End of Summer Fun

Sophie started school on July 20th. She was beyond excited to finally start and talked about school ALL summer long. She was especially thrilled to have the same teacher Mrs. Malm who is amazing!

She had a great first day and practically jumped out of the car to go to class. I was worried about how she would do adjusting to all day school, but she has done really well. The hardest part is getting her up at 6am when this little sleeping beauty likes to sleep til 9 or 10. And homework time...yikes, but that's getting better.

Cousins were still in town so after school we headed to the Tucson Historical Museum which ended up being way more fun than expected! They had a whole upstairs area where kids could touch and play with everything. The kids could have played there all day.

 When we finally got them to walk through the rest of the museum we found an excavation site which the boys were all over.

It was sad to say goodbye to the cousins and Kimberly. Easton still talks about Landon and Parker and how he wants to play with them and catch lizards with them.

Since we haven't gotten a chance this summer to go camping as a family we headed up the mountain after Sophie got out of school on Friday. The kids were so excited and had so much fun exploring around the campsite and climbing rocks.

Chad and I had fun cooking over a fire. We heated up a pan of oil over the fire and cooked french fries which the kids thought were cool. We even had some dutch oven dessert. The kids loved sleeping in the tent and did great all night. The next morning we went for a short hike on the butterfly trail.

We found a cool spot to take a picture overlooking the mountain. I asked the kids to stop so we could take a picture. The girls happily came. Easton on the other hand thought we were dawdling and kept telling us to come on and go! He was ready to hike.

He did finally appease me and quickly jumped in the picture and said cheese just in time for me to click the button before he walked away.

The girls like to stop and write in their journals on what plants and animals they see as we hike.

After the hike we had a picnic lunch and enjoyed climbing on rocks. I think it is our children's favorite camping activity.

We headed down the mountain and got ready to go to the Pima Air and Space Museum. It is sad that we have lived right next to this place for 7 years and have never gone. It turned out to be very cool and the kids loved all the activities that were there.

They made some really fun crafts and had a scavenger hunt and to top it all off got to see Grandma and Grandpa Clayton volunteering there,

Today is Lydia's first day of preschool! It is crazy to think my kids are getting this old. I keep thinking of her as this little girl but she is so smart and can do pretty much anything Sophie does. She is so excited to get to do Joyschool with her friend Addyson!

When I first asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up she wanted to be a doctor. then she changed her mind and said a dentist. And then finally after about an hour she looked at me and said "you know what I really want to be mom? I want to be a mom." She is such a sweetheart and takes such good care of her little brother I am sure she is going to make one awesome mom someday.

Fun with Cousins

We have been able to spend a lot of time with cousins! The kids have loved spending time with Aliya, Landon, Parker, and Zurie.

Easton is going to be so sad when they go home. Everyday he asks to play with "Landon and Parkers."

They have really had a lot of fun together playing in the dirt, chasing lizards, and going to man stores.

The girls have also played really well together and would just go off by themselves and play dress-up and dolls forever.
We have gone bowling, miniature golfing, and the kids really liked riding in the bumper boats spraying each other.

On Fourth of July we had a BBQ and took the kids swimming. Then we came home and did our own fireworks show.....sparklers.

Then they ran around and played with glow sticks.

It has been so fun seeing the cousins bond and just love being with each other!

June 2015

June was a fun and crazy month for us. I was called to be the assistant camp director and was able to go to girls camp the second week of June!

It was so much fun to get to know the girls in our ward.

Grandma and Grandpa Clayton were so awesome and took the kiddos for the week!

Grandma helped Sophie make her very first quilt! She made it for her doll June.

They had so much fun and talked my ear off when I got home. They went to a little summer craft camp which they loved too!

The next week we all headed up to Idaho for the Clayton Family Reunion! On the way up we stopped and visited with Grandpa Buchanan.

The kids colored him pictures and we brought him his favorite candy, Worthers caramels.

Friday night was the adult dinner night. We got to eat dinner in Great Grandpa's garage with all of the Model A's. We played some really fun car games too!

The next day we brought Easton into the garage and he was so excited! He kept running all over saying "An Eleanor! Over there!!" (He calls all Model A's Eleanor).

This little boy was in heaven and it was really hard to get him out of the garage. He thought they needed some cleaning though and decided to help Great Grandpa.

The kids were excited to take a ride in the old cars!

We ended our car ride at the church and played some fun games.

It was fun to spend time with family. But it was sure hard for Easton to say goodbye to his dream garage!

On June 30th Chad and I celebrated our 8 year Anniversary! Grandma and Grandpa Miller were awesome and watched the kids for us so we could go on a date.
I am so lucky to be married to such an amazing husband and father. He makes me laugh everyday and I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity together.

Sophie's Kinder Graduation

Sophie graduated from kindergarten last night. She was so excited and nervous. All week she was reminding me what time we had to be there, what she needed to wear, what we needed to bring, and how she wanted her hair. Silly girl is such a worry wort.

Grandma and Grandpa Miller and Aunt Sarah were able to come! They sang a bunch of really cute songs. I think Sophie may our little actress. She really got into all the songs with her facial expressions.

And when she went to get her diploma she did a cute little pose. I guess they told them all to look at their family when they grabbed their diploma and we were behind her.

She did a great job and we are proud of our Miss Sophie!

Carnival Fun and Almost Camping

A few weeks ago Sophie's school had a fun carnival. Grandpa Clayton, Chad, and Easton went on the father son campout so the girls went to the carnival. Grandma Clayton came with us and they had a lot of fun little games to play. They especially loved riding the ponies.

There was also a fun clown there making animal balloons...

Sophie's teacher is such a trooper and nearly froze to death at the dump tank. But she made sure every one of her kids got to dunk her!

For Mother's Day weekend on Saturday we went almost camping. We made tin foil dinners and had yummy smores.

Easton enjoyed getting good and dirty...

The kids started to get cold and we needed to put out the fire so we let them all play in the van to keep warm. They were playing with the lights and pretending to drive and all that. When we finally got the fire out we all jumped in the van to go home when....it wouldn't start. Yep dead battery. So Chad and I jumped out and ran to the nearest hill. He climbed to the top and started making phone calls to my family to rescue us only......no one was answering! Seriously we called 6 separate phones....nothing. We really wanted to go almost camping Not real overnight camping and we had just used all of our water to put out the fire...not the best emergency preparedness. So onto Plan B.

We walked to the closest campsite to ask for help. The gentleman came out of his tent and.... hallelujah he had jumper cables! He also had a very large machete on his hip and informed us that he had loaded his shotgun when he heard us approaching because his wife and him were nervous when they heard us getting closer. Comforting haha. But he ended up being super nice and jumped our van so we could go home! I think I can speak for everyone that night that we are really glad we didn't have to sleep in the van.