tree climbing...

We went for a walk the other day and Erin tried climbing her first tree. It was so cute how proud she was of herself. And when she said her prayers that night she thanked Heavenly Father for helping her climb the tree.


Since I had the camera with us, I made the kids do a mini fall photo shoot. Here are some of the pics of the kids who were totally not in the mood to get their pic taken. I did get a few good ones though...

New Sofa!

Our old futon sofa was on its last leg so I decided it was time to look into getting a new sofa. And like anything costing more than $20 I researched it online. I was surprised to find that sofas are REALLY expensive. The last time I looked into the price of sofas (about 3 years ago) they didn't cost nearly this much. These are some of the best prices I found online for full size, fabric, non-futon sofas. This one is on Target.com for $365This one is for sale on Walmart.com for $399
You can pick up this next sofa at any RC Willey store for $399
And I found this one at one of my favorite stores, Ikea, for $499. I was sad about this one because Ikea is known for its inexpensive furniture. So finally, after seeing all of these very expensive options that I knew I couldn't afford, I decided that there had to be another way. I went to my local D.I. thrift store and found a the softest, longest, no odor sofa with a nice shape that I could find. (I had about 12 sofas to choose from.) I paid $35 for this sofa and then went to my local Target store (because they have a good selection of slipcovers that happen to be on sale this week). I bought a 2 piece stretch slipcover and 5 throw pillows that I found on clearance. The combined total: I spent $150 on this sofa and materials. And ............. TA DA!........ this is what now sits in our living room...

Not too bad huh? I always think of the Duggar family and their motto, "buy used and save the difference". What I learned from this experience is that the cheapest new sofa you can buy will cost you about $400 and that means I saved $250 and I absolutely love the "new to us" sofa in our living room. :)

Funny Park Pics...

This photo sequence and the expressions on her face make me laugh. And the funniest part is that this sequence happens EVERY time she climbs the slide, EVERY trip to the park, EVERY week. Kids are so funny.

the princess diva...

Erin is turning 5 soon but she thinks that she is a teenager already. Which means we DO have our fights but we have some good conversations too. She always watches me put on make-up and has been wanting me to do her hair and make-up for a long time. So I finally decided to let her stay up late (after I put David and Anya to bed) and I curled her stick straight hair the best I could with a curling iron and did her make-up. Luckily she still has those chubby baby cheeks or else I would be crying about how my baby is growing up so fast. She does look older in these pics though. But I can still see my baby when I look in her eyes. I am proud of the big girl she is becoming.

I captured her reaction to seeing her hair and make-up in the mirror for the first time. She was so excited. She had to wash her face about 20 minutes later though because it was time for her to get in bed. She wasn't so happy about that part.

a great view...

I realized that I never posted any pics of the great views from our new place. This is what I mean about this place looking more like Virginia than Utah. This is the view from our balcony in the living room... This is another window in the living room...

And this is the view from our Master Bedroom. If you look closely you can see the bird's nest (above the lamp) that the kids are always watching. The mama bird sits on her babies all day and the kids love to watch the birds. I just love all the green! We have never lived in a place, that was surrounded by this many trees, since we moved to Utah. Here we have the best of both worlds.