A Family Letter blog style

The girls painting with acrylic on canvas/ Liesel holding a lizard on our hike through Onion Creek/ Eggs!! It is exciting every day // procrastinating bedtime in the garden

Jumped in the pothole on a girls-night-out "canyoneering" trip through Arches. 

Liesel learns to ride a bike!// I've been waking up between 5:20 and 5:40am 5-6 days a week to exercise with friends-- this is a mid-run swim in the cowboy hot tub before 7am// torrential downpour=waterfalls dumping down cliffs EVERYWHERE. It is amazing! mid-dinner we jumped in the car and went for a drive down the road. The kids were in awe// Hannah climbed on this rock and said "tate a pitcher mom!!" 

Felicity and Liesel relaxing at the pool// Lissie in her carseat

During our painting activity

We checked out a Kid's Cookbook from the library and Liesel picked stuffed french toast sandwiches to make. We bought the ingredients and she surprised Dad for his 33rd birthday by making him breakfast. It was pretty cute. She DUMPED powdered sugar on and ran out to the garden to pick a Zinnia-- she put it right in the middle of the sandwich. // Striking a mud-pose. So glad I bought $30 water shirts for them to ruin... moms are such kill-joys, huh?

The boo-boos on Felicity's 5 month birthday// Felicity getting ticked b/c she wants to eat and mom is stalling 

She ran into the wall of the tunnel down the hill and got a serious ow-ie// Eva and Felicity in the mountains

Brian with his buddies pre-4-day-bro-only river trip down Cataract Canyon// Hannah and Liesel playing in the endless potholes in Park Ave, Arches// Me and the girls matching in the mountains with Leslie and Co. 

HAYS NEWS:

* LIESEL: learned to ride a bike! I underestimated how proud I would feel of this accomplishment. For 4 days straight she would wake up in the morning and BEG to go ride. She was so excited and proud of herself. I learned that she really really loves verbal recognition of her ability to ride and constantly asked me if I was proud and if she was still doing well. Complete with a thumbs up, middle or down. With kids learning to ride Strider bikes these days, the transition to a peddle bike was so fast! She learned in about 20 mins of actual practice on the road. She can start and stop herself for the most part and I spent a few days locating a much better kids bike for sale up north and having a friend pick it up for me. 

Other big news: she starts preschool on Wednesday this week! I was super anxious and guilt-ridden with this decision. I thought I should be teaching her myself and was worried about cutting her carefree childhood short. We went in for her assessment last Friday and I felt so good about sending her. The classroom, the teacher, the environment--I really felt like it would be a good way to transition her to all-day Kindergarten next year and stave off the boredom this year. She loves to learn and tells me all the time that's why she likes the TV show "Wild Kratts-- because it teaches you something about animals!" She gets to watch it once a day while I get dinner on. It's slightly to pro-animal for me, but then again, I did sponsor a Siberian Tiger and a killer whale as a 2nd grader with my own money. . .  

Liesel woke up the other night screaming, "MOM! DAD! are you here?!" She had dreamed we left her at home and woke up terrified that we were gone. I felt terrible about this. 

HANNAH: learned to ride her Strider bike! This girl is determined. If Liesel is going all the way around the block, she is too. I've felt really proud of her and she is strong! Hannah's speech is out of this world and she communicates at a high level. She doesn't recognize an age difference between her and Liesel and feels joins right in to all of the 4-year-old play. Hannah is SO FUNNY. And she loves to be funny. She makes jokes (albeit, a LOT of potty humor. . .the other day she and Liesel were making toot-jokes. A favorite. Like,  "I toot in my eye! HAHAHAHA"), she makes everyone laugh with her antics and adults just LOVE her. She just brought me a picture she drew of "me, daddy and cici going on date to da bears birday pardy and dere are da bears coming out and you ardnt der betuz you are taking pidtures at da wedding. . ." Hmmm. I love how dad has been gone ALL week on a river trip with his friends and I leave for one afternoon to take pictures and I'm ousted from the bears birthday party picture. . . :) 

Hannah has started to digress in nursery the past few months and insists on coming with me to Primary until she decides "tay mom. I'm ready to go to nursery now." Today was the first day she didn't do that in about 5 months.  She is very nurturing and still cares for her baby all the time. When I come in to take her potty I frequently find her baby tucked in next to her on the bed. Hannah's sense of fear is very in tune. She wakes up often at night (last night included) scared of monsters under her bed. She is much more cautious in the water, with heights and speed. She is strong and coordinated, but her fear holds her back a little. We went to the pool a few months ago and Liesel was really into jumping off the diving board with her PFD on. Hannah walked to the end about 6 times and would get to the end, see me down below and just cry. Finally she would go back down the steps. 

FELICITY: Learned to roll from side to side! Can sit up for bout 4 seconds before tipping herself back over. Loves to laugh and smile and is so CHEERFUL. I'm going to write more about her when I post her 5 month pictures. 

BRIAN: He has every Sunday off now!! YAY! It feel amazing to progress together again and keep our covenants. It was seriously an answer to prayer. His boss and co-worker both left last month when they suddenly announced that they had accepted other jobs. Brian is the only permanent employee at the Island in the Sky and he's doing a great job up there. 

He just got back from a dudes-only river trip on Friday night after being gone for 4 days. It seemed like he had an awesome time and I'm so happy that he got to go. I really love how we support each other in our hobbies, interests and friendships. He was teasing me about how the other wives weren't about reciprocity, but I pointed out that we have the same hobbies and interests when it comes to the outdoors and I really value my time outside! So be expecting 4 day sister trip ladies! :)

Only 6 more months until FLETC begins. I'm so scared to be a widow for 8 months. 

ANGELA: I've been waking up early for about 4.5 months now to run. Last month we added biking to the routine. It's hard sometimes to wake up pre-dawn at 5:30am, but I'm always happy I did it. Some friends and I are gearing up to bike the White Rim in a day on October 10th! 84 miles of mountain biking and 8,000ft elevation overall. . . yikes. Hopefully it goes well. 

Business had a boom this summer and this a bust this fall. Nothing really lined up and people backing out. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed trying to pull this whole thing off and be a full-time mom. Things fall through the cracks. Like sharing time today. Or a healthy dinner. Or the mess in the kitchen. I feel stressed when I'm not booking anything, but also relieved because it's exhausting and very high stress to shoot weddings. I can't have an off-day when I'm out there. Yesterday I shot for 8 hours straight and by the end I seriously didn't care about the photos I was taking of drunk people and my chest was killing me (I asked them if I could pump/nurse and it didn't fit into the schedule! harsh). But I am grateful for it! I really am. It's crazy that I had this conversation with Brian at Isky right after we were married and I told him I thought I could do it and he said he didn't think it was a good idea. . . then we tried it and it worked. Kind of blows me away. There's another girl in town and my business could die anytime, but I'm glad I have it for now.