House Cleaning

For over a year now I have stuck to this cleaning schedule...

Monday: Laundry (kitchen towels & floor mats)
Floors- vacuum mop & sweep
Tuesday: Dust & wipe down walls (rotate rooms each week)
organize a drawer or cupboard
Wednesday: Wipe down fridge/freezer or microwave/oven/toaster
Make bread, dry fruit or canning etc.
Thursday: Laundry (bed sheets rotating parents and kids)
Floors- vacuum mop & sweep
Friday: Bathroom
Grocery shopping

Anyway I love this schedule. That way I don't feel completely overwhelmed with house work all at once. When the bathroom looks kinda dirty on Wednesday I say to myself "It can wait 2 more days". This is an example of today, which is why I am on here blogging. I am taking time for myself instead of cleaning the toilet. If I clean till the house is spotless I never get my "Amber time". It keeps everything spread out, yet I know everything does get clean on a weekly bases. So choose wisely which day you come visit :)

Cloth Diapers

Yes we made the change to cloth diapers a week ago now. I love them. They are more attractive, eco-friendly (yes you use water to wash them but they are still better for the environment then disposables) decreases diaper rash and in the long run they are cheaper. I thought the cleaning part would get to me... but it hasn't. I worked in a nursing home for 5 years I guess baby poop can't scare me anymore :) My only regret is not getting them sooner. I wouldn't of had to dress my kids all summer with these. I think they are so cute! And they have so many color options. We have 2 different colors of blue, 2 different colors of green, white, orange, yellow and pink.

Pre Preschool

Since school started for Robert I have been doing preschool lessons with Pepper twice a week. On bug day we went on a bug hunt. We found ladybug, ant, worm, spider fly and grasshopper. We caught the grasshopper in a jar so she could examine it closer (notice the picture). We also read " The Lovely Ladybug" & "Buzz Buzz went the Bee". Then she put a whole bunch of bug stickers on a piece of paper. We finished by feeding crickets to our frog. For "tree day" we went outside and found a leaf from several different trees and then glued them on to a trunk on a paper. Additionally we read "Franklin Plants a Tree" and talked about how trees start out as seeds and grow into big big trees. (P.S. "big" is one of the words Pepper can say). We have now started the five senses. We have done taste and touch so far. Art and books with each. Next is I see. I am excited we are going to use glasses, binoculars, magnifying glass etc. I tried teaching her colors a few months ago but that was more of a struggle. She now is eager to learn and very cooperative. We will have to hit the colors again (we only did 3 colors, but she does know which one is yellow) now that she is understanding more.

Is SuMmEr AlReAdY oVeR?

Summer is over and Robert is in his last semester of school! He graduates this December and we are so excited! Between school, work & kids he is a busy man. But he did school/work on the computer summer semester so he had a little bit more freedom. Unlike July we stayed home the majority of the time. We did make a trip to Yellowstone with my sister & a couple of Roberts siblings. It was freezing during the night, but we had a blast. A few weeks at home without a whole lot of a schedule was just what we needed to find the motivation to go jogging in the mornings. The kids are fairly good in our double jogger. And in three weeks I went from running under a mile to running three miles without taking breaks to stop or walk. And I feel less tired everyday. Most people can run MUCH better, but still I am pleased with my progress. This last weekend my nephew Pryson was blessed so my parents & brother came down for that. With them around we keep busy. We love the outdoors! I dont know what we will do when the weather holds us inside!

TABOR... licking the bowl clean

Heritage Park

So I highly recommend the Heritage Park in Ceder Hills for anyone who has toddlers. Not only does it have a playground but it has a shallow river (more like a stream) that Korver and Pepper cruised around in. They loved it. They floated their milk carton boats down the river... actually Pepper would stop it before it got more then a foot or so away, watching the boat float away from her didnt strike her as fun, she would rather hold onto it or fill it with rocks. Throwing rocks into the water was also a hit. We were there for 2 hours before I had to drag Pepper away so I could feed her brother. Tabor and Pryson had fun watching as well. Although this picture does not capture the fun Pryson is having :)

Salmon Family Reunion

The Jay and Doris Salmon Family Reunion was at Bear Lake (Utah/Idaho border). Pepper and Tabor had every single Salmon cousin there! They all wore tye-dye shirts with a logo on it our last day there. It was so fun to spend time with everybody!

heavenly lake sammamish

We had a dramatic weather change the last couple days we were in the Seattle area. It reached up to 93 degrees. So we made it to my favorite place... lake Sammamish. I swam for about an hour thanks to both grandmas down there watching my children :) I could of stayed there for ever. Except for reality calls. Pepper did get to drive the boat and go tubing. We put her on the tube with Robert... the whole time she was acting like she was bored. I thought of giving her a slightly wilder ride but then again she is only 15 months and a bored face is better then a crying one. We also went to the Newton pool. Pepper climbed a slide and went down by herself (and this is no small slide). Don't worry we did stand at the bottom to catch her though. I wish I got pictures. I will have to have my grandma send me some. But the moral of this story is I LOVE THE COMBINATION OF SUN + WATER!

Independance Weekend

First of all... the fourth of july seemed to stretch on and on this year. Saturday we went to the annual Sammamish 1 & 2 ward breakfast.
Then we went to my Grandpa & Grandma Newtons for a BBQ. My aunt Marti brought a litter of puppies with her. Here is Pepper looking at one of the puggles.
On Sunday we of course all wore red white & blue to church.
July 4 is also when Tabor turned 4 months old. So he got rice cereal for the first time.
We went over to Robert's Grandpa & Grandma Newtons for Sunday dinner. Here is Kristian James & Robert entertaining the kids.
And we bundled up and went on our boat to watch a firework show. Tabor stayed at home with his grandma Salmon because it was pretty cold. I love fireworks & the lake, so it was worth braving the weather.

Pen Pals Meet

Sarah and I having been long awaiting the day that Cecily and Pepper could play together. They met when Pepper was 4 months old, but the playing was at a minimum then. Anyway... I had kind of envisioned it being at the lake or pool or park or anything outdoors, but we were in WA and it did rain. There were a couple of breaks from the rain showers so we we played in my parents back yard. It was a good day. Pepper loved having someone her own size around that was gentle :) Pepper did hug Cecily and they both fell over, but other then that Pepper had a tear free day!

This is on Fathers day. Tabor had a blowout on the way home from church so we changed him into this "I am a child of God" T-shirt. Robert wore this T-shirt when he was a baby. I just thought it was a cute picture of the 2 of them.