Back to School

Morgan ended the summer by getting a back to school haircut…  We love her new hairdo.  What a babe! 

Morgan is 6th grade and has Mrs Pitt.  She has fun friends in her class and she got the teacher she wanted.  It's going to be a great year for Morgan!!  I love the backpack she chose and the cute piggie pencil case (when you squeeze the piggies head, it's eyeballs pop out.  heehee :)

Miles is starting 4th grade and couldn't be happier about it.  He got Mrs Jones: aka the coolest teacher in school!  He's looking forward to Fun Fridays and Movie Mondays.  Morgan had Mrs Jones for 4th grade so we already know how much fun she is and what a great year he will have!  

Will is starting Kindergarten this year.  I'm so glad kindergarten is only half day, I'm not ready to have him gone all day yet.  I got a little teary dropping him off on the first day, but it made me so grateful we didn't send him to Kindergarten last year.  With Will having a June birthday, we could have sent him last year, but decided to keep him in preschool one more year.  We definitely made the right decision.  He's already reading and is going into Kindergarten totally prepared!  Will is going to be an awesome student in Mrs Merrill's afternoon kindergarten class.  

It's fun for these three to all be at the same school for one year before Morgan goes to Jr High.  They stick together and look out for each other.  I love knowing they have each other at school.  

I'm really looking forward to this year of school!  

Morgan the tumbler

Morgan loves to go to tumbling.  It's been so good for her.  She is somewhat timid when it comes to activities that could potentially hurt her body, but she is learning to trust herself and is actually enjoying her new talent.

Here's Morgan with some of her cute tumbling friends.

Morgan has been working on her back handspring for awhile now… She can easily do it with a spot, but it's taken a long time for Morgan to trust herself enough to do it alone….  This week she finally mustered up enough courage to do it all alone (on the tramp)!!  Now there is no stopping her :)  

Here is some video evidence!!  This is of her doing a single back handspring….

And this video is of a DOUBLE!!  YAY MORGAN!!!

Summer Art Classes

Over the summer Morgan, Miles and Will went to an art class together.  Will and Morgan loved it, and Miles suffered though it okay.  I absolutely love the art work they came home with!! 

I always knew Morgan loved to draw, but I had no idea Will had so much artistic talent.  His teacher said that he was a natural :)  

Here's their pictures that they did all by themselves...

Aren't they amazing??   I am definitely signing them up again next summer!

End of summer...

The Saturday before school started, the kids realized they hadn't slept out on the tramp yet…  

We kept telling them they wouldn't last, but they were adamant that they'd make it through the night.  

We decided to let them give it a try.  They got all bundled up and settled in.  While Mike and I were lying in bed and we could hear them giggling and playing.  So cute.  Then once they settled down and it was time to sleep, they realized what we had been trying to tell them… (They wouldn't like sleeping out in the dark.)  They quickly  gathered their blankets and came in to sleep in their beds…. What softies :)  

But I did manage to get a couple of pictures of them before they came crawling inside admitting defeat. When are they going to learn that mom and dad are always right?

I'm glad they tried though.  I think they made some memories anyway.  Cutie pies!!

5 little monkeys....

Mike sent me a text the other day that said, "can you believe we have 5 kids?".  

I know, I know...  Are we crazy??  

YES, we are crazy...    

Crazy in love with each of them!  

Having the park all to ourselves.... SWEET!   

Ivy isn't ready for the slide quite yet.

The girls 

The boys

We just love them all!!!

fun with baby...

Ivy is getting sturdy!  She holds her head up now like a champ.  She even started giggling this week!  It's the absolute most cutest giggle we've ever heard!  

When Ivy was born, Will kept asking if he could hold her and walk with her… I kept telling him he could sit and hold her, but he couldn't walk with her until she was bigger and more sturdy.  He stopped asking.

Well, this week he came to me and reminded me of the promise I made to him that he could walk with her once she could hold her head up.  I had forgotten about that, but Will had been waiting!  So I let him carry her upstairs for me (don't worry, I was right behind him the entire way).  He did such a good job and I could tell he felt so big.   Ivy seemed to enjoy the ride :)

He loves to stand and give her hugs.  There is something about standing with the baby that makes them feel like they are in charge.  

Ivy loves to coo and have the kids talk to her.

Meg and Ivy played a round of pretty, pretty princess.  The girls look so cute in those clip on earrings.  See Ivy's little fists clinching onto her bracelet and ring :)  She held them in her little fists for the entire game.  She is already showing her competitive side.  She must be our child :)  

It's been so fun to watch Ivy start to interact with us.  She's all smiles and coos these days...  

And she's a bit of diva...

How Miles does push-ups...

Too Sweet

The other day while I was out for a run, Will was up to something….

Something adorable…

He made me flowers!

Without any help, he came up with this cute gift.  I love how he cut and glued the pedals :)  It was the sweetest thing ever!  (And so creative.)

It feels so good (and bad) to be back to running.  Since Ivy was born, I've run over 60 miles.  It's amazing how long it takes to get back into running shape.  A 3 mile run used to be a breeze and now it kills me.  I hope to be back to my old self soon.  For now, I'm just enjoying my slower pace and the occasional buddies I have that tag along.  I love that the boys are always wanting to run with me.  

The first time Will came he was able to keep with me for 2 1/2 miles… I was so impressed.  He totally beat me…. for now.  Just wait...   I'm slowly getting faster :)

Visitors!!

Last week Mike's Aunt Jody and Uncle Tom called to see if they could stop by on their road trip as they were coming through Utah.  The kids were so excited to see them!  Mike's Aunt is amazing at sending the kids cards on their birthdays and for Christmas every year (she NEVER, EVER misses!), and oh how the kids look forward to those cards when their birthday rolls around.  They were so excited when I said they were coming and they would get to see them in person.

They even brought a special visitor with them… Murphy.  What a fun dog :)  The kids will remember this visit for a long time :)

The Aquarium

Summer is coming to a close… Yippee!!  (Did I say that out loud??)  Actually I'm really sad about it...

We decided that before these little munchkins go back to school we better visit the aquarium.  We met up with the Stevensons and off we went.

It was our first time going and the kids really liked it.  They better have - it cost the 5 of us $70 to get in (Ivy was free).  I think that's absurd…. But oh well….  It was a fun way to kill a few hours.

Pretending to be scared of these cute little fishies :)  

Petting the creepy snake….

Petting the stingrays.  These cute little rays would swim right up to the kids and let them touch them.  

Up close and personal with some sharks!  

Meg's favorite part of the day was seeing the penguins and looking at her map.  She would open her map, then fold it up, then open it, then fold it up….  a million times :)  Then she said, "Mom, take a picture of my map."  

Taking a lunch break….  

Little did Meg know that holding Kate's hand would come back to bite her :)  She caught the stomach virus Kate had the night before and ended up sick as a dog for 3 days.  Poor Meggie couldn't keep anything down.

This rope bridge was fun!  

Loving the pretty colors on these birds.

3D movies with water and air that blow out of the seat in front of you throughout the movie…  It really made you feel like you were by the ocean!  

We are the coolest moms around!