It's official

Rylee was so excited this morning. She greeted me with a huge HUG and SMILE when she woke up. I can't believe that today was the actual first day. At breakfast she asked me over and over if she really got to stay this time for "real school and not testing" We all laughed so hard. She looked adorable. Love my little Rylee Pot Pie! We arrived right as the first bell was ringing so we hurried to the line-up area to hear her teacher giving instuctions. It was so cute. She really couldn't get the smile off her face. I am so happy for her to finally be in school. She is so eager to learn and I think she will have an amazing year. Not one tear was shed. I'm very proud of myself!

And there she goes... What fun.

Weekend happenings

Soccer has started. Rylee gets to play this year and has been so excited. She had her game at 8:30 a.m. and Tayler didn't have her game until 3:30 p.m. Unfortunately, I missed Rylee's game because I had to work, but I will be there for her next one! I heard that she did amazing and even assisted on scoring a goal or actually scored the goal. Sean has been taking them to the park to practice almost every night until it gets dark. The kids love it. Jayson is excited to play next year (that will be crazy to have 3 games to go to).

Tayler and Rylee both got the same number this year so we cheer loudly for #8 at both games. Sean is coaching Tay's team this year and all the girls are darling and excited to play, so it should be exciting. One of Tay's best little friends, Jessica is on the team too so it makes it really fun for everyone. Her game was SO windy this week (and HOT), but she did great. Way to go Tay. She was inches away from scoring a goal. The first half she played goalie and stopped every single ball.

This afternoon we took the kids to the temple to walk around the grounds. It was a beautiful evening and so nice to walk around with the kids and talk about the temple. Tayler had her baptism interview with the Bishop this morning and the Primary Presidency came over this afternoon. I can't believe next Saturday is the day. What a neat time in her life.

Jackson thinks he is a big boy now.

Jayson and Rylee loved the fountain. Jayson said next time he needed to bring his swimming suit. Umm, wrong place Jays!

My 4 cuties!

This is the temple that Sean and I were married in almost 9 years ago. We stood by the same pillars we did that day. It's amazing to think about everything that has come about since that day.

Jayson had to take a picture too. Here is his shot.

I love being able to teach my kids the importance of the temple and what takes place there. I hope we can visit lots of temples over the next few years. I am very grateful for my family today!

Testing Day

Rylee had her testing today for Kindergarten and her teacher said that she did GrEaT!

Way to go Ry, I am so proud of you.

Her teacher did say that she really needs to learn how to hold her pencil correctly (instead of the death grip). I just smiled because I hold my pens/pencils SO wrong it makes Sean cringe, so I am not one to teach her how. In all honesty I don't even know how to show her the correct way. How sad is that? Sean has been trying to show her the correct way, so hopefully she will get it.

Here she is with her adorable teacher Mrs W*. Every time I talk to her I am so impressed by her and think that she will be so wonderful with Rylee.

Afterwards her and Jayson played on the kindergarten play area for a few minutes.

He is really going to miss her. Even though they fight like crazy some days they really do love each other. Watch out Jackson, Jayson is going to be bored now. I can't wait for Monday to come and neither can Rylee.

Birthday lunch

Today was the birthday lunch at school for all the birthday's that fell during the summer months (June, July & August). We got an "invite" postcard in the mail before school even started telling us about it. Tay was excited so Jays and Rylee went to play at a friend's house and Jacks and I headed to the school. Tayler requested Wendy's so we grabbed that and then went to meet her. It was a fun lunch. They had several long tables set up with tablecloths and balloons on each one. The principal also came around to talk to everyone. It is always fun for me to see Tayler in action (with her classmates) and hear all about her daily adventures. She is a funny gal. It's was fun to sit and chat. They only get 30 minutes to eat so we talked amongst shoveling our food in as fast as we could.

Yesterday I thought Tayler had early out so we packed up and headed to the school at 1:25. When we arrived there were NO students anywhere and NO cars lined up. I was so confused?! My first thought was that all of my clocks were off. Yep, not my finest moment in life. There is no early out again until Friday (which is always early out), but I thought every day this week was early out when I read the paper we received from her school. As I am telling Sean the story he lovingly said "how does it feel to be the only Endeavour Elementary mom that read the paper wrong?" yep, thanks babe! We packed back up at 3:25 and were right on time. This is going to be a long year with lots and LOTS of trips back and forth from the school.

Jayson's happy place

Jayson kept saying " I am such a lucky boy"over and over to Sean thanking him repeatedly for building his new sandbox. (Sean finished it Saturday). Rylee and Jayson are out here ALL day playing. Here they are burying each other like they saw on a cartoon the other day. I'll get used to bathing them EVERY single day due to all the sand in their hair. The joys of childhood.

My school girls

The first day of school

Tayler and Rylee were both up early and excited to start school this morning. They got dressed, made their beds, and were ready to go early. Rylee only got to go from 10-11 today and the rest of the week is testing so she doesn't officially start until next Monday. It is going to be a long week because she wants to start SO badly. Her teacher had a treasure hunt that we got to do together. It was fun! She has testing on Thursday morning too ((:
Tayler had good things to say when she came home. I think she is really going to enjoy her teacher.

I think it's going to be a GrEaT year! I can't believe I have 2 in school now. I have to go to the school 3 times during the day. I really miss the bus already.

7 months old

Jackson turned 7 months on Friday the 20th. Is time flyin' or is it just me? He gave me a scare on Thursday and I thought that he was DONE nursing for good. He cried every time I tried and acted like I was torturing him. It was the weirdest thing and seemed to come out of nowhere. I pumped for a few days for each feeding and gave him a bottle which he loved! I'll admit, I cried a little (okay, a lot) at the thought of being done for good- especially when we have 5 more months to go. Needless to say, 2 days later and after a lot of coaxing he decided it was okay again. It was the craziest phase he went through. I know I might be crazy, but I'm not ready to let go of that just quite yet- nor did I want to pump for 5 straight months every feeding.

I love this little kid so much. He is scooting around like crazy. My favorite thing is how he pivots to find out who is talking to him. It's adorable. He has 2 bottom teeth and loves trying new foods. He sits up like a champ, but still prefers his belly with all 4 limbs up in the air. What a nut! He is a wonderful little boy.

Last weekend of the summer

Tomorrow marks the first day of school, which means the last week of summer has now come to an end. My kids are SO excited to start at their new school.
On Thursday evening they had back to school night (actually the first time anyone was allowed in the school) so we were able to meet Rylee and Tayler's teachers and see the new school. We have driven past hundreds of times in anticipation. Tayler's teacher is "Mr. E" and Rylee has Mrs. W* and both seem like they will be wonderful. Rylee also has morning kindergarten which is perfect because she is an EARLY riser and will be ready to go. Their new school is themed around galaxies and planets. It was pretty cool. I'll try to get better pictures tomorrow.

On Saturday we headed up to Park City to do a little school shopping (better last minute than not at all right?) We went shopping at the outlets and then hit our favorite little Chinese restaurant. It was fun and a perfect evening!

Today was wonderful as well. We made a nice dinner to celebrate school tomorrow (we even broke out the stemware!) had skookies, and then sat and listened to beautiful fathers blessings. Those always touch my heart and I bawl everytime! After baths, picking out the perfect outfit, painting fingernails and toenails we were set and they went to bed with big smiles on their faces. Sweet little Jayson was so sad that he didn't get a turn that Sean gave him a blessing as well. It was the cutest thing ever. I love that my kids are growing up, but part of me just wants to hang onto them at this stage forever. I am a proud mama and can't wait to see and hear about their many grand adventures. I know they will both do wonderful. Ready or not, here we go!

Crazy Eight(s)

Guess who's 8? A sweet little blonde haired, blue-eyed girl!

Tayler kept telling us that this was going to be the best weekend EVER, so we have tried our best to keep her dreams alive.

Friday night, Sean and I let her choose a restaurant and took her out to dinner-- just the 3 of us. It was so nice to have some 1 on 1 time and celebrate HeR!

She chose Kobe's in Ogden, which is a Japanese Steakhouse. It was SOOOO good. Way better than Tepanyaki (i think). We had a wonderful time stuffing ourselves and being entertained. The waiters made her feel special as well. It was definitely a great night for all of us.

And THEN today was her friends party. 11 of the 12 girls we invited came, which made it a very full house. I had to work yesterday and this morning so it was crazy trying to get everything finished. Luckily, I have a pretty stellar husband that did so much while I was at work. I never would have finished everything without his help. The theme of her party was a Hawaiian Luau. We made flip-flops, painted and jeweled toe nails, played ALOHA bingo, ate Hawaiian haystacks, had a yummy punch with umbrella's, ate cake and ice cream and played with water balloons. The party was only suppose to go until 6:30 but at 6:02 we hadn't even started dinner yet, so all the girls called their parents and asked them not to come until 7. We had a blast. We still didn't get to do our relay race. It's amazing how fast time goes. I thought 2 hours would be plenty, but we could have partied for 3 or 4 hours! The girls were darling together. I really hope they enjoyed themselves.

here's the gang (notice all their flip flops)

I attempted to make a FlIp-FlOp cake- here's the finished product

Present time

Cake and ice cream was the last thing we got to do

Tayler has wonderful friends and I am so grateful for that! Thank you everyone for coming to help us celebrate our new little 8 year old! Now, I'm exhausted *sigh* Tomorrow is her actual birthday so we have 1 more day of fun ahead of us.

p.s. I ran 6 miles after the party. Pretty proud of myself. Sean and I are training for a half marathon the end of October. It may kill me, but so far so good ((:

6 month check up

Jackson had his 6 month check up on Tuesday (even though he is almost 7 months). He was happy for the Dr. and nurse, smiling and cooing and laughing the whole time. He kept trying to pull Dr. M's stethoscope off his neck. The 4 shots weren't so pleasant but all is well.

Stats:

Weight: 14 lbs (4th percentile)

Length: 26 inches (20th percentile)

Head: 11th percentile

.... so he is just a little peanut! Except for those ears. Man, we love this kid. The Dr. kept saying "he is so good natured I can tell" I couldn't agree more. I think we'll keep him.

Tri, baby Tri

So while we were in St. George, Sean decided to sign himself up for the Layton Triathlon the following Saturday. I unfortunately had to work (and couldn't get it off due to the short notice) A huge thanks to my friend Angie for taking pictures since her hubby did it too. I'm just a wee bit impressed. He didn't really train one single bit either, but his time rocked for being his very 1st one EVER. I'm pretty sure I would have died in the pool! He told me that his goal is to do an iron man some day. Right now, I don't doubt him in the slightest.

Way to go babe!

good thing we purchased that sweet bike ;)