Summer Catch UP

I have been going through my picture files lately and I realized that there are tons of cute summer pictures that never made it to the blog.  So here are some fun moments from summer 2010!

Beckett consumed way too much sand!  He never seemed to mind it though.  

This was on a fun picnic with some friends at Hayden Lake.

This was Rylynn's favorite pose of the summer.  Don't ask me why she had the broken neck look going on.  Aren't the mountains in the backgroud beautiful?  Hayden Lake is my favorite of all the lakes we visited this summer.

The kids loved the recycling bin in the backyard this summer for some reason.  It was left in the back because we used it for dirt removal when we made the garden.  The kids loved using the dirt for many "projects".  Mom and Dad didn't appreciate the "projects" so much.  

Another favorite summer activity was the slip n' slide in the backyard.  It was sooo worth all $9 that it cost and it got a lot of use from the neighborhood.  We have a big slope in our back yard which I don't like, but it makes slip n' sliding really fun! 

Carter was definitely the biggest fan though.  He still begs me everyday to do slip n' slide!

Cute kids excited for their brother's birthday party.  We still can't believe that Beckett turned one over the summer.  That year flew by!

This was at our neighbor Kate's birthday party.  It was at a water park and the kids had so much fun!

Rylynn and Carter LOVE their friend Kate.  She cracks me up because she has three older brothers so she wants to be a boy.  She had a spiderman cake:)

Grandma and Aunt Andrea and baby Lauren came to visit for two weeks and we had so much fun!  We really didn't take any pictures to prove it sadly.  I'm not sure why.  This is one of the only ones.  Grandma is pushing Beckett in our produce basket for the week.  He loved it!

We have some friends that are renting a house right on Liberty Lake and they invited us to come play one day.  They have sail boats, and kayaks and even paddle boats.  It was so much fun.

Carter was loving the Dora vest:)

The paddle boat was really fun for the whole family.  Even Ollie got to come for a ride. 

Speaking of Ollie, he has been the life of the neighborhood!  All the kids love him and love to play with him.  This is Kate with Ollie.

A couple of days ago Carter got a little grumpy about how much the neighborhood has played with his dog and he said, "I'm sick of sharing Ollie with the whole neighborhood!  He's our dog!"  He has sharing issues.

Rylynn is a little sad that she is not Ollie's favorite so she tries so hard everyday to move to the #1 position.

You could find this scene on pretty much any day this summer in our home.  Carter LOVES setting up all his cars and then telling anyone who will listen each of their names.  He usually watches utube videos at the same time.  The utube videos are of other kids doing the same thing:) 

Yes, we realize he is obsessed.

There is a nice family in our ward that has a great pool and awesome backyard and since there isn't a public outdoor pool here, they opened it up every Tuesday and Thursday to anyone in the ward to use.  The kids loved going to their house to swim each week.

They have this awesome rope swing that goes so far.

It was great because the kids could take a break from the pool and go play on the swings or the trampoline and then go back to the pool.

The only problem with that is that Carter would take off his swimming vest to play in the yard and a couple of times he would forget to put it back on before jumping in the pool.  There were a couple of times I had to jump in with all my clothes on.  Luckily they don't live too far away!

Beckett loved the swing and playing on the steps of the pool.  Usually he loves to float around in his little froggy, but I didn't want to go in everytime we went so he would just splash around.

And finally, we learned this summer that Carter+skateboards+tall curb=road rash!  He had no shirt on either so his shoulder was all scratched up too.  Oh well, it could have been worse.  

You mean summer's over?!

Garrett's birthday

This year Garrett was a huge ball of stress for his birthday.  Not because he was turning 32, but because the week of his birthday he had his first big trial in Seattle and he could not stop worrying about it.  So needless to say, his actual birthday was nothing special. In fact he didn't eat hardly anything for the whole week of his birthday until after the trial.  But of course, he did great and came out victorious, so on Friday we finally got to go out to dinner to celebrate.  Then Garrett decided to invite a "few" friends over for dessert on Sunday to celebrate.  Well the "few" turned into about 60 people since all the youth in our ward love Garrett and wanted to come with their parents. 

I don't think you can tell from this picture just how crowded our house was, but it was lots of fun! Luckily it was a nice night so most of the kids flowed out to the backyard.

We played a fun "how well do you know Garrett" game and the answers that people gave were kind of funny(we haven't even lived here for a year yet), but it was a good way for them to get to learn a little bit more about him.

We had banana splits/sundaes, chocolate birthday cake, and root beer floats.  A few of Garrett's favorite things.  It was a lot of fun and craziness!  

So in honor of this amazing man I love, I will finally post our garden pictures from this summer!  Garrett worked so hard to make our garden awesome and we have loved having it this summer.

We had a space off to the side of our deck that was basically wasted space that got full sun, so we ripped up the grass thinking it would be a fairly easy job.  We were WRONG!  The dirt here is sooooo rocky.  

We ended up having to rent a tiller machine(I think that's what it's called) to dig up all the dirt and rocks to level it all out.  And of course this was on the hottest day of spring and it was like 90 degrees that day.

Then he outlined it all with paver bricks to make it look nice.

Then we had to add in all the "good dirt".  I never realized how much work goes into gardens.  I was mostly in charge of the weeding when I was younger:)

But it worked out great!  We had beans, tomatoes, beets, carrots, zucchini, summer squash, and strawberries.  Our only completel dudds were our bell peppers.  

It's so nice going out to the garden to get veggies instead of the grocery store.  

This year has been a tough one for Garrett and I have never seen him work so hard in his life, but I have never seen him grow so much either.  He has successfully started and run his own law firm for the past ten months, been the world's best Dad and husband, and in his sparetime he is the YM's president!  We love you Garrett and feel so blessed to have you in our family!!!  Happy Birthday!

Preschool Boy!

Look at my grown up boy!  I can't believe my baby started preschool on Tuesday.  

After waiting patiently, well kind of, for a whole week, Carter finally got his first day of school.  Rylynn was very excited for Carter.  She woke up with a cold so she stayed home from Kindergarten that day, hence the pjs.

Carter chose to have Daddy take him to school so Mom could stay home with sick babies.  Beckett is back on the nebulizer...another post.  I love how his backpack is enormous!

Here he is proudly displaying his new backpack in his cubby.  Look at that smile!

Daddy said he walked right in and was really excited about being there.

We're not quite sure why he is holding the marker in his left hand.  Maybe it was nerves:)

He adores the block area and could spend hours building.  He has been that way ever since he was one.  We think he is going to be an engineer or architect or something.

He loved his first day of school and felt so grown up!  One funny/sad story about the first day was when I picked him up after school he told me he built this huge marble tower and some boy in his class came by and knocked the whole thing down.  He was really mad about it.  His teacher told me she felt so bad because he had spent so much time on it and it was really cool.  Oh well, that's why we go to preschool to learn not to knock kids towers down.  It will be good for Carter:)  That was his only complaint though and he was so excited to go back today.

First Day of Kindergarten

So the first day went off without a hitch!  Rylynn had a bit of a meltdown as she was getting ready for school.  She came in crying and told me she would miss me so much.  I told her I would miss her too and then I asked her if she was scared about her teacher or the bus or friends.  She told me she wasn't scared about anything and that she was just going to miss me so much.  After a lot of hugs and kisses she got dressed and was ready to go.  She didn't want to take the bus to school the first day because she wanted me to drive her to the school so I could walk her to her class.

Here she is all ready for school.  It was time to go play on the playground for a few minutes before the bell rang.

Playing on the jungle gym with some friends and of course Carter!  She was having a lot of fun, but she kept looking around to make sure I hadn't left.

After the bell ran she had to line up outside her classroom and wait for the teacher to let them in. 

Rylynn was so happy she gets to sit at the table with her buddy and neighbor Seth and a friend from our last ward Sophia.  Look how grown up they all look!  We gave a few more hugs and after I made sure she was happy and comfortable, she let me go.  I wore my sunglasses and fought back the tears the whole time because if Rylynn ever sees me crying she starts bawling hysterically. 

I told her she was going to ride the bus home and that I would be there to pick her up.  She was excited but a little nervous.  Then when they turned the corner and we were all waiting there we could see her smiling ear to ear in the back of the bus with two new friends in her seat.  She loved the first day of school and she loved the bus!!  Now every morning she can't wait till it's time to get on the bus.  She is such a worrier like me, but when it finally comes down to doing something she always loves it.  I still can't believe she is in Kindergarten.  Poor Carter has been so sad that his preschool hasn't started yet and that he isn't allowed to ride the bus.  Preschool starts tomorrow though and he can hardly wait!

changes

Beckett stood on his own for about 5 seconds four separate times today.  He walks all over the place holding on to furniture so I think he will be walking any day now.  He is so verbal just like Rylynn was and cannot wait to be able to talk and tell us every thing on his little mind.

My baby, my first baby, is going to Kindergarten the day after tomorrow and I can't help but feeling that this is the beginning of the end.  The beginning of me not having control over what influences her, the beginning of her not thinking I am the coolest person in the world, the beginning of her really going out into the world without my complete protection.  I hate changes, and I hate letting go of things.

Carter is starting preschool and is sooooo excited!  He is only going two days a week, but I still can't believe that two afternoons a week I will only have one baby at home!  I'm so excited for him.  He keeps saying, "I'm big now Mom!"  He also asks me everyday if his preschool is starting today.  We still have a week to go.  My little boy is growing up.

The air is cooler and fall is coming.  I am sad summer is over.