First day of Kindergarten for Allie

Went surprisingly well!  Super excited and quite frankly, shocked, that it went that well!  Yay for Kindergarten!!

1st day of school for Ellyse.

It was a nice morning...despite the fact that I rolled out of bed at 8 and did nothing but get dressed before taking her over there.  I'm sure I was quite the sight to be seen. :)

 K.  Look at the girl in the background with the blue and white striped shirt.  Ellyse's twin right?  Especially for me because Ellyse has that exact same shirt.  Kinda creeped me out for a second. :)

 She gets to sit by her friend....for now anyway. :)  Until the talking becomes disruptive.

Yay for school!!

Look who's riding a bike!!

No training wheels!  Still needs a bit of help but is getting there!

Sorry for the screaming. I got a bit excited! :)

Allie Cat...

Our little Allie has a BIG personality and some BIG fears.  One of them has ended up being going to Kindergarten.  She's had a trial of Kindergarten this week.  Just 4 days for a few hours each day is all. Boy oh boy did she ever let everyone know how unhappy she was about it!  I felt like the worst parent ever when I just turned and walked away from her on the 3rd and 4th day. When I left her, I could hear her screaming all the way down the hallway.  :(

This was at the Kindergarten teachers request. Bless her heart for dealing with a child feeling abandoned.

* Insert my heart melting *

The teacher said she does fine after a bit of crying but that initial feeling of being left is super scary for her.  I'm hoping it will get better as the year goes by but judging from this week, we both have a lot of growing up to do.

On another note, we recently went through 2 hours of widdling out closets and pulling down 'new' old clothes for Allie. I have to give her tons of props for not being interested in having to have 'new' things and being totally content on hand-me-downs.  This helps out tremendously as we have to go shopping all together and Ellyse is the only one that ends up with the purchases. 

Ellyse insisted on a new backpack even though her old one is perfectly fine.  Allie completely loved getting Ellyse's old one and I think it may have helped in the the transistion to Kindergarten just a bit.  Love, love, love that Allie's being content about this!

It's great to be 8!

Over the weekend, Ellyse was able to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Here are a 'few' pictures of her day. :)

In the scriptures we learn that when we are in the service of our fellow men, we are only in the service of our God.  (Mosiah 2:17)

We were truly blessed to have so many people give us so much service on the day of and prior to the baptism! I know I'll forget people when I start listing names so please forgive me if I fail to mention you.  Please know that I noted all the wonderful things that were done, given, said, helped with, and was truly amazed at the service we received!  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!

Carol, also mentioned below, gave Ellyse a white towel with her name embroidered on it in white.  What a special gift that meant so much!  It is in the 1st picture.

Aunt Amy helped me find the dress at an incredible rate!  Super glad she was on the ball!

Grandma Jolene worked meticulously on the mending of the dress. Very much obliged to her for her help with this incredibly delicate process that I no doubt would've been screaming had I tried to do it alone.

 A very gracious young women in our ward showed up at our house at 7:15 to braid Ellyse's hair!  I'm no good at braiding so, I begged her to help.  Jamie was scheduled to be in a parade at 8 so, she had to come even earlier.  What a very kind soul to get up extra early to serve! Thanks so much Jamie!!  It turned out wonderful!

 The Bishop's wife made up the program and was there to help with anything we needed. My new visiting teacher was there also and she brought some pictures of Ellyse that she had framed and had up for display. Plus, she took the wet clothes and took care of the them for me after the baptism because, as she put it, "you have enough to worry about."  How incredibly wonderful of them!

 The tablecloth below belonged to my grandma Doris who died several years ago.  I have since lost or had some of the things broken that I was able to keep from her house, except this.  What a fun way to bring a little of her into the special day!

 Our Ari and our Carol.  The kids love these two people!  Ari is our babysitter and sang 'I'm trying to be like Jesus' while Carol, my very dedicated and beloved past visiting teacher played piano (and embroidered the towel mentioned above).  We are so grateful for their service!

Our Bishop and 2nd Counselor. They both took the time out of their busy lives to be there.

The members of my family that were in attendance.  All my nephews gave prayers.  Mom and Dad brought about 30 things for the luncheon afterwards and all gave a ton of love and support! My dad was a witness. 

 I had to 'keep it together' so to speak, during the day but when I saw my family show up it was hard to fight back the tears.

 Jason's Parents.  ALWAYS overly helpful!  Helped out with the luncheon and gave Ellyse her first set of monogrammed scriptures and carrying case.  Ellyse was elated and wouldn't stop carrying them around on Sunday. :)  Diane also gave a marvelous talk during the service and Brent was a witness.  Diane mentioned in her talk that when we are baptized that we need to bear one another's burdens.  These two do a tremendous job at that!  How grateful we are for our families!

 Her daddy baptized her and also did about a million things behind the scenes to help make the day so special.

 Almost forgot to get a family shot.

 Cute Girl Cousins...

Plus, everyone brought things to share for the luncheon which was amazing!  There was so much help throughout the day and gifts or thoughts or cards that were given to Ellyse to make it such a special day.  How grateful I am for all who helped in any way!  I love you all and appreciate you making this incredibly special day even better for Ellyse and all of us!!

I know our Heavenly Father was served today by all that was done in our behalf. 

We are so proud of Ellyse and her decision to get baptized!  We know that the key to happiness lies in following Jesus' example.  Ellyse did just that this day.

On a some what different note:

Another great thing about turning 8?  Activity Days!  Holy schmoly life is moving at crazy fast speed!!

This was her first day of activity days and she loved it!!

Wasn't she just a baby last week?

Fun Staycation in Heber.

This past weekend the Wood's and us were able to go to a fun little cabin right by Jordanelle reservoir and get bit by mosquito's  enjoy some fun family time together! 

Friday afternoon we played at a place called Jungle Jims around Union Square in Salt Lake City.  If you are looking for a fun indoor activity that doesn't cost you an arm and a leg, this is the place.  Adults get in free too!

 Carousel

 Spinning thingy.

 The other spinney thingy.

 Just in case you're wondering why Allie looks a little funny, she got a mosquito bite on her forehead  that was swollen.  So, we did what any loving parent would do and we called her Spock for the day gave her lots of extra attention and love for the day.

 On spinney thingy.

 Bumper cars

 Park City.

 The Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake.  REALLY cool museum that combines art with science!  Two of my favorite things!  Loved it!

 Jason and Lance saw this gadget table and it was like they instantly gravitated toward it and started tinkering around.  It was cute to see them so enthralled with it.  Like two kids in a candy store.

In the background there you can see that they have a little demonstration going on with bubbles.  Here are a few videos that show a little of what was happening.

Upstairs they had this x-ray machine that showed your skeleton as you moved around.  It would get pretty messed up though and it was hilarious to watch. I got some footage of it but I'm just warning you of how awful the footage is ahead of time.  I was laughing too hard to keep the camera straight.  But you can tell that it's pretty funny to see some one's skeleton dancing around.

We were staying close to The Zermatt Resort and the Homestead.  We hadn't been there before so we headed there to take a look around. I absolutely fell in love with Midway, the city where the resorts are!  Everywhere I looked I was in awe of well, the cuteness of it.   Zermatt wasn't bad either. 

We also took a raft down the Provo River too. It was nice and calm. A little too nice and calm if you ask me. We were surrounded by beautiful scenery and fun family. What more do you need?

OH!! And HEY!  I got my very best Shanghai Rummy score ever up there!!  125 baby!!! Those of you who may have played that game with me before know how rare a thing it is to 1. see me win. and 2.  Not get near 1000 points in a game.  I'm movin on up people!!

Brent knows how to plan a vacation well.  He did another great job this time!

24th of July

We've been busy with some fun things this July that I'm just getting caught up here. Here's the 24th of July parade in photos.  We caught up with an old chum Andrea that day and played.  It was great!

That night we ended up at Rich's (bless their heart) for another BBQ.  It was a lot of fun as well!

Spidey loves himself a parade!

Fun mobile

Every Sunday night we usually end up at one or both of Jason's grandma's house.  If we go to Jolene's first, the kids will usually jump in the car with the Wood's or with Lance to get to the other grandma's house as they only live a few streets away from one another. 

We call this the fun mobile.   May be not so much fun for Lance however. :)