First Day of School (at a new school)

What a GREAT day yesterday turned out to be. I was SO NERVOUS about it. I am always nervous when the new school year starts but I was extremely nervous with it being a new school and the boys not knowing ANYONE. Luckily, it didn't seem to bother them. They were both so excited to go and meet new kids and really excited to get to WALK to school! It worked out great - the boys got up way early, way early even for being EARLY BIRDS (meaning school starts at 8am instead of 9:15 - first time we have done the early schedule), Ed was flying to Chicago and had to leave for the airport right around 8 so he stayed with the sleeping kids while I walked the big 2 to school and made sure they made it to their classrooms. Then after school, I walked over (we live all of 4 houses and a street away from the school) with the little 4 and picked up the big 2. They were both so HAPPY to see us but had a GREAT day - Brecken and Gavin were really excited to see their big brothers. Poor little Gavin had a rough day. He was asleep when the big 2 left so he cried a lot that morning (I must admit, I cried walking home after taking them to school) and was lonely all day (so he made sure to get up before they left this morning - so far, he is much happier today). They really must have had good days because they were both still excited to go to school this morning - up early all on their own and got their jobs done all on their own. I have GREAT kids! I am glad they are liking school but I sure miss them when they are gone!

Now It Feels Like Home!

Ed finally had a few minutes to hang up the 7-month old pictures of our kids - so now our new house feels like HOME! I love walking down the hallway to my bedroom and seeing all my little ones! (if you are wondering why they are 7-month old pictures - that is just when I took the first picture of Dallin and had to continue with all the kids).

Good Guessing!

Everyone that guessed was correct! My kids start out looking the same but by 7-months old, they looked very different. But now as they get older, at least the middle 3 boys, they are starting to look similar again.

And here are their pictures in the right order! What super cute kids!

Guess Who?

Here are my sweet babies all at 7-months old! I blew up each of these pictures to hang in our house. See if you can guess who each one is? Of course, #3 is a give away - but can you figure out the rest?

Gavin's Cast

Gavin was so excited to get his cast on yesterday. That is until the doctor had him hold his arm in a way that hurt and the doctor started to squeeze Gavin's arm really tight to get the cast to set correctly. But through it all, Gavin was SO TOUGH! You could tell it was REALLY HURTING but he DIDN'T MAKE A SOUND! He just held really still and made faces. He was very happy to go home (with his BYU blue cast) and go swimming. Luckily, cast are water proof these days (they wrap gortex lining around the arm before putting the cast on). So, when the twins went down for their nap, we tested the cast out in the pool and it is water proof (at least from what we can tell) Happy day!

Summer Baseball - Matthew

My sweet Matthew is so athletic (at least in my unbiased mind). He loves all sports. He played coach-pitch baseball this summer. He is very competitive and LOVES winning! He had a great time and LOVED being on the same team as several of his buddies from our "old" neighborhood.

I am definitely playing catch-up with scrapbooking/blogging so don't be surprised if you see posts of things that happened months ago, or even a year + ago.

The Little Things

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the dark chocolate covered pretzels from Trader Joe's. BUT, we don't have a Trader Joe's in Utah. Luckily, I have a very thoughtful husband that remembers how much I love them when he is traveling for work and comes across a Trader Joe's. He was in California yesterday and bought me FOUR bags of the chocolate covered pretzels. A bag (or 4) of pretzels is just a LITTLE thing, but the thought and effort he took in getting them for me was HUGE! Thanks for always thinking of me!

No More Monkey Bars for Gavin - EVER!

Yesterday ended up being a rough day for Gavin. We had to go to Matthew and Dallin's soccer practices (one at 5 and one at 6 - same coach so same place). While we were there (me and all six kids) Gavin and Brecken were playing on the little playground. They were having a great time until poor little Gavin fell off the monkey bars. I thought he just scrapped his chin and was shaken up. But he kept crying and crying and said that he will NEVER EVER do the monkey bars again. Looking back, he did say that he "bent" his arm. I should have listened. Finally, after the practices when we were home, Ed kept telling Gavin to stay awake. Ed was really worried about Gavin having a concussion since he hit his head and tiredness is a sign of concussion (that is what Ed told me). I asked Ed if we should take Gavin to the doctor and when he said "YES" I immediately called and took Gavin in (Ed RARELY thinks the kids need to go to the doctor). Luckily Gavin didn't have a concussion but the doctor was 95% sure he had broken his arm - which makes sense since he had been holding his arm very carefully all night. So, the doctor put Gavin's arm in a splint and off to the hospital we went for x-rays. Gavin was really nervous but once he saw the x-ray machine was too fascinated with it (just like his daddy) to be nervous. His arm (wrist) did end up being BROKEN. We go back on Friday to get a cast put on.

Dallin's First Swim Meet

This summer, instead of playing baseball, Dallin decided to try-out from the Lehi swim team. He made it and got to swim on the 7-8 year old team (they go by age as of June 1) - which was really nice since this was his first time. It was such a GREAT experience for him. He had practice Monday - Friday for an hour a day. At practice, they swam the whole time - so it was great exercise. Then on Saturday, they would have swim meets (about 4 hours long) and swim against other city teams. I went to the first meet and Ed went to the rest (until the county meet). So, I only have pictures from his first meet and the county meet. These are pictures from his first meet. It was so much fun to see him be excited about swimming and competing and to see him improve so much. And it was really fun to pick him up from practice on Wednesdays to see him FLOAT out of practice with all his ribbons (I will post about those when I do the county meet). I am so glad he did swim team this summer! He already can't wait until swim team starts up next summer!

Oh Brecken!

Oh my sweet little Brecken! He has done so well with the move - I was worried about how he would handle all the changes. He had figured out how to keep the twins away from his toys at our old house and was okay in the new house when we had the twins gated into the family room. But then the twins figured out how to get past the gate - so now they can roam free on the main level. No worries - Brecken has a solution. He puts ALL of his toys, big and small, up on the counter. When it is time to eat, he just pushes a few of his toys out of the way - but he only moves his toys as far away as he has too. He is such a cute boy!

BBQ & Pool Party with Friends

Two weeks ago, we had a bunch of our friends from our old neighborhood (a whole mile away) over for a BBQ and pool party. Having them all over really helped make our home feel like our home. It is always fun to spend time with our friends! Thanks for all the yummy food you brought and for a great time!

My pages aren't very exciting (I am trying to play catch up and taking a break from unpacking and organizing) but I wanted to blog about my fun dessert - it was an ice cream bar. The fun part comes from a GREAT childhood memory I have. I remember going over to my Great-Aunt Marjorie's house for family parties and for dessert she would bring out a huge bowl filled with ice cream balls (several different flavors)! That is such a happy memory for me so I was so excited when I thought of doing it for this party. The kids LOVED getting to pick out their ice cream (and I loved not having to scoop it right then) and then getting to put all kinds of fun toppings on it.

Lake Powell - June 2010

What a great trip we had to Lake Powell back in June with a bunch of our friends - we couldn't go last year because I was extremely pregnant with the twins - so we were really excited to get to go this year. There were 5 families that went this year, on two houseboats and 4 ski boats. We left the little 3 at home so I didn't go the whole time so I don't have pictures of everything (like all the crafts, Ed skiing, etc.). My pages aren't very exciting but they are done and now we can always remember the good time we had at Powell. We really do have the best friends! How many friends would spend HOURS helping kids (not their own) try to get up skiing or kneeboarding? And a lot of that time they were just out in the middle of the lake waiting for the boat to come back and get them. Thanks to all our friends that helped our kids and for making it such a great trip! We can't wait until next year!