Finally!!

Nate finally lost a tooth! He was so excited to get to be in the lost tooth club at school. He was so excited that he carried it around and lost it in the hall. The tooth Fairy must have found it in the night because in the morning his dollar was on the floor in the hall.

Monkey's Birthday

Happy Birthday to Hazel!!
Truman and Syd Baked the cake and Truman decorated it. I think it turned out really cute.

The Birthday girl was full of smiles today.

Every present she opened she would exclaim "Oh its just what I wanted!"

One more candle to blow out.

Ohh, the humiliation

Ladies and Gentelmen

Emma's wedding this week was beautiful, the girls were beautiful in their white dresses with blue satin sashes, and the boys were gentlemen, the weather was great, the cake turned out lovely (but I forgot my camera at the reception so I don't have a photo), the temple ceremony was nice. And we got to spend a day playing in Moab which was also very fun. I am oh-so very glad to be home!

Hazel's Real First Day

Today was Hazel's real first day of Preschool. Here she is bright and shining with her piggy-tails all curled! ARRGH I can't believe my baby is so grown-up.

Sydney's Party (Finally)

I only allow the kids to invite friends to their birthday party every other year... Well this is the other year. Sydney really wanted to have a pool party but the pool is being remodeled and won't be done until the end of September sometime. So she decided to have a party with water balloons. They had a great time in the back yard, made their own pizzas, and had cake an ice-cream. Sydney was very patient waiting for the party to happen and she agrees with me that it was fun enough to make up for the wait!

First Day of School

Christian "Big Man on Campus" this year, is in 9th grade (at the Junior High). Big events to lok forward to: Marching Band and Seminary.

Hazel "Little Big Man on Campus", is in the Monkey Class at Preschool this year. Looking forward to her birthday in 2 weeks.

Sydney also "Big Man on Campus" at the elementary school (6th grade). Looking forward to a bid for a student council position, saxophone lessons again after the summer off, and wearing this yellow bug shirt to "bug" her teacher. The shirt previously belonged to Truman who also found joy in wearing it to bug the same teacher. Also looking forward to taking Dejay to school with her on Fridays.

Nate "Mr. Macho" that's me! First grade is off to a great start. Looking forward to playing with Lilly and going to music at school.

Rebekah "Pleased as Punch", is pleased as always with her 2nd grade teacher, Miss Vickers. Abby also had Miss Vickers in 1st and 3rd grades so we are all acquainted with how much fun her class can be.

Abby "Animal Antics" is hoping to continue her pursuit of a veterinarian degree by reading all the "pet mystery" books that 4th grade has to offer. She is most looking forward to making new friends and attempting to change the spelling of her name from Abby to Abi.

Truman "The Independent" is in 7th grade (also at the Junior High). He is enjoying his freedom, hence he insisted on being photographed on the bike. He is looking forward to Band, Jazz Band, and lots of homework.

Hot Dog or It's a Dog's Life

Got Milk?

We didn't this morning. Nor eggs... Hmmm. How to disguise the rehydrated milk that is being served at breakfast, that is the question of the day. So I did the only logical thing. I put powdered milk, powdered eggs, sugar, a little vanilla, a pinch of nutmeg, and some ice in the blender and fill it with water. TA-DA instant eggnog and some great milk mustaches!
(and after breakfast... a trip to the store.)

Car Wash

After all our travels our van was really really dirty. Thank heavens for kids, they worked all morning cleaning inside and out. It is clean again!

Play Like a Kid Again

As my kids get bigger I sometimes am reminded that their bodies are big but they are still kids. We went to the zoo and everyone enjoyed a good frolic.

Pit Fall

Tonight for dinner we were kept company by Christian's marching band section. We had chicken Enchiladas and turtle bars with ice cream. I loved the energy and laughter. All 11 members of the "Pit" were well mannered and several asked if they could come live here. This picture is after they ate about 30 enchiladas, a 9x13 pan of turtle bars and a half-gallon of icecream. The best compliments of all came during the ride back to the school, there were lots of thank yous, 2 boys claimed they loved me, and one called me Mom.

The trip is officially over

I had this idea for our trip to make it memorable... I printed photos all along the way on our grand adventure and each kid made their own scrapbook of the trip while we drove. I thought that Christian and Truman would think it was a dumb idea, but a week into the trip I heard Christian proclaim that his scrapbook was the coolest. I was hoping that the books would serve as life long reminders of the great adventure that we took, partly because I don't know if we would ever do it again. The books are that, but there was also the unexpected benefit that the books took hours and hours to make. Hours and hours that could have been spent fighting or complaining, they were busy cutting, taping and writing. I am making the scrapbook idea near the top of my "Good ideas I've had" list.

Today most of the kids put the finishing touches on their books.

Anybody looking for a Hero?

Ian (my brother) gave me (it is mine, I wrote my name on it with a sharpie) a Playstation 2. When I arrived home from the trip I let the kids work in the morning and they play Guitar Hero in the afternoons. I didn't give any time limits with the hopes of letting the younger kids get better than Dadd, Christian and Truman. It worked. Now that everyone is home there has been a lot of piano practicing and house cleaning going on so that the heros can battle. I am sure that there has been a great leap in the eye hand coordination around here. The kids were laughing pretty hard thta Kenneth had to practice the piano and mow my lawn yesterday before he could get on stage.

Silly Spider Girl

I really love my Hazel... She has at times been quite a challenge for us, she has taxed my patience as well as my parenting skills. 2 years old was truly hideous, 3 years old was better. Now as birthday #4 approaches, I am catching the vision of what kind of person she might be... Funny. Funny is what she is. After all the struggling to get it right, it is great have some comic relief! Here she is in all her Spiderific Glory.