End of summer, FIrst Day of school!

The End of summer is here, this is a recount of the last week of it! It started with saying a final goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, they come to say goodbye and we talked them into a fast dinner, then said our goodbyes, it will be hard not having them around for 2 years, but fun to hear about their travels to London!

Then haircuts for the girls and even all the boys (but didn't get pictures of them, oops I did my 3, Jarin's, our friend Johnny and my nephew even got his cut by my friend that did the girls)

Trevin lost his first tooth this week too!! He was so excited and so proud to do it all by himself!! Though he wanted to save it for Daddy to see when he gets home from the hunt, we put it in a ziploc bag and the next day he sat on the couch and got it out and dropped it, we looked everywhere even taking the bottom off the couch a bit but couldn't find it. He wrote a letter to the Tooth fairy asking her to get it from the couch (figuring she would be small enough to find it) so he could show his Daddy but only got money in return, he sat on his bed an cried because he wanted to show Jarin so badly, poor kid, luckily he lost another just a few days later and could show that one off, though he hasn't given it up to the tooth fairy yet either LOL!

4th grade for Tyler and 5th grade for Alison, she is pretending to where glasses, though they don't even have glass in them LOL! I made her take one picture without them and honestly she looks great both ways! Tyler loved finding a Camo polo shirt, his two favorite things when it comes to clothes!

Off they go, they didn't want mom and a gaggle of 4 little kids coming to their lines with them and taking picture so I took a picture through the window and let them go. After school Tyler said he was ready to go back to his old school (he's in the ALPS program with Ali this year) only because he misses his friends, poor kid, we are trying to have him give it a good chance, so far he is having a hard time adjusting, but h is a smart kid and I know in the end he will make the right choice! Alison was so excited to see her old friends from last year and meet the new friends too, it's going to be a great year for her!

Trevin's first day was a few weeks ago, he is getting so big, first grade now!!

Waiting in his line. He had a great first day!

Grandkids pics

I can finally share these!! So my awesome In-laws are going on a mission, left the country this morning in fact to go to London England South Mission for the LDS Church for 2 years!. It is so very hard to see them go, though I am excited for them and proud of them, and Thankful to them for their example at the same time. Lots of emotions!

Months ago when they first told us hey wanted to go (Jan. I think) I started thinking of something we could give them that would be small enough to not take up the precious space in their suitcases, special enough, and that would let them know how much we love them and support them. I decided pictures of the grand kids, and a way to keep them with them would be a nice idea. So I made an Altoid tin album, and made "pages" of the kids with Professional pictures we had taken by Vivien Van Leeuwen

Each page of the older kids has in it their favorite color, and their age when they left.

I did all 13 1/2 grandkids (one is due next month) but only sharing my own kids. This is how the tin turned out, better than I expected!

The quote on front is:

"What an example and blessing it is to a family's posterity when Grandparents serve missions"

President Ezra Taft Benson

When we gave them the gift her first words where "is this my suitcase" jokingly, I loved it and replied with "yes!! So you can take your children along with you!" I'm glad they liked it, it was some work, but so fun too! I can't wait to hear all there wonderful stories!

After they spoke in church some of the kids decided they wanted to walk home, we caught them on the way and snapped a picture, they are all getting so big!

Almost the whole family!

4th of July

We had alot of fun at our annual 4th of July water party with Jarin's family! I made red white and blue cupcakes this year, Nathan wanted one right away and we just couldn't tell him no, he was too cute and heck, it was a holiday right! Tons of food, water and family, what more could we ask for!!! The fireworks were the icing on the cake.

Happy to be here!

Not liking the cold water in the pool at first......

Lifting his legs to stay out of the water

Dad kept at it and now he is having fun!

Cousin Elena got in too!

Star wars or Harry Potter swords, fun with the sparklers.

Silly Alison!

One year old!

Happy Birthday to Nathan!!! How could you already be 1? Such a happy little guy, that still wakes up at night, you love to hug and wave at us and make us smile with a look! How can we help but to love you!

You are such a blessing to our family, I don't remember life without your sweet face and spirit, thank you for letting me be your Mom!

So little then, and so big now!

These last two pictures are just a tiny taste of the pictures taken by Vivien Van Leeuwen Photography! She did an amazing job! I'll share more later!

Happy Birthday to my Dad and special visitors!

For my Dad's birthday we were having a BBQ, when we got there we found My brother's family had come to surprise us with a visit from Texas!! How fun! We haven't seen them for more than a year! The boys are so big!! Nathan got to meet them finally and Carli and her cousin Caleb were reunited again!

After just a little bit of playing I asked them if I could take a picture and they complied, Caleb automatically put his arm around her but they didn't look happy, I kept snapping pics though and I love the progression of there smiles and friendship, so cute!

These nephews love to be tickled, they kept coming back for more! That was fun! What a fun surprise!