September 2014 Jaina's First Day of Preschool

Jaina was so excited for her first day of Preschool!!! She has been waiting for this 

'for forever'.  I asked her how she wanted her hair done and she said like Elsa, 

so this is what I came up with. Luckily it made her happy!

When did she get big enough to go to school!!!

Her preschool was at Spanish Fork High School. She was going 4 days a week 

for 2 hours in the morning and it was perfect for all of us!

Checking in: they had to write their name every day, which helped her learn it really well!

She was so happy to explore the room. 

She loved all the books.

Had fun painting.

And was in heaven when she found the play kitchen!

She had a place for her backpack and loved that her name was under the hook.

We were getting ready to go to Disneyland and I borrowed this Snow White 

costume from Lana. I was super excited to try it on her.

It's always fun to find bugs! I'm glad that my kids don't

 mind holding them, at least the cute ones.

August 2014 First Day of School

We had back to school night and were able to meet their new teachers!

Miss Porter

Mrs Falcon

The next morning I got the traditional First Day of School pictures!!

I have to throw a picture of this little one in the mix.

Melody is really getting busy and making messes where ever she goes.

Olivia had her 2nd birthday party and Melody was so happy to have empty ice cream cones to chomp on.

We had a trip coming up and I was getting really tired of nursing, so I weaned Melody. 

It was really rough for me for a few weeks, but Melody did great and really took to the bottle 

pretty easily, which was a huge blessing for me. Now others can help in the feeding process!!!

Mara was super excited to be able to feed her a bottle.

I was trying out a new setting on the camera and had Jaina as a model!

I went to Park City & Midway for my yearly Swiss Days weekend and had Melody in tow.  

We happened to find a little people figure from Mana's house that was in the diaper 

bag and she just loved it.  What I loved was her little finger inside it.

While I was away Pat was able to get the kites out for the kids and Jaina was in heaven. Right after this picture was taken one of the kids lost their kite, so the happiness was momentary.

August 2014 Arrow of Light / Family Cabin Day

Xander was diligent and earned his Arrow of Light award for Boy Scouts.

We are so proud of him and all his hard work!!!

Karri and Mana came down for Xander's night. Afterwards we ran to get some cookies to go with dinner. At scouts we got some Red Vines and when I got Melody in the car I gave her mine, not really thinking about it.  Well, while we were driving, Karri looked over to see Melody just LOVING the Red Vine.  She was so so so messy, but had a jolly ole time eating it.

We were able to have a family day at the cabin with all of my family in attendance.  

Mana, Karri and our family went down Saturday night to spend more time there.  

We went on a little hike to enjoy the nature around us.

It had been awhile since I got pictures of the kids at the cabin, so I had to get new ones.

They are all getting so big!

The girls wanted a picture with their favorite Aunt and she was happy to oblige.

I made sure Pat and I got a picture of just us.

The sun was setting and the lighting kept changing, but we kept on shooting.

Sunday morning JD, Chris, Brent, Lisa and kids arrived.

To mark the occasion of all the grand kids being together at the cabin, we had to do more photo shoots.

Before we left we did the customary stairs picture.

It's amazing how much the family has changed since the cabin was built over 15 years ago.

August 2014 Swimming, Mary Poppins, Trafalga

We were able to spend an evening with Lana, Maddox and Olivia at the Provo Rec Center. They have a fun indoor pool and outdoor pools too. The kids had a great time being with cousins.

It was getting late when we left and Melody was done. She fell asleep sucking on her thumb, which she never does. Xander saw this and quickly asked for my phone to take a picture.

Mara and I had the opportunity to see Mary Poppins at the Hale Center Theater in West Valley with Mana, Karri, JD & Chris.  It was such an amazing experience.

Afterwards we were even able to meet Mary and Bert!!

Melody has started pulling herself up!  

She wasn't too happy that I took her picture instead of picking her up.

With one last hurrah before school was to start, we spent an evening at Trafalga playing mini golf.

We decided to carry Melody around instead of worry about a stroller.

It was super hot and there was hardly any shade, but we made sure to shade her whenever we could.

Little by little, Jaina is getting better at mini golf.

Jaina just loved the castle and kept saying it was Aurora's.

Melody is getting more and more mobile everyday and is starting into the mess making stage.

Here she is standing with the stairs, very determined to get her toy.