August Randoms

My Clairey is growing up!  She finally graduated to a little bed at the end of the summer.  She was so thrilled about it, but didn't even realize that she could get out of it until a couple of weeks later.  It was so funny the first time she wandered out of her room to find me after her nap one day - she quietly came up to me holding her tiny blankets and says "I'm awake!"  It was so cute.  I love this sweet and silly girl...

Claire also likes to get ready with mommy in the morning... she likes to experiment with makeup and deodorant :)

Emma has been really enjoying cooking and baking lately - she loves when I give her more independence in the kitchen.  Her favorite thing to make us is German pancakes - yummy!

And my Becca lost her first tooth!  What sweet smile she has :)

And we can't forget the Jake man!  He's been exploring his creative side lately... ;)

August is always very hot in Phoenix, so even after school starts, we are melting outside.  I recently discovered the joy of a frosty cone to help keep cool :)

AND milkshakes at Smashburger!

And of course swimming (and being goofy) with our friends...

My kids really love their friends Maryn, Natalie, and Preston - they make such funny pairs :)

This post truly is random... we got creative one night with a spare crib mattress...

I've been really enjoying my calling in Young Women's.  The Beehive girls in this ward are so fun - one night for mutual we went shopping at Walmart with donated money to get birthday gifts for kids in need- then we had a wrapping party at the church :)

Beehive dance party!

Emily's birthday is in August and to celebrate we had a sock hop!

I love these little girls...

Singing to the birthday girl (Ben always likes to sing very boisterously)

Between school, family, and friends, August was a busy and fun month!

First Day of School 2013

My big kids started school once again!  :)  Emma is in 3rd grade, Becca is in 1st, and Jake started his final year of preschool.  Oh, they are so grown up!!  And they all love school - makes me so happy.

We got home from our Montana trip the night before the first day of school.  But thankfully, I planned ahead and did their back to school shopping before we left for our trip.  Here's some of the goods... :)

The girls were SO excited for school - they woke up on their own around 6am and were immediately down in the kitchen making their own lunches.  This was an especially exciting process for Becca, because this would be her first time in full day school - she told me she was most excited about eating lunch at school :) 

Jake was also so happy to start back in preschool.  Here he is busy at work on the first day writing his name...

I came to see Becca during her lunchtime on the first day, just to see how things were going.  She was so happy when I found her - chatting with her friends, and eating her lunch.  She was so cute and pointed out that she had eaten all of her sandwich and her raspberries before eating her chips or cookie.  She's such a responsible, sweet lady...

And how could I forget about Claire!  She was pretty darn happy to have some time alone with mommy for once.  She loves to go on errands and help out while the older sibs are at school...

Summer Days in Utah

To break up the long 24 hour drive from Arizona to Glacier, MT and back again, we split it up both ways in Utah with my family.  Thanks mom and dad for having us for such short pit stops - just enough time to eat, sleep, and run!  :)  But we did squeeze in some fun family activities in the couple of days we were there...

We love to play games!  Becca has her serious thinking face on ;)

Love family time...

Aaron and Stefani are so fun with the kids.  They are both great about giving them lots of love and attention...

Aaron and Stef has a garden space they are using in my parents backyard.  Uncle Aaron had the kids help him pick tomatoes...

The family introduced us Hokulia shave ice!  The portions are, shall we say... generous.  This is a kids size!

We also went to the Farmer's Market in SLC...

And a Utah visit wouldn't be complete without a stop at Wheeler Farm...

Glacier - Day 2

On our second day in Glacier, we drove on the Going-to-the-Sun Road (quite the name!) - But it's an appropriate name, because I really felt like we were driving to the top of the world.  The day before the scenery was amazing, but this was even more incredible - I was stunned at the surroundings- a little piece of heaven!

There are trails to explore everywhere, so we hopped out of the car and walked around...

Once again, the lighting isn't great :(  But I love how there is water everywhere!  In the background you can hear Jake arguing that he can climb up the rocks all by himself and he won't get hurt...

Further down the road we hiked to St. Mary Falls...

The kids passed around this giant bag of Sun Chips during the entire hike....

We ate lunch at the falls...

The color of the water is so pretty!

Eating Star Crunch :)

Our last adventure for the day was exploring Logan Pass.  There is an awesome looking trail here that leads to another lake, but we knew our kids weren't going to be able to make it after all the walking they had already done that day.  I guess we'll have to go back!  We decided to just walk around the short paved loop, and looked through the visitor's center...

These squirrels were everywhere!!

Glacier was amazing!!  I'm so glad we went!!  That last evening we pushed the easy button and went out to dinner.  Back at our campground, Ben made dutch oven cherry cobbler for dessert :)  The next morning we had to pack up and drive the long way back to my parents house in Utah....

Over the course of our trip, we spent about 48 hours in the car - wo!!  We survived by letting the kids get their wiggles out when possible, ipad entertainment, and trying to woo the kids to sleep with calming music :)