First Day of School Pictures!

It's that time of year....I have 3 kids in elementary school, plus a preschooler this year! This week has been busy, but SO good, too!! So far, they are all LOVING school!

My 5th grader...

3rd grader....

At our house before leaving for school....
Over at school, now (the weather was really chilly...they were trying to stay warm!)...

My big kindergartner...

Connor ready for preschool, too!....

Here's to another fantastic school year!!! :)

Testing...

....because we got a new camera for our trip to San Diego! If this blog post works, then that means I've done all the uploading right & I can start sharing pictures from our vacation & all the other fun stuff we've been doing this summer!! :)

So...just some random pictures....

Looks like it might be working & apparently Connor has been a little camera-shy...LOL! More blogs to come!!

The "Beach Park"

Not too far from our house, we have a great state park that is perfect for a little bit of summer swimming and, of course, picnics! The kids have such a fun time playing in the water & building sand castles, while Matt & I get a little relaxing in!!

This is how you'll usually find the kids...

We love summer!!

A Saturday Walk

Yesterday Matt & I decided we wanted to take the kids out for a little outdoor activity...the weather was prefect, spending a little family time together was great & we all had a lot of fun! We headed down to the Greenbelt to take a walk by the river! We did a 1.3 mile loop and finished up right before noon...it was perfect! All the kids were troopers...even Connor's little legs kept going!

It was even perfect for a few pictures...

And a cute baby girl that was perfectly happy the entire time! :)

Family Reunion #1

Yep...it's official...I'm a slacker. I am NOT good at remembering to take pictures! We took our camera, though it only made an appearance on 2 occasions....never mind the roasting marshmallows over the campfire, seeing all the baby animals that have been born, craft projects, hanging out, etc....so, here's the few from getting together with Matt's family from a couple of weeks ago.

Matt's parent's bought a Tote Goat (yeah, I didn't know what it was either, until we arrived) a few days before we got there. Matt found a new toy, the kids, Matt & I all had fun riding it (when it wasn't raining) and Connor decided the helmet should be his.... :)

If you were to come to our house....

...you'd find lots of Parker's drawings around! This boy loves to color, cut, paste, tape up, etc any piece of art work that he does. I think it's time I found a cork-board to hang up all his artwork on!

Here's some pictures of what you'd currently find around our house....

(symbols for only Rescue Hero's and NYPD allowed in this room)

(Lego "rock monster"...from the Power Miners set...some of Park's favorite pictures to color, recently...and yes, we print LOADS of pictures off daily!) :)

(more Rescue Hero's and Power Miner pictures)

(still not sure what all this one means...he likes to use the "+" sign when he is combining stuff, currently we have "M+"heart"+P" written on our porch in chalk...that means "mom loves Parker...anyway, there is a heart, rock monster and arrows to the right on this picture...whatever that means!)

P.S. I realize I have a month worth of catching up to do (end of school projects, family reunions, misc. pictures, etc), so I'll do my best to do some regular blogging! :)

Earrings!

At our house, we allow the girl's to get their ears pierced when they turn 8 years old. Abbie had the chance to go on her 8th birthday. Annie, however, has had to wait an extra 40 days. Annie has been playing spring soccer and one of the rules is that absolutely NO jewelry can be worn during games. Unfortunately, soccer started 2 days before Annie turned 8 years old. So, this afternoon (her last game was this morning!) we took off to Claire's to finally get Annie's ears pierced!! She was pretty set on getting purple earrings...but, once she was there checking out the different earrings available, she chose the turquoise ones instead...

Before (she was just a bit nervous):

After:

I have a pretty happy eight year old here today! And, I think it was worth the wait....her team went undefeated!!!

Blessing

Sunday brought Allie's blessing day. We knew Annie would be getting baptized this weekend, so we held off blessing Allie so we could do both in one big weekend (hopefully it made travelling/attending easier for our parents!). Here are a few pictures from after the blessing...

Allie with her Daddy & both Grandpas!

And Mommy with her "two white girls" (as the boys have been saying)...

Just the two white girls....

Another Mommy & girls...

Just Mom & Allie!...

I realized that I didn't get any snap shots with both Matt & I with Allie....I'll have to get those that our Mom's took! We had such a fantastic weekend and we are so blessed to have family & friends that came to show their love and support, along with all those that were there in spirit too (we missed you)!

Baptism

Annie had a very special day on Saturday....one that she has been looking forward to for a long time! Annie has always had a sweet & simple testimony and has always strived to follow Jesus Christ. On Saturday, she continued in Christ's footsteps by being baptized.

She chose to have her Daddy baptize & confirm her a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So beautiful in the dress Gramma C made to have all the girl cousins baptized in.

After the confirmation....perfectly clean & pure.

Annie, we love you so much & are so very pleased with the decision you made! We hope you will always remember that special day & live worthy to have the Holy Ghost as your companion the rest of your life! We love you!!

It's Great to be Eight!

Annie had her birthday 2 weeks ago....she turned EIGHT years old! We ended up celebrating all weekend long (almost). We have a tradition of the birthday kid picking where we go out to dinner, as a family...since Annie's birthday was on a Monday night (when Matt was teaching at BSU) we decided to go out on Saturday night instead.

Sunday night we had her cake & ice cream, since we wanted Daddy to be there for that too! :)

Monday morning, we woke up bright & early so she could open her birthday gifts! She was given her own scriptures & marking pencils, some purple (her favorite color!) finger nail polish, a new outfit from Gramma & Grandpa C (she's worn it a lot!), a new dress & outfits for her American Girl doll from Grandma Judy & Grandpa Bill, and a special date with Mom to get pedicures & go shopping!!

We love this Anastasia! We are looking forward to a special day with lots of pictures & lots of family in town for her baptism!! Of course, I'll post pictures afterward! :)