Back To School!

The girls went back to school last Thursday. They were all so excited to get their new backpacks and go. They each had a great first day and love their teachers. Lissy had some friends from the ward and neighborhood in her class, Jo had two good friends (one our next door neighbor) in her class, but I don’t think Evie knew anyone in her class. One of her little best friends is in the other morning class though, so they will ride the bus together and see each other at recess. Evie’s teacher is a young guy that just graduated and was hired a week or two before school started. So far she loves him. In fact, on Friday I picked her up and she sobbed all the way home saying, “I want to go to kindergarten every day! I want to see my teacher every morning!” The buses were not available for the kindergarteners the first 3 days of school, so we have been dropping the girls off in the morning and I pick Evie up after school.

With all of them in school, I find I can get a lot done in the morning. Thursday morning I think I just ran errands and Friday I was able to go do initiatories at the temple. I had to give a talk on temples yesterday in sacrament meeting, so I thought it would be a good idea to go spend some time there. I couldn’t sleep the night I was asked to give the talk (My nerves were kicking in already), and I think I was up until about 2:30 am cross referencing scriptures and making a web diagram for my talk. I spent quite a bit of the day Saturday finishing it, but it was done and ready to go by about 10 that night. Shawn said I kept the blubbering to a minimum when I gave it, so I guess it went all right. I love preparing talks, but just really dislike giving them. Lissy and I were able to go to the Twin Falls temple dedication since it was broadcast to our building. I haven’t been to one since the Nauvoo dedication when we were at BYU, so it was nice to go again. Lissy also went to the Rexburg Temple dedication with Shawn, so this was her second this year. I hope the other girls have opportunities to go when they are old enough.

I have also been spending time getting ready for Evie’s birthday party. We are having 5 of her little friends over after school tomorrow for lunch and games. I think this is actually her first birthday party with friends, so she is very excited. She wanted a Hannah Montana party, so that’s what we’re doing. Since back-to-school night is tomorrow night (her actual birthday) we are doing our family go-out-to-dinner and presents tonight for FHE. I spent some time this morning finishing the last couple pages in her second scrapbook (2004-2006) because she often asks me where her other scrapbooks are (like her sisters).

Shawn splurged a little and bought a beginner guitar this weekend. He has played it each day so far and we have all enjoyed singing along with him. He can play some of the songs form the Sorenson family reunion songbook and some of the primary songs. It’s pretty incredible to hear him play the guitar and sing “You are my Sunshine” while Lissy sings harmony. That’s right, my little girl can sing harmony – I’m so proud! That’s about it for us, I’ll post after the birthday events and let ya’ll know how that went.

Concerts for Grandparents

We just wanted to see if this would work. The girls were entertaining me today and I shot some video of them. Now we'll see if I can attach it to the blog. Enjoy! Oh, pause the music player on the right so you can hear the videos :)

Organized Shoes

This is my new favorite closet organizer - the shoe cubby. The girls' shoes were all shoved in filing crates which was not the most efficient way to organize shoes. It takes time to find a match when you have to dog through a crate and shoes you have outgrown sit at the bottom while a younger sister could be wearing them. So, I got these shoe cubbies at Target the other day and I love how tidy their shoes are now!

Wasted Morning

I have been a bum this morning. It is 12:30, I am still in my jammies, and I haven't started a load of laundry or a sprinkler yet. I did manage to get my kids to sort the laundry for me (something they do very well, even is it does involve some rolling around in the mountain of dirty clothes). And after they got dressed, made their beds, and tidied their rooms, we got out the "surprise." It was a bag full of Old Navy clearance specials that I picked up months ago. There were quite a few good school shirts in there and Evie and Lissy both had 1 or 2 pairs of pants in there. After doing more chores than me so far today, they are now upstairs scrapbooking, and I have been blog surfing. There are so many cute blogs out there with so many creative ideas. Maybe when the girls are in school, I will try some of those ideas.

Last night for FHE we had our back-to-school night. Shawn gave a lesson on the priesthood and the girls were amazed that he could trace his priesthood lineage all the way back through prophets to Jesus Christ. Lissy kept saying, "Wow! That's big!" Then he gave each of them a father's blessing. Our activity was to sort and label all the school supplies and pack the backpacks. Of course, with tissues, reams of copy paper and other big things, we had to fill grocery bags too. I realized that I was 2 boxes of 48 crayons short, so I will have to go and get those today or tomorrow. Oh, and we realized that the teachers asked for the pencils to be sharpened. We just have a little battery-powered sharpener, and there was no way it was going to sharpen over 70 pencils, so Shawn and Lissy ran to Staples to get a heavy-duty one and to Jamba Juice for treats.


Now to start the laundry, feed my kids lunch so they stop eating chocolate graham crackers, water the dry spots, and go shopping - again.

House News

We have taken our house off the market. That's right we're staying here. For now. Or forever. Who knows? At any rate, it is a relief not to have to worry about keeping it clean (especially since we only had 3 showings in a 4 month period). And the girls are happy to be staying here and going to their school with all their friends again. Since we had promised them each their own rooms when we moved, we went ahead and made that happen here. The girls and I spent one afternoon last week moving clothes and toys around. Lissy is now in the spare room and we got a dresser/mirror set for her on Craigslist. Jo is downstairs in the blue room by herself and we're planning on taking out the extra bed. And Evie is upstairs in the pink room, but has a hard time being by herself so far. To get her to sleep in there all alone, we have to turn on the hall light (but we insist on closing the door) and turn on a radio for her. Whatever it takes, right? It's been a little bit of an adjustment, but now the messes will be owned and being sent to your room means you can't bug anyone else.

Mosquito attack??

On Saturday morning Evie woke up and her eye looked a little puffy. I thought it might be a reaction to a bug bite or something, though we couldn't see a bite mark, so I started giving her Benadryl and it seemed to gradually get a little better for awhile. Well, later it got worse and by Sunday morning it looked like this:



Poor little thing had one eye completely swollen shut. So, Shawn took her into urgent care before church. It was an allergic reaction to a bug bite just above her eyebrow (you could see the bite mark now) and the doc thought it looked like it was starting to get infected so prescribed an antibiotic, hot compresses and staying upright. We picked up the prescription on the way to church, but after the sacrament , Evie said her eye was bothering her and we figured she didn't need everyon staring at her all day, so Shawn took her home. By the time we got home after church, her eye was starting to look better and by Monday morning she could open it almost all the way. Today her eyelid just looks a little redder than normal, but the swelling is gone.

Family Reunion

I'm so glad we were able to attend the Sorenson Family reunion this year. We did end up leaving a day later than planned, so we only stayed one night, but it was still fun to see everyone again and enjoy a little getaway. We got to the park on Friday after lunch while everyone was hanging out. The girls papier mache'd some balloons and then spent some time playing on the playground. For dinner we had some scrumptious dutch oven chicken, potatoes, veggies and a yummy salad. After dinner, we went to the house everyone was staying at to set up our tent. The house was very nice and air-conditioned! The first generation each had a room with a private bathroom, so it was even better than regular camping. That night there was the traditional sing-a-long. Uncle Rex and helpers put together some wonderful song-books so those who are new in the family or only make it to reunion every 3 years or so could sing along to all the songs.

Saturday morning there was a delicious French toast breakfast. Some of the Aunts and cousins helped all the little girls paint their toe and fingernails. I think they even got a picture of all their little toes with Great-grandma's toes. Then the girls painted their papier mache'. Lunch was hot dogs and brats. I tried a Brat, but just didn't care for it, so Gina gave me her hotdog to eat instead. After lunch most people went swimming, but a few of us relaxed in the house, chatted, and played games. We left just after 4 p.m. since Shawn wanted to get home nice and early.

It was so fun to see my cousins again and to see how the family is growing. I still can't keep some of my own cousins straight and I'll have to start going more regularly if I ever hope to learn all the new spouses and kids that are added each year. It is a huge family! There were 94 people there, and that was minus a few families. All of Grandma's kids were there, so they got a good group picture.

If you put the cursor over the bottom of the slide, you can see the captions.

Getting Ready for School

We had school registration last week, and it's about time! I don't know if it's because I knew school was getting closer, all the back-to-school sales, or what, but about 2 weeks ago I started to have that feeling. You know, the one where you start counting down the days until school starts. 8 and counting. So last week we got to go to registration - with all 3 girls! That's right, all my kids will be in school this year. Wahoo! I am so excited to go help in their classrooms and wherever I can in the school. I am also looking forward to a little "me" time. I might even start working on a Master's degree in Library Science. Lissy (4th grade) has a great teacher that has a few years experience and Jo (2nd grade) has a teacher that just moved up from first grade that has 30 years experience. They are still hiring Kindergarten teachers, so we'll have to call in a couple days to see who Evie gets. We still have a few school supplies to get and a little clothes shopping to do (I got a bunch on clearance last fall), but we are all excited and getting ready.

Swim Lessons

The girls spent 4 weeks of July in 2 consecutive sessions of swim lessons. At the end of each session they celebrate by letting each class jump off the diving board. As a point of reference, last year they were all very hesitant to jump off, even wearing life-vests, jumping right to their teachers and floatie-noodles. There were definitely tears shed. Well, this year Lissy amazed us by jumping right off the diving board, with very little hesitation and no flotation devices. She then proceeded to swim to the side of the pool. We were blown away! She has come such a long way this year, but still needs to master her side-breathing to move up. Jo on the other hand, wearing a life-jacket, stepped to the edge of the diving board and proceeded to cry until a teacher picked her up and gently dropped her in. Oh well. Her water skills did improve greatly during that first session though and she was able to graduate to the next level (into Lissy’s class). Evie also got to the edge and hesitated until a teacher gently helped her into the water. They all did such a great job in the second session that, by the end, Lissy and Evie both graduated to the next levels. After a little pep-talk from Mom and Dad, Jo walked right to the edge of the diving board, jumped off and swam to the side without a tear! They all love the water and have enjoyed the lessons this summer.

To celebrate the end of swim lessons we spent the next Saturday at a Ross Park Aquatic Center in Pocatello. Lissy and Jo had a pass to go down the water slide as many times as they wanted. The first time up, Jo turned around and came back down, but we quickly convinced her to give it at least one try and she was hooked. We all enjoyed the lazy river and the inner tubes that were provided. Evie spent quite a bit of time playing in the “zero-depth” play area and Jo had some fun in there as well. We were able to take in a cooler with a picnic, so we stayed for quite awhile – 5 hours, which is quite a bit. We’re not used to being out in the sun that long and I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a swimsuit that long. We all had a great time though.

Welcome!

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