First Day of 1st Grade

Carter started 1st Grade this last week! His teacher is Mrs. Gettman, and he really likes her so far. Carter struggled just a little bit in school last year, so I am a little nervous this year with him being in school all day. So far though, he is loving it!
He has been excited to be able to eat in the lunch room, and to help pack and take his own lunch. He also loves that he gets three recesses a day. Hopefully Carter will continue to enjoy school. I am excited to see what this new school year brings!

After school on the first day I promised Carter that I would make him a special treat to celebrate. He picked cupcakes with chocolate and vanilla frosting......mmmmm good!

The Backpack Fairy Came!!!

The Backpack Fairy finally showed up this year! I had the kids put their backpacks on the couch about a week ago, and told them to check every morning for the Backpack Fairy. Carter was soooo excited and was getting discouraged because it took so long for her to show up!
I got this idea from a friend of mine, and we will definitely be doing it every year, what a cute idea! I know Hailey isn't going to school yet, but I didn't want to leave her out, so she lucked out! Hailey got some books and some Crayola Window Crayons and a treat. Carter got a lunch box, Crayons, Books, a treat and some smaller school supplies that he will be needing. He was baffled that the Fairy knew that he wanted a "Shark" lunch box and was VERY Happy that she delivered!

Hailey walked around all morning with her cute little backpack on

I have lovely floor to ceiling mirrors on my closet doors, so the kids had a ball covering them with their new Crayola markers and crayons. If you haven't seen these yet, they are great, and they wash off easily which is a plus!

Last Week Of Freedom

Bryan on the Zipline

This is our last week before school starts, so I have been trying to keep the kids busy and do some fun things before we get back into a routine.

We had my family over the weekend before last for a BBQ, and to try out the zip line.

Here is Daxton trying out the zip line

Kai just getting done with the zip line.............he was a little nervous so I was proud of him for doing it, good job Kai!

The girlies relaxing on the hammock
Isabella, Aunt Eryn, and Hailey

Cute little Meili pushing the girlies on the hammock

Another day I got brave and let the kids paint with pudding. That might have been a mistake though, because now whenever I give Hailey applesauce or yogurt, she thinks she can dump it out on the table and play with it instead of eat it.......oops!

Took the kids to the "Splash Pad" one day and let them run around. Hailey was really cute. She would run over and get wet, and then run back to me and say "mommy, I got wet" then run back and do it again........over and over again.

Another day I met up with my friend Nichole and her cute kiddos and went to the Dinosaur Park. Here is Hailey with Nichole's oldest girl Mariah. Hailey just loves it when older girls give her attention.

Here's all the kids except Gracie. I tried to get them all facing the same way, but apparently it was too much to ask!
Carter, Dash, Mariah, Hailey, Oakley and Branson

Me and Hailey on the Jet Ski
Hailey loved it!


This last weekend we got together with some friends and went up to Glendale Reservoir. We rented a Jet Ski and a boat for a few hours and took a lunch to grill.

Hayden and Carter got covered in mud so they were pretending to be mummies

We went at nap time for Hailey, so she was a little tired. We tried to get her to go to sleep in the back of the car............she laid there for about 10 minutes, then she was ready to get in on the action again.

Some of the boys on the boat.
Josh, Bryan, Bryan, and Carter
This was before my little brother Bryan decided it would be fun to rip up his hands trying to Wakeboard, poor guy!

Virginia and Hailey watching the boys.
It was a really fun day. We had to run for cover a couple times when it decided to Pour Rain on us, but it was worth it!

Our Trip To JaMaiCa!!

We were able to go to Jamaica this last week, and had a blast! I took tons of pictures but tried to narrow it down to my favorites. We stayed at a Sandals All Inclusive Resort in Negril.

Enjoying the beautiful sunset

Snorkeling

We took a cruise out to Ricks Cafe one evening. When we got there they gave us life jackets and let us swim over to the Cliffs at Ricks Cafe to do some Cliff Jumping. Here is Bryan giving it a try. I don't remember how many feet from the water it was, but it was pretty high up there. Our tour guides told us that many people have broken legs and arms doing this, so I of course did not try it. Bryan did it once, then called it good!

Ricks Cafe

One of the CJ's (Crazy Jamaican) on the boat. If you ever need to liven up a party, invite a Jamaican. They are Hilarious! They had us cracking up constantly. Great great people with awesome sense of humors.

One day we did the Zipline Canopy Tour. This was probably Bryan and I's favorite tour that we did. It consisted of about 20 different ziplines. They have platforms built in trees and you zipline from one tree to another. It was gorgeous and a ton of fun.

Our tour guide was telling us that there is nothing dangerous in the Jamaican forrests, but we found many of these spiders hanging above our heads. They are not poisonous, but nonetheless are pretty darn creepy.

This as at the Dolphin Cove. They had some different reptiles to check out.

Dolphin Cove

We got to swim with the dolphins, which also was a once in a lifetime experience! It was so much fun. Dolphins are like dogs. They love to play and love to be touched and loved. We got to ride on their bellies for a short time, dance with them, sing with them and give them kisses. This picture is not of me unfortunately. They would not let us take our camera in the water and get our own pictures. They wanted to charge you to buy theirs for a ridiculous price, so we didn't buy any. Call it a boycott if you will! Now I am regretting it though!

These are some friends that we met at the resort.
Bryan, I, Robbi, Robert, Mark and Margo

Tory, Bryan and Josh at Margaritaville

We were able to meet up with our friends Josh and Virginia while we were there. We planned our trip, then they planned a trip out there to get married. We had no idea each other was going and found out that we picked resorts that were 5 minutes from each other, and our vacations overlapped by a day! We thought it was pretty funny how that worked out! We got a taxi and went to Margaritaville, Ricks Cafe , and did some shopping.
Above is Me, Bryan, Virginia, Josh, Tory, and Hilda

Ricks Cafe

My view from my lawn chair..........ahhhh

This is an idea of what the "stores" look like there. I did not realize how much poverty was there, and it really opened my eyes to how lucky we are to live in the U.S. The day that we got there and drove from the airport to our hotel, I was wondering what I got myself into! It was a little bit scary driving past armed guards with machine guns in their hands! We saw many people bathing in the ocean, and many very small shacks that held large families with no electricity or running water. I think I saw 1 park the whole time I was there. It really made me think how lucky we are to raise our children in pretty safe communities and my heart ached for those children who have nothing. The thing that really surprised me is that even though these people are very poor, they have hearts of gold and are such amazing people.
We had such a great experience and are so glad we got the chance to go. Thanks to our Wonderful parents who took our kids! They had so much fun and it made it easier on us to know that they were safe and keeping busy! It is good to be home again and to be able to give my kids lots and lots of kisses.