Gavin's First Day of School

Today Gavin started 2nd grade... at a new school, with new kids in a new neighborhood. I think I was more anxious about the day than he was. He is also starting the Chinese Immersion program, where they spend half the day being taught in only Chinese. The teacher is actually not allowed to speak anything, but Chinese in her class. This sounded a bit daunting, and then we learned on Sunday that he was in the class that would start their day off in Chinese. I admit I was pretty scared for him. Luckily, he knows one girl in the class and she sat by him and helped him out a bit. 

 When he walked out of school he said, "It's final. I hate Chinese." But then proceeded to tell me things that he remembered about that part of the day than the english half. I also asked him if he hated it enough to want to change classes, but he said no. And he was really in a good mood and happy at the end of the day, so it can't have been as dramatic as he made it sound. We'll see how the rest of the week goes. Here he is all lined up with his class.

 Henry doesn't start kindergarten for another week, though he did meet his teacher today and really liked her. It is safe to say that he and Wyatt were fairly lonely without Gavin, but they found some ways to keep busy... like building a fort while I mopped the floor. They haven't done this in a very long time so Wyatt was very excited. He actually seemed to love having Henry to himself.

Pretty cool fort, I must say. It was a good day and hopefully going forward we will have many more that go as smoothly. I hope that the adjustment to the new school and making new friends will go well for all of the boys.

New House- Before and After

 Well, we have only lived here 2 months and it is starting to seem like if I wait until I have things the way I want them, then I will never post pictures. For the most part things are moving forward, but I am going pretty slow with decorating or adding furniture. There is something about having so many choices that makes me want to wait and consider how I would really like a room to be. So here is a little tour (not all inclusive, since I am sure I will post photos of other things are we get them finished, ie- the kitchen). It is more exciting to see our progress when you look at these Before photos. Makes me feel like we have come a long way, even if we have a long way to go. 

Let's start upstairs

The Living Room- Before

Living Room- After

 Facing the entry way- Before

 Facing the entry way- After

Dining Room- Before

Dining Room- After- from the living room

  Wyatt's Bedroom- Before

After... he seems to have a lot of empty space now.

And now downstairs

Family Room- Before... I know you all wish I had kept that shag carpet for you

Family Room- After (the other couch wouldn't fit into the basement, so the furniture down there is a work in progress.)

Play Area/Storage- Before

Play Area/Storage- After (still in need of some organization and decor)

Gavin and Henry's Room- Before

And After- yes, it does look like a bomb went off. I took this picture on a day that I was pretty tired of telling them to clean up and them insisting they were in the middle of some kind of game. They have tons of space and they love it.

 Guest Room (that's right, I have an extra room for visitors to sleep in, woohoo)- Before

 Guest Room- After

And now for the Bathrooms, we didn't have to do any work to these. They were in great shape and I just got to do a little decorating.

Upstairs Bath

Downstairs Bath.

This one has kind of a retro look, but unlike the shag carpet, we actually like it.

 All of the kids love the tiny weird shaped blue sink that might annoy adults, but is just right for kids.

 Hope you enjoyed finally getting to see our new place. I am sure I will have more photos later.

Happy Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Caleb.

Good thing there is plenty of help around here for blowing out candles.

I used this day as a great excuse to try out 2 different peanut butter chocolate cake recipes. The pound cake was by far the superior choice.

 And we had some great company to enjoy some delicious grilled food. Even the corn and veggies were grilled. It was delicious. (You can tell that Stacy's kids are much better at being photographed than mine are. They are all looking and smiling, while my kids are still eating and drinking. haha.)

Wyatt's Big Bed

Since we have had so many changes in the life of our two year old this summer, I kept putting off moving him to his big bed. Even though we have had it set up and ready to go, bedding and all for almost a month. Finally I realized that it would be months before I start getting more sleep, so using the sleep deprivation excuse just wasn't going to cut it, and we moved him to his big bed on Monday night.

After his bath, the portable crib had been taken down and he was talking tough about how he would sleep in a big bed. "Wyatt bed, BIG." Stuff like that. Then when it was time for bed he said, "No like it, big bed." As we went down the hall, but he climbed up under the covers, surrounded himself with monkeys and didn't get up until morning. It was awesome.

This is how we found him the first night.

 By the second night he seemed to have figured out what the pillow was for and snuggled in for another good nights sleep.

It has not been 3 nights and a couple of naps and he has done so well I can hardly believe it. I am sure he is just relieved to have some room to stretch his legs and move around.

Hooray for good transitions.

4 weeks

Little Finn is just getting so big so quickly. I can hardly believe how fast it goes. He sure is a cute one, and still likes to snuggle when he is awake. I will take whatever I can get.

A much needed hike

Well, we have not gone on nearly as many hikes this year as we would have liked. Between pregnancy and moving and remodeling it has been hard to find the time and energy to get out and enjoy the mountains in our own backyard. The last night that the Marshalls were in town Gavin and Vatti made plans for all of us to head up Big Cottonwood Canyon to hike around. Since it is much closer than it even used to be, we loaded up and went. Nana had decided to stay home, so Finn hasn't yet been on his first hike, he stayed home with her. Soon though.

Gavin was very excited and kept repeating one of his favorite phrases, "That way?"

 Gavin and Vatti are the biggest explorers of us all.

 Our little hiking group by the bridge before doing a small park of the Lake Blanche trail.

 Two cute hikers down by the stream, throwing rocks in. What else?

 This guy was deep in thought about something. He looks smart even from behind.

 Such a handsome group. We will have to have more photo ops in this location, I think.

 We have never really hiked around this canyon at sunset, and I was pretty enthralled with the different colors of the rocks on the stream bed. The time of day seemed to bring out the contrast.

 Aww, my cute hikers.

 At some point on the way down, Wyatt decided that he needed to carry around this hiking stick. He was very excited and it was hilarious to seem him try to keep up while hefting this giant thing.

Thank goodness we still have fall to sneak in a few more hike, and next time we will bring Finn.