First Day!

It's about time! Halloween's almost here and I haven't even gotten to the first day of school yet! I'm a little behind to say the least. This is actually the 2nd day of school here. Sadly Brynn was sick the first day of school. She woke up with tears in her eyes saying she just couldn't do it. But the next day she was back at it and 5th grade has been nothing but work, work ever since! Brynn seems to be busy 24/7. Between a big homework load and her ballet schedule, she rarely has any down time. Although she remains helpful and fantastic to be around at home. Don't know what I'd do without her! Kira has adjusted nicely to 1st grade. Going to school all day didn't seem too much of an adjustment for her, she just loves to learn! She has become quite the little reader too. I can't keep her stalked with enough books. We have actually told her to slow down so she'll understand what she's reading. Kira has also started taking piano lessons and remains at"Up with Kids" a singing and acting group.

Here is the official first day of school. Kira had to take 3 things that described her. She picked: a thermometer, because she wants to be a doctor someday, a microphone because she loves, loves to sing and the Book of Mormon because she told me she liked to learn about Jesus. Another little side note about her outfit. You can't see them but her little capris were not so little that day and I couldn't figure why. She kept pulling them up by the handful, and saying," mom these are way too big." I told her to just ignore it and sent her off to school. When she got home Brynn said, "Mom, did you know those were my capris that Kira has on?" Oh my goodness, am I that dense. Poor thing had to go all day hiking her sister's size 8's up onto her waist!

Cute sisters! Alayna was very sad each time these girls got out of the car to go to school. And she still is!

Alayna looks huge next to Kira!

One last thing...
A few Sundays ago I was giving Alayna a bath and she would not get in without her stuffed animals. "Just put them in" said Seth. So Alayna's loveys had a bath too that day and then spent many hours out drying in the sun.

Water Games

This is a short compilation of some of the fun we had in water this summer. The 1st is the water party at Heather Lyman's house. Our blow up slide was there, out of view and we made all the kids smash together for a group photo. It was quite the party. I don't even know if Heather knew this many kids would show up. It was kind of like a party in High School. Kids just kept coming and coming...I prefer a party with kids though, complete with popcorn, chocolate covered graham crackers, snow cones and bead necklaces. I bet Heather's glad that she only did that once this summer! It really was fun and the kids had a great time.

Here we are down at Heritage Park. A little creek runs through the park right next to our elementary school. It is really shallow and the girls love to wade in it, once there feet get numb...it's cold!!

Claire Isom came with us. She wasn't to keen on getting her picture taken. I could only catch the back of her head.

This dam was the product of an hours worth of work. They were very proud. And even more shocked when we came back a second time and their dam was still in working order.

Brynn showing me how deep the water is because of their dam.

Gotta love the Highland Splash park! I love this picture because Brynn seems to be shorter than the rest of these little beauties who are all be about the same height. Brynn has always been their playmate. No matter the age difference she just loves to play and I know she loves all of these girls like sisters.

Ta Da! Hello Anastyn! The lense on my camera is dirty, so excuse my foggy pictures:)

My happy baby girl! I know I secretly got her that suit because I love her chubby tummy.

This is another time at the splash park. We came with my mom and Niece and nephews.

Kira and Ava

Alayna and Grandma Julie

Ian

Tyler, Logan and Brynn
Can't go wrong at the splash park. Sometimes I'd like to send half the crowd home. But that's just part of summer, and it's slipping away too fast!

Alayna'a 1st Birthday

Good Morning! It's my birthday! Almost exactly a week till her birthday, Alayna learned how to crawl! I really wasn't sure if she was ever going to get it. Now she is mobile and ready for adventure. The girls will play hide and seek and she will crawl all over until she finds them. She also follows Brynn around like a little lost puppy dog. It's really cute.

We had mine and Seth's side of the family over for dinner and cupcakes on Alayna's birthday. I really didn't think that many people would be able to make it, but just about everyone that lives in state came, it was so nice to have everybody all together. As you can see it made Alayna happy. I just wish I'd gotten more pictures of everyone that was there.

Grandma Jill feeding our little bunny rabbit carrots

Uncle Chase and Aunt Jen got there early and Jen helped prepare all the food. Chase entertained all the kiddos.

Look at all the pursed lips in the back ground ready to help blow. I like daddy's big hand keeping Alayna's little piggies away from the flame. I was pretty convinced that she would dig in to the cupcake. We have been a little liberal with her in the sweets department. She's had her fair share of chocolate already. Way more than our first two kids. But she did have an ear infection that week and had been under the weather a bit so...

This is what she did with the cupcake. She poked it and whined and looked at us. We even tried giving her one of the mini cupcakes I made for everyone else, but she just wasn't interested. Oh well! Who says we have to have cake anyway?

Here's Alayna, cousin Ian and uncle Adam playing Alayna's new kitty piano. We went shopping for toys at Target and this was her favorite thing. A big cat face, with piano keys for teeth. A little freeky and weird, but it has been a big hit. It has a little microphone on the side which she has figured out how to pull out and sing into, or slober into or both! We were so glad to see uncle Adam there. Just a few days before he had surgery on his foot to fix some broken toes. He was a trooper to come out. Alayna's looking a little tired there:)

Dear Alayna,
What a joy it has been to have you come to us when you did! You light up all of us. You have knit our whole family close together. I remember when you were born we brought you home from the hospital and we all just lingered around you. In fact I think we basically camped in the family room for 3 days so we wouldn't miss anything you did. Nothing has changed even though it's a year later. Every time you grow we celebrate it. Every time you hurt, we hurt too. We will always be here and can't wait to see what's up around the bend for you. We love you so much Alayna Kate!
Love,
Mom, Dad, Brynn and Kira

Queen Kono

Have you seen a happier lady? My mom and her 3 older siblings surprised their mom for her 87th birthday with a big backyard bash. She was so surprised and happy to see all the family that had traveled from so far to be there. My uncle Donny and his kids put together a big gift basket for Kono. The tiara and feather boa were attached to the top:)

This song was an impromptu performance by my brother Austin,left; cousin Melissa, middle; and cousin David on the right. It was actually really good.

Cute little on-lookers

This is my brother's band: "Us Thieves"
Austin and his friend Chris Bjorn started playing together this year. They have a very natural, folk sound. The outdoor concert was fun and brought a great atmosphere to the party.

Thanks Aunt Nicki for holding me!

A few of Alayna's favorite things...

This is Alayna in her toy basket. She just barely started crawling a few days ago and since it took her just shy of 12 months to do so we've had to be a little creative in keeping her happy. Sitting in her toy baskets was one of her fav.'s. This cheesy grin is one of her favorite faces!

The socks go on your feet silly willy!

The pants go on your legs silly willy! Brynn and Kira don't need much to dress this doll up.

I could say I'm not really sure if she likes to dress up at this age, but she's giving herself away with that cheesy grin again.

What a card shark. Anytime we are playing a game that has to do with cards she has to be right there with her own hand of cards to play with/slobber on:)

"Take the picture mom, before I take these cute glasses off."

I just love this picture of Alayna. She looks like such grown up, big girl.

One of Alayna's other loves is the water. She doesn't look too pleased here, but when she's in the water she kicks and splashes and never wants to get out, no matter how cold it might be too.

My sis-in-law Erin let us borrow this toy and this got us through Alayna's phase of wanting to stand all the time. She can now stand on her own for a couple of seconds, it's fun to watch.

Whether it is her favorite or not she is the queen little sister of the house. The first fight of the day between Brynn and Kira is always over who is going to hold her first. At 9 months the Dr. speculated that she may not be crawling yet because everybody does too much for her. There may have been some truth to that, but we just love having you around baby girl. You are our favorite thing!!!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!! This year we started our festivities up with Seth's family at the Centerville carnival. By the time we got up there they were kind closing things up, but the girls got to try out a few rides. Here's Alayna sporting her cute 4th outfit. The center of attention as always:)

My 3 girls. Always up for going somewhere. Every morning at breakfast I hear, "mom where are we going today?" I'm not sure yet I say. Who new mom came with the title of social activites director too. That's ok, we've had a fun summer so far.

This is us eating at Subway. Alayna had just started standing up next to things. She was looking out the window and every time she saw a car she would let out this little scream, like a baby bird or something. It was so funny. And the restaurant was packed to so she had quite the audience.

Brynn, Hunter and Levi decided to ride the wet blow up slide before they shut everything down. Brynn only went down once and decided she was done.

Grandma Jill bought some wading pools for the kids. Alayna and Autumn had a great time! Hard to believe they're only a month apart. Water is truly one of Alayna's favorite things! Anytime the water table or wading pool is out she has to get over and splash. And not just little splashes. After 2 or 3 minutes she's always soaked from head to toe!

Cache man! Is he not the cutest the little boy you've ever seen? Dru and Adam came up from San Fransisco and we got to see how much this fun guy has changed. He'd stop Brynn or Kira and get them to bend down and give them hugs. Can't wait to see him again!

All the kids joined in too, but I thought this was great that Cache's daddy, uncle Adam, was breaking in the slipping slide for everybody!

This is Monday, July 5th at Willow Creek. We came for the carnival and swimming. One of the carnival games was rock climbing and I asked Kira if she wanted to do it. I was surprised when she said yes. She and Brynn went up multiple times. "I just want to do it one more time please!"

Brynn got to the top every time:)

Snow cones and face painting. Is there a happier combination?

Brrrr!!!

The train ride was a hit. I hopped on and took Alayna too.

All our Archer cousins: Logan, Tyler and Ava

Too much to squeeze into one weekend, I'm tired!

Yummy barbeque at the club after a day of fun in the sun while the dads golfed. Thanks dad, the food was de-licious!