Happy Birthday David

David turned 29 and as we have done for every birthday since he was at least 8 we went to Kanki for Japanese Habachi. Don and the girls were sick so they couldn't come but Ryan and I represented the Masons.

15 Year High School Reunion

I had my 15 year high school reunion last weekend. It ended up being a lot more fun than I thought it would be. We had such a small class (41 students) so our 12 alumni (+ spouses) ended up being a pretty good turn out. Most people have changed for the better- a lot more confidence and a lot more perspective.
Since I very rarely go out and even more rarely get dressed up to go out I destroyed my whole closet looking for something to wear- it was at a bar/restaurant so it had to be dressy but not too dressy. I even took selfies to send to some friends to help me pick. I by the way am not very practiced in the art of selfies and it took me a long time to find an angle that didn't 1) look directly up my nose or 2) look down on me making me look like I had a huge nose and crazy bad shadows under my eyes... eventually I got it (and I went with the purple top). At the end of the day I felt pretty good and it was nice catching up with people I had seen every day for 3 years and had barely, if at all seen in the last 15 years.

18 Month Check up for Kenzie

Mackenzie had her 18 Month Check up yesterday and she is developing perfectly, in fact the only thing she didn't get a perfect score on was drawing a straight line and that was mostly because drawing circles is more fun. She is 24 Pounds now which is 70th percentile, she is about 33" tall which is 75th percentile and her head is 85th%. ... it's the first time one of my kids didn't get 95%+ written on their chart for head circumference.

Ryan In Class Fieldtrip

Ryan had his first in-class field trip today. They have been studying the states of matter and today they had Mad Science come in and do experiments with dry ice so that they could see the three states of matter in action. The kids LOVED it! I'm glad I was able to come check it out today! 

Training My Way to a Half Marathon

I have unofficially started training for the Princess Half Marathon I am trying to run at Disney in February. I figured it was better to start early since I feel like it takes me a long time to see improvement- that and until today I had never run more than a 5k. I got up to 3.7 miles today! So I'm going farther- hopefully I can keep with this trend. 13 miles seems a long way off- but I suppose I have awhile to get there. It will help once we get into the routine of Kenzie being in school two mornings a week so I am not limited to dinner time and weekend runs.

Kenzie Officially in the Toddler House

Kenzie has now officially started school! She is handling the transition much better than I thought she would. She doesn't like when I leave but she likes all other aspect of it. She runs into the building the second I get her out of the car, she is starting to explore the works they give her and she is interacting a lot more with the teachers. I'm glad we have this school and I'm glad she is embracing it considering this is her first school experience.

Kenzie School Update

We are om day 2 of toddler house phase in and we are still doing well! Kenzie walked right up to the toddler house and started playing, she was nervous about me going but she wasn't crying. I stayed at the school for the two hours that she was there to help out around the school (fixing up the playground) and just to be there in case she needed me. She actually seems happy to be there (once the initial shock of me leaving goes away). Let's hope she continues enjoying school!

Kenzie Meets her Classroom

Kenzie starts her phase-in at school tomorrow- because my last baby is starting school for the first time. Today was the open house where we got to go into her classroom for the first time and explore/ meet her teachers. She did about 500x better than I thought she would. She smiled at the teachers and played with the toys instead of clinging to me. She has always been distrustful of everyone- which is why I really wanted her to start school- so that she could learn that there are other good people out there and that she doesn't have to be with me all the time. We will see how tomorrow goes when I actually leave her in the classroom- but for today I will take the win.
Her teachers are great and have been teaching a long time. The school is great (it is where Audrey went for Pre-K) and the Montessori method will be great for her- she likes to do things herself. It's a recipe for success, we just have to get over the initial hump of separation!

Traveling Again... Don is in New Zealand!

Don is traveling again... this time to New Zealand for 2 weeks. 2 weeks with three small children is a lot. Luckily the two oldest are in school and we have Skype so we can occasionally see dad. Here is a picture of the kids Skyping dad- the time difference is hard- he stays up late so he can talk to us at 7:00am and we try and talk to him at 4:00pm when we are back from school and he is getting up in the morning. Luckily we are half way through!

Almost a Year and a Half

I was emailed Kenzie's school supply list on Friday and one of the things on it was a picture of her. I realized that while I have a lot of pictures on my phone and pictures with her brother and sister I had very few quality pictures of her- so I took her outside and took a couple of shots. She will be a year and a half next week, I'm glad I was reminded to capture her at this age! 

Day at the Lake

There is a lot going on right now but we did go out to Jordan Lake today so here are some of the pictures... so at least I keep somewhat up to date on the goings on around here.

A Rough Start

Well, the first week didn't go as planned.
Audrey got ringworm on Thursday and was sent home from school for the rest of the week. The good news is that ringworm isn't actually a worm but a fungal infection (who knew?).
Let's hope we make it through a whole week this week!
Luckily both Ryan and Audrey like their teachers and their classes. so while the short term has been rough the long term is looking pretty good!

First Day of School!

Back to School Party

We had a back to school party to celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of Kindergarten and Second Grade. We had it at a gymnastics gym where Audrey takes classes. It was a great time, all the kids were exhausted by the time we were through. Hopefully they sleep well tonight because the school year starts tomorrow!