Hurray for school!

Here is Jae on the first day of school. She took a stow-a-way to school with her.

This is the second day of school, but the first day riding the bus. There are about 30 kids at our bus stop and Jaelyn was the only one screaming and jumping up and down when she saw the bus coming. It was also black and white day.

There goes my girl -----------with her friends Caydee and Ella. Most of the kindergarten moms at the bus stop had teary eyes and I was just smiling and chuckling because of Jaelyn's excitement. Only 20 more years of putting kids on the bus every day. That is so crazy to think about. Roger and I have sure enjoyed life without the school commitment. Oh well, 'life marches on'.

10 years and a summer comes to an end.

10 years ago today, our little family got it's official start. I can't believe we are celebrating our 10th Anniversary. Some days it feels like we have been together for as long as I can remember (I am sure Roger feels this way), other days it feels like the last 10 years haven't even happened. Time is such a funny thing. I just looked through our wedding pictures. We looked so young. We had no idea what we were in for and how great our lives would be together. It is probably a good thing we didn't know or we would have gotten married even faster than we did. Now we are sending our oldest to kindergarten and expecting our third. Crazy! I can't imagine a better guy to go through the last 10 (actually 13) years with. He is still my best friend. I can't imagine life without him to keep me going. He makes me so happy, just by being who he is. We compliment each other so well - we are the definition of 'opposites attract'. Love you, babe! Here's to the next 10 years.

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Jaelyn starts her first day of kindergarten today. A lot of Moms are shedding tears at this point, but she is so excited that I couldn't possibly be sad. She has been ready to go to kindergarten for over a year. She is absolutely going to love it. I just hope kindergarten is ready for Jaelyn.

Mackay makes his preschool debut in 2 weeks. I know the preschool isn't ready for Mackay, but ready or not - he's coming!

We have had a fun summer that has flown by. Since I spent the summer being pregnant, I have really appreciated the quick, and relatively mild (temp) summer we have had.
We made it to the pool -once- yes, I have got to be mother of the year. The Brigham pool was really fun though, we can't wait to go again next year.

We also had fun boating, camping, hiking and being with our families.

Jaelyn kept busy with swim and dance lessons. She will start soccer next week and Mackay will try out kickball. Bring on the Fall full of activities - 2 kids in school, 2 sports and a new baby.

Summer did make us all really tired. The kids loved 'camping' during nap time in the cool basement. This is how I found them one day.

We have lost a couple of things this summer including a job, a freezer full of meat and a DVR, but we haven't lost our minds (which is a little surprising). We are making a new start and I know that we are both excited for what the next 10 years will bring.

Stop Growing!!!

"Stop Growing!" I say this to Jaelyn at least once a day. She is just growing up way too fast. Usually this statement comes because shoes that I bought 3 wks ago don't fit, or because her Sunday dress is too short, but this last week I have said it because she has been learning too many new things. We visited my sister, Kelly in Vegas for a couple of days, and Jaelyn decided that she was going to swim without her lifejacket and now she is a total swimmer. No help, just goes - jumping or diving off the edge, and diving down for rings or whatever is on the bottom of the pool. She does awesome, but it is a little unnerving for me because when she had the (coast guard approved) life jacket on, I felt that I didn't have to watch her every second, now I do.

She learned how to cross the monkey bars when we visited Tommy Woolf last week. She has been practicing every time we go to a park, and now she finally has the hang of it. She also learned how to do the fire pole at the playground by herself. I'm sure most of you Moms know the relief that comes when you don't have to carry the kids across the monkey bars or hold them as they slide down the fire pole. It is a really nice thing, now if we could just get Mackay to do it.

When we went to the cemetery for Memorial Day I caught Mackay singing. This isn't a relatives headstone, but he saw the temple and just started to sing. He loves to sing.

Jaelyn also learned to tie her shoes the other day. We stopped at the outlets in Barstow on our trip and we bought her some new gym shoes. No that she is in girls sizes, velcro isn't as prevalent, so I told her she would need to learn how to tie laces. She figured it out in about 10 minutes of practicing. I thought that we would be working on it for weeks. Yet another joy of parenting. The day when your kid can put their own shoes on - shoes with laces that is.
I enjoy these milestones, because she is so excited about accomplishing new things. I guess watching your kids grow up is just bitter sweet. Sorry about the long post.

Jae wanted me to take a picture of every "step" of the process.

Coming out of the Blog Fog...........hopefully.

My blog fog continues, but here goes. Not a whole lot has been going on lately. We are just keeping busy with life, work, church callings, kids activities, gardening, spring cleaning (yea, right). You know, the usual. I did get a chance to make some stawberry jam the other day. Surprisingly it turned out pretty good.
Rog has been traveling a lot the past 6 weeks. He is usually gone from Tuesday morning to Thursday night and is on several different airplanes in those few days. We would love to go with him, but he isn't in one place for more than a couple of hours. He keeps telling me that it isn't that fun, but I would like to try it out and see, just for a week. In truth I want to do it so I can eat sushi everyday on company money:)
Jaelyn has been playing soccer, dancing and going to school. Each one is just wrapping up for the summer - thank goodness! Soccer was fun. I was the coach of 8, 5-6 year olds that really weren't interested in soccer as much as they were interested in socializing, picking grass, huging each other and hanging from the goal posts. Yes, it was fun. Jaelyn has taken dance this past school year and has had a good time and made a lot of new friends (which she is really good at). Jaelyn doesn't LOVE dance and she doesn't LOVE soccer, she just seems to like to do anything where a friend is involved, whether they are a new friend or an old friend. Preshool graduation is this week and then it is off to kindergarten in the fall, which she is really excited about. Jaelyn continues to be too smart for herself. People in church will complain to me about giving a lesson, then they will say, "I should just have Jaelyn come and give it." Her teachers are the ones that say that she knows more than they do. She loves being at church and reading her scriptures. She knows more scripture stories than I do which comes down to the fact that her memory is unbelievable and mine is long gone. She is also working on memorizing the A of F. She is on number 6 and hopes to have all 13 down by the end of summer.

Mackay has been enjoying the nice weather. He loves to ride his new scooter or his bike. He just figured out how to pedal in the last two weeks. He is constanly jumping on the couch or on his bed, so it has been nice to send him outside to jump on the trampoline with his best buddy, Jack. Jack just moved in last fall and is actually 4 months older than Mackay, and they are the best of friends. But if you ask Mackay who is best friend is, he won't say Jack, he will say, "My daddy". He has missed his Daddy lately. Mackay is growing so fast, as you can see by the picture. I can't keep up with the kids feet. I just bought him a size 11. Yea, really. I didn't know this but most kid shoes stop at 10, so now I am buying the boys sizes - where the adidas cost $40 a pair instead of $20 - ouch. He is going to be one big dude! He is getting more rational about things everyday, but he still tries me with his stubborness. Then on the other hand he is a sweetheart that loves his Mommy. He is very polite and always says, "Excuse me, please and thank you" and, "Excuse you, Daddy".

For those of you that don't know, we are having our 3rd in September, a girl. Jaelyn is thrilled and Roger and Mackay are coming to grips with the fact that they will soon be out numbered. I am just happy that the baby appears to be healthy. It is going to be a long, hot, fat summer. I just wanted to take this minute to apologize to all those women I have teased in the past for having a September baby. I might have said something like, "Couldn't you have planned that any better?" Sorry, apparently this is my payback and nope there wasn't a whole lot of planning on my part. Wow, was I long winded - so sorry!