Alayna's First Day of Preschool

 Laynie started preschool yesterday. She has been so excited for almost a year about going to school. She see's Braxton and Lauryn going off to school and always wanted to go.

 When we were driving there she told be she was "nerbous" and I knew this was going to be hard. She just barely started staying in nursery about a month ago. She wouldn't hold her backpack and she wouldn't walk into her class so I just started walking in and this is her running after me.

 Once we got inside Miss Elke asked if she could take a picture of her and this is all she would give her. ha ha.

 Then she started to warm up. Miss Elke is the sweetest thing in the world and went straight to work on Alayna.

 This was when they were walking out to play on the playground for the last few minutes of school. See how happy she is. She LOVES school and I have no worries anymore.

 She was excited to show her teacher she can pump the swing all by herself.

The Cabin

We went up to midway for a weekend getaway this last week with my family. We stayed at my aunts cabin and it was so nice to have a break.  It was so pretty up there and we had so much fun. We stayed up late playing games every night, went fishing and hiking, shooting bb guns and air soft guns, and stuffed our bellys full of junk food.

This was hanging out around the fire making smores and roasting some mallows. Look at those cool cats!!!

 Grammy is the favorite around the grand kids. Alayna was being ornery so she wouldn't look at the camera.

 Does grammy look a little overwhelmed? Not at all!!!! ha ha!

 These three slept so good all snuggled up like sardines in their bed.

 Grammy brought these plain hats up and fabric markers for the kids to decorate their own hats. They LOVED them. They were pretty "special" and that's why I loved seeing the kids wear them.

 There was a perfect fishing pond right at the bottom of the canyon so we headed out on Saturday afternoon to go see what we could catch. Here they are getting their bait all ready.

 Grammy had an extra hat so Lauryn made it her fishing hat. HILARIOUS! She loved it.

 Lauryn and Lincoln were the 2 winners. They were so cute.

 Braxton showed me his fishing face.

 This is how my family rolls. Jani is terrorizing Nikki with her fishing pole. It had a worm and some seaweed hanging on it. Don't worry, the 3 other families there didn't see them running around screaming...

 This is Will. He is CRAZY. This is the face he gave me when I told him I wanted to see his best smile. I LOVE this boy.

 Lauryn has a book report due on the 22nd and she is reading Way Side School is Falling Down. She had to read almost 200 pages in a couple of weeks so she had lots of reading time up at the cabin. Thanks to everyone reading with her, she was able to finish it. Yay!!!

Grammy spent lots of time reading to the kiddos too. They sure get spoiled when they are with her.

TJ was smart and brought up some letters he needed to mail off. He put Calli right to work and I was so glad that I didn't have to do it:)

Ohhhh how I love ticket to ride. Like I said, we played lots of games up there.

                                                                 Games on the deck.

 Braxton was loving the guns. He asked TJ all day long if they could shoot some more targets. He was pretty good at it too. On the last day TJ made targets for all of the kids and set them up so everyone could the BB gun and airsoft gun.

 And this is why I love this child.....

 Cyndi and Don have put up all of these cute bird houses out everywhere. I wish I would have taken more pictures of them. One day Braxton took a note pad and went around and drew picture of all of the bird houses.

 Ha ha . I love her!

 We took the kids to a park one day so that Lauryn could have a softball lesson from Jani. She is going to start up lessons once a week with her. She did pretty good.

 Everyone loves a good game of twister right? Sorry about the G's coming out!

 Thanks Mom and John for setting up this trip. I was a good break and we had a blast with everyone.

First Day of 4th and 1st

                Lauryn and Braxton started 4th and 1st grade. They are gone all day and it really makes me sad. I don't think I have ever been one of those moms that was sad when I sent my kids off to school but this year it crushed me. Both of them are in all day school and because I am in school too I only see them for about 30 minutes a day. It SUCKS!
    
               They were both pretty excited about this school year and we ready to go but when the morning came Braxton got a little nervous. When we got to school I walked the kids to the first grade doors to get Braxton in the right line and I noticed he was REALLY quiet. I was talking to him and then I noticed Lauryn was LONG gone. She found her way to the 4th grade doors and apparently found her line. I happened to look back over and Braxton just in time to see a tear running down his face. I LOST IT! He was so nervous he started crying silent tears. His teacher noticed immediately and was right on it. He was the line leader and she had him feeling lots better within seconds. I may or may not have shed a few tears with one of my friends who witnessed it too. HEART BREAKING! Like I said, I didn't see Lauryn again so after I got Braxton off I went into the school to find Lauryn's class and she was already in her class working in her journal and just as happy as could be.

             They are both doing great this year and LOVE school. I just wish I got to see them more.

Tracy Aviary

We went to Tracy Aviary with our grammy and cousins a couple weeks ago. My kids love that place. We were able to see the bird show this time which was fun.


Here is little will and alayna.

Lauryn was sneaking up on the peacock.