This is our little Ella Mae who thinks she is going to school.  All her other siblings go so why not her.  I ended up getting her a backpack because she was begging to wear one and of course she had to take a pictures on the rock where all her other siblings took their "going to school" pictures.  I am just glad that she is happy to run errands with me and consider that school.  I am also grateful that I'm no yet sending all my kids to school yet.  I love having my little buddy around and she keeps things interesting to say the least.  She is very strong willed, knows what she wants and usually screams to get it.  Her hair has always cracked us up and she learned from a very young age to push it out of her face all the time.  ( I guess I'm not that good at doing it all the time)  She loves being outside and playing with "her friends" or whoever will play with her.   She loves lip gloss and usually has one, if not two, in her pockets at all times.  Which means she won't wear anything that doesn't have pockets. YIKES!!  I don't know how I got her to wear this dress, I guess I can be cleaver too.  Elias is usually pretty good to look out after her, but I don't want him teaching her too many things.  We love the baby of the family and can't believe how fast she is growing up. 

She loved riding this bike around the neighborhood, until seth ran over it with his car. Luckily we have a little bigger one she is getting the hang of.

Crazy Days

 I am now filling the stress of having my children grow up and get involved in many activities.  This past saturday was one of them.  It didn't help that Seth was out of town for the weekend doing a convention in Oregon.  But It wasn't all bad because Seth's mom came up and I was able to spend the day with her and we just hopped from one game to the next.  It was really great to have her help and also to share the pride of my children with her.  I mean who else can you brag with except their grandma.  Our saturdays are crazy where we have three soccer games and Isaac has double hitter baseball games.  I am just grateful that we have friends in every sport who help us out getting everyone to where they need to go, and on time.  I have a lot of favors to pay back that is for sure.  Not to mention we have BYU football season tickets and have to get down to Provo.  It takes some manipulating, but it is all worth it!

This is "cool guy" Isaac getting ready to catch a ball.  He has many nicknames like "ZIC" and "Smalls".  He has a great time and is learning a lot.

This is Micah's forth year playing soccer and they have a good little team.  This year they made us split up the team because they were too old and dominating every team.  It didn't help much because they killed the team this week.  I love how intense Micah looks, mostly because he is usually laughing and smiling. 
McKenna is on a club team, again.  And this seems to be her thing.  She is really good and has a great team.  I find her practicing in our backyard all the time.  She is loving it and it is fun to see her progress.
This is Elias's first year playing soccer and I loved going to this game the best because it is so funny.  At the beginning of the game I looked over to see Elias on the sidelines, just watching.  What is funny about this is that he was suppose to be playing and there were only two boys on the field and there were suppose to be three.  After I told him he needed to be out there he picked it right up and scored four goals right in a row.  It is hard to hold back a four year old and tell him not to score so much.  Of course it is beehive ball and they are all in a group, but the funniest part is when they pick up the ball with their hands and place it where they want it to be so they can make a goal.  I laughed so hard, it was great!  By the way Elias has worn his full uniform every day since.  He is pretty excited to be finally playing instead of watching.

School Days!

The 1st day of school was a couple of weeks ago and I love having a schedule.  I am really trying to be more flexible and not get so much into a routine, but I have to admit I just like it better when we are in a routine.  We set up how our mornings are going to go and what we are going to accomplish (piano, scriptures, breakfast, getting ready, etc) and then everyone in the family knows what to expect and just gets it done.  Our mornings have been going pretty smoothly, I mean as smoothly as it can be getting four kids ready for school.  I love our school schedule because school doesn't start until almost 9:00am and it gives us a lot of time to get the things done we need to in the morning.  I do miss the kids when they are gone and so does Elias and Ella, but I also know they are learning how to progress on their own and that is a key part of growing up.  What a great time of year!

Arizona Visit!

Yes we went to Arizona in August.  If any body knows anything it is to not go to Arizona in August.  It is usually really hot and the pools are no longer refreshing because it has been so hot all summer.  But it was the only time to go and Seth was going to be out of town for two weeks so I said "what the heck."  

Of course I had a fabulous time and it is always so fun to spend time with my four siblings that live down there now.  What was really nice was that I was able to spend time with each family by staying with them each individually for a few nights.  This seems to be such a great way to get the quality time that you need to keep those relationships going. The kids love to be with the their cousins and it is always a party!  What is even better is that everyone is so gracious and acts as if they don't have anything else to do except have me at their house.  I know that isn't the case, but thank you anyways for all that you do.  We had a blast.  It wasn't too hot and the pool was actually cool and refreshing.  We did a lot of swimming and the kids really know how to entertain themselves for hours in a pool.

Ella loved jumping off this rock cliff think at my brother's pool.  It was fun to watch all the kids do tricks off of it.
Even though it was so hot outside Isaac, Smith, and Paxton put on pads did some hitting in the backyard.  It didn't last too long because they were dying out there.
Isaac being a tough guy!
Here are just some of the cousins that we have down in Arizona and believe it or not this isn't all of them.  Can you see why it is so much fun to go down no matter what the weather is like.

McKenna and her cousin Ellie playing dress up.  Yikes I hope this is just a phase!
Ella and her cousin Lucy in matching swim suits.  They are so cute!
Isaac and his cousins trying to make a four man pyramid.  They could never get that forth man on.  But they sure tried for a long time.
We spent a few days up in cooler weather at my sisters cabin.  That was great fun.  They have such a great set up where the kids can play, swim, golf, and do all sorts of things.  It was pretty relaxing for the moms as well.
We also celebrated by nephew birthday while we were up there.  That is always lots of fun for the kids.  I hope he had a good day.