September 2011

September was our month of going to Cross Country meets. Ashley decided to join cross country and really liked it. She was awesome. Always coming in the top 20ish or higher. Her Papa was so estactic that she was doing it as he did cross country and track in his younger years and always had advice for her before each meet on how to get better. We were so proud of her and of how well she did. We can't wait for next year to watch her excell again.

August 2011

So we had the first day of school. The kids were so excited to get back to school. Tanis started 7th grade, Ashley is in 4th, and Wyatt is in his 2nd full year of preschool. Mommy was so happy too to have them back to a schedule. Elora couldn't be left out of having her picture taken though so she posed by the door for us.

Our other big thing this month was our Ashley turned 10. She was so excited to open her presents. We had her party a day early because mommy would be at school on her actual birthday. She got some pretty awesome stuff. She was very excited about getting her boombox. And then came the gift that us adults had been dieing to see her reaction from. Her Aunt Kelsie and Uncle Branden bought Taylor Swift concert tickets for her to go to in October with Aunt Kelsie. They had boxes inside of boxes and then finally she got to the last one and saw these 2 papers and had no clue what they were. She was very confused until we explained it and then she was screaming and hugging her aunt. We then had cake and ice cream. I couldn't leave the last picture out of Elora eating ice cream out of the bowel like she did that night it was so hilarious to us.

July 2011

Ashley with her sparkler

Wyatt with his sparkler



Tanis with his sparkler

This is the amazing desert my sister Christina made. It only took a butcher knife sawing through it and a spatula to be able to taste how yummy it was.

My Tanis turned 12 on the 30th. I just can't believe he is this old. These are only some of the presents he got. Funny boy after opening them all said,"That's it." We told him it was more than any of us ever got. That's just his personality coming out now.

Both sets of grandparents got him a set of very nice new scriptures and had his name imprinted on them. This was a special birthday for him

His big gift from us was Hagrid's Hut Lego set. He was pretty happy about this gift.

I had to add this picture in. Funniest thing was as Linda my mother in law and I were wrapping Tanis's gifts Wyatt insisted that he needed to have this Batman book wrapped for Tanis. It is a book we have had for a very long time. But Wyatt would not here of anything else but wrapping it and giving it to Tanis. So we did and Tanis was like what? We all had a pretty good laugh over this one.

Tanis told us that he want a Harry Potter Red Sox cake. My sister Kelsie has a friend who makes cakes so we asked her to do it and this is what she came up with. It was really cute. Harry is even wearing a Red Sox baseball cap.

Blowing his candles out

Here is a close up of the ball cap

Tanis on Sunday after being ordained a Deacon

Tanis and Derek

Tanis, Wyatt, Ashley, and Elora my beautiful children

Derek, Tanis, Kent (Derek's dad), Bill (my dad)

Elora, Derek, Wyatt, Tanis, Ashley, and Me

Kent, Linda, Branden, Kelsie, Elora, Derek, Me, Chrissy, Virgina,Bill, Tanis, Wyatt, and Ashley

The whole clan that came for Tanis's priesthood ordination. It was a special day. When the Bishop had Tanis come to the stand to be sustained he didn't raise his hand. So the Bishop tried to get him to raise his hand and of course my son had to have an entire analytical conversation with the Bishop about it in front of the whole congreation. Mind you we were having a missionary farewell that day so the chapel was jam packed. I was totally embarressed but what should I expect from this boy of mind. I am so proud of him though for making this choice and following our Heavenly Father's plan.

June 2011

The first thing in June we have is actually Derek's birthday but we didn't take pictures that day. In our family we now have 5 birthdays in a week at the beginning of June. Elora's was the 5th and on a Sunday. We have 1pm church so by the time we got around to presents and cake she was asleep because there is usually no nap on Sunday. So we took everything home and did it the next day before I went to school. She was hesitant at first about opening her presents but then got excited when she saw what was in them. The blowing out the candles on the other hand she bawled through. Can't believe she is 2 already and growing so much. Not my little baby anymore.

My sister started being a Nanny for another family and made an awesome schedule for the summer. Tuesday was swim day, Wednesday was movie day, Thursday at first was library day but changed to Friday, and Friday at first was field trip day and then it changed to Thursday. I decided that it would be very good for me to do these things with her as I needed to spend as much time as I could with the kids with me being in school. So the first field trip was to the Sea Life Aquarium. The kids had lots of fun. In the end it cost way to much for the little amount of time it took us to go through it. But as the summer went on the field trips we did end up doing were some of the best. Like the next one.

Here is our next field trip. It was to Cerreta's Candy. It was free and the kids got to try what they were making that day. It was a marshmellow dipped in white chocolate and covered in sprinkles. They also got to pick one other piece of chocolate out of the bin. The tour guide was the best and told lots of great jokes. We loved Cerreta's. School is going great still and I can't believe that in 1 year I will be done. It is going really fast in some ways. Sorry for the pictures being so spread out I have no clue what is going on with Blogger right now.