Kindergarten

My baby started Kindergarten. I can't believe I have a kid in school. I am not going to lie, it is pretty hard sending your kid off to school. I have been around Dallin pretty much all day, every day for the last 5 years. But I guess it is time...I will miss him a lot, but he is pretty excited to be in school. In his prayer before school he did ask to help him not miss his mommy too much. Alyssa is pretty sad about it too. She misses her big brother. 

Anyways on to the Dallin is excited part. On Wednesday night the school had an open house to come meet the teacher and bring in the school supplies. I guess I should give a warning that I took a lot of pictures, but I did narrow it down a lot. Also, he was giving me some pretty crazy smiles...When we got home, he was so excited because he loved his classroom. There were legos, blocks, trucks, a kitchen, games, computers, and lots of other cool stuff.

Here he is next to his cubby. He has his little PE shoes up and ready for him to use :)

Here he is in his desk. He is right in the front, which will probably be good for him. There are a lot more girls than boys in his class, but there is a boy across from him. Hopefully they will be buds. 

Here is his in the front of the class. 

Here is his next to the computers.

His FAVORITE part of the night was getting to play on the playground at school. Alyssa and Dallin had a blast. 

Daddy even had a little fun :)

Then came Thursday morning! He wanted eggs for breakfast, and got all ready. Isn't he such a handsome boy :)

Pictures with Mom and Dad when we got to school. He wanted us to drive him, and I am glad we did because we got to take him into his class.

Here he is all ready to go inside with his backpack. He was very excited because he gets to eat lunch and use his new dump truck lunch box.

I let Alyssa skip her nap and wait with me outside for the bus. She was so excited to see Dallin.

Dallin loved getting to ride the bus. He sat on the front row. He thought it was cool because there were no seat belts...

This is a terrible video because I was too far away and stopped it too short because he was giving me a hug, but here he is getting off the bus. 

He had a great first day. He said it was fun, and he liked his teacher a lot. He said she was old and had been teaching for "like a 100 years." Unfortunately, he woke up at 5 am on Friday morning throwing up so he missed his 2nd day of school...so no perfect attendance for him. He was really sad that he missed going to school, especially since it was PE day. I hope he continues to like school for as long as possible. I sure do miss my little buddy, but I am glad he gets to go to a good school and learn lots of new things.

Swim lessons!

Dallin finally took swim lessons! He has always loved the water, so we started him on lessons. Every time we would be at the pool, Dallin would just jump in when we weren't looking and sink to the bottom. It makes me feel a little better that he is learning. He LOVED swim lessons. Since it was the preschool class he was the oldest, and the teachers never really payed attention to him (which kind of bugged me). He did a great job and is pretty proud of what he accomplished in his class. I loved getting to watch him. 

The kids took turns swimming across the baby pool with the help of their teacher. Dallin was doing it by himself for awhile, but he watched a little too much of the Olympics. He kept trying to copy Michael Phelps and do the butterfly :) 

Dallin's favorite thing to do was jump into the pool, especially the big pool :)

 

 

Matching

The kids are really into wearing matching clothes. Alyssa loves this frog outfit from Grandma. She gets so excited when they wear them. I just love Alyssa's smile in this picture.

She wanted to wear a black dress just like Brooke. Alyssa always wants us to take pictures of her and Brooke. Brooke was not feeling it this day. 

My mom made the girls some matching dresses for 4th of July and bought Dallin a shirt to match.

Dallin and Alyssa love to wear the BYU shirts! Go Cougars! 

 

Dallin really wanted to take a picture of me and Alyssa.  He did a pretty good job :)

3 Months Old

I had all these plans to make a post when Brooke turned 2 months old. Then I decided to wait until after her 2 month check up. Now she is almost 3 1/2 months and I am finally getting to it :) I can't believe how quickly time flies by. She is a very happy baby most of the time as long as she is being held. She wants to be held ALL the time still. She screams when you put her down for very long. And if you do put her down, she wants to be right next to you. She feels very left out when she is not next to us for meals. It makes it really hard to get anything done. BUT...we love her so much. I love getting to cuddle with her. She can't resist smiling at her daddy :) When she is fed with a clean diaper, she is such a happy girl. She gives us lots of smiles :) She is also quite the talker! I love it.

She is a better sleeper than our others, but hasn't been as good since our trip. She only gets up when she has to eat, so I don't mind. She does not nap well during the day. She takes mini naps all day long. If I hold her though, she takes great naps. I probably hold her too much, but I love holding my sleeping baby.

She had her 2 month check up. She weighed 10.8 lbs (32%) and was 22.25 inches long (27%). Her head size was 14.5 (2%), so pretty small head but I think she looks perfect :) So far she is our smallest. She got 3 shots, and she cried pretty much the whole day. She does not like pain.

Our happy girl :)

 

 

Brooke loves to sit up and check out what is going on around her. Unless she is really tired she prefers to be held sitting up and looking out. We are borrowing a bumbo chair, and she really likes it. Here she is the 1st time. 

She is getting much better at holding her head. 

I put her in it one time while making dinner, and she fell asleep instantly.

She is starting to figure out how to use her hands, so she plays with toys a lot more. She likes to sit in the corner of the couch and play, just like Dallin. 

She likes to fold her little hands. It is so cute. 

Everyone loves to hold her and be around her. 

Dallin holds her quite a bit, and she really likes him.

Alyssa never leaves her alone and loves to hold her as well.I hope they will be good little buddies:)

4th of July in Kansas

We went to Kansas for our annual 4th of July trip. We only live 8 hours away this time so that's nice :) We left Friday afternoon when Jeff got home from work. Dallin and Alyssa did pretty good besides not leaving Brooke alone, who was between them. Brooke pretty much split the time between screaming and sleeping. She was not a fan of the long car ride. 

Four out of the five siblings on Jeff's side were there and all 11 grandchildren, so it was a very full house. Dallin and Alyssa LOVED playing with all their cousins. Brooke loved being held the whole time. She slept great the whole time going sometimes 11 hours at night. Since we have been home, she wakes up almost every hour. I need to fix that :) The kids shared a bed and did better than I thought they would. They liked getting to play with each other until falling asleep...

 

On Monday everyone took shifts out to the lake. Since it was 105 + outside I didn't really take Brooke outside. Only Dallin and Jeff went from our family, but they were there the entire day. Dallin and Jeff loved it. Dallin did the ski trainer a few times (and even stood up) and did the tube. He loves being out there and Grandpa's boat. 

On Tuesday all the ladies + Brooke spent the day shopping. Brooke did pretty good and it was a lot of fun shopping. 

On Wednesday all the men went golfing while the kids played outside. The kids had a blast outside in the water. Alyssa did more than I thought she would do. 

 

Brooke in her 4th of July dress. 

Wednesday night was fireworks night. A couple nights before Dallin and Alyssa fought about whether or not Alyssa HAD to watch the fireworks. She really didn't want to but was brave and stayed up. Alyssa even did the poppers.

Alyssa feeling safe in Grandma's lap. 

Dallin LOVED setting off the fireworks. He was pretty good at setting them off and running away :)

 

Brooke had no problem with the fireworks. She even fell asleep in my arms during them.

On Thursday everyone went to the waterpark. I stayed home with Brooke. Apparently Alyssa screamed for the first hour or so. Finally she went down the baby slide and loved it :) The kids had so much fun.

On Friday we went to the children's museum and out to Chick Fil A. We all had lots of fun. We took a picture of all 11 of the kids while we were there. 

There was a sweet castle to climb around in with lots of activities.

Brooke smiling at Daddy while Dallin and Alyssa play.

 

Dallin in time out :)

 

Dallin and Kendra being King and Queen. 

 

Flying!

 

 

The rest of the days were spent hanging out with the family. Lots of good food was eaten (Blue Bell Ice cream!!!!!), movies were watched, and lots of talking with each other. It was lots of fun.