Kindergarten and Preschool

Kate started Kindergarten today with a lot of apprehension.  I knew she was nervous, so I was afraid she would go in kicking and screaming.  I was pleasantly surprised when she gave me a hug and stood in her line without much of a fuss.  There were a few tears in her eyes and mine, but she did it!  I know she isn't my oldest or youngest, but she's still one of my babies and I will miss her while she is at school.

Looking nervous as she stands in line.

 

Halle started preschool today.  She informed me that she was nervous last year, but not this year.  Apparently she is a pro now at going to school.

It's pretty quiet at our house now.  All the kids are gone to school, except for Brock, who is sleeping.  I think I can learn to like this hour and a half of me time. :)

First Day of School

3 of the kids started school this week.  Jarren started 6th grade, Maya started 4th, and Karli started 2nd.  Kate will start kindergarten next week.

Halle's 4th Birthday

Halle turned 4 on Saturday.  So lucky her, she got to spend her special day in the car, driving home from San Diego.  The drive took about 4 hours longer than it should have due to an accident on the freeway and a tire replacement... but after 15 hours in the car, we made it home.

I can't believe she is 4 already.  4 seems so big.  She goes today to the doctor to get shots and the crazy thing is, is part of them are kindergarten shots.  That seems really weird, only 1 more year before kindergarten.

Halle's a spunky little girl and we love her dearly!

 

Brock's 1st Birthday

Brock turned 1 this last week while we were in San Diego.  I can't believe how fast this year has flown.  Our family has thoroughly loved having Brock in our family this year.  The other kids are constantly playing with him, carrying him and most recently trying to get him to walk to them.  He's a funny kid, and we love seeing his cheesy smile

San Diego

 Our family just got back from a week long trip to San Diego.  We all had so much fun, in fact, Halle said she thought we should stay for another week.  We rented a house right next to the beach, and so we went to the beach many times.

Jarren absolutely loved boogie boarding, and Maya thought that was pretty fun too. He also liked learning to snorkel.

Brock loved eating the sand. 

And the other girls loved playing in the sand, making sand castles, snow balls (Kate...and Brock actually enjoyed stepping on them and smashing them.  Kate didn't like that very much) and other cool creations.

 

 

We went to Sea World.

San Diego Zoo

Maya is our zebra girl, so we of course had to get a picture.

 

 The San Diego LDS temple,

Old Town San Diego.  We went to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center.  It was awesome.  The kids got to pan for gold, pump water, and act out stories.

And we celebrated Brock and Halle's birthday's while we were there.

 

 We went with 3 other families and my kids loved spending time with their kids.

 Our stuffed animals loved boogie boarding in the house too.

  Spending time together was AWESOME!!!

Bridal Veil Falls

Our family went to Bridal Veil Falls 2 weeks ago.  It was so much fun!  Jarren didn't want to go with us because he thinks his family only does boring things; we proved him wrong on this trip because he loved it!

At the bottom of the falls were tons of fish.  The kids loved feeding them.  And Kate thought it was great to touch them.  Most of the other kids weren't brave enough to do this.

It Was Bound to Happen Sooner or Later

With 4 sisters I knew this was bound to happen...It didn't make Jason any happier though.

Idaho Visit With Jeremy's Family

Jason's brother, Jeremy, and his family came from California for a visit.  We only get to see them about once a year, so we really treasure the time that they are here.  Instead of spending their whole time in Utah, they decided that they wanted to spend most of their time in Idaho, so we went to Idaho too.

We did a lot of fun things.  The kids enjoyed sleeping in a tent, and I enjoyed it because then Jason's grandparents house wasn't as crowded.

We enjoyed spending time with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas.

 

Jason's Aunt Sheila was so nice to arrange for us to go to a farm.  We found out on our trip that Karli had some things on her Bucket List that we didn't know about...Ride a horse and see a cow's face up close.  Sheila was able to help us check both of those off of her list. :)

 

This is how Jarren felt about the stinky barn.

 

 

 

 

We had our usual trip to Big Judd's for greasy burgers, fries and ice cream.  A trip to Idaho just isn't the same without it.

We also were able to celebrate Jason's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.  His grandparents didn't want anything big, so it was just food, family and a little program at their house.

We also fed horses, rode tractors, and shot BB guns.  It was great fun!