Back in Texas / Pre-school

My happy girl on her first day of pre-school. She has gone for 2 weeks now (Tues./Thurs. for about 2 1/2 hrs per day) and has loved it every day. I am happy that she loves it but it's hard to know this is the beginning of more stringent schedules and I already miss my girl when I think about Kindergarten next year.

Who doesn't sweep the patio in underwear and goggles?

Colton hosing himself down.

Pool babies.

Colton wanted to try on Julia's cooking apparel...

Colton after painting. Maybe he has a future with the blue man group???

August in MN

Nalani and Dallas get married!

Hugs for the bride from Evelyn and Julia - there were so excited!

The Happy Couple : )

Love.

It was a beautiful day.

Nalani and Dallas at the Temple earlier that week.

Mom and girls at the Temple together, it was a great day.

I am so glad we got this picture below. I don't think we have had a photo taken together very recently.

Colton napping at the resort. Love that little bum.

Meagan and "Emery-board" (that's what Grandpa Kallestad calls him.)

Sweet Emery baby.

On top of the woodstove is where we stashed the baby : )

Movie-watchin' cousins.

Our first few days in MN, we went to a resort in the Brainerd area with Meagan and her family. We relaxed for a few days and were able to hang out as adults in the evening a little thanks to the kiddos watching some movies together.

Apparently Colton was a little tired...

New Beds

Before leaving for Utah, I showed Michael a couple different blogs with ideas of how I wanted to re-do the kids' room. One of these blogs had a picture of a bunk-bed built into the closet... I wanted that and there would be no talking me out of it. I love little fort-like spaces - and thought this was definately something the kiddos would like. A huge push to do this was the large footprint beds take in their room, I wanted them to have room to play in their room. This really made that possible. Didn't he do awesome?! Of course, he put even more detail and safety features than I had requested and built in the exact bookshelves into the left side that I wanted. I will post pics of the rest of the room soon, right now it has suffered a tornado named Julia (the rest of the house has suffered a tornado named Colton.)
First night in their new beds. When Julia first saw her new bed she yelled "I LOVE IT!!!"

Utah trip / 4th of July

Road-trip warriors.

So the other day Julia wanted to remind me of something and this is how she started her question "remember when we were road-trippin' and..." - I don't even remember what she asked me after that I just thought it was funny that she can use the word "road-trippin'" openly in a conversation.

On the way home from Utah, watching a movie in the car - have I mentioned how grateful I am for portable DVD players?

Bridal veil falls

Julia and her sweet cousin Brooklyn had so much fun filling Julia's boots with water and pouring it all over the place.

Beautiful Bridal veil falls

MaryJane, Ronda, Myself, Julia, Colton, and Brooklyn all spent the afternoon here one day. It was gorgeous weather, we had fun climbing and playing in the water and then we had a good walk down to the picnic area.

Colton was glad to have his boots too, after he realized they could serve as buckets!

MaryJane and Ronda

Julia the rain-boot-water-pourer-girl

"See... water Mommy!"

Colton just loved sitting and playing along this water, I think he liked the sound of it rushing by.

Sweet boy.

Dirty little girl - look at that face! During our picnic Julia and Colton took to the hill. Sliding down dirt is much more fun than eating.

Julia showing her climbing skills - this is as high as I let her go. She would have gone to the top if I would have let her!

Mommy and kids.

Grandma Laverty, Colton, and Julia at one of the many 4th of July festivities in Provo. (This wasn't actually on the 4th so that's my excuse for lack of red, white, and blue apparel in this shot.) Provo, UT is a wonderful place to celebrate the 4th of July - they really have so much going on and the kiddos loved the parade (which I am sad to not have gotten a picture of.)