First Day of Kindergarten!!

Wow!! I can't believe that we are actually here. DD#1 started Kindergarten today. She was so excited to go and woke up in the greatest mood. I made it without crying, even though I did feel a few tears coming on. DD#2 said on the way to take her to school, "I'm going to miss DD#1". I had to hold back the tears then.

She is going to my school and has a great teacher. She is in the all day kindergarten class and I am a little anxious about it. I am excited to see how her first day went and how she handles all day. She did ask when school would be over and I said not until the afternoon. Hopefully she will handle it. She hasn't taken a nap for over a year and just this last week, she has started taking them again. Go figure. I konw they will have a rest time these first few months. Hopefully she will be able to handle it.

So here we go. I know that it will only go so fast from here on out. She did say on the way that she will be in High School soon. Thankfully, not so soon. But I am sure when it comes that time, I won't believe it.

Good luck sweet girl with your first day of school!

10 Fantastic Years!!

This is our engagement picture. We lost our wedding scrapbook in the fire. It was all pre digital so we will have to replace it with what my inlaws still may have. :(

I am in awe at how fast the past 10 years have gone by. It is absolutely crazy to think that I have been with my best friend for 10 years. I guess the saying, "Time flies when you're having fun:" is true. Happy anniversary Sweetheart! I have loved every minute of it and hope to spend many more years with you!

Here is a fun breakdown that I have seen on others blog which help you realize just how much joy and happiness. along with heartache and sorrows, we have been through. So grateful that it was with my best friend!

10 years

120 months

22 weeks

3,650 days

87, 658 hours

5,259,488 minutes

315, 569, 260 seconds

6 homes

4 cities

9 Jobs

7 cars

4 Wards

10 Callings (shocking to me because I have been in the Primary almost the entire time)

1 House Fire

48 (LONG) months of trying to get pregnant

4 pregnancies (1 miscarriage, not pregnant now :))

3 Beautiful Children

3 Pets
4 Surgeries

3 Funerals (my dad, my grandpa and DH's grandpa, Miss them all)

7 Siblings Weddings

1 Disneyland/California trip

Many trips to the cabin

Many, many, many sleepless night with children

Many Laughs

Many tears

Millions of Hugs and Kisses

Many Unforgettable Memories

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart!

Pictures

We got family pictures with DH's side of the family. I thought it would be a great time to get my kids year pictures. Since we had already had DS's done a few weeks back, we went ahead and did the two girls and the kids together. My sister in law did a wonderful job again. Thanks Sarah!

DD #1 is growing up to be a beautiful little girl. She is very intelligent and so kind. She is always saying thank you and gives plenty of hugs and kisses. She has become such a big help around the house and to her brother. He has learned the words, "don't and stop" because she is constantly toting him around. We are so grateful to have her in our home.

DD#2 has really started to come out of her shell and show her true personality. She is our little chatterbox that we love to hear. She can talk your ear off and you are good to catch most of what she is talking about. She is in the prime of the wonderful 3's. She can throw a tantrum with the best of them. She loves her siblings and is a joy to have in our home.

A picture to show just how fun the 3's are. :)

Our Children... What special spirits from our Heavenly Father. Not a day goes by without me realizing what a gift these sweet children are. As my summer is coming to an end, I feel sad. It has been such a fun summer with these sweet kids. I have really enjoyed spending so much time with them. I count my blessings everyday for having such wonderful children!

DD's 5th Birthday Party!

We had DD's 5th birthday party a few weekends ago. It turned out very well. About 8 months ago, DD asked for a camera party. I had just bought a digital camera for her right after Christmas for a killer deal. It was perfect. I could give her her camera and have it be the theme. I searched all over for a camera cake and the only ones I could find were ones that were 3D with fondant. So we took a clip art picture and made it from that. We decided to make it silver, however I should had made a pink camera cake for her. Oh well. It was a lot of fun.

We had friends and family come and enjoy her birthday party with us. We had sloppy joes, chips, fruit and drinks. Thanks all who came and supported her.We had a camera scavenger hunt. Each person got their own disposable camera and a scavenger hunt list. The kids had a lot of fun running around the park getting pictures of their clue. The last clue was to get a photo with them and the birthday girl. She loved it.We then had a dress up corner and the kids got to use their cameras to take pictures of themselves dressed up. The boys enjoyed the tie.

She then opened presents and was thrilled with all the new things that she received. It is crazy to think that she is 5. We waited 5 long years to get her and the past five have definitely flown by. We love you Lou, Lou! Happy Birthday!

Update Coming Soon!

I promise, they are! :)

I am One!!

Okay, so I know that he is 14 almost 15 months old, but the summer has been a crazy one. I thought I should get on the ball and get his pictures done. My sweet sister in law met me at the park after work and she took these awesome photos. He was having a hard time smiling, but once we put him in the swing, he was all smiles. I wanted her to capture two things.... his 4 teeth and his eyelashes. She got them both. They are wonderful. Now to figure which ones to put up on the wall and which ones to scrapbook. She did take over 300 photos of him. :)

The Fabulous 4th of July!!

I don't know what it is about a good ol' small town 4th, but they are the best! If you haven't tried one, you really should. It is just good fun to have a parade with candy flying everywhere and a party at the park afterwards. This year was especially great because my whole family was there. It has been a long while for this to happen. We all sat (more like stood) in front of great aunt Rosie's house. She is always so great to let us invade her space. :) The parade was fun. My kids actually got a little bored of picking up the candy (gasp!) I guess when there is taffy flying at all times, it is quite the workout to pick it all up.
After the parade, we ventured over to the park for food and fun. We actually ended up not eating the food there. A first for our family. The kids got to ride the ponies and run and play on the playground. It was a great day. We went and rested at Grandma B's home and DH and the two girls headed out for the derby. Another tradition of our small town. My mom and I and DS waited until the powder puff to go. My sister drove in it. We watched the fireworks and enjoyed the nice cool breeze. It rained some, but just enough to keep it cool. DS loved, loved, loved the fireworks. He sat there in awe of the amazing show in the sky.
I love going home for the 4th. It is nice to see old friends and have a great time celebrating our wonderful country. I am proud to be an American where we are FREE!

The Birthday Cake!!

I have been slow this year with birthday celebrations. I have worked some this summer (Mill Hollow) which has put me off my game. I decided when the kids were born that we would have a party on their odd birthdays. The even birthday would just be cake and ice cream. Something low key. Well, seeing that all of my children were born two years apart has changed my thinking. That is a birthday party every month for 3 months. I am going to have to rethink my plan, because it is a lot of work and a lot of money. Anyway, DD#2 wanted a princess party this year. She wanted a princess cake, but that seems too daunting to me. So I got on the computer and started looking. I found this video to this fantastic cake and it looked fairly easy. So I got DD#2 all excited and we took the challenge this weekend. My piping skills are not the greatest, but it did turn out pretty cute.

I will post some of the pictures from the party when I can figure out how to get them off of my camera rather than off of my memory card. Until then, enjoy the cake pictures!

Father's Day Gifts

Has it really been two weeks since school got out? I can't believe it. It is going too fast. My sister and her family moved out, the next day DH's sister and her DH moved in. We have celebrated DD#2's bday. She turned 3. I went to Mill Hollow with 5th and 6th grade students from my school and now we are preparing for Father's Day. In the next few weeks we have more planned. I am going to go to Mill Hollow with another school as a sub (crazy, but the money is good), the 4th of July, a small birthday party for DD#2 and a Family reunion. It will keep us busy. Busy is good, right?

So, I decided to try my hand at some really cute food that I saw on a blog. I do not take any credit for these little beauties. It was from Bakerella's blog. She has done some amazing things and I really liked this idea for Father's Day.

So with the help of my mom and my kids, we were able to accomplish this. I thought they turned out pretty cute. I hope that the men in our lives will love them tomorrow. It took some time, but they really did turn out cute.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. and to those that are not Fathers yet, Happy Father's day to you as well. You all deserve it!

Last Packed Lunch of the School Year!!

I just packed my kids last lunch this year. Hooray!! I am so excited to take a couple month break from packing lunches. School is out tomorrow!! I am so glad to have a break. I have had a great class this year, but it will be nice to not have to work for a bit, not saying that 3 kids isn't work.

Well, here is to a great summer. Enjoy it everyone. Because we all know that it will go by so fast. Next thing we know, we will be posting pictures of our kids first day of school next year. AHHHH!!!

The pictures of the scenery!

Well, I didn't get the students in these pictures, but I thought it might be fun to post the scenery. The kids did a great job. I picked the pictures and put them up on the projector, they traced all of them and painted everything. It is amazing what they can do!


The stage



The banner



50's




60's




70's


80's


90's



2000's

It's Over!!

The production, that is. I took my camera, but in the craziness of it all, I didn't get a photo. Oh well. I will probably just take pictures of the scenery to show you how great my students did on that. Phew....I can now breathe a sigh of relief. The kids did a great job! There were only a few computer glitches with the slideshow, but overall it was a great success.
Now, to get through the last 3 days of school for the year! Hooray for summer!

Last day of Preschool!

Can you believe that the school year is coming to an end? I still have two more weeks, but DD#1 finished today. I was able to go to her "promotion" (thanks Lisa). It was a bit chaotic with having the 4 kids tagging along, but it was worth it. DD had a wonderful year and learned a lot this year. It definitely was worth taking all the kids along to get her to school. She is already asking to do her homework that is in her bag.

Miss Haymeth (aide)

Miss Dina (aide)

Miss Dora (teacher)

I made these gifts for her teachers. We made the flowers with cookies and gumdrops. The fillers are paintbrushes, crayons and pencils. They seemed to love them. They turned out pretty cute. I usually have great ideas in my head, but when I try to get them out, they don't quite seem the same. These did turn out pretty close to it.