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.

Timpanogos Half Marathon

I needed to post my great accomplishment this Summer. Below is a picture of my good friends Wendy and Janae from my ward who talked me into running this half-marathon with them. I never thought I would be one to do it, but it was a blast. We prepared for months for this day, even getting up at 4 a.m. some mornings to beat the Vegas heat. Through all of it I got to know these ladies really well, and I really looked forward to our morning work outs together.

This is us at 3:30 in the morning ready to catch the bus up American Fork Canyon. It was pitch black all up the canyon, and the sun just started to come up as we started the race. It was so beautiful all the way down the mountain, and the sound of the creek running alongside the road made it even more wonderful. I loved that all three of us stuck together the entire way. We started together and finished together which really helped me keep going. Crossing that finish line was such an accomplishment for me, and I'm so grateful that I was able to do it.

St. George Trip

After Avery's baptism we were able to head to St. George with Micah's side of the family. We usually go to Bear Lake in July, but instead for this year we decided to rent condo's in St. George because we were already all together for the baptism here in Vegas. We loved only having a two hour commute this year.

Where we stayed there were several pools to play in and a grass area for the kids to run around on. Basically it was perfect for us to be able to play together for a couple of days. Above is a picture of Aliza with her cousin Zaylie. Aliza absolutely adores her.

Abbie, Avery and their cousins spent a lot of the day making this their secret hide out behind the water fall. You had to push certain rocks in a certain order to enter. They have quite the imagination.

Each year we have a talent show at Bear Lake. To mix it up this year they had the idea to do a "Minute To Win It" game instead. Abbie was the host (which she did a great job), and you could sign up for the different games you would like to be a part of. This picture is of Lifesavers on a stick. They had to walk back and forth until only one person was left with the Lifesaver still on the stick. Aliza cheated a little by holding the stick with her hands, but you can get away with that kind of stuff when you are four years old.

Shaking the balls out of a bucket attached to your pant loop was definitely fun to watch. It made me laugh. We ended the games with a huge silly string fight.

We spent one of the days at Sand Hollow. The water was a great temperature, and the sand was fun for the kids to play in. I didn't miss the Bear Lake cold temperatures. It was a perfect day at the beach.

It looks like Aliza was making her poor cousin Tessa do all the work floating her around.

My brother in-law John was nice enough to bring his boat to do a little tubing, and they found this fun spot to do a little cliff diving. Avery was wanting to do it over and over again.
This is Avery jumping in. We had a great vacation, and thank you to Micah's parents for a fun week. We loved spending time with everyone.

Avery's Baptism

Avery was baptized on Saturday, July 2nd at our home ward here in Henderson. It was such a wonderful experience for all of us, and she was smiling from ear to ear the entire day. We had a lot of family travel in from Utah, and quite a few friends in the ward who came to see her baptism. We felt so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who were willing to support her on this special day.

This is her baptism dress that she picked out all by herself. She did look beautiful, and I was glad that it was a great material to be wearing in our hot Summer weather. It was completely comfortable, and she loves it.

I fell so blessed to have a wonderful husband who is worthy to baptize our children. Everything went smoothly, and I think Avery was pleased with the whole day's activities.

Abbie was willing to play a piece for the program on her violin and she did an excellent job. I had a hard time finding something for her to play here in Nevada, so by the time we ordered and received it in the mail she didn't have a lot of practice time. She played a version of "Jesus Came to John the Baptist" and did a beautiful job.

I let Avery pick who did what on the program and she thought it would be fun to have all girls, so that's what we did (except for her dad and the two witnesses). They all did a great job.

We had two little photo shoots with Avery in the park by our house to get some good shots of her in her baptism dress. My wonderful sister in law came one day from St. George and did a great job taking some pictures for me. Here are just a couple of my favorites. I could post lots and lots, so I tried to limit myself to two. They are all beautiful.

End of the Year Dance Recital

Our end of the year dance recital was June 14th, and I had a great time watching our little girls perform. The last few months of dance both Avery and Aliza were not wanting to go to dance because I think they needed a break. In fact Aliza told me one day "mom, I'm so done with dance." But after performing on the stage with the cheering, lights, and wearing their cute costumes they are already talking about wanting to do it again next year. We will see about that when the time comes I suppose. That is if I can talk Micah into doing it again. Have I ever mentioned how EVERYTHING is so outrageously expensive here in Henderson. This year in dance has cost a small fortune, but it was a great experience too.

Aliza was being a stinker the whole time at the recital not wanting me to take any pictures. This is the only picture of her we got of the whole evening. I had to get a picture of her beautiful lipstick application. Both Avery and Aliza were thrilled to be able to wear makeup for the recital. With the dance studio being so big they had to split up the kids into 3 different recitals. Of course my girls were in two different recitals which made it a very long evening. We snuck out of Aliza's recital a bit early to grab a bite to eat, and then headed back to watch Avery's recital.

The both did a lovely job, and I can't wait to get the dvd to watch it again. We did a little photo shoot in front of our house this morning to make up for having no pictures the day of the recital.

I asked them to strike a dance pose, and this is what I got. Cute!

I thought it was funny that they ended up in matching outfits. They are in totally different classes, but their costumes were made out of the same materials. I loved the blue, purple and green together. Avery's turned out to be really beautiful for the ballet number her class did.

It was a fun recital, but we are glad for a Summer break. Great job girls!

Avery's 8th B-day

It's hard to believe that our little Avery is now eight years old. She is such a good kid who is always trying to do the right thing. She woke up to an A pancake made by her dad, and then headed off to school. She was looking forward to this day all year because her birthday just happened to land on the very last day of school. It was like a party all day long. At school she got to do everything first, and her teacher bought them all McDonalds for lunch to celebrate.

With the tradition of picking your favorite meal for dinner, I wasn't surprised that she picked steak and potatoes and gravy. Kind of a weird combo together, but they are her all time favorite foods right now.

She got a pair of roller blades from us, and my parents bought her a tether ball court. It's getting a little too hot outside to play with either of these too long, but she still manages to be out there plenty.

For her friend party this year she really wanted to go get pedicures. She invited a few friends from school, and a few from our ward to go get their nails done. We also made these cute flip flops that just kept falling apart. I felt really bad that we couldn't get them to stay together. I think they still had fun making them though.

We found this cute place that had smaller chairs so the girls could actually reach their feet comfortably to have them painted. It was fun to see what colors they picked. Avery picked this bright orange with flowers. They also did her finger nails because she was the birthday girl.

We then went back home to open presents, and eat some cake and ice cream. Below is Avery reading a really cute card from her friend Ellis. I didn't notice until now Aliza jumping on the furniture in the background. I guess she figured she could get away with anything because I was busy doing other things. Little stinker.

Avery really does have such a great group of friends. She really enjoyed all the cards and gifts that came in the mail too. It was such a fun surprise everyday to have something else to open. We are very lucky to have such great friends and family.

My mom was able to come and stay with us a few days after her birthday to spoil her some more. This week we are working on putting together her baptism program. I can hardly believe that in two short weeks she will be baptized. We are so lucky to have this sweet little girl in our home.

Student of the Month

The school year is coming to a close, and I couldn't be more excited. I keep thinking any day they will lighten up on homework, but it hasn't happened yet. At least I know that next week we will officially be done for the year. Both Abbie and Avery have done really well this year. We have had good teachers, and great experiences. Avery was awarded with Student of the Month for the month of May at the start of this week. She was really excited because she was able to be student of the month in her first grade class last year too. She was able to attend a pizza lunch with the principal which was a fun treat. She was even more excited that now we have two student of the month license plate holders, so we can have one on each of our cars. Micah will be thrilled. :)

The first thing she said when she came home from school was "let's take a pictures so you can put it on our blog." So here it is.