First Days of School

Okay, so here's the deal. I really want this blog for my family. I think it is so important because we don't have photo albums, scrapbook or do anything to preserve our memories. I have been telling myself that I have to do all of July and August to get caught up, but reality is that I'm just not getting it done..so, I'm going to move on. I hope that at some point I can go back and write about July & August, because I have some great photos and we did some super fun stuff, but by waiting I'm missing out on writing about what's going on right now.

Kyleigh is now a freshman. Wow! Time flies..so..fast! She is a beautiful young lady, both inside and out. Dan and I are so proud of the person she has become. It's interesting raising a teenager, especially one in high school, but overall we are loving it. She's enjoying school and doing a good job balancing everything she has to deal with. The first day of school was a little scary. She didn't want to get out of the car and at one point even told me she had super glued her butt to my carseat, but eventually she did get out :) I'm sure she loves me telling you this, but I want to remember it!

Here she is on the first day.

Landon started middle school. It was so hard to drop my baby boy off at that school. He did great though. The last two years have been very hard on Landon. Elementary school was starting to be a bad option for him, and if he had to go back there even for one more year, I don't know what we would have done. I have been praying and praying that 6th grade would be a turning point for him, and I believe it has been. He is proud of what he is accomplishing, he is enjoying his teachers and the flexibility middle school has to offer. It's tough, he's had about 1 1/2 hours of homework every night, but he's doing it. I realize it's only been about 2 weeks but he brought home his progress report today and he had an A+, A, B and one grade we won't mention but that will be brought up by tomorrow. :)

Tristyn started 2nd grade. She is doing so well. She is a fantastic student. Last year her teacher told me that if every student was a Tristyn, she would be thrilled :) Tristyn loves her friends, loves being chased by boys and loves everything to do with school. She is so busy now with dance, soccer and her social schedule - I almost need a separate calender just to keep up with her. but she loves it.

Here are Landon & Tristyn on their first day of school

Sisters

I was looking through Kyleigh's camera when I ran across this little photo shoot with Tristyn.  I love this!  I love seeing the girls doing something fun together and their creativity.  Neither is that scared of a camera and they obviously had fun with this!

Leaving For School

Here they are. Before they headed off to school. Kyleigh is going into 7th, Landon into 4th and Tristyn is off to kindergarten. I think this is going to be a great year for all of them. Tristyn only went to school for about 45 minutes today - just long enough to fall in love with it and never want to leave.

I just have one question...where did the summer go???

Fish Guts And Good Friends

Last weekend Kyleigh and I went to stay at my friend Heather's house. I watched her son Andrew when he was three until he was five and then they moved away. Andrew & Kyleigh were Jr. Zookeepers at the zoo on Saturday morning so we had to get up at 5:30 to have the kids to the zoo by 7:00. We don't get to see each other very often but when we do we just pick up where we left off and have an awesome time! Most of the pictures of Andrew look like this:
















Before class:















After class: You can't see it but they have fish guts all over them. When we asked Andrew how he got fish guts on himself he only had one word to say "Kyleigh". Kyleigh's answer "I thought Andrew would want to eat fish, so I tried feeding him". You can't tell they've been together since they were three :) More like siblings - LOL!
















We had so much fun with them..and, can't wait to get together again! We miss you guys!

Camp Jonah

Back in June Kyleigh went to a music and drama camp in Washington. This was her 2nd year and she just loves it. It's a day camp and they go Monday-Friday and then on Friday the parents all come up and the kids put on their play and have a big BBQ. Unfortunaly, my camera was not working well that night and none of the pictures of Kyleigh during the play turned out. Every year Kyleigh learns more about the Lord, meets new fun people and has an awesome time.

Here she is after the play:

Look at the view from Camp Jonah's backyard.
I love this picture. Landon was running from the camera all night and decided to hide behind Julie. Julie is too smart for that. She lifted her fingers to me: 1...2...3 and she jumped away right when I snapped the picture. Gotcha Landon!

Sneaky little guy. Not the best picture but it's the best expression on his face! He wasn't expecting Julie to jump away :) ha!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLEIGH

It's Kyleigh's 12th birthday. Wow! Time goes so incredibly fast.

She has grown into such a beautiful young woman who is thoughtful and kind to those around her. I am proud of who she is.

She was going to try to stay up until 3:35 a.m. - her official birthday time, she's not up yet, so we'll have to see if she made it or not :)

We are almost to the end of our birthday chaos. Our family has at least 15 birthdays in April, May & June...Bethany, Katie and Madi are all next week and then we will be almost done! It's worse then Christmas around here :)

Kyleigh Got a Cell Phone!

A lot of things have happened in the last couple of weeks that we have been without the internet. Here is one of the highlights...Kyleigh got her own cell phone. We finally caved in. I swore we wouldn't do it but....we did! And, actually it was a good choice. We got rid of our home phone and we each have our own cells. Kyleigh is thrilled..can you tell? Hmmm..I wonder who is on the other end of this call?? Madi? Shayley? Cheyanne? Whoever it is, she is enjoying this!

Crocs Rule

By now everyone knows that Steve Irwin is a big deal in our home. When he passed away Kyleigh felt she wanted to reach out to Bindi (Steve's daughter) but didn't know how. Kyleigh is a great writer and so she wrote and sent this poem to Bindi:

Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin

You came from above

Showed animals your love.

You created a zoo

Wrestled Crocs too.

We wish you didn't leave!

Crikey, we're gonna miss ya Steve!

CROCS RULE!

Sisters

These are the moments I cherish. The times when Tristyn needs her big sister and Kyleigh is there for her. Kyleigh is so good about looking out for Tristyn and trying to help her feel better. I don't remember why she was upset all I remember is that she needed her sister.

Playing for Grandpa

This is my Grandpa Lew. I am blessed to have him as one of my grandpas (my other one is awesome too!). He is one of the sweetest, kindest men that I know. Kyleigh & Madi had a band concert the other night but Grandpa is not able to attend and asked if the girls could come play for him.

We went over there on Tuesday and Kyleigh & Madi played their Christmas songs, and even figured out a few of their own tunes. We had a great time and Grandpa was thrilled with their progress since the beginning of the year.

I even learned that Grandpa has played just about every instrument out there, has been in several bands and would practice the clarinet for hours just to get out of his chores.

This reminds me of when me and my best friend played in the band. I played the clarinet and she played the flute. We always had fun "practicing".

Sadness

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Kyleigh's favorite pet, Henry. Last night when we went to bed, Henry had passed away. He was a great hamster and we are all very sad.

But, thanks to Kyleigh's Aunt Bethany & Uncle Darrel, she has already been given a new hamster for Christmas. So, in the next few days we will have to post a picture of the "new one". He/She does not have a name yet. So far, Kyleigh is thinking of either Henry, Jr. or Henrietta...but, we'll have to wait and see.

A Great Story Behind This Face

Today was the day of decorating our tree and, of course, like every other family we tell a lot of stories about our ornaments. Who they are from, what we remember about them, why we like them, etc.


Kyleigh pulled this one out and asks what the story is behind it. So, for the first time, I tell her. This is an ornament that mom found Christmas 1995..the year Kyleigh was born.


I am putting a close up down below but as you can tell, it's based on the Pooh movies where he gets stuck in Rabbits house. Rabbit is trying to push Pooh out and Tigger & Piglet are on the other end pulling.

After I had Kyleigh, and was still in the hospital, Dan brought me a balloon that had this exact scene on it which said..."While Rabbit pushed and pushed, Tigger & Piglet pulled and pulled!"


Pretty appropriate, don't ya think???

Kyleigh's Pets

Here's Henry. I got Henry from my friend's cousin one year ago. He was my first hamster. He likes to be held. He is a very sweet hamster, I am lucky to have a good hamster like Henry.








This is Oreo. I named her Oreo because when I got her she was black and white. I got her when she was 4 weeks old. Now she is brown and white. Oreo is VERY hyper. She doesn't like to be held very much and you have to be very careful or she will bite you. She is always trying to bite her way out of her cage and her favorite treats are sunflower seeds and yogos.

Kyleigh

Here's Kyleigh. She is now a big 6th grader and in middle school.

For those of you that have not seen her lately she is almost my size.

This was taken in October at the zoo. Kyleigh had the opportunity to be a jr. zookeeper for a day. Kyleigh has a strong love for animals and was able to work with snakes, turtles, otters, beavers and much, much more.

She is playing the clarinet this year and just had her first band concert. It was great...for a bunch of squawking first year players :)