house. And of course we had to have a little beach display in light of our recent beach vacay! A very fun project! I just love being in there, even if it is a little tight (which is sort of a good thing because it makes us keep everything picked up a little better). Now Ben and I need to work on ours...it needs a lot of help.

New Table!!!

This is big news for me. If you have been to our house and seen our old-fashioned, yucky table with metal and gold and white, along with our ratty fabric covered chairs, you would be just as excited as I am about this new table! I love it! It matches our kitchen cabinets almost perfectly, is made of great-quality solid pine, is sturdy and beautiful all at the same time, and the best part: only cost us $240 (and that includes the six chairs)! We love KSL Classifieds!

See how cool-looking it is underneath? It is so sturdy!

Now, that I actually take pride in my kitchen table, it was time to add a centerpiece. Fall has arrived at our house!

Indexing

My stake has set a goal of indexing 300,000 names (I think?) by the end of this year. Indexing involves looking at old census records and transferring vital information from them into searchable indexes so that everyone can do family history a little bit easier. I signed up to start indexing a few years ago and did it pretty regularly until Luke was born (when life got busier!). But I have missed it. I recently picked it up again to help reach our stake's goal and I am LOVING it! It really is so addicting! I feel like I am contributing something, even if I'm not doing my own family history right now. And the best part? Doing it from the comfort of my own home, on my own time. You can do as much or as little as you want. If you haven't tried indexing yet, go for it! Visit familysearchindexing.org

My Little Scholar

I asked Emma on the first day of school a week and a half ago what she was most excited about and she enthusiastically replied, "Homework!" Alas, the long-awaited day for homework to be assigned has come: TODAY! She got her first week of homework pages today and wanted to do them all in one sitting. So she did. I love how she is leaning over her work so studiously.

I'm going to show her this post in ten years when she is bogged down with hours of homework each night and remind her how excited she was about getting homework. :)

Cascade Springs

We headed up to Cascade Springs yesterday for Labor Day and enjoyed a gorgeous morning wandering around. I was disappointed that they don't let you picnic there anymore. Oh well. The kids loved touching the cool spring water and hearing the rushing sound of the all the little waterfalls.

Luke was trying to reach out of his stroller and touch the water, so Ben scooped him up and flipped him upside down before I could say, "what the heck are you doing to my baby??!!" Gotta love daddies. Luke was pretty happy touching the water, though, so I guess it was worth my fear.



Emma actually took these pictures. Thought they turned out pretty good.

Eleven Months

I love this almost-eleven-month-old baby so much. SO SO much. He is such a boy--rough and tumble, sturdy, strong, curious, playful, and tough. And yet he is such a big cuddler. He pulls up on me and lays his head on my shoulder all the time. I love snuggling with him--there's so much of him to love!!! :) And he cracks us all up. He makes the most hilarious faces and noises and acts completely crazy sometimes! We all just love him to bits! Can't believe he's going to be a year old in a month. Oh, and did I mention he can stand now? Not for too long, but definitely at least five seconds or so.

Big-girl Bed

In the midst of all the excitement surrounding Emma starting school, I forgot to blog about Rachel's big milestone: moving to a big-girl bed! She loves it and is doing really well staying in bed and not climbing out and driving us crazy. :) I'm working on fixing up the girls' room and making it cute. I'll post pics when I get it finished. Here is my sweet Rachel; she looks so tiny in such a big bed! I have to say it was hard to say goodbye to the crib; it was like her one last tie to babyhood!