We just finished our first week of school.  The summer went by so fast and it was fun-- day camp, girls' camp, 4th of July in Idaho Falls, funnest cousin time, staying with grandparents, and roaring springs 3 times, one of those times with cousins. Everyone is happy so far and it looks like a great school year...5 days in.  It's Kamryn's last year of middle school.  She's in 8th grade and is trying out new things, one of which is being a T.A. for one of her favorite teachers from 6th grade. She had to pick between this and choir, and so far she thinks it was a great choice.  Halli is in 7th grade and when asked what the best part is so far, she replied, "not being the youngest grade at the school."  Halli made the volleyball team after 3 days of rigorous try outs.  She said it's so bad, worse than P90x, and she loves it.  I didn't question that, just smiled.  A fun thing about this year is that Kamryn and Halli have 7th period together--computers.  Zack is in 4th grade and is a guy of little answers, but says he likes his new teacher and is happy about some of his friends being in his class. Jaxon is enjoying hanging out and doesn't seem to be too bored with me yet, but there's time.  Happy New School Year to everyone!

Enough Said

My baby is 3. Enough said.

We have a TEENAGER among us!

So, as of yesterday, we have a teenager among us. Kamryn turned 13 yesterday! She has been waiting for this birthday for a while, to be able to say her age with it ending in "teen." We celebrated from 8:45 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. We just happened to notice this as we were having cake at 8:45 last night, way later than planned. Her birthday wishes have changed since she was little. For this day, she wanted to go shopping at the mall with me and out to lunch with Lance. First of all, I am not a fan of the mall (haven't been there in years), second it was a Saturday, and third, it's 2 weeks before Christmas. But she had been looking forward to this for a long time. So, we went. Kamryn wanted to know why it took so long to find a parking spot :) But it was fun to see how excited she was to go into any store she wanted. She took her babysitting money and was super smart with how she spent it. As we left the mall 2 1/2 hours later, all I had to do was look at the smile on my teenage daughter's face to know that it was well worth dealing with the crowds and chaos to take her shopping at the mall. Happy Birthday, Kamryn. You are a great teenager...so far. 2 days down... :)

HELLO!!!

OK,

So my mom has been bad about putting on new post things or whatever you call it. Now its my turn. This is Kamryn. I turned 12 in December. I am loving middle school. My teachers are AWESOME! If you didn't know, I have braces. At first I liked them but now I am so ready to get them off. That last thing that I posted was a long time ago so I wanted to tell you new stuff. I am in 6th grade and I am a beehive now. Young Womens is great. I am so excited to go to camp. It will be my first year. Tonight I have a choir concert. I love to sing and choir is much better than band. If you didn't know either that I am not in band anymore, I am not in band anymore. I wasn't having very much fun just after I had started. I became less fond of my instrument and the teacher started to seem a little mean. So I switched to choir. I think my choir teacher, Mr. Olsen, is one of the best teachers that I have had. So...........ya- that is pretty much all I have to tell you. Um, my

favorite color: purple

favorite animal: koala

favorite food: pasta

favorite movie: Ramona and Beezus or The Lighting Thief

favorite singer: Carrie Underwood

favorite song: Find Yourself in You

favorite subject: not science, writing duh

favorite hobby: scrapbooking

A Different Kind of School Year

So, school started two weeks ago, and I still can't believe it. Neither can Jaxon. Where did Kam, Halli, and Zack go? The only thing that takes away some sadness for Jaxon is the garbage truck on Monday mornings. The only thing that takes away my sadness is a morning nap with Jaxon, which is much needed after our morning school routine.
Kamryn started middle school!!! So crazy. So fun! She loves it--the locker, changing teachers and rooms for each class, making new friends, sitting anywhere and with anyone at lunch, trying an intrument (the cornet--a small trumpet), so many fun new things. I asked her if she misses middle school and she said no way! Her morning starts at 5:30 and her bus comes at 6:56. My first reaction was, WHAT TIME? I still feel that way. TOO EARLY. So once we get Kam on the bus, we start with Halli's and Zack's morning.
Halli loves 5th grade. After an extremely difficult year in 4th grade, Halli's first couple weeks of 5th have been great. She has an amazing teacher who visits each student's house in the first month of school. We had our visit already and that made Halli love her teacher even more. She is making some good friends and having fun--really what I mostly care about as a mom since I know all three kids are great students (they get their smarts from Lance). She is happy after school and tells me all the great things about her day.
Zack thinks 2nd grade rocks! He got to loop with his 1st grade teacher and he and I are both so happy to have her as a teacher again. He also has his best buddies from 1st in his class again. He is already racing along--his teacher sent me an emailing saying after testing Zack in reading, that he is now in a High Challenge Reading Program. He loves to read when he can sit still long enough. But as much as he loves school, he is always eager to come home and turn our house into Lego Star Wars with whatever he can find.
Poor Jax. Stuck with me. I just don't make car noises the way Zack does or chase him the way the girls do. But I am a great companion for watching the garbage truck!
Here's to a great beginning of a new school year! Bring on 2nd, 5th, and middle school! Oh, and diapers and sippy cups!

The end of Elementary School

Today Lance and I watched our children walk to the bus. They were so excited for school today--the last day--field day--water games day--I don't need a backpack day. We waved bye to them and told them to have a blast. Watching Kamryn walk away was a little sad and a little exciting. Today is her last day of elementary school. Yesterday was her 5th grade graduation. It was really great. She was so happy. She had a good year, with the exception of a life lesson, and had a good teacher. She is ready to move on. A couple months ago I thought I wasn't ready for her to move on, but that changed when we went to the middle school open house last month. It was an awesome experience for her and seeing her face light up at everything about middle school changed my sadness into excitement for her. So, this morning, yes I had a twinge of sadness watching my first baby walk to the elementary school bus for the last time. But...the fun is just about to begin for Kamryn!

Halli Our Palli

I was looking through pictures just now on our computer and saw this one of Halli 4 years ago. She may be older now, but this is truly Halli---bright blue eyes, big smile, and spunkiest girl I've ever met.

Chrissa and Josephina

For the past 3 Christmases, Nana and Grandpa have given Kamryn and Halli American Girl dolls. They are treasured in our house and played with often. Here are the newest additions...

Christmas...2 months later

I have been thinking I should add to our blog for the last 3 months, but there is always a miniature person or chore that needs my attention. Anyway, we had such a great Christmas. It was so simple and so quiet and so perfect. I remember last Christmas thinking "Next year we will have an almost 1 year old. How strange..." And then all of a sudden, it was Christmas again and we had an almost 1 year old. It was just the 6 of us and we had a late start to the day and a slow morning. We did very little for Christmas this year, so there wasn't a pile of gifts. I think we will make that a new tradition. It was so nice to slowly open presents and let the kids just play and enjoy and appreciate the gifts they received. We talked with family members and one of the best things about the day was a call from my brother Matt, who is in Afghanistan for a while. It was so wonderful to hear his voice and be reminded of what is really important at Christmastime and all the time. I love Christmas--the music, the lights, the spirit it brings, the peace, the fireplace going when it's cold outside, watching each child's face as they open the gift they have been hoping for, being together, no work or school. It's my favorite time of year.

Halloween!

We had such a fun Halloween! Our second Halloween with cousins from Idaho Falls and Meridian. And that is the funnest way to do Halloween! Kam, Halli, and Zack were anticipating it for weeks. Kamryn and Halli knew for a while what they wanted to be for Halloween--Kamryn was Lola from Hannah Montana and Halli was a soccer player. Zack, however, couldn't decide. As soon as he heard his cousin Tyler was going to be Luigi, the decision making was over. He decided he just had to be Mario. They were funny to watch together.

Jaxon wore monster pajamas and he definitely makes a good monster. A sweet monster.

Our Halloween fun started with dinner with cousins where they got a free kids meal at Sizzler for dressing up in their costumes. Then we went trunk or treating at the cousins' church building. We finished up with trick or treating in their neighborhood. It was a great night! Thanks Amy and Derek and cousins!

Fun with Jax!

Zack is 7!

Zack is 7! His day started out with the traditional cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs and unwrapping of gifts. It was a school day, which is a gift in itself since he loves school and would live in Mrs. Adamson's class if he could. I took treats into his class that afternoon and the highlight was picking friends to help pass them out. Then when we got home, Lance surprised Zack by coming home early. The big surprise of the day was going to see Where the Wild Things Are. Zack really liked it! Not everyone agreed, but the birthday boy loved it. Then we quickly hit McDonalds half price night on the way home so we could come home for cupcakes and ice cream. Zack had requested a spider cake for his birthday, but seemed to be happy with spooky cupcakes instead.

Some of Zack's favorite things right now...

Playing with cousins and friends

School

Running

Playing outside

Writing stories

Drawing

NOT soccer

Making everyone laugh

Being lots of different characters in a matter of minutes

...Happy Birthday Zack! We love you!

Class Pet

A few weeks into school, Kam's teacher asked if I would come in each week so Jaxon and I could listen to students read. As we were talking, the teacher said the class had been asking if they could have a class pet. During the conversation, she got the idea that maybe instead of a class pet, they could have a class baby...Jaxon. This was a great idea because Jaxon is a class favorite already. Any time we walk into the classroom, we hear Jaxon's name being called from many different directions and the students start to swarm him. So I told her he could definitely be the class baby, but he could also be considered the class pet since he has found his voice and likes to growl and make all sorts of noises. So now Mrs. Sprague's 5th grade class has a class pet and a class baby all in one!

The Best Weekend Ever...for my husband!!!

So, Lance just got back from such a fun weekend. A dream weekend for him. He went to visit his sister and her family in Dallas and to see his two favorite college teams play at his favorite professional team's stadium. He said it was like seeing Atlantis or like being the boy in Willy Wonka who saw the chocolate fountain. Anyway, so fun. For a while, we didn't think it would work out for a few reasons, but in the end it worked out perfectly. He hasn't taken many trips and this was a hard trip to beat. His sister knew how much he would love it and what it would mean to him, so she saved him a game ticket. My brother sent him an airline ticket (compliments of his job and generosity) and off Lance went Thursday morning. He texted and called several times throughout the weekend and I could tell he was having a great time. He had so much fun hanging out with Rainie and family. He also came back with some examples for our kids of how well cousins listen to their parents. It was back to the daily grind this morning, but he had the best weekend! Thank you Rainie, Chris, and Ben for Lance's awesome weekend!!!!

First Day of School!

"What do Mom and I do now?"

















"Here we come 1st grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade!"

Kamryn and Halli

More pictures I love. When I look at these pictures, I can't believe how grown up our girls are. Halli turned 9 this summer and Kamryn will be 11 in a few months. How is it possible? I love my beautiful girls.

Zack and Jax

It's photos like these that make me smile and laugh and forget all the tough times.

The new Jaxon!

So I am full of good intentions, but not following through. Kristel and Sarah both mentioned I need to update, so here is at least a Jaxon update. He is almost 7 months and these photos are from the last couple months. He lost his full head of dark hair and was looking bald with a comb-over. Now his hair is starting to grow back in and look even again. The newest hair is looking blonde. He is a smiley guy and adores his sisters and brothers. He has had 3 ear infections in the last 4 months, but doesn't complain much. At his 6 month check up he weighed 18 lbs!! He still doesn't beat Zack at a whopping 19 1/2 pounds at 6 months. Jaxon is so fun and the time is going by way too fast!