A Little Summer Fun and a New School Year

Is it malnutrition when your baby eats paper? 

I haven't taken as many pictures as I would have liked this summer.  I suppose that's due to keeping my hands so busy with holding a baby, running Eliza to the potty, putting sunscreen on someone, reading books, having "bread making classes" or getting ready for "hard core" school this year AND our foreign exchange student.

We had Samantha come stay with us for a few days while her parents and brother were all at Youth Conference.  It was nice having some extra help around the house and the kids were thoroughly entertained. We also had another friend over from church & they all had a great time on our new tree swing Tyler hung in our perfect tree out front.

One Sunday I was getting dresses out of the closet for the girls and discovered that both Ali and Sophia have dresses that once were mine.  Too bad I don't have one Eliza's size.

Serving as the counselor over activities in our Relief Society presidency, I get to plan activities that sometimes include our whole ward.  Since we hadn't had a single ward activity since we moved in, we wanted to do something for Pioneer Day.  It was simple, but I think we all had a good time.  We used our building's projector and watched "Legacy" outside.  Everyone brought movie snacks to share and we played Pioneer games until it got dark enough to watch.  It was warm and humid (we're in Georgia, after all), but we got to experience our own kind of miracle.  Every night that week around 8:00, a huge storm would roll through.  It had been clear skies until about 7:00 when we started hearing thunder rumble in the distance and saw big, black clouds blowing right for us.  I said a silent prayer that I would know what to do (move the activity inside or keep it outside) and that we could please, please, PLEASE keep it outside.  All I needed was one more failed activity.  We began the activity with an opening prayer which included pleading to hold off the rain.  I thought of how our Savior was able to calm the seas and that the elements know Him.  Surely He could command the clouds away for me.  Miraculously, as we started the movie it was clear skies with a slight breeze to keep the bugs and too much heat away.  I am grateful for a God who hears and answers me in seemingly small circumstances, but that are a big deal to me.

 One of the fabulous youth in our ward that love helping with our kids.

 Stick pull.  Cade won, for sure.  :)

Ali with some of her girls.  I'm telling you, the youth in this ward is amazing.  

Then there's Eliza.  I think she's been ready for a while for potty training, but I wasn't ready to take on that challenge.  Ali was a difficult one, despite what everyone told me about the ease of potty training girls.  But one day we decided to just give it a try.  That afternoon I put her in underwear and - I am not even kidding - in 2 HOURS she had it down.  The next day she even had the poop thing mastered.  She's maybe had 3 accidents total since we started this whole thing.  She's amazing and I'm so grateful for that.  

One night Eliza came out at 9:30 with a skirt on over her pajamas and trying to put on fairy wings.  I sent her back to bed and when I checked on her before I went to bed, I found this:

I guess she just wanted to sleep like a fairy princess.

Finally, we decided to host a foreign exchange student this year.  We have some friends who have done it and talked about the great experiences they've had, so after a lot of talking and thinking and praying we decided to try it.  I think it will be a wonderful experience for our kids to learn about different cultures and people.  So, we welcomed our new "daughter," Raya (rye-uh) on Tuesday.  She is from Ukraine and will be here for the school year.  She fits in with our family perfectly and we are looking forward to all the great experiences this will bring.  She brought some traditional clothes for the kids, so we'll have some pictures up soon of that!  

Eliza insisted on carrying this all through the parking lot.

Monday Raya starts at the local high school, which seems strange sending her off and keeping my own kids home to teach them, but it will be great.  I'm looking forward to starting into our regular routine again.