Happy Birthday Mara!

Our little sweetie had a great birthday! We had a family party on her real birthday! Mimi and Papa came down for the weekend to celebrate with us. Nate was off fighting his forest fire so Mara was a little sad not to have her daddy there but we still had a great day for our Mara!

Mara sure is lucky to have such great brothers! They are good friends, even if they have their teasing moments!

Ty gave Mara a new Lego set. Ty loves helping Mara build her Legos!

I love these kids with all my heart!!

The big SEVEN years! Wow! Can't believe it!

Make a wish Mara Lew!

We let Carder have his very own cupcake!

He LOVED it!

Carder ate the entire thing!

Hawaiian Birthday Luau!!

For Mara's 7th birthday she wanted a P.A.R.T.Y so how about a Hawaiian party--a Birthday Luau!!  We made it feel like we were really a the beach by going to the wave pool! I can't believe our little sweetie is seven!! I love this Mara Lew! We couldn't ask for a better little girl! She is nice, loving, helpful, pretty, smart and has just a great girl!

Here are the Hawaiian cupcakes we made! They look a lot cuter in person, and they were so delicious!! 

 A beach umbrella, with, a sunbathing bear on his towel next to the ocean waves!! Mara was so excited about how they turned out!

 

Then it was time to hit the waves! Mara and her friend Ruth!

 Caleb was so excited to swim with his daddy! It was fun having Nate with us, usually I take the kids to the pool by myself and Nate really enjoyed seeing the kids swim!

Ty has become a fantastic swimmer! Nate was very impressed! 

My swimmin boys! Not only was it great to have Nate with us, but this was the last time we saw him in two weeks! As soon as the party was over he left to fight a forest fire! We were pretty disappointed he had to go but grateful for the opportunity Nate has to earn money!

The Hawaiian bathing beauties! Although we invited a dozen friends because it was Labor Day weekend most of her friends were out of town! But we were sure glad Kyanna, Lucy and Ruth stuck around to party with us! 

Cute boys! Funny Carder in goggles!

Here she is: the Hawaiian birthday girl! Ready for her Luau! She had a great time. It was fun to go swimming on her birthday!

Walking Boy!

It's official: my baby is now a walking wonder boy!! He walks every where and can even stand up on his own! I think I might shed a couple tears! I can't believe it! One day he is taking a couple steps--the next day he is walking away! I sure love my sweet Carder boy!

Back to School :(

Another school year has started and I am so less than excited that my kids are back at school! I like my kids home with me. I know they are going to have a great year and I am excited for their new opportunities however I sure miss them while they are gone!

Mara is starting 1st grade and Ty is in 4th grade! How can my babies be growing up so fast?! They sure look grown up and good looking!!

 

 Another great year ahead of us at Castle Heights! We love all the great programs and opportunities this school has for our kids!

 Mara is so excited for 1st grade! She had no first day jitters she was too excited!

  Mara's teacher is Mrs. Broadbear! We love Mrs. Broadbear!! We are so happy that Mara is in her class! She is a wonderful teacher and I know Mara is going to have a great year!

Ty is excited for his first day of 4th grade. His teacher is Ms. Vogel! She is a new, fun, cute, and enthusiastic teacher! We are hoping (and praying) for a successful year of school!

 What a cute little sweetie! She had a great first day! She loved seeing her friends at school and is excited to meet new friends.

It was a successful first day of school!

Oh my goodness! Is that not the cutest little Caluba! What a handsome big kid! Last year of preschool! I really can't believe Caleb will be going to kindergarten next year! Yikes!

This kid cracks me up! He is my buddy! We have a lot of fun together every day! He often tells me I am 'boy trapped' when it's just me and my boys! 

 Here's Caleb's preschool group: eight kids--four girls, four boys!! All Caleb's preschool friends will go to kindergarten next year! They are one fun bunch of kids! He has such great friends! Glad we have such a great neighborhood!

Summer Accomplishments!!

I must admit I am pretty sad the summer had to come to an end! But I also must say we had a very wonderful and super fun summer! It was definitely a successful summer! It wasn't all fun and play all day, we did a lot of work especially homework!! Almost everyday we did reading, math, and even writing! I know--meanest mom ever! But to make it up we did a lot of fun things to..over 100!! 

At the beginning of the summer we made a list of 100 fun things to do. Unfortunately we didn't do everything on the list...but we did do many more fun things that were not on the list!! It really turned out to be a cool thing because my kids were hardly ever bored! We had a 'to do list' and there were plenty of ideas on the list! Sometimes the projects or activities were awesome--other times not so great! But it gave us something to do and we usually had a good time in the process!

So the other big accomplishment this summer was Caleb's new trick! At the beginning of the summer I set a goal for Caleb to learn how to ride a two wheeler without training wheels! Caleb was so excited about learning how to ride a bike! He was so determined to learn how to ride. I think having an older brother and sister on bikes helped encourage his motivation. That Caluba was one tough kid on his bike! He fell off several times but never cried, just hopped back on an kept trying!

Well he did it! Caleb is now a fast riding-two wheelin'-speedy bike riding kid!! Here are a couple funny videos of Caleb riding his two wheeler!

Dinosaur National Monument!!

On our way home from Flaming Gorge we made a quick stop at 'Dinosaur Land'!! Ty was thrilled! He was so excited to visit Dinosaur National Monument! That kid is one dinosaur brainiack!!

That is one crazy looking dinosaur (and three crazy kids!)!

Say hello to the three Dinosaur Jr. Rangers!

 What a huge dinosaur  bone! Even bigger than Mara!

The exhibit was pretty interesting!  (But I must admit while Nate took the kids on a quick hike in the hot hot sun Carder and I had a quick nap on the bench in a nice cool building!!)

Those are some cute prehistoric kiddos!

The kids touching a baby dinosaur bone! It's still bigger than Caleb!

Ok--that's where he gets it from! Ty really is half dinosaur! I see the resemblance!

Flaming Gorge {Part II}

On our second day of our camping trip we started our day off with a beautiful hike. We set off to see two lakes. I'm not sure how long we hiked, maybe four miles! It was through a meadow, in the forest, past ponds and lakes...basically it was a great hike!             

The first thing we saw on our hike were two moose! A mama and her baby! It was awesome! I love moose!

What a good hiking daddy!!

Ty will find any tree to climb, even if it has fallen down!

Daddy has a new hiking buddy! Carder took a ride with daddy on this hike!

We made it to the first lake! 

 

Of course the boys had to throw a few rocks in the water!!

Mara hiking the trail!

Ty at a scenic pond!

 

We made it to the second lake!

The lake was beautiful!

What a scenic place!

The water was absolutely still and there was a perfect reflection!

My little buddy was getting tired so this is how we hiked most of the way back!

 On our drive back to camp we saw another moose! Three in one day! WOW!

We took a scenic drive and saw different overlooks of Flaming Gorge. 

 What a little darling!

 Don't fall off the cliff Ty!

The lake went on for miles and miles! 

Awww! A good looking couple and baby! 

 We decided next time we come to Flaming Gorge we are going to bring or rent a boat! We would have loved to explore all that water down there!