these days

Layla gave me one other "birthday present" when Eric and I were about to run out the door on our date.

Yep, she decided to cut her own hair (enter crying emoji here). Oh, there were nice big layers on either side and some very short bangs.

We went to my friend's a few days later and she fixed it up and gave her what Layla calls a "short cut".

She still looks beautiful, but let's not cut our own hair again, ok my little girl?

We have a deal with Perry that if he is reverent at church then after we take the sacrament, I will take him into the foyer and he can watch a show on my phone. We have been prepping him because when he turns 7 we are going to make it that he has to stay for the youth speaker, too. He is not too sure about that.

Ellie loves the rocks she got with grammie. She brought them with us when we went to get Kacin's allergy shot. We played all sorts of games with them while we waited there.

We had friends from WA in town and they came over for a swim. These two are such great friends and always goofy together.

I didn't get this picture in my back to school post. Eric and I both took Layla to meet the teacher/curriculum night.

We got two free tickets to a diamondbacks game. Kacin was thrilled when Eric took him.

While they were there, the rest of us went down to the splash pad and park. Layla wanted me to take this picture to send to dad so he could see her on the swings.

Layla and Perry decided to write letters to their cousins Macie and Logan to see if they could come over to play one day.

We have had some amazing monsoon storms this summer! Love them! It is especially wonderful when they happen during the day. And when there's no lightening around, it is a blast to play in. It is an arizona joy.

I got mad at Layla the other day when I found that she had pulled a bunch of stuff out of a cupboard that I had told her specifically not to get into without permission. I sent her to her room. And then Eric pointed out to me what she had been doing. Her cute silver flip flops had broken at school that day. I told her we couldn't run to the store to get more yet, but we found an old pair of Perry's flips flops that fit her. They were Batman. She was ok with that but thought they were very boy-ish. So that's when she had decided to dazzle those shoes with ribbon and washi tape. I applaud the sweet ingenuity. I love it actually. But let's keep working on that obedience thing, ok?

It was Layla's turn to go to the theater with me. she has been looking forward to this for months and months. She loved seeing "The Little Mermaid". And equally loved the gummy bears I let her eat during the show.

We took Kyler to go get some new church pants. While I was helping Ky,  Eric came out of the dressing room in a new suit.  

I saw this quote on my cousins insta. I love it.

And I'll leave you with this sweet face. (insert more emojis--the heart shaped eyes smile face over and over).

thirty-three, that's me

Another year older.

In my mind I'm still 17, but the gray hairs I keep finding on my head remind me otherwise...

Eric is the best! He learned from past years ;) and really gave me the perfect birthday.


It started out the night before and continued on to saturday--we checked item after item off our to-do and project lists. We returned some things that needed to go back to stores. We shopped at costco. We did yard work together.  We finished and hung this sign that was started at Christmas and finished building our mudroom.





We could've stopped right there and I would've called that a birthday success. But then I got cake and gifts from these sweet people. Eric made an effort to take pictures without me asking him to (another pretty sweet gift) and made me stand awkwardly there by my gifts (I could've passed on that one ;) ).






Kyler helped me add to my collection of Star Wars shirts. 

The other three kids picked out some sweet gifts for me, too.

That evening, we went out on the best date. Eric took care of all of the arranging of the plans and that was amazing! We went out to dinner with some friends and then went to an escape room. It was the greatest evening! And it helped that we won at the escape room and came home with the winners bracelets.

Another year older isn't so bad.

on 7-11

What did we do on 7-11-17?

We dressed like cows.


And got our free food. Thank you chick-fil-a!


Then we headed to 7-eleven for our free slurpees.

A pretty sweet day.

activity days special luncheon: oh, how we need each other

I still work with the 10-11 year old girls at church. Over the summer, we held a special luncheon for the older sisters in our ward. I'm so glad we did this!

The RS president and I were just chatting one day about something completely unrelated and somehow out of that conversation the idea for this lunch came up and we made plans right then and there to make it happen. And it did.

I know the girls had an amazing time planning,  preparing the food, setting the table, getting to know the ladies through a game, serving them their food, and talking to them during lunch. I feel so strongly the same way Marjorie Pay Hinckley must have felt when she exclaimed, "Oh, how we need each other!". It does not matter our ages--women need women. Younger sisters benefit tremendously from the wisdom and examples of the older sisters and older sisters benefit tremendously from the energy and ideas of the younger sisters.

I hope this becomes a tradition and the friendship and love between sisters, no matter their age, will continue to grow.

school has begun

Summer break is over. We are deep into the second week of school. All four kids in all day school! And, by our design, we have condensed our family from four different schools last year to two different schools this year. Yippee for that!

Layla is prepared and ready for all day kindergarten. This transition has been a breeze for her. I'm glad we made the decision to put her into a half-day kindergarten last year and full day this year. She is thriving. She even asked to buy her lunch at school today. Kyler told me he never would've been brave enough to do that in kindergarten. Little Miss L was quite excited when she found out you could do that. The teacher has already talked to me about chattiness. And Layla has told me about a boy that is "following" her (which is why she keeps getting in trouble for talking). Kindergarten will be awesome this year.

Her backpack is the same size that she is.:)

Perry is excited to be in first grade! Let me back track with a quick story about how much he was looking forward to this. When we were on our summer trip, the poor guy got car sick on the windy mountain road out of yosemite. Thankfully, he did not throw up until we got out of the car at the hotel. The first thing he said after he threw up in the parking lot was "aw man, I still go to first grade if I'm sick?" We made sure he was all better so he hasn't missed any first grade yet. :) He has the same teacher as last year so that reduced all anxiety (for us and him) about this year. He does have new friends in the class and he was so excited to meet them. He made me walk around with him at meet the teacher to introduce himself to all the new kids. What fun for me to see him do that! I have a feeling that this year will be a good one for our Perry boy.

It was a last minute switch by us, but now Layla and Perry attend the same school. Of course I was a little nervous once we made the change, but I am so glad that I eventually trusted those feelings I kept getting to enroll her at Perry's school. I felt like we should do this at the end of last school year, but I kept shoving those thoughts aside. I had a lot of logical reasons why we shouldn't. But I couldn't shake the feeling this summer and Eric felt the same way so we decided to have her attend school with Perry. And I can already say this was the best decision! They are not in the same class, but their lunch and recess times overlap. This is such a blessing to both of them! I have had teachers tell me about how sweet they are together. They hug when they see each other and play together happily. They come home and tell me stories of the playground. They look out for each other. They have a special bond and I'm glad they can share that at school, too.

Kacin started Jr. High. He was anxious and oh so ready to leave elementary school. He has handled all of the new school, new teachers, multiple class changes like a champ. No, he did not get lost on the first day of school. His electives this year are Spanish and a classroom aide in the self-contained special education math class. He is in honors math and language arts. Clearly, this year is going to be filled with some awesome experiences for him! His teachers seem really fabulous (thank goodness!). He has plans to try out for lots of school sports teams this year. I know he will do great in 7th grade!

Kyler has gone into 8th grade confident and happy. I can't believe how much he has grown up in the last year. 8th grade is going to be a piece a cake for him, I think. He is in honors classes again. His electives are spanish and athletic PE. Luckily, he ended up with lunch with a lot of his friends. And Kacin! He and Kacin were assigned the same lunch period. I know they are both glad to see each other at lunch. I'm really impressed with Kyler's teachers, too (yay!). Kyler is planning on focusing on soccer all year (especially now that he is playing club) and only trying out for the soccer team at school. Ky is such an amazing kid. I know he has totally got this 8th grade thing, no problem.

The night before school started, Eric gave everyone a priesthood blessing. The counsel, the blessings, and the feelings we felt during those blessings will strengthen us during this school year.
  

Yay for another school year!