Tiny Dancer

Tuesday August 23rd

This week Lexie started her very first 'dance tass'. The day I signed her up, about 3 weeks ago, we went and bought her a little dance outfit. Every day since she has asked 'when does my dance tass stawt?'

She was so excited for it. And when the day came she could hardly wait to get in her leotard and go.

 Once we got there and it was time to go in, it was a whole different story. The mom's don't get to watch. Which is a huge bummer for me. I need pictures. So when her teacher told her your mommy will be right here when you're done, she didn't like that. Her cousin Kambree is in the class with her and I tried to get her to go in with her, but she didn't care at that point. Finally I just put her down, her teacher took her in and I left.

When she was all done Ms. Cassie said she did just fine once she got in there. I knew she would!

First day of Pre-school...

august 24th

For the last time!!

Poor kid will have gone through 3 years of it.

But he doesn't complain.

This year has been a little harder [on me] since all of his friends in our ward

and on our street started Kindergarten.

I actually forgot to get a picture before I took him

so I snapped this one when I picked him up.

Pine Valley

Last weekend Colby won 'Best Dad Ever'

like we didn't already know that.

I needed to run around town and get some things...without kids.

So he took all 3 kids up to Pine Valley to hang out with his parents, go fishing, shoot guns.

Whatever they wanted to do.

I tried to get my mom to go with me,

but I didn't know that her and my dad had snuck out of town for the weekend.

So I was really on my own.

[Anyway...]

they had a blast.

Don't know why Noah didn't make it into any of the pictures.

They fished. But didn't catch a thing!

Went on a hike.

Played at the house.

Played in the river. Cutler.

And shot the guns.

Lexie stayed with grandma while the boys did that.

Janet loved that Lexie talked her ear off. She's not usually like that.

Only if she has one on one time.

This kid will jump in the water anywhere. Anytime. Naked. And he doesn't care who's around.

Play group & the Carousel

We have this super fun play group that we usually get together with once a week. Well, this summer it pretty much fizzled out with everthing that everyone had going on. So now that school is back in, we've tried to get it going again. Last week most of us met at the splash pad downtown. The kids had so much fun playing together again.

This is all Lexie would do with the fountain part.

The boys on the other hand. They loved it!

 When we were done playing in the water, I took them over to the carousel. They've been a few times, but I hadn't ever been. We rode 2 times. Lexie would only sit on the bench, not a horse. Don't know if there was a bad experience sometime...or what?

Cutler's actual birthday

Cutler's actual birthday was on a Sunday.

He was super excited to get sung to in primary. And he was the only one [he said] so he loved it even more!! After church I let him choose what we had for dinner.

Lasagna. It's one of his favorites!

We invited Papa Kent over too, since he wasn't here for the party.

We waited and had him open our presents on his actual birthday.

Just so it seemed like the real thing.

There wasn't much, but it was fun watching his expression as he ripped the paper off each present.

Whenever we're in a store and he sees a bell for a bike he talks about how much he wants one. We think it's kinda girly, but he wanted one.

And he loves it!

Beyblades were his toy of choice this year. [thank you Smith & Jones]

He was super excited to get another one from Noah!

And the face for clothes. Or the not so exciting gifts!

While we were in Mexico they had these masks everywhere! Cutler is our costume kid. He loves to disguise himself. So Colby just knew he wanted to get one for him. We looked & looked but couldn't ever find one I liked. Then one night we met this little boy, exactly Cutler's age, with a mask that had a cape attached to it. Batman.

I told Colby we could get Cutler one of these ones. Well, we couldn't find one, so Colby just got this one.

Nacho Libre.

Colby was so excited for Cutler to open this present. He just knew Cutler would love it!

Well, Cutler doesn't know who Nacho Libre is, so he didn't really care.

He still doesn't. And won't wear it or play with it.

Colby's very sad about it.

Funny story.

Cutler, we hope you had the best birthday ever! We love you so much, and can't wait to see what new things you learn this year!!

Cutler's Carnival

 Warning: tons of pictures. tons of information.

I love throwing a fun birthday party! My parents think I'm crazy. But I know (hope, really) my kids will be so thankful when they're older and they look back on their birthdays, and see how much fun they were. [wink wink] Anyway...I've always wanted to do a carnival. And this year I did it. The planning probably started clear back in February...at least. And I thought it turned out Super Cute!!

Each person invited had a ticket with their name on it attached to the invitation. Then it was put into a drawing when they got here. The winner was Smith and he got a [drum roll please] Beach Ball!!

I wasn't quite ready when the kids started coming so that part was a little crazy. When they got here, I had a little bag with their name on it and a few little things in it...clown nose, crazy straw, lollipop, and then they used that bag to carry around their prizes from each booth. They also were given a ticket for each of the booths, that they used to get to play the game.

Once I had some parents here to help, we got the games going.

I have to explain this one. (like you really care) At the 'kissing booth' you had to guess how many kisses were in the container. The person who guessed the closest amount won the whole container. Noah won it! He guessed 270, and there were 265. Also at that table was the 'lollipop pull'.

The face painting was such a hit we had to stop so Cutler could open presents.

Some of the yummy food

Presents

Most of the party gang

Have you ever tried to get 20 kids to all look at the camera and smile at the same time?

It doesn't work.

Singing and blowing out the candles

The rest are just random pictures I liked and wanted to have...[for the book].

This was by far the funnest birthday party I've ever given. And I would totally do it all over again. I couldn't have done it without all of the help from family though. Thank you! Thank you!

The Little Mermaid...

Round 2

Gramma Sherie treated all the girls to a night out. We went to Kneaders for dinner, then headed out to Tuacahn for [mine & Lexie's] round 2 of The Little Mermaid. I have to say, it was just as cute the second time. Lexie loved it even more I think. Maybe because she had the other 2 little girls help her be excited!!

  

Thank you Sherie for the super fun Girls night!!