New friend

We adopted a new friend, though the jury is out on whether we are keeping her because a dog is a lot of work. We like her, and sometimes we don't. She makes us giggle, and pull out hair out. She is sweet, and rather sassy at times. She adores the girls, but sometimes acts like a twin personality to Korrali which stirs things up quite nicely. She is a lab mix, and has a personality to prove it. For a family used to a Heeler mix this is very different. But yet we do love her.
Korrali especially loves her. "Mom, take our picture!"

First day

First day of preschool! We got together with some other moms in our ward and the kids just have a wonderful time playing together. The mom in charge recently said she was "really chill". That was an answer to my hearts prayer for her. I'm so glad she is enjoying it!

Super fairy princess

We found some tinkerbell skirts at the dollar store and they are her new favorite dress up. She posed for the picture, because she had been jumping and flying and I couldn't quite capture that on camera, and it was a rather fearsome fairy pose. If she was a fairy, I think she would be a feisty one.

What if I built our house?

Background: We have struggling with feelings of home-listlessness. We know we need more space, don't really want to be in huge amounts of debt, and don't have any direction as to where we should end up.  Our living situation up to this point has felt very heaven-directed and we haven't felt much yet concerning our future. So one night J says to me "Would you live in a house I built?" Me: "With some conditions, ABSOLUTELY!" We discussed for a short while, and he suggested building a small hunting cabin as a trial run. I countered with "how about a playhouse, first, just so you know you actually enjoy building stuff."

And just like that (and many hours of sweat, thinking, and around $500) this happened:

He flexed his muscles and....

ta da!

Ok he worked really, really hard for several days.

And Mom and Dad Q helped too.

And I am very impressed. I actually would live in a house he built. We decided, however, that it was only going to happen if I became a house-widow for 7 years.. so we will probably just buy a house eventually like most people.

Other summer things

Photography and sleep tend to be directly related for me. Definitely causation, not correlation. Anyway, here's the rest of the summer pretty much.

J flew off to Sioux Falls for a week to train in his new position as Special Programs Unit Supervisor. What do they do? Supervise Special Programs as a unit. Yep. But it means he has actual hours on the clock and off, PTO, and only has to work 5 days a week. It is so dreamy. I still sometimes wander around just wishing everyone was so lucky to have a with vacation and where you get off of work and don't have to still work from home.

J had a friend thing. It was really really nice to get reacquainted with some of his best, longest friends. 

I finally gave in and let K paint her nails all by herself multiple times. I even gave her her own polish. And provided a large towel for under the event, and bought nail polish remover to remove polish - no not from her, it tickles her too much - but from random parts of my arms and the bathroom.

These are some of Korrali's best friends. She tells everyone about them. "I have friends! They are: Bwaydun, Earthquake, Chevy, Kimberly." The last one is a dog. The other names really do sound kind of like how she says them. But her way makes me happier. She played with them almost every single day. They came to collect her when she wasn't outside and invaded our house, much to our joy (seriously, we loved it). They adored K and even moreso C. 

They still love each other. Most of the time. People tell us all the time how much they look alike. I guess it's true kind of, but their personalities are so different it's hard to feel like they resemble each other. Where K was a passionate mover, C is content with what she knows she can do. K preferred to be climbing and experimenting with new toys and on to the next thing, C is fascinated toys that light up and can sit in one place for a long time eating them. Also, people cooed at K, and they touch C. Even random strangers. It doesn't bother me much because I figure the more germ exposure she gets while with me, the better, but it does weird me out a little when I turn around and find a stranger touching her hair... 

Santa's Village

Cousins came to visit all the way from the West Coast soon after the play house was completed, and we spent as much time as we could visiting with them.

L was awesome holding C.

Not to mention adorable.

One day they all came down to The North Pole or Santa's Village and we met them there for possibly Korrali's most mind-blowingly awesome adventure ever. It's a Christmas-themed roller coaster park where the minimum clearance is 32 in on most rides. Meaning that most kids 2.5 and up can ride most rides ALL BY THEMSELVES.

She did everything she had time for. I won't post pictures of her on everything, because there were at least 20 rides and ride-face gets old after far fewer than that.

We arrived. It's up in the mountains.

This one went in fast circles.

Sky ride. Much needed after the circley one.

Santa.

Train ride

C fell right to sleep

K was still jazzed to be there

And loving the carousel

Ferris wheel for kids only

A ride that kind of drops you, kind of bounces you.

Can you feel the sass? I think L is one of her favorite playmates, since she was 18 mo and met him for the first time.

Reindeer! What fun to feed them.

The pole is icy!

And Santa's slide. Its 2 stories tall. Sweet ride.

She cried when it was time to leave. And tried to trick us into staying. Five minutes in to the ride home she was out.

I feel like as I've gotten older my own enjoyment when I'm with children is 90% based off of whether they are having fun also. Since C doesn't eat in public much ( we still try anyway ) and doesn't like to sleep unless she is at home, all-day excursions always make me nervous. This one was worth it! We all had so much fun. Best of all, it was with grandparents and cousins to keep the excitement and fun going strong.

Solids

Strawberries were not her first solid food, but are her most favorite. We started a week or so shy of her 6 mo date, and she was really into the spoons and bowls. Food is another story. I can trick her into eating cereal, she tolerates avocado, thinks banana is a funny game, and thinks peaches are blah. Strawberries though, if give her a giant, soft and juicy one don't dare take it away or she will cry like her heart is being shattered.