First Haircut

This little girl was so brave today.  I have never cut her hair at all.  We love her blonde curly locks and I just never saw a reason to cut them.  But the last several months we thought it was probably time for a trim to even things out a bit.  Anytime I brought it up she was very against it.  

Finally, a couple weeks ago I got to the bottom of the problem.  She thought her hair was going to turn brown.  I am sorry to any brunettes out there but Sarah was absolutely CONVINCED that her hair was going to turn brown when it was cut (thanks Tangled!) and that was not a happy outcome for her.  

But after much convincing, I was finally able to reassure her to get it cut.  She was great and still has her curly blonde locks.  She is growing up...and as excited as I am to see all the good she will do, I really want her to stay little forever.  

Camping

We finally squeezed in a family camping trip!  

WOOT WOOT!

Mark actually took Friday off so that we could go camping but then we found out our ward was doing a camp out on the same night and so it worked out perfectly!

The kiddos were SO excited to go camping and sleep in their sleeping bags.  We stayed up at the Sunrise Campground at the summit of Logan Canyon.  It was a beautiful campground and our first time staying there.  We pulled in around 5:00 and get settled in.  

There was a great turnout for dinner and it was fun chatting and relaxing with friends.  The kiddos had a great time running around and playing in the trees.  Sarah could NOT wait to go to bed - she was begging to just play in the tent.  What a goof.  

While I was in the tent helping Sarah and Ben get changed we were talking about sleeping in the tent and Sarah goes, "Well...I thought it was going to be amazing."  I love her.  

I felt like it got really dark, really FAST!  We put Sarah and Ben to bed and Sarah was out really fast (which is completely opposite of what the norm is) while Ben gabbed away.  Jacob and I played some "Go Fish" (WOOT!) and it was fun to have some one-on-one time with him.  

Jacob headed to bed and then Mark and I played Skip-Bo with Stu and Lindsey.  Their awesome family shared the site with us and it was fun to get to know them better (even if we did get hustled by Stu ;))  

The night was COLD.  And I knew it would be chilly but I was kind of miserable all night.  I seriously don't know if I slept at all.  I could not manage to get warm.  I was in a long sleeve thermal shirt, jacket, Mark's jacket, and under two thick blankets and was absolutely frozen.  As I was laying there all I kept thinking was that the kids MUST be just as cold as I was but they all said they were fine.  Sarah said she was a little cold but the kiddos all slept great.  Meanwhile, Mark slept in a t-shirt and about half a blanket.  Apparently, I have a problem.  

We did put Benjamin in between Mark and I when we got settled into the tent because he was cold in his pack n' play but he slept fine after that.  Except for when he woke up in the middle of the night whispering, "Daddy" over and over in the sweetest voice you've ever heard.  It was adorable.  

BUT we survived the night and the kiddos had a good time!  We ate a pancake breakfast and packed up our tent fast because it was starting to rain.  It was a quick little camping trip but I am glad we made it work!

HS: August

We have had a great first month back in school.  We've been doing some school in a laid back kind of way this summer but we took most of August off before we had our Back to School Feast.  This year is extra exciting for lots of different ways.  The most exciting thing is having Sarah doing school with us!  We are also doing things a little differently and have added some more subjects to our day.  It has been so wonderful so far.  

We have been starting our day with some gospel study.  Once everyone is ready for the day, we do family scripture study and prayer.  Then Mark leaves for work.  I felt like this year I needed to put an increased focus on bringing the Spirit into our learning and so we have decided to study The Doctrine and Covenants this year.  I found some great printables and activities to do as well and it has been so wonderful.  I love starting our day this way.  It has been so good.  So far we have talked about the plan of salvation, learning about Joseph Smith's family and their faith, and about the first vision. 

After this is when my juggling act begins.  

Jacob is continuing to do so well with math!  This summer we finally got to start the program we have been waiting for and it was worth all of the wait.  Jacob and I both love it and he is learning so much.  Since we began school again, we've been learning about counting up and down, numbers before and after, even and odd numbers and have introduced addition. 

I got a preschool program for Sarah.  It's fun but not nearly enough for what she wants to do.  She is always begging for more and so we will see what we can do with that.  The program I have though has twelve different units that each focus on a different virtue, color, and animal.  It is all about creating an animal train.  We are on the first unit - our bunny unit all about love and the color red!

Another exciting new thing is that we have started history and it is going awesome!  The history program we use is a little different in how it is structured but I think we are going to really like it.  We are starting out in ancient history (which seems fitting, right?!).  We've talked about the creating, Adam through Enoch, then Noah through the Tower of Babel.  

Our first unit in science this year is all about water!  We've talked about the specific properties of water and the states of water.  It's been awesome so far.

Jacob is also starting to pick up in his language arts.  I feel like even though we have tried to continue our learning this summer, we have really slowed down.  I think it will be really good to be more consistent.  Spelling is going a lot better in that Jacob now LOVES it.  I made a spelling kit where he can practice in fun and different ways.  So his outlook on it is WAY better and we are slowly plugging away with our spelling lists. 

We've been reviewing our phonics cards we did last year and are almost done with those and will start learning some new ones.  Jacob is also practicing his sight word ladders and is doing well with those.  So far we have been doing a lot of work with silent e job #2.  

Jacob is also working on his handwriting while I've been reading Homer Price by Robert McCloskey.  We absolutely  love the book!

We decided to do more of our core subjects Monday through Thursday and then Friday is more of our fun day.  We are doing a nature journal this year and hope to get out and do a hike every Friday.

Friday we are also spotlighting an art piece from ancient Egypt to go along with our studies in history.  So far we have discussed the Narmar Palette and the Ziggurat of Ur.  

Then we are doing some music appreciation.  To start, we are studying Johann Sebastian Bach.  We have listened and learned more about the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major and the Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major.  We feel so cultured ;).  It has actually been really fun and I love listening to my kids talk about music and art.  

Last up is our state study for the month - TENNESSEE!  We've had lots of fun learning about the different parts of this state and listening to a whole lot of music!  I feel like music is such a big part of Tennessee and it has been fun listening and dancing to Aretha Franklin, Justin Timberlake, Dolly Parton, Kenny Chesney, and, of course, ELVIS (all of whom were born here...well, except Elvis but with his home in Graceland we thought he counted!).  

Writing all of that down sounded like SO MUCH!  We start our day around 9:00 though and are usually done by 2:30, and that's with lunch and lots of wiggle dance breaks.  I love learning with these sweet children.  They're my favorite.  

Piano Lessons

Jacob started piano lessons!  I am so excited!!!

He is so excited to learn and I think it will be so good for him.  He is seeing a darling lady in Montpelier and we are so excited to see him learn and progress!

Sarah's Teeth

Last weekend Miss Sarah and Mark were wrestling in her room before bed when she went to jump on him and hit her teeth on the edge of her baby crib.  It did not look good and the poor little thing was one sad little girl.  Her gums were very bloody and her top front teeth were loose.  She was in a lot of pain and eating food was miserable for her.  We were hoping it would just go away with time and healing.  But after a couple days we went and took her to our pediatric dentist who recommended that we get them removed.  They took an x-ray and her two teeth were shattered.  Her dentist didn't believe they would heal and could be okay to leave alone but there was a risk of infection.  Since they were bothering her so much we decided to just go ahead and get them removed. 

This little girl was so brave.  This is the same little girl that less than a year ago didn't even want to be examined by the dentist and here she was being a total rock star.  I was so proud of her.  She has been so much happier and loves to show everyone her missing teeth!  She will be toothless for several years until her adult teeth come in but there was no damage done to those.  Her gums were pretty badly damaged but they should heal with time.  

BUT our little girl is back to her normal, happy, carefree self...with a toothless grin!

Mark's Birthday

Mark's birthday was on a Sunday, so we got to stretch out the celebration over two days!

On Saturday morning, we headed up St. Charles Canyon to go to Minnetonka Cave.  It's been a couple years since we have done the cave so it was fun to go back.  We hit the first tour and it was great.  The kiddos all did a fantastic job and we even saw two bats which was exciting!

We headed home and relaxed a bit and then tried out a newish eating place in town, Rucas.  It was yummy and Mark and the kiddos had fun playing corn hole.  

Sunday we had Mark's birthday breakfast.  Sarah had a little accident the night before (more about that later) and so I stayed home with the little miss while the boys went to church.  Unfortunately, I was not feeling very well either.  We all kind of took it easy that afternoon and then Mark had his birthday dinner and treat.  

We love this man so much.  He is our rock and keeps our family solid.  We loved being able to celebrate him and all his awesomeness.  We love you, hun.  

Berning Family Reunion

Towards the middle of August we had the Berning Reunion.  It was a great couple of days spent together with family.  

We played at the lake, in the pool, went on walks, visited, got shakes and played games.  It was so much fun to be together!