Great quote on parenting

"A sweet and obedient child will enroll a father or mother only in Parenting 101. If you are blessed with a child who tests your patience to the nth degree, you will be enrolled in Parenting 505. Rather than wonder what you might have done wrong in the premortal life to be so deserving, you might consider the more challenging child a blessing and opportunity to become more godlike yourself. With which child will your patience, long-suffering, and other Christlike virtues most likely be tested, developed, and refined? Could it be possible that you need this child as much as this child needs you?" Elder Lynn G. Robbins, "What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?"

It's about time...

A shot of Briana and I after we ran the half marathon at Camp Pendleton on September 10th. I could barely walk! It was so fun to run with Briana, and I'm glad I didn't give up. What a hard race for a first half marathon--way too many hills. Now I can say I've run a half, and we'll see what place running holds in my future now.
Right before the race. The weather could not have been more perfect. That was the only thing I was concerned about in this race...but luckily it cooled down just for us that weekend and we were running in overcast, 60 degree weather!

A few days ago Karina had a going away dinner/baby shower with her ward friends, and Cindel and I made the trip to be there. It was well worth it! Karina and Adam are moving to Utah! It will be sad to see them go, but we are excited for them as well.

Here is Blake's picture of his flower he grew all by himself. It is VERY tall.

Just some of the cherry tomatoes in our garden...funny how some get really big and some don't.

So to avoid going a whole month without blogging, I blogged today. At least I did it before a month passed, right? Really, those are the only new pictures from my camera. The kids are both in school and doing well, I'm enjoying some more free time during the day, and life is just moving along! Excited to start my winter garden now...I'm doing carrots, broccoli, lettuce, and spinach!

Catch-up post

First day of kindergarten!
First day of 2nd grade!

First time getting dental work done! He did great!

There's Blake on the zipline at pioneer day! He was so brave.

Climbing the tall ladder to get to the zipline. He had no moment of hesitation!

Walking the rope at the pioneer day. Again, all by himself! He's really growing up.

The kids in the pioneer day parade ("Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked...")

Julianna was invited to a "fancy" birthday party, so I did her hair fancy, of course! She let me spiral curl her hair in layers! A big first for her. It looked so cute.

Funny picture over the summer that Joel took. They love our indoor swing!

More funny pictures.

Phew! I'm caught up for now! School is back, and it's almost time to pick up Blake from kindergarten. Today is his first day by himself! He told me when I dropped him off, "I'm not going to cry!" And Julianna's teacher told me this morning that she did really well in her class--first year where she is in a regular class, all day (with some aide support). I think she will do fine!

Funny story

I have many pictures to upload, but until I have the time, I wanted to remember what happened yesterday after church (on Joel's birthday!) Julianna was given some nail polish by a girl in her primary class. We got home and were just kind of doing our own thing, and after a little while I noticed that they were in the bathroom with the door locked. So I go over to find out what they are doing, and Blake has his big toe painted and he very excitedly tells me, "Look Mom, Julianna painted my toenail!" And then Julianna showed me her work on her nails (and arms, and fingers) and was also very proud. I first tell Blake, well, that's very nice, but only girls are supposed to paint their nails. His excitedness immediately goes away, and he says, "Oh, well, can you take it off now?" It was too funny. So of course Julianna says the same thing (she's not much for nail polish anyway.) The funniest thing is that whenever Julianna gets any kind of girly thing, Blake is way more into it than Julianna, probably because she doesn't always get into girly things that much, so he's always excited to try them. And now that I think about it, even on the way home from church, I could hear Blake asking Julianna, "Are you going to paint your nails when we get home?" It's so funny having a boy and a girl!

4th of July

Right before the Orange Stake 5K. Eddie met us there to run. It was super hot and humid, but we did it!
We went to the Orange Stake's annual 4th breakfast at the Hart Park. So GOOD! Then Grandpa Tony showed us where the really big slides were so we took a walk out to see them. It was great! The kids had fun on them. We all took a turn, too.

Blake's first attempt on the slide with Joel.

You can see how big they are! Some kids brought old potato sacks and cardboard boxes to make the slide go faster.

Briana on the slide! Hope you don't mind me putting this picture up!

Briana and her fiance, Eddie.

Our family on the bridge at Hart Park.

Grandma Shaw (Julianna calls her "Grannie" now) and Grandpa Tony.

Relaxing on the swing before some water balloon fun and a barbecue! We all got drenched, and the food was great.

At Balboa Beach the day after the 4th. Blake found a flag and was waving it around everywhere we went.

We had a lot of fun on the 4th of July weekend visiting Joel's family, and especially meeting her fiance, Eddie! We are so happy for them. It was a fun little trip. And we had fun meeting up with my sister Cindel and cousin Megan at the beach--guess we didn't get any pictures! It was a great weekend. The kids really liked the fireworks, too. We watched the ones from Woodbridge lake and they loved it! I love the 4th of July!

The reading bug

Reading books in the backyard after their sprinkler trampoline jumping.

This summer has been so relaxed and nice so far. The kids are getting along great, for the most part. I am keeping them busy with all the free or cheap things around town ($1.00 movies, free school lunches at the park, library reading program) and we also do something really fun every weekday that I call "school time." I went through all our workbooks and found kindergarten reading and math workbooks from when Julianna was in kindergarten that weren't all used--many pages left over (I'm not sure what she did in kindergarten...). So Blake is doing those, plus a handwriting practice one. Julianna got her 1st grade books sent home that aren't all filled in, either, so we're finishing those, plus some other workbooks I had. At the beginning of school time, I read them 2 or 3 easy readers--Julianna has TONS from school that have piled up over the years. I chose 3 the first two weeks to read every day. This past Friday on the 2-week mark I decided to see if Blake could read the book by himself. I was SO surprised when he read every word without help from me! Of course it's mostly from memory, but this is the beginning stage of reading! I tried uploading a video of him reading this book, but it didn't work:( Julianna of course zooms through these easy books, but she still loves the practice. At the end of school time, we do kindergarten sight words--so far Blake knows 8 of them. My goal is for him to memorize the sight words before kindergarten.

Something else that is cute--at night sometimes I catch Julianna and Blake whispering. When I come up, I find them reading a book together. Julianna was reading a book to Blake last night (Big Dog, Little Dog), and Blake said, "I wanted to help her read better." I can tell he's secretly jealous of her reading abilities. But he will catch up soon--in two weeks he has made TONS of progress. He can even spell simple words if I ask him--he will think about the sounds in his head and then spell the word. I'm glad I'm taking a little time each day for "school time," because it will certainly pay off when school starts again! I've even caught the reading bug--I've already read 3 books this summer and well into my 4th!

We're looking forward to seeing Joel's family this weekend for the 4th, running in the Orange Stake 5K, and seeing the newly engaged Briana (and maybe meeting her fiance?)

Fathers and Sons/Preschool Graduation

The preschool graduates (minus one). I have LOVED doing this co-op preschool for two years. I know Blake is totally ready for kindergarten!
They went for a boat ride.

Fishing for the first time.

They camped right in front of Lake Hemet.

Yes, it's been a month. And what a month it has been. Finally getting something up here!