Misc pictures

The kids love taking random pictures.  It makes me laugh whenever I go through my camera and find their surprises they took.

Jeremy and I unloading the dishwasher.  Documentation that I do actually help him do the dishes and he isn't the only one to do them; contrary to what he thinks.

 Price bugging his sister (as usual).  He really needs someone else to pick on besides his sisters.  I guess we'll have to put him in wrestling and see if he's as tough with kids his own size.

Lake MacBride

We decided to have one last fun summer outing before fall and cooler weather got here.  And really it's our last free Saturday for a few weeks.  We went out to Lake MacBride with some friends and had a great time.  It was cloudy, but the weather was nice.  It wasn't too hot and the kids had so much fun playing with their friends.  It was a chill and relaxing day; I wish we could do this more often.

Kylee and Ike having fun in the sand.  They have a love/hate relationship.  She loves to bug him and he hates it.  They played and played in the sand all day.

 We rented a kayak and took turns taking it out.  Jeremy was good enough to take Brynlee and Price out.  They had a good time.

 Then it was our turn.  With both of us paddling we could really go.  But my seat was not the most comfortable and Jeremy kept whacking me in the head with his paddle.  It was fun, but only in limited amounts

It was a great day on the water.  The kids were well behaved, I got to relax and the weather was wonderful. 

1st day of school

It's finally here!  The first day of  school!  Price is in 2nd grade, his teacher is Mrs. Ripley.  Brynlee is in Kindergarten, Mrs. Cahalan is her teacher.  They were both so excited and let's be honest, so was I.  Dropped them off and they both went with no tears and were very excited.

 Now it's just the two of us.  We had a great day too.  Worked out and ran errands.  It's so nice going to go to the store with only one kid in tow.  A lot more manageable.  Kylee didn't want to leave the kids at school; she wanted to stay too.  I would gladly have left her too if they'd let me =)

As we were leaving school this afternoon Brynlee points to a girl in her class and says "that's my new friend".  And wouldn't you know who she belonged to.  She was with that same girl who ran into my van last year and then her lame-o boyfriend was too afraid to come out and take ownership of his crappy driving.  My only thought was, "of course, that's who you'd make friends with".  A good lesson of forgiving and forgetting.

This, that, and the other

Just some random pics of the kids before church.  You can't really see it, but Brynlee has a side ponytail.  I always wanted to wear my hair like this, but my mom would never let me.  Who knows why, side ponies were all the rage back in the 80s. 

 We had the missionaries over for dinner last night.  Elder Cutler (the one on the left) is leaving our area.  Elder Saunders will have a new companion and hopefully we like him as much as we've liked Elder Cutler.

Summer Enrichment

So I've mentioned a few times that the kids have been going to this Summer Enrichment the past few months.  It was definitely a life saver this summer.  The two oldest needed something to do and I needed them to be away for a few hours to keep my sanity.  Summer Enrichment was the perfect solution.  The kids got to do some super fun stuff and I got a few quiet hours, plus it was free.  Wahoo!

Here they are with Hannah, one of the girls who was in charge of the program.

 Chelsea was the other girl who ran the program.  The kids had so much fun with these two.  It took Kylee most of the summer, but finally she opened up to them and played with them.  We are going to miss them so much. Hopefully they will be back next summer

Some highlights of the Summer Enrichment include: luau party, making cakes, field trips, disc golf, playing at the splash pad, making things in the workshop, eating snacks and playing carpet ball.  A great summer activity; can't wait until next year.
Thank you Matthew 25!

Camping in Nauvoo

We've lived in Iowa for 6 years now and we have never been down to the Nauvoo pagaent.  We went before we had kids, when we lived in Nebraska.  But that was 8 years ago.  But in our defense I've either been pregnant or had little kids and the idea of going down to Nauvoo in July to roast in the sweltering sauna just didn't sound fun. 

We decided to go down and see the pagaent and then camp for the night.  We went with our friends the Hadenfeldts and the Andersons.  We got lucky, the weather was great and it turned out to be tons of fun.  We went down earlier in the day and I went to the temple while Jeremy set up all the tents.  The other 2 families were coming later so we did set up so they could just meet up at the pagaent.

We went to the carnival they were having.  We got our picture taken by the replica of Nauvoo.  We also avoided the hecklers; yes there were people there heckling the Mormons.  I guess that's the big fun on a Friday night.  This one guy even had a whole song that went to the tune of "Praise to the Man" that he was yelling out as we passed by.

 The pagant itself was so good.  The story was great and the kids were actually pretty well behaved.  My favorite part was when the real temple was lit up at the very end.  I can't wait to go next year and see it again.

The camping part turned out to be really great two.  They had electricity by our campsite so we took our air mattress, we were pretty comfy that night.  They also had bathrooms and showers so we weren't roughing it all.

The next morning we had bacon, sausage, eggs and homemade doughnuts.  It was a great breakfast and the kids had a great time playing and running around.  We picked a great time to go; about an hour after we loaded up and went to look at the bookstore and fudge shop it started to pour buckets. 

A great time; hopefully we'll get to do more camping this year.  We got a new tent and it literally takes 5 minutes to put up and it's big enough for the air mattress and the kids and our stuff. 

Brynlee turns 5

Brynlee turned 5!!  She is getting so big, it's hard to believe.  We had a little party at our house on the day of her birthday.  She had a few friends over to eat pizza and cupcakes and then play in the water.  Don't let these cute faces fool you, these girls can put down the pizza.  Compared to when we had Price's friends over these girls ate twice as much.  It made me laugh, the two smallest girls ate the most. 

They played so good and had a good time.  Brynlee, Kylee (in her cool sunglasses), Elizabeth, Hannah, Grace and Annie.

 Liah was showing the kids how when you get chalk wet it makes paint.  They had so much fun "painting" on the sidewalk and on themselves.  Hopefully the parents weren't too alarmed when they picked up their child that was now purple.  Oops!

 That night we had a little family party, along with Gena, of dinner and cake.  Brynlee now has on her "pajama" swimsuit; as opposed to her swimming one from earlier.  Apparently there are categories for swimsuits, who knew?

We had Brynlee's favorite, meat and potatoes and cake and ice cream.  She got a new bike helmet and bike and lots of fun cute girly stuff from her friends.

Brynlee is growing into the cutest girl, I can't believe she's going to be in kindergarten soon.  She is finally growing out of her stubborn phase  and is so helpful and caring.  She got some money on her birthday and wanted to share it with her brother and sister.  She is always sharing with them and so giving (because those two can be demanding at times).  She is a girly girl and loves to wear skirts, dresses and do dances.  She is helpful and minds so well.  When she was younger she used to be so timid and scared, but she is becoming more brave in the things that she does.  She is on her way to being a good little swimmer and to riding a two-wheeler.
She loves any kind of meat and will put it down with the best of 'em.  I think one day she will eat us out of house and home (as opposed to Price).  I love hearing her talk to Kylee when they are playing; she talks like she knows it all and she's telling Kylee how it is.  So cute.  We are so happy to have this cutie in our fam.  She is a snuggle bug and will try to sit on your lap and have you tickle her neck or hand any chance she gets.

Brynlee's Favorites:
Food: Potatoes
Color: Pink
Movie: Princess (any movie that has a princess in it is what she means)
Book: Tinkerbell (again, any Tinkerbell book will do)
Thing to do: play games
What she wants to be when she grows up: a mom
favorite thing about being 5: sharing