First Grade

On July 29th Hunter started his first day of school. Since moving out to Fontana we heard that it was a bit difficult to get into the schools out here because there are so many homes but not enough schools. There was a slight possibility that we were going to have to bus Hunter to another school. The very first day that we could enroll him into school I made sure I was there bright and early so that we were in a better position to get him into the school close to our home. We didn't even find out until the day before school started that he actually got in. We found out his teacher's name is Mrs. Fisk. She's an older lady but seems like a good teacher. We are excited for the school year!

Hunter's first day of school was unfortunately not an uneventful one. At around 2pm I got a phone call from his school. My first thought, "What did he do?". He is such a good boy that the thought of him doing something so bad that I get a phone call was kind of mystifying. The office proceeded to tell me that while Hunter was at P.E. they were playing Duck, Duck, Goose and Hunter happened to be sitting on a red ant hill. He got multiple bites all over both of his arms and a few on his legs. When I picked him up it wasn't too bad but he did have a lot of bites. He was the only child to get bit...of course it would be our son that this happened to. Thankfully Hunter has been going to school for a week now and no more freak accidents like the first day. At least this will be a fun story for him to remember when he gets older.

Camping

Growing up our yearly vacation was a week of tent camping. I have always loved camping and since getting married I had hoped to share that love with my children. After begging Kelly for years if we could go he finally gave in. The last time Kelly and I went camping Hunter was only 9 months old. This was our kids first real experience camping since Hunter was too young to really remember his last experience.

We left Thursday afternoon and headed up to Big Bear. We love camping up there since it only takes a little over an hour from our home. We ended up staying in the Heart Bar campsite #47. My brother and his wife came up later that night as well as my Mom and my Dad came Friday night.

We borrowed some kid size chairs from Kelly's parents and all the kids enjoyed sitting in them. We are definitely going to have to buy them some of their own.

Here Mylie is showing us what a mess she was the entire weekend. There really was no point in cleaning this little girl because minutes after washing her down she would be covered in dirt again. Her favorite spot the entire weekend was sitting on the ground playing in the dirt.

Hunter's favorite past time was playing with Kelly's BB Gun. He loved shooting at the cans and bottles. He didn't really have the power to pump the gun but he did try.

Here is a picture of my brother, the Pyro. He was in charge of the campfire and made sure it was blazing all night.

This next picture is a picture of Kora's hands. She had a bit of an accident while we were up there. The best thing that came out of it is that she has learned a healthy respect for fire. The first day we were there she kept putting wood into the fire. Kelly and I kept telling her that only the adults are supposed to put the wood in because it is really dangerous. Well, she didn't listen and insisted on putting more wood into the fire. On her way to the pit she tripped and tried catching herself on the metal pit. It burned her poor little hands. The entire weekend she tried her best to stay away from the fire pit. Sometimes lessons are unfortunately learned the hard way.

Here are the 3 kiddos in a forced photo. Don't you just love asking the kids to pose, you get the most random pictures sometimes.

This next picture is a beautiful gorge not too far from our campsite. Seeing nature like this is exactly the reason I love camping.

This last picture is my mountain men off to chop some firewood. We had a great time camping and I can't wait to take the kids again. I think the kids were a little disappointed because they never really got to see the "Big Bear" but overall I know that they had a fun time too.

Amazing What a Little Paint and New Hardware Can Do

It's interesting to find that once you FINALLY have a home you realize that the list of "to do" projects is really never ending. Kelly and I have decided to break up projects into rooms. Our goal is to complete a room in a weekend. Yesterday our goal was our Master Bathroom. A few things that needed to get done was touch-up painting, baseboards, caulking, painting cabinets, putting a wood border around our mirror and installing new faucets. Originally we thought this was going to be a 6 hour job so we designated Saturday to get everything done. Plans got a little distorted when we decided to let the missionaries come over and wash their car....Kelly got them to do a little service for us and had them install the ceiling fan we bought months ago in Hunter's room. Then Kelly asked me if I wanted to see Eclipse....ahhh, yes! He is dying to see Predators but because he promised to see Eclipse with me he said we needed to get Eclipse out of the way so we could see Predators. So we got as much as we could done on Saturday. We finished all of the painting and got 1 faucet installed. Yesterday we installed the last faucet, put up the cabinet doors and it looks amazing. When you can't really afford to put in new cabinets it's nice to know you have other options as cheap as a can of paint. So, here are a few before and after photos.

Before:

After: (We also got new knobs and a drawer pull. The other ones were so ugly. Love the brushed nickle look)

Before: You can't tell from this picture but the knobs actually turned the wrong way when you needed to turn the water on. I think this might have been the way they were designed but why would you design something to turn a different way than what EVERYONE is used to? We have lived here for 5 months now and the day we took them out I would still try to turn it the "right" way.

After: So glad I can turn the knobs in the "right" direction now to turn the water on. And it looks so much more beautiful than the other faucet head.

Unfortunately, we were unable to get to the baseboards or the border around the mirror. Regardless, it was a successful project weekend!

Answered Prayer

I had an interesting experience last night that was too good to not write down. Since I don't really have a journal and I use my blog to record all of my special moments I thought I would share. Last night I was saying my prayers and while I was praying I noticed how loud the crickets were outside. I was slightly annoyed because they were so loud and was worried that they would keep me up and I wouldn't be able to sleep. So while saying my prayer I asked Heavenly Father to please bless me that I could sleep through the noise the crickets were making. Literally 2 seconds later they stopped. It was dead silent outside. I have never had a prayer answered so quickly. After I finished my prayer I stayed up about 10 minutes longer just to see if something startled the crickets to make them stop temporarily, but they never started up again. I was amazed and at the same time my testimony has grown. My Heavenly Father loves me enough to answer even a simple prayer. He listens to us and he loves us and answers all of our prayers as I was shown last night, if I only listen (literally in this case) the answer will be given to me.

Riding Higher

We have finally made that step from car to mini-van. Kelly had a meeting 2 Fridays ago and before we went he said that we should go to the car dealers and "just look" at vans. This was the very first time he had mentioned this. We have long ago outgrown our Camry. Since watching my nephew, every seat was taken. Kelly took the day off one day and we realized he was going to have to take his own car if we wanted to go somewhere. Hunter was in the passenger seat and Kora, Mylie and Luke were in the back. Kelly had been researching vans for awhile. I had done my own little research months ago and really liked the options available for the Toyota Sienna. After the meeting Kelly asked me which dealer we should go to first. He had narrowed it down to the Dodge Caravan, Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey. Since I knew I already liked the Sienna I asked him if we could go to the Toyota Dealer first. We looked at the Sienna. Something we were looking for was Automatic sliding doors. This meant we had to at least go with the LE and above. It was beautiful and had so many standard options. We took a test drive and were hooked. We got into the office and sat down. Kelly told them that it was late so we weren't going to make a deal tonight but if they gave us the very best deal that they could tonight, we would be back in the morning. They came back and Kelly wasn't happy with it so we started to leave. They stopped us and Kelly told them that he told them to give us the very best deal that they could and if that was the best deal then we were done. They told him they could do more and next thing you know we are signing paperwork and cleaning out my old Camry. We left the dealship at midnight. I'm so proud of Kelly. I have never seen him negotiate. He's a tough one to deal with. Those guys had no chance.

I have had my van for a little over a week and I love it. We considered buying a van a year or two ago because we always knew we wanted a bigger family (okay, no this isn't an announcement....no plans yet.). At that time, the idea of me getting a van freaked me out. I must have grown a lot in the year or two since last time because I was actually excited this time. I LOVE my van. It's amazingly fun to drive and actually handles better than my car did. The kids are loving the extra space....and the van actually seats 8. One thing I am loving is how much higher I sit in the van. Cars are so low to the ground. I feel like I can see everything and don't have to position my car to see around large vehicles. Love it!!!

To Cover or Not to Cover, That is the Question

We have a large rectangular window over our main window in our Living Room. A big dilemma that we had was whether or not we were going to put a covering over it or not. Kelly was all for putting up something but I was more hesitant because I LOVE the light that the window lets in. Because it's so high we don't have to worry about privacy. A big problem was without a covering, at around dinner time the window would let in light right at our dinner table practically blinding and roasting people from the heat. Since summer has only barely started I decided to give in and cover the window. After talking to my Interior Designer Brother-in-law, Gus, he suggested a sheer fabric. The whole time I was thinking I had to cover it with a thick fabric. I actually went with a fabric slightly thicker than a sheer. I picked white so that it would still be bright. I'm still not sure what I think about it but it does make a big difference. As you can see in the after picture below it still lets in light...in fact, you may not even be able make out the fabric, but it's there. Thank you Gus, for guiding me to the right fabric. I would have never thought of it on my own.

Before:

After:

Baby Horses

On Saturday we met Kelly's Sister's Family and his Mom at Rodeo Burger out in Norco. Kelly's family has known the owner for years and after he sells a restaurant and moves on, somehow they find him again at a new location. This year he's in Norco. It's a fast food restaurant and the food is great. Kelly's Sister, Becky and her family were headed back home to Utah but wanted to make a stop for breakfast at Pete's restaurant.

While we were there taking pictures a man offered to take a picture of the whole family. My Mother-in-law, Susie started talking to him and next thing you know he has invited us over to his house to see miniature horses. The picture with the kids and the white horse is the smalled horse that he has. He stands no taller than 22 inches. He is so tiny and spunky. He's a beautiful white with light blue eyes. This horse was actually too small to ride, even for our little Mylie. The couple that owns this horse owns 12 horses in total, 3 normal size and 9 miniatures. They took nearly all of the horses out for the kids to walk around and for the smallest 2 kids (Mylie and Tylie) to ride. Mylie was so cute. She had to give each of the horses a hug and a kiss on their nose. She would say "Baby Horse" in such the cutest way. The owners were the nicest people. I never knew such tiny horses existed. Of course after we leave the kids asked if we could get a baby horse.....ah, no!