First day of school 2012

 

The school year has begun!  I was definitely getting ready for a change from daily summer boredom the last couple of weeks.  Of course, now life gets pressured and scheduled.  But I welcome the new change for now. 

 

Jacob is starting the 3rd grade!  And here he is, wearing his brand new blue birthday pants.  Seriously, what else would he be wearing?

 

 

 

 

Do you see this picture?  Do you see who it is?  Let me introduce you to my 4th child, Kyle, who is actually (willingly)  LOOKING at the camera.  I think he just wanted to show his shirt off, and certainly he didn't realize that his face would be part of the picture.....moms are so sneaky!

 

Kyle is starting 5th grade.  (and in case you're wondering...he picked out this shirt).  :)  And there's Ziggy looking so sweet and innocent, but trust me, looks can be deceiving!

 

 

Dallin is starting the 7th grade.  He is now a peon in a new school....junior high!  Do you remember junior high?  Specifically 7th grade?  Or did you try and erase it from your memory?  I understand, really.  But Dallin's going to rock it!

 

 

Even Brandon was willing to get his picture taken. Something must have been in the air that first day of school. Brandon is starting the 10th grade this year and a new school as well. He is currently signed up to be in 3 bands....one early morning (before school), one on his own time, and one as a class, which really all that means is that he will be performing in 3 different bands throughout the year. The kid likes to play his instruments, which is awesome. But leaving at 6 am 3 days a week for early morning rehearsals is not something I'm particularly looking forward to! Just sayin'....



 

 

So, here we go on a new adventure....another year of school. Wish us luck! :)

 



Family Home Evening

Last Monday Jacob had the lesson for FHE.  It was on love.  I helped him choose a story found in the August Friend.  Along with the story was a recipe for President Monson's favorite childhood cake, Ribbon Cake.  It was a recipe from scratch and used food coloring to get the different colors of each layer.  I decided it would be fun to make it for our FHE treat.

 

Here are some pics.....

 

 

 



 

 

I've got to be honest...it really wasn't that good.  Maybe I'm more partial to the box cake, ya know the one with pudding in the mix?  :)  What would I have done in President Monson's time without that?

 



 

Yes, you guessed it.  That is Kyle, NOT wanting his picture taken.  Big surprise!  :)

 



 

After we had our lesson and treat, we played Ticket to Ride as a family.  It was so fun.  We didn't know how to play at first, but quickly got the hang of it.  I highly recommend it, if you haven't played before.  Brandon really wanted  a picture of the end result with all the train routes on the board.  Pretty cool, eh?  :)

 



 

And here is a random picture of Dallin, right before he went on a backpacking trip a couple of weeks ago.  What a handsome, stalwart young man he is turning out to be!  Dallin loves to hike...good job son!

 



 

 

And that's all folks.  Have a super day!  :)

Eric goes to Snow College

 

Well, it finally happened!  Eric got packed up and dropped off at Snow College on Sat., August 18th.  It was a long, emotional, but happy, day.  We wanted to get going by 10:30, but Eric and his friends had other plans.

 

(and just a side note, Eric didn't start packing until Friday--the day before--and I hate to admit it, but he really DID have plenty of time)....Ugh!  Girls need so much longer....

 

 

At 8:30 in the morning, 3 of Eric's friends showed up to see him off.  Kevin Ponce, Kaycee Greef and Jayde Ford. 

 



They pretty much got Eric out of bed!  "Hi gguuuyyyyss..."

 



 

Eric had to talk to each person individually before we could go.  So on our front lawn, each friend waited for their turn to hear wonderful parting words of wisdom from Eric.  Kevin was first.

 



 

Kaycee and Jayde waiting their turn....Oh, and Jayde got a cheesecake from Eric...aahhh, sweet.

 



 

Kaycee was next, but for some reason, I didn't snap a picture.  I think it's because I was saying, "Hey Eric, we've got to go.  Say your goodbye's and let's get out of here."  It was approaching 11:30 after all.  Except I'm sure I said it much more nicely and friendly....pretty sure.... :)

 

 

Jayde was last.  It was very heart-felt....well, it looked heart-felt.  I really wish I could have heard what they were saying!  :) 

 



 

Serious conversations going on....

 



 

 

At 11:30, we put our foot down and told Eric we needed to go.  His friends watched us drive off.  It was very sweet.

 



When we arrived in Ephraim, and finally found Eric's apartment, this is what we found on the door.  All of his roommates names were on the flower....how clever! 

 

 

But before we could unpack all of Eric's stuff in his room, we had to get some other things done first. We got Eric's student ID card, helped him set up a PO box, and purchased his books at the bookstore, which by the way, was a whopping $400 (and some of those books were rented). Crazy! And a few days later, he realized he had to return one of the books, and get another one, which added another $50! (I guess I'll stop complaining about the jr high/sr high school fees...I'd much rather pay those).

 

After we returned from all the errands, we went back to Eric's apartment and helped him unpack and get settled.  Here are a few pics of what his apartment looks like...

 

When you open the door, the kitchen is first.

 

On the left of the kitchen are 2 bedrooms and a bathroom....on the right, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom.  There are 8 people in all, 2 of which have their own bedrooms.

 

And here is Eric's room (well, his side of the room, anyway).  As you can see, we were still unpacking....

 

And here it is, all put together.  It was so quiet there, I almost wanted to stay myself....

 



 

And then it was finally time to say goodbye....well, not goodbye, but see ya later!  Eric walked with us out to the car and was planning to meet a friend on campus.  As we drove off, he walked away all by himself....and sorry for the dramatics, but he looked so little and all alone in this big world as he went in one direction, and we drove off in another.  But as I watched him, he also looked determined and ready for this new adventure, with his head held high and his stride confident and secure.  A few seconds later, as we drove away, I glanced back and Eric was gone.  He had already walked out of our sight and it was a little sad. I didn't cry when we left.  I did feel a little sick to my stomach.  

 

 



 

And now on to the next stage of life....our oldest has left home and will be on his own.   People have told us that it will never be the same, now that we have one child out of the house, and that we are entering a new phase of raising our kids.  The first several days, I was the one who was "homesick" for Eric.  I felt unsettled and uneasy.  As we've knelt for family prayer and had FHE, and at the end of each day, said good night to each child, there has definitely been a void.  When we've locked the doors at night, and realized there are only 4 children here, there has been a strange feeling, like we're not complete anymore.  Eric has been missed and we have all felt it.

 

 But, I do feel a little better now.  And even though I miss Eric, I am so grateful that he has the opportunity to be able to be where he is.  I know that's where he should be and I'm thankful for that quiet assurance. 

 

Good luck Eric!  We love you!  

(we'll see you in a couple of weeks, right?)  :)

 

 

 

Jacob's baptism

 

Jacob got baptized on August 4th, the day after we returned from our Bear Lake vacation.  It was quite a busy weekend.  Jacob couldn't wait to be baptized.  He was so excited!  Here are a few before pics....

 

 

What a handsome little guy!

 



 

He's loving the "tree" pics!

 



 

I just love all these pictures of Jacob.  These were all taken before the baptism....

 



 

Jacob and Dad

 



 

Jacob and Mom

 



 

This is Jacob and his good friend, Vail.  They have so much fun together and Jacob was so glad he came to see him get baptized.

 



 

After the baptism, we had a big pizza party with all the family and a few friends.  It was a lot of fun and Jacob loved all the attention.

 



Parker sure loved that watermelon.  :)  I wish I had taken a close up....

 



 

Aubrey and Makenna....what little cuties!

 



 

The "grown-up" cousins (completely ignoring the photographer)...hmm

 



 

It was a wonderful day!  Way to go Jacob for choosing to follow Jesus and be baptized.  You will be blessed in your life for taking this important step!  Good job!

 

 

**The next day, Sunday, August 5th, Eric was ordained to be an Elder.  It was so awesome!  He was set apart after church and it was such an amazing weekend.  Our youngest was baptized; our oldest became an Elder.  It just doesn't get much better than this....

Bear Lake Vacation 2012

We decided to take a vacation to Bear Lake this year.  I'm not sure why, exactly, because we're really not "water" people, but it sounded like fun and it wasn't too far from home, so we found a house to rent and planned for a week of fun!

 

We've never been to a "real" beach, with the exception of once when we went to Disneyland (Eric was 8, Brandon 5, Dallin 3 and Kyle 1) when the kids were little and we spent a day in San Diego and went to the beach one morning.  It was cold then, though, and our kids were too young to remember it, so we thought we'd pretend like Bear Lake was a beach, since it's probably as close as we'll ever come to actually being on one again. (never say never, though, right?)

 

The first beach we went to was awesome!  It really had great sand and you could walk out into the lake a long way before it got deep.

 

 

 

 

We were just like the "regulars" at the lake, drinking our pop and building sand castles. 

 



The water was a little cold, but you got used to it eventually.  Jacob had a total blast in the lake.

 



Dallin was determined to make a sand castle....he wasn't going to leave without accomplishing that.

 



 

Cool castle, right?  I love the reflection on the water.  Who knew such skills existed?

 



Sadly, those weren't our skills.  Someone else built that, and it was pretty awesome!  (But you would have never known, if I hadn't confessed, huh?)

 



 

Here's Dallin with his castle.....can you see it?  Hey, he worked hard on that.  Good job, Dallin!  :)

 



 

Another day we decided to rent some "family" bikes and ride them around town.  Oh man, it was so fun!  (and so HOT)...the kids loved these little bikes.  They were easy to steer and pedal.  This picture was taken a little ways into the ride, when we had become more comfortable on the bikes....

 



 

 

The beginning was a little hard, especially with the "big" bikes.  But we got the hang of it...

 



 

 

Even Todd and I got to ride one.  He was in charge of steering for the first half, but I quickly took over on the way back.  (I gotta be honest here though, Todd was actually the better driver of the bike.  I kept forgetting that I was at the wheel!....But I would never admit that he was a better driver for the car)....just sayin'

 



 

Even Eric got in a single bike at the end of our ride.

 



 

Brandon liked this big bike (tractor?)...It was so fun to see them all on their bikes.

 



 

See how hot it was?  UGH!  It was still tons of fun though...

 



 

More random pics....did I mention that we really loved the bikes?  :)

 



This is the best picture I could get of Kyle....he wouldn't let me take one of him, so I had to settle for the back of his head....that kid...

 



 

This is a picture of Jacob on the last day we were at the beach.  We went to a different beach this time, so we could rent a ski doo.  The kids LOVED it.  This is what Jacob's hair looked like after all the "riding" on the water.  So funny!

 



 

And here are the kids, all tired out.  Are we going home yet?  :)  (and do you notice Kyle covering his face with his arms?  Ugh!)...

 



 

 

We really did have a fun vacation.  We were there for 5 days and it was very relaxing.  I could get used to "water" vacations, as long as I got to kick back and read a book on the beach....my kind of vacation.  Fun!  Fun!