First Day of School 08-09

It's hard to believe the first week of school is already over! Here's pictures of that momentous first day!

Trace is in Kindergarten! My little man is growing up.

(Sorry about the shadow in the pic. obviously mom needs a photography class!)

After Trace's 1st day of school

Trace did so good, I thought I was just fine, then I walked him to the door and turned to leave and the tears flowed! I was amazed. I didn't think sending the 3rd one off would cause that. I guess I"ll cry over each one of them going to school!

Trace on his 2nd day of school. I wanted a repeat picture due to the shadows! The kids weren't happy!

Charlee wanted in on the picture action!

Chase 10, Megan 13, Trace 5, Charlee 3

Chase is in 5th grade!!!

Chase's last year in Elementary school, next year its Middle School!

Megan is in 8th grade!!!

Megan's last year in Jr High. Next year its High School! Wait....What?? How is that possible!?

Cheers to a fantastic, successful, fun filled school year. I love my kids!

Charlee turns 3!

Saturday we had a very special birthday in our house. Our Charlee Belle turned three years old! We had such a busy day Saturday and Megan was gone all day so we celebrated on Sunday. We loved having Grandma and Grandad Oliver with us for the weekend!

Mixing the birthday cake!

It's tradition...the birthday kid gets to lick the beaters!

Getting ready to open those presents

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Mayo!

We loved having Grandma and Grandad Oliver with us for the weekend.

Chase enjoying life

We went on a picnic by the falls. It was so fun, but toasty!

Charlee & Grandad, what's up with that frown birthday girl?

Getting spun to crack the pinata

Hit it Charlee!

Trace can't wait for his turn!

Charlee watching her brothers and sister getting a turn at her pinata.

Packing the loot

Comparing...how does my pile stack up to yours?

Megan, our built in party clown.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! We love you tons!

(BTW, See Chase filming...well he begged to film so I handed him the camera for the birthday cake ritual well he filmed the entire blowing out the candles deal w/o turning the camera on! Sorry Charlee, someday you will miss not getting to see that on film. It'll be a while before Chase films again!)

Yea!!! You are officially 3!!!

Youth Cultural Celebration 2008

Megan along with 3500+ youth from our surrounding area have spent the past 5 months working on dances to perform for a celebration with our temple dedication. Their hard work paid off this past weekend as they were able to perform it for our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. It was so awesome!!! I loved it.

They transformed the rodeo grounds at the fairgrounds for the event. They laid sod and built a platform. It was beautiful and looked nothing like a rodeo arena for the evening!

There are 14 stakes in our temple district, each stake did a dance from a different time period or culture and they put them all together to tell a story of the history of our area.

Megan with her BFF Kennedy, on the sidelines waiting to go on. They had just spotted us in the stands.

The opening act. There were teenagers all over the place!

Megan and her partner, waiting to go on. I'll just say...there were a ton of text messaging passed between these two this summer. Her dad reminded her several times she was only 13! :) They were cute dance partners none the less.
Megan is in the center of pic with her back to us.

Our stake's dance was an Italian celebration dance honoring the diverse cultures present here in the Magic Valley.

Megan and group walking off stage

This picture does not do the final scene justice...the final act they all sang Carry On it was very moving seeing 3500 youth performing it.

I filmed some at the dress rehearsal but I didn't do a real good job as I was thinking we would be able to purchase a dvd copy of the actual performance. Well due to copyrighted songs that were used, there was no filming allowed during the performance, I was so bummed! You'll have to take my word for it...it was awesome!!

Soccer...Football it must be Fall!

Megan & Trace are playing soccer, Chase football.

Soccer and football practice has begun, it must be fall! Adding a third into the sports mix adds tons of fun.

Fun Camping Trip

We took a few days and went camping when Steve got home from Oklahoma. We had such a wonderful time!

We went to a place above our local ski resort. Who knew it was so beautiful? We couldn't believe we have lived here for 5 years and this was the first time we went there. We can't wait to go back...

We held hands...

We celebrated!!! Megan was only with us 1 night as she ditched us for girls camp!

Steve, Chase and Megan enjoying a canoe cruise around the lake

Trace and Rocky loved to walk around the lake

We fished...

Trace fishing

We relaxed. Trace thinking how wonderful his life is!

We Loved it! Chase and Charlee loving it.

Jam packed weekend!

We have a huge weekend! A special birthday! Charlee is turning 3 on Saturday, August 23!!! Wow!!! My parents and brother and family are coming for a visit. Megan is participating in a Youth Cultural Celebration dance performance with youth from 14 stakes (3500+ youth) around the valley and the performance will be Saturday night. Our temple dedication will be on Sunday. And school starts on Monday!!! Tune in next week for some fun reports :)

A Great Find!

Just wanted to share a great find! If you want a place to track/graph your weight loss and even body measurements and inches lost, check this out http://www.weighttracker.info/ This is an awesome site that records and graphs your progress. Did I mention it's even free!?! I found it 10 days ago and have been so impressed I wanted to share the love! I have loved seeing the progress I'm making, as we know the weight moves slow but the inches pleasantly enough, show rapid improvement! Makes for a great motivator!

This summer has not been kind to my figure...go figure, (ha,ha!) Too many trips, too many yummy meals at relatives houses and yes not even one bit of exercise. Seriously I am ticked at myself for letting my workouts slide. Actually it's been the past year that I've slacked off going to the gym. After Charlee was born, we joined the gym and I/we went so good, like 5-6 times a week good for 2 whole years. It felt so good. Then for some reason last fall I stopped the everyday thing, Steve still went really good, but I was lucky to make it 2x a week. Then this summer nada, zero. But, I have recommitted and I am happy to report I have run at least 1 hour 8 out of the past 10 days!!! WaHoo!! Cheers to setting goals and better yet, reaching them!