Spirit of Boise 2014

This morning Tyler and I joined Mandi's family and headed down to Ann Morrison Park for the great balloon launch as part of the Spirit of Boise. There have been events the last few days, but this morning they launched 50 balloons all at once. It was an awesome sight!

 

Parent/Child Class at the Little Gym

Kylee has taken classes at the Little Gym for 2 1/2 years. She took gymnastic classes up until this summer when she tried out a sports class. She loved it, but we've decided to switch things up for her a bit. Kylee told us that she'd like to take swimming, so over the next few weeks I'm hoping to find a good year-round indoor swimming class for her.

In the last year between Tyler being born or Kylee being sick or having family in town, Kylee ended up missing seven classes at the Little Gym. I love that they've let us transfer those make-ups to Tyler, and the last few weeks Tyler and I have been doing a Parent/Child class. The first week, Tyler wasn't so sure about the class, and was quite needy. Since that first week, though, he's really started warming up to the idea, and as much as he can he seems to enjoy the class. I like that he gets to "play" with other babies, learn new skills, and strengthen muscles important to his development.

Kylee came with us this last week and was our photographer. She took 164 pictures and video! I pared it down a bit - here are a few of the highlights. Looking forward to the rest of our classes together!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Today was Kylee's first day of kindergarten, and boy was she excited! We started off the day by going out to breakfast as a family. I remember eating at Express Cafe in Meridian when I was younger, but this was our little family's first time there, and we couldn't have picked a better place. The food and service were both excellent - we'll definitely be back!

It seemed like it took forever for the morning to pass. We filled it with "normal" stuff - like chores and Netflix :-) Finally, after lunch, Matt, Tyler, and I all walked Kylee to school. Kylee was so brave. She said she wasn't even a little scared. I love how she was probably the first one in her class to say goodbye and walk inside the school.

When we picked her up from school this afternoon and talked to us about her day, she told us that her favorite part was P.E.! She told us about how when the teacher said "orange" they stood up and skipped around, and when the teacher said "apple" they sat down. I'm not surprised at all that she loved P.E. - Kylee is such an active girl. Plus, that was always Matt's favorite part of school too!

Kylee is excited her friend Laura is in her class!

Father's Blessing

Matt gave Kylee a father's blessing today in preparation for her starting school tomorrow. It was so sweet and special. He blessed her that she would be able to adapt to different circumstances, that she would be a good listener and a good learner, and let her know that her Heavenly Father is aware of her and loves her and is pleased with her. After the blessing, I opened my eyes to see Kylee wiping tears away from her eyes. As we walked upstairs to finish getting ready for church, Kylee told me, "I was crying during the blessing and I don't even know why." We talked about how she had felt the Spirit, and how that made her feel so good. We sure do have a special little girl.

I am also thankful for a husband who is a worthy priesthood holder and can give us blessings. I love him so much.

Back to School BBQ

To celebrate Kylee starting school tomorrow, we had a "Back to School BBQ" today. It sure was fun having both my family and Matt's family join us for the occasion. All the kids got to wear party hats, and those starting school tomorrow ate off "Special Day" plates and got rolo pencils.

I also gave Kylee this book, which we read tonight before she went to bed.

And of course she laid out her clothes for tomorrow. She has been so excited to wear some of her new school clothes.

Fingers crossed she is as excited for her second day of school as she is her first!

Crafty Saturday

I have been so excited for Kylee to start kindergarten. I just know she is going to love school. For a few weeks now I've been planning a "Back to School BBQ" to celebrate the start of the school year (more on that in another post). I wanted her to feel special and excited, so of course I needed to do a little decorating. Unfortunately, I didn't really have any "school" decor. No worries - thanks to Tyler taking two really good naps yesterday, along with some ideas off Pinterest, I had quite the crafty day. Here are some of my projects. I am thrilled with how they all turned out!

1. School Banner - inspired by Knitty Bitties

2. Ruler Wreath - tutorial on Polka Dot Chair

3. Ruler Table Runner - inspired by Confessions of a Plate Addict
4. Party Hats - inspired after reading NieNie Dialogues
5. Rolo Candy Pencils - inspired by Hoosier Homemade

Goodbye Summer!

Summer hasn't really meant much to me since I graduated from college and started working. It was just like any other season as far as I was concerned. Sure, it was hotter and the days were longer and I was able to enjoy more outdoor activities, but because I had a full-time job I never got the summers "off".

Over the last couple months, I've realized just how awesome summer really can be! This was my first summer at home and I had some really, really good times, especially with Kylee. Kylee and I got into a really good "routine". Here's what our days typically looked like:

• Wake up.
• Go for a run. Well, I would run, pushing Tyler in the stroller. Kylee would ride her bike.

• Eat breakfast.
• Get ready for the day. While I showered and got myself ready, Kylee would get dressed, brush her teeth, make her bed, and make sure her room was picked up (which basically meant put her pajamas away - since she has a play room her room doesn't ever get messy).
• Do a chore. Every day would be something different - folding laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, cleaning the kitchen floors, etc. Kylee and I always worked together on one job. She usually was happy to help, but informed me more than once that she doesn't like folding laundry. I told her neither do I :-)
• Work on "letters". At the beginning of the summer, Kylee worked on her Kindergarten Readiness Workbook that she got at kindergarten orientation. After she completed that workbook, we moved onto a handwriting notebook. She practices each letter and then spells words with that letter in it. We also work on the sounds that each letter makes and I have her sound out the practice words. I love that she is able to read some of them on her own! And I'm super impressed with how good her handwriting has gotten this summer.

• Do something fun. This could be anything from having a friend over to going to the pool to having a family adventure (like Jump Creek or picking berries). Tuesdays were my favorite - library day! We would get new books, get Kylee's reward for working on her daily reading log or activity/reading bingo, and participate in the program that the library offered each Tuesday.

With Kylee starting school on Monday, I'm really going to miss all of this! I am glad that she will be home with me half of the day, and I'm sure we'll get into a good new routine, but I am already thinking of things I wish we had taken the time to do this summer and adding them to our list for next summer!

And one more random picture. Kylee has "tie" shoes for school this year. I've been trying to teach her how to tie & we've been trying to practice each day the last couple weeks. She almost has it!

Dear Tyler - [9 Months]

Dear Tyler,

You are officially 3/4 of a year old! I can't believe that in three short months you'll be one year old.

Over the last month, you've really decided you like your tongue! It is almost always sticking out.

If you aren't sticking your tongue out, chances are you're chewing on something... but still no teeth!

Speaking of putting things in your mouth, you tried a bunch of new foods this past month - sweet potatoes (your favorite!), turkey and rice, peas, spinach (mixed with carrots and peas), plums, nectarines (another favorite), watermelon, pineapple (mixed with pears), and peaches. You are up to 16 1/2 pounds, are wearing size 3 diapers, and wear anywhere from 3-6 to 6-12 month clothes (depending on the brand and the fit).

I almost don't want to mention sleeping, because I don't want to jinx us, but you are sleeping so well! You sleep through the night and have started usually taking two good naps for me a day - one two hour nap around 9:15 and a one hour nap around 1:15. It is nice to finally have a somewhat predictable schedule.

You're still not crawling, but you are definitely showing some interest. You will get on all fours and rock back and forth, and you are starting to pull yourself up on things.

Mostly, I love your happy squeals and your sweet cuddles. You make me happy.

I can't believe how much you've blessed my life in these last 9 months. I literally thank our Father in Heaven for you multiple times a day.

Love,
Mom

Domestic Berry-Picking Me

As we drove home from Jump Creek on Monday, I saw a sign for The Berry Ranch. I googled to see if there was a website and found that The Berry Ranch has pick your own blackberries right now! Can you believe I've never been berry picking?! I checked my calendar and decided today was the day. With only having Kylee half the week and with school starting in a couple weeks (plus a limited berry picking season), we didn't have very many options. Unfortunately, we woke up to gray skies and rain. We decided to head out anyway, and ran some errands until the rain let up. As soon as there was a break in the rain, we jumped out to go pick berries. Of course, the break was short-lived, and it started raining on us as we picked. We both got soaked, but we still had a great time.

We picked almost 8 pounds of big, beautiful blackberries. Then this afternoon I canned blackberries and made blackberry freezer jam. I am excited to try my canned blackberries in cobbler or in homemade muffins. Tonight Matt made the most delicious blackberry milkshakes I've ever had. And of course we saved some fresh blackberries for eating :-)

Bad Bear Campground

Just like last year, the Fourth of July got us excited to go camping again. We decided it would be fun to camp with family, so we invited Mandi's family and BJ to join us. My aunt Kathy and her friend Loris also happened to be in town, so they came up and spent the day with us.

We wanted to go somewhere close so decided on Idaho City. Plus, that gave us an excuse to have lunch at Trudy's Kitchen and to walk around historic Idaho City. I loved walking the streets and seeing the old buildings - the location of Idaho's first newspaper, the old jail, the old saloon and storehouse, etc.

A lot of the campgrounds near Idaho City were already booked, so I booked a site at Bad Bear Campground, about 11 miles north of Idaho City. We totally lucked out. There are six sites at that campground, most of which are right off the highway, but I booked the one large site there and it was set back off the road so we had some great privacy. Our site also happened to be really close to the bathroom and water pump!

The kids had fun making a dam (which Kylee continued to call "damage" for some reason) in the creek next to our campsite. Mandi and TJ also did a little gold panning.

We made s'mores.

We went on a small hike.

We roasted hotdogs and drank soda and made dutch oven cobbler.

The kids kept cool by playing with squirt guns.

And we all had a lovely time relaxing and enjoying being in nature.