The Past Month

The Pima Air and Space Museum had a activity night for kids that we took our kiddos to. Grandma and Grandpa Clayton were volunteering there so we got to see them too. They had to complete a list of activities and then they earned a prize.

We also took them to a back to school event at the mall hosted by the Tucson Police Department.

They were especially excited about the free candy cane sticks at the candy store.

August 3rd was my Grandpa Miller's 91st Birthday. We all visited him and had cupcakes.

On the 12th we were able to go to the Tucson Temple Cultural Celebration. We got to see Logan, Nate and Brianna perform. Chad was a General and led the kids on and off the field. It was such a great show the kids did an amazing job.

Sophie got to come with Chad and I to the Temple Dedication. She was so excited to come and it was fun to be able to bring her with us.

We had our first scary desert visitor a few weeks ago. We have had a ton of quail, bunnies, road runners, cardinals, great horned owls, and coyote. But this was a Rattlesnake! Yuck!

I feel like William is growing up so fast. He wants so badly to be one of the big kids that he just thinks he is one. He likes to try and dress himself and refuses to drink out of sippy cups. He his constantly pushing a chair over to the counter and climbing up to help himself. The other day he got on the counter, pulled a plate out of the cupboard and placed a large stack of cookies on it. He also thinks he is a great little helper.

Chad was installing a faucet and William would climb up and get a tool for him and climb down and hand it to him. 

Tonight he was building with his blocks and he built a train all by himself. He was so proud!

First Day of School

A couple of weeks ago the girls got to meet their new teachers at their new school. Lydia is now a first grader and Sophie is in third grade.

They were pretty nervous about going to a new school this year but their teachers are so sweet they were all smiles after meet the teacher night.

Last Monday was their first day of school! 

They had a great first day and they love that they get to go to school with our neighbor who is the same age as Lydia.

Summer Activities

We had a nest of baby Desert Finch on our front door this spring/summer. It was fun to see the little birds grow up.

Out of the 3 babies 2 survived. We are not sure what happened to the other. But it was fun since all of us got to see them take their first flight! We walked out our front door and they flew past all of us to their mom and dad in the yard.

We have been enjoying going to library story time with Aunt Sarah, Jackson and Gavin. 

After we head across the street and visit with Grumpa Miller. The kids enjoyed playing cards with him and he even gave Lydia a hard time since she won the game. He claimed she was cheating haha. 

For a couple of weeks in the summer Aunt Kimberly and Aunt Aimee came to visit and the kids were so excited to play with their cousins! We went to the International Wildlife Museum.

 

They had fun sleepovers and the boys enjoyed hanging out together.

No baby was harmed in the making of this photo no worries,

And William thought pedicure night was so much fun he just had to help Aunt Kim.

We were also able to volunteer at the Tucson Temple open house and we took all of the kids on a tour as well. 

Lydia lost her first tooth! She was so nervous about someone pulling it out but ended up pulling it out all by herself! She lost her second one a couple of weeks later when Sophie accidently hit her with a toy.

Sarah and I did summer movie passes so we got to take the kids to the theater every week. The kids loved it but Gavin and William were a bit a of a handful. We had to wrestle them a bit.

On Fourth of July we went to Grandma and Grandpa Miller's for yummy food, homemade ice cream, and swimming!

And for the last night of summer break we went to Golf and Stuff with Grandma Clayton.

We had such a fun summer!

 

10 Year Re-Moon

On June 30th it will be Chad and my 10 year anniversary. Chads parents were awesome and took all four of our kiddos for a week so we can go on a re-moon! We took our teardrop trailer and headed to Flagstaff Az. The weather was beautiful and it was so much fun camping and enjoying nature.

We went to Flagstaff Xtreme which is a high ropes course. We had a blast getting through all of the obstacles and ziplines.

We also checked out The Flagstaff Aquaplex and some nice locals taught us how to play pickelball. We had so much fun we ended up playing for 3 hours! And they had a cool rockwall that we climbed. We found a tennis court in the middle of the gorgeous forest and worked on our boomerang skills. We walked around downtown and enjoyed the shops and enjoyed the local food.

One day we went to explore a lava tube cave that is about a mile long.

It was so nice and cool down there and it was my first cave i have gotten to explore.

Another day we went to Walnut canyon.

We got to explore ancient cliff dwellings.

It was amazing how a whole community lived so high in the cliffs and raised their families.

On the last day we checked out the Lowell Observatory where Pluto was discovered. 

We learned about the sun and got to look at it through a telescope. We also went back in the evening so we could look at the stars. They showed us a binary star through the telescope and learned that most stars are binary and no planets can survive around binary stars which is fascinating. We also got to look at the moon on the same telescope the Neil Armstrong used before he went to the moon. 

Our favorite part was getting to see Jupiter. You could see the swirls on Jupiter and it's four moons.

We had so much fun on our re-moon and I am so excited for the rest of eternity with this awesome guy!

 

Lydia Graduates Kindergarten

Last month Lydia graduated from Kindergarten. She did so well at school and loved playing with friends, having hot lunch, and learning to read.

They sang some really cute songs about how much they love all the different family members that help them like aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, moms and dads.

Her teacher Mrs. Halvorson handed out their little diplomas and now she is on to first grade!

She has grown so much this last year we are proud of our Lydia Bugs!