Aunt Emmy's Visit

No, not Hollywood's Emmy! OUR Emmy!

We were SO lucky to have my sweet sister Emily (known to the kids as Aunt Emmy) and her little boy Eli come visit us while her hubby David studied for and took a portion of his dental boards. I know you missed her, David, but we were super happy to steal her for a week! We had bunches of fun...

*Warning: Its possible that what follows could be considered "picture overload"... oh, and forgive the inconsistencies of the photos... still learning my pretty pretty new DSLR.*

We visited Palmyra (she'd never been!)

At the temple... 

 

 In the upper room of the Smith Log Cabin

 

 In the Sacred Grove

 On the way out of the grove...

We drove out to Niagara Falls (rode Maid of the Mist!)

 Can't tell you how happy I was to have a stroller capable of sticking 3 kids on it... but BOY was it HEAVY to push!

 Maid of the Mist observation tower on the American side

 

 Em and Eli ready to board!

 After the ride! I LOVE this picture. :)

 

Visited the Zoo (my kids were excited for the excuse to go, and our zoo is the perfect half-day size zoo)

 

 Checkin' out the bears...

 

 And the cute babies... 

 And the cousins!

 

How this for diva-tude? 

 

Witnessed some sweetness near the penguins... 

 

And some animal enthusiasm... 

We also spent days hanging around the house (letting babies recover from missed naps the previous day), priming my basement sewing room, she babysat my kiddos so Brian and I could get to the temple together (when's the last time that happened?).

All in all it was relaxed and fun to have her come visit us, and we were sad to see her go. Can't wait to see you again in January, Aunt Emmy!

Carter's First Day

Carter started school this year too. When Allison was 3 we did Joy School. But with Carter being 3, Brian helped me decide that putting Carter into preschool would be a better choice for us. Joy school with three-year-old boys just sounds hard. He is attending Faith Lutheran Nursery School, which is right around the corner from our house. They even run an afternoon program for 3s, so twice a week I've got both Carter and Allison in school while Lindsey takes her afternoon nap. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself with 5 "mommy hours" per week... I haven't had regular "mommy hours" since Allison quit napping 2 years ago.

Anyway... here are pictures from Carter's first day. Exposures are a little weird on some... I'm still learning my new pretty, pretty, fancy camera. :)

 Carter's favorites. :)

 

 When we got to school they gave him something to color. Shortly after I took this picture he looked up at me and said "Hey! School's fun!" I wonder what he was afraid if would be like...

All done! He colored the whole thing blue... see the favorites picture about if you can't figure out what this kid's favorite color is.

After coloring they got to do free play. Carter found a digger and a dump truck and was pretty much in heaven. :)

 We found his hook for his backpack, too. After that, it was time to go home (it was just a short, meet-the-teacher day). He can't wait to go back. :)

This one's for the Grandmas, mostly.

This is probably so long-awaited that you may have forgotten I promised it. Remember how, in June, my little 6 year old camera started refusing to release photos and videos from its dirty little data-card clutches on random, incomprehensible whims? No? Its been plaguing me all summer...

Anyway, one of the hostages was the video from Allison's dance recital in June. Today, I finally got a data card reader and rescued the hostages. And, since yesterday saw the arrival of a nice, pretty, new-to-me DSLR, so the chances of a precious picture every being held hostage by that little Nikon again are pretty slim.

So, without further ado... "Shine". Allison is in the middle wearing the yellowing "skirt"

Kindergarten!

I cannot possible be old enough to have a kindergartener... Its just not possible.

Even so, apparently that is what I have. Allison's first day of Kindergarten was yesterday.

 How cute is she? I'm pretty sure I saw this idea on Pinterest... and I love how cute the photo turned out. Its not often that things turn out are well in real life as they do in my head. I made her dress, which also turned out pretty cute. Allison dug through my fabric and pattern stash and picked it herself. I did give her a little design guidance (she didn't like the picture of the dress on the pattern envelope because it had {cute, heart-shaped!} pockets, and, apparently "pockets are kind of ugly, mom." Um... okay! We made a few changes (including leaving off the pockets) and I think we're both happy with how it turned out.

 This idea I totally stole from my sister-in-law Katie. Great way to remember what she liked and was like at five. I love that her favorite food is Lucky Charms and her favorite animal is a unicorn.

 While waiting for the bus to come (we did wait awhile... those buses run pretty late the first 10 days of school or so) she found a dandelion and made a wish. Hopefully for a good school year. :)

And she the bus came she got on like she'd been doing it her whole life. Look at that smile... she's so excited to be going to school. *sniff* I feel like somehow my baby is all grown up and doesn't need me anymore.

But, on the positive side of missing my baby at school, the house is SO quiet while she's at school. Its amazing how quiet the house it when the baby is napping and the big kids are yelling at each other. And next week Carter will start and afternoon preschool program 2 days a week... I can almost taste the quiet... :)

The Perils of Room Sharing

Our girls share a room. Its generally works out okay, except for in the early mornings. Lindsey usually wakes to nurse between 6 and 6:30. This is not when she is ready to be awake for the day. If I hear her in the morning, she'll eat then go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8 (my latest sleeper, but a LONG shot!). 

Problem is, Allison is an early riser. So when Lindsey wakes to eat, Allison is pretty close to the surface and wakes up too. Usually before I have heard Lindsey. Allison usually decided that Lindsey is awake for the day, turns on the lights and starts entertaining Linds, while I sleep a little longer. Which doesn't sound so bad when its put that way...

However, its makes for a tired baby. On Sunday a few weeks ago I came downstairs at 8:45 after getting ready for church to find this:

Totally conked out in her doorway jumper... which is one of her favorite things ever. It takes a whole lot of tired to fall asleep during active play. We have since decided that with the finishing of my sewing room in the basement this fall that the girls will not longer be sharing a room. Lindsey will move into the former guest/sewing room. Since we don't often have guests we decided its silly to have a dedicated guest room. We will, instead, displace Allison from her room when we do have guests. She'll either start sleeping on the queen bed in the current guest room or we'll trundle her daybed with a 2nd twin mattress, so that we can still accommodate guests.

Fringe benefit to this decision: I get to have fun designing and decorating another kids' room! Yay!

Still Here!

I'm still here... I'm still alive (despite all of my kids best efforts to kill me with sleep deprivation). I have lots to share... I just can't get my camera to cough up the pictures. Dirty little data-stealing jerk...

I probably should just get a card reader to get at my pictures, but I ordered a new camera instead. I found a used Sony A200 DSLR body that will fit my the lenses I have from my old Minolta film SLR. It should be here by Satuday... just in time for my SISTER to get here! Yay!

So... maybe in a few weeks I'll be in a place to actually post an update...