bedtime

bedtime is my favorite time of day. it used to be because by the end of the day, i was kinda ready for everyone to leave me alone, but now it's different. we do the normal "bedtime" stuff, brush teeth, read a story, say our prayers.

then i tuck in lizzie first, cuz she usually takes a couple times, tuck in emily, and head to cam's room. i tuck him into his blankets, and i always kiss him. i always say "nite dude, love you" and "see you in the morning".

then i sneak back to the girls' room. emily and i have a new little nighttime routine. i sit on her bed and brush her hair back across her pillows. we whisper about 2nd grade events, talk about the next day, whatever.

what is said is not important. what is important is that i really resisted this for a while.....she would ask me to lay by her.. and i'd think of ALL the things i had to get done before i got to go to bed. the dishes! the laundry! the list making for tomorrow! the bathrooms! pick up!!

and then one night i IGNORED the little voice that said "you have stuff to do!!" and i sat on her bed. and i brushed her hair. and we talked about nothing important. and guess what? it was precious. it was calming. it was priceless. it was wonderful. now i look forward to it every night. i love her so much. how lucky am i?

lizzie and the camera

to combat boredom while waiting for me at dance, lizzie took out the camera. these are the shots she took. always amazes me how things look from her perspective. ok, the garbage one is kinda gross, but check out the windows in the bullen center where we dance! not bad for a novice photographer who's knee high. :)

hot springs

ok how long has it been since you went to crystal hot springs?? for me, i'd say about.....um...since i was in high school probably! we went over on monday when the kids were out of school. once you get past the initial "yuck" factor (of the locker rooms, the green water, and the old guys in small suits....) it's actually pretty nice. kids had a ball, and the warm water felt great in the cool outside air. the kids even braved the slide, which had a splashdown pool at about -45 degrees. :) a definite recommend. plus the whole fam gets in for only 12 bucks if you go for family nite! bargain!

kyle

we had little kyle over for a few hours on monday. we loved having him here! such a cute boy. liz really liked having someone to play with, she was sad when we laid him down for a nap and kept "checking" on him. :) probably why he didn't sleep long.....

goodbye kitties

so our cat had kittens. ugg. turned out ok though, i put them on ksl and within a day they were adopted out. we even had someone drive up from OGDEN for a free cat. go figure. kids had fun with them, but i'm happy to have them out of my garage.

mr bushman

emily has been blessed with the greatest 2nd grade teacher in the entire world. his name is mr. bushman and we love him. so creative and attentive. an actor before he was a teacher, he has an amazing ability to entertain these kids while teaching them. amazing. we had parent/teacher conferences this past week. both cameron (who has my old piano teacher, mr. gilbert) and emily are doing fantastic this year. i think it's entirely due to these great teachers.

little project

i love little house projects. you know, those ones that can be completed in a weekend, or a few days. last weekend justin had the great idea to replace the worn and dirty carpet in our hallway with some laminate we had leftover in the garage. bonus for short little projects that are FREE! so we pulled up the carpet (yucky), swept up a small mountain worth of dirt and replaced it with the extra laminate. cam got out his tools and we all crammed into the three foot space to "help". we had exactly enough (tithing blessing) to do what we wanted. it took us just a few days this week. here's how it turned out. it's so much better! it's such a high traffic area, coming out of the garage or heading downstairs. sorry the pics are blurry.....was a high action day.