Labor Day Weekend! Lydia Starts Preschool!!!

We had a fun holiday weekend. We made plans to go to Raging Waters on Friday but what do you know? They were closed on Friday since school had started already! Darn it! So we met up with our friends at Gateway to play in the fountains. The only problem: They did not want to get wet. Weird! They basically just sunbathed and did their own thing!
I love this pic and how Lydia has her arms wrapped around both of her friends. So stinkin' cute!
Saturday night we went to one of the "parties of the year"...Mathias' one year b-day party! I can't believe how that place was set up. It was incredible. Happy Birthday Bud!!!
Here is the cute Newell family with their little birthday boy!

It was a circus themed party so they had a photo booth to dress up and take pictures in! Jake was late so it's just the kids and I. Love the little hat on Nate!
On Monday we had our friends over for the healthiest bbq ever! So yummy! Grilled steaks, corn, asparagus, salad, port. mushrooms and watermelon! We were very proud of ourselves for eating so healthy on a holiday :) Thanks for coming over and keeping our tradition alive :)

And the biggest news of the week: my little, baby girl started preschool today!!!! I can't believe I have a kid that's old enough to leave me for four hours a week to be taught by a teacher. We love Miss Mary already! My friend Heather's kids went to "Bright Beginnings" and I've heard nothing but good things about her so I'm so glad she got in!

I finally get to have my child's photo taken in the classic "First Day of School" picture!!! Of course it was SUPER windy and her hair was all over the place so she had to hold it down...

Otherwise it looked like this.

For some reason I love this picture. Don't ask me why! We had only been outside for like one minute taking pictures before she refused to smile anymore by covering her mouth! Little Stinker!

Here's my girl walking to the car with her hugely over sized back pack (she adores it by the way and thinks she is so big for having one)!

Jake and I dropped her off at school and she was a bit hesitant at first but she didn't cry. She grabbed Miss Mary's hand and walked away so easily. I actually got a tear in my left eye! I'm gonna go ahead and blame my eye watering on the fact that my tear ducts don't drain! I can do that right?!! :)

She said this was her "muffin hat" and that she got to eat a muffin. She also got to play with her friends Brock and Jordan (neighbor friends). Lydia was so excited to bring her Bunny to school on the first day for show and tell! Her bunny has been her favorite animal since she was 6 months old so she's pretty attached. It was the perfect first day of school for Lydia! We're so excited for this school year!

Lydia's First Sleepover!

Lydia has had sleepovers at her g-pa Johnsen's house and her cousin's house but has never had anyone over to her house for a sleepover. Last week Lydia came up to me and asked if she could have her cousin Lizzy over and I thought sure why not? They both start preschool next week (oh, my I can't believe she's already going to school!!) so last night was the night for Lydia's very first sleep over!
They had so much fun together! They played SingStar. I have a hilarious video of them singing Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". There's nothing better than seeing your little girl sing an 80's song in which she has no idea what she's talking about. She knows all the lyrics and I think she likes it so much because it's about dancing and what does my daughter love more than anything? Dancing!!!

We made bracelets and necklaces.
I told them both to show off their bracelets and they both posed the same way...so cute!

They went outside and ran through the sprinklers and played in the pool together! They seriously laughed the whole time and loved every minute they spent together. They usually fight all the time since they're more like sisters than cousins but they actually didn't fight once and only had a couple little fits over sharing toys...no biggie, they're 4 years old...they're still learning!

Then they wanted to get on the tramp and show me the stuff that Miss Mo has taught them in dance class. Here are their toe touches. We've gotta work on touching those toes!

Back bends! They talked about Miss Mo a lot throughout the day! Lydia was proud to say that she lived just around the corner from her. They love their Miss Mo!

Then they spend a couple hours out front riding bikes. Before bed they watch a princess movie and ate popcorn!

First sleepover at our house: SUCCESS! Until they woke up at 5AM the next morning. Don't ask me why they did that! So I put on a movie and went back to bed! There was no way I was getting up that early and they refused to go back to bed so I let the t.v. entertain them for a while! Crazy Girls! They SOOO love each other! What would we do without our Lizzy Girl?!! Thanks for coming over Lizzy!

End of Summer Fun!

First and Last Camping Trip of the Summer

We've been trying to figure out a weekend to go camping all summer but with the busy summer schedule and little Nate being born, we never made it up into the mountains until last weekend! My BIL Bird's family has mountain property so we went up with them and enjoyed the views and fresh air for a night!

Besides that enjoyment and hanging out with some of our best beds, those were the only good thing about this trip. We knew there was a chance of rain but since this was the only weekend to go, we took the chance. And what do you know, the weather peeps were actually right this time and it rained off and on our whole trip.
Here are most of the kids hiding from the rain while we set up camp!
We got there an hour later than planned so we were fighting the daylight to set up fire, tents and dinner before it got dark. Then it started raining of course so we scrambled to get things done.
By the time dinner was done, it was dark, cold and wet so the kids all wanted to go to bed.
Poor Larry hates the rain, thunder and lightning and he was forced to endure all three. Our dog is a wuss; we love him anyway! Sorry Bud!

Even though the weather sucked, I refused to miss out on my favorite part of camping; sitting down an relaxing around the campfire!

Here's Lyd's making her very first s'more (we've always made it for her in the past)!

I love chatting. laughing and playing games around the fire and just as Ducka and I started a conversation, the rain started hard again so we called it quits and went to bed.

We woke up the next morning to storm clouds rolling in so once again we scrambled to eat breakfast and take down camp. I had to get a picture of Nate on his very first camping experience bundled up warm in the car.

We planned to go for a hike and enjoy nature and just hang out and talk and relax but the weather just wouldn't allow us to do this! So like I said, the camping trip was kind of a bust except for the 2 saving graces...seeing the gorgeous views of their property and having this experience with some of our favorite people. Well, at least this is a trip I'll never forget! Thanks Clarks for having us!

First Annual

Barb-Ute-Que

Jake thought it would be fun to have one last BBQ of the summer and what better way to celebrate than to dedicate the last one to the start of the

2010 Utah Utes Football Season!

Jake sent out an email to some of the biggest Ute fans in the neighborhood inviting them to our party to celebrate this occasion and to come dressed in Ute gear! We had the Utah band music playing, the flag waving, Ute decor and we even made Drum and Feather sugar cookies (the best sugar cookies ever! Jake, you outdid yourself with those this time, so yummy)!

Lydia was so excited for her friends to come over. Here she is dancing (of course) waiting for the party to start!

I love our sign! It's so true! My sweet friend Lynette gave it to us a few years ago and we bust it out every year because yes, all family activities, vacations, etc. come to a halt from September to January due to football season :)

Our cute, little family dressed up in our Ute gear! Larry has a Ute shirt as well but he's a spaz around a lot of people so he wasn't invited to the party!

We grilled burgers and dogs, played volleyball, watched the kids play and of course socialized!

Future cheerleaders Kylie, Tillie, McKenlie and Madelyn!

Heather with Dyson and Jordan!

Lydia and cute, little Iza

Watts Family

I just love my little Lyd's. I have realized that she plays so well with boys because she can hang with the best of them. If you notice in the below pic, Lyd's took a swing at Brock as he blocked it. The went back and forth punching and pushing each other for most of the evening and they loved it and were laughing so hard. Should I be worried? I'm constantly telling her to keep her hands to herself before dance, primary, etc. but when they both love it, what can I do? LOL!

Ellie and Brielle

At the end of the pary Jake played the Fight Song whilst waving the flag in the air (I know, he's crazy obsessed)! Then we noticed Tille had her hand on her heart to show respect (she's been taught well; should've gotten a pic of that)!!!

P.S. Jake's pants are wet due to our cougar fan neighbor running in our backyard screaming "Rise and Shout" as he threw water balloons on Jake! Crazy Cougs trying to put a damper on our party!!

The girls' loved dancing to the music! So precious!

It really was a fun night and I'm so glad we did it! Now my life has come to an end for a while, as I will be husband less for the next few months! Thanks everyone that came, brought food and hung with the Johnsen's. You all are awesome! We had a great time!

GO UTES!!!

Happy Birthday Larry...Working Out!!!

My little boy turned 5 today! It seems like only yesterday that we adopted him from his birth parents, Otis and Betty!

We thought we'd let Larry do all of his favorite things today so he did a little of this...

And this! This boy sleeps (lays around) about 15 hours a day; it's rediculous!

The evening got a bit more exciting at least. He ate some chicken for dinner then opened his presents!

He was all ears when we asked him if he wanted to take a trip to Petco for treats!

He LOVES car rides!

We got to Petco, he sniffed around, picked out some treats, then we headed home and went for a long walk as a family to celebrate!

We love you Lar! You're a good boy; a crazy one, but a good one! We're so glad we chose you out of that kiddie pool filled with a bunch of your Boston brothers and sisters!

Happy Birthday Bud!!

I've been so happy to finally start working out again after having Nate! I've been running and biking but thought I'd add in some dvd workouts as well. I didn't realize how much Lydia would love it and get into it with me! She kept up pretty well, stayed on beat and everything! Love that girl!!!

It was so cute...when I was putting her to bed that night she looked at me and said, "Mom, my bum hurts really bad from dancing around on your video"! She wasn't used to doing squats and stuff and she was already sore, poor thing! But we had lots of fun together nonetheless! I love our one-on-one time together!

Date Night With Friends!

Wow, where do I even begin with this post? We had so much fun last night it was ridiculous! We hadn't laughed that hard in a really long time. We thought it would be fun to do a date night with some friends but we usually do the same old thing, dinner and a movie so last night we turned into a bunch of 14 year old kids and had such a good time together at Lagoon. We love our friends and between the three couples we have 9 kids so it was nice to get out as adults/friends and spend some uninterrupted time together!

Here we are in line for our favorite ride The Samurai!!! Us with the Watts and Jones'
Before take off on some of the roller coasters

Then I got daring and starting taking tons of pictures while getting thrown around on the actual hills of the roller coasters. It was so much fun doing that. Then I realized that I was blinding people with my flash in the dark...and that made it that much funnier, so I took more! Don't be scared of my face...

or of Joey's hangy ball thingy!

Seriously so much fun. I forgot how much fun it was to be carefree and 14 again! I was laughing so hard on these rides that my voice sounded like a 70 year old smokers when I laughed!

Then Jake had the bright idea at the end of the night to go try the wet rides so we went on Rattlesnake Rapids. Heather didn't want to for fear of getting wet but we said we'd protect her, but what do you know...she got wet anyway. Sorry Heath! Boys separated from girls and went on their own raft so we could have room to move around to avoid getting wet...it worked for the most part!

Here we are before we got wet!

Then round 2 we weren't so lucky!

Boom! The two people who came out unscathed in the whole thing and hardly got wet at all...Joey and I. Then we decided to go on it a third time and we weren't so lucky then. I think my pants weighed ten pounds!

You can see the water dripping from Todd's nose! Hilarious! Maybe you had to be there, I don't know! We sure thought we were funny!

Here we are in all our wetness! No I'm not pregnant...I had a baby pooch filled with cameras, phones and watches to protect from the wetness, and I succeeded!

We had such a good time together and can't wait to make this an annual event! We just need to make sure we don't go on the two for one nights. When you do that, you average one ride per hour! Oops! At least we got to spend some good quality time talking in line!

Thanks for coming guys! We had a blast and loved our date night together!!!