Nick & Ryan

Ryan came home from school today and declared that he needed his picture taken with his brother (this happens about every-other day). This is what came of the pictures...Ryan decided that he didn't want to be in most of them because he want to play with the quacking duck that makes Nick smile. I haven't Photoshop-ed them, so I'm sure I'll re-post after I've played with colors and such. I love this serious picture of Nick.

My good friend, Amber, and I have been taking a Photoshop class on Tuesday and Thursdays...lots of fun and learning! I'm learning a lot and I'm hoping that I'll be able to take some decent enough pictures to be able to use all of the fun Photoshop tricks.

Chili Cook-Off

My mom has been up for the past few days...yippee for Gram Time! We had a great time shopping, getting the boys stuff for winter (snowsuits, boots, etc), and spending time together. Ryan especially liked being able to earn a dollar for every book he read to Gram. I think she stopped at about 20 and went for other forms of motivation.

On Saturday night we went to our ward's annual Chili Cook-Off that the local hot-spot...the Shaw's Barn (okay, it's just a regular old barn, but a few times a year it becomes the ward hot spot because we use it for our activities). There were a few buffalo in the pen with the cows and you would've thought they were wild buffalo the way the kids oogled over them. We ate chili (plenty of it), salads, yummy desserts, and frozen bananas. Ryan spent most of his time roping the cow until the head fell off the bail of hay and he couldn't get it back on. We even went for a sunset hayride behind the tractor and say all the the leaf colors, they were amazing. The picture of the four of us on the hayride isn't great, but we do thank Nicole for taking it as she is just 12 years old:) We truly live in the most beautiful area where we get to see deer, elk, buffalo (in a corral), leaves changing colors, fruit on trees, and we get to feel the crisp air before most of the rest of the state.

Rainbow

We had a big storm the other evening and I couldn't help but take this picture as the sun was going down. Never mind the quality of the picture..I'm going to have to learn how to take better nighttime pictures during my next "photography 101" with my Dad. There were actually two rainbows, but my camera (couldn't be the user) wouldn't catch the other one because it was fairly pale. This one was so bright and vibrant and I instantly thought of Natalie and my Grandpa. Don't you love when something reminds you of someone and it puts a smile on your face?

Waterfall

It's been a work in progress, but the finishing touch has finally been completed on our beautiful yard. We've worked and worked in our yard and this morning we were finally able to turn the pump on to get the waterfall working. I LOVE it!!! Can't believe how great it looks. Just sort of completes the looks we were going for...very mountainous.

First Lost Tooth

Ryan lost his first tooth (naturally) last night. He knocked his top teeth out a few years ago and has had a retainer in ever since, but this is the first loose tooth that he has experienced loosing. He was pretty excited. We wrote a letter to the tooth fairy, read a book about the tooth fairy, and put a special pillow with his tooth in it under his pillow last night. I almost blew it when I went in before I went to bed to do the tooth fairy thing because he woke and asked what I was doing. I told him that I was just making sure that the tooth fairy hadn't already come and he went right back to sleep...this from the kid who sleeps through everything!

Lunch with Kaytee

I went to lunch with my very good friend Kaytee the other day. It was SO great to catch up on life and chat with another adult (kid conversations are great, but they don't require a whole lot of intellect). Her little girl, Laralee, is so adorable. She was so good while we ate and chatted and walked around Provo.

Don't be too jealous of the arm-length-shot photograph here!

A moment of silence

Let us all have a moment of silence in gratitude for the first day of the new school year on this 27th day of August. Most parents were at school shedding a tear or two for having to leave their kids; however, I was doing the happy dance! Ryan has been so ready for school that I couldn't be sad that he was going to kindergarten. I'm exited for him to go and learn and grow and meet new friends. What is so sad about that? He is so smart and social, I just want him to love school like I did.

So, I've been a little (okay a lot) out of the blogging world, so here's a run-down of the last 3 months, you'll just have to make up the pictures in your head as I am not going to take the time to update 3 months worth of snapshots:

*School ended :(

*Craig got married (see previous post)

*Went to the pool a whole bunch

*Played on the inflatable water slide in our backyard

*Did lots of yard work

*Went Camping

*Went to lagoon

*Ryan went to Lake Powell with

the Uncles & Gram & Grandpa

*Went to court a few times over Jeff's kids

*Nick still won't sleep

*Picked fruit and veggies from our garden

and neighboring fruit farms

*Had a fun lunch and afternoon with Kaytee

*Participated in the Elk Ridge 4th of July Parade

*Cassie turned 9

*Shawn & Sierra turned 7

*Went on plenty of hot Sunday bike rides

*Went fishing on the boat

*Breathed a sigh of relief that it is all

over and school has started!

This One Is For Gram

Okay, so most of you won't care about Ryan's first soccer game and first day of school back-t0-back, but Gram will appreciate it.

Ryan scored 2 goals...it was 3 on 3 soccer, so there wasn't much competition as he was a head taller than all the other kids.

He was pretty exited to go to Kindergarten.

They were going on a "Safari" today in the "kindergarten zoo."

It's hard to believe that I Ryan is old enough to go to school.

He was so excited he woke me at 4 o'clock this morning to

make sure that he wasn't going to be late for school.

Love, Love, Love being a mom!!!