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.

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.