Kelly the Kindergartener!!!!!

Yesterday was Kelly's FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!!! She was SO excited!!


I think Luke's pretty clueless when it comes to the girls and school and everything, but he sure showed me otherwise yesterday!! He was sad that Kelly had to go, and kept asking when we were going to pick her up- it was cute.


waiting by the door for Mrs. Davis to come out!


testing out the new playground


opening the door......


This is Kelly's cousin Marcus who started Kindergarten yesterday as well.


And here's Kelly with her friend Abby who is in our ward and now they are both in Mrs. Davis' class together- so cool!


waving goodbye!!!!!


and there she goes! My baby girl is in school..... I can't believe it.


This was her AFTER school, I wanted to get one of her walking out, but she was too fast for me.


Kelly has been looking forward to school ever since Charity started looking forward to school, so it's been a LONG wait for her. She was SO excited that morning she jumped out of bed, and was pretty much bouncing off the walls all morning. She got ready so fast, and was so sweet to everyone, wanted to have a "crown" in her hair- for her special day, and she didn't throw any tantrums- it was amazing. At the school she kept asking when I was going to leave, and telling me that she was okay by herself if I "needed to leave". She's so funny. I had to sit there and watch! And I think the fact that she was so thrilled to be there, and leaving me and all made it harder for me to not cry!! She gave me a big hug before she stood by the door, and didn't even look back once they started walking in the school :( They had a cute little BOO HOO BREAKFAST there in the Kindergarten area, fruit, muffins, juice, very cute idea- the boys loved it :) But they had this little poem about how hard it is to leave your parents, and how you feel all alone going to kindergarten, and that it will be soon that your mom will pick you up (I should find the little paper, and type it out) but it was so funny because I started reading it to Kelly and knew that NONE of it really applied to her..... so we stopped :) She even thought it was weird :) But anyway, she was just really ready to go to school.
She sure loved it too. We heard ALL about her day- she had a cookie, sang "Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar", stood in a circle, sang "5 Little Speckled Frogs" but they said, "ribbet, ribbet" instead of "GLUB GLUB", she saw James (from down the street) at recess, and made volcanoes with the wood chips, and she made a "School Tools Tool Box" to bring home. When I asked her what her favorite part of school was, she told me "the cookie!" I love it :) She told us all the new rules, and all the rewards she gets if she is good- and she made sure to point out that she "was the best in the class!" I'm really excited for her to have Mrs. Davis. So anyway. Big moment for us all.
The boys were cute having just the three of them with me for part of the day. Bradley discovered on the way home from the school, that he was the oldest!! That meant he was in charge!! (according to him :)) So I pretty much just let them do whatever :) Spoiled little boys. It was an interesting day. I'm happy for Kelly though, I think she will do great in school.

Grapes

On Sunday mornings after everyone is ready for Church we webcam with Daddy. The kids are always so funny during that time- and they are just really happy to be able to talk to and see their Daddy. These photos are of the kids putting grapes in their cheeks..... Luke started it.

We had a great Sunday (thought I would forget to update you didn't ya :)). Heidi slept over Saturday night and came to church with us Sunday. The kids were necessarily reverentER with her there, but it was nice to have someone to laugh with when Bradley's kicking the bottom of the bench or when Luke was screaming about someone taking his "pot". Heidi thought it was very entertaining :) Thanks again Heidi for your help- it was fun to have you over!!!

Swimming!

On Saturday I was dying for something fun to do- something different- and I stumbled upon this pool in Provo. It just happened to be the last day it was open too. But it was way cheap, and the kids had a TOTAL blast. I hesitated to take them all on my own, but I kept thinking about how Raquel used to take her Day Care kids swimming all the time, and I thought I would try it. At the last minute I thought of calling Heidi (even though we were already planning on seeing her later in the evening), and left a message for her to come join us. Luckily she showed up! But we all had such a good time!! Thanks again Heidi for coming- the kids love you!

Luke was an animal- we had such a hard time keeping our eyes on him- he was all over the place. He has so much fun in the water, I can't believe it! And he's SO FEARLESS. I always think of those kids I taught in swimming lessons that wouldn't even set foot in the water, or were too scared to put their faces in..... NOT LUKE!


Bradley loved the pool .... he's a little smarter about making sure he knows where I am - but he was hard to keep track of as well.


Here's bradley at the top of the slide... I couldn't believe how quickly they tried the slide- I thought for sure they would have to think about it first... guess I don't know my kids as well as I thought I did.


The girls were just hard to get pictures of :) they LOVED this place and couldn't stop moving.


I didn't get one of Kelly in the water, but she's just a little fishy too. Heidi got a kick out of how messed up Kelly's hair was the ENTIRE time, and no matter how hard they tried to fix it it just kept going funny.




This was our attempt to get a picture of EVERYONE together :) Maybe next time we'll just ask someone to take it for us :) Course I don't mind my face being all that you can see of me in a swimsuit :) Noah had THE TIME OF HIS LIFE!!! He was kicking and splashing the whole time, and just couldn't stop watching all the kids and people around him. He also found his voice while we were there. He started doing this weird yelling/growling thing I think out of excitement, but he's been doing it ever since :) It's pretty cute though. I love it when they discover new things like that.


This is one Bradley took- I had to bribe him to get in the previous picture- he really likes using the camera.

an abstract one that Brad took


My kids have the hardest time with the whole- get out of the water so the lifeguards can test it and take a break time. Cracks me up how stressed out they get about whether they will be able to get back in and when..... crazy kids.


And I have to say that I just LOVE this picture- I think it's the funniest thing ever. There are just too many things wrong in this picture to not love it :) (maybe we should have let bradley take a potty break before :) lol)


Just trying to pretend like Summer's not over yet I guess :) Fun was had by all, Saturdays are the best!

AWWWWW!!!!

I couldn't resist putting this on here. He's such a cute sleeper. He's been so bouncy lately, just really aware of EVERYTHING that is going on. And he gives THE BEST hugs!! So cute.

The Halfway Mark

We made it halfway!!!! WAHOO!!! Only 45 more days and Nate will be cuddling with me on the couch again. It's kind of funny because just last night it hit me that I have a whole, Queen size bed all to myself (most nights). How lucky am I!!! That's more room than I have EVER had to sleep :) I will GLADLY give Nate his 3/4 of the bed back when he gets home though :) (lol jk, Nate) I hate sleeping by myself. I can't wait to have him back!!!!! I never would have imagined that I would survive this long without Nate. It's not how I like it, but we made it and now it's all downhill from here :) YAY!

Charity's First Day of FIRST GRADE!!

Look how grown up she is, the little stinker!! I feel like she's just getting too old these days.



Bradley was excited for her



Kelly was jealous that she didn't get to start yet, and sad that her big sis was going to be gone.



There she is- I barely got a chance to snap a picture of her inside the door. Not nervous at all apparently, not as nervous as I was anyway :)



This is Charity LAST YEAR on her first day of Kindergarten. She really has changed!! I can't believe it. I love that she picked a black and white shirt for her first day both years. Interesting.....



It's that time again!! I seriously cannot believe how weird I felt today sending Charity to school again. It was the weirdest feeling!! I just felt like it was all happening without me. One minute she was there talking about the big playground, and the next minute she was gone! I don't like it!! I miss her already! She was sure different this time from last year.....she literally threw her arms around my neck, planted a big wet one on my cheek, and then flew into the school with the unknown Ms. Groom within milliseconds of the teacher announcing who she was and that that was where her students were to go. Crazy. Anyway- I didn't cry at least, but I still just can't get over this feeling. We decided to walk/ride bikes to school this morning. I gave us an hour to get there, and we were WAY early, so pretty good I think! That seems like the way to go at least until the weather doesn't agree. We'll see how picking up goes today too :)

Maryn's Wedding Day

What a fun day!! It was so neat to be able to see Maryn and James sealed. They really are a cute couple. The day went really well. I was surprised to have survived a wedding without Nate, but I guess it wasn't on my own anyway- I had so much help from Nate's family. Sure would have been different otherwise. Heavenly Father is so cool too- he totally just sends me little miracles like arriving in the parking garage at the same time as Grandpa Russ and Grandma Ruthie and being able to park right by them- what are the odds, I mean really! So that was awesome. The whole idea of walking to the temple grounds from the garage had me wondering until I saw them pull up right behind us. So anyway- it was a really great day! I was a little disgusted with how my pictures turned out....as you can see none of them were that good....hopefully I can get my hands on some better ones. And I'm a little bummed that I didn't take any at the luncheon or the reception. I was lazy, and now I'm regretting it. So anyway. Just a little sidenote: you should have seen the diaper blowout Noah had in the Mother's Lounge at the church!!! HOLY MOLY!!! It had to have been like a week's worth of poop all over the place (with a little help from his siblings, long story, I'll spare you the details) Anyway...... Congratulations Maryn and James!!!!

Maryn is Nate's oldest brother's daughter, so our neice. It's so crazy that Lynn is old enough to have a son-in-law!!! I hope he's taking good notes on the whole parenting adult children thing, because we're gonna be coming to him for advice in about 15 years!! CRAZY!!

They really do look SO CUTE together!!

Charity and Kelly were so obsessed with Maryn and her "pretty dress". They kept wanting to go give her hugs. It's like seeing Cinderella at Disneyland or something. They said some really funny things on the way to the temple, I will have to put those down when I find the paper I wrote them on.

Don't ya just love Utah :)

So this is kind of funny to me, maybe you'll just think I'm a dork for taking pictures of it, but I saw this shortly after we got back to Utah and I couldn't help but laugh. This first pictures shows 2 LDS churches in the same parking lot :)....


And this one- the funniest one- shows a STOP LIGHT as you are leaving the church parking lot :) There is so much traffic in and out of here they needed a stop light :) How funny. I'm still laughing :)


We had a fun weekend. First the Bean Museum, then ice cream (oh, let's not forget our chips and bread picnic :) that was pretty fascinating for the kids :) jk), then in an effort to save money on gas for the weekend we headed on up to Bountiful. I had planned on staying at my Dad's after the wedding stuff on Friday since there was a reunion in Bountiful Saturday, but then that little plan slowly evolved into staying Thursday night too- since I was already going all the way to Provo. When we got to Bountiful we went over to Nana's and destroyed her house for a couple of hours before crashing at Grandpa's. We had to get up early for the wedding the next day. Friday was Maryn's wedding day. Then we spent the night at my Dad's again. Saturday we went over to Nana's house again, and we helped her pain killers make her head spin. Then we met up with my Mom at the park for a few hours and had chicken fingers. And then we went over to a different park for the Ferguson Reunion. I have yet to steal pictures from others that we were with this weekend, but I will get them on here eventually. So then after the reunion when I was taking Nana home, my car started acting really strange. Dying at every stoplight. Really annoying. So we headed on up to my Dad's to have him take a look at it. My poor Dad. He probably nervous just looking at me these days...everytime we see him it's something different we need his help with......but anyway- he wasn't sure what it was and it was pretty late, so we ended up staying ANOTHER night at his house (this was the 3rd night, 2nd unplanned). Sunday was interesting- Kelly's eyes were BOTH red and goopy (I thought maybe it was just allergies the day before when it was just the one eye, but it looked more like pink eye on Sunday) so we decided church was probably out of the question. SO anyway- we finally got home- in Grandpa's car- at 5:00 Sunday evening. Hopefully my car will not have something too terrible wrong with it and we can get our car back soon. Thanks again Dad for saving the day....we made it home for Charity to start school today and that was a blessing. That was our crazy long weekend :) It was fun. It was nice again to get out of the house, one last little "fling" before the Summer was officially over.

The Bean Museum

Last Thursday we met up with Andrea and her kids at the M.L. Bean Museum on BYU campus. I guess it's like a taxidermy school type thing. They have all the stuffed animals to look at, the BUGS!!!! were a big hit too, and then they had some live reptiles to pet and hold as well. The kids had a total blast looking at the animals, and running around with Charley.
Here's Charity petting the snake.


Kelly, Charity and Charley petting the snake.


Bradley was cute with the turtle.




I think is a cute one of Ean looking up at the turtle- Andrea if you click on the pictures you can save them in the big format for yourself. I'm the psycho camera-happy mom that took pictures of every second there :)


I really like this one of Kelly too :) She's such a cutie.


Luke snuck in a few little pets of each one, he seemed somewhat nervous to hold any of them or get too close. Very surprising to me.








lol I LOVE this one :)


HA! This one too :) Andrea, he's hilarious! Poking the thing's eyes :) LOL



almost the whole group- the cooperative ones :)


I thought it was so cool that Luke still remembers what a Moose is :) Not too many 2 year olds would have that one down yet :) Love it.
We had such a good time- thanks again Andrea!!!