September Fun!

James started flag football again.  He really loves playing with his friends.

 I got a phone call one morning from the school (which, in my experience, is never a good thing).  Alex had hit his mouth on Jayden's head while playing tag and chipped two of his adult teeth. His teeth really hurt so I brought him home.  Luckily we were able to get him in to the dentist that same afternoon.  The dentist put a filling on the lower tooth (it was chipped pretty badly).

 Lydia was bored and needed to take selfies while we waited.

All fixed!

Then we had my birthday!

It was a great day because it started off with pie for breakfast!

Lydia loves to do dishes.

 Lydia likes to take pictures of me sometimes.

Since my birthday was during the week and we had mutal that night we decided to eat out on the weekend.  We took the entire family.

We headed up Mt Charleston for our ward's annual Picnic in the Pines.

 I practiced doing french braids in Lydia's hair.

When we went out for the mail one day Lydia asked me to take her picture....

... and then asked to take mine!

Henry decided at the last minute to dress up for "Rock Your School" day.

I was teaching a lesson to the Laurels about the words we speak.  I had seen this experiment online and wanted to see if it really worked.  I had two identical jars of rice sitting on the same shelf of my kitchen.  To one jar Lydia and I spoke nice, kind, loving words (I love you, I appreciate all you do, you are a great jar of rice, etc)  and to the other jar we said hateful, hurtful words (you're the worst!, I hate you!, you are so ugly).  Lydia thought it was great fun.

At the end of the week our hate jar had dark moldy spots.

Our love jar on the other hand was pretty much the same as the beginning.  (I did find one spot of white, fluffy growth by the very end). Some of the girls didn't believe me and asked what I had done differently!  It was a good object lesson.

It's fun to see when William's face (or silhouette) pop up on his friend's instagrams.  These were from a campout.

Lydia loves to color and she does such a great job of coloring it thouroughly and in the lines!

Lydia was trying on her great-great-grandma Ruby Peterson's fancy earrings.

My boys always have a great time with the Rain Gutter Regatta.  This year we just had Alex racing.

Yeah for September!

Jacob goes to BYU

The very best part of living in Las Vegas is all the friends and family we get to see.  We were especially happy that my parents and brother, Jacob decided to pass through on their way to taking him to BYU.  It really doesn't seem like that long ago that I  was a freshman at BYU when my parents told me that they were expecting Jacob!  It was so much fun to see and hang out with him even for just a few days.

My parents also flew out of Vegas so we got to see them again for a few days on their way back from dropping Jacob off.

Lydia loved reading books with Grandma.

Grandpa gave the boys a gun safety lesson before taking them up to the gun range.

William tried on Jacob's elephant ears from his short stint in the BYU marching band.

On Labor Day we took Grandma and Grandpa to enjoy the cooler weather on Mt. Charleston.

It was so enjoyable to have them around for a few days and to visit so much with them!

August misc

Henry and Lydia did a little photo shoot one evening while I was making dinner.  They are so silly.

Lydia loves to get all her stuffed animals and babies to cuddle with while we watch shows in the afternoon.

Henry has turned into a little monkey!

Lydia likes me to pull over on our bike ride home so she can pick flowers.  She's always very sad if I won't stop for flowers.

James got his saxophone and is learning to play this year!

Lydia loves to take selfies with my phone! I often find new pictures from her.

Alex was finally awarded his wolf (it's been a LONG time since we've had pack meeting).

Lydia was given a twirly dress by a friend (Devin Behrens) so we took some pictures to send to show how much she loved it.

Back to School

The Thursday before school started we went to Meet the Teacher at Heckethorn.  Henry and Alex both got great teachers this year but they still weren't sure they were ready for school to start.

The Friday before school William and James were able to get their new schedules.  It's crazy to think I have 2 in middle school now.

The Sunday before the first day of school we held our 9th annual Back to School Feast.  We decided that we really wanted to focus on working hard this school year we came up with the theme of "Become a Master Builder" (based on The Lego Movie).

I made shirts for the Alexander and Henry (and a dress for Lydia).

The older boys didn't wear their shirts at all last year so I had to come up with something different.  My friend suggested hats.  Genius!

After our feast Rich gave everyone a back to school father's blessing and we tried to get to bed early.


The first day of school came way too soon.  The summer's really just seem to fly by.  These three were super excited to wear their new shirts.

I managed to catch a really quick picture before everyone left.

Lydia captured this photo of me at the park before school.  Over the summer I really missed the morning chats at the park with my friends.

Everyone had a fantastic first day of school.  Henry declared that it only seemed like 3 hours which in Henry-speak means it was a fun day!  I'm so glad that everyone is having a great year with great teachers!

For Family Night we brainstormed ideas of what a Master Builder is.

The following week Lydia started a pre-school co-op with 4 other friends.  She was so excited to start school as well!

Crane University

All summer long the kids worked on their Crane University degrees.  Amy gave us the idea and it was a super fun way to set summer goals and stay busy.  They had to set 2 goals for each degree.  The 3 younger boys earned their PhD, William earned a Master's and Lydia got a Bachelor's.

Just so we can remember I'll list the goals that they each accomplished.

William: complete a merit badge, journal every day for a week, give Alex 3 trumpet lessons, make a vacation list of fun things to do on the road trip and gather the items together, make a piece of art, recite 3 Articles of Faith

James: make a movie, create and do an obstacle course , play outside daily for a week, complete a Faith in God goal, make a new recipe (rootbeer), learn to conduct music and lead it in Family Night, memorize a poem, teach Henry how to do Google slides

Alex: make a movie, read a chapter book, play outside daily, take 3 trumpet lessons from William, make a new recipe, write a book, complete a Faith in God goal, teach 3 piano lessons to Henry

Henry: make a movie, create and do an obstacle course, read a chapter book, complete swim lessons, memorize 2 Articles of Faith, take 3 piano lessons from Alex, learn how to do Google slides, make a new recipe
Lydia: finish swim lessons, write a letter (to Evelyn), learn a new song, help mom bake

We held a graduation ceremony on the Sunday before school.  For every degree they recieved a little treat.  Everyone decided they want to do this again next year.

End of Summer

We squeezed every little bit of fun out of our summer.  William didn't get to join us earlier in the summer when we went to see Nature's Ninja's at Springs Preserve so we headed there one more time.  Lydia really loved the porcupine.  We also got to see them feed the chameleon--it was so cool to see him grab crickets with his tongue!

We walked down to a friend's house to support their lemonade stand.  William was so sweet to carry Lydia part of the way.

I was finally awarded my honor bee in Young Women.  I actually earned it a while ago but it was a super busy summer.

Lydia is just so sweet when she cuddles up with her animals.

Lydia convinced James to have a snack picnic with her in the loft.

I few different times I've found Lydia reading to herself.  It's super sweet.

Rich was able to get us tickets through work to the 51s baseball game.  We were also given the opportunity to help throw out the first pitch.  We all got shirts and balls and some cool bags.  This is the first game we've all been to in a few years.

It was fun to all be on the field together!

The boys were hungry and tired and hot so we left the game early.  It was a good thing we did.  Not long after we left there was a huge dust storm that blew through (we were driving in it).  A friend who stayed at the game told us the next day that the power went out a few times and they ended up evacuating the stadium.  It was chaos!