birthday, trip, and corn maze

Leah is 7! What a big girl she's getting to be. This year she started talking about her birthday months early. We all got a little bit tire of hearing about her birthday day after day, but she was excited. She wanted to take a treat to share with her class and she insisted that I come in and have lunch with her at school. We had to start the birthday festivities at 3:00 because Aaron had to teach piano lessons. Leah was a little bummed about that, so I rented the new Tinkerbell movie and told her the next door neighbor could come watch it with her. That made her happy again. Aaron and I decided we didn't want to have friend birthday parties every year. So they get to have one on their even number birthdays. It seems like the special birthdays fall on those years. It's too much work to do one every year. Leah seemed to have a fun day. She got another zhu zhu pet, this ones a girl, so she was excited. She didn't want a birthday cake this year. Just cupcakes and ice cream. That was easy enough. I threw 7 of them on a plate with candles. It took her 5 or 6 tries to blow them out. I'm not sure why she had such a hard time. Every year, I tell her about the day she was born.  she loves to hear about it, and I love to remember. She was such a cute little peanut. 5lb 7oz and 19" long. Such a tiny little thing. I had nothing for her to wear because she was so small, so Aaron ran to the store and bought her a couple pairs of premie jammies that she wore for the first few weeks of her life. Leah was such a beautiful little girl with her olive colored skin and long black hair. She had so much hair when she was born. We love our little Leah.

 

Next:

Aaron and I took a trip to St. George with some good friends last weekend. We try to do it once a year and we always have such a great time. Aaron's parents are always so good to watch the kids. The kids had a great time with their grandma and grandpa.  It's always nice to get away for a few days and have a break from everything. We have a free place to stay there, which makes this vacation possible for us. We did a little shopping at the outlets, went golfing, played lots of games and relaxed. We always try to go to Las Vegas one of the days. And this year we went to see the Hoover Dam too. That was pretty neat. I won't bore everyone with the details of everything, but we had a great time. Thanks Cameron and Jenny!

Here's a picture on our way out of town. My mom hitched a ride so she could go stay with my sister for the weekend. They also watched the kids one of the nights.

 

 There was a huge sting ray in the aquarium at Ceasar's palace by the cheescake factory(where we always have to ear!). I had to take a picture.

Finally:

We took the kids to the corn maze that they have here in town. We had a great time and the kids loved it. We had to find 12 different post and we were able to do it! It only took about an hour. It probably wasn't the best corn maze around. Half the corn only came up to my waist, but it was perfect for kids. I love fall time. It's probably my favorite time of year with the excitement of all the holidays to look forward to. I love when the leaves change color. It's such a beautiful time of year. Plus a huge bonus is that the wind blows the least in the fall.

 

summer catch up

Is it the end of September already? I can't believe it. I won't bore everyone with everything we've been doing this summer. Just with a little bit. We had my McDaniel family reunion in August. We went to our usual camping place and it was a lot of fun. Cold!!! but fun. The first day we got up there it started raining as soon as we got there, but as you can see, everyone managed to find a way to keep dry:)

 Leah and Kelsey had so much fun with their cousins. They just don't get to see them often enough. This hammock was also in a perfect place to keep dry.

 Jax and Parks with Grandma and Grandpa. They love their grandparents.

 Grandpa, taking the boys for a walk.

 Grandpa, walking around with the boys on the little bike. I know it's pink, but this is actually my nieces. And these two boys had all kinds of fun on it. I'm so glad Jax has a little cousin close by and close to his age to play with. These two will have lots of fun growing up.

 Leah's first day of school! First grade, here she comes. It's kind of a dark picture. She was so excited to start school again. And now a month into it she's loving it. She's such a smart little girl. I can't believe how well she can read. It's crazy.

 Waiting in line to catch the bus. I know, laugh all you want. I am the mom at the bus stop taking pictures.

 This stool took the place of Jax's high chair when I put  that away. It has become the favorite sitting place, if you can't tell from the next few pics.

We had a fun summer and we're not enjoying the fall. The girls are busy with dance again, and loving it. They have a new teacher and they think she's great. Leah is busy with school, and Kelsey has a little preschool playdate that she loves. Jax is just busy, busy, busy. He has his 18 month checkup tomorrow. So we'll see how he's growing. He is such a little man. And already the biggest tease in the world. I warned the girls he'd catch on fast, but you know how well they listen. He's talking quite a bit, not in sentences yet but he says quite a few words. We are having so much fun with him.

soccer and camping

So, soccer began and is now almost over. I can't believe how fast this summer has gone. Leah did soccer last year and we decided to try it again this year with both girls. They are not on the same team, so we have practice for one Monday, practice for the other Tuesday. Game for one on Wed and a game for the other on Thursdays. Between soccer, Aaron teaching piano lessons Thursday nights, my relief society stuff Tuesday nights and Aaron's elder's quorum visits whenever he can throw them in, we've been running, running, running. Luckily, soccer will be over in two weeks. Yea! It has been fun though.

This will probably be the last year for Leah. She doesn't really like it and sad to say it is obviously not her thing. She's tried every position and don't tell her I said this, because I'd feel bad, but it's almost painful to watch.  Leah was born to dance which she will continue to do. However, Aaron is determined she learn to play all kinds of sports, so I guess next year we'll try something else. Maybe tennis?

On the other hand, we think Kelsey found her niche. She's a natural! I don't know if it's just soccer, or all sports, but she pretty much rocks. The other week she scored 3 goals in one game. She knows how to get in there and she's not afraid to take it from the other team. Usually she's the only girl there on her team and the other mom's laugh about how Kelsey can hold her own with this team of boys. It's so fun to watch her excell in something.

Yes, these two have there differences and are starting to like different things, but they love each other. They are such good friends and they have alot of fun together. I love my girls, they make me laugh.

We have also gone camping a couple times this year so far. It has been a lot of fun. The kids all reallly enjoy it. We went once just our little family by ourselves and another time with some of our neighbors. Both times we had a lot of fun.

Jax loved being in the dirt. He was such a mess the whole time. The girls weren't exactly neat and clean either. All part of camping right?

Aaron always puts up a hammock or two. We love to relax in them(or sleep in them).

At the lake with friends. This is up at island park. Aaron and Eric swam out to that floating dock out there and practiced back flips off it for awhile. Kelsey decided she'd to get to dad, so she got on a little floaty(thankfully with her life jacket on) and headed out(without my knowledge). As you can see the waves are not exactly headed the right direction. The next thing I know all the kids are yelling at Kelsey I look out at the water, and there she is, just floating away. So I jumped in the water(with my watch on) and swam out to bring her in. She started crying, but it wasn't because she was scared, it's because I wouldn't let her float out to dad. She had no clue that she was going the wrong direction or anything. I'm such a bad mother!

A little of this and that

This will be a month of catch up. We went to Blackfoot for memorial day and visited my dad's grave. I love meeting my brothers and sisters there and talking about dad. We all have such good memories. However, this year did not turn out so great. Kelsey was just getting over being sick and Leah started complaining in the car on the way down that she wasn't feeling well, so our visit was short. All three of the kids and then me got sick and it was not a good week. We recovered and are doing well now.

A big surprise for us though. I posted just barely that Leah learned to ride her bike without training wheels, well, that got Kels all ready to try it too. And off she went. So now both girls are training wheel free. Yes that is me riding Leah's little bike. Just having a little fun. 

So I was talked into making some arrangements for Aaron's office, and it sparked something inside. It's been so long since I've made anything. Since I quit working I've only done a couple weddings, so this was fun for me.  Well, the monster has been unleashed and we'll see where that takes us. Aaron has been wanting me to start up a buisness in our home since we built it. We even has a room we designed just for this. Just to do weddings and home decor and funerals. We'll see if it ever happens.

And now just a few pictures of some summer fun. Aaron's work party was at a water park which was fun. The kids had a blast. And the other pics are from a day spent at my sisters house with a bunch of the cousins. They had tons of fun that day too. Jax loves the water. He's play in it all day if he could.

Ok, and this last one is really random, but I thought it was so cute I had to take a picture. One of the girls weekly chores is dusting certain things in the house. Jax think he has to have a dust rag too and he follows the girls around the house trying to copy them. It makes me laugh. Here they are dusting the railing.

Kindergarten Graduation, Dance recital, and OUCH!

Lots been going on here at the Brown house. We've been keeping busy. Some of this stuff is from a few weeks ago, but I'm just getting time to catch up. Leah had her last day of school yesterday. I can't believe she has a year behind her already. It went fast. I'm not sure how I feel about summer vacation yet. Leah's school schedule was all day Mon, Wed, and every other Friday. It was a weird adjustment at first, but I ended up really liking it. It gave the girls a break from each other every other day, and so when they did play the other days, there didn't seem to be as much fighting. So now that they'll be around each other again 24/7, I'm a little worried that I'll be pulling my hair out by the end of the summer. We'll see. Anyway, the kindergarten had their program the other week and we got to go listen to them sing some songs they'd been learning and then they graduated.(that always makes me laugh). Here's Leah with her cap and certificate.

We have been very busy with dance the last month. It's been a lot of time not to mention money. I'm ready to be done for the summer. I've been taking the girls to rexburg for dance class every week and they're not in the same class so I end up spending about 3 1/2 hours waiting. And anyone who knows rexburg knows there's not a whole lot to do there. That was hard. We also have decided that competitions are just too much for us at this point. So between time and money, we've decided to put them in a different dance group here in Rigby that offers just weekly classes with a few performances here and there. They are actually a pretty good group too. I really want my kids to get a good variety of activities. And when they get older, they can choose what they'd like to excel in. The girls were a little disapointed, because they really liked their teacher and classes, and they were in the same dance company as all of my nieces so we won't get to see them dance as much, but I think this will be best for us. Anyway, they had their big end of year dance recital last night. It was so fun to see them dance. They do such a good job. Between the two of them they were in 6 dances, so I was running trying to get them changed in time for each dance. Thank goodness for video cameras so I can actually watch and enjoy. There was a backdrop that one of the mom's brought so I got a couple of cute pictures. They all wore a fancy dress for their opening number.

 

I told them to pose in front of the trophies, and this is the outcome.

Leah, Kelsey and their cousins. They all did so good.

Kesley wasn't on the team, so the recital was her only performance. So I had to make sure to get a pic in all her costumes. Here's her pose.

This was taken at Lagoon a couple weeks ago. Leah and her class.

Jax and Oakleigh at the recital. I took like ten pics of them and this is the best I got. Neither wanted to cooperate too well.

And finally, for all who held on and read this novel and picture book. Jax had a little accident a few days ago. I had a Relief Society meeting and when I came home, Aaron and the girls were sitting at the table playing a game and Jax was sitting in his high chair eating a huge peice of chocolate cake. I thought it was pretty cute until I got a good look at his face. No one really knows what happens for sure, because he was the only one in the room, but he was playing around my scrapbooking table and fell and this was the outcome. Aaron said it didn't really even bleed, but it sure looks like it hurt.This is acutally a couple days later when the bruising got worse, but my camera sucks and so the picture doesn't really do it justice. I think it's the combination of the sore and the droopy brown eyes, but this picture tugs at my heart.

And finally, finally, (I promise) just a couple random pitures. Kelsey brought up the rocking horse the other day and these two had a hay day. They took turns on it, rode it together and had a lot of fun. You squeeze the ears and it makes different horse noises. Jax just laughed and thought it was great.

And this is just another picture of Jax walking around. I love this outfit and it was actually warm enough for him to wear it one day last week. I love watching him walk around. He hardly ever crawls anymore. He just waddles around with his legs a mile apart. I love my kids(if you can't tell).