First day of 1st Grade

Carmen started school yesterday. She is pretty excited about first grade, which you can tell by her enthusiastic fist pump in this picture! I think we all felt like doing a little fist pump because school was back in session.  She enjoys going to school and seeing her friends, and her sisters enjoy the day free from Carmen's "oldest child bossiness".  But I know they miss her because they ask all day long when it's time to go pick her up.

Carmen is getting so smart and so beautiful each new day. She is very into hair and "makeup" right now and wants to always look nice, which is a good change from last year when she couldn't care less about wearing the same clothes 3 days in a row to school or never wanted to brush her hair.

New backpack!

New Shoes - hopefully this year the backpack and shoes will last all year long. We decided to fork over the extra money to get good quality things this year, so I hope it pays off. 

And of course she needed some bling to go along with her sparkling personality!

Her teacher this year is Mrs. Shifflett. She is quite the contrast from Mr. Bernhardt last year.  Although he was a super teacher, I think Mrs. Shifflett is going to have just the right amount of enthusiasm and love of learning that Carmen will need to keep her motivated.

Before school started David gave each of us a special Father's Blessing. My dear friend wrote about this same thing on her blog and I just loved the way she described this special experience. (She is always so eloquent with her words!) But receiving a Father's blessing is a special moment in which you can really be made aware of your Heavenly Fathers love for you. You are reminded of all the special blessings he has in store for you. And like my friend said, as a mother it gives you a glimpse of the special spirit each of your children has and the potential they have to become something great!  And even little Charlotte sat perfectly still with her arms folded while David gave a blessing to her.   I'm so thankful for him and the strong spiritual leader he is in our home. 

Waiting at the bus stop with her friends Megan and Mark

Callaway Gardens - Family Reunion

       I don't know about the rest of my family, but I had been looking forward to this week for nearly three years, ever since it was announced where we would be spending family reunion.  The very first time I went to Callaway I was 3 years old, and I have been back four times since then. Our family loves this place, it's seriously the perfect family getaway.

    This year however was seriously HOT!!! The heat index each day was around 114 degrees and being "newly" pregnant, it was pretty miserable to even step outside. And my family got the stomach bug on the drive down AND the drive back. Seriously, throw up in the car should be featured on that show "World's Dirtiest Jobs" or whatever it's called, because it's so gross to clean up! And add being preggo sick on top of that.

    But it was a fun week and we were all pleased with the fun time we had there. In fact I was having so much fun that I didn't take any pictures the whole week. Finally on our last day there I decided to lug the camera around with me to catch some action shots, but this was also the day that Carmen and David both stayed in the cottage all day being sick. And Aliza was in her little camp classes all day, so as a result I have mostly pictures of Charlotte and my niece Peyton!

 This was probably my favorite day because David and I spent the whole day together alone! It started out with the idea to ride our bikes to the boat house to rent a canoe to take out on the lake. Well, we didn't realize how far the boat house was from our cottage. We rode for what seemed like forever and debated several time about turning back. But we persisted and finally arrived. The went out on the water for some time and then decided we needed to head back. We hadn't packed any food with us and only a little bit of water. We were so unprepared!

 The ride was beautiful, but I was exhausted afterwards! But I really did enjoy spending that day with David doing something out of the ordinary for us!

 We shared a cottage with my sister and her kids. The cousins had so much fun playing together!

 My mom made these cute matching outfits for my girls. She's so talented. I really need to learn to sew before my kids are "too cool" to wear something homemade!

 Reading while waiting for...something. We did a lot of hurry up and wait!

 Kids over the age of 3 got to go to camp classes all day, but Charlotte had to got to hang out with mom and dad all day. Besides the pool or lake, this little playground was her favorite spot.

 Throughout the week the kids learned fun little songs that they performed for the parents on the last day. It was so neat to see that they still teach them the same cute songs that I learned when I was 3 years old.

 Callaway Gardens is of course surrounded by beautiful gardens and nature. They also have a really fun butterfly center that we visited. My niece Peyton thought for sure this little butterfly wanted to go home with her!

 Charlotte with Oma at the Butterfly Center

 These two had so much fun with each other all day long!

 At Robin Lake - they kept trying to get this umbrella to stay up, but the wind kept blowing it over.

 Oh, and there's Carmen! She really was there. This was the whole family waiting for the circus to start. The performers are camp counselors by day and circus acrobats by night! 

This was the last official Teerlink Family Reunion, which is really sad to me. My grandparents have seven children. Now that their children are becoming grandparents themselves, they feel it's time for each of the families to start their own traditions. I think this is important, but I will miss the opportunity to see all my cousins together. I feel so blessed to have grown up close to so many of my extended family members and to know them each on such personal levels. It seems so many people don't even know their cousins! I think this is just so sad. So, not having an excuse to get together with them all is a little sad to me. But I'm grateful for my Grandparents who always made it a priority to establish family traditions to strengthen the bonds of the Teerlink Family.  And now hopefully we will each continue to strengthen those bonds within our own families.

The Beans Are Sprouting....Again

Just before leaving on our Palmyra trip we told the girls that we were expecting another baby. They quickly took what gender they wanted to a vote. The results:

Boy - 3

Girl - 1

I, on the other hand, am remaining neutral. As wonderful and fulling as it would be to have a boy, having another girl seems much simpler at the point. We already have everything girl we could possibly need! So, really I could go either way. At least that's what I say, having a boy actually terrifies me, but I know it would be so much fun.

So what do you think? BOY or GIRL for the Bean Family?

Palmyra Trip

In July our family made a trip up to Palmyra, NY to visit some church historical sites. The girls had become interested in the Joseph Smith story and when we told them we could visit those places, they got very excited!  

Carmen in the Smith Log Home - at one point the Gold Plates were hidden under the bricks of this fire place.

Hill Cumorah visitors center

 

In the Sacred Grove - this is where Joseph Smith went as a young boy and prayed to know which of all the churches in the area he should join. He was visited by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and had a remarkable experience in which he was told to join none of the existing churches, for the church Jesus Christ had established when he was alive was no longer on the earth. Throughout the remainder of Joseph's life, he was given instructions on restoring the original gospel of Jesus Christ. Inside the grove there is definitely a feeling of peace and sacredness. The girls recognized that feeling immediately. It was so special for all of us to be there together.

The entrance of The Grove

After visiting The Grove and Smith family home sites we also visited the Grandin Press where the first Books of Mormon were printed. Then we visited Hill Cumorah where anciently Moroni, of the Book of Moron, buried the gold plates to keep them safe. It was here that Joseph Smith found the plates and later went on the translate them to English. The Gold Plates contained the record of the ancient people who came over to America from Jerusalem, before it was destroyed. They inhabited North and South America. The golden plates are a record of their people, which was later translated into the Book of Mormon. 

 

Then we waited and waited and waited for the pageant to start! It was hot and we had already had a really long day, but we still had about 5 hours before the show would start. It had to be completely dark.  But it was fun to see all the characters walking around in costume. They were from all over the country, and each shared a different story of their pageant experiences. It was fun to talk with them and the girls loved their costumes.

The show finally did start and was amazing as always! It is so touching to see the entire story of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith come to life.

The next day we headed north up to Niagara Falls. A visit here isn't complete until you've gone on Maid of the Mist! This boat ride takes you right up to the base of the falls and can feel pretty intense - you also get soaking wet, despite the lovely rain ponchos!

 It was so hot that the mist felt really nice.

After Niagara Falls we headed back to Washington DC where we met up with David's sister Rebecca and her family. They were about to move to Germany with the Air Force and we wanted to see them one last time. They also have 3 girls!

 That's a lot of PINK!

 We spent most of the time monument hopping along the Mall. I've been to DC many times, but it had been a long time since I'd been to this end of the Mall. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, WWII  memorial and the Vietnam Memorial among others.

This was such a fun trip and we were able to pack a lot of things into just a few days. It was time to head home and repack our things for our trip to Georgia!

Summer Roundup

I just don't know where the time has gone, but the beginning of school is upon us and I haven't even documented our summer! It's been a summer of travel, which I'll post about soon, but mostly it's been low key and spent beating the heat.

We did several weeks of swimming lessons - this was the year of the goggles. Everyone wanted them, yet looked ridiculous in them!

 We couldn't leave swimming lessons without a visit to the horse stables. I think it was the highlight of the day for the girls.

 Although I don't have any pictures to prove it, both Aliza and Carmen made huge advances in their swimming this summer. I am so proud of how quickly they learned and how they overcame some big fears this summer.

 We also had a lot of play dates and did a lot of coloring, painting and crafting.  

And did most anything to keep cool!