September

After starting our September out camping with Grandma and Papa Rose, we headed home on the 1st so that we could get ready for school to start on the 2nd.  Steve had already started school, but for Ellie, September 2nd started her second, and final year of preschool.  It's crazy to think next Fall she'll be in Kindergarten.  We switched her to a preschool we felt would prepare her better for Kindergarten this year, so she goes to preschool with another LDS woman who teaches out of her home, Michelle S.  Miss Michelle is so fabulous with Ellie.  We LOVE her, and she has tasks ready to go for each day so there is little down time in their class schedule.  Ellie loves preschool and started out going three days a week from 10:30 to 12:30.  We were scheduled to go to the 8:00-10:00 class because of room, but a slot in the later class opened up and we grabbed it.  Later, Ellie was able to add the fourth day, so she now goes Mon-Thurs.  They start each day with show-and-tell, which all the kids love.  Ellie also adores their classroom friend "Freddy the Frog" who the children take turns bringing home overnight and then writing about their adventures together for the class book.  Ellie, as usual, was not really pleased to pause for pictures the first day, but here is what I got of her first day of preschool.

Miss Michelle had this cute sign out front.  Of course, I was running late with an upset Mckayla, so I didn't get any fun pictures of Ellie in her new preschool class...  

MG had come with Ellie, Kassidy, and I to go meet Michelle last Spring when we registered with her, and of course, had loved coloring and talking with Miss Michelle there.  She was SO upset when she couldn't go to preschool too, and then upset all over again when Ellie left and didn't come back right away.  I listened to a lot of "Listen Mommy, listen. Listen. Listen, Mommy.  Mommy, listen..... Come back, Ellie, come back!" that morning.  A lot.  It was pretty endearing to have her miss Ellie so much, even if it was also sad.  Eventually she got used to the idea that Ellie would come back in just a couple of hours though, and we moved on.

Eventually MG began to really enjoy preschool time because if the weather was nice we would go hit a new park and then sometimes get icecream or a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup for a treat after.

She loves to explore and play at the park.  Sometimes her bravery rather scares me, like the day she climbed the 8' tall latter rungs up to a slide.  She only did that once...

MG also loves when we go to story time at the library each week.  Our librarian provides such a fun time with crafts and songs.

 Other fun things. Steve and I took on our annual late night canning of peaches.  We had so many pears (and didn't know where to find them in time for a good price) we didn't even bother with them this year.  We also canned some peaches for my sister, Jennifer.

On the 12th we took the girls out to see if we could spot some of the Northern Lights - we're not crazy, you were supposed to be able to see them here that night.  No lights, but we had fun being out looking at the moon with the girls at Ice Harbor Dam.

We also pulled out the jumperoo to introduce Kassidy to in the beginning of the month.  Where our babies like to be bounced to sleep, it meant that in the first few weeks I got A LOT of pictures of her asleep after bouncing herself right into a nap.  These pictures are just a right of passage for our girls.

We also learned that these girls CAN - they don't often, but can - play together for hours without a single fight, and it's glorious.

And that Mckayla can take down an ear of corn with the best of adults, and leave not a kernel behind.

 Oh this girl... She is a funny one.  Definitely not lacking in personality.

By later in the month, we thought we pretty much had her potty trained other than naps and night time (with us taking her frequently), which was awesome at not quite 2.  This is a big joke to us now because we are still riding a wild rollercoaster of potty training with her...

 Kassidy had her 4 month check-up on the 18th and we learned that she wants to keep up with her sisters.  She was already 16 lbs and 25.5 inches tall at 4.5 months old.

 Later in the month we tried to introduce her to baby food, but that fell flat so badly we didn't try again for several more weeks.

 Man does this girl love her oldest sister though.  And it goes both ways.  They both get so excited and just light up when they see the other one.  Ellie loves to talk to and play with Kassidy, and Kassidy thinks Ellie is the funniest person on the planet.

Just a random picture of the girls enjoying painting together at one point in the month.

More fun from the girls - although totally random.  They are so in love with doing science with Daddy, and he loves teaching it to them.  So much so, that Steve decided to use Ellie to prove to his sophomores that anyone can learn the parts of the cell.  This is what he took to school to make that point.

Not to be outdone, a couple days later we took this video of Mckayla.  Ellie got these glow-in-the-dark planets for her birthday, and right away started learning their names with Steve.  Then, she started teaching the names to Mckayla.  We call it trickle-down parenting.  So, here is MG before bed one night naming all the planets.  They still want us to name them as they go to bed each night.

On the 27th we were scheduled to have family pictures with the same gal who took our pictures last year, Sarah R.  I was so excited about getting pictures done and our outfits etc, and then MG got a stomach bug.  Then she was kind enough to share it with me.  By the time picture day arrived we showed up late and feeling crummy, just hoping to get any decent shots at all.  However, they went fine and we even felt good enough to venture out to the Heritage Days" festival at Sacajawea State Park.  They had tents set up for displays and to sell leather, beadwork, and other odds and ends.  It was really neat to look around at everything.  This was just one small part of one of several rows of tents and teepees.  They also had an old steam engine that Steve and the girls enjoyed looking at, but I kept Kassidy's sensitive ears away.

These guys were one of two old-fashioned canoes they rowed to the shore.  Man were they big and HEAVY!  Apparently they're a beast to keep the water out of because they are just a hollowed out log and the waves splash right over the sides.

 Kassidy really enjoyed the festival, spending most of the time doing this after a full morning of pictures.

 It's funny how your parenting changes across children.  With Ellie we threw a binky at her any time she sucked her fingers, adamant we wouldn't have a thumb sucker.  After the ups and downs of MG's being a binky baby, the beautiful simplicity of a thumb sucker seemed quite attractive to us, to the point that we may have encouraged the fact that Kassidy has liked her fingers since birth.  We were so excited when it seemed like she was going to be a thumb sucker around this time.  She still sucks her thumb, but only occasionally, and doesn't seem to suck her fingers to go to sleep all that much.

Our favorite part of the festival that day was the live singing and dancing from a family from the Umatilla Tribe.  Steve says their dances were downright subdued compared to what he saw on his mission in the Dakotas.  But the girls were totally engrossed, and I loved watching them be so captivated.  The beadwork on the women's clothing was amazing.  And we couldn't believe how long the mother's hair was!

 Seriously, they were so interesting, and we loved watching the dancing and noticing the intricacies on their amazing clothing.

 The girls and Daddy even joined in on their friendship circle dance at the end. (I was keeping Kassidy asleep in the stroller.)

 And, that pretty much wrapped up September.  I'll post our family pictures next, and then on to October, which only got busier!