Few Updates...

PROOF REQUIRED

Last Saturday (the 19th) we decided to let the girls in on our BIG news. We knew it wouldn’t be long before they noticed my bulging belly and I wanted them to understand why I’ve been so tired and sick lately. So we put Jason’s little monkey shirt on and let him walk around the house. We were surprised that Abigail didn’t catch on right away. She noticed the new shirt immediately (Jason’s favorite show is Curious George so it was very perfect for him). However, it took quite a bit of logical rational to convince Abigail that it was in fact JASON that was going to be a big brother. We even had to pull out the ultrasound pictures to prove that there really was a baby in Mom’s tummy. As if that wasn’t proof enough we had to point out the date on the ultrasound pictures (she was sure they were old pictures of Jason). She then needed to know exactly when I was able to go to the doctor without her knowing about it. Who’s kid is this? :)

Once reality sunk in the girls were very excited. Both soon stating that they would like the baby to be a girl. Abigail’s reasoning was that boys are too crazy (they don’t seem to realize that Jason tackles them because they ask him to and that his energy primarily stems from their reaction to it). Abigail is warming up to the idea of having another little brother, but Carly isn’t budging, she even refers to the baby as “she”. Without a doubt they will both be wonderful big sisters, regardless of the baby’s gender. As for Jason, he is completely clueless – all he knows is that he has a cool new shirt.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL... AGAIN

Last week we got a letter from the principal informing us that the district had decided to form a second/third grade combination class and move a teacher to another school. I guess having only 22 kids in Abigail’s class was too good to be true. Of course eliminating an entire class causes changes in all nine classrooms. I had a pretty good feeling that Abigail would be selected to be placed in the 2/3 split and received the phone call from the principal last Wednesday. Although we were very happy with Abigail’s second grade teacher she had such a great experience in a split class last year that we are excited for the change. Abigail’s new class will be taught by two third grade teachers who team teach (one comes at the beginning of the week, the other teaches the end of the week). This is our first experience with team teachers, so it will be interesting to see how it all works out. Today was her first day in her new class. She knows several kids in both grades and is excited about the possibility of working at a higher level. She commented that even though she was split class last year they still didn’t do multiplication or division… I’m afraid she’ll still have to wait a few years to delve into that.

HAVE A SEAT

This afternoon Jason and I spent some time working out in the yard. He’s great company and kept me entertained with the funny things he does.

The new little chair he discovered

In April...

Time with "Pa-Pa"

Back in May I asked my Mom if she’d come up if I bought us tickets to see Wicked. She gladly accepted my offer. Wicked also toured in Utah earlier this year, but sold out within minutes so it was crazy impossible to get tickets there. Justin and I saw Wicked last December in NYC and LOVED it so I was more than happy to go again. And of course it was awesome the second time around as well.

My Mom left today after spending a little over a week with us. While I can’t speak for her, we (as in my family) had a great time and were sad to see her go. She was such a HUGE help with the kids and was always cleaning up things before I even thought about getting around to it. I was telling Justin last night that he’s going to have to get back into the habit of coming home from work and doing dishes, etc…we’ve both been a little spoiled.

With Abigail being in school all day, getting Carly to school every afternoon, Jason’s playgroups and speech therapy 3 days a week, soccer practices 3 nights a week, soccer games on Saturday, and just life in general we kept busy.

My Mom and I managed to eat out few times (Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Changs – two of my favorites) and went to the Seattle Temple. One evening we HAD to go to Coulon Beach to eat at Ivar’s. Anytime we have company this is one of the first places Justin thinks of taking them (although, nobody ever seems to appreciate Ivar’s quite like Justin does). It was a beautiful evening though and the kids always have fun playing at the playground.

Look at my strong boy!

Jason fondly referred to Grandma as “Pa-Pa” even though he is capable of using other words that more closely resemble “Grandma” - he was dead set on “Pa-Pa”.

I can’t count how many times Carly talked about going back to Utah with Grandma – we sure wish we could see her more often, but we are glad to know she’ll be back in February for Abigail’s baptism.

Day at the Fair

Did you know that the Puyallup Fair is the eighth largest fair in the WORLD? And I’ve heard that it’s also the largest fair west of the Mississippi. It’s a BIG deal here and because we are only 15 minutes away it has become an annual tradition for our family.

On opening day, between 10am-Noon anyone can get in FREE. That’s a quite a deal considering regular priced tickets are $11 for adults and $8 for kids. However, because opening day is always on a Friday, during Justin’s busy season at work, and while the kids are in school we’ve never taken advantage of FREE day. However, with my Mom in town we decided it was a good day for us to go. Of course everyone else had the same plan so instead of the normal 15 minutes to get there it took over an hour.

We had a great time. Jason enjoyed seeing all the animals. He insisted on looking at every horse in the horse barn. One of the owners even let Jason get up close to their horse and pet it. Once in the petting farm, Jason didn’t want to leave. He petted the goats, chickens, and baby rabbits.

Jason was quite fascinated with the baby chicks.

With a little help from Grandma, Jason quickly got the hang of milking a cow.

Justin came down with the girls after school.

The girls got their faces painted.

They too wanted a chance to milk a cow.

We went to a little circus show where my Mom was pulled out of the audience and asked to perform. She’s such a great sport and we were grateful we had the video camera to capture it on film.

Of course we also ate lots of yummy fair food.

Another great year at the fair.

Time for School

For weeks I’ve been dreading the start of school. Summer seemed to fly by too quickly and I felt like we didn’t do as many fun things as I would have hoped. But from the energy level the kids had earlier this week I was quickly warming up to the idea of getting back into a routine.

On Tuesday night the kids were running around the house with their faces pressed together saying “cheese”… of course that’s just screaming for a picture.

Abigail started second grade on Wednesday.

Here she is ready to walk to school with her walking buddies – Carly gets to join them on the walk home from school.

Carly’s first day of kindergarten was on Thursday.



She gets to ride the bus to school which is really exciting. The other parents at our bus stop were very emotional. I was doing quite well until I saw Jason’s little face as he waved goodbye to his big sister, then I’ll admit I did get choked up a bit.

At Carly’s request we met the bus at school to make sure Carly knew where to go once she got off the bus. With all those kids lined up against the wall I couldn’t imagine how overwhelming it would be to teach that many five year olds. Thankfully, Carly has the same teacher Abigail had in kindergarten and since I helped in the classroom on a regular basis her teacher already knows our family.


There she is #20 of too many (I heard there were 30 kids on the class list!)

There goes my baby girl!


The first thing she said to me after school was that she thinks she was the quietest one in class. At first I laughed, but after I thought about it I asked her if she would talk to her teacher if her teacher asked her a question… she told me she would.

This & That

RISE and SHOUT!

First I must give a shout out to our alma mater – the BYU Cougars for an exciting game yesterday. They beat out the #3 ranked team, Oklahoma 14-13 at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. I think this is the first game I’ve watched in it’s entirety since we attended the unforgettable game against University of Washington last September. Now that I’m finally understanding football I think I will be watching more games this season.


Chip Chop

We’ve all gotten our hair cut this past week. Abigail wanted her hair long this summer, but she was more than ready for me to cut it off for the start of school.

Carly was also overdo for some reshaping.

End of the summer party

Our ward organized a playgroup every week this summer. Unfortunately, I think we were only able to attend one activity way back in June. The kids were excited to be able to go to the last activity this week. There were lots of games to play and yummy treats for all.

In this game each of the kids had a partner that they had to race to get into a requested position. This is the “bunk bed” position. Abigail is in the middle (bottom bunk) and Carly is on the right (top bunk).


Both of the girls were one of the last teams left. When it was down to the final two teams it was a photo finish, Abigail couldn’t hoist her teammate up on her back quick enough for “monkey in a tree.”

To get ready for another game the kids had to line up according to age. I thought it was funny how tall Abigail looks against her peers.

One more fun picture of Abigail as she races to keep the tennis ball balanced between her feet while jumping down the course.

I can’t believe summer is already over and the kids will be starting school this week!