Nice.

As I was perusing the blogs today I saw this shirt featured on Beginnings New.

The caption on the side says "Who has time for homework when there's a new Justin Bieber album out? She'll love this tee that's just as cute and sassy as she is."
I should probably order one each for Emily and Elinor. What a great life philosophy!
Way to go, JC Penney.

Diaper Dilemmas

Okay, so the first problem happened when someone brought Caleb to me from nursery during church and I realized I had packed an entire (fairly large) diaper bags with ZERO diapers or wipes. Yeah, I don't know how what filled that thing with. Good thing Caleb decided to go number two TWICE that day. The first time I borrowed a diaper from a friend and the second time I just kept him with me until the end of the block. I ended up with Caleb, Elinor, and Emily all together in the class I was teaching.  All of us together with four other kids in a teeny tiny (very stinky) classroom. Good times.


And... you might want to skip this part unless you have some sort of interest in cloth diapering.
The second diaper problem occurred when I decided I wanted to give this cloth diaper thing a try. I had decided earlier to try it once I got my own washer and dryer - schlepping all that stuff to the laundromat every night or every other night just seemed like too much - and I have had my own machines for a couple of months now. Buying those was really exciting. It is the first time we have had our own washer and dryer since getting married almost seven years ago!
Anyway, once I decided it was time to look into cloth diapering, I started researching it online. I did not anticipate it taking every spare second of my day plus more! There are so many helpful websites, but so much stuff to consider when choosing a diaper! First I had to figure out what all the different words mean - all-in-ones, all-in-twos, pocket diapers, prefolds and covers, fitteds, and contoureds. Then I looked at the different brands and read reviews and then I looked a little bit at fabric types. I also did some research about washing the diapers and taking care of them.  Of course I was keeping price in mind as well, and that always has a big impact on the final decision.
 I ended up buying six Fuzzibunz pocket diapers because of a good deal I found plus a smattering of other brands - a BumGenius, a Kawaii, some prefolds and Thirsties covers, a Baby Beehinds fitted, and a Rumparooz.  (If I ever start a cloth diaper company I think I will steer away from the cutesy names.) I'm thinking if we fall in love with one of these we will order more. Whenever I go to a cloth diapering site to check on something I'm curious about I find another brand I want to try and am so tempted to order just one more. But the whole point of this is to save money, right? Helping the environment is a nice side effect, but honestly, at this point in my life, saving money is more important. :) I have had some friends and neighbors who have used cloth diapers, but whenever they started telling me about them I felt overwhelmed. Now I have passed that on to you!
Seriously, though, I am so excited to try this. I sure hope it works out! If you have any thoughts or advice about this I would love to hear from you.

And here is a random silly picture I found on my phone.

Double time out dealt by Dad! Happened while I was out of the room, so I was surprised by this scene when I got back.

The Main Event

Back to our Utah trip...
The main event of our time spent in Utah was Joseph's sister Nancy's wedding. We were all so excited for her and enjoyed being able to see Nancy looking so lovely and happy. The nice weather and gorgeous temple grounds made the wait outside very tolerable.

Joseph and Caleb right before Nancy and Diego came outside:

 Here they are coming out of the temple (pic stolen from Steph and Nathan's blog).

A picture with the nieces minus Holly:

Emily was so delighted to be holding those flowers. She loves all things beautiful. Beautiful is probably the most frequently used word in her vocabulary.

And a picture with the nephews minus Tyler and Derek (also stolen from those Rushin' Coopers' blog):

Diego is an only child so the nieces and nephews were all from the Cooper side.

And the lovely Nancy:

Congratulations, Nancy and Diego! We are so excited for you guys!

Snapshots of my Sister

Courtesy of my phone.

Sort of reminiscent of a Madonna and Child painting, no?

Good times.
I do like my yoga-loving, marathon-running, baking soda-shampooin', stubbornly vegan sister.
And I love my other two sisters too. Really. I just don't have pictures of you guys.

First day of school!

Today was Miss Emily's first day of Pre-K! We are so excited to have a school girl! It has been hard for me to come around to the idea of having a kid in school, but she was ready and excited, so who am I to hold her back? Whenever I tell her I don't want her to grow up, she comes back with the same response: "Don't worry; I'll still love you even when I'm gone."

Here she is on our door step.

We compromised on her outfit. She wanted to wear her Disney princess shirt because "what if there are other girls in my class who like princesses?" and I really don't like that shirt so she went with the pink shirt with a sparkly scooter and a beautiful hair bow.

And here she is on the steps of her school.

We feel lucky to have a neighbor in the same class so Emily has a familiar face there. She was able to jump right in without feeling shy for a second.

 

Well, little girl, it's the beginning of a long road, but a great one.

Four years old!!

Our stay in Utah was extra long because we celebrated Emily's fourth birthday while we were there. I was terrible about taking pictures but our friends were kind enough to send us some.
Things worked out so that a family of good friends that had recently moved from Austin to Utah was able to join us for Emily's birthday party.
We had fun playing in the freezing wading pools (Orem hose water is so, so much colder than Austin hose water), decorating cupcakes, and touring Joseph's family's orchard.

 Elinor ate a whole cupcake before anyone else had finished decorating theirs. She's definitely a good eater.

Emily was excited to receive a pair of rollerskates from Grandma Cooper.

She has been wearing them pretty much non-stop since then and is getting pretty good!

(She'll be waiting for you in a year, Cory!)

Emily was so excited to turn four - I think it was the first birthday she actually anticipated and understood. We felt lucky to be able to celebrate it with family and friends. Lately I feel like Emily is so grown up. She is helpful, asks many (many, many) questions, and works so hard to do what she understands to be right. 

I can't believe she looked like this when we first began blogging! I need time to slow down a little bit.

 

The trip

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged, but it hasn't been for lack of things to write about. August was a busy month. The main event was our family's trip to Utah for Aunt Nancy's wedding! It was a long drive, but it was worth it to escape the 100+ temps here in Austin for the lovely 75-degree weather in Utah. Utah has also somehow been stealing our rain - it was greener there than I've seen it in a long time and Texas is just drying up. I ran outside a few minutes ago and took this picture just outside our apartment:

Sad, huh. We're living in a wasteland. But we did get to escape this ghastly weather for a couple of weeks to the much greener pastures in Utah.

We met Cousin Paige for the first time. What a cutie!

She and Elinor seemed to hit it off, though Elinor is looking pretty solemn in this picture. They played a lot and it was so much fun to see them following each other around. We will have to visit frequently to nurture this friendship.

This is Emily and Caleb waiting for Nancy to come out of the temple. No, Emily's smile is not forced at all! :)

 The DVD player kept them entertained... until the batteries died.

Then we had to be a little more creative.
Caleb got grumpy.

 So I gave him the camera and sent him off on assignments to get shots of different people.
Here's Emily.

This was probably Paige or Gabe.

Here's me.

Take two.

 Emily was kept happy by being asked to "be beautiful."
Isn't she a sweetheart?

Grandma made matching dresses for the granddaughters, so here are Emily and Elinor together.

And the three of them here. Caleb may have been holding El in a headlock.

And, just because we were kept waiting outside the temple for so long for Nancy to glam up, I will leave you now, wondering if you will ever get to see the lovely bride in all her glory.
Plus this post is getting a little too long for my liking.
xo

By the Skin of our Teeth

Amanda has been spending some time in New York with her mum and sisters.  While I'm excited for her to have that opportunity, she's sorely missed.  I think I made a rather piteous figure wandering the grocery store aisles with all three kids, two days' stubble, and a black eye.  A few people asked if Elinor did that to me.

Still, we're moving forward.  We filled out the paperwork for Emily's Pre-K.  It took a long time and I had all three kids wreaking havoc in the office.  The principal brought out coloring books and matchbox cars to try to restore some order.  It only worked for a short time.  We also went to the library and children's museum.  We've spent some good times on the miserable hundred-plus degree playground.

We've  been trying to deal with the tough problems and questions that come up in an appropriate way.

But we miss our mom.  We really miss her and appreciate all the more everything she does to make our home run smoothly.  We also miss her because we love her very much.

When she gets home, it'll be like Christmas.

Friendship

Emily has been friends with Eric for a long time.
They have good times...

And rough times...

 

"How 'bout I drive?"

But they get through them...

 And keep having fun together.

We will miss our neighbors.
 Photography by Kristen.