Preschool

Today was Connor's first day of preschool! He has been counting the days since the older kids started school, and now he finally got to take HIS picture on the porch with his backpack.He of course picked his Diamondbacks "rattlesnake" shirt to wear.

He had a super fun time with "Ms. Stephanie" and loved telling me all about it. She is my amazing friend who organized it all. They even made apple bread for the letter A. We are doing a co-op with some other moms, so next week preschool will be at our house. I'll only have to teach like 4 times during the whole school year. We love preschool!

Busssssssssy Day

We had a super busy, but fun day yesterday. The older kids and I started out by a little shopping at Walmart and playing at a friends' house. They have 3 pet snakes. Connor was in heaven, of course. But the amazing thing was that he actually wanted to touch and hold the snakes! He has always freaked out in the past whenever they're not behind glass. I think it was because they were a lot smaller. Here Connor & Zach are petting some type of king snake.This is a baby ball python. I couldn't believe how brave Savannah was. We all touched and held the snakes, except Jacob. He wanted nothing to do with them.They also had a bunch of different turtles. Zach liked those the best. Here he is holding "Big Joe."

After our play date Jacob and I went to the furniture store. We ordered a new couch!!! I am so excited. I'll post pictures after it's here. We also ordered a bunk bed for the little boys' room. Dallin and I went on a date the night before to the furniture stores, but we wanted to measure our family room and the space before we actually ordered anything.

Later that afternoon we went to a birthday party at our neighbor's house, for their little girl turning 4. Her older brother is Jacob's best friend. They had a water slide and the hot tub, so the kids had lots of fun. It was hot outside watching them though, being that the heat broke records yesterday. Here are Zach & Savannah with the birthday girl.

We left the party early and went to a BBQ with some friends in our ward. Their pool was completely in the shade of their house, so even Landon loved being in the water. We had a great time swimming, talking and eating. It was fun to get to know those families a little better. Thanks for the fun time!
And here's the cutest little shark you've ever seen...

Back to School

The kids were excited to start school this morning! They all went right to their classes like it was nothing new.

I cannot believe that Jacob is in his last year of elementary school. He was in kindergarten when we moved here! For 5th grade he has Miss Corbett this year and his team teacher is Mrs. Korfanta. We met them last night and they both seem great.

Zach and Savannah met their teachers on Friday. Zach has Mrs. Files this year. He will also be participating in an after school program called the Junior Master Gardeners that starts in October. He's very excited about that.

Savannah is in 1st grade and has Mrs. Patterson. When we got there her teacher wasn't in the room yet. I asked if she wanted me to wait with her and she said "No, I'm good. See ya Mommy!" This girl LOVES school and has been counting the days.

Connor will be doing a co-op preschool this year. He was so bummed that he couldn't go to school today also. Luckily we start next week and he doesn't have to wait too much longer.

Lake Pfugerville

On Wednesday morning we tried out something new. I took my kids to the lake! It is really just a reservoir for water for the city of Pflugerville. But my kids thought it was "huge and awesome." There is a beach area that is roped off for swimming. The deepest they can go is just above my waist. So it's not great if you really want to swim, but great for playing in the water and playing in the sand (gravel). We got there early and met a few other moms and kids. There was only one other small group that came during the entire 3 hours that we were there. We will definitely be going back more next summer!I was surprised at how clean the water was too. Sometimes lakes can be pretty nasty, but it was just murky wherever you were kicking up the dirt underneath.

There was a small playground, bathrooms, a shower area, covered ramadas and this cool climbing thing right next to the beach too. I parked Landon under a small ramada on the beach that had a picnic table. He did pretty good considering he was in his stroller for quite a while.

Landon enjoyed the water for about 15 minutes. Then he was done.

Savannah is in the pink goggles.

Thanks for joining us friends!

Odessa - August 2011

Now that my brother Steven & his wife Sarah live in Texas we get to see them a little more often. The kids and I left Sunday around 11:00am and got there in time for dinner. It's a 6-hour drive. Max was so excited to see "Su-nana." He and Savannah are good buddies. The boys love Max but don't love playing with toddler toys so much. So they spent a lot of time on the Playstation.

On Monday we went to a fun jumping place. We were the ONLY people there and the kids loved having the entire place to themselves. They played a great game of hide and seek. We had so much fun that we went back on Wednesday also, after we found out that the pools had just closed for the season.

Landon loved climbing on and trying to walk all over the inflatable stuff. He did fine as long as he was alone.

Connor enjoyed watching kid shows with Max & Sarah.

For cub scouts Zach needed to do some outdoor cooking. We don't have a grill so Uncle Steven let him help make some dinner. This picture is the closest Zach actually got to the grill though. It exploded a little bit at the beginning from some grease and he was too scared to go near it when open. Thanks for letting him help Steven!

Odessa also has water restrictions because of the drought. Twice a week when they can turn on the water outside Steven fills up available container for Max to play in during the week. The kids LOVED having a huge water fight after dinner one night.

Sarah is pregnant and due in January. She enjoyed snuggling with Landon. Race track crowns.

On Tuesday we went to a sprinkler park. This is an oil town so they had this huge oil rig thing. Every 4 or 5 minutes a loud fog horn would go off and then it would dump this enormous bucket onto a waterfall. The older kids all thought that was the best thing ever. In this picture Jacob is running towards it and is almost under the water.

You can find all four kids in this picture, waiting for the splash to come.

One of Landon's new favorite activities...unloading the dishwasher while you're trying to put the dishes in.

As we were leaving on Thursday we stopped by Steven's patrol area to say good-bye. We followed his cop car for a few miles before we got to the Interstate.

Thanks for letting us visit Steven & Sarah!

Walkin' Man

Day 15 & 16 - Home at last

Saturday, July 16 we drove from Phoenix to Fort Stockton (10 hours). Sunday we drove home, another 6 hours. It was nice to get home in the afternoon and have time to unpack before bed. When we were unpacking we found the kids' souvenirs. We stopped on the reservation just south of Page, AZ and let them each pick something. Connor chose a dream catcher and Savannah got a bracelet and necklace set. (You will notice that Savannah had already changed into some dress up things. She missed that terribly on our trip.) The boys each chose an arrow with a cool arrowhead attached. Dallin and I got an intricate ornament for our Christmas tree.According to the kids this was the "best vacation ever!!!"
But we're very happy to be home and not living out of the car and suitcases anymore.

Day 14 - LeSueurs' house

Friday we spent our last day with family. We said good-bye to Justin & Ana Paula.

Landon absolutely LOVES Ana Paula and would go to her over me sometimes. She can always make him smile. When they left it was almost like he knew she was leaving for good and he started crying and crawling after her. Thanks for loving him Ana Paula! He sure loves you!

Connor doing "airplane" with Grandma

Mommy & Savannah having some fun

In the afternoon I was doing laundry and packing, but we were able to squeeze in a visit with my Aunt Marilee and her daughter Shae. Shae patiently read a book with Connor and asked him questions. He loved the attention.

Zach showed Marilee his state quarter collection.

Grandpa got Connor a new child's atlas and he is learning lots of new countries.

I don't know how this started, but it was worth taking a picture of!

Savannah loved having a girl at the LeSueurs' to play with. She and Shae did legos and marbles together.

That night Grandma did "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" (couch) with Landon and that is now his new favorite song.

He also mooched some ice cream off of Grandpa. That kid has quite the sweet tooth.

We miss you already!