Gavin's First Day of Kindergarten!

I can't believe that Gavin stared kindergarten yesterday (kindergarten starts a week after the other kids so that teachers can meet with all the kindergarten kids). He was so excited to finally get to go to the same school as his brothers. He couldn't wait to go - he is in afternoon kindergarten so since that is after lunch, he wanted lunch at 10:00am so he could go to school. When we finally left, he ran the whole way and couldn't wait to get into his classroom. Of course, once he got in there he looked a little nervous (but never said he was).

Even though he was fine when I left him in his classroom, I was so happy when school was out and I picked him up that he came RUNNING out saying

"it was the best day ever!"

He did Ski!

I didn't see it, but thanks to Dani and Justin, I have proof that Ed did actually ski while we were at Lake Powell way back in June. One of these days I hope to actually see him ski!

Girl's Night

For 2 of my friends birthdays (Carol & Angie - Donna was out of town so we couldn't celebrate hers that night) we had a girls night at my house. We had chicken salad on pineapple (see picture) with fruit, rolls, salad and Brazilian lemonade (thanks to all that helped with the yummy food). Then for dessert we had chocolate cake. After opening presents and chatting, we got in the hot tub (for more chatting) and enjoyed yummy (virgin) strawberry daiquiri's. When we got too hot, we took a dip in the pool - and then chatted some more in the hot tub. It was a GREAT night! We need to do it again - SOON!

18 Holes of FUN!

Every summer, Ed's work has a BIG summer party for the whole family (which I will post about soon, hopefully). As part of the summer party, the family can all go mini-golfing - something our kids look forward to every year. This year we even took Brecken. He LOVED getting to "chase" his ball after he hit it (with help from his daddy). Seeing the pure joy in Brecken's face when he went running after his ball made golfing in the almost 100 degree heat totally worth it! And luckily, we went mini-golfing the day BEFORE Gavin broke his wrist.

Dallin's 2010 Swim Season

Dallin had a FABULOUS swim season - especially since it was his first! He did great all season (just see the list above) and at the County Meet - where he got to swim SILVER (there are 3 levels they swim at at the County Meet based on their times throughout the season - Gold, Silver, and Bronze - we were THRILLED that Dallin qualified to swim Silver). At the County Meet he swam in 4 races and placed in all 4 races:

25-yd freestyle

17th Place

25-yd Backstroke

10th Place

100-yd IM

2nd Place (which earned Dallin a plaque)

100-yd freestyle relay

1st Place

Way to go Dallin! And for those who don't know (I didn't until this summer), the 100-yd IM is the Individual Medley - they swim 25-yds of each of the 4 strokes (butterfly, back-stroke, breast-stroke, and free-style). And because of how well he did all season (getting a time in all 4 strokes) and swimming in the county meet, he got a TROPHY! What a great season Dallin!

Jam Session

All of a sudden, while I was making lunch today for the little 4, I heard some

"BEAUTIFUL MUSIC"

coming from the front room. When I went to investigate, this is what I found!

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.