Jason when he woke up this morning:

"Mommy we need to dig a big huge tunnel all the way to Daddy's room at work and stick a hidden microphone in it that says over and over GO HOME, GO HOME, GO HOME."

I think he misses his dad already.

With Benj heading back to work next week our blissful summer is about to end. This means all of the wonderful help I have had from him will be gone during the day. Jason has lead a pretty free summer and has enjoyed a little more one on one time since both parents have been home. I decided I needed to make a schedule for his day so when it is just me and the kids at home he will have more ideas that just T.V. and video games to do.

I made magnets that have specific activities on them. I then made a chart with the day split into morning, afternoon and evening. Each morning I will decide which activities I would like Jason to do during the different time periods in the day and put the magnets in the slots. He then has the freedom to choose which activity he wants to do from the specific time period we are in and what activity he would like to do next and move those magnets to the top. Once he has finished up with an activity it goes to the bottom to use again the next day. I hope this will be a good way to limit his T.V., and video game time to once a day and for 30 minutes and help give him a little more structure when he is thinking of things. I am also excited because it will help me make sure we are planning for and doing his "school" time each day. That is the plan at least!

Anyway, I thought I would share!

We got to spend last week in Washington visiting our families. We got out a slip in slide for the kids to play with a day we were there. Jason had a blast running and sliding. Samantha sat and splashed a little in the water. Kaitlin had no fear and insisted on crawling up and down the slip in slide even with the water spraying her in the face. It was funny and she was determined. It was a good day.

We have been working hard this summer fixing up our new house. And, since we have had some people requesting some pictures of all of our hard work we decided to finally take some. We also made a little movie so you can get the full effect. So far we have just done a LOT of painting, but we did sheet rock and finish over the ceiling in the front room as well and add a chandelier and a light fixture in the front room. For the record too the bathrooms are no longer red. They are now a lovely white :-). If you had seen them before you would know why white is such an improvement!

My rooms are lacking some accessories, but I we will get to the colorful pillows, curtains, and whatnots one of these days :). We love how much more bright and clean the house feels now. So, for our Washington/Utah/Florida/California family (and everyone else who cares ) out there this is for you!

Before:

After:

My beautiful sister and her husband flew in from Florida last week to visit! I asked Jason to guess who was coming and I told him to guess someone who he loved very much. He said Julie and Andy right away. Not only did we get to see her cute pregnant belly, but Grandma and Grandpa Murdock came to to visit too. We had a wonderful time! One of the days they were here we went to the Washington County fair here in Hillsboro. We had a great time.

Check out the ADORABLE hats my mom bought the girls. I love them!