Andrew's first day of 3rd grade

I can hardly believe that summer is officially over and the kids are back in shcool. Andrew started third grade this week. He is turning into such a smart and nice and handsome young man. He was excited to start school to see all of his friends. He said the summer was getting a little boring. I am so glad he has a love for school and learning. We are so proud of him. As for me I will have to help him with book reports every month, cursive handwriting and multiplication. All things I am terrible at and need some refreshing. I guess he and i will be learning together.Andrews third grade teacher is Mrs. Shiffman. The teacher is out sick this week so we havn't met her but I hear great things about all the third grade teachers. Here is our big boy on his big day...

We live close enough to walk to school when the weather is good. Here is our route to school
Andrew Lined up for class

Andrews Best friend Brooks

Cali Turns 5!!!

My sweet baby girl Turned Five today. It is bitter sweet. I am sad you have become a kid and not so much my baby anymore. I adore you at this age so much. You are just so HAPPY all the time. Sure you have upset feelings sometimes but you never throw tantrums which is amazing for a 5 year old. You are always smiling and are just the sweetest girl. I love you so much and I am so proud you are 5.

5 things I love about Cali

1. She truly has the best hair of any child I have ever seen. I am not saying this because I am her mother and I am biased. It really is amazing.

2. You LOVE camping and lizard hunting but you are such a girly girl too. Anything Princess makes you happy.

3. You are starting Kindergarden this year. You are going to do great. We are so proud you will be in school this year.

4. Your favorite food is chinese food. You love it. I can't get you to eat much else and you are a huge lover of chocolate milk.

5. Your favorite color is still Pink. I am not looking forward to the day you say you HATE pink but I know it's coming. I know because I did that to my mom.

You really are an amazing little girl. I love you so much and I love to watch you grow. You have blessed my life beyond words. I needed you in my life that is clear. I am so glad you are my sweet Cali girl. I look forward to your many birthdays to come and I am the luckiest mom in the world to have you as my daughter. The best thing about you is you are 100% a mommas girl. I love it!

This is Cali on her big 5th birthday:

The Fourth

Fourth of July for us is filled with Food, Family, Fun and of course Fire works. This year we had a busy and amazing day. During the day we went to see my sister and her family visiting from California. We had lots of food and the kids got to play with the slip n slide and they got to roast hot dogs and smoores. It was great to get the cousins together again.Cali and Ella eating their popsicles


Cali, Andrew, Sean and Ella

After that we headed over to My sister in Laws parents house to do Fire works with the other cousins. It was a lot of fun for the kids. Sparklers were the hit although Cali burned her poor little finger on one.

This is me with my good friend Holly. She is the sister of my sister in Law Laura. Craig and his mom with her dog Molly Cousins and Fireworks

from L to R Hailey, Jacob, Andrew, Cali and Sydney. We were missing Laura nd Lindsey who went to stadium of fire to see the Jonas Brothers. They had a really good time and got to see amazing fireworks.

Beautiful Aunt Holly with the twins Sydney and Hailey

Cali with her"girls" as she calls them. She cannot tell them apart so rather than get it wrong thats what she calls them. They are inseperableOur little family

I Always try to reflect on this holiday and get a new appreciation for my country and my freedom and think about all the brave soldiers who continue to fight to protect our country and have died for it. i am so greatful to live in this country. I feel so blessed to have been born here.I am truly proud to be an American girl. It was a great family day. i really enjoyed all of it until we got home that night and saw that our dog got spooked by the fireworks and chewed up our wood blinds trying to get out. Oh yes the blinds that give us privacy from all the neighbors. Clearly a terrible mistake on our part. Something I wasn't ready for but I guess I will get those white plantation shutters I have been dreaming about. Won't do that again.

More Summer Stuff

One thing I love about summer is my sister Sara usually comes out for a visit with the kids. She stays at her husband parents house in Lehi and they let me come hang out with all of them. Every year they bring out a huge slip n Slide for the kids to play on. Even the big kids sometimes get to do a few runs. It is so much fun! The cousins don't see eachother that muchh since they live in California. It was so fun to see them. Here is Sara and I enjoying watching the kids play...My little Calirific Andrew Man..
My nephew Sean who is just 6 Months older than Andrew


Sean and Andrew-Cousins are awesome

My nephew Owen who is so adorable and looks just like Sean did

We also spent 4th of July with them so I have more fun pictures of that day to come.

Summer = Swim

Summer for us sure = swimming. Lots of swimming. We do swim lessons for the kids every year at my inlaws house. It is so awesomje and convenient accept there is no bathroom close by. Other than that issue it is so nice to have a private pool to have lessons. A nice girl Craig gre up with named Michelle and her assistant Miriam, works with them every summer. It has made a huge difference in there swimming ability. Because of Michelle we were able to get Andrew started with Pre comp swim team. We are trying a new club called cottonwood heights this summer and so far it has been much better. On 1 day a week Michelle works with him on perfecting his strokes and 2 days a week he practices at the outdoor club pool. This pool is my inlaws....

This is Andrew at practice doing pushups and warming up foranother day of swim practice.

This is Andrew swimming at his most recent swim meet. He swam 3 heats. 25yrd Butterfly, 25 yrd Breast strok and 25 yrd free style. He got first place in all three heats. Way to go Andrew! We are so proud of you. You are awesome!

The next sport we have lined up for him is tackle football. Mom is not ready for this but dad has been planning it since he was born. I hope he is ready for that because I sure am not!

camping adventures

It is a tradition to go camping every summer with just our little family. This year Craig could not WAIT to get up the canton so we could camp. We ended up at Tanners Flat up little cottonwood canyon. Apparently he checked the weather and even though the chance of rain was more than 50% he thought it would just blow over us. well any of you who know how much it has rained in Utah this spring, you know that if there was a chance of rain, it was going to rain. We got everything set up, our fire going and dinner on the fire. All of the sudden a huge black cloud came right over our heads with huge gusts of wind. We had about 1 minute to collect everything, throw it in the tent and get inside the tent before we had a huge downpoor. We stayed in the tent hoping it would pass quickly but it didn't. The tent started getting wet inside and the blankets were getting wet and the pillows were getting wet and we decided since we were 15 min. from our warm beds we would pack up what we could and go home. Craig agreed he would come back for the tent in the morning. We borrowed a a tent from Craigs mom and dad that was bigger than ours so when Craig decided we should try camping again the next night, we brought our own. Craig laid out the muddy tent to dry on our lawn and burned a huge section of our lawn. It is barely looking green again. Here are some pictures before the downpoor. Atleast I got those...

Waiting out the storm. Since we werent able to do smoores I gave the kids some powderd doughnuts to tide them over. Here is the evidence on their faces..

The next night of course the weather was perfect. Sunny and warm so we decided to give it another go. This time we went up American Fork Canyon so we could bring our dog Ute. Ute loves to go camping. We have to do some 4 wheeling to get to the good spots which of course makes my dog car sick. So he threw up on the towels I luckily put underneath him. This camping business is a lot oif work! Once we got there we all had a great time. We found the best spot right next to the river and in an open area wher we had views on the mountains and gorgeous aspen trees.