Adam's First Day of Pre-School

 Adam had his first day of pre-school at headstart on Tuesday. He was excited to go but didn't want me to leave him. He kept saying, "mom don't leave me okay". That just broke my heart, but I knew I couldn't make a habit of staying. So I just reminded him that I would be back and directed him to some activities on the circle time rug. He was really into that, so I snuck out. He goes to pre-school longer than Aarron goes to half day kindergarten. I can't believe all of my kids are in school now. I have one hour from 12:30-1:25 with no kids. So I have taken advantage of that and went to lunch with my friend Ginger.

I took three different pictures to capture his smile. I think he knew he was about to be left, so it was hard for him to concentrate on the camera.

 

 I finally had to tell him to just hold the smile. So here is his cheesy fake smile!

My sweet baby is growing up!

Family Home Evening

 Konstantin had been asking us to take him shooting. So we went after football practice for FHE. We had just enough sunlight to shoot for about 30 min. Dayson went over gun safety and taught him how to use the gun. It is illegal to own a gun in Germany and Konsti had never shot one before. This was a good experience for him and our kids. Anytime we get the chance to teach them gun safety is great!

Clayton with his 22 rifle

Dayson with his AR15

Carson with his 22 rifle

First Football Game of the Year

 Our families most favorite time of year is football season! We were so excited to watch the Elks play in the dome against Alchesay. The game was pretty boring because the score was 63-0, Elks. This was Konstantin's first American football game to watch. He is going to play with the team after he practices for 2 weeks.

Konstantin, Clayton and Sully watching the Elks 

 Konstantin is very popular with the girls. They all just love him!

 Aarron and Adam sitting under the comentator booth while watching the game

 My nephew Ryan who is a Freshman got to play in the game in the fourth quarter. There were 4 freshman that got to dress out and play in the game.

This Friday is the game against St. John's. We can't wait to watch the Elks play!

Family Home Evening and Court of Honor

 Monday night was our first Family Home Evening with Konstantin. He and Aarron were in charge of picking  the activity. At first we were going to play soccer, but it got too dark. So we jumped on the trampoline instead. Everyone took their turn showing off their best moves for  the camera. Konstantin fits right in with our family and the kids just love him.

Wednesday night was Court of Honor. This was a big one for Clayton and Carson. They both advanced in rank. Clayton received his Life and Carson his Star. Carson also earned 11 merit badges and Clayton earned 8. They have been working so hard and are very proud of themselves. They also earned many different patches from Camp Geronimo.

Clayton pinning the Life pin on mom

Carson pinning the Star pin on mom

Carson with all of his awards

 Clayton with all of his awards

Konstantin had just gotten home from football when we were leaving and he decided to go with us. He thought it was very boring and wanted to go home. But he was excited to take his picture with the American Flag!

Soccer

 Saturday is our soccer day! Carson, Daycee and Aarron are the only ones playing this year. I am coaching Aaron's team and so I don't get to watch the other games for very long. I had the kids take pictures for me and of course we didn't get any of Aarron's game, maybe next week.

I love this picture of Daycee! She is so into the game! Konstantin went with us to the games and afterwards he played around with our kids and some other friends. He had a good time showing them his moves. He is a really good soccer player. I wish he was playing in High School, but I'm excited for him to learn American football too.

The Newest Addition to our Family!

 About 3 weeks ago, Dayson and I were asked if we would be interested in hosting a foreign exchange student from Germany. My firt thought was there is no way Dayson is going to agree to do this. I first read Konstantin's application and immediately knew he would be a great kid to have in our home. Now I just needed to convince Dayson. After discussing and praying about it, we said yes! The next day we were leaving to go on our vacation to Idaho and Oregon. We didn't really have anytime to prepare but Clayton and  I worked hard at getting the house ready. The kids had started school and Dayson has been gone since Saturday on a search and rescue. He only comes home late at night and leaves early in the morning. The kids including Konstantin haven''t had a chance to see him. We picked up Konstantin from the Show Low airport Thursday morning and he had his firt day of school today. We had to do our tradition of first day of school pictures and this is his.

 Konstantin is such a sweet boy. The kids really injoy having him in our home. He just turned 16 years old and is a senior in high school. He is going to join the Amercian football team, so he can learn something new. We are excited for this new change in our lives and we hope that Konstantin will have a great American experience!



First Day of School

Harly ~ 6th grade ~ Junior High!

MacKenzie ~ 2nd grade

Carson ~ 7th grade

Daycee ~ 3rd grade ~ moved up to the intermediate school

Clayton ~ Homeschool ~ first day of Seminary

Aarron ~ PM Kindergarten

Adam will start pre-school at the end of this month and than everyone will be in school. I get to have 2 hours all to myself. Can't wait!!

The Last Part of our Trip

After finally making it to Kelly's house in Emmett, Idaho, the kids just hung out with each other and played "Just Dance" on the Wii. Here is Aarron, MacKennzie and Gunner having a blast! I secretly video taped Clayton playing and he made me promise to never show anyone. He actually dances very well.

On the 2nd day in Idaho, we took the kids to the manmade beach in Emmett. They had a fun time playing in the water and in the sand. Adam of course wouldn't even go near the water.

Carson

Daycee

Deanna

MacKenzie

Gunner and MacKenzie burrying Aarron in the sand.

When we got home he had sand coming out of everywhere. Kelly is probably still finding sand in her washer and dryer!

Carson had to have a turn!

After we got home from the beach Adam's breathing was getting worse. He had been weezing and retracting since the night before. We took him to the urgent care. They gave him two breathing treatments and a prescription for an inhaler. That came in handy because I had to give him quite a few puffs the first night and two more the next. After that he cleared up and was breathing normal again. I'm afraid he might be developing asthma, but maybe it was a fluke thing to happen.

We left Friday morning and drove to Gresham Oregon. Dayson's sister DeLona turned 40 on the 8th of August and her family threw her a surprise party. This was the main reason we chose to go on our vacation at this time. She was so surpised and excited to see her two sisters, brother and her mom & dad. I'm so glad we were able to go and support her on this special occasion.

Angelene, DeLona and Rachelle

Dayson, DeLona and Kim (Dayson and DeLona are only 10 months apart)

Just between our two families we had 12 grandchildren together out of 33.

Always have to have a goofy picture!

...and a "I'm so cool" picture!

Showing off our muscles

We left Oregon Sunday morning and drove all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah. We left around 8:00 in the morning and got to our hotel at 11:30 at night. That was a miserable drive towards the end. But the next morning we woke up and went to Temple Square. It was a nice warm day and we had just enough coins to pay for an hour and a half for parking. We rushed thru the Beehive House, Visitor Center, took pictures and walked around the temple. We even saw a bride and groom walk out just after getting married.

The sun was so bright, it was hard to keep your eyes open. The kids are struggling pretty bad.

I told them to turn around and look at the temple so they could rest their eyes.

Us in front of the "Grand Ball Room" in the beehive house where Brigham Young would host parties and guests for dinner.

Everyone got to have a turn taking a picture with the Christus.

MacKenzie

Carson

Daycee

Clayton
Aarron

Adam was too afraid to stand by Jesus all by himself and didn't even want Dayson to take him up there, but we forced him!

Harly

Harly took this picture for us and she managed to chop off the top of the Christus.

Our Family

(I guess the lady who took the picture didn't know where the zoom button was!)

After we left Salt Lake we decided to only drive as far as Blanding to see Dayson's missionary companion. They invited us to stay the night and that made the drive a whole lot easier. We only had to drive 5 hours intead of 10 on the last day. We got home at about 11:00 am and it was off to school open houses and lots of errands to run.