August……falling into September

So, this is the third post today.  Just trying to play a little catch up.  Blogging doesn’t come easy for my because I don’t feel I am a very good or clever writer.  I guess that is really why I don’t do it very much.  I have decided, more than anything,  blogging is more a of a way for me to journal the happenings of my family.

So on to August we go.  The biggest event of August was the start of school.  The girls wanted to look extra special for the first day of school so we put curlers in and braided hair.  Courtney even wanted curlers in but they only lasted about 30 minutes before she was pulling them out.         

They went to bed early to get their beauty sleep.  Not that they need it.  I think they are pretty cute girls.  I am a little bias though.

   

They picked out some pretty cute outfits for the first day and were ready pretty early. 

Shaylee started 2nd grade and is in Mrs. Morris’ class.  Shaylee was excited to be back and Mrs. Morris is a great teacher.  Kelsi was so excited to be back to school that she ran off ahead of me and I didn’t get a picture of her with her 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Crandall (who also seems like she is going to be a great teacher).  I had to sneak a couple from outside of the door because so was already in school mode.

I think it is going to be a good year. They are growing up way too fast. 

Courtney is enjoying her time at home with me, but at times I think she misses having someone other than mom to play with.

I have been a little busy with the start of school.  I have been the Box Tops for Education coordinator for both of my girls schools for a few years now but this year they decided to make me an official part of the PTO doing Box Tops.  I have also been doing PE every other week for Kelsi’s class and about once a month for Shaylee’s class.  I don’t mind it.  It is nice to be involved with the schools and get to know the teachers and students that my kids are around so much.

As we are now into September I am excited for the cooler weather.  The stores are full of fall and Halloween decorations and the excitement of the holidays.  I love the feeling of fall in the air.  It is a wonderful time of year. 

July

I forgot to mention in the last post that my youngest sister got married at the end of June.  She is very happy and we are happy for her.  She is the last of my siblings to be married.  I am grateful for all of my brothers and sisters and that they were all able to be Married in the temple to wonderful eternal companions.

July was a fun month. First off was the 4th of July celebration. 

Our town starts the celebration early.  Cannons go off at 5:30 in the morning and the fire trucks drive around town blaring their sirens.  To some it is annoying, but not to me.  It is kind of fun.  It is also a lot cooler outside and the festivities can be enjoyed more.

By 6:00 am they have a people parade.  People ride their bikes, golf carts, wagons, etc. down the road on a specific path to the middle school football field where they have a patriotic program.  Luckily the parade route passes the corner by our house.  So we decided we would watch the parade and join in when the people on bikes past by.  Just a week or so before this the girls learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels and were so excited to decorate them and ride them in the parade. 

       

Courtney got to ride in the bike trailer with her cousin Emily.  I had the song “God Bless America”  playing.  That is one of my favorite patriotic songs.  Sad to say it was lost in all of the noise of vehicles and fire trucks.  It was a fun thought though.  Courtney heard it over and over and for weeks after she would sing it.  I loved it.   At the patriotic program Courtney and Emily got to be in the Grand old Flag march.  They let all of the kids that wanted to march out waving flags while the song “You’re a Grand Old Flag” played.  It was cute to watch them.  They were probably the youngest out there.  They got to be in it because they happened to be at the right place at the right time.

    

After the wonderful program they had a watermelon bust.  Then the fire trucks soaked anyone who wanted to be.  (Occasionally someone who didn’t intent to be.)  The kids loved it.

After the fun, we spent the rest of the day at home relaxing until we joined some friends for dinner.  Sadly Jeremy had to work and didn’t get home until late.  It was a great day other than that.

In July we also made it up to St. Johns to spend time with Jeremy’s family.  Sad to say I didn’t get any pictures.  That is something I need to get better at. 

On the way up we saw the burned out areas of the White Mountains.  It was sad to see the areas that where burnt so bad.  The fire fighters worked extra hard.  You can tell because so much of Alpine and other areas were saved.  Some areas you couldn’t even tell there had been a fire.  Others you couldn’t hardly believe how bad the damage was.

We stopped at Luna lake for a lunch picnic.  The water levels where very low from the water that was used to fight the fire.  It was beautiful there otherwise.  We even saw some little chipmunks that we shared our lunch with.  The girls really enjoyed that.

In St Johns we just relaxed and played.  We visited Jeremy’s Grandma Hunt and enjoyed seeing her.  She was in a wonderful spirit and it was a good visit. It was lots of fun to see family and spend time with Jeremy’s parents.

One more exciting thing that happened in July was that Kelsi got her ears pierced.  I have always told my girls they don’t have to get their ears pierced and that I want them to do it if and when they want to.  Kelsi and Shaylee have both wanted to, but have been very nervous about doing it and that is why it took this long for Kelsi.  Shaylee was going to do it the same day Kelsi did and even got as far as having them mark her ears, but decided she wanted to wait until she got older.  Which is perfectly fine with me.

 

July was a great month.

June

In June Shaylee turned 7.  It amazes me how fast my girls are growing up.  I love seeing them grow, but it is hard to realize that every birthday brings them one year closer to not being kids any more.

We had a water party for Shaylee to celebrate with friends.  We had water squirters and slip and slides for the kids to play with.  We also had pizza, cupcakes and ice cream.  I think it was a success.  

Happy Birthday Shaylee!

We planted a garden this year.  I was so happy with how it was growing.  We had corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon and cantaloupe.  We got a little produce from it then we started having ant problems.  In spite of our best efforts the ants started destroying everything before it had a chance to ripen.  We also had a shallow roots problem.  We ended up pulling up everything because it was dying or being destroyed by ants.          

What little we did get off we enjoyed.  Maybe next year we will have more success.  I am not giving up anytime soon though.