Orientation Day for Megan

It was a very early morning for us today. Megan had Kindergarten Orientation. Yeah. She is so excited. We went and it was for an hour filling out paperwork and meeting her teacher and getting her school bus route and getting her cafeteria number. She loved it and had a blast. I must say that I am stinkin' tired. I couldn't sleep very well last night and had Scott's alarm going off at 5:30 for him to get to school and get ready for the day. I had just fallen back to sleep when he came in and kissed me goodbye. Once again I had just fallen asleep and Kaylee climbed in bed with me around 6:00(My alarm wasn't supposed to ring until 6:45), then we fell asleep and a few minutes later I heard Elizabeth calling out "momma, oh momma." She came in bed with us and tossed and turned and I begged her to sleep just a few more minutes for mommy. It didn't happen, Megan came and opened the door saying "Mom, is it time yet, I can't sleep anymore, I tried but I'm just so excited. Please can we go now?"

Well we got up and got ready, they look pretty sleepy though to me at the breakfast table as you can see. We all came home and watched my friend's little boy while she went to orientation then after that we all took a long nap. It was wonderful but it wasn't enough. Scott came home absolutely exhausted at 6:00. I think it's bedtime shortly.

The beautiful princesses all ready to get Megan to school. Today. They were so cute posing for the camera. Even Elizabeth looks happy here.
Megan giving her sassy/cute pose that she so often uses. She put on a pair of new socks and they were too thick for her shoes she wanted to wear so she ran and grabbed an older pair. I didn't notice them until we got the school. Oh well, I guess they match.
Elizabeth wanted to once again see the pictures of her before I had even taken them so of course she was crying and that's once again the picture I got of her. She's still stinkin' cute even though it's a sour face.
Kaylee was having a blast posing for me. She wanted to be a beautiful princess ballerina for me.
Megan was having a blast playing with the playdough and she even has a friend in her class. Lexie and Megan take ballet class together. They were both very excited.
This is Megan's teacher Mrs. Laugle. She is so very nice and sat with the kids and read stories and played while the parents were filling out paperwork. I think Megan is going to love it.

Megan got a new backpack along with all of the kids at the school. Plus several school districts in the area also got backpacks donated filled with supplies in them from Costco. It was awesome. Megan loves it but poor Kaylee was devastated when she didn't get something. Her and Elizabeth were playing at a friend's house. Tomorrow will be the big day and hopefully we'll get pictures of her in her new outfit that she picked out for the first day. The Kitty shirt.

Villains not Princesses

Well the other day right after I started this blog Megan and Kaylee were playing make believe. I was half listening as I was trying to get a few things done in the house when I hear Megan say in a cackling villains voice...." we are the evil villains who do dastardly things, not princesses."

Of course at that point listening to her say they were villains and watching them run around cackling I thouht to myself I definitely used the wrong name for the address to this blog, Princesses? No Villains, Scott likes to call them little terrorists because they run around like crazy and tear things apart and are sometimes absolutely crazy. But of course they are my little princesses in all that they say and most of the time what they do. Here are some pictures from today of the girls being what they do best....CUTE!!!!!

Kaylee being silly and leaning over backwards.


Elizabeth was just a little bit mad at me because I wanted her to show me her new clothes and be "pretty" but she just wanted to see her pictures on the camera. I asked her to smile but she just growled and gave me grumpy face.
cheese it girl. I used to make this same face for the camera when I was her age, Megan made it, Kaylee made it, now Elizabeth makes it. Goofy head.
Megan and Kaylee just went to a B-day party and this is her little horn from it.
My three villains, I mean Princesses, being silly and crazy together.

Canning

Well I finally canned fruit by myself. I was quite proud of myself. Our ward was given the chance to order pears from our one of our Church's (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) Orchards in Southern Oregon. We got each box for $16 each, and they were beautiful and very good tasting pears. I decided it was time for me to start canning. My mom used to can all the time when we were younger, then we would only do pickles when I was older. I decided to rely upon my memory of canning with her and my sisters and a bunch of phone calls to my mom for quick tips. We bought one cause of pears and it took a lot of time because I was trying to keep my 3 little princesses happy and entertained and trying to do it by myself(not to mention for the first time in years). After 3 days of limited time to can I finished and I have 19 quart jars and 4 pint jars full of pears. Yeah for me!!!!
If any of you haven't canned before and want to, it's a lot easier than you think it is, just very time consuming.

Fun things we did this Summer

I decided to make a list of things we did this summer since I haven't been in contact with many of you for a while on a regular basis so here is my list. (It's a little long, there are lots of pictures so if you don't want to read it all you can look at those and maybe get an idea of our summer.)

1. We played host for lots of family this summer which was so much fun. My parents and sister Amy and her two little girls came for a week or so. It was so much fun. I hadn't seen Amy for 2 years. Her baby Sophia and I got to share a birthday cake together since our Birthdays are on the same day. It was so fun. Scott's parents and brother came for a weekend(they came and babysat for us.) My sister Melissa and her husband and two boys came to visit for about 2 weeks.

2. We went and visited Scott's family twice-once in June and once in August. It was a lot of fun. The girls always love going to Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter's house, they love having a slide and swings out the front door to play on and all the fun coloring and activity projects Grandma has for them to do. In August Scott's whole family was home. It was so much fun to see everyone. There are five kids in his family and three of us are married and live in different states, us in Oregon, one in Utah and one in Minnesota.

3. We live right along the Columbia River and there is the prettiest river walk that we love to walk along, there are always huge ships coming and going and there are sea lions at the end of the walk. There is also a trolley that runs from april-oct and is so fun to ride. We rode that several times this summer and tried to walk along the river walk 2-3 times a week at night. Megan cheesing for the Camera by the sea lions.

My sister Melissa and her son Caleb, top of Kaylee and Elizabeth's heads, riding on the trolley.

4. We live next to many lighthouses and this summer we visited Cape Disappointment lighthouse several times to show it to family. We also would visit Long Beach, WA which is just a few miles away from the lighthouse while we were at Cape Disappointment. There is a fun boardwalk along the beach and there is a skeleton of a gray whale. While we were at the lighthouse we saw a couple whales playing and spouting. It was pretty cool.

Cape Disappointment LightHouse and the side view of the cliffs and Pacific Ocean.

The Gray Whale Skeleton at Long Beach, WA-My nephews Nathaniel, Caleb and my Kaylee.

5. We drove to Mt. St. Helens when Melissa and her family were here with us. It is just a couple hours away from where we live. We went and walked in Ape Caves one of the lava tubes, then drove up to the look out area for the volcano. It was pretty cool. The temperature gets down to around 45 degrees and there is no light, (it's underground of course) and the further in you get the more humid and drippy wet. The kids were all scared as we climbed down the scary steep stairs into the darkness but when we turned around at the end to come back they all begged to stay and go again.

Funny stories-The roads are really windy up to Mt. St. Helens and Kaylee was sitting in the back. They had just eaten a string cheese when Kaylee kept saying her tummy didn't feel good and she was going to throw up. Well we stopped and she felt better. We started driving and she burped really loud-never heard something like that before from a child-then she cried that she was going to throw up. We stopped again and just as I was getting to her she threw up. It went all over her clothes and for the first time ever I didn't have extra clothes-who would have thought I mean we're 2 hours away from home. Well we put one of Elizabeth's diapers on her and hang her shorts and panties out the window to "air dry". When we got to the caves and put her shorts back on she was a little stinky.

Later Megan and Kaylee had to go potty when we were up looking at the volcano and so Scott held Megan by the side of the van (it was just our van and my sister's car no one else was around for miles) and she went potty. Then it was Kaylee's turn, she wasn't quite sure what to do and Scott couldn't really hold her well because she kept moving, well she went potty and with the awkward way she was held and the little breeze Scott ended up being a little wet the front of his shorts. It was pretty funny. We couldn't stop laughing. Not only were Kaylee's shorts gross and wet and stinky, she managed to get Scott's shorts wet and stinky and he didn't have extras either.

The entrance to Ape Caves and the steep scary stairs #1
Our fun adventure group in the dark-that's Elizabeth bundled up who later fell asleep in my arms while we walked. I bundled her up in my jacket and zipped her in. It was great!
Nathaniel with his head light on-he was very nervous to go in the caves and get anywhere near the volcano. We had fun teasing him that the tubes went up to the mountain and that it would start to "warm up" and he would see a "faint red glow" ahead.

Happy Elizabeth who fell asleep half way through the caves and slept soundly until we stopped for dinner.

6. After Mt. St. Helens we drove straight to Portland which was an hour and a half away. We ate dinner at Burgerville and tried to keep Kaylee in a corner-her shorts stunk so bad at this point in the day. After dinner we went to the Japanese Tea Gardens in Portland. It was so gorgeous. The kids loved it. If you ever want a place that is quiet and peaceful and amazingly green that is the place.

Melissa and I on the shuttle up to the gardens and a quiet path in the gardens-gorgeous
Kaylee, Caleb and Megan-they had so much fun together.

With all the beauty around them, at the end of the visit the girls and caleb only wanted to jump from the stairs and be caught on camera.

7. Scott and I went as chaperones with a group of 22 teenagers down to the Shakesperean Festival in Ashland, OR. We toured Southern Oregon University with the kids and got to go to "Much Ado About Nothing"- it was so good and so funny. We slept in the dorm rooms with no A/C, no wind and it was 90 degrees. Some of you may say that's nothing but to us who have gotten used to cool temperatures always and no A/C put into houses at all it was horrible. The bus ride one way was about 8 hours. Did I mention that we were on a bus with 22 teenagers.

8. Scott went on a salmon fishing trip in the ocean and caught 2 huge salmon and was very sick on the boat.

9. Playing in our backyard, swinging in the hammock, having a fire in the fire pit, tinfoil dinners, smores, smores and more smores, hauling wood and storing it for winter, watching the dinner, chewing out the raccoons for tearing up the grass, spraying the huge garden spiders and hoping you don't unknowingly walk into their massive webs that are invisible, watching my girls grow and play together. Dreading when Scott goes back to school and when Megan goes to school herself.

10.Visiting Indian Beach at Ecola State Park which is right next to Canon Beach where Haystack rock is. Most people know Canon Beach for Haystack rock where the movie Goonies was filmed and one-eyed willie's pirate ship sailed away at. Well Indian Beach is just a little bit more north, just around a couple big rocks, from where Haystack rock is at. We went with Melissa and her family to this beach early in the morning to catch low tide so we could see all the tide pools. It was gorgeous, you have to walk over a little bridge and creek and it's not super sandy like other beaches by us and there are awesome rocks and tide pools that have star fish(huge ones) and crabs and shrimp and little fish(don't remember their names but their tiny) and barnacles and the water is warm there compared to other beaches and we found tons of whole sand dollars. It was so much fun.

I'm sure there are many more things I could post but you are probably thinking that I have rambled on much more than I should have-will she ever stop? Yes I am stopping.

I finally started a blog

A Gorgeous Sunset as we were crossing the bridge by our home.

My three beautiful Princess dressed up with a full day of play ahead of them.

I know you probably are all thinking that it was about time for me to start a blog. Well you were right it was. My family is dying to see more pictures of the girls and I can't blame them, I'm horrible at sending pictures and with my parents planning to go on a mission in a little while they will most definitely love being able to see their granddaughters. We finally got internet that is fast enough to upload photos and so I finally decided that it would be fun to start a blog and maybe use it as a way to stay more organized. (MAYBE). I feel like life is absolutely crazy with everything changing right now, school starting again for Scott, Megan starting school, Kaylee doing preschool with me and Elizabeth being too big to be a baby and too little to be a big girl.

Here's to me turning over a new leaf and hopefully keeping updated pictures of my Princesses and our fun accomplishments and experiences.