1st Day of School!

Wednesday, August 27th marked a very special day… it was the day that the boys finally went back to school!!!! haha No, I did totally enjoy Summer with them. But I (like most mothers I would assume) was also very ready for school to start again.

This year they both have fabulous teachers. Gabe has Mrs. Burt for the third grade. I don't know her personally, but every mom who has heard Gabe had her has responded with, "You are so lucky! She is the best!" Someone even told me they tried to switch their kid into that class and were denied because he class was already so full. Gabe has only had her for three days but says so far "She is sooo nice!"

Caleb has Mrs. McCoy for first grade. I DO know her personally because she is in our ward. I also have one of her daughters in my activity days girls group. She is also very nice I am sure will be great. Caleb already knew about half the kids in his class on the first day, because I think everyone in our ward who had a first grader also requested her! ;) Some of his favorites include Camri Call (our neighbor), Apsen (another neighbor girl), Benson (another neighbor boy who he already got invited over to his house to play since school started), and many more. So I am not too worried about him loving school. I saw Mrs. McCoy on Friday night when she was picking up her daughter from the activity I was in charge of and I said with a smile, "How do you like having Caleb in your class so far?" and she smiled and said, "He is quite the chatter box isn't he?" hahaha "Yup!" But then she added, "He is so sweet though."

So now it is just me and Avery every day from 8 am to 2:45 pm! I know she already misses them because she walked around saying, "Dabe? Dabe?" (Okay maybe she just misses Gabe…haha) Then I said, "They're both at school." And she was like, "Oohhhh….." in a sad voice. Hopefully we will find some fun things to do! (And I will still get a few things done with my Etsy shop somehow!)

Here are some pictures of the boys on their first day! (and Avery at home with me in my office with her stuffed animals)

Family Pictures - August 2014

I have really tried to make it a ritual since Avery was born to be good about taking family pictures! I was kind of relaxed about the whole thing before and had never once paid for a family portrait. But once Avery was born I was like, "Alright, our family is complete… let's start doing this for real."

So, the only problem is, I am still a cheap girl at heart. I hate paying an arm and a leg for pictures. Two years ago (the first time I paid someone) I had this college girl do it who charged $100 for an hour shoot and gave us a cd with about 40 images on it. I thought that was a little high, but still ok since she was pretty good. Then the next year (2013) she upped her price to $150 and said she lowered the number of images to only 20. I was like, "No thank you." So I had our friend, Stacey, just take some. This year, I found a girl through a friend of a friend and she only charged $50 and gave us a cd with about 40 images on it. Just right! ;) Although I do wish there would have been some more options for the family pictures of us all together, Avery was being a monster so it was hard to even get one good one. I will post those at the end, but first, a quick walk down memory lane….

{ Fall 2010 - thanks, Gini! }

{ Christmas 2011- thanks, Diane! }

{ Fall 2012 - the first professional ones… }

{ Fall 2013 - thanks, Stacey! }

And finally! Here are some of our pictures this year! { August 2014 - Katy Montross Photography }
My kids were being monsters so it's a miracle we even got a few good ones...

Ten Years Together - San Diego for Chris and Holly's Wedding

Well our official ten year anniversary was August 19th, 2014. But when a good friend of Josh's (they were mission partners in Pittsburg) called us up and told us he was finally getting married (yes, he is 35!) we just had to go see this girl who finally won his heart! haha It also worked as a great excuse to get away for our ten year anniversary! So on Thursday, August 7th we flew out of Salt Lake City and arrived in San Diego around 10 am. Josh got there just in time to go deep sea fishing with the boys. I spent the day at the beach with Holly and some of her family and friends. She is super sweet, very easy going, and probably perfect for Chris (and also ten years younger… lol). It was a great weekend and the temple in San Diego is gorgeous. There was a lot of good food, including a dinner cruise, lots of beach time, and some shopping. On Sunday morning we flew out, tanned and happy. ;) Here are some pictures of our trip!