School Time!

After much anticipation, the big day finally arrived...the first day of school. Katelin has been asking for weeks "how much longer now?" They were both ultra excited about wearing their new clothes...almost like they've never had new clothes before; and put much thought into which outfit would be deemed presentable for this all important first day.

Heres the final outcome.

The morning seemed to be going well. Time was on our side. Then without realizing it, somehow we lost 15 minutes somewhere, and ended up rushing the kids into the van to make it to school on time. We arrived just in time for Katelin to make it to her line before they went inside, but Madi's class had already gone in.

I had to capture a quick picture of her before walking in tardy for her first day of 4th grade. Notice how there isnt anyone in the halls anymore...what a great first impression for the teacher.

To add to the impression, Madi ended up calling home from her classroom, to verify whether or not she was supposed to ride the bus home. Im sure her teacher is really impressed with us at this point. Later, we were informed that the bus they were supposed to ride to school on, actually never picked up the kids this morning, so we're hoping her teacher chalks up her tardiness to the negligence of the bus driver, instead of where the blame should be placed...squarely on the shoulders of her parents.
Luckily, the bus did fulfill its duties of bringing the kids back home safe and sound.
Here are two happy girls on their way home from the bus stop. They made it!
As a surprise treat, they were greeted home by school day cupcakes, complete with chalkboard, chalk and apple. Yum.

1 day down...185 to go.

More to come on Alissa's big day, on Thursday.

We're Back

Yes, after a week of being back, Ive finally decided to sit down and publicly announce how our "vacation" to Utah went. Lets just say, I needed a vacation after my "vacation". I quote vacation, because I quickly found out that when you go back to your homeland after two years, suddenly you become more loved than ever before when you actually lived there, and everyone has a sudden need to visit with you one on one. Its exhausting! Boy did we become popular after we moved away! Who knew!? We were on a constant schedule to rush and visit this person...and then hurry to get to see that person...Oh, and we cant forget about these people, heaven forbid we offend anyone by not gracing them with our presence! Not that we dont love everyone, its just hard to fit everyone youve ever known into a two week period. So, we're sorry if we didnt get a chance to stop by for a visit, and we hope you understand...Its hard to be famous!


But enough of that...onto the excitement! I know thats what your all waiting for. Besides running around in circles saying Hi to everyone weve missed, here are a few of the more relaxing parts of the trip...you know, the things a vacation should be about.
(Slideshow to follow...you can piece it all together using the provided information. Wont that be fun!)

• Going up to a picnic in the MOUNTAINS by the stream, where the kids could splash and play, and Madi found an awesome huge frog! My brother helped Zack decide to get his feet wet, and graced him with his knowledge of where to find flies that the fish like to eat. I so missed the mountains, and it was great to be up there again.
• Many days and nights of perfecting our guitar hero skills in between visits to our public.
• Picnics at the park, & fireworks for pioneer day (which we found out greatly diminished after we left. I guess our family kept the tradition running).
• A trip back to temple square, and also to the church history museum, which oddly enough I dont think we ever went to while we lived there. (the museum, I mean...just to state the obvious, since every mormon in the Salt Lake Valley has been to temple square). But the museum was pretty awesome. They have a whole floor just for the kids where they can dress up like scripture people, learn about churning butter and other stuff the pioneers did, make a stained glass window, and build temples with blocks, stand at a pulpit like the prophet at conference...etc. And the best part was that its all free! Sadly, we arrived only about 45 minutes until closing time, so the kids were deprived of the time they needed to spend there.
• A family get together with good food and water balloons.
• A sister-in-law who made yummy desserts for us every night, and thankfully fulfilled the vacation must of gaining weight...Thanks again Tova!
• Attending the new Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple open house. It was a great experience for the kids, and a beautiful temple. Katelin stated after we left, that she felt very happy inside the temple. That made us smile.
• Feeding the ducks.
• Driving up through Zions national park, eating ice-cream, and visiting a replica of an old western town.
• And of course it was great to see all our family and friends and how much all the kids have grown.
  
  Oh, and if you were wondering, surprisingly the kids did better than expected during the long 12 hour car rides, but we have sworn them off for...well, for a while.
  
  
  

Just sittin' around

It may be a little late, but at 7 months, Brylee has finally decided to try her luck at sitting. She is still pretty wobbly, but if you prop pillows behind her, she does pretty well. Plus it breaks the fall, and makes her laugh! She does enjoy a good thrill. I always look forward to the day when babies can sit independently...they entertain themselves so much better. And hopefully, the flat spot on the back of her head can start to round out! Here are two of the pictures that werent as blurry from her wobbling.

Happy Birthday Katelin

We now have a 7 year old! Katelin came with a boom on the 4th of July, 2002. Ever since then, the fireworks have been just for her! Katelin has always had a fire-cracker personality. She is the comedian in the family, and one who really knows what she wants...and goes for it! At the same time, she is also our nurturing one. Her goal as a 7 year old is "to not get in time-out once" (does that mean it will be more than once?), to listen and obey and be very helpful. She even cleaned the whole house the other day without being asked, and her new favorite job is cleaning the toilets. This, I could get used to! 1 down...4 to go! Lets hope it sticks for longer than a week.

For her celebration, she wanted to go to a little family fun park and play games. So we invited some friends of ours to come along. We went the week before, since the 4th is always busy. Here they are with a handful of earned tickets!

Racing motorcycles.
Bumper cars.
She just couldnt wait another week for presents after that, so we let her open one...since it was hot out and all. A slip-n-slide. They spent a good portion of the rest of the day in the water.

Then the real day came. We did her cake and presents on the 4th. Here are some of her gifts.

A webkinz...of course it had to be a dog.

Pet Pals game...dog again. Notice her shirt...dogs. (Do we see a pattern here?)

Sisters are the best gift.

more games, for the computer this time.

Art set.

Fireworks.

Brylee getting in on the wrapping paper action. Yum!

Katelin loves her baby sister...and her baby sister loves to eat paper!

Finally, the cake.

She chose a flag this year. She hasnt had that since her first birthday!

Blowing the candles...with fireman Zack offering help. He cant resist fire!

Yummy chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, decorated with M&M's! What could be better?

Happy 7th Katelin!

Of course the day ended with fireworks. More on that with the next post...

Independence Day!

It was a busy 4th this year. To start off, the night of the 3rd, Ryan was gone helping prepare for the big scout pancake breakfast at the church for the 4th. Meanwhile, I was home watching the kids, watering the lawn, and baking cookies to sell at the breakfast fundraiser. When I finally got the kids to bed, Ryan came home with a box of sausage that needed to be prepared for breakfast the next day...so I went to bed while he stayed up late frying piggies (which were kept warm in the crock pot all night).

So, on the morning of the 4th, of course Ryan was gone again to supervise the breakfast at the church. I got up early to prepare Katelins birthday cake, and get the kids ready to go to the breakfast which started at 8 am. At 8:45, I called Ryan to inform him that we had not left yet, and to make sure there would still be food for us. Luckily, there was so the kids didnt have to go hungry. After breakfast, the kids played some games and we went back home.

Breakfast time. Thank goodness for spare hands to cut up pancakes when your hubby is busy!

Alissa trying her hand at the beanbag toss. She batted her eyes at someone later and cheated to get some candy. What a charmer.

Madi's turn.
Remember these parachutes in school? Ryan rented one from the library. Its not just for books anymore! This is the one he was helping out with toward the end.

Run Alissa...Run!

After we came home, I again went to work in the kitchen to finish Katelins cake; and make cornbread for a potluck with Ryans boss later. We had lunch, did some birthday partying, and then it was off to the bosses house for dinner at 4:00. After dinner, we headed out to see fireworks with our friends, and ended the night at their house setting off the "Utah fireworks" (small and less than thrilling) as Ryan called it, that Katelin got for her birthday.

When the fireworks started...Zack wasnt so sure.

Safer in Daddy's arms, everyone having fun.

At one point, Ryan was telling our little pyro. that the fireworks were just like a candle that should be blown out. Here is the attempted blowing!

Just chillin'. Ohhh...Ahhh...

The gang being entertained by the private stash back at the house.

Only responsible adults should handle the explosives...Hee, hee, hee.

The birthday girl got to hold the "sparkler tree" at the end.

We finally stopped at 11:30 pm, when we got home and crashed hard! Happy 4th!

Early Morning scare

6:40 am. I wake up to the sound of the doorbell ringing. I look to the other side of the bed, where Zack had been laying since 4:30am. It was empty. I jump out of bed and run down stairs, looking and calling for him. I look out the window to see who is there, and yes...it was some lady holding Zack, still dressed in his pajamas. I answered the door relieved, and heart racing.

She says "Is this your little boy?"

I say "Yes!" as I grab him.

"He has been out here for quite a few minutes kinda just crying. I called the police, because I didnt know what else to do, so they might come to your door."

With my messed up hair and puffy eyes, I try to explain to her that he has just figured out how to open the back sliding door, and that I need to get an extra lock installed to keep him in. I tell her thank you and close the door. I watch her walk back down the sidewalk to what I guess is her home, and see her call someone on her cell. Probably child protective services to come and check me out!

So all morning long I have been waiting for the cops to show up at my door with child protective services to declare me an unfit parent, and do a thorough investigation of my home. Of course I cleaned and got the kids bathed and dressed to look presentable. It doesnt help that Zack's whole face is covered in mosquito bites from being out yesterday for a whole 2 minutes. Those blood suckers are horrible right now! Needless to say, as soon as Ryan gets home we will be heading to the store to purchase some sort of lock for the sliding door, and a mosquito bomb for the backyard! All I can ask is...will you testify for me!?

mosquito bitten, non-guilty face.

Congrats to the Grad!

After almost two long years...drum roll...

Ryan has finally finished school!

He will soon officially be a Master of Business Administration! (meaning he hasnt received his piece of paper yet). Sounds impressive, I know. I am so proud of all his hard work, and late nights he put forth in order to try to spend more time with our family. Many nights he woke only having 4 hours of sleep or less. I really dont know how he functioned! And through all the exhaustion on top of being a good Dad and husband, and excellent Young Mens President...he still pulled off all A's with the exception of 1 B. He is our Superman! So now he can take a deep breath, get some sleep, and get back to enjoying all the fun times with our family! Way to go, and Congratulations Ryan! We are proud of you!

In celebration of his accomplishment, we threw him an impromptu surprise party for family home evening. Complete with homemade chocolate graduation caps, cards (not chocolate), balloons and even a present. It had to be impromptu, because otherwise he would have found out about it because I am so not good at keeping surprises a secret. I always tip him off with all my nervous habits! So yay...he was actually surprised this time!

Heres some pictures of the fun.