Birthday/Marathon

On September 30th, Micah finally turned 34. The joke in our family is that mom is the oldest, and I get teased about it constantly. The only good thing about it is that it only lasts a few months out of the year. We are technically the same age for seven months of the year, the other five months I get my fair share of teasing about being the oldest. We are now the same age...and that is wonderful.

We had our usual celebrations the day before his birthday, because we were headed to St. George the next day for his real birthday.

The kids are always so excited to get out all the party hats, banners and fix the birthday persons favorite meal. Since Micah isn't a big cake fan we made his favorite chocolate chip cookies with ice cream. Yum!

We then headed to St. George the next day to celebrate three birthdays, a graduation, and get ready for the St. George Marathon. Micah, his two brothers, and one sister were all running together which was so fun to watch. Micah's parents were wonderful to rent us all a house together, and the runners were able to get in their pasta dinner all together at the house before the big day.

I had to snag a picture of Grammie and Lizzie waiting for the runners. It was amazing to watch as the runners made their way to the finish line. Abbie was so sweet to keep yelling at runners "don't give up" or "you can do it." I thought it was very nice of her to cheer all of them on.

We were waiting for quite some time before they came running by, so the kids made the most out of it and played together on the side of the road. Such cute cousins.

Micah did amazing! He was the first of his siblings to go across the finish line at 3 hours and 33 minutes. They all did amazing, and it was so wonderful to see them doing this together.

I can't even imagine running for 26.2 miles. That is quite an accomplishment, and I can't believe that they are talking about doing more races in the near future. They are all amazing!

Here is the whole crew. We were able to see our cute niece Kennedy get a blessing on Sunday before heading home. It was a very eventful, and fun weekend. We are proud of you Micah!

Aliza's Two Wheeler

Last night while Abbie, Avery and I were at the church, Micah was able to spend a little one on one time with Lizzie. They decided to go on a bike ride and Micah noticed that she was balancing really well, so he asked her if they should take off her training wheels. At first he said she looked kind of confused, but then was just bursting with excitement once she figured out what he was doing. To our surprise she just took off. She looks so tiny riding her bike.

One happy girl!

She was so excited to take some pictures. Here she comes....

I'm so glad it is getting cooler outside so we can ride bikes again. Way to go Lizzie!

Enjoying Vegas

The past few Saturday's we have not had much on our calendar. It seems like Summer was crazy and packed, but it's all winding down. Don't get me wrong the school days are full of running around to activities, practicing and homework (way too much homework), but the weekends have been heavenly. Last week we just decided to go to the M&M store on the strip and see the short 3D movie they have there. After living here for almost two years we have talked about going, but never actually did it. It was great to just get out of the house and do something fun.

Here are the girls waiting for the show to start. It's even fun to just watch all the crazy people. With a lot of the attractions on the strip we have somewhat figured out how to hit these few fun things without having to see ALL the crap on the strip.

Looking good in the 3D glasses for the M&M show.

Friday night we headed over to see the "Movie Under the Stars" at the District by our home. The weather was perfect, and they all enjoyed the free carousel and popcorn. It's been fun to just have a few weekends to just kind of relax and enjoy each other. It's not always that way, so we need to enjoy it when we can.

Aliza's first day of Preschool

Aliza started her first day of preschool today. Quite a few of the families in the ward raved about this wonderful in home preschool, so I of course signed Aliza up as soon as I could. I had heard that at one time her husband was a member of the Stake Presidency, so I figured I couldn't go wrong knowing that. I was excited at the "Meet the Teacher" event last week to walk into her home and see that she had church pictures everywhere. I just felt so blessed to know that my daughter is in good hands. Her teachers name is Mrs. Leslie, and she seems wonderful. Not to mention that her toy selection, and outdoor play equipment are amazing. Aliza was in love with her new preschool the minute she stepped foot in the door.

I asked if I could take a picture of her before school, and she said I had to take four because she is four. So this is picture #1.

#2

#3

and #4

I had to get a picture of these cute shoes she picked out at the store. She topped them off with different colored socks this morning. You can definitely tell she is my third child because I just let it go.

Here she is with her new backpack at her preschool ready to start her first day.

We are lucky to have Aliza's good friend Violet who lives on our same street in her preschool this year. I think both of the moms are excited because we can carpool. :) She had a great first day of school and is counting down to when she can go back.

As for me, it was a weird day. I remember when my older girls were in preschool I would look at the other moms who where dropping off their youngest child, and be so jealous thinking it would be so nice to have a few hours to run errands and such. Now I'm there, and it's kind of weird. Sad and happy all at the same time.

San Diego

Our little family was able to take a quick trip to San Diego a few weeks ago. We had a free hotel stay that I was just dying to use, so off we went. After doing the theme park stuff last fall we decided to just take it easy this trip. The first evening we were there we went to Seaport Village to eat and enjoy watching the boats on the water. We ate at this fun little pizza place with great outdoor seating. We ate at that same pizza place when we took a trip to San Diego with Abbie and Avery when they were only four and two years old. It was kind of fun to be back in the same place, but with the added addition of Aliza and Abbie and Avery being much older. They may actually remember it this time.

.Ben and Jerry's is always perfect to top off a pizza dinner.

The next day we took a trip to Old Town where we had heard they opened a neat Mormon Battalion museum. We were not sure what to expect, but it was incredible. The church has remodeled a beautiful building with an amazing interactive tour about the Mormon Battalion. The kids LOVED it, and I can honestly say I learned a lot on this short little tour. After the tour they have a section where kids can pan for gold, make bricks, and wash clothes the old fashioned way. The kids of course loved that too.

Aliza was really into finding some big gold pieces. They let each kid take two home with them. I keep finding them in the dryer which is not good.

Abbie and Avery practiced doing some laundry.

We just happened to be in Old Town on a Saturday where they had all sorts of fun activities going on. Up above the girls wrote a letter to someone famous, and then a real pony express man on a horse delivered it to them. We were suppose to get a response back in an hour, but we were ready to head to the beach and didn't stick around for our notes. Next time.

They also had some fun old games that the kids were able to try out. Avery was trying to jump a frog in the picture above. They had an interesting fortune telling booth that you would ask it a question and a very strange quote from Mark Twain would come out the bottom. It was a little strange.

Of course we spent several hours on the beach. It was perfect weather to just lay on a beach towel and relax. The kids of course didn't want to relax, but had a great time playing in the sand and jumping over waves. We had just watched the movie "Soul Surfer" before leaving for this trip so the girls were really into watching the surfers in the water.

Avery and Aliza spent a lot of time making this mountain with a river around it. Micah took the girls on a little walk to some rocks with crabs on them. They really enjoyed seeing the crabs.

Before we started home the next day we took a short drive over to see the San Diego temple. This temple is always breathtaking to me. It literally looks like castle. I just love it.

Can't wait to head back to San Diego someday. It was a great trip.

Picking Apples and Pears

We were able to take a fun trip to Gilcrease Orchard a few days before school started with the Sondrup family. It's a wonderful orchard that grows fruits and vegetables year round, and you can come and pick your own which is fun for the kids. Unfortunately the day we chose to go ended up being a really hot day. Our Summer here in Vegas has been fairly mild until last week. Then all of a sudden we have had record breaking heat right when it's time to send the kids back to school. Hopefully things will cool off soon so we can enjoy being outdoors again.

This is Aliza with her buddies Grant and Hugh. Aliza just loves these boys and would spend every day with them if she could. She spent over an hour at the kitchen table a few days ago coloring picture after picture for Grant. She drew several pictures of them playing together and then would try and write his name at the top of each page. She does really well with spelling her name and a few other words, but for some reason Grant was a hard one for her to spell. I had to sit down with her several times to help get the r and n looking correct. She really wanted it perfect for her good friend.

We ended up with some beautiful pears that I'm hoping will ripen soon. My girls loved picking the pears and then ran out of steam before we got to the apples. It was just too hot I think. They sat in the car cooling off while Aliza and I picked apples. Aliza was quite the trooper.

Here is the whole crew excluding Abbie who is taking the picture. We will have to try picking more in a few weeks when it cools off a little. It was a great adventure together before school started.

School School School

It's seems like forever since my last post, but like most everyones our Summer flew by, and I just haven't been able to catch a breath until kids were back in school yesterday. I will have to do my Summer posts backwards starting from this one, and then back through our Summer adventures.

Avery started third grade yesterday. I can't believe that she is in third grade already. All day long while she was at school I was reminiscing about her past school experiences. Basically being that she has not ever really enjoyed going to school. It has been something that she has struggled with in the past because of anxiety, but not this year. She has come home the past two days saying that school is AWESOME! Wow, we have come a long way. Lets hope I didn't jinks myself. Did I ever mention that my parents had a hard time getting me to go to school? Boy does my mom have some embarrassing stories she could tell you about me.

As for Abbie, she started 5th grade yesterday. She has always enjoyed school and is more of our social kid. Friends are starting to become more and more important to her as she is getting older. Luckily we love the friends she is choosing. I was a little nervous about her only because they do departmentalization for fifth graders which means she has five classes, plus specialty teachers. With sixth grade being middle school here they are preparing them for switching classes. I knew she would be fine, but maybe it was more that I don't want her to grow up so fast. She came home yesterday with a good attitude about it and even mentioned that she thought the day went a lot faster when she is rotating from class to class. Overall I think our girls are feeling more and more comfortable with their school, and I can tell it's going to be a great year.

Our school time changed this year to an earlier schedule which I think we are going to love. They have to be at the school at 7:45ish, but I have them home by 2:30. It's an early morning, but I feel like we have more time after school to have some down/play time. Last year they weren't getting home until 4:00 which didn't leave much time to play. By the time we did homework it was time to make dinner and get ready for bed. I have been impressed that both our girls have been up and ready well in advance of having to leave for school. Let's hope that keeps up for the whole school year.

This is how excited they were about school. It's been so nice to have everyone so happy. Aliza starts school next week and she is very disappointed she can't be there all day, so that shouldn't be a problem to get her to go to school. She is asking me everyday when it will be her turn to go to school. They are growing up way too fast.