A Toothless Grin

After a full week of letting this loose tooth hang in her mouth, she finally allowed Bryan to pull it out.  Last week she was in tears because she realized she had a loose tooth.  Because of this tooth, she then decided she wasn't going to eat anything.  So I babied her for the day with the food and she was excited because she was able to eat pudding and popsicles.  The next day she was sick of eating those things and decided to eat her regular bowl of cereal.  She would still play with the tooth and keep telling us how loose it was and that it hurt, but she refused to let anyone help her with it.  So we just let it sit in there.  I figured she would bump it hard enough or she would play with it enough and it would come out.  Each night Bryan would beg and try to convince her to allow him to pull it out, but she would be very scared at this thought and would say no.  Even Daniel was working on convincing her by telling her it only hurt for a second. 

Finally last night, it happened. With Bryan giving her an ultimatum.......bribe......Megan let him pull it out.  There was a show on TV last night that Bryan was really interested in watching.  Megan really wanted to play a game with dad.  So Bryan proposed that after the show he would pull her tooth and then play the game.  Or, he could pull the tooth now and then play the game and he wouldn't watch the show.  Bryan got to watch about a minute and a half of the show before Megan became bored and said he could pull the tooth so that they could play a game.  I heard no screaming or crying.  It just popped right out.  She was pretty excited.

 

 

She was so proud this morning at breakfast to be able to chew right where her tooth was and not have it hurt.

First Day of School

Megan began Kindergarten this year.  Her first day of school was about 2 weeks ago. She has been looking to starting kindergarten since her last day of preschool back in May.  She was a little worried about making new friends, but within about three days she said she had three new friends.  I'm way excited at how well she has been doing with school.  We haven't had any crying fits and refusals to go into the school.  We did have one break down one day after I picked her up from school.  She said it was because she was so tired.  As soon as she was home and had some lunch, she was good as new!

Megan playing on the playground while waiting for the first bell to ring.

The first bell rang and the class has all lined up.

 Megan is blocking the sun from her eyes while waiting for the teacher to come out and bring them into the school.

Daniel began 2nd grade at his new school today.  As nice as it was to have some time with just him while Megan was at school, I was so excited for today to come yesterday.  Daniel needs something to keep him busy.  The things I have asked him to do and that we did together wasn't enough to keep him busy.  I'm excited to see what this new school brings as challenges for him.  I also get a couple hours everyday just for me.........at least for a few months.

Unfortunately, I only have pictures of him from home.  Because of the distance of the school and me needing to get Megan to school immediately after Daniel, I didn't have time to take pictures of him at the school.  I only had enough time to drop him off and get to Megan's school.

Perfectionism is Unhealthy

I saw an article online today about a talk Cecil O. Samuelson gave at a BYU devotional. In it, he says, "(Perfectionism) is corrosive and destructive and is the antithesis of the healthy quest for eventual perfection that the Savior prescribes."

This is so true for me.  We've recently refinished a few rooms in our home to make proper space for the new baby.  I have shirked away from the work not because I was lazy or too busy.  I shirked it because I was afraid that the end product would not meet Julie's expectations--or worse--that it wouldn't meet my expectations.

Now that all the work is done, I see flaws all over the place.  However, there is also a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that I did it.  In retrospect, I think it would have been cheaper to have a pro come and do it for us...but it was a good experience for me...to seek and not achieve perfection.

Endeavor Hall

Yesterday was the walk a thon for Daniel's new school, Endeavor Hall.  It was a lot of fun had by all.  We started the day off with playing on the playground.  Daniel found one of his friends from his old school that will also be attending Endeavor Hall.  He was pretty excited about that.

After the kids had a chance to play for a bit, the actual "walk" began. This walk was about a mile around the neighborhood and ended back at the park. I was planning on walking with everyone else, but didn't make it with the group in time. I was passing out the t-shirts and didn't get away. Bryan helped lead the walk with the principal.

 

After everyone returned from the walk, we ate lunch and then had some games.  This gave the students a  chance to meet their teachers and also meet some new friends that will be in their class.

What a great day!  I know this event has helped Daniel not be so worried about attending a new school and having to make new friends.  It was also great for me and Bryan to be around the faculty and get to see how they interact with the students.  I am excited for school to begin and can't wait to see the things that Daniel will be learning!

Yellowstone

We just returned from Yellowstone a few days ago.  What a fun trip that was!  We went just about everywhere you could throughout the entire park.  After returning home, Bryan calculated the amount of miles we drove just within Yellowstone park.  I don't remember the exact number, but it was in the 300's.  He told me it was about the distance from St. George to Logan.  That's a lot of driving.  We didn't see too many different kinds of wildlife.  The main animal we saw were the buffalo.  But we did see a couple of elk and deer.  No bears!  When we were heading out of the park we saw a sign that said that a bear and cubs may be crossing the road.  That made the kids a bit excited for it, but no luck.  We didn't see any bears.

So here are some pictures or our trip.  Enjoy!

 

 

Our first stop....West thumb Geyser Basin.  The kids got a chance to enjoy some of the smells of Yellowstone.

Regardless of the smell, some of these hot pots are very beautiful.

Next we stopped at Kepler cascades.

Then we visited Old Faithful. 

This little guy kept us entertained while we waited for Old Faithful to go off.

 

The buffalo's are quite the character.  There is one main stretch of road that you can easily spend an hour waiting to pass because of the numbers of buffalo.  One of the times we were on this stretch of road, there were two buffalo that were essentially teasing the drivers.  They would cross the road, but only cross one lane of traffic and stand right in the other lane of traffic.  After awhile, they would proceed off of the road.  Two cars could pass and then these two buffalo were right back on the road, but in the other lane.  They did this several times.  One of those times we were able to pass so I'm not sure how long these two buffalo carried on their game.

Roaring Mountain

Calcite Springs

 

This guy was walking directly in front of a line of cars.  The driver of the car the buffalo was in front of, joked with us as we passed by, that this guy was towing him.

Artist's Point

Uncle Tom's Lower Falls

View of the Grand Teton's on our way out on heading home.

It's a girl!

 

Baby kicked me!

Tomorrow's the big day...we find out whether to buy more pink or more blue...

But tonight, Julie and I were laying in the bed and talking about things. While we talked, Julie said she was feeling the baby on the inside and wondered whether it could be felt from the outside. So after playing around a bit trying to get the baby to move again, she discovered the trick. I got to put my hand on her tummy, did the magic rub and the baby kicked me!

This will be fun...again.