South Padre Island

In September we went to South Padre Island with our good friends the Harlow family and Louise and Ajia Faughnan. We had such a great time being together and letting the kids play at the beach! They had never been before (well when Ally was like 2 and Annalise was a baby we went, but they don't remmebr that!)so it was awesome. We flew kites at the beach, made awesome sand castles (thanks to dad!), played in the water, ate lots of food and had such a great time. We all stayed in a big house together that was right off the beach. There was a pool in the back yard of the house so if the kids were ready for a new scene we could just go back to the house and let them play! It was Ajia's birthday while we were there so it was fun celebrating that with her. We all stopped at the store on the way in and bought tons of food to munch on while we were there - which always makes life more enjoyable! We played and played and played some more and finally Megan was so tuckered out that she crashed on the couch! Poor girl! The kids loved it and we definitely want to go back again!!

Awesome Teacher!

Ally's kindergarten and first grade teacher Miss Hendrix has just been such a special person to out family. We all love her dearly! This summer she wanted to help Ally prepare for 2nd grade so she offered to tutor her once a week for free! She said she just wanted to, so how could I turn that down? Plus, Ally adores her and thought the chance to go to her teacher's house once a week was sooo cool! It first started off with one hour and then after the first day Miss Hendrix said that one hour went by way too fast so changed it to an hour and a half because they had so much fun.

Anyway, before we were leaving on our beach trip to South Padre Island Miss Hendrix asked Ally to come early and stay for two hours. While she was there so got her "ready" for her trip! She painted her nails, made her some bows for her hair and the list goes on and on. THEN she gave us all a care package to take with us on our 6 hour road trip. She had notebooks and coloring for all of the girls and chips and drinks and cookies and donuts and candy for all of us for the trip! She even gave each of the girls their own dollar to spend when we stopped at the gas station!! It was SO generous and SO amazing! Annalise and Megan love being included and it was just such a fun surprise for all of us. She truly is a special person to think of our kids so much! She said she wanted to come with us, so next time we will definitely invite her to come along!!

Kid's Picture Taking Time!

Since we had the camera upstairs for Annalise and we were all done with baths and ready for bed before it was actually bedtime, the girls thought they would each take a turn with the camera themselves. This is one of their favorite things to do. They all had to take a turn and we had a good time making silly faces and "smiling for real!"

Annalise is missing teeth!

Annalise lost both of her two bottom teeth at the same time! This is beginning to become a tradition because Ally lost both of hers a day apart from each other (it would've been the same day, but she kinda freaked out! haha). Annalise was SO nervous, but once they were gone she was so excited and thought she was majorly stepping up in the world! She put both of them in her tooth fairy pillow that Grandma Dayton made (SO cute!) and couldn't wait for morning time to see what the tooth fairy had in store for her! Daddy thinks the kids need to be rich when they loose teeth so she got a dollar for each tooth! WOW!

Jake Snoozin'

This little guy just zonked right out in his exer-saucer. The girls were playing upstairs and he was watching them (they are very entertaining) when all of a sudden they came down stairs and told us to grab the camera! He had fallen fast asleep! He is just too cute! This was towards the end of August, and then he did it again in the beginning of September! I had to catch a couple more shots of my sweet baby boy!

1st Day of School 2010

August 23, 2010 was the first day of school for Ally and Annalise! Ally was a big second grader and Annalise was just starting kindergarten! Annalise was SO ready for this day. When I dropped Ally off at school for first grade Annalise could've easily gone to kindergarten! She is really bright and could read really well before school even started. The girls could hardly sleep the night before and were easy to wake up (don't I wish they were like that every day!). We woke up and began our morning routine and were off! It was so nice to have Annalise awake to join us for family prayer. Since school has started so early (7:30am) Ally and I just say family prayer together and then I have said it with everyone else when they all wake up. It was great having another family member with us finally! Megan was so excited for the both of them that she was up bright and early herself! Ally's second grade teacher was Myra Gongora and Annalise's teacher was Andrea Mulvogue. Unfortunately Mrs. Mulvogue was on maternity leave for a few months so Annalise didn't have her all year. Annalise did have a permanent substitute while her teacher was gone (Ms. Stewart) and she loved her as well. I can't believe these two are in school together now. Everyone asks if they are twins!!
I was a bit worried about Annalise on the first day so I decided to go and have lunch with Ally and Annalise at school. Besides...Megan and Jake would love to go and visit. I surprised them and they both loved it. Did I mention that Megan loved going?? It was really fun!

Josh's Utah Recruiting Trip

Josh went out to Utah to recruit for BYU and was able to spend some time with his family while he was there. It was really fun that his parents were in town from Ohio visiting at the same time. He had a great time as usual. I really liked this picture of Josh so I had to crop it! He is SUCH a handsome man. I hope Jake looks just like him when he gets older!!

Party Boat 2010

For the second year in a row a bunch of families in the ward got together and rented a party boat and spent the day on the lake. The kids were so excited to do it again because everyone had such a great time the year before. Annalise even jumped off the big platform and loved it! I couldn't believe she did it. She is really starting to become more adventurous these days. It has been fun to watch her grow into herself. Jake and I stayed on the boat for the most part since he was just so little and I wasn't a huge fan of him getting into that water...paranoid, I know. Josh had a great time with the kids though. This year we actually rented two boats and went out together. That meant that there were 100 people from our ward out on the lake having a great time together. It was a great memory!