The Beginning of School!

So I'm a little late on posting things this week. Xander had his first day of his 2nd year of preschool on Monday. (He misses the deadline for Kindergarten by 6 weeks) He is going to a gal named Koni Youd that lives in my stake. She is awesome!!! He goes Mon, Tues, & Thurs. afternoon's and is already learning so much. He has started singing 2 different songs for me already. Koni is really great at drilling each letter and it's sound, and she makes them write alot too!! Xander usually writes his name in capitol letters and the first day of school he came home with a cute little clock and his name was written with lower case letters!! Already this is shaping up to be an awesome year of school!!

Mara had to get in on the picture fun.
Monday nights is when Pat mows the lawn, and that is always the guaranteed time for us to be out on the swing set. I was able to get a really cute picture of me and Xander (after about 6 tries) Notice the goggles: Karri bought him a pair, which is funny since the swimming season is almost over.
Xander and Mara were taking turns "catching" each other on the slide.

Then they finally decided to go down the slide together!!
Oh summer is just so fun (too bad I don't like being outside too much). I am just proud of Mara this summer. In May, she wanted to get in the swing, but not be pushed. And she wouldn't set foot near the slide. Now she wants to be pushed "Higher" and loves the slide!! She is just growing up so much.

More Indy Toys!!

I was at Target today, and as usual, had to check the toys. We have a collection of all the Disney Cars for Xander, so I was looking at those (there were no new ones today). Then I decided to check the Indiana Jones toys because I knew that there were going to be new Adventure Heroes guys to add to my collection, and sure enough the 'Temple of Doom' guys were there! (Which is my favorite Indiana Jones movie) I snatched them up and called Pat in pure excitement :) I just love them! Here they are:

Indiana Jones & Willie Scott

Temple Guard & Short Round
Temple Priest & Mola Ram
And next month there should be 3 sets from 'Last Crusade'!!!!

Pretty as a Princess!!

Mara has been in full 'Dress Up' mode for over a month. Once we get her PJ's off she will put on a dress up dress. It's so hard for me to get her dressed for the day. Usually I won't even try unless we are leaving the house. Good thing I don't mind her running around in only a diaper for most of the day!! :) Here she is looking cute, expecially because the top shows her belly!! I think it's funny!!

She is head to toe, Snow White!! I love it!!

You know...

You know you're baby hungry when you tear up watching an episode of Blue's Clues where Mr. Salt & Mrs. Pepper introduce their new baby Paprika!!

I am so pathetic!!

On another note: Today Xander was telling me about how many people live in our house. That we had 3 girls and 2 boys. Then he told me that I need to have a baby boy come out of my tummy. I asked him why it needed to be a boy and he told me that it had to be a pattern of boy, girl, boy, girl. He then said something about how a baby 'shoots' out of my tummy, I corrected him and said that a baby doesn't shoot out, it gets pushed out. He then told me that when I push out a baby boy that we have to name him. I then asked him what we should name the baby and he told me he would think about it.

He also said something last week about how many seats we have in our car, and that we can have one more baby to fill the car up. I asked him if we would only have 3 kids, and he said no, but when we have another baby after that, that is when we need to get a new car.

So apparently Xander is baby hungry too!!!

Oh, the things kids say!

(I just think it's funny because I am thinking about babies alot, but never say anything around him. So it's interesting that he is thinking about it too.)

Stef & Scott

Pat and I were privileged enough to be able to attend Stefanie & Scott's sealing ceremony today. It was so beautiful! Just being in the Temple makes me cry, especially when 2 people come together for eternity. I am so proud of Stefanie. She has been through so much in her life and this was an amazing day for her!

Congrats girl, I love you!!

Me, Stef & Court

While Mana's Away...

My mom and sister left to go to Yellowstone on Saturday morning. So while she has been gone we did a few things. We took our friends Kenny & Susan and kids to our cabin Saturday night to stay over. It is always nice to be there and even better with friends :) I didn't take many pictures (which is weird for me), but Saturday night we ate at T-Cee's then stayed up late and the kids watched movies and we just hung out. Susan had about 4 chapters left in 'Breaking Dawn' so us girls stayed upstairs (I cross stitched while she read) and the boys took care of the kids for awhile. We ended up going to bed about 11, which is so late for my children, but they both did really well once they got to sleep. Then Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast. The boys went outside to catch bugs along with Mara & Livvy. Pat said that they were holding hands walking around with each other :) We really didn't do much other then relax. Here are the girls on our huge fish pillow:

It's good to always take a group picture to commemorate the trip. Too bad I didn't get more pics :(

Thanks again guys for coming with us. And as Susan mentioned to me, one of these days we are going to have a girls getaway. Too bad it's already the end of the summer, guess it'll have to be next year :)

While my mom has been away it's given me a taste of freedom, LOL. That sounds bad. It's just that we have been living here for 3 1/2 years, so I forget how it feels for it to just be us (me, Pat & kids). Usually once we get the kids to bed, Pat & I stay in our room and watch TV or movies or whatever. So while she's been gone we have stayed up in the kitchen and watched the Olympics! (We have a DVR, so we have been recording them and watched stuff after the kids are in bed) So after 2 nights of sitting on hard stools, Pat moved the nice chair into the kitchen and watched. It was so funny that I had to take a picture:
Pretty much we have been doing our regular routine, except that Pat has been a little sick and came home from work yesterday. It was nice for me to have him home an extra day this week, but not fun that he was sick. He pretty much slept all afternoon anyway. But I was able to pull out my scrapbook stuff, Yippee!!

Then today was Pat's monthly hair cut and he decided that he was going to shave his beard off too. He just looks so weird to me this way. I'm used to the facial hair and I love it. Needless to say he likes it too, so it was just the one time shaving and the beard will be back in a few days time :)

And thus ends the "alone" time. My mom & Karri just pulled up to the house. Their time away gave me a little more yearning for a place of our own. All in good time.

Friends

I am so grateful for my friends. Stefanie, Courtney, Erin & I have been friends since High School. We sang together in choir and have been friends since! It's sad that we don't get together very often. But we have been able to see each other 3 times in the past month, all due to Courtney! First we were able to go to a bridal shower for her a few weeks back (Erin was out of town).

Stef, Court, & Me

Last week we were able to go to dinner to celebrate Courtney's upcoming nuptuals at Red Robin!! It was so nice to get away for a few hours with friends.

Court, Erin, Me & Stef Courtney got married on Friday the 8th! I am so excited for her and glad that she found Ben. He is going to make her so happy! Congrats CeeCee, I love you!!!

Stef, Court & Me

And next Saturday Stef & her husband Scott are getting sealed!! Another great reason to get together, right??? And Erin is having another baby, so there's another reason too! :)

I love you guys!!!!

Swimming

On Wednesday we were able to go to Veteran's Memorial Pool in Provo with some of Pat's family. This was probably the last time we will go swimming this summer since school starts for Pat in a few weeks. It was the first time we have been to that pool and we loved it!! Thanks again Liza for the invite and letting us use your punch pass :) You rock!!!

Our Trip to Boise!

Ok, sorry, this is another long post.

Last Friday morning we headed up to Boise, Idaho with Pat's sister Lana & family, and his brother Morri & his family. We took this little vacation because our nephew Spencer was getting baptized!! We got there around dinner time. Pat and Xander ran off with Ben & kids, Morri, Liza & kids, and JR & Noah, they met up with some of Ben's friends and went rafting down the Boise River. They were gone for a good 3-4 hours, but had a great time.

Meanwhile back at home, Amber & Brody, Lana & Maddox, and me & Mara hung out in the backyard :)

Mara & Aunt Amber
Cousin Brody
Cousin Maddox
Me & my girl enjoying a Popsicle!
Maddox sharing with his mom!
The next morning the girls shared in a bath:
Mara, Addi, and Aubrey

And of course after we gave the girls a bath, the decision was made to go swimming. I opted out of getting in the pool, since I had just washed and dried my hair, so I stayed out and watched the fun!

Some of the boys:

Carter, Caden, Alex, Spencer, & Noah

(it's funny that they are sitting in order of age!!)

Ben has a cool case that you put your camera in so you can take it in the water, so some of these pictures are from him!

Trying out some fun tricks.
What a sweet tower.

top-bottom: Bryton, Alex, & Ben

All wet and all done!
Mara & Uncle Morri
When Xander was done swimming, he got wrapped in a towel and went to lay down on the cement next to his cousins. He slipped and hit his head. This is the result:
A good shot of Pat sleeping while I read my book :) A little family picture before the baptism.
Spencer & Ben before the baptism. We are so proud of Spencer for making this decision! You are awesome buddy!!

Afterwards, we got a fun group picture in Ben & Amber's backyard.

What a good lookin' family.

Then again........
My niece Bryton took this picture of me & Lana
The boys messing around:

JR, Ben, Pat, & Morri

They look better like this.

Xander had to bring one of his Pokemon movies and he shared it with his cousins. Thanks Ben & Amber for a fun weekend. You guys are great! I just wished you lived closer so we could see you more often. On our way home we stopped off at Pat's grandparents house in Murtaugh. Grandma June loves the Utah Jazz and through one of her grandsons was able to get one of Andrei Kirilenko's shoes, and he even signed it too!!!
Pat & the kids in the Tolman Corn Crops!!
Fun family picture in the corn! They were so tall! I didn't dare go farther then that, made me think too much about the movie 'Signs'.
A quick picture of the kids with Grandpa Roger & Grandma June.
I love being able to get together with family. It truly is the best thing ever! I love you guys!!