September '11

I can't believe that I still have Summer stuff on my blog, and it's the dead of Winter.  Time to catch up!  September means School, and I have 3 in school this year!  They all started on the same day:  the day after Labor day.  Everyone was excited.  Erin is in 4th grade this year.

Devin (going into 1st grade) bumped his head right before this picture!  Then we rushed him right out the door to school!  Oops!

Colin was excited, but nervous to start preschool.  When I left him he cried.  But once he discovered how fun it was, he never cried again.

We also went to the Utah State Fair.  After doing several things as a family, we let the kids each choose 1 ride to go on. 

Erin chose this bungee bouncer.  She loved it! 

They all loved the animals!

Also in September, Erin got her Brown Belt!  Only one more belt left!

September 15th was Colin's 4th Birthday!  He's getting so big!  I decided that this year it would be fun for him to have his first friend party!  He invited 4 friends, and they had a great time!

Then later on when John got home, we celebrated again with more cake and ice cream!

On September 17th, John ran the marathon that he had been training for all summer!  His goal was to do it in 4 hours.  He did pretty well!  He did it in 4 hours 15 minutes!  An excellent time for his very first marathon ever!

Devin has started losing his baby teeth!  He lost the first one in August and the second one in September.

And what did the tooth fairy do with his 2 teeth?  She passed them on to Sean!  (Sean really got his first 2 teeth in July, but it was kind of cute that he had the 2 teeth that Devin was missing)  :-)

Here's my cut Sean at 10 months old!  At this point he was doing an army crawl, pulling to stand, clapping, mimicking everything, and just being a cutie (when he wasn't teething).

September!

So, I guess I should fill you all in on our very busy month of September. Erin started school on Monday Aug. 30th, the day after we got home from Lake Powell. She was a little nervous about not having met her teacher, but now she says that she has the best teacher ever!

Devin had his first day of Kindergarten that Friday, Sept. 3rd. He was so excited about starting big kid school! He loves his teacher, and going to school like a big kid. His only gripe: Not being able to go all day like Erin.

My little brother Roger blessed his sweet little baby Alyssa on Sept. 5th. It was a beautiful blessing, and they had a yummy luncheon afterwards at a near by park. That was a great idea, cause the kids were able to play and run around after lunch.

Karate has gone to a whole new level lately. John and Erin both earned their red belts on Tues. Sept. 7th. I am so proud of them for sticking in there for so long. They are now working on their Brown belts. after that it's Black! What will it be like to have 2 black belts in the house!?! I think we will be well protected.

Erin has been growing her hair out for a long time! Years actually, and we decided that it was time to cut it. Here is the before picture.

She decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love, who make wigs for children who don't have hair due to childhood sicknesses. What a great cause! I'm so proud of her! The lady who cut her hair was telling us that she's had girls crying and moms freaking out when they found out how short their hair was going to be, but Erin was excited and happy to be donating her hair. I think it looks really cute!

Well our little Mr. Colin has had his 3rd Birthday! I can't believe it's been 3 years! He is such a fun kid! He's so talkative, and sweet! He mirrors everything that his big brother and sister do.

He got cars and a big car case, and tools too. This is great cause he loves to copy his dad too, especially when he's out in the garage building things. That tool set has seen a lot of action all ready!

Happy birthday to my sweet car-loving, talkative, cuddle buddy, Colin.

August has been very busy. And since we're going away again, I decided it was time to update you all. We all had a great morning at the splash park near us. The kids really love it! Especially colin.

We have been waiting and waiting for our chickens to start laying eggs. John built this hen house for them in June, and they seem to be happy, but no eggs. Finally we got one!!! At the beginning of August, the John and the kids found an egg! They cooked it up right away and ate it! They definitely taste better fresh! Here's a picture of our Happy chickens!

My little brother Roger and his wife Tasha Just had their 1st baby. She is such a cutie, and the first baby girl since Erin! Her name is Alyssa.

Erin's favorite thing lately to do with Colin is to dress him up like a girl. Colin just loves getting dressed up and lets her do what ever she wants. These are the results:

Devin seeing all the excitement, decided to get in on this attention.

With only a couple more weeks of summer left til the kids go back to school, we decided to go camping. We went up to the High Uintas where it's cool, and neither John nor I have been there before. We camped in a smaller campground with a river running right through! It was so fun to sit on the banks and watch the kids play. We drove up to the Provo River falls they were beautiful! There are several layers to the falls too, so it was fun to hike along and see all the different falls. We also went to Mirror Lake. It's such a peaceful place! What a beautiful place.

While we were out and about, John decided it was a good time to take a profile of me, cause I'm definately starting to show.

June accomplishments

Not much interesting happened in May. At least I don't have any pictures to show for it. But June made up for it. Devin finished up Soccer. He had a great season. In the past, he's been tired of running and not so sure he wanted to continue soccer. After taking a season off, he has loved soccer this season! He's so much better and that helps. He loves his games, and John loves it too. It's been fun for them to practice together. Erin had her dance recital to finish off the year. I was so excited when she showed some interest in dance this year. It brought back so many memories from when I was a child. The only problem was that she had to choose between Karate and Dance. Now that dance is over, I think she'll go back to Karate again. It was great to see her up on stage. She didn't smile during this performance at the park, but she did for the full on recital. My pictures didn't work very well for that though.

It was really funny that when she tried the costume on she said, "It's not very modest, Mom." I've raised her well, but it was had to explain why I allowed this immodesty while she was dancing, but not in normal life. I was proud of her though, and I'll be watching that more carefully in the future.

Devin's had some more fun stuff happening. He had a big preschool Graduation! It was so cute to see him up on the stage singing his heart out. At his Christmas program he sang the first couple of songs and then lost interest. At this one he sang so hard! He did all the actions and paid full attention the whole time! I am so proud of him! Here he is with his teacher Miss Gaylene.

He's also learning how to ride without training wheels. I am so excited for this, cause the boys his age near us all ride and he's just followed along in his car or his Hot Wheels. Once he really learns, he'll be able to keep up with them much better.

As for Colin, I haven't blogged about him is some time, so I thought I'd talk about him a little here. He is so fun!!!! He's getting to be a big boy! He talks, and talks, and talks. Sometimes he drives me crazy with the talk, but it's usually very true and insightful stuff. He's always trying to be one of the big kids. He's a teaser too. Here he's untied John's shoes, and it trying to tie them together. he's always full of hugs, cuddles, and giggles. What a fun kid.

Thanksgiving!!!

Ok, I know it's way past time to blog when my camera's memory card gets full. I've got a little bit of catching up to do!

First of all, We had a great Thanksgiving at my Mom and Dad's house in Delta. While we were there we went to see Santa. Erin asked for a video camera. Devin asked for Wolverine Fingers (It's a wolverine glove with retractable claws)

Colin wanted nothing to do with that strange Man with a big white beard!!!
Ryan and Jocelyn were there too with baby Brad. Richard and Callie came later, and we saw Roger and Tasha part of the time too. We went to see New Moon, decorated a gingerbread house, played guitar hero, and watched the BYU vs. Utah game. My Grandma Sorensen joined us for the BYU game. With half the gang rooting for BYU, and half rooting for Utah, it was an exciting game.

When we got back Erin and John got their blue belts. They are really cruising toward black.