"The Lime Sherbet Man"

We like to sing while we swing (much to our neighbors' delight, I'm sure). Today Max and Emma were coming up with lots of new renditions of "The Muffin Man". We were singing about the donut man, the ice cream man, the lime sherbet man, and many others. Emma especially thought it was hilarious.

A Good Day

We had the best morning today! We spent most of the morning outside swinging, singing songs, going on a walk, and playing at the park. Everyone was in a good mood, and all was well. It's funny because this is a stark contrast from yesterday morning. Yesterday morning was really hard. It seems like God does that sometimes. He gives us a hard day so that we can fully appreciate how good the good days are.

Readers

The big kids ran out to the "tree house" with their stacks of books right when we got home from the library this afternoon.

Siblings

Natalie loves to have Isabel sit by her.

Max and Emma are quite the pair. They're always coming up with something. Today Max was pulling her around the yard like this. They were much more excited about it than the faces in the picture suggest.

Farm Fun

Cousin Callen had his fourth birthday party at Grandpa Mike's farm last Saturday. "Farm Day" was rained out earlier in the summer, so the kids have really been itching to get out there. We all had a fun time.

Isabel's Baptism

Isabel was baptised on Sunday, August 18 only minutes after Grandpa passed away. We figure that Grandpa wanted to watch her baptism from Heaven. Isabel slept through most of the ceremony, and she still faintly smells like the oil that Father soaked her hair in. She wore the baptismal gown that my great-grandma Bishop crocheted for me to wear to my baptism. Now all of our girls have been baptised in it too. We had a nice lunch at our house afterward, but it just didn't feel quite like a party without Grandpa's laughter.

One Month

Isabel turned one month old yesterday. Over the past month I have been asked many many times how the transition to four kids has been, and the question is usually accompanied by a laugh or a look of dread. My answer is always that this transition has been the easiest of all. Four feels like three did. Isabel fits right in. It feels like she has been here forever.

She still sleeps most of the time, and she actually sleeps fairly well. Maybe my sleep expectations are just extremely low though! She has gained quite a few leg rolls over the last month, and she already weighs around 11.5 pounds according to our scale! 

She is so very loved, and she puts up with all of the loving from her siblings fairly well. Emma helped me take her pictures this morning and ended up in a few of them too.

Grandpa

The blog lost an avid follower this week - one of our favorite followers for sure. My grandpa passed away yesterday morning, and I'm just not quite sure how to process it. Blogging might be one way.

Grandpa will forever be one of the very best men I've ever known. He loved hard, and he loved deep, and his life radiated that love. I have always held him in such high regard, and I always wanted to make him proud. He was the epitome of a family man. He and Grandma set a beautiful example of how to do marriage and family life right.

He loved to hear about and see our little ones. I feel so grateful that they got to know him, no matter how briefly. Even Isabel got to meet him twice. I wish that they could have known him long enough to be impacted by his great example, but maybe that's where I'm supposed to come in. I hope to honor him by making sure that our home is filled with love and laughter just like his home always was.

What a wonderful man. And how lucky we are to have been loved so well.

Baby Natalie:

Baby Max:

Baby Emma:

Grandpa and Grandma were always some of our very first visitors when each of the kids were born, but Grandpa was in the hospital himself on Isabel's birthday. We visited him when she was two weeks old and three weeks old. This picture is from our last visit:

Some other favorites:

Max's First Day of School

Today was Max's turn! He started Kindergarten this afternoon! He went back and forth between being nervous and excited. He said he was "shy for Kindergarten," but he had his school clothes, school shoes, and backpack on way before it was time to leave and asked me every few minutes if it was time to go yet, so I think being excited won out over being nervous!

He ran to hug me when I picked him up and told me quite a bit about his day on our walk home. He is excited to go back tomorrow!

Launching kids into Kindergarten is hard! I really missed him this afternoon. Things didn't seem quite right at home without him around. I know that he is going to have a great year, and I'm excited to watch him grow in so many ways this year, but change is hard.

Natalie's First Day of School

Natalie started first grade today! She had a fun day even though it was only a half day and it involved "a lot of sitting". She's excited to go back tomorrow!

Meet the Teacher Night

This evening Natalie and Max met their teachers, found their desks, and went on scavenger hunts around their new classrooms to put away their school supplies. Natalie's teacher, Miss Nikkel, is a brand new teacher straight out of college, and she seems like she's going to be a lot of fun. Max lucked out and got Mrs. Flaming (Natalie's kindergarten teacher), and we're all really excited to have another year with her. Natalie's first day is tomorrow, and Max starts afternoons on Thursday and full days in September. Here we go!!

Last days of summer

Tomorrow is officially the last day of summer break, but we celebrated the end of summer today. Last year we went to breakfast at Mojo's, played at the nearby park, and had a movie night with pizza in the living room to end our summer, and this year we decided to continue the tradition. Cinnamon rolls and scones were the breakfasts of choice, and Robin Hood was the movie they chose. It was a fun end to a very fun summer.

Lemonade Stand

The big kids have been wanting to have a lemonade stand before going back to school, and time was running out, so today was the day. They had a great time and made quite a few sales. They even stayed open through a little rain shower.

And here the salespeople are admiring their current favorite person. Isabel definitely isn't short on attention!

Isabel's Newborn Pictures

Love, love, love! I am so in love with all of these. I'm so thankful that Pam so beautifully captured this phase of our family's life. Pam's blog shows all of our pictures (you can see her post here), but these are some of my favorites.