This Face

Every single morning & evening I get to see this cheesy grin. I ask the kids to go brush their teeth & Eliza runs over & says "teeth" & shows me her pearly whites. It is awesome. She's learned very quickly from everyone how to do the teeth cleaning check.

But at least it paid off at this last appointment-no cavities for anyone in the family. So we'll keep up with the cheesy grins of this (& the other's) face.

The First Day of School

It's back to school time! Crazy! Where did the summer go? Here are Lexie & Joseph all ready to go!

Lexie is starting 4th grade. She's excited to see her friends again & that she seems to have a nice teacher. We're excited to get to know her.

Joseph is starting 2nd grade. We are excited about his teacher. His teacher is really great. Joseph is excited to be in the same class as so many of his great friends & to make his brain grow bigger & bigger.

Eliza was excited to be in the picture with Joseph. I don't think she realizes how lonely she's going to be starting Wednesday (when Andrew officially starts Kindergarten). But she is excited about today.

Peaches

One of the grocery stores had peaches on sale that I couldn't resist buying a ton to can some peaches. The kids were super excited to help & everyone got on aprons. Canning with the kids reminded me of almost 5 years ago canning with my mom right after Andrew was born.

I didn't get to finish them all with the kids so I made Rick help me tonight. Gratefully we got them done & boy are they tasty!

I'm Going To Miss This

I am so going to miss summer. We've had so much fun playing, swimming, being goofy, playing with friends...so many things. Unfortunately we didn't do much travelling, but still somehow we've managed to have a blast. Today the kids got the tinker toys out again & created a band. I was floored & just loved watching how cute & fun they were with each other trying to make sure everything was just so. Once it was to their satisfaction they performed a sweet "We love Mom" song. They can hardly wait for Rick to come home so they can sing his "Daddy" song.

I love this picture because Andrew it sort of shows Andrew's leg going up & down which he did constantly. It made me laugh so hard!

It's hard to see, but Joseph even made an awesome foot pedal for his floor drum. How on earth did he know about that?

Lexie loves to be the lead singer!

My little drummer boy.

And another of my sweet little drummer boys.

Lexie releasing her inner rockstar. She cracks me up! She is so reserved it's amazing to see that there is a little rockstar inside of all of us.

When is Fall Break? I can hardly wait for it!

Messy!

This little monkey cannot stay out of her daddy's bathroom drawer!

But on the upside, her hair later in the day was curlier than I'd ever seen it & it held the curl better than ever. I'll have to remember that.

Hullabaloo

The kids have played many a rousing games of Hullabaloo today. We haven't played it in forever, I'd forgotten how funny they are about it. It was fun to see all of their "funky dances" & watch Eliza learn more of her colors more accurately. She also loved stacking all of the pieces just so.

Thanks to our music leader in Primary, the kids came home with gold medals that they used for the winners of different rounds in the game.

Late For Church

It's not very often that we get to church late. It's almost never. However today the stars aligned just so that we were so late that we even got to sit on the hard chairs in the back. (Our kids do so much better in the pews rather than on the chairs so we really try hard to be on time. And we were reminded of that yet again today.) So, why were we late & so many people in the ward that saw us going back home wonder if my water had broken or just what had gone wrong? A wasp.

We were well on our way & then Joseph started screaming that there was a wasp & it had stung him. He calmed down pretty quickly so we could understand what was happening. Of course the wasp was still alive & Lexie was terrified to try & hit it to kill it for us. We had almost  made it back home but it landed on Joseph's leg & he was nervous so we stopped & Rick quickly got out & killed it. (He didn't kill it completely though & then Joseph began stomping on it to make sure it was really dead.) Then we hurried home & I took Joseph in to patch him up & Rick took the other kids to church. 

Joseph got stung 4 times: twice on his chin & twice on his finger.

Since Lexie was stung not too long ago I knew what to quickly do to help Joseph feel better fast. And surprisingly, he did. After about 5 minutes he said everything felt like normal & we decided we could pack up an ice pack & head off to church. He is one tough boy. And we are seriously done with wasps around here. It's been a long time (since Lexie got stung) since I've seen any around. I thought we got all of them. But they must be hiding most of the time or something. But I'm ready for them to leave us all alone.

A Rare Sight

Lexie got the fever that Andrew & Eliza had last week. She was out for two days. Poor girl. But today I was surprised that Lexie, Andrew, & Eliza all decided to take a nap together at the same time. (Lexie is sleeping under the blanket.) The house was so quiet. I couldn't believe it.

Sweet Joseph helped me with a few jobs for the first while & then I let him pick a show to watch & I fell asleep watching it with him. It was a very rare day at our house but very welcomed.

Cupcake

Somebody really loved eating her cupcake (well the part that actually made it into her mouth)!

Apple?

We picked some more yummy goodness from the garden today. Eliza was super excited about the "apple" she found. We kept trying to tell her it was a tomato but she didn't want to listen. She kept saying, "yummy apple." And then she decided to take a bite of it. Then she looked at me very confused & in her cute whispery voice said, "Yucky apple" and politely put it down. Not the flavor she was expecting on her little taste buds.

Cake for Lexie

Since yesterday was a pretty packed birthday for Lexie, we didn't even have time for her actual birthday cake. So, after a yummy breakfast we decided to let her have cake for bressert.

She wanted a white cake with flowers & a simple Happy Birthday written on it. She said, "It's kind of weird but I think my cake is going to be more romantic looking than I want." She is a funny girl. Poor Rick, after we worked on lots of other projects Thursday night, he ended up having to write the message on the cake. Both of us were laughing so hard at how his hands were shaking (we should have opened a fresh can of writing frosting for this one) & the cake turned out to look like a greeting card written by an 80 yr old woman. Not our best work, but it got done. And sweet Lexie, she was thrilled with it & kept thanking us for making it for her. Oh how we love our sweet little girl! She is truly one of the most grateful & thoughtful people we know.

Also so funny, the practice rose that we did on the napkin turned out better than any on the cake. So we saved it for Lexie...oh well. We tried.

Lexie's Birthday: 9 Years Old

Lexie had a birthday & it was a packed day. After the work picnic we opened some presents because we were having a late over tonight for Lexie with some friends. So, here are some fun present opening pictures.

She really loves her new Fablehaven books.

And a new bike!

She had fun taking it for a spin around the house.

Then we got ready for Lexie's Lateover. She has been wanting to have some friends over for a little get together for so long. It was fun as we were planning it that it would really work best on her birthday so she was super excited to have everyone over.

The girls were so funny & cute had lots of fun together. They did lots of different activities & crafts. They made tissue paper flowers,

had a pillow fight,

decorated cupcakes,

decorated picture frames,

begged Rick to make them some popcorn so they could eat it while watching a  movie,

played Whoonu,

and so much more. There was much giggling & silliness all around & everyone seemed to have a blast!

Lexie really had a fun filled birthday & we're so glad it was such a happy day!

I'm not quite sure how, but somehow our little girl went from being so small

to being so grown up:

She is amazing & we are so grateful she is in our family. We love our sweet girl so much!