Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went to Kruger Farms, which is on Sauvie Island in Portland. We went with Brad and Jenn (my high school bestie). Did I just say bestie?

 

 

 

The girls love corn on the cob, so they were pretty excited about this part.  

 

 

 

Can you tell?

 

 

This is Brad and Jenn (and their unborn baby! Yay!).   Don't you love how this couple is trying not to be in the picture?  ha ha.

 

 

 

 

Brad caught a frog, so that was cool. Paige loves little creatures.

 

We got a little dirty. The weather was great while we were there, but it had been raining earlier that day (this is Portland, afterall), so it was super muddy and slippery and both girls fell.

 

 

Paige and Kate love getting their faces painted. It's a pumkpin patch tradition, so I couldn't resist. I love how everytime we do it, the girls are so serious about it. They hold still really well.

 

 

 

 

Fall is the best!

Don't wait to be happy

President Uchtdorf's talk in the Saturday morning session of General Conference could not have come at a better time for me. He talked about three of the common regrets that people have at the end of their lives. All three points really made me think and reflect on myself, but one that really hit me was "waiting to be happy."

I am the queen of thinking, I will be happy when... 

Ever since we moved here, I've had an especially hard time with that way of thinking. It's been so hard starting over, learning to love a new place and make it feel like my home. I've found myself thinking, I will be happy when we finally know where we're gonna settle down, and when we have our own house again, and when I lose 10 pounds, etc., etc,. etc.

I know that's the wrong way to think. There is no reason for me to be anything but happy right now. Things are good here. We're in a nice area, people have been pretty welcoming, Nate is enjoying his job, the girls are doing well. I really can't complain. But since I don't feel fully settled, I'm not allowing myself to live in the moment and just be happy. I'm always either missing my old life or planning my future life.

For as long as I can remember I've always been so anxious about what's coming next for us. When we lived in Liberty Lake (Spokane), I always wondered if it was our final destination. I always figured we would probably end up settling in the Seattle area, so I never fully let myself settle in and just live. I ended up loving Liberty Lake, and now I feel like I wasted some of my time there because I was subconsciously thinking, Well, we're probably not staying here forever, so I will wait until we're in our final destination to really be happy and settled.


I need to be happy now. Marjorie Hinckley said:

So, so true. But it's easier said than done. Changing your way of thinking is really hard, especially when you've thought a certain way for so long. I'm working on it. I don't want to waste the time that we're here, living in a fun area, just because of the fact that I don't think we'll be here forever.


Does anyone else find themselves waiting to be happy? Or always thinking that something better is gonna come, instead of just living in the moment?

Beautiful girls

 

I love these girls so much!! Especially when they're all asleep, like right now. :) ha ha

Kate Quote

This is from today...


Me:  Kate, if you need to go potty, what do you do?

Kate:  Go in the toilet.

Me:  That's right.

Kate:  Nailed it!  (and then she raised her hand for a high five)




I guess she picked that up from Nate.  :)

Paige's first day of kindergarten

Paige had a wonderful first day of school. She loved it! We live right behind the school, so I was able to walk her over to her class and she was all smiles the whole morning. She didn't seem nervous at all. And since she was so happy, it made me feel more at ease too. I didn't get emotional until I started walking back to our house. I knew she would be fine though. She's a pretty independent little girl. I watched her at recess too, and she seemed to have a great time.

There is a little girl in the school who can't walk without the use of a walker-type thing (I'm not sure what kind of disability she has), and I noticed that she was sitting alone on a bench during recess and Paige kept on waiving to her, and then she would go over and sit by her and talk to her throughout both recesses. That really made me happy.

 

After school:

 Telling me about her day

 

 

Her school is to left of that school bus and we live to the right of this picture. Right next to the walking path. I LOVE being so close. Do you see Costco in the distance? Just behind the bus. This area is so convenient. I rarely have to drive more than like 8 minutes to anything. Except our church is about 15 minutes away, but I guess we can handle that.


I missed Paige all day and wished I could see how she was doing in class, but I also felt like the day was really relaxing. I thought Kate would have a hard time without Paige, but she seemed to understand that Paige was gonna be at school all day and that she would have to entertain herself. I think I will be able to get out of the house more often with just Kate and Halle, so this will be good for all of our sanity. Paige was so ready for this stage of her life. I feel good knowing that she is out there learning so much and growing and being social. I thought all-day kindergarten would be really hard, but so far so good!

Halle's Blessing

We blessed Halle last weekend. Finally! We were originally going to do it in Spokane because we wanted our friends and family to be there, but then we felt better about doing it here in our ward. I'm glad we did. However, since Halle is 4 months old now, she is really alert and likes to be up and looking around. So when they laid her back for the blessing, she cried and cried. Ugh. Poor Nate.

Oh well. Babies cry.

 

We love this little girl to death. She is such a happy baby most of the time. 3rd babies are awesome. I'm way less stressed this time around.

 

 

Obviously not the best lighting.  :)

Nate's parents, brother, and sister all came for the blessing. It was great having some visitors here.

Playing in Everett (iphone pics)

We went to Mill Creek (Everett) a few weeks ago to visit Nate's parents. They will be moving soon, so it was our last chance to visit them there. The girls played at a local park and had a great time.