Alan's First Day of Preschool

Alan boy started a new preschool last week. It is at a neighbors home and he was ridiculous excited. I was so proud of him. When I dropped him off he just went right in. Last year it took weeks of me taking him in and walking him through the whole backpack off, wash hands, write name routine before I could leave him. And even then he had to have a special rock in his pocket. He really is growing up. He is getting better at recognizing and read words and adding smaller numbers. I think he will be all ready for kindergarten next year.

I love this airborne running shot after his first day. He had a lot of fun and was excited to tell me all about it.

Soccer Season

Well it has happened I am officially a mini vans driving soccer mom.

Both Emma and Alan are doing soccer for the first time this season. It has been a lot of fun and a little bit crazy trying to get 4 kids out the door and to the field twice a week at dinner time, but so worth it.

Alan has really improved a lot at every game and loves soccer so much that he insists on sleeping in his uniform on Tuesday nights after his games.

Emma is on a team with a few girls from our ward. She also really looks forward to game day and works hard on the field.

I love action shots of 4 year olds. I am not totally sure what is going on here, but it looks awesome.

Emma is one of 2 number 21s named Emma on her team. That said is is the 21 you can see in this picture.

Bryce also loves to watch the soccer action.

The Cuteness and Some Brotherly Love

Well the cuteness is 8 months and 1 week old now. He sits up like a pro. (this picture is actually about 6 weeks old, but I had forgotten about it and it was just so cute that I had to include it)

He rolls and crawls well enough that we are now constantly trying to stop him before he does something naughty. And I am giving daily lectures to the kids about not leaving little things on the floor. Bryce really only likes things he should not have.

He loves to eat food. Emma is always willing to get him all the cheerios he can eat.

And he loves playing with his brothers. I came into the family room to find them building together. Bryce was just hanging out like he was one of the guys. It was so cute.

And just for fun here is a little more brotherly love.

A New School, A New School Year

Oh man look at my big first grader. Here she is ready for her first day at a brand new school. She was SO excited. She picked her first day outfit herself.

Our Other Family Get-a-way

was a little overnight trip to Wolf Creek in the Uintas for the Hilton Family Reunion.

First we went to do a little target practice/ gun safety lesson. No worries, that is just an airsoft gun the kids are practicing with. There were a couple 12 gauge shotguns that the bigger people shot clay pigeons with. Scott made me shoot one, but I only did it once because apparently I am a no fun mom now and it was loud and kinda hurt.

We spent the rest of the evening sitting around the campfire hanging out and broke into teams to play a few games. My team kicked everyone's trash. :) After games, the kids were so ready for bed, but first we had to roast some marshmallows. It got pretty cold that night (in the 40s) but I had the kids pretty well bundled, so they all slept pretty well.

That morning after a yummy breakfast.

Logan got back to playing with Tom.

Then on the way home we stopped by to see Heart Lake.

It was so pretty up there and I am sure it will be a great memory for the kids.

Oh Man I Can't Believe

that the summer is already over.

Other than my trip up to Alaska we also had two little family get-a-ways. The first was to Bear Lake for the Leavitt Family Reunion. It was such a fun little trip. We stayed at a nice inn and had a ton of fun with the family. The kids all LOVED the beach. It was so nice there. The water is really shallow really far out so it is very relaxing for me. I could just let the kids run and dig and play. Sadly, my lameness with the combo of 4 kids and a camera also showed up at this reunion too. I brought the camera, but forgot the memory card so our pictures are very few. Luckily Andrea was nice enough to make sure we got some pictures of the kids.

No good can come of that many little boys with sharp objects.