First day of school

Well its official, I have two kids in school. Ashlyn started first grade, and Jayden started Kindergarten. I was much more nervous than they were. I drove them there and was lucky enough to get to walk them both to class. Neither of them missed a beat. They werent hesitant at all. Luckily the other two kids Rylan and Ty kept me distracted enough to keep me from crying. Its always hard to walk away from my kids and leave them somewhere with out me. And watching them grow up makes me so proud and so amazed all at once. I almost cried again when I saw them holding hands waiting for me to pick them up. They looked so excited to see me and I felt the same.

Bappa

These go together. Ash has one too but hers isnt in the picture.



So one of the best things about living here is seeing the kids have fun with grandpa, and putting in all the orders for cool wood items. Today Rylan was asking where everyone was, and then Id ask him. I said Wheres Ashlyn? In school. Wheres Jayden, in school, wheres Daddy at work, wheres grandpa? In the garage. The garage is their favorite place. He always helps them make things they can paint, puzzles, and all sorts of things. They always feels so cool when they get to go in the garage with grandpa.

Ashlyn's family home evening

Ashlyn gave a family home evening lesson that she made with Grandpa in the garage. She sat us all down and gave us each a piece of this...


As we put our piece down we each said something that made a family happy. I said Kindness
Jayden said helping others
Daddy said the gospel
Ashlyn said obiedience

Then she said that if we want to be a happy family we each hav to do our part, and as a visual if one of us isn't doing something right then we have to take a piece out and we can't put it back until we have changed the way we are acting, which includes me and Josh if we are yelling then we have to take a piece out. Its fun to have them at an age where they enjoy participating and teaching family home evening! It was so sweet.

Happy Anniversary

Josh and I spent the week on an anniversary trip. He was asked to be in a wedding for one of his friends from the fire station. The wedding was in McAllen Texas which is near the border of Mexico so we decided to take full advantage of the time and went to schlitterbahn in New Baunfels as well. Andi watched the kids, with a couple people from the ward here and there. It was a really fun trip, although its never easy to leave the kids behind.







Heres the present we brought back for Jayden a puzzle. He LOVES puzzles, and you can see Ashlyns present on her wrist, we found a couple of cute bracelets.



Heres right before the wedding. Pictures we took in the bathroom of the hotel.


I went all out for the wedding, as some of you facebookers all ready know. I bought heels for the first time and asked a friend for make up tips. I wore eye shadow and blush and lip stick. Big step I know. I even curled my hair a little. Its a big change from kid gunked clothes, not brushing my hair and barely ever make up. Its fun to get all gussied up every once in awhile but dont get too attached, it will not be an everyday occurance.




I have been married to the greatest man on earth for almost 9 years now. It was so fun to be able to spend time away from all the normal day stresses and just be together again. It helped me remember how lucky I truly am. Heres to 9x9x9x9 more!!

busy busy

The last few weeks of summer are always busy and that is the case for us for sure. Here are some July moments.

Wespent one week in July learning all about other countries. We picked a country for each day of the week and in the morning we colored the flag from that country as I read facts about the country in a book. Then they each colored a picture of something they learned about that country and we hung the pictures up. Monday was China, Tuesday was France Wednsday was Mexico Thursday was Egypt and Friday was Italy. We also would eat food from each country so heres a picture from China day as they learned to use chopsticks.






Heres how Jayden fell asleep after the beach the last week, those pictures to come later.
Heres Rylan at a splash park.

Sweet little Ty Ty.