Four Jingle Bells

 Back to school night.  The kids met their teachers and dropped off their backpacks.  We are so lucky to have the school across the street from us.  Makes walking so easy.  They have loved riding bikes to school and it is nice to get some energy out of Brooke in the morning!  William and Brooke working on some homework.  She is a good student.  We haven't had a super rigid schedule, but have been doing the best we can. This is a pretty bridge a few minutes from us.  It is gorgeous at sunset!  I was nervous about letting the kids this close to the falls, but I had to get a picture of it!  It is beautiful! We hope to see Niagra Falls someday, so this is a good start.  William was obviously thrilled.  I love the wildness of nature out here.  The tree was hanging in the water.    Brooke is the queen of sharing.  And the more we praise her for sharing, the more she shares.  It's ...

 Every once in awhile, the girls want to match AND let me help them with their hair.  Aren't they cute.  We had a visit from our dear friends from LeClaire, Hanna and Sarah.  They were our first visitors since moving and they were taking Hanna out to college in Utah.  It was so great to see them.  My only sadness is that it was too short!  We love these ladies.  They were a huge support to us in our move and we feel like we were meant to live in the same place to help eachother.  Ironically, they moved to New York the same time we moved to Cedar Falls.    I went into our room and found William lounging in the chair. He is training for future manhood.  These two love to paint together.  They share pretty well too.  It is nice to be at home wtih the two of them in the day and have a slower pace.  I am so glad I decided to keep Brooke with me for preschool this year.  We have grown a lot together...

 Woo hoo! We had our first Cedar Falls visitors.  Kellie and Spencer came for a few days.  We kept it a secret from the kids, so when we picked them up, they almost didn't see them! It was a great reunion.  Been a few years since we last saw them.  We went right to Nauvoo.  First to Carthage Jail, which is always an amazing experience. It is so awesome that our kids get to have these faith growing experiences so young. Grateful for the chance to live out here!  Reunited and it feels so good! Spencer and Spencer together again.  Kellie and Spencer watched the kids one of the days so Blake and I could go to the temple together.  That sure doesn't happen enough, so we were so grateful for them!  They brought the kids gifts too.  William still loves that truck and has slept with it!  We went to this little kid's spot called Pioneer Pasttimes.  They can pretend Pioneer life.  They were so cute to watch. ...

I started a new tradition this year.  I take each kid out to dinner or dessert, then we do school shopping.  Mostly it is selfish, because I don't want to drag all four of them to the store at the same time.  But it turned out to be totally awesome. Sadly, Hailey's pictures got deleted.  She looked so grown up! We went to a real live restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, with the greatest rolls of all time.  It was so nice to chat with her and I realized how much she has grown up!  She is my friend and I am grateful for that.  She is a smart and caring person.  We went to get some stuff at the store and she wanted some of the colored hair extensions.  This totally freaked me out, because it reminded me even more how much she is growing and becoming her own person.  But she is becoming a great person, so I will take that! Spencer wanted to go to McDonald's.  Yippee, my favorite place.  The nice things you do for your kids.=) ...

 So, we made it through the summer.  Another summer without knowing many people and it was great.  We learned that we are made of some pretty tough stuff!  William is a painter.  He loves it and the mess.  Brooke being a doll and looking like Rapunzel after her new haircut.  Spencer pulling weeds to try to earn money for Legos. He now tells everyone that he works to earn money for Legos.    Hailey had to get a weed picture too.  Babysat the neighbor kids for about 8 hours one day. It was a long and full day, but the kids had a great time and slept awesome that night.  There is a river here too.  It isn't the Mississippi, but it will do.  We went to go check it out one day and here's the story.  Hailey loves dolphins. She would have been a dolphin in a former life.  So we started out with just wading.  Just wading, I said!  You know how it goes.  William taking it ...