I have a BIG first grader!!

First day of the First grade. And it's our First year at Marion Elementary school!!

We're so excited to be able to walk to school. Thanks to a little sister we were up extra early this morning, new shoes and shorts, they were to wear their favorite color so pink was in the mix (of course!).Finding her desk--thankfully she has 2 kids in her class that also go to church with us so she will know a couple of people. Praying that she finds a nice friend or two to help her feel more calm.Here she is with Mrs. Donahue her teacher!!

Here's to a great year for a great kid!!

From 3, to 2, and now ONE!!

While Miss K was away at grandma's and I had one less running around, I took full advantage to re-focus my efforts on potty training this little one.

After about 5 days of pure accidents it finally clicked at church during nursery! And from that point on she stayed pretty dry, then the other kicked in a few days later.

We're having a few minor steps backwards but I am thrilled!

When Matthew came home from the hospital I had 3 in diapers for about 3 weeks, then I was down to 2, and now can you believe it I am basically down to only 1 in diapers! I haven't had it this easy since Linsdey was born 33 months ago!! I'm going to feel like I got a raise on the grocery budget (shhhhh--don't tell my husband!)

Mayborn Childrens Museum

One of the things Kaitlyn has been MOST EXCITED about this summer was going to spend a week with her Grandparents (McKneely) ALL BY HERSELF! So that week came a couple weeks ago and we decided to meet them half way on the drop off at a fabulous museum in Waco, TX at Baylor University (click here to find out more info) Here are some of the highlights:Our Aunt Sarah is headed to BYU-Provo and we're really glad she got to spend this day with us! And we're glad there was a travelling lego exhibit there when we visited. She helped Lindsey build a tower that was as tall as her!Our cousins, Shelly, Ashlyn and Elissa were able to be there with us too!The Tea Party wasn't quite Sam's thing.....But the music room was!

And Lindsey loved the water table!

Rollie poley ollie

Guess who is rolling over (sometimes)? You better believe it!

He is getting so big!

Here is a photo I snapped at his 4 month birthday....It's hard to believe that next week I'll snap a 5 month one. (I've been letting the blog slide a bit)

Matthew has a beautiful temperament, he is SO HAPPY. He's ticklish and we get great big belly laughs from him often. He adores attention and smiles at most people. He likes to blow raspberries. He's a great eater (obviously) and sleeper. We're just so glad he's part of our family, he's a perfect go with the flow kind of kid and that's exactly what we need!!

At Laaaaaaast

So we get home from our trip and THANK GOODNESS we'd been staying at a friends and I'd taken the opportunity to do some laundry because my FIRST LOAD began making an awful puddle and noise in my laundry room....Stephen had not yet left for work and took a look at it. His assessment: sure he could fix it, but is it worth it? THEREFORE: NEW WASHER AND DRYER FOR ME!!!

Now here's the history: This is the 3rd hand me down washer we've gotten since we've been married--we've NEVER bought one. Washer #1 was a hand me down from my in-laws. Washer #2 was a hand me down front loader from my mom, which broke just after moving last year. We were going to buy one then but our friends just happened to have another older top loader and offered it to us and we'll always take free so that was #3. And I am grateful for it. I really am....But I've silently been hoping for it to break for awhile, I really wanted a front loader with all the capacity because, let's face it, 6 people make a lot of dirty clothes!!

We hadn't quite used up all the money we'd budgeted for our vacation and in my head I was already thinking of all the fun things I could spend it on.....but life has a way of deciding things like that for me.

So, TA-DA!!!!! (que the Choir of Heavenly Angels singing)

Aren't they pretty? We're planing on getting a stacking kit (because $400 for drawers is just silly!)so there will be more room in the laundry room--maybe even room for an extra fridge someday!! I've been using them for a few weeks and am LOVING THEM!!

Days 11-14

Day 11: Last day in Utah!!
Was a whirlwind of activities. One of my favorite of the whole trip involves this little guy:Eli Michael Nelson arrived to this family around the 4th of July. He's a miracle baby who came via an angel of a courageous girl named Katie who was so smart to choose my favorite mission companion Keralyn (and her awesome husband and mission buddy Mike) to be the parents of her baby!

I am over the moon at this eternal family. They are going to be such great parents and I am so thankful that our trip to Utah coincided with his birth and them getting him so that I could take this photo:

And this one too:I just get teary eyed every time I think of it.

In Provo we hit up the BYU bookstore and the obligagatory stop at In & Out Hamburgers (hey I AM a California Girl and while they're building one near me--FINALLY--I had to get me a double double).
Then we made a scenic drive to Denver where we stayed a couple days with our friends Jon and Monica Torpy. It was great to break up the drive home AND to see these friends who used to live in Plano and Allen. For some reason I didn't get my camera out much when we were there. We just hung out, ate some amazing food, and enjoyed some down time. We enjoyed watching Star Trek in their cool media room (and we're pondering our own media room now--thanks Jon for the great ideas!!)

We then long hauled it home from Denver to Allen in one day--a long 13+ hours in the car but we were determined to make it home.

We had a great trip, we survived it and our kids did great! I've wanted a vacation like this for years and am so glad to know we can road trip and not only survive but THRIVE!!

Day 10: Discovery Gateway Children's Museum

(Check out Lindz!!)

Now, I've been to a few Children's museums. Not a lot, but maybe like 5? THIS ONE is hands down the BEST I've ever seen or heard of. It was an out of the park home run! Seriously! We LOVED IT! Here is how much:
And then later that night, I had the supreme opportunity to attend a get together with my mission president and his wife and a handful of missionaries from the great TEXAS HOUSTON MISSION. Not many people were there that I knew, but I got to see President & Sister Mayfield and that was enough for me! (and so was Hna Tiffany Randall Brown)
PS: And a super big thank you to my friends the Christensen's who volunteered to babysit so that Stephen could come with me--probably not his first choice of a date night with his hot wife but a date nonetheless!

Days 9: Temple Square

I'd been anticipating this stop for a bit for obvious reasons. Temple Square is our church's headquarters and has numerous historic monuments and museums with regards to our religion. All this year the children's magazine subscription, The Friend each month has highlighted a different attraction on temple square that can be seen through a child's eyes. I saved all those articles and on our road trip I reviewed them with each of them and we talked about the things we'd see.

WARNING: LOTS OF PICTURESUs in the tabernacle, the famous venue where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings, those pipes behind us are famous!!Us on top of the Conference Center with the Salt Lake Temple in the background.Sam sitting in a chair in the Conference Center.
Kaitlyn sitting in a fancy chair in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
Lindseyas "Mary" in the Museum of Church History and Art in a children's area.

We also hit the distribution center and Stephen and I hooked ourselves up with new scriptures, and each child chose a picture of Jesus I've since framed for them to put in their room and we got some desperately needed church movies (a Sunday morning must!) And we also went to the Beehive House, the Assembly Hall, both Visitor Centers....

The day was long, the kids were tired. We'd really been asking a lot of them but I felt the spirit of the place and was glad to show my kids where conference happens, where President Monson has his office, etc.

On the way back to our friends' house (wonderful, and amazing eternal friends Jill & Dave Christensen who only originally agreed to 2 nights of the 3 ring circus we bring with us, and who ended up letting us stay 4 nights or something CRAZY like that) we decided to try some famous burrito place called Cafe Rio that I see a lot of my friends rave about on facebook.

I have to be honest, dinner time was rough because baby Matthew was always DONE and didn't make things easy on me. I didn't realize that these burritos needed to be eaten with a knife and fork and were messy to eat, my kids didn't care too much for the quesadillas which were really greasy, I just had a steak burrito and not the prize winning pulled pork. I wasn't that impressed and I'll take my freebird burrito any day over a Cafe Rio one. Just sayin.