It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

 It's Back to School time!!! I joke with the kids that this is my favorite time of the year, but I truly do miss when they go back to school and the house is so quiet and empty. I do have to admit that because of Covid and our home schooling experience in March, April, and May, I was a little more ready to send them back to school this year. 

Makayla is in 4th grade this year. Her teacher is Mr. Perry (She's a little nervous about this because she has never had a boy teacher before and she heard he is the meanest teacher in the whole school). Makayla wants to be an author when she grows up and her favorite subject is reading. 

This year we have to add in the mask picture along with the backpack picture. Stupid Covid. 

Caden is in 3rd grade this year and his teacher is Mrs. Seehusen. Caden wants to be an engineer when he grows up and his favorite subject is science. 

All three of our cuties go to Elk Meadows Elementary. 

I was so excited to them to come home and hear all about their 1st day. They said it was great! Makayla said Mr. Perry was actually really nice, and not mean, and Caden said he has a lot of friends in his class. I was worried how the kids would do with having to wear a mask all day, but they said it wasn't a big deal. Their teachers would give them mask breaks during the day. 

We decided to go get ice cream to celebrate their first day!

About a week and a half later Brynnli started Kindergarten. How in the world is she old enough to go to Kindergarten? I may not be, but Brynnli is so ready! Brynnli's teacher is Miss Snow and Brynnli's favorite subject is Math. 

I may have had to bribe Makayla and Caden for this picture, but it was totally worth it. 

Hey Tyler!

Mask on.. mask off.

We took Brynnli up to the Kindergarten area and she played for a little bit. Then the bell rang and she ran over to me to give me a kiss. I didn't want to let her go. 

Then she walked in, just like that, and I cried the whole way home. Good thing Kindergarten is only 3 hours long, because I couldn't wait to pick her up. Brynnli said she loved Kindergarten and she got to do lots of things like play games. We celebrated Brynnli's successful first day with lunch out. 

Now that we are a few days into school, the kids are liking the routine. They like to ride their bikes to school with our neighbor, Josaphine Moffatt. 

On the second day of Kindergarten, I went to go wake up Brynnli for the day and I asked her if she was ready for her 2nd day, and she responded, "Ugh!!! I'm so sick of school!" Good luck the next 18 years baby girl. 

Happy back to school!!! Target, here I come!!!

August 2020

Our fun summer continues! The kids had some of their friends over for a swimming party. Tyler set up the slip and slide and the kids played outside all day long!

While Tyler was in Alaska, my mom watched the other kids while I took each kid on a special one-on-one date to lunch and back to school shopping. Caden was first. He chose Red Robin. It was so much fun to sit and talk with him. I love hearing about all of the things he's excited for and his very detailed stories.

Caden begged me for these Mario jammies. How could I tell him no?

When we got back from Mesquite I took Makayla. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of her, but she chose Subway. Lunch and shopping was so fun with Makayla. She's starting to be more of a best friend that you just want to go shopping with. She tells funny stories and is starting to be more opinionated about what kind of clothes she wants. She's just growing up so fast.

Brynnli was on Saturday and she chose Red Robin too. Brynnli was hilarious at dinner because she literally did not stop talking. I heard about all her random stories that don't make sense. She is so fun to shop with too because she loves every single piece of clothing in the stores and wants to buy all of them.

I can't believe Brynnli is going to be in Kindergarten!! Where has the time gone?

Poor Caden. He has had it rough. One day he came to me crying because he is the only one in the family who had to have a corona virus test, he is the only one who has to get a haircut (and he hates getting hair cuts), he's the only one who had to go see the eye doctor, and he had to get two baby teeth pulled... all this summer!

Good news though, his eye test came back normal and the vision concern from his school is probably more attributed to not understanding what direction b's and d's go.

As far as getting teeth pulled, Caden was super scared, but he was so brave! He took Mario with him to help him get through it all. Our dentist is fantastic. Caden got laughing gas to help him relax, but he kept looking at me with those pleading "help me" eyes. I felt so bad for him! Caden got slightly scared when they gave him the shot to numb it, but when it came time to pull out his teeth, I don't think he even realized they were out. When it was all done I said, Caden, you're done! And he goes, "I am?"

The tooth fairy came and brought him $10 and two packs of gum!!

We had a birthday party at Terry's for the August birthdays. This girl is always posing.

I just love how close our kids are to their cousins. Makayla loves hanging out with her older cousins, Carson and Colton.

I was asking Brynnli what she wanted for lunch one day and she said she wanted the face food that daddy made her. Good thing Daddy was home to recreate it because I had no idea what she wanted. Tyler is pretty creative at thinking of ways to get the kids to eat more veggies.

Makayla and Brynnli have started dance. Makayla has to take a ballet class where she has to wear a specific outfit and she has to have her hair in a bun. I was pretty impressed with this bun creation we came up with.

Makayla is loving dance.. she doesn't love ballet, but we are so proud of her and relieved she is having an easier time this year with less stress about dance.

I love nights when we're all hanging out in the kitchen. The girls were coloring and Caden was playing with Legos with dad.

Ugh.. sometimes I wonder what I married!

Had to snap this cute picture of both our dancing girls. Lucky for me both of the girls' classes are at the same time, so it's not as much driving for me. 

Our next door neighbors Jim and Lisa Sorensen go out of town all the time and when they do they ask our kids to water their plants. As a thank you, they got the kids these cute slippers. The kids loved them. 

I had my cousin make masks for the kids with their favorite character and their name. Makayla's is Harry Potter and says "Six feet away Muggle!" Caden chose Mario and Brynnli chose Hello Kitty. 

Guess who celebrated a birthday in August? This girl!

I love my birthday! Big surprise, right? Tyler had to work the day of, so me and the kids went to Wheeler Farm. We played in the park and walked around to look at the farm animals. 

Then we came home and the kids gave me so many cute gifts and lots of treats. Tyler gave me Apple Air Pods, which I love!!

Then we went to dinner at Teppanyaki. Yumm!!!

And this birthday girl totally deserves Crumbl cookies. 

So I don't just get a birthday... I get a birth weekend. Tyler and I went on a date to P.F. Chang's down town and then walked around City Creek and to the temple. The Salt Lake Temple is about 8 months into a 4 year rebuild to make it more stable if there were an earthquake. It's weird to see the temple looking like this. 

As a fun last celebration before the kids go back to school, we went to a drive in movie. The kids stayed awake during Shrek, but were out cold for Mama Mia. 

Love these summer nights. 

Now that the older kids are back in school, I had about a week and a half to spend one on one time with my little Brynnie before she starts Kindergarten. We ran errands, got lunch, and took some selfies on our way. 

Brynnli has the greatest imagination. She can spend hours in her room playing toys. I walked past her room one day and she was having a full conversation on her pretend phone. 

These kids love to go for bike rides around the block. They think they are super cool when I let them ride to the church. 

Building gravitrax in the basement. Caden loves to play with this toy, but Tyler might love it  more. 

August 2020 was so great! I love the long summer nights, but school is just around the corner. Wish us luck as we head into the new school year. 

At the end of August there were 52,107 cases of Corona in Utah and 407 deaths. Nationally there are 6.1 million cases and 187,431 deaths. I am worried that as we head into the fall and winter season, there will be more cases and deaths. The virus is scary, but taking normal precautions like wearing a mask, washing your hands frequently, and staying home when you're sick seem to help slow the spread.