7

It seems like this day gets harder and more emotional for me as the years go by.  7 years ago I was spending the weekend in the hospital delivering Gabe.  I am so grateful for my amazing doctor that validated my concerns that weekend and who lovingly insisted that I take the emotionally harder way, knowing it would be better for me.  Thankful for the quietness of Southern Hills hospital, where I could deliver in peace without being surrounded by new mothers and their newborns.  I am thankful for my mom, who dropped everything that weekend to sit at the hospital with me and help me get through this.  I am so glad that I have good friends I can lean on, both then and now.  I am SO grateful that I was able to have Gabe, and for all the lessons that his birth and death have taught me and continue to teach me.  

R-E-D red

Nathan loves preschool!  He loves his teachers and especially getting to ride the bus home everyday.  I am SO excited for him to be in preschool this year,  because I am excited to see the changes and improvements that he will make this school year.  He improved so much in the short time he was able to be in program last year.  After his bath tonight he was playing trains until bedtime, and I caught him singing the R-E-D spells Red song that he learned at school this week.  Sappy mom moment....it made me tear up, I was so proud and impressed by him!  I love this little boy, and am daily reminded how special he is and how lucky I am to have him. 

first day of school

It's hard to believe that summer vacation is over!  We had such a fun, busy summer!  

Yesterday David & Nathan started school.  Thomas started today.

 David started 7th grade at Brown this year!  He had a good day yesterday, he has at least one friend in each of his classes.  He is most excited for band and all the extra-curricular activities!! 

 Nathan is in preschool again, I was able to get him back in at Morrow.  He has the same teachers that he had last year.  I asked him if he was excited for his first day of school, he told me, "no it isn't my first day I've been there before!"   He had a great first day and is most excited about the playground and the new trucks in the toy center!

Thomas started 1st grade today!  He is at a charter school that goes to school Tuesday thru Friday so he got to start a day later than everyone else.  He is really excited, and as we walked into the building this morning got nervous about not remembering what his teacher looked like and what if he can't find his classroom.  I was helping with drop off this morning and told him before I left I would check and make sure he was ok.  I found him in the hallway lined up with his class, already talking with his friends. 

I started my fall semester yesterday too.  It is going to be a crazy few months!  After I drop off Nathan, I head to school for biology and math, depending on the day.  I also have a communication class online. 

We are looking forward to a fun, busy school year!!

karate kid

Thomas earned his gold belt in karate!  Great job T!!

vacation week

The last week of July David went to baseball camp at BYU.  The Saturday before camp started the kids and I headed up to Utah.  We spent Saturday night doing dinner and a movie with my best friend Gina.  

Thomas & Nathan playing on my kindle before bed

 Our hotel had an indoor pool and most of the time we were there we had the pool to ourselves. 

The boys had a great time swimming all week!  Thomas & Nathan got to swim every night before bed

Monday  morning we dropped David off at baseball camp.  He got to live in the dorms for the week.  

He had two of his cousins and a friend from little league that were there!  They had a blast!!

Drew, Tanner, David, Scott

 The kids and I stayed in Utah for the week during baseball camp.  We got to spend lots of time with Gina, and her family.  One of the days we went to the city pool in Orem with the Herrera girls & kids. I thought we had some fun pools here, this one beat them!  They had water slides the kids could go on with their life jackets, diving boards, a lazy river, a splash pad and a shallow play area with lots of fun things to do.  

Nathan was swimming/playing and went running to the fence when he saw the garbage truck.  He stood there the entire time the garbage truck was there dumping our the dumpsters.  When it started to leave he waved goodbye to it and watched it until he couldn't see it down the street anymore. 

LaraLeigh has two daughters the same ages as Thomas and Nathan, so they each had a buddy to play with while we were up there.  Nathan and Brooklyn got along so well!  They were so funny.  They loved to play tag, when Brooklyn would chase Nathan and he would laugh and say her chasing me! After their first night playing they ended with a hug and a kiss!!  Thomas and David asked Nathan if he had a girlfriend and he smiled really big and said yes, she likes to kiss me and give me a hug!  

Nathan & Brooklyn eating a snack at the pool

Thomas turned 6 while we were in Utah!

 He got to open a couple birthday presents on his birthday morning

Thomas & Jayda swinging

 We also went to the zoo!  The boys loved seeing the animals!  

 They loved watching the mommy & baby elephant!

 They got to go on the carousel too. 

 They thought this lion drinking fountain was so funny!  You have to put your head in the lion's mouth to get a drink!

We had so much fun last week in Utah!  We got to do lots of fun things, did some shopping, got to see old friends and make some new friends and the weather was perfect!  David had a great time at baseball camp and is already asking if he can go to both sessions of baseball camp next year!

six

Thomas turned 6 on July 30!  I can't believe he is already so old!!  He has been celebrating his birthday since June when he had his pretend/practice birthday party with his friends from school, he also took cupcakes to school to share in his class in June.  Poor kid, for the second year in a row we were going to be out of town on his birthday so we celebrated the Friday night before we left.  Thomas got to pick wherever he wanted to go for dinner.....he picked Chuck E Cheese.

 After a few hours at Chuck E Cheese we came home and opened presents

 He LOVED his birthday presents and got everything he wanted!  (don't mind the Christmas wrapping paper....it's all I had!)

 A few months ago we were at Baskin Robbins and he found this Santa cake in the cake book and asked if he could have that for his birthday.  I told him sure, but when it gets close to his birthday he can change his mind if he wants.  So the Monday before we were celebrating his birthday I asked him about his cake.  Without even needing to think about it he said he wanted the Santa cake from the ice cream store! 

Happy 6th Birthday Thomas!  We love you!!

summer fun

We have had such a fun couple weeks!!
We went opening night to Turbo.  Thomas and Nathan LOVED it!!  They both keep asking when we can go see it again and if we can buy it when it come to dvd.

 

We have had lots of fun picnic dinners at one of the newer, less known splash parks by our house.

 Last week we got to go to the lake with Grandma, Papa, Cami and Steve.  The boys had a great time!!  We cooked hotdogs & marshmellows for dinner.  The kids all tubed.  Thomas was scared at first to tube and wanted me to go with him, but he ended up asking me to get out of the tube so he could go by himself!!  Even Nathan went on the tube!  He didn't want to try it alone, so I went with him.  He loved it until we started getting air going over the waves then it scared him.   When Thomas found out that we were going to the lake that morning he got pretty nervous and for the first time in a long time started talking about Papa's boat sinking and is it going to happen today when we go to the lake and about a million other what if questions.  But he decided that he was going to try out Papa's new boat and go to the lake and luckily had a great time & loved it!  This was the first trip to the lake for my little boys since the boat sank 3 years ago.

 David tried wakeboarding this trip and thanks to his awesome wakeboarding coach Steve, was able to get up this year!!  Yay David!  He was SO excited!!

 He was only able to stay up for a little bit, but he was up!  Now to work on the balance after getting up!  He is really excited to go back to the lake to get the hang of it.

 We've also got to go to the pool at Rhodes Ranch with Lidia and the kids.  We met at their house & had pizza lunch and then headed over there.   Thomas absolutely LOVES Emi! 

 The boys as always had a great time!  It was perfect weather, until the lifeguard saw lightning and closed the pool, but luckily for us it was right about when we were going to leave anyways, so it just made leaving easier!  

     The boys loved having slide races with Abby!

Off to our next summer adventure!! 

Baseball camp for David and a week with Gina, my best friend for me and the little boys!!