Shower Cake

My sister-in-law Ashley is having a baby and I was asked to make the cake. It was a bee theme, obviously. I wish I had pictures from the rest of the shower because my other sister-in-laws did such a fabulous job!! We are so excited for you Ashley!

Laura's Broken Arm

Laura broke her arm (again--she broke the same one this time last year) several weeks ago when she was playing on a skateboard in our garage. Thankfully it only had to be in a cast for about a month. She was such a great sport!! She never complained and obeyed all of the doctor orders, which is more than I would have done. I'm glad she's healed and can play again!

Megan's First Hair Cut

The best way to get Megan to hold still while her hair is getting done, or cut like in this picture, is to give her a toothbrush, she loves brushing her teeth. (Hopefully she'll stay that way!)

First Day of School

Lia and Laura are excited to be back in school. They both like their teachers and other than their "early bird" schedule which has them out the door by 7:40, they are happy to go every day. It has made my days very quiet. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. But, it gives me time to spend with just Josh and Megan and I look forward to 2:30 when the girls get home.

Some Final Thoughts on Portland...

Now that we've been home for three weeks, I thought I better finish up my posts about Portland. It was a fantastic summer! The time we spent as a family I will be forever grateful for, it was greatly needed and has made me appreciate my kids and Nate so much more (not that I didn't before, it's just different now). We had a great ward that welcomed us and made us feel at home from our first Sunday there. We will never forget the friends we made there. And because we went to Portland, I have confidence that we can do it again... wherever Nate's job takes us this spring.
We read a lot of stories this summer.
And played a lot of UNO.
And blew up a lot of balloons... thank you grandma Nelson!
And built all kinds of things with Legos. (One of the "mom, take a picture and put it on the blog" photos.)
Megan did a fair amount of sleeping. (I did text a picture of this to Nate asking if it was safe for her to sleep in the life jacket. She didn't want to take it off!)



And I don't know what we would have done without the tramp!

When we first arrived at this house, I thought, "how am I going to make it through this summer?" When we left this house, I was excited to be going home, but sad to be leaving. It was a great, great experience.