That is SO Isaac!

Well, I was already going to share these two pictures from this past week:

Isaac's masterpiece from Sunday School, where he was supposed to draw what he'd say in a prayer, what he's thankful for ("my family") and what he might ask for (his very own army with the "I" symbol on each person and swords of varying lengths--he pointed out that feature to me).



And this is an example of how he does his schoolwork. He doesn't just write "M" by the M words like the instructions say; he tries to sound out in his mind how to spell the entire word...and does a pretty awesome job!

THEN I got a letter from his teacher about what a happy, eager-to-learn child he is. Does anything make a mother more proud? If only he'd act that way at home...I guess he's all tired out from being good all day.

And now, for good measure, a few quotes from Little I:

• "Noah, you're not yet worthy to say a prayer in Conference."
• When asked why he was so smart, he humbly replied, "Because there's a school inside my body. That's even a smart way to say it."
• "You look like a crazy lady when you shake your head around. Yeah. Like that. That's Crazy Lady."
• When asked if he was a hot pepper, "No. I'm good and cheesy and ice cream-like."
• Feeling grateful one day, "Sinks are everything to me. If they don't have a sink...too bad, so sad, your dad."
• After a very silly bedtime story, he asked, "Daddy, what part of that is true?" Jared quietly laughed, "I don't know..." and tried to exit the room. Before he could close the door, Isaac retorted, "Then why did it come out of your FACE!?"
• After calculating how many months, weeks, days, etc., we'd all been alive, Laurel discovered she had long passed the 10,000 day mark. She wondered, "10,000 days old! What did I do??" Isaac's swift addition to this was, "I hope you haven't done ridiculous things."
  

The Reunion, the School and the Floor

Great title, right? ahem.

SO! We went to Utah in July.





By way of the Four Corners.


Here's some of the highlights...

Bonding with Bob & Tiffany, Grandma & Grandpa...

Ellie's contemporaries

Noah is an eating machine.

We got to see some of our favorite people and catch up. Too bad we don't have great pictures of everyone we miss so much.

Isaac loved hanging out with Tanner and Max. I wish we could have them all grow up together! On the other hand, this little gang did get into some trouble....

Their talent included fighting some bad guys. They did a great job.

Ours was a song we made up about the reunion.

Bobbie bonding

At Mom's we stayed up late playing games and laughing so hard it hurt. Mom & I got to hike together thanks to Noelle's super-babysitting volunteerism.

OF COURSE we went to Thanksgiving Point. It's still beautiful. You have to roll down the hill. It's tradition.



Ashton inherited some of his mother's skillz:

He even danced for us at the top of the Vista Mound Garden.

It was fun to have Danny spend the entire day with us there. We wore him out!

We went to the Children's Discovery Garden and had a blast.


SO too much fun.

The next day we went to Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country.

The boys have been wanting to ride these ponies for...a couple of years! Ellie was very jealous.

Ellie did some last minute bonding with Uncle Danny.


Jared had to fly back to work the following week, so I stayed a few more days and then took up the exhausting task of driving home with the three young'uns. We had a few side-of-the-road-potty-breaks-because-"I-didn't-have-to-go-back-there-yet," and several wrong turns and a lot of false feelings of going the wrong way...but somehow we made it. So that's one thing I've never done before that now I know I can do.

THEN! Isaac went to Kindergarten, as if he could just go ahead and grow up all of a sudden. Sheesh. Pre-K was a great transition--he'll be at the same school, just for longer and with a different teacher. His teacher's a sweetheart and I am way excited for him to have her.

Like some kind of frazzled, forgetful mother, I neglected to bring the camera at the beginning of the first day. I got him coming out, though. First we had to wait.


That's my big guy! He is now the only kindergartener who bikes home. I trot behind him with the stroller and it seems to work well. Waking up early has been the hardest thing, but it's only an hour earlier than we're used to.

Jared thinks he should skip to 1st grade since he already reads and adds and subtracts. What do you think?

Finally, WHAT? We're still working on our house? Yep. But, as far as flooring goes, we're nearly done! Thank goodness for skilled people. Who are honest. And don't laugh at you in your face when they see that your DIY was done all wrong. It was an expensive lesson to learn, but we're proud to have experienced it...in a humble sort of way.

We were so needlessly sleep-deprived. Now we're really happy with the results.


So far we've been able to do the laminate just fine.


ONE MILLION TIMES BETTER, can I just say it? It should all by done by Saturday night.