Random Pictures

I try to make Hallee wear these cute hats, but she never wants to leave them on.

I have to snap a picture quick before she pulls the hat off.  I love this picture.  Hallee has such a funny personality. 

She loves to brush her teeth and she is the queen of crazy hair!

We had fun playing with Grace and Max last week. The kids always pick up right where they left off even if they haven't seen each other for a while.

I looked over and saw Wyatt sitting like this.  I thought he looked so cute!  He cried the other day when we dropped the kids off at school.  He wants to go to school and be a big kid so bad.

Last week I snapped a few pictures of the kids after church.  Keith had to work last Sunday, which has never happened, but he didn't have a choice so we made the best of it.  I was so nervous to take the kids alone.  Every Sunday Keith and I are both frazzled after Sacrament meeting because the kids are so loud and crazy!

They were pretty good for me.  I'm glad that is not a usual thing!

Walk for the cure

Today Keith's company sponsored a 5K for juvenile diabetes.  This morning we headed down to Liberty Park to join in the fun.  It was tough to wake up because we were at Katie and Ben's house too late last night (it was totally worth it though, so fun).  There was a ton of people there so the first part of the walk was frustrating because we had to go slow and we couldn't get around people. 

After a little over a mile the kids didn't want to walk anymore so Keith was nice enough to take them over to play so I could finish the walk.  It was so much nicer without the stroller so I could pass people and get some good exercise.  The kids had fun getting their faces painted.  Caitlyn looks so old in this picture. 

After that they had a blast in the bounce houses.  Wyatt loved bouncing and going down the slides.

Caitlyn and Jonah loved the obstacle course one.  They had fun racing each other. When we got there Caitlyn was nervous when she saw dogs all over the place.  She wants to over come her fear so bad.  She did so great with Ruby and I think that helped a lot.  She decided she wanted to be brave so she spent the morning petting dogs.  I'm so proud of her.  I love to see her push herself. 

After that they gave us lunch.  The kids were so excited to get a soda.

Hallee got a short nap in the stroller and she was more than ready to get out after lunch.

We went over to the park and played after lunch.

It was a really fun day.  I'm glad we fought the urge to stay in bed!

First day of school

Wednesday was the first day of school.  I think it is a little weird to start on a Wednesday.  Summer went by so quickly, but I think we were all ready for school to start.  The kids were getting bored and fighting a lot.  Caitlyn started 3rd grade.  I can't believe it, I feel like I just dropped her off for pre-school.

She was so excited to be in another split class.  This year she is in the 3rd/4th split.  She is excited because she gets to keep the same teachers.  She still has Mrs. Christiansen in the morning and Mrs. Weske in the afternoon.  She also has one of her best friends in her class, so there were no first day jitters for her.  What a relief! 

Jonah was excited, but a little nervous.  He is in 1st grade and started the French immersion (or French invasion according to Jonah) program.  He is really nervous about learning French.  We felt very strongly that this is where he is supposed to be.  I think the challenge will be great for him.  He is such a smart boy so I'm sure he will pick it up quickly.

He gives me such a hard time about smiling for pictures.  I love this one because this captures his mischievous personality.  He is such a fun kid.

Keith took the day off and stayed home with the two little ones so I could focus on Caitlyn and Jonah. I love the big back packs.  Caitlyn is finally big enough for those big back packs.  I think that is the cutest thing about kindergartners, their back packs are bigger than they are!

Jonah will have English in the morning and French in the afternoon.  He is excited to have his own locker this year.

He looked a little nervous when I left him, but he would never admit it.  I was waiting for him outside the school at the end of the day and he said he liked it, but it was SO long!  All day is a tough adjustment.  He told me he would miss me the night before.  I miss him too.  I liked having him home after half a day last year.  He said French was really boring, but he seemed happy to go back today.  I asked him who he sat by at lunch and he said, "Unfortunately I sat by Heather and another girl."  I asked him why that was bad and he said, "you know, I was surrounded by the ladies."  I just love Jonah.  He can sure push my buttons, but oh man is he funny and so much fun to be around.

Caitlyn didn't stop talking from the time I picked her up until after dinner.  She loved everything about school.  She loves that she gets to do everything with the 4th graders this year, I guess that is good since she did everything with the 3rd graders last year.  She is really excited that she has an art teacher and a music teacher.  She loves art and music, so she will really enjoy that this year.  I am so grateful that she is so excited about school.  The staff at the school was so great and said they put Caitlyn with the same teachers to help her with her anxiety.  I love that they care about her so much.  I also love that I know she is happy all day.  It is a long day when you are worried about your kids!

Wyatt was sad that he couldn't go to school, so he wanted to do his homework. He loves to trace these letters.  I'm going to start doing some pre-school with him this year.  He is ready to be a big kid!

I loved having my kids home this summer, but I'm not going to lie, I loved having the house quiet yesterday.  Wyatt and Hallee don't make noise like the older two.  It was so nice to have Keith home.  We took the kids on a bike ride and then had a picnic with them. 

Hallee had a blast on the trampoline with dad.  After lunch we put Wyatt and Hallee down for a nap, talk about a little bit of heaven.  It was so nice to just relax together.  I have been over booked and stressed lately so it was a much needed break.  I still can't believe how quickly summer passed this year, it will be here again before we know it.  I will keep working on my goal of enjoying each phase.  I enjoyed summer and now I'm going to enjoy the school year!

Skating

Caitlyn and Jonah have been roller blading a lot this summer.  They could barely stand up at the beginning of summer and now they are doing great.  I love to roller blade so on Thursday night we went to Classic to skate.

We invited Amarie and Ataiya.  I think they all had a lot of fun.

Jonah was ready to switch to his scooter after a while, but he had fun on his roller blades.  He did great, but I think all of the people made him a little nervous.

Caitlyn was the only one that didn't want to switch to her scooter.  She got all upset and didn't know who she would roller blade with since all the other kids wanted to ride their scooters.  It took me a minute to remind her that I was there on my roller blades and I could skate with her.  I think moms are invisible some times.  I think my kids forget I'm a person who has feelings and likes to do things besides clean up after them.  Caitlyn and I ended up skating together for a while and had a great time.  She could keep up with me with no problem.  I am so impressed with her improvement.

We've been trying to do some other fun things during these last few weeks of summer.  A couple of weeks ago Amarie slept over.  After skating we had Amarie and Ataiya sleep over and Dante slept over the night before that. 

Last week we got together with friends a few times.  We had Beck's over for dinner.  Always fun!  We also went swimming with Katie and Ben and had them over after.  It was nice to catch up with friends.  They were all last minute things, those always work better for me then planning them out.  I hate committing to things, so I'm not good at making plans!

Keith had yesterday off because he had to work today.  We went to Seven Peaks.  It was fun.  We have only gone four or five times this summer. I'm really not a big fan.  It is fun, but I think we have more fun at a pool.  I think we will do Classic again next year.  That was a lot more fun for us.  Seven Peaks is so crowded and there really isn't a ton for the kids so they got bored pretty fast. 

 I have to write down something Jonah said because it captures Jonah so well.  The other night at dinner he said, "Mom you know I love you, right?  Well I hate to say it, but this meat is disgusting!"  I thought that was a pretty nice way to say he didn't like the dinner. 

Last night Caitlyn and I had a mother/daughter night for activity days.  Since I planned the whole father/daughter activity my partner took over and did this activity.  It was great, this way I could just enjoy my time with Caitlyn.  We played some games, ate treats and painted nails.  It was a lot of fun.  Caitlyn loved it and I loved having some time with her.  She is growing up so fast. 

Walk the walk

Hallee finally has this walking thing figured out.  Last Wednesday she was walking a lot with Atayia at Mel's house and on Thursday she decided she didn't need to crawl anymore.

Once she figured out how to get back up on her own she was set.

She is still so proud of herself.  She gets a huge smile while she walks and wants to make sure we are all watching.

I'm still a little surprised whenever she walks up to me to see her on her feet instead of crawling.

I love that big proud smile!

She has been making us all hold her hand and walk her around the house for a couple of weeks now, so it is nice that she can do it on her own.  She will hold out her hand and grunt until we take her hand and walk her around the house.  Whenever I try to sit down she will get mad and grab my hand again.

This is her fake cry face.  It makes me laugh.

Jonah and Cailtyn took the lenses out of their sunglasses because they want to have glasses.  Hallee loves having glasses on lately.

A month has already passed since her first birthday.  She is still changing quickly.  She says a few words, her new one is "uh oh."  She loves to throw stuff down so she can say it.

When I pull out the camera she will say, "eezz" and smile.  It is so cute.

She is still pretty feisty and can hold her own with the other kids.  She gets jealous if I hold Wyatt.  She will come over and hit him and scream.  I have to keep my eye on her or she will take Wyatt's toys and hit him.  I think it might be good she is our last one, I don't think a baby would survive! 

Time flies when you are having fun!

We stayed in Arizona for ten days.  I was worried that would be too long for Matt and Lori, but Matt said we should have stayed longer, so hopefully we didn't wear out our welcome.  It went by so fast.  Every day just flew by and before we knew it our trip was over.

I thought this was cute when Matt was reading to all the kids.

Wyatt is always good for a laugh!

Lori was so good with Hallee.  She kept her so we could go for a ride in the ranger and also sent Keith and I on a date one day. 

The kids begged to go for a ride in the ranger.  One night me, Matt and Wyatt went.  Wyatt looked a little nervous the whole time, but smiled when Matt let him honk the horn.  When I tried to get him to go again he said, "no mom, I'm scared." We drove over to an area in their neighborhood where a whole bunch of bunnies come out at night.  The kids loved looking at them.

The kids pulled out mattresses, pillows and blankets and all slept in the room together the last night. Lori is so good at stuff like this.  She always does fun things with the kids, even if they will be a pain to clean up!  It was sad to say goodbye.  We loved spending time with them.

The ride home was a little rough.  The kids finally slept which was nice.

Here is Jonah pretending to sleep.  This kid would not sleep to save his life.  He can function on less sleep than the rest of us.  He does reach his limit sometimes though. 

Hallee slept on and off.  She liked sitting up in the car seat. 

We changed it up for her and put her in the infant seat sometimes too.  She prefers sitting up in the car seat. She cried a lot on the way home.  We also added an extra two hours to our drive by missing a turn and not catching it until 50 miles later.  I feel asleep and when I woke up I was confused by the sign that said, "welcome to California."  Poor Keith, he felt so bad.  He drove the whole way there and back.  I really don't like driving.  Anyway, we finally made it home a little after 9 PM.  We were all so happy to be out of the car.  It was definitely worth the drive though.  Thanks for a great vacation Matt and Lori!