Tuesday, August 31, 2010

First day of School!

I realize I posted Meliah's first day of school but not Lizzy and Christian's. Lizzy just started Kindergarten and her teacher is Mrs. Dempsey. Christian is in the 6th grade in Middle School at Manzanita. I was at a family reunion for the 1st day of school, so I avoiding crying when I left Lizzy for her first day. So, here are the pictures from the 2nd day of school, close enough, right?

My Lizzy Lou has been ready for school for a long time!

Here she is with her friends, Megan, Cate and Kennison

Christian - 6th grade

He's nervous about going to AP Algebra this year! Argh!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Meliah's 1st day of school

My sweet Meliah loves her teacher, Mr Stewart, and is so excited to be in a class with two of her best friends ever, Calissa and Samie.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Our Camping Trip

My handsome husband, making sure we get our scriptures read.

The boat races! It was so fun we did it again!

Roasting Marshmellows

Lizzy hands me her stick and says, "Mom, will you get the black part off?"

Aaron posing for me.

Meliah trying to get her boat unstuck.

I love the background in this picture!

Daddy with his girls!

Lizzy painting!

Lizzy and I (Oh how I will miss her when she goes off to school this year)

Christian being cute! He loved sitting out on the end of this log.

Timer set, Aaron runs... whew! We got the family picture.

This year we didn't get to go camping with Aaron's family because of Aaron's work schedule, so we decided to go just our little family for a one nighter. We had such a great time together, playing games, eating (of course), having boat races and exploring at the Sly Creek Reservoir.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

All-Stars!

Grandma and Grandpa came to all three of the games. They are so supportive of everything the kids do... I don't know how they do it!

Christian with his friend Chase. They are such great buddies and I love it because Chase is an awesome kid.

Aaron helped coach the team with the Conroys. Those were such busy days, I never saw him except from a distance.

Christian before the game.

When Christian pitched he was very calm and did an amazing job.

Christian played on the All-Stars teams this year. I wanted to post some of the pictures we got. He played 3 games. They won the first one, barely! The score ended up being 10-9 after we had been behind the entire game. He was put in as pitcher in the 3 inning and the score was 3-9 and the team never scored on Christian's pitches again. It was a very exciting game! The other two games were complete blowouts but they were still fun to watch. Christian play pitcher, shortstop and third base.

Families are Forever!

Families are Forever!
What a great blessing

I sure do love my family!

I sure do love my family!

Our 3 little ones!

Our 3 little ones!
We have been so blessed!!!

My parenting plan!!

I have been thinking a lot lately of what I need to teach my kids to help them become independant physically, spiritually and mentally so when they turn 18 they will be able to survive on their own. The last 9 years has flown by so quickly I can't believe it. Nine more years and my first child will be old enough to be on his own. That is a real wake up call for a mother who hasn't prepared her children for those important days. I realize that I have gone on way to long without a list of what needs to be learned and done by what age so that my kids will not be horrified when they get out into the world alone. So, I've come up with a list of most everything I can think of that would be important for my kids to know and learn and what ages they should be capable. Of course, every child is different and is capable of different things at different ages. Some learn things faster and are more motivated. Others would like to just live in the home cave for the rest of their lives and have no motivation to do any of it. So, I am including my fairly flexible plan. But if you let too many years slip by, you may need to up the work to fit everything in. I got most of my ideas from a very experienced LDS author (Merilee Boyack) who has raised several children successfully! So, hopefully you find this as helpful as I do!