Catch up --Scotty is an official Pre-Schooler

This little darling started preschool!

Goodbye Summer 2010!

We have had a very nice, long extended Summer.  All of September was very warm....sometimes close to 100 degrees.  It has been nice.   

So here's a tribute to Summer 2010 ...goodbye..... parting is such sweet sorrow....

I will miss the flowers.....

And those beautiful summer evenings.... when the kids in the neighborhood would play and play...  

I will remember Cub scout Day Camps..... and all that "man training" going on....

We won't forget the joy of climbing trees....

Or lazy Summer afternoons when boys are free to create and imagine.....  Like these two boys who created their own weapons..and then had very spirited fights...and set up forts....    

And oooh the joy of running around shirtless and barefoot in the warm summer air!

Hanging out with neighborhood friends morning, noon and night.... 

And stealing Mom's camera and taking random pictures with friends you hang out with morning, noon and night...

We won't forget the homemade waterslide made with a  ladder, particle board and a tarp or two.   Oooh the fun!

And more random pictures....taken with Mom's camera ...just for fun...

Oh the magic of summer days when you are 8, 9, 10 and 11!  There's is a secret world.....just like I remember.   Forts, games, anything they can imagine.  Lemonade stands, trips on their bikes to the grocery store to buy candy...with their own money!!   Few things make me happier than seeing my children experience the magic of childhood...  They have their own plans, own agenda, and played all day until they were exhausted!

 They played with water in the dirt, created dams and tunnels. And when a thunderstorm would roll in...it was pure excitement!  These kids would run out in the rain and scream in delight at the thunder!  Oh the magic!  

I also want to remember:

• Nightgames!  Played until as late as we would let them!  
• Trips to the Pool...  How much these boys love to swim!
• The endlesslessness of remodeling...we remodeled our three bathrooms this past summer.....   How torn apart the house was for about a month...it was crazy!
• Steve was gone for more than a month between scout camp, the National Jamboree and the 50 miler hike. I didn't like this too much....
• Jon and Joseph went with their Dad and a bunch of Uncles and Cousins on the National Boy Scout Jamboree (100th Anniversary of Boy Scouts...very cool)  
• Steve took a group of young men including Jon, Joseph and Eric up Kings Peak-50 miles hike.  
• Our splendid family reunion and send off of Mom and Dad on their mission to the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center
• A wonderful day trip with Barb and family up to "the Weber" their cabin up in the mountains in an area I had never been to...which is soo beautiful. It was a really great day!   

So goodbye Summer 2010.....   All good things must come to an end.... 

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Catch Up...First Day of School....

Hard to believe that it was time to start school again....

I think this will be the year we remember that we "slummed" our way into the first day of school.  Look at those clothes!  Who dresses those children?   I think I was a little distracted in getting Eric ready and off to college.  Plus these boys will do anything to get out of shopping for clothes!  And, I guess it worked!   Well, atleast they are darn cute!  So, maybe no one noticed that they look like little urchins...lost and forgotten by their mother.

4th Grade!  How can it be that this boy is starting 4th grade!  And he got the teacher he wanted..hoped for..Mrs. LeFevre!!!

Michael and his good friend Brandon.  They both made it into Mr. Cook's class...and this made them very happy!

Yes, they are the cool 6th grade boys..the top dogs..the big cheese..... 

And ...with some coaxing..this young man let me take his picture on his first day back as a JUINOR!!  Holy Cow!

And, well, I am sorry to report that the 9th grade boy was  too anxious to get to school early and therefore would not pose for a picture.  Jon will be the new boy on the block at Albion Middle after going to Churchill Jr High for the past two years. He decided he wanted to be with all of his friends ..and football team ...so he was one excited boy, anxious to get his foot in the door and make a great first impression.  I am happy to report that he went to school with just the right clothes, his hair combed just right, and ready to be the big man...  (He is fun  ..funny...to watch)  I know he will make it a great year!  And we are happy for him!

So, after school I tried to be a cool mom and have cookies and milk ready for them.  It will probably never happen again, but at least I was really cool one day this year.    

I love these boys and here's to a great year!  And now we are off and running into a great year!  

Catching up.....The Big Send off to College .....

So ....I didn't even want to write about this..... It was  a happy, exciting, wonderful and very sad day...

This was a day I knew would come....

It was a day every mother begins to dread from the minute  you hold that new baby in your arms--you know it is coming, way back in the back of your mind.  You know it's there every time you tuck him in, every time he starts another school year,   each time you celebrate his birthday,  each time you go on vacation....there is a little thought in the back of your mind  reminding you  that one day your child child will fly.......out of your nest and begin a life of their own.

We don't own our children.  We only borrow them for a while and teach and love them the best way we know how, but ultimately they are responsible for their lives.  And as they go, you just hope they remember all you tried to teach them and hope with all your heart that Heavenly Father will make up for all you didn't teach them....

And you hope that they know who they are and that their Heavenly Father and Savior love them and that they are never alone.  So many things... on this day if Eric had asked for the moon I would have tried getting it for him.    I am sure every mom feels so many emotions as she sends off her oldest to college.  

And so after 18 years of knowing just about everything they do from what they ate for breakfast to how math class went that day to who they are hanging out with....they go and you have no idea whether or not they are starving to death, brushing their teeth, hanging out with good people....nothing!  Poof!  Gone!

And I text this boy and he just texts back, "don't worry Mom, I am fine!"  And you suddenly feel like you really shouldn't ask too many questions...and let them get their feet on the ground and begin a life of their own on their own.  And it is exciting in many ways and so sad in other ways.


Here are some pictures taken the night before Eric left for college.....

The night before Eric left, we celebrated his birthday!

And he finally got what he has been asking for for the past 3 years...a laptop!!!  

Since, he left, I am happy to say that he seems to be doing just great!   He is rooming with a cousin and has a couple of other cousins close by...and seems to have a fun social life.  He reports that he has all A's, well, one A-.  We will keep our fingers crossed for him that his final grades are so good.    He is getting along well with all of his roommates except one ...and has learned to "just give him his space," and everything goes ok.  He seems to be making new friends....  !  He made Men's Chorus!  This is his favorite class.  He also just auditioned for a show choir with his cousins and they all made it!  Yippee!  BYUI is such a good place to be......so uplifting, testimony building....I hope everything continues to go well...  We are happy for him!