First Day of School 2009

Well, this bittersweet day is finally here!
Tiny Man is headed off to FIFTH Grade! I can hardly believe my boy is entering his LAST year of Elementary! It is going by way too fast! Ladybug is headed off to THIRD Grade! Too many milestones for her this year too! We are less than two weeks away for her Baptism! You can see here she is trying to smile for me but is freaking out inside because she can see the bus turning onto our street and they aren't at their stop yet! Hilarious!

Here is a picture of them RUNNING as fast as they can up the street to their stop. I just sat there laughing thinking...."Here we go again!"
Chub is headed off to KINDERGARTEN! He just learned how to ride a two wheeler this summer and is just growing by leaps and bounds!
Chub insisted on taking a Triple Chip Zuchinni muffin to his teacher! I can only imagine the condition it will arrive in!

Austin, Chub, Ainge, Hannah, Ryelee and Carson all headed off to Kindergarten! What a Bus Stop crowd we have this year!
They all just stood there staring at the bus! It was hilarious! I finally had to nudge Chub towards it to get them moving! I wish I knew what was going thru their little minds right then!



Looks like it's just you and me kid!

Family Pictures!

We were fortunate enough to have the very talented Allyson Randle do our family photos this year. She is AMAZING! We had a great time! Here are just a few more for you to enjoy! We totally recommend her for your photography needs! She just took Ladybug's Baptism pictures on Saturday and I can't wait to share those with you too!http://www.allysonrandlephotography.com/

Camping at Grey's River

Every summer for the last 3-4 years some of my brothers and sisters with their families have gone camping together at Grey's River in Wyoming. We have never been able to go until now. We were either rushing to get into our house, had an infant who was on a breathing monitor because she liked to stop breathing in her sleep, or Nate was recovering from his Cancer surgery! We were so excited to finally go this year and had such a blast doing it! Here are a few highlights from our trip!

Uber-Scouter Tiny Man!

Tiny Man busted his tail working on Webelos requirements. He completed 14 total requirements for the: Outdoorsman, Traveler, Forester, Handyman, and Naturalist. He finsihed off everything he needs to earn the Handyman and Outdoorsman! It was a lot of work and he is really excited! He should be and we are excited about him seeing the results of his hard work. The funnest of all was the three mile hike to Barstow Lake. There he got to see a Trout and try casting a fishing line for the first time. He almost caught Daddy on the face with his fishing fly on the second try... soooo, we called it after that. Learning to safely use a pocket knife and how to set a one-match fire are also at the top of the list.

Is it Rocks Sand? or Roxanne?

A few of the nights we were hanging out around the campfire some of the kids would put on a little skit. On our last night at camp 3 of the boys Logan (6), Ridge (5), and our boy Chub (5) decided it was their turn. Of course none of us knew what to expect but it definitely WASN'T this!

Logan: Our skit is called "Roxanne"

Ridge: NO! It's called Rocks Sand!

Confused look between each other...Chub looking like he really could care less.

So they begin.....

Logan: ROXANNE!

Ridge: ROCKS SAND!

Logan: ROXANNE!
Ridge: ROCKS SAND!

Chub: You don't have to turn on your red light for Rocks Sand!

Yep! You read that right! All of us parents were of course only half paying attention wondering what their little skit was about when Chub busted out with that little gem! We all laughed so hard! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!?! Meanwhile the boys are still going strong in the background! We finally figured out that on the drive to hike Lake Barstow that afternoon Uncle Ryan was playing the song Roxanne in his truck! Hilarious!

The Unbroken Broken Leg!

Around 9:30 a.m. on the day we left for camping Ladybug was running up the stairs and tripped...she hit her shin on the stair and all heck broke loose from there! We all felt sympathy for her for a while and then asked her to move on with her life.....she wouldn't! Around 3 p.m. I walked into the living room and she was quietly sobbing, so even though she was walking gingerly on it and seemingly getting better as the day progressed I made an appointment to see the doc before we took off for the mountains! By 4:30 p.m. she was splinted, told to get crutches and come back 2 days later for a cast!

Obviously we figured so long camping trip for the girls....Nate wouldn't give up so easily! With the doc's permission he made an appointment for her to get her cast at the Bear Lake Memorial Hospital in Montpelier, Idaho two days later! It was 2 hrs and 15 min from our campground in WYOMING! We were given instructions to call the doctor the day before. So we set off for our five hour journey to the mountains! We carried her EXTREMELY carefully that first 24 hrs. The men in the family were awesome to move her around camp to be with the group, or get out of the sun or the shade or whatever! We quickly started calling her the Queen of Sheba!

This is a cute clip of Ladybug singing along to cousin Wyatt's ipod...enjoy!

In order to call the doc Nate had to drive TWO hrs round trip into Alpine, WY to get a cell signal. Happily we were told that he had consulted with some other doc's and they had determined that she hadn't broken it but just had a really bad BONE BRUISE! We were so happy she didn't need to ride almost 5 hrs round trip to get her cast. In fact, we removed the splint that night and immediately saw a dramatic improvement in her. `

She got up on her crutches and made her way around the camground, participated in a skit with the other girl cousins, learned how to use a pocket knife! She did great! Something tells me she will never forget her first camping trip!

Two Wheeling Chub!

All summer long we knew it was time to teach Chub how to ride a two wheeler...we just never found the right time! Well, we decided to bite the bullet up at Grey's. Chub decided his first morning there that he was ready. I will admit I was a little nervous having him learn on a rough dirt road, especially on the heels of Ladybug's leg the day before! But we pushed forward...he climbed on his cousins little two wheeler and declared he was ready! Boy was he! It was definitely NOT this easy with Tiny Man and Ladybug! He got on and started to pedal while I steadied him. He gained speed and seemed okay so I decided I would just let go and see what happened...he just took off! From that moment on it was difficult to get him off the thing and do something else! He was SO excited! Way to go Chub!
Right as I let go of him......look at him go!

Still going strong and steady.......
and he's off with the rest of the boys!

Here are just some random pictures of the trip for fun memories:

Everything Cincess

This is a fairly long post and it is all of Cincess, there were so many fun photos and experiences with her in July that I couldn't choose! So here goes.....
I had laid her down for her afternoon nap quite a while ago when I could hear her calling for me. Knowing she shouldn't be awake yet I went to investigate and THIS is what I find...Cincess naked other than her shirt which was twisted funny around her shoulders in her attempt to remove it! Note her diaper laying on the crib mattress...the reason she is crying is because moments earlier she had started to go potty and it was now running down her bare legs! She DID NOT like this! Crazily enough this has happened many times since...including just this morning! Knowing this the next story will make more sense!

It has become one of Cincess's favorite past times to strip down and run free! This particular day she chose to wear some of Ladybug's size 8 undies!

This one I chose beacuse she is just too cute!
This was taken at the Huntsman Hospital at one of Nate's checkups. I bought the pin at the gift shop and put it on Cincess when she wasn't noticing. She was super cute walking around the hospital wearing this. It was nice to see some smiles and chuckles from some of the other patients, nurses, volunteers etc. If you've never walked through the Huntsman Center it can be a very emotional and humbling experience. It was great to see her brighten other peoples day.

This next story took place at one of Tiny Man's baseball games. She noticed a "buggy" crawling up her arm. At first she was excited and curious....

then she got a little nervous.....

then she freaked out! It was hilarious!
The next few pictures were taken at North Shore Pool. They were playing the Chicken Dance song and Tiny Man was teaching her how to do it! So stinkin funny!




She discovered Dress-up's this month also....here are a few highlights!



There you have it! Cincess's exciting month of July! Hope you had as great of a time with her as we did!