Give,

Give,

it will make you happy!

Imagine how great things would be if we all were...

Beautiful on the inside.

I just love this artist. I was so happy to find her art at our local summer art fair. When I saw my girls playing in the leaves yesterday, it reminded me of these beautiful prints. See more of her work at Etsy.

Time

Tonight I sat on my bathroom floor for twenty minutes.

The house was quiet - the older girls on a bike ride with Kirk. Izzy had just gotten out of the bath tub and wanted to brush my hair.

So I sat.

She brushed, combed and 'braided'. At first, I my mind started making a list of all of the chores I should have been doing - dishes, pajamas, teeth brushing, etc.

Then I realized.

Sitting quietly with Izzy is what I needed to be doing and the list vanished from my mind. Which is amazing, considering what a task oriented person I am.

Right now Kirk is outside looking at the moon through the telescope with the girls. He loves spontaneous moments like this and they come naturally to him. For me, on the other hand, they do not come naturally.

But I am learning.

I hope to have many more quiet moments with my kids before they are too big to appreciate them with me.

Saturday is a special day...

It's the day we do something as a family. Like...

Riding our bikes to city beach.

There is a great path along the lake from our neighborhood to City Beach. It's a little undeveloped (adventurous) in spots, but fun and beautiful. There are plans to develop the trail. To see what the proposed new trail looks like and see what you can do to help, check out the Friends of Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail website.

Potty Training update

Without giving too many details you probably don't want to hear anyway, let me just say that Izzy is doing amazingly well with the transition from diapers to panties. She has been at it for a week and a half now and hasn't had an accident in days.

I can't take much credit - she was just ready. Potty treats are also a big help.

Way to go Izzy!

Thanks for making this milestone so easy on your mother!

Labor Day Rafting

We spent labor day doing one of the things we love best - Rafting. We took four days and ran the lower Salmon river in central Idaho. It was a beautiful trip with plenty of adventure (ask Maren about how she saved Grandpa in the rapids). The girls love spending time with grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

Bruce joined us as our newest rafting recruit. Kelli trained him well and we are hoping the rest of his family can come along next year.

We always enjoy sleeping under the stars. As always, the food was excellent. Thanks to everyone who was willing to pitch in and feed us so well.

Another successful family vacation, Davidson style!

All In Jest

My super talented, super creative friend Jenee just added a few more adorable creatures to her Etsy store. Check her out at All In Jest. Wouldn't this adorable 'Sophie Softie' doll make a great baby gift?

Potty Time

It's time. Izzy is ready. So today we cleared our schedule, pulled out the panties,

the skittles,

and set the timer every 30 minutes.

Wish us luck! I'm hoping to cross diapers off my grocery list for good in the near future.

Summer is OVER

Summer officially ended today! It's turned cold - I don't think it's gotten above 60F today - and rainy. On top of that, today was the first day of school.

Summer is over!!

But we drug out summer as long as possible. We pulled in the driveway late last night from a wonderful rafting trip (I will post on that sometime soon). The girls showered, picked out their first day outfits and went to bed. This morning it was busy, but not to chaotic as we woke early, tried to re-start early morning scripture study, made lunches and drove to school in time to drop of each child to their new classroom with a VERY LARGE bag of school supplies.

I did not have time to take photos before school, but I did manage to get one as everyone arrived home. Just picture the girls with less messy hair and you can imagine what they looked like as the walked out to their new classes.

Maren started Kindergarten today. She was a little nervous and kept telling me she wasn't going to go. But she did fine and even made a new friend. We are sad that our favorite Kindergarten teacher retired, but Maren has a new teacher that is very excited and we hope she has a good year.