A New Hat

There we go! Here's the edited version. Thanks Bon for fixing these pics. So, this is the hat I crocheted last night. Annika wore it to church today. It turned out pretty cute!

First Day of Kindergarten

I guess I better put up the "first day of Kindergarten" pictures even though I'm two months late. :P So, here's Nolan on the first day of Kindergarten, before I dropped him off and after I picked him up. He was so happy to be starting school this year. I was a little nervous sticking him in this year since not only is he one of the youngest ones, but also the shortest. :) The other day he was standing in line and I noticed the boy in front of him was a whole head taller than him. However, his Preschool teacher assured me that he was ready. Nolan is a very social little boy and LOVES to be around people. I can't immagine having been able to keep him "cooped up inside" (as Nolan puts it) for another whole year. Nolan has many friends. His favorite part of school is recess. He likes to play tag, hide and seek, and chase the girls. He starts school at 8:00 a.m. and gets out at 1:00 p.m. It's a long day, but doesn't seem to be a problem for Nolan. It'll sure make the adjustment to first grade easier, that's for sure. Nolan's teacher's name is Mrs. Pitzer. I get to help out in his classroom every other Wednesday and see all the fun things that he's learning. Nolan looks forward to Friday's. If their froggy doesn't "get put down" they get an award and a few m&ms. So far, Nolan hasn't got his froggy "put down" but he informs me at the end of each day, how many froggy's got "put down." Nolan is a good memorizer. He memorizes lots of books I read him, he's memorized all of his Articles of Faith before he turned 4, and his teacher said he's the only Kindergartener she's had in the 20+ years she's been teaching to know all the versus to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. :) I don't even think I know all the versus. Nolan loves to make up stories and tell them to the other kids. One day Adam was picking up Nolan from school, he was running a little late, but when he got there Mrs. Pitzer said he was entertaining the class with his stories. Hmmm. I sure miss having Nolan around all day with me, but it's amazing how the morning flies by. When I pick Nolan up he says goodbye over and over to all his friends, gives a few of them hugs, and blows goodbye kisses to the girls. Hopefully he doesn't get too much friendlier than that. On the drive home, Nolan tells me about his day and plays with Annika and gets her giggling with the silly things he does. There, I think we're pretty caught up with the start of school.



Before:

After:

Field Trip to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday, Nolan went with his kindergarten class to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch in Wheatland. He was so excited he got to ride a school bus there. He got to ride a train ride and also a hay ride to pick out his pumpkin. There were all kinds of farm animals for them to see. It was a fun day. Nolan can't wait to turn his pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern!

Time to get caught up on some pictures. We'll start with the most recent. Annika is 8 1/2 months already! I can't believe it! She is such a happy girl and is getting so big. I was getting a little nervous seeing this coolor weather coming because I didn't have many warm outfits for Annika and all her 6 month clothes were getting too small. She's a tall girl so her pants were turning into capris and her shirts were having a hard time getting over her head. Well, we don't have much extra money to be buying clothes right now so I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Adam mentioned something to his sister, Jeanna, who picked up several cute, warm outfits for her (the one in the pictures is one of them). She also spread the word and several more cute outfits were given to us, many that will get us thru next summer as well . Another family picked up a bag from a yard sale of lots of cute outfits. So many kind, generous people have helped our baby be able to stay warm this winter. Thank you everyone! Also, a friend mentioned to me about a "Peace Love Swap" that happens every two months. This particular one is held in Grass Valley, so I went to go check it out. It's such a wonderful idea. You bring baby or childrens items that you no longer need and swap out for some that you need. I went with two bags of baby clothes I didn't need anymore and walked out with two bags full of several cute outfits for Annika, including several cute church dresses. I also found several shirts for Nolan, who's been growing. I was so happy! I am no longer nervous. :)

Let that be a lesson to you!

I'm pretty behind in this blog because we just recently got internet for the business again, so I have some things to catch up on, but I wanted to share this experience while it was still fresh in my mind.
Yesterday afternoon I kept having these thoughts pop into my head that I needed to take the trash out before it got dark. I thought, my goodness, why am I so worried about this, it's not a big deal. So, I thought, ok I'll just take it out after I'm done highlighting my lady's hair, so I can get all the foils in the trash. Well, by the time I was done with the hair appointment I decided I needed to go to Adam's work and pick up Nolan because he went grocery shopping with him and I needed to get him home to get him dinner and to bed. So, I did that and while I was making dinner, I kept having the same thoughts that I needed to get the trash out, it was starting to get to be evening time. Well, I was running a little late on getting Nolan to bed, so I thought, well, I'll just hurry and get him to bed and than take the trash out. Nolan normally is asleep by 6:30 (he gets so worn out from 5 hours of school) and it was almost 7:30. So, finally I got him down and Annika was now needing my attention. I thought, whatever, I'll just take out the trash after I get her to sleep. Well, by this time it's dark and I'm like, oh well, I really need to get this trash out!! As I was gathering up the trash I had this little vision pop in my head of myself throwing the trash into the dumpster and a bear was in it. I thought to myself, oh boy, now I'm really acting paranoid. There have been bears sighted in our complex several times in the last year, but I didn't think the chances of a bear being in the dumpster tonight would be very high. Well, I go to unlock the door and I was getting these strong warnings, which I now recognize was the Holy Ghost trying to warn me not to go outside. I still did not listen, thinking this was just all in my head and slowly walked to the dumpster. I was very much on my guard though, listening and looking all around me. At about the half way point, I really had a strong feeling that there was in fact a bear in the dumpster, even though I still couldn't hear anything. Well, I was dumb and kept walking over there. As I lifted up my trash to throw it into the dumpster I see somethiing rise up from the dumpster. Sure enough, there stood a big black bear! This was no baby bear, this was a full grown black bear! My trash went flying all over the place and I turned around and ran as fast as I could back to my house, which seemed so far away. I heard all this clattering behind me, which was probably the bear getting out of the dumpster and was sure it was going to be chasing me and get me. I didn't turn around to look. I just kept running and finally made it to my door. WHEWIE!!! That was a close one! I learned my lesson though and won't be going outside when it gets dark again!

Annika 5 months old!

Annika is 5 months old today! I can't believe how much she's grown in just the last couple of weeks. She's getting really strong with holding up her head now and has super strong stomach muscles. She even rolled over from her back to her stomach. I love this baby soooo very much!

Nolan and Annika

Nolan just loves his baby sister and Annika just LOVES her big brother! Can you tell?