First Day of School!

Jackson started preschool this year and we were all very excited about it. This is his official first day of school picture! His back pack is spiderman to match his bike...just like he wanted.

Jackson has been saying two things for the past month to any person we chanced to meet:

1) I can ride my bike with no training wheels and

2) I'm three years old and get to go to school this year, but not Zoey....

In fact, he'd sometimes ask me to let him run up to complete strangers so he could tell them these things. He's very proud of growing up.

We made the day very exciting for him by setting some back-to-school routines, one of which was giving him his first back-to-school blessing. Although it's only pre-school we figured there was no better time to start this tradition! It was a very neat experience. Jackson has been privileged to be around such experiences lately that involve priesthood blessings, and even recently mimicked giving Zoey's doll a "blessing" by laying his hands on its head to "heal her owie"...I count myself very lucky to have him around such great examples that he can know to a certain degree what a priesthood blessing is. It's a wonderful thing.

Brian went in to work a wee bit late so he could ride his bike with Jackson to school. It was a very exciting first day. He loved it and asked when he could go back...that is also a very wonderful thing!

Now, if only I could send Zoey to pre-school! ha ha. I thought it would be nice getting my errands done with only one child (and a half), but she proved to be more work than if I had three!

August

August is almost over! It's been a crazy month and we have a crazy fall ahead of us! Brian and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We "kid swapped" with their cousins so we got to have three days away from being parents and enjoyed doing things around the valley. We hiked around the back side of Timp, went fishing, went to the temple, explored some new fancy restaurants, and saw a few movies that we've been wanting to catch....it was fun, relaxing, and purely enjoyable! Liz and Scott called our children "angels" but as soon as we got them back they turned into something else! Brian and I laughed at the irony of it all.

I have just 5 weeks to go, the doc is hoping I make it that long, I'm pretty progressed. I have been contracting daily and even last night a was awaken twice by contractions. I don't have plans to go into labor this early (especially since I'm committed to teach yoga until the 23rd of Sep.) but I really don't think I'll make it to October 4th. I hope not because this is the most unenjoyable part of pregnancy. I don't complain often, but man, I ready for the next phase.

Another thing we've enjoyed this august is our fresh corn on the cob. The kids can't get enough. We have to pick a dozen ears just to feed the 4 of us! It's our favorite summer vegetable and we eat it as often as we can. We even have had enough to put back in the freezer for winter. Now that we've had fresh corn, we'll never have a garden without it!

Can you see Zoey? She's sitting on Brian's shoulders inbetween the rows, this just shows how tall our stalks are. I'm hoping they'll be good to use as fall decorations around the outside of the house when they dry out.

The garden did pretty well this year! We've enjoyed the profits, and Brian and Jackson have done most of the work with keeping it trimmed and proper...I have really appreciated there dedication to the garden since I've had a hard time bending over these days :)

Riding a bike!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Brian and Jackson! The two of them riding off in the sunset....so cute!

Like we said before, we've been training Jackson to balance on his bike. Here's a shot of his "super good skills!" We told him all week he could have his pedals back by Saturday, so he worked really hard, and each day he did amazingly better. Today was that day! Jackson took off the very first time! We have video footage on our camcorder, but Jackson was AMAZING! Brian ran along beside him, not holding his bike up or anything, Jackson did it all by himself! I couldn't believe it!

Here is the video footage from a few days ago when he was learning to balance, but he's gotten so much better than this already:

Congratulations!

We have many congratulations to extend!

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been 6 years. Couldn't be happier! I have so much to be thankful for, sharing my life with Brian is the highlight. I'm so glad he's mine forever! We are celebrating next week...taking three days vacation from the kids (Liz and Scott are watching them for us). I am excited for our little getaway!

We share this special day with my sister and her husband...so happy anniversary to them too!

Brian Graduated with his brother yesterday from BYU. We are so proud of them! Here are some pictures of the event:

Jackson watched Brian getting ready for the ceremony and he asked if he could get dressed in "BYU clothes" too, so we dressed him in blue and white. He was so excited to go to BYU to see the big party for his dad! We had a nice dinner at Macaroni Grill afterwards with our close family. Brian's mom sent the beautiful lei from Hawaii and it smelled wonderful!

Us...

Our camera's battery charger has been missing for a while, I've turned the house upside down looking for it with no success. So this update will be picture-less since I can't upload any photos off of it for now.

Just a few updates from our family:

1) 7 weeks left of pregnancy! Yeah, we can't wait. We still don't know what we're having and we are excited to find out. We have a "short list" of names for both boy and girl...it's narrowed down to 3 names for each gender, but we just can't decide which is our favorite yet. Other than that, I'm feeling huge and pregnant and ready to be done. At 12 weeks remaining I put myself to a challenge of "12 projects for 12 weeks" which was a list of 'to-do' items I wanted to make, create and get done before the baby came. It has helped keep me busy and I look forward to each week's new project. I'll post pictures of my creations later when I can get the pictures, but the projects include everything from decorating Jack and Zoey's room, growth charts, baby announcements, and a family picture wall to name a few.

2) Brian graduates this weekend with his bachelor degree in history with a business minor. We are excited that he has finally finished! He has worked hard to accomplish this goal along with the demands of business/traveling, church, and family. Taking classes has been a challenge, mostly on time, but he's done! Yeah! Congratulations to him!

3) Jackson is learning to ride his bike with no training wheels! Brian removed both training wheels and pedals so Jackson could learn to balance and glide. Once he gets that down, we'll put the pedals back on and let him take off. He's getting pretty good and we think he'll have it down in a week or so. He starts pre-school this year, in just a couple of weeks! I can't believe summer is nearly over and we're talking school already!

4) Zoey is doing well with her ear tubes. She's healthier for the most part, but I think it will be a while for her immune system to get strong again after being on antibiotics for so long. She is growing fast and can be a real sweetheart, but she definitely has been a challenge for me as she hists the "terrible two's." I've learned to deal with her differently than I did with Jackson at that age! She LOVES animals, all kinds. We went on a walk yesterday and saw a chicken walking around loose in a neighbors yard and she said, "hi chicken! c'mere chicken!" But the cutest thing she says right now is when we're driving around town and I point out the temple she replies, "going there someday!" I love it!

We're all doing really well and keeping busy! Next time I'll have pictures too (hopefully)!