Family Picture Prep

The main thing on my mind this week has been getting clothes ready for our family pictures. I was able to make some good progress today. I think we're going with a earthy fall color palate - you know, colors that are outside - sky blue, white clouds, yellow sunflowers, green grass, tan wood and brown dirt. 

It has been great to have Melodie home here to help watch the kids while I try to go gather clothing ideas and get other stuff done. She took the kids to the park last night - 

She was playing with Peter and Katharine in the back yard after I returned from my clothes hunt.

She is great to have around. And not only cause she's a great helper and sitter. She and I were also able to go on an hour long walk-and-talk around Bell Canyon today, which was really nice. We should have done that more this summer. We live in such a beautiful area. It's good to get outside and enjoy it and especially having good company. Taking a pic of Mel on a rock.

Mel taking a picture of me doing a headstand to add to my collection. 

So anyway, I got quite a few things today - so that there are options to choose from, depending on what each kid thinks looks good on them and what they want to wear. I picked up two dress options for Katharine. I'm very grateful for Kid to Kid and the DI. Thank you, dear thrift stores, for saving us a lot of money over the years.

White dress, pearls, and new white shoes! Katharine will be the princess of our family photos for sure. I don't think she's quite ready for pig tails in her hair though...

After I did my shopping, I let Mel take the van down to Provo so she could go move in and get settled in her new apartment. I let her take two chrysalides. All bucked up in the passenger seat ~

I trust Mel with caterpillars. Unfortunately, Corey also gave two chysalides to Ethan, and he left them in his hot car and they got cooked. So that was sad. It's been a bit of a rough year with caterpillars so far - I've been sharing them more freely with others, and that might prove to have been a bit worse for the butterflies, but I won't know for sure until I crunch my numbers later in the fall. Still, even with the few deaths we have, it's probably still better, number wise, than not trying at all. Now as for the strength of the monarchs that are babied inside, that is still up for debate. They might not be hardy enough for the migration trip, but we'll keep our fingers crossed that they'll figure it out. Katharine is learning how to find butterflies - looking at the milkweed leaves!

It's cute to see her imitate so much of what we do (like the kisses and push ups from Wednesday).

So this week has been kids, caterpillars, and finding clothes. I think we'll be ready for Saturday! It will be a bit of a crazy day, I'm sure, but no matter how crazy the build up is, the pictures have always turned out nice. I'm so glad that Hyrum is home and that Wesley is still here (he's started his mission papers!) - I'm excited to have family pictures with "everyone" again!