Noelle finishes preschool!

More about time flying by! Noelle graduated from preschool at the end of May. She had a wonderful year with the best teacher ever! Noelle loved Miss Bonnie! Noelle was quite shy last year during preschool and sometimes had a hard time staying. At the first of this school year, she announced that she wasn't going to be shy anymore- and she wasn't! The mind is a powerful thing! She loved going to school everyday and came home bursting with the news of the day. She always loved to show me what she did that day, and I was amazed at the fun, creative and educational projects that came out of her backpack every day! She really grew up this year! She has had so much fun with her friends. One of her best friends has been Megan Price who moved into our cul-de-sac in September. It has been so fun to watch the two of them run back and forth between our two houses and play for hours on end. The Price's are moving this next week and we are all going to miss them soooooo much! We have become great friends and while it won't be the same as having them three doors down, we are grateful that they are only moving to Syracuse so our friendship will continue. Anyway, so back to Noelle. She is such a beautiful, fun and smart girl! I can't believe that she is going to Kindergarten this next year. She is such a good big sister to Austin, and it is really fun to see them play together so much when the other kids are at school. He is really going to miss her and so am I! She and Ashlyn both learned to ride their bikes without training wheels last week, yet another thing that makes them seem more grown up!

Ashlyn and Kayden turn 7!

I keep forgetting that these post backwards (the newest one first), so here is the next thing that has made me realize that time is flying by. However, you won't know that I am writing about that until you read the next post, but anyway, here goes! Ashlyn and Kayden turned 7 on June 15th! They got to share their day with Lanny for Father's Day. On Saturday, they each had their birthday party and WOW!! What a day that was! This was the first year that they wanted separate parties, so we decided to do the same party twice! We set up our wading pools, hooked up the sprinkler toys, filled water balloons, roasted hot dogs, sang Happy Birthday, had cupcakes, and opened presents- for Ashlyn's party from 10:30-12:30. She had 13 little girls running around having a blast in the water! When the girls were done, we emptied the pools and then set up our wading pools, hooked up the sprinkler toys, filled water balloons, roasted hot dogs, sang Happy Birthday, had cupcakes, and opened presents- this time for Kayden's party from 1:00-3:00! He had 10 little boys here being crazy and having a ton of fun! What a crazy day! And if that weren't crazy enough, Noelle was riding her bike during Kayden's party and crashed and got a Grade 1 concusion! SCARY!! We called Wendy and she walked us through the diagnosis and treatment. Thanks Wendy! Anyway, I was thinking about seven years ago and the joy of having Ashlyn and Kayden be born. I will always remember seeing those tiny, fragile bodies in their incubators with all the tubes and wires stuck on them. I remember being so sad that they weren't as healthy as we had hoped, but also feeling so grateful to have them and that they were born in this day and age so they could be treated and taken care of to get healthy! I remember holding them for the first time and being so overwhelmed- both with love and gratitude but also with wondering how in the world we were going to do TWINS! Now they are both smart and beautiful and fun kids who just finished 1st grade! How time flies by! They are so wonderful and such good kids!

How time flies!

We have had a few events this past few months that have really made me realize how fast the years are slipping by! Here are the highlights!
Emery turned 12 in April! This, of course, means that we have officially been "Mom" and "Dad" for over twelve years! She started going to Young Women's, got a cell phone, starting having "boy issues" and has just really grown up! She is a wonderful, smart and responsible girl who makes us so proud! She just graduated from 6th grade on Friday and was chosen as one of only two students to speak at graduation! She was so nervous but worked really hard on her speach and did an AMAZING job! What a happy/sad day! It is so fun to see her growing up and making such good choices! At the same time, it is sad to see her grow up. Finishing Elementary School marks the end of an era and I hope we are all ready for Jr. High! I think Emery will do great, I'm more worried about me and Lanny! A boy in Emery's class has a major crush on her and that is providing some good humored teasing as we tread into new territory! I just can't believe she's 12!

Roughin' it!

I love camping! This past weekend we went to Hyrum Reservoir for a couple of days to celebrate the kid's last day of school! We had so much fun being together. I booked our campsite over a month ago and carefully chose a site that had a lot of shade and lots of space for the kids to run around in. One of the best in the campground! However, unfortunately, the Top of Utah Triathalon also thought that the same area of the campground would be the best spot for their finish line! We had no idea that we were camping at Hyrum on the same weekend that an annual triathalon is held at Hyrum State Park! We weren't too worried or inconvienienced on Friday, but EARLY Saturday morning the fun began! I woke up to someone yelling that it was only 5:24 AM so she wasn't late yet! There ended up being about 100 race staffers, 800 athletes, all their supporters and half the population of Hyrum city in the camp sites surrounding us! So much for our quiet weekend of camping. But we survived and it was fun to see the action (or should I say BE in the action!) We took off and went to the beach area for a few hours during the most crazy part of it and when we came back for lunch it was winding down. So we still got to enjoy a quiet afternoon. And the park manager was very apologetic and even gave us a free pass to come back on another weekend when there is not a triathalon in our campsite! He said that by the time they realized how the triathalon would be laid out, we had already booked our site! So much for planning early! Oh well! We still had a good time and loved being with our family. The kids had a blast playing in the water and cooking over the fire and riding their scooters around. They all slept well and overall it was a success! The water is sooooo high! It will be interesting to see how much it goes down before our Family Reunion in July.