Valley West Mall

The last Tuesday of every month the Valley West Mall has bounce houses, face painting, coloring, a craft and sometimes a train FREE for families. We have been a few time and the kids really enjoy it and did I mention it is FREE. And sometimes they even have a theme like princess and spiderman. We have never had time to get our faces painted but this time we did and it was a big hit. We had to wait in line for about 40 minutes but that's why we got there early... well 30 minutes later than planned but it ended up being okay.

Here are a few pictures with the princesses...some are from April 2011 and some are from August 2011 looking back I can't believe how much the girls have changed in the short of time.

Jasmine

Belle


Snow White

block party

Every year our street gets blocked off and we have a "block party". Last year it was really fun, we met a lot of our neighbors and the kids loved to play in the street. We went to it again this year and had a great time again talking and eating with our neighbors. The city also sends a fire truck, ambulance and a cop car for the kids to look at and climb in...well this year Jason put Austin in the drivers seat of the Fire truck and he thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Olivia, Madi, Hayden, Savannah and Ava...these girls run around together all day long

word of wisdom

Two or three weekends a month Jason has to work weekends at the hospital, which means he is running the traumas that come in and not just scheduled surgeries. Now that he has been doing this for over a year I have come to gain a great testimony of the word of wisdom....When he comes home after his long weekends and tells me all the things he did and that most of them were alcohol related I now know why the Lord has told us to stay away from it. He has seen people paralyzed from diving in pools that were too shallow but since they were drunk they didn't realized it, shot, in accidents, killed in or killed someone because they were drunk driving, in bar fights, etc, etc, etc. Doctors/residents see this all the time and Jason can't figure out why they say stuff about him not drinking. Sometimes he just wants to point to the patients and say it's not just because of my religion but because I don't want to end up in the trauma bay.

two-wheels

Madi learned to ride a two-wheeler this afternoon.




I have been feeling guilty not spending more time with my kids so after cleaning the house this morning, I took Austin outside to play while I painted my toenails which turned into a girl fest of painting even though last night we painted every ones nails. So we painted and spent time together then after Austin's nap he wanted to go play outside again so I had this idea to teach Madi how to ride a two-wheeler, even though I was thinking there is no way she will get it since she really doesn't like to ride her bike with training wheels...boy was I wrong.

We got her all padded up, I explained the 2 rules (1-don't look back at me 2-keep peddling) and I started running with her for about 10 sec let go and she was off, but I kept running just in case, helped her 1 or 2 more times with balance and that was it...




She was LOVING it! I was very surprised. She has been riding Savannah's scooter and balances well, but I just never thought she was ready to learn. After a few rides back and forth, I taught her how to get on it by herself and has already mastered that too.

Now the only problem is getting her off the bike.

Yeah Madi girl! Way to go! You are my good bike rider!

PS there were no tears, only excitement from the time I mentioned it to her. I guess I should have taught her sooner.

Now I'm on the look out for a bike for Olivia, apparently she was just staring to ride Madi's bike with the training wheels and loving it.

Preschool

Her desk.

(Picture taken at "meet the teacher" a week before school)

Her Locker.

(picture taken at "meet the teacher")

Today was Madi's first day of preschool. We put her in the program though the school district and she LOVES it. It is everyday, except Wednesdays, in the morning for 2 1/2 hours. She couldn't wait to start and when we got there she was the first friend to get a job...she got to be the door holder.

Olivia wasn't so excited about Madi starting preschool and had a very bad day because she wanted to start school too. So we decided we would do a little preschool again with just her and mommy. She packed her own backpack and we took pictures of her too. Then after we dropped Madi off we came home, did some pages in her new workbook, practiced writing her name and had a snack. So far she loves it, infact she couldn't wait to tell Madi about her first day of preschool too.

swimming lessons

Savannah and Madi took swimming lessons at the public Aquatic Center. They LOVED it and did a great job, they both passed! (I learned that not everyone passes and moves on to the next level next year, who knew, I just thought they moved everyone up.)

Savannah did a great job swmimming and learned some new things, like rock floats, this year. She isn't afraid to try anything they ask her.

Madilynn surprised me she was swimming all over the place with her head underwater, even without her teacher. Way to go Madi!


Olivia is taking lessons at the Y. She is in the waterbabies class which means a parent gets in the water with their child, yea. This is the last year she can take that class so I thought it would be a good starter class for her. She is a little shy around people she doesn't know and HATE to get her face wet so this gives me time to work with her and then next year we will put her in the public pool classes. She really does like it even though she cries when we make her go all the way under the water and every day when it is over she says, "It's over all ready, that was shoort" and then can't wait to tell her sisters and dad what she did.

1st grade

She picked out her own outfit.


Walking to school with friends. Hayden (kindergarten), Ava and Savannah (1st grade)

her locker.

at her desk. She was surprised to see that the top opened and she could put her stuff inside.

After school the two new 1st graders. They aren't in the same class, like they were last year for Kindergarten and up til today they weren't too sure how that would be but I think by the look on their faces they had a great time and everything will be okay.