And Just Starting School! Sweet Mg has been looking forward to starting Kindergarten for SOOOOO long!!!!! Unfortunately for her our here kindergarten starts a week after the other kids start school (it gives the teachers a chance to individually test each student). Finnnalllly the day came and my little girl could hardly contain her excitement!!!
She found the coolest backpack...Barbie has a 3D sparkly skirt...oh the joy!!
So grown up and READY!!!! I love her teacher...everything you'd expect a kindergarten teacher to be...so happy and cheerful and loving. Mg has quite a few neighborhood friends in her class and couldn't be happier!!!!
The girls really enjoyed back to school shopping...it is fun to see their personalities really developing! E has been working hard learning how to do hair and really wanted pigtails for the first day of school :) She is SOO excited to start 3rd grade and to learn to write in cursive! She comes home each day and the first thing she tells me is what letter she learned to write that day :) She has a really really sweet intern teacher and she seems to be loving it! She has expanded from just playing soccer at lunch to also playing kick ball or even bouncing balls off the ball wall.
M has another male teacher this year and he is quite the character and is lots of fun and she is loving it! I can't believe she is in fourth grade! She loves her sparkle tennis shoes she got this year. She has a couple of friends and they have created all sorts of different clubs and she is having fun!
Little A and I still don't know what to do with ourselves in the morning without all the other kids :) Mg has morning kindergarten and they are happy to see each other. The big kids don't get out until 3:30 (yuck) and by the time they get a snack and get homework done the afternoons fly by but we've gotten pretty good at getting our reading and such done in the morning so we can play with daddy when he gets home. It's been a month since they started school and I finally feel like we're getting into a routine and we're doing well! Hooray for school!
Wow. Last night a fire broke out at Camp Williams (a military training base somewhat near my parents) in the afternoon. They thought they had it contained until 50 mile an hour winds woke up and sent the fire racing towards Herriman, a town that we have looked extensively in to buy a house. We could see a huge line of fire from where we live now as it went dark last night...it was amazing. We learned last night that 3 homes in Herriman had burned and that 250 homes had been evacuated, then 500 and when I woke up this morning it was 1600 homes were evacuated. The state officials said that last night was truly miraculous...when then went to bed they fully expected to hear that probably 100 homes had burned but they learned that well trained and prepared firefighters fought and saved the homes. They said that there were soo many homes where the bulldozers had cleared the area right around the home and that all around the home was black but the home itself had been saved. Amazing. No other houses burned last night.
It turns out the worst of the fire was RIGHT next to the home we had put an offer on a few months ago. The owners ended up renting the house instead so we didn't get it, and I have to say I am grateful to not have had to live through evacuations and the fear it would have put into the kids. The kids school is one of the few closed and I have no idea when the evacuation order will be lifted for that area but the fire is still going and while it's okay for the moment any wind gusts and such could make it terrible again. Wow. While I doubt the home itself was in any danger we are hearing that there is extensive smoke damage to homes in the area, not to mention the air quality would have been terrible for our asthmatic daughter and who knows how long we would have been evacuated for, or if we could have gotten anything out, or how the kids would have reacted, etc. I'm grateful to have missed all of that...sooo very grateful.
This is part of the evacuation map....the city inspector has been going house to house to check on damage and this is the current report although I don't think he is done...the large green area is where the houses had landscape damage (melted fences, etc) but the home was okay (the other little green areas are parks), the three red dots are the burned homes, the blue star on the upper left is the house we put an offer on...we've also considered a lot of home off to the right...
Some of you have been to the Herriman Lake (we had our daughters bday party there) and wondered if that is where the fire was...yes but not where the homes burned...you can see the lake on the bottom right, the blue star for our almost house is in the upper left. The tanish area is under evacuation but the homes and landscaping were saved. This is all one big hilly area
this is just part of the map...it is amazing what the firefighters were able to save and how quickly this fire moved. Thank heaven for awesomely trained and amazing firefighters!!!
For an interesting picture...last night Daddy went out and took this picture...we are on the complete other end of the valley from the fire, with the temple in between...the fire line was huge!!! On the other side of the hill where the fire is and off to the right is Herriman (you can't see it during the day it's in the Salt Lake Valley and we're in Utah Valley). Crazy!!
We are counting our blessings and taking this opportunity to see how prepared we are. My in-laws house is right at the top of a hill and across the street is dried out grass that is hillsideand just waiting to be burned...it could have been us!! A talk show host on the radio this morning was asking people "if you only had a few minutes to get out of the house what would you grab?" I think now would be a good time to make sure our pictures and family history and family documents are all backed up and that our 72 hour kits are updated and ready to go. Also the cell phone lines were all tied up with people callings their relatives in Herriman to see if they were okay and they had to ask people to STOP CALLING the area :) It made me realize we need a good emergency phone plan so that all family knows we're okay or if we need help. I also heard a guy call in saying that he had to go in and help evacuate their daughter...it made me think what I would grab if I had to head over to my parents or my in-laws and get stuff out. Interesting thoughts. Now is the time to prepare!!!! Bring on the external hard drive I'm ready to fill it up :) And very grateful for our blessings!!
For those not knowing the tech nerd side of Daddy you should know that he is obsessed with all things electronic. HDTV's, Blu-ray, computers, etc. He keeps up with the latest greatest technology and drools over them. He never gets past the electronic section of Costco and even convinced me on our anniversary to wander around Best Buy, just to look and to show me his dream home entertainment setup.
One of his very favoritest things though is computer games...and the better the graphics the happier he is. He loved to play in CA with his friends and always used the screen name (is that what it's called?) of Dr. Chicken since at that time he was working on his doctorate and was working in a chicken lab. Very intimidating name, isn't it :)
So a few weeks ago his mom brought home these chicken hats for the girls and it couldn't have been more appropriate...we now present to you Dr. Chicken and his chicks :)
After these pictures were taken Dr. Chicken ran after these girls, beheaded them and then tortured them with his tickle fingers and made them chase after and recover their heads. I will let you think what you want about that :) We love our Dr. Chicken!!!!! (The squeals were priceless!!!!)
I just didn't have pictures to post! And since no post is really that interesting without pictures...our camera disappeared at the beginning of summer and we just got another one so I need to go hunt down all the summer pics and then get caught up :) Until then here are some from tonight's primary talent show...each of the kids were supposed to perform or display a talent and the kids did GREAT!!! We were sooo proud of each of them :)
Mg loves to cook so for her talent she used jello to make a beach for the teddy bears :)
She made inner tubes out of gummy lifesavers for the teddy grahams and had gummy frogs and fish in there, too and made a paper umbrella...lots of (yummy) fun!
E. recently got an American Girl Doll book showing you how to do doll hair just a few weeks ago and she became obsessed!!! She couldn't even braid and now she is quite expert at many different hair styles and is always doing doll hair or her sister's hair so for her talent she did several of her barbie's hair and brought them to display
She has been working sooo hard on them and planning which hair styles to do and did a GREAT job telling everyone about each different hair style she did (and their names!)
M. jumped with a regular rope which jumping in the double dutch ropes...pretty cool trick!!! Unforunately we started on the carpeted stage and that didn't work so well but once we got her down on the hard floor she did great!!
Yes, she is turning her own rope while in the double dutch ropes :)
And here are a few bonus photos to leave you with...this little girl has grown up soooo much!!!! She is talking up a storm (and it is SOOOOO cute!!!!!) and loves to be able to do more things like her sisters (like riding a scooter). She rode the scooter out to the car and then willingly posed for a few pictures...yes, that is her kitty getting a ride in the front :)
How cute is that :)
Hooray for a new post...I'm hoping many more will come soon!!!We took our crew out to the Hill Air Force Base in Ogden where we were so excited to meet up with some California friends and go through the museum together!!! It was so great!!!! Here is Daddy with the "Jolley" plane...he is a descendant of the Jolley family so he thought that was great :)
Here we are with a Jolly Green Giant...my uncle was a pararescue during the Vietnam War and traveled on these...this is the baby version he was on a much larger version
Here are the two families together...it was SO great to see them!!!!!
This is Daddy's favorite airplane...we trudged in the snow to go take a picture with it :)
Thanks Thomas' for meeting up with us!!!!!Saturday is a favorite day...it's time to play with Daddy!!! After we get out Saturday chores done the girls do various activities with Daddy...and a new favorite is Nerf gun time.
After playing tag for several weeks daddy decided it was time to teach them capture the flag...go girls!!
I saw an old high school friend in the grocery store the other day...SO wonderful to see her!!! I mentioned that I loved her blog and that it has been great to keep up with her...and she reminded me that she would love to keep up on mine except I haven't been updating it. I vowed to update it. I won't mention how long ago that was, but it was awhile. Ooops. Anyways, I vow to be better.
The girls had a day off from school a few weeks ago and we decided to celebrate with a tea party for their dolls and animals. After their animals and dolls were properly dressed we moved onto the makeup party. The girls had oh so much fun putting way too much blue eyeshadow and other such stuff on. At times it was scary but they were in heaven. We haven't done this since we've moved out here so little A in particular enjoyed this experience, complete with nail polish which, thanks to proper training from Grandma, she knew should not only go on her fingers but also on her toes...
I love the casual position with her toes on the table :)
All ready for the party! After some great food and pink lemonade the girls (and their guests) were quite happy :)
Afterwards the girls put on a dance show for their guests and all proclaimed it to be a successful party and a great day off :)
And lest you get concerned for the welfare of these girly girls on another recent day off (which daddy actually had off, too) we went with Grandma up to visit Cabela's, a sporting goods store my mom has wanted to take us to for quite some time and it finally worked out for us to all go. Why the urgent need to visit a sporting goods store on a day off you ask? That place is awesome! We had not been there so the girls really loved the huge animal display (real stuffed bears and deer and tons of other animals...it was awesome!). They fed huge fish, walked through an aquarium, played in tents, etc. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures, but Daddy's favorite part was the shooting gallery :) You would "shoot" the snake and it would move around, the bear would come out of a trash can, the sign would fall down, etc. It was fun and the girls were very impressed with his shooting skills. Then they each got a turn with Daddy and I'm not sure who had more fun...
All in all it was a great outing and we can't wait to go back :)
These are some random pictures I found waiting to be put on the blog. Never mind that they were ready to be put up a few months ago, but that's okay.
Mg has been going to a preschool once a week offered here at the city rec center and she LOVES it! They do crafts, cooking and gymnastics and I'm really happy with it!
One week we were supposed to go on a fieldtrip to the farm that got rained out so instead the parents had to stick around for some lame gym time with the kids. It wasn't fun but Mg has made a good friend at her preschool and so we started to hang out in the gym together and our families have become good friends (yea!!). We like preschool! :)
E lost her two front teeth...I love this smile!!! Although we teased her endlessly she was able to get her two front teeth in before Christmas ensuring that she would get something else besides her two front teeth :)
A is loving being the youngest in the family! She loves being played with by everyone! She has such great sisters!!! Here she's getting a ride on a blanket :)
Which looked like so much fun they talked their "horse" into giving each of them rides :) (he's such a great Daddy!!! and a good sport, too!)
And since A had had her turn getting a ride she decided to continue the fun and give her kitty a ride! There were lots of happy children and stuffed animals that night (and a tired Daddy!)
And how am I doing? Just great, can't you see?
This is what happens when the 9 year old gets ahold of a camera...enjoy!
