Kids are gone, House is Clean, What next?

Ahhh! The kids are in school and it is quiet and CLEAN at our house. Parker is loving his one on one time with his mommy and I love it too! We have played cars, bouncing balls, read books, gone on walks with Parker in his wagon, changed lots of diapers, had a few jammy days, and we even went to the spray park with some friends without the big kids. (They were mad!) I feel so blessed for this time I have to spend with Parker.
O.K. Since our home hasn't sold yet, I have had several people ask me if I am going to do preschool again. At first the answer was I don't know! Now, the answer is yes on a very, very small scale compared to what it was. It will only be two days a week for two hours each day. What a dream. I was up to five classes and almost sixty kids, working four, sometimes five days a week all day long and weekends preparing. Yes, I had the monopoly of preschool here. When Shane got the job in Wyoming, we knew that I wouldn't have to do preschool anymore if I didn't want to. I had four full classes signed up for this next school year but mailed back their registration fees, and basically handed over my whole sign up list to a lady in my ward who has been wanting to start up a preschool. I wasn't sure if we would be here or not so I felt that it was the right thing to do instead of keeping the parents hanging on weather or not their child would get preschool. I was approached by a daycare provider that had four children that were not able to get into any other preschools yet and so I told her if I had four or more I would do it. This week, I am going to be busy unpacking my preschool supplies, table, benches, etc. from the storage unit. I am still hoping that our home will sell; however, this will help me to pass the time a little easier and yes, Parker will attend preschool as well. I think he'll love it. All of the parents know that if the home sells I will be done teaching preschool. They are all right with that so here we go!
On another note, Shane started school today with students. Yeah!!! He is excited to start and to get into a routine. I know he will be well received there. He is an awesome teacher that everyone loves. Everyone loves Shane outside of the classroom too. I have never met a person that doesn't think he is great! We miss him dearly but look forward to our visits with him. He will be home for Labor Day weekend for more than 24 hours this time!!! Wahoo. I told the kids this morning that they only have two sleeps left until he comes. They can't wait. Well, I think that is all of our news for now, sorry, no pictures this week to share. I need to get on it! Love all of you!

BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!!

I can't believe it's that time again. They are getting so big! I was grateful that Shane was able to come home Tuesday night to give the kids their priesthood father's blessings before school started. He had to hurry and leave again Wednesday morning to get back to Wyoming for a meeting at his school. The kids loved having him home for even the short time that it was. We are blessed that he is only two hours away. We can see him often.

It was fun getting the kids ready for school last night. They laid out the outfits they wanted to wear and got their backpacks ready. When Parker saw them getting their backpacks, he ran down the hall to Brennen's room yelling "pack pack! pack pack"! He returned quickly carrying Brennen's old back pack from last year. He wanted to be big just like the big kids! All night long, I kept hearing Brennen get up and run to the kitchen to check on the time. I don't think the kid slept at all! When my alarm went off this morning, he was in my room before I could even turn it off. I told him he still had an hour before he needed to wake up and to go back to bed. Ha! Ha! We made sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches with English muffins. (Taylor's very favorite meal) The kids ate fast and got ready very quickly. Can you believe that I didn't even have to remind them to brush their teeth. This is a first. Brennen and Taylor in front of the tree in front of our house. This is where we have taken our back to school pictures every year.

Taylor Brooke Harris, 9 years old

This will be Taylor's first year at Lincoln Elementary in St. Anthony. This school is where the 4th and 5th graders go. She is in Mr. Garner's fourth grade class. Taylor went went a few friends to one of her friend's mom's beauty salon to get their toes, and finger nails painted for school. She has little flower decals on her nails. Very pretty. (They match her pink shirt.)Taylor was relieved to see that she is sitting by two of her very good friends in Mr. Garner's classroom (that won't last long!)

Brennen Lance Harris seven and eleven twelfths he will tell you. He's turning eight next month!

This is Brennen's first year at Central Elementary without his big sister there. He is in Mrs. Schaat's Second Grade class. (I took Brennen to his classroom and gave him a big hug and a kiss-the wrong thing to do apparently in front of other kids. He pushed me away and smiled a blushing smile at the other kids. Sorry B!)

When we got ready this morning to leave for school, Parker grabbed his backpack to go to school! I had to take his picture too! Not so fast little one, this mom is not ready for her baby to go to school! I'm glad I have a few years.

Last Week of "Summer"

We had such a fun summer-most of it camping in Wyoming. The kids and I came back home the last couple of weeks of summer before school starts to get back into the routine of things. Shane is living behind Rob and Rachael's new house in the camper until winter and then he will move into their basement-if it comes to that. We really appreciate Rob and Shelly's generosity in letting him do this. Two home payments just isn't in our vocabulary at this time unfortunately. We knew that this was a possibilty when Shane accepted the job obviously the worse case scenerio. Homes just aren't selling right now, so we will wait patiently and know that it is in our Heavenly Father's time and hands.
The kids have really enjoyed this last week before school starts. We have had friends over to play, and went the park a couple of times. One time, we went with some friends and had a picnic. It was a lot of fun. Here's a couple of pictures.:

Brennen pushing Parker in the swing.

Taylor and friend Abby see who can swing higher.

This is where Parker spent most of his time at the Park. The Slide!

Parker insisted on going up himself-my little dare devil!

Just a fun picture this week. Parker loves being a puppy after bath time.

Week in review in Wyoming

We went to see Shane in Afton last week and Rachael and I took her boys and my kids to the Lincoln County Fair. Here are a few pictures of the fun we had amongst expensive fair food. (I just remembered why we never go to the fair!) One more important thing happened why we were there, the Tooth Fairy visited Brennen once again!

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, oh my two front teeth!"

The FREE climbing wall at the fair. Now that's what I'm talking about!




This past week was a ton of fun. We are back home and anxiously awaiting the sell of our home. Keep us in your prayers.

Brennen, cousin Kailee, and Taylor waiting for the big bucket on top of the play center to dump. It takes about a minute for it to fill up and then it dumps all over the whole area.

Laker (cousin), Brennen, and Parker enjoying the little kid puddle makers.Kailee, Brennen, and Taylor getting themselves wet!


Time out for a lunch break and a nap? Parker getting sleepy.

Taylor, and cousin Kailee are in the pink swimsuits getting dumped on. Kailee on left, Tay right

Brennen far left of photo.
Parker, cousin Laker, cousin Shad, and Brennen sitting on the spouts of water.
Today was a great day at the spray park and the kids want to go back soon!

Rexburg's Free Spray Park

I had to put in another entry for today because the spray park was great! Parker hates running through the sprinkler because it gets his face wet so he wasn't overly thrilled at the park, but Tay and Brennen ate it up! We went with Shane's sister, Vicki and her three kids. it was a blast. Here are the pictures!

Bear Lake Day Trip in July

At first, Parker didn't want anything to do with the water. I had to take him kicking and screaming and sat down with him in it to show him it's like a big bath (of which he loves)! I knew he would love it once he felt safe in it!

Brennen found a ton of seashells to put on our swimming pool castle that we built!
I didn't get many pictures of Brennen because he stayed way out in the water (he's laying down here-it's only to his knees for a long ways out.) I think he was worried that if he came to shore I would say "It's time to go!"

Once Parker was used to the water, he stayed in it the rest of the day (except when he found seagulls to chase!)

Parker before we discovered the water!
Taylor and Brennen are so much fun. They, for the most part, get along pretty good. This is Taylor convincing Brennen to try her new grainy sunscreen (sand!) Gross!
We had so much fun-hey everybody, check out the beached white whale in sunglasses! I try to have a kid sitting in front of me for bathing suit photos. "To the right just a little bit, Taylor!"
Splash, Slash, Splash!
Cutie!

I looked at the Wight's blog and they went to Bear Lake recently. I remembered that I had some pictures from when Racahael and I went to Bear Lake this summer that I need to post. We just drove down for the day, it's about 45 minutes to Montpelier from where we will be living, and another twenty minutes from there to Bear Lake (depending on how fast you drive on the Dingle dirt road! ) Would you ever want to live in Dingle Idaho? Just a sidenote, I lived in Montpelier from age one to eight. I have many memories of piling into the big red rig and mom taking us kids to Bear Lake at least once a week in the summer time. I remember Rob running around the beach naked and eating all of the sand (he was a baby) thank goodness for swimmie diapers now! What fun childhood memories-thanks mom! I am hoping Shane will come with us sometime this next week-we'll see!

Camping for the summer

We had a lot of fun camping this summer in Rob and Rachael's backyard. This is one of my favorite pictures that we took. Parker loves his daddy!

Summer Pictures

Our family in Wyoming

at the fourth of July parade

We enjoyed watching all the tractors and horses at the parade with the Heuseveldts. After the parade, Rob and Rachael took us into the canyon for a hot dog roast and four wheel rides. Parker found a stream to throw rocks in and ended up in it himself! We then went to the apartment and watched the rodeo fireworks from a very long distance. It was a lot of fun!

Life is full of interesting surprises! Shane and I have been so happy here in Idaho. We love our ward, our kids friends, and the area that we live in and the house-dad and Shane put blood, sweat, and tears into building a dream for me. On a whim, Shane applied for a teaching job in Wyoming. We thought that it would take a few years to get on there and whamo! He got the job on the first try!! Then the decisions had to be made should we stay, or should we go. Through much prayer and fasting, yes, the answer was yes-go. It kind of feels like a midlife crisis we were comfortable where we were at with our mundane everyday routines and yet the thrill of going somewhere new is exciting. New challenges await the Harris family in Wyoming. We are crazy!! We are starting all over again. Luckily, the children are still young and have the ability to make new friends. I am excited for Shane as a teacher. Education in Wyoming is viewed differently than it is in Idaho. He will have opportunities open up for him to expand his horizons as a teacher with all of the technology he will have at his finger tips, that he never could have had in Idaho. Our children will thrive with the technology, the paraprofessional help, and the new schools just barely finished for this school year. It is sad to leave such a great place, and such great people, but I know that we can be happy wherever we go because we have eachother and our faith. Right now, we are trying to sell our home in Idaho-good luck with this market! We'll see what happens. All is well, all is well.