Can't Believe We Have a 12 Year Old!!!

Kiersten turned 12 and it was a very sad day for me!

I don't want her to be so old.  She entered Young Women's for heavens sake and that's just not okay with me.

She such is a beautiful daughter though and really is just an absolute joy to be around!

To celebrate her big birthday I took her and 4 of her close friends over to Sierra Vista for the day!

We started out by hitting the mall.  It's a small mall but these girls didn't care.  I let them roam free while I did some shopping of my own.  They are all super good girls and I am so grateful that Kiersten has good friends to help her through junior high!

Samantha, Raely, Kiersten, Hanna, and Alani

After several hours at the mall we had lunch and then headed over to the Sierra Vista Aquatic Center.

It's a great place……….like a miniature indoor water park.  It has two fun large water slides, diving board area, big wave pool and a huge hot tub.

Looks to me like the girls had a blast!

It was fun for me to be like a fly on the wall on this trip.  They are a fun, silly group of girls!

Once the water park closed we area  Chili's  and then drove home.

Kiersten had a wonderful birthday party!

12 Things I LOVE About Kiersten

1.  I love her desire to choose the right!

2.  She is extremely helpful around the house.

3.  She has a tender heart and always feels bad if someone is sad or gets their feelings hurt, even if it's a teacher at school.

4.  I love watching her dance………she is a beautiful dancer!!!

5.  I love how she gives 110% at EVERYTHING she does!

6.  I love her enthusiasm for life.

7.  She loves babies and can't wait to be an older sister again.  I think she is more excited this time then ever.

8.  I love watching her learn new gymnastic moves………she is always so thrilled with her improvements.

9.  Her bright smile………..man as a photographer I love how photogenic she is!

10.  Her testimony and love of the gospel.  Too many times to count I have gone into Kiersten's room and found her on her knees in prayer.

11. I love how appreciative she is.  She recently spent all her grade money paying for part of her dance costumes because she "feels bad we pay so much money for her to do all her activities"

12.  I love the sweetness she adds to our family.  

Kiersten I love you to the moon and back!  

I thank my Heavenly Father every day that I get to be your mom!

We LOVE You!!

School Starts

Grant wasn't too sure about having to go to school first thing in the morning but one thing he was sure about is that he LOVES riding the bus!!!

He was all smiles when he came off that bus!

What a big boy Grant is!  Makes me sad to have him and all my kids growing up so fast!

I just want to slow time down!

Where has the time gone?

Grant's first day of preschool

My sweet Kiersten started Junior High this year!  Now that really makes me want to cry!  Isn't she just gorgeous!  She sure was nervous about making the transition to having 7 different teachers and switching classes every period.  She reminds me of myself when I was her age.

We absolutely LOVE Brighter Day Preschool!

Grant is getting some speech therapy and what makes it really great is that it's free preschool plus the bus picks him up and brings him home.  It's great!

But mainly, it's a fabulous preschool………..they go all out………field trips all this time, huge parties for all the holidays, and they really teach the kids and prepare them for kindergarten!

I took Grant on the first day just to make sure he felt comfortable.  Sure enough he jumped right in and started playing with all the cool new things in his classroom.

Look at these two handsome guys I get to call my sons!

No nerves out of either of them for the first day of school.

Logan was excited to find his desk!

We are super excited for Logan to have Mrs. Jenny Skinner this year.  All our other kids have had her and really excelled with her as their teacher.  We know Logan will do the same!

Hunter started 5th Grade

It took much prayer and debate deciding if Hunter should switch over to Pima schools or stay at DPA for his 5th grade year.  He has Ms. Purcell, whom Kiersten had as well for 5th grade.  She is a really sweet lady but the year she taught Kiersten was her first year teaching and we had some issues with her ability to manage all the rowdy boys in that class.

We ended up deciding DPA would still be the best choice, as there would only be 14 kids in Hunter's class.  Verses the very large class size of the 5ht grade classes at Pima.  Turns out we made a great decision.  Ms. Purcell has been a wonderful teacher!  She has grown so much since her year of teaching Kiersten.  Plus Hunter really loves her!

Logan started 2nd grade and is super excited to be able to be in the strings program at school!

This kids really loves music!

Fun Summer Day

It was a perfect summer afternoon.  The temperature had cooled down just enough to be comfortable and the sky was completely overcast.  So I decided to take the kids out for a rhino ride.  Yes we got a rhino!  Justin got it for my birthday and I LOVE IT!  It's perfect for the little trails and the river bottom. Plus I can let Kiersten drive me in it when I don't want to be the driver.

We drove on the farm roads to get to the Thatcher bridge.  I let everyone, but Grant, have a turn driving the rhino.  The boys thought that was really cool.........they didn't care if they could barely see over the steering wheel.  Shoot, Logan had to look through the steering wheel to see the road.  

But they all drove great!

We spent and hour or so letting them play on the river bank.

Hunter had fun making a little dam.

It's days like today that I wish Justin didn't work such long hours.  We would have loved for him to come with us.  But we had a fun afternoon just the kids and I.  

I love being outside and going for trail rides!