Three already

Three years ago I gave birth to Nathan. He was my fifth baby and first son. We were so anxious to get him here. I don't have any pictures of me with him on the day he was born because I was so sick. I get really bad nausea from the spinal medicine, in fact I don't think I even held Nathan the first day. But here I am on the second day feeling much better and smiling because I brought this cute baby into the world.
This picture was taken when I came home from the hospital with him. All the girls wanted to have a turn holding him.And here is the cute little guy on day 4 of life.

Fast forward one year to his first birthday. He got a vacuum cleaner which he just loved to push.Here he is on his second birthday was the cool big rig cake his dad made for him. He sure was happy about the cake.And here he is on his third birthday with all of his super heroes.And with his super hero brownies after returning for church. Happy third birthday little guy, we love you.Today I am thankful that:

*my new bed is feeling softer, it was too firm when it first arrived.

*Our new outdoor house lights and house numbers look so good. We recently got our house painted and we chose to replace the old lights and numbers.

*BYU won their football game tonight.

A new family picture

Right before we moved to Washington (5 years ago) we had a family picture taken. When we moved into our house we hung the photo above the mantel. Up until 2 weeks ago it was still hanging there. Melissa (the baby in the photo) is now five and in kindergarten and our little Nathan isn't even in the photo.When we went to Leavenworth is August we got a nice photo taken by a lady at the park who was there with her family. I was so happy that we were all smiling and looking forward. I sent the photo to Costco.com and for only $2.99 I had a new family photo for our frame. It looks a little fuzzy in this frame photo but it really looks like the one below it.But then a sweet of mine told me should be happy to take our picture with her nice camera if I wanted to get another family photo taken. We dressed in casual clothes but with no flip flops, character shirts, hats, or pony tails like we had in Leavenworth. These are the results.

Cutie Nathan!Silly MelissaSweet Megan Here we are all making funny faces. I guess Melissa's nice face is her funny face.And a cute photo of all of us. I think I have a new photo for my frame. Today I am thankful for

*a caring husband who wants me to sleep well.
*my calling in YW. I got to go roller skating last night with them and I love roller skating.
*America's Got Talent. We have enjoyed watching it as a family this summer.

Here's a closer up photo of our family.

First Day of School

This was a big year for Melissa because she started kindergarten. She attends the morning half day class. A neighbor and a friend from church are in her class.Melissa also just learned to ride her bike with no training wheels. She now asks to go outside and ride her bike everyday. The bike she likes riding most is a little 12 inch wheel bike. Emily is in 6th grade at her school. It's always fun to be the oldest in your school and get backseat priviledges on the bus.Megan is our second grader.Here is Emily and her good friend waiting for the bus.And this is Megan and her friend at the bus stop. We have about 40 kids that get on the bus at our stop. They consolidated stops last year to save on bus gas consumption. Many of the kids have to walk 1/4 mile to the stop, but lucky for us it is just at the end of our street.I forgot to take Holly's photo on the first day becasue she leaves at 7am and I wasn't quite woken up. But here it is on the 3rd day. I forgot on the second day too.
I have enjoyed having a quieter house during school hours. But I miss sleeping in and the long days of summer. Now I'm always looking at my watch making sure I don't miss the kindergarten bus, Holly coming home from school and the elementary kids coming home.

Our last project of the summer

We had a DI swap at our church where the ladies in my ward brought things they didn't need anymore to swap. The things that were not taken were then donated to DI. I picked up this fun collectors shelf. I thought Emily might like it to display small toys in.We bought some white spray paint and gave the shelf a good helping of paint.Then Emily filled it with some of her favorite pet shop toys. She has been collecting pet shop for the past 6 years!Then I carefully measured and hung the shelf to the wall.Here it is from a distance. I am very pleased with the result and so is Emily.Today I am thankful for:
*a nice chat on the phone with my sister in law Laura. It isn't even long distance to call her. Hurray!
*my four school aged kids are enjoying school and have friends to sit with at lunch.
*a mom who went bedding shopping with me yesterday. I hate making decisions so it was fun to take her shopping with me.

The last few days of summer

For the last two weeks of summer my elementary school aged kids checked the mail everyday for their teacher letters. Finally on Tuesday, August 30th a friend called at noon and said her letter had arrived. From that point on my girls and two of their friends hung out outside waiting for the mailman. They danced on the corner, rode bikes in the cul-da-sac, and opened up the mailbox about 10 times just to check.

Finally at 4pm the mailtruck arrived. They had to wait about 10 minutes as he put the mail in all the neighborhood mailboxes. Probubly the longest 10 minutes of their life.They quickly opened up the letters revealing their teachers for this coming year. There were some tears but mostly excitement. Emily then came inside with her friend and called everyone they new to see who would be in their class this year.

Luckily the next day was much calmer. We just played outside with the kids in our cul-da-sac. This is one of their very favorite things to do. They play a bear game, hide the hockey puck, hide and go seek, and just ride scooters and bikes.They all enjoyed taking a break to eat Otter Pops. We've gone throught several hundred this summer.Today I am thankful that:

*It is sunny for our ward Labor Day picnic at the park. We have had the pinic in the rain in past years.

*Our fruit kabobs for the picnic turned out so colorful and fun.

*Scott and I have been doing some mattress shopping and we are so glad we've been able to leave all the kids at home. The last time we mattress shopped we had several small children with us that wanted to jump on the mattresses, hide behind them, and complain about being at a mattress store.

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