First Day of School

This is what always come to mind on the first day of school:

The cute opening scene in Finding Nemo when Nemo bounces up and down shouting, "First day of school, first day of school!" 

The girls were able to meet their upcoming teachers on the last day of school in May.  At first Kenna was really apprehensive about having a "boy teacher."  In fact, she got the teacher she didn't want.  But, I am happy to report that so far the ladies are very pleased with their teachers and have been really enjoying their first few days.  

The week before school started, both girls expressed some anxiety about going back.  Thankfully, the Back to School night was really good for them to get in their classrooms, see their teachers again, and get a feel for it.  The best, however, and what they were really really looking forward to, was a blessing from Jacob.  What a gift it is to have a wonderful Daddy who loves his kiddos and is always willing and able to use the Priesthood in their (our) behalf.  So so grateful!  They each received a beautiful and very inspired blessing to help ease their concerns and set them up for a great school year.

Kenna is the THIRD GRADER at our house.  Third?  Really?  I'm pretty sure she was just in Kindergarten.  My oldest baby isn't a little child anymore.  She is quickly becoming a young lady.
A beautiful one at that. 

Right behind Kenna is our SECOND GRADER, Miss Allie Rae.  She too has grown so much.  I loved Kenna's second grade teacher from last year, but was glad Allie has someone new this year.  Sometimes they are more like twins- so it's good they get to forge their own paths and not have everything the same.  Another beauty!

Don't forget Ty who is beyond excited for PRESCHOOL this year!  It's a different preschool from last year and he doesn't get to ride the bus anymore, but he doesn't seem to mind one bit.  He gets so excited when one of his preschool days rolls around.  This little dude loves Spiderman.  I have no idea where he got that from.  Nor do I have any idea where he got his love for Wonder Woman.  Ya, he was really hoping for a Wonder Woman backpack.  Spiderman was only second choice.  I much prefer a man clothed head-to-toe who can spin webs from his fingertips over a woman doing backflips in boots and a half inch of clothing.  Just sayin'.

 
Don't forget our caboose, Missy Lou.  I don't think she'll complain that she gets a couple of hours a week with Mom all to herself!  Mom's not complaining about the situation either.  So fun to have some time with just she and I.  Even if she is one determined little lady.  She can do everything.  By herself.  Thankyouverymuch.             


We expect to have a great and successful school year!  We at least are off to a great start. 

Allie's 7th Birthday

In case there is any question in the matter, my kids L.O.V.E their birthdays!  The older they get, the more they love them.  Allie was no exception this year as she anticipated the big 7.

A few weeks before the big day she would (daily, if not multiple times a day) go through the list of all the things she wanted to do for her birthday.  The following list is not necessarily exhaustive, mind you:

-go bowling
-go to the Maverik to get a treat
-go swimming at the aquatic center
-go to IFA to pick out a toy and look at the bunnies
-go to the movies
-go to lunch at Jimmy Johns
-have an ice cream cake
-have a cookout with some friends
-have a birthday party
-get a Hello Kitty balloon

Can't blame her for her ambition!  Needless to say, we had to chisel a few (most) things off the list.  For her birthday afternoon, she and I headed into town for a Mommy/Allie date.  She found a new doll toy/dress kit for her gift and used some birthday money to buy some new shoes.  We ate lunch at Jimmy Johns- she has been wanting to go forever!  The date ended with a stop at Dairy Queen to pick up an ice cream cake (yes, I had an easy out and took it).

Later that night we went down to the farm to celebrate with some friends who were visiting from California- Tina, Tyler, and Dulsa.  The night was complete with a cookout, riding horses and 4-wheelers, and eating cake.  It ended up being a perfect night, we had a really good time.

We love our Allie Gal!  Allie tends to come across as very shy and reserved at first, but we know her as our very spunky and hard working little girl.  Lately she has been doing a great job learning how to ride a horse and has really been enjoying it.  We're excited to see how she learns and grows this upcoming year.  The countdown to our 2nd baptism is on!

July

In a nutshell, July was great.

The end.

Oh fine, I'll give a little more detail.

We spent the weekend of the 4th camping up at Brian Head with neighbors.  It was so beautiful and green up there.  We had a lot of fun despite 2 days of on-and-off hail and rain.  We definitely utilized the heater in the trailer!

Enjoying some fireworks:

For some reason long forgotten, Kenna managed to get really mad at Mom and decided to run away.  Thankfully even though she had her bag packed, she decided against it.  But her runaway note was the most endearing note yet from my oldest little lady.  Definitely a keeper for her book of remembrance.  Here it is:

  "I am going to run away 

and I am not coming back!!!!

Your unloving unloved

Daughter

Kenna

xoxoxo

Just in case I miss you!"

It's hard to say exactly what my favorite part of this letter is.  The part where she scratched out "unloving" and replaced it with "unloved" is so very sweet.  Maybe the very end takes the cake, though.  In very small letters she just has to add "xoxoxo Just in case I miss you!"  How sweet is that?  This just melted me!  Kenna has such a tender little heart.  Golly I love that little girl.

The middle of July we headed back up north for an Otte Family reunion up at Bear Lake.  My parents, siblings, and us all put in together to rent a condo.  A condo that just happened to be a short 1/2 block straight up from La Beau's.  Ya, you do the math on that one.  We had SO MUCH FUN!  We laughed, ate, swam, water skied, water weenied, played, and just enjoyed the whole weekend.  It has been since last Thanksgiving since we were all together and I just ate up every last minute.  The condo was perfect and the company was even better.  We attempted a trip to Minnetonka Cave, but the 4 hour wait was a little too much.

This little gem of sweetness was everybody's snuggle bug for the weekend.  Love me a new little nephew!  I think Grandpa is a fan, too:

Don't necessarily love me a new snake, however:

At the beach:

Kenna:  hated the water weenie, loved the shallows.
Allie:  loved the boat and the water weenie, but got a little nervous when mom was out in the water skiing. 
Ty:  hated the boat.  Stuck to the shallows just like big sis.
Lexi:  another one to stick in the shallow water.
Dad:  awesome boat driver and also dipped in the water to ski a little bit.
Mom:  managed to get up on the skis, but also managed to throw her back out in the process.  She wasn't happy.  But when your sister is a nurse, she brings a bucket full of great things.   A shot of a strong anti-inflammatory in the rear end works wonders.  Just sayin'.


Grandpa works his magic on his amazing homemade ice cream:

Cousin love:

 

 Nothing like the cheering on the Primary kids in a good old-fashioned hometown parade for the 24th of July:

Every mighty pirate needs a mighty pirate sword!  Good thing this little mighty pirate has a great Daddy who created him a super sword.  Too bad this matey beats on his sisters with said sword and it gets taken away.  Frequently.

When it comes to summer vacations, this is the best way to travel:

The first one is Ty holding his helicopter from the air show down in St. George.  He and Dad went down to watch while mom and the girls did some back-to-school shopping.  After a few hours he was pooped so they didn't actually stick around the watch the Blue Angels fly.  Oh well!

And that is July.  In a nutshell.  A very large nutshell.

Birthday Boy

We made it home in time from Logan to celebrate Ty's 4th birthday!  This little dude was beyond excited for his birthday.  A few months before his big day he kept asking, daily, if he was "this many yet" while he held up four fingers.

Finally, the big day came!  He decided on having a soccer cake.  Just indulge me in saying it turned out awesome!

There are always helpers around these here parts when there are gifts to be opened:

Our now four year-old mighty pirate:

We love you Ty Man and all you add to our family!!  You do a great job holding your own as the only boy in the clan.  

Summer Trip to Logan

We decided to make good use of our summer vacation by heading up north to visit family.

First stop was in Salt Lake to visit Aunt Steph and Uncle Matt.  The girls don't get to see their cousins all that often, so it was fun to let them have time to play together.  And of course that means bedtime is a nightmare.  But hey, it's summer, right?

While up there, we decided to spend a day at Hogle Zoo.

Crowd favorite:

Someday they will leave the nest:

Not quite sure why Ty has sequestered himself from the herd:

Lexi and Ty digging the Polar Bear Exhibit:

Lovin' the train ride:

Cooling off at the giant rolling water ball thingermajigger before we decide to call it a day:

It was HOT.  So hot that most of the animals went into a heat induced coma.  We pretty much walked from one sleeping animal to another.  But, all in all it was still a great day.

After the zoo, we headed up to spend the rest of the week in Logan/Smithfield, where, it seems, my picture taking fizzled out.  I only have a handful from the week, but we had a lot of fun!

Between the two grandparents houses we went swimming with our new cousins Kloe and Mitch, went to the movies, had a weenie roast, and just played our little hearts out.

Here are some fav's:

This one is at Grandma Shelly's house.  Ty was watching the ipad in Grandma's front room.  I went in to check on him and found a little pile of leaves on the floor.  When I asked him why they were on the floor he said, "They were tickling me."  Well of course.  Why not just pick off the leaves instead of scooting over?  Ha!

This last picture is my favorite favorite favorite.  While I was up there my Grandpa Otte was also staying with my parents for the week.  The absolute highlight of the trip was one night when I sat down for an hour or two with a notebook writing down all the family history I could get out of my Grandpa and Dad.  Those few pages of notes are absolutely priceless to me.  He and my Grandmother are two of the most highly regarded people in my life.  Oh how I wish I could have more!

We (I) came home exhausted, but it was a great trip.  We were all more than happy to see Daddy again!  I think it's safe to say the feeling was mutual.

Summer Games

This year the girls decided to let out their inner athlete and run in the Summer Games in June! We took the month or so before to hit the high school track to practice their running and try to gear up for the big day.

Getting ready to strut their stuff at the SUU Coliseum:

Ahhh, it takes me back to my high school running days.  All those hours spent at the track....

....Oh wait, that was Jacob.

Okay, so the running definitely didn't come from their mother, but I was SO excited for them!  They both ran the 100 and the 400, or 1/4 track length and a full lap.  The 100 went great- they both did AMAZING!  I think I was more nervous than they were!  There was only supposed to be about 35-40 minutes between the two races, but by the time their next race came around it had been almost 2 hours.  Needless to say they were hot and tired.  All of us were.  But they gave it one last hoorah and had another awesome race.  I was so darn proud of them!  They ran their little hearts out and both squashed their practice times by quite a bit.

Here is Allie getting a little prep from Coach Dad before the 400:

All things considered, these two were great little sports:

Allie's crew after the 100.  She is on the left:

Kenna's crew.  Just look for the smallest little lady 2nd from the right.  Don't be deceived by her size- she whooped a few of those girls!

They are still undecided on doing this another year.  I think the long gap between the races was a bit deflating.  But maybe they'll give it another shot.  So proud of you ladies!!

Catch Up

School starts in less than one week.  ONE WEEK.

I have a myriad of emotions about this.

• Emotion #1:  Oh ya, bring it on!  We are ready for a structured routine again! 

• Emotion #2:  Ah crap.  Another unorganized summer down for the record books where I didn't do near the educational activities with the kids I had so awesomely thought about in my supermom mind. 

 

• Emotion #3:  Shoot- am I ready for homework and packing lunches and parent teacher conferences and......

• Emotion #4:  Wait a minute, what?  Am I really complaining?  Didn't I just say I was ready for the routine?

• Emotion #5:  I have issues.

So if school starts next week, that means the summer is basically over.   Which means I have nearly an entire summer to blog about because it took me nearly an entire summer to blog about my Hawaii trip.

So what really have you been up to the past few months, you ask?  Was there a 4th of July?  Trip to Logan?  Family reunion?  Pioneer Day?  Random days at the park?  Camp trips?  TY AND LEXI'S  BIRTHDAYS for crying out loud?!!  Yep, it's all in pictures yet to be posted on the bloggity blog.

• Emotion #6:  Qwitcherbellyakin and just get on with it already!

Let's back up to the end of May when Lexi Lou had her 2nd birthday.  So here's the dealio with birthdays for very small children:  they could care less.  So pretty much since I have 3 others who care greatly about their birthdays and LOVE to be the center of attention for their big day, I decided to be a bit, oh how shall we put it....lax about this one.  Don't you worry- we absolutely love and adore our little Lou Lou.  She is such a sweet little stinker and pretty much makes us melt.  But we'll just give her loves everyday and forget about the hooplah for one day over a cute little lady who could care less.  Do I sound like I am trying to justify?  Perhaps tame a creeping feeling of guilt?  Na.  Hey at least I got one picture of the day.  That's better than none, right?  AND at least I spent a little time making her a cute cake.  Mostly because the older kids cared enough that she have a cute cake.

Still wondering when my baby grew up enough to be 2!?  TWO!

Here are a few more quickies of the summer.  We've been....

Camping:

Four wheeling:

Just a sidenote:  if there aren't four wheelers in heaven, Ty won't go.


Rodeoing:

They sure ran their hearts out to get some money off the wild calf, but to no avail.  In the fiasco of it all, we managed to lose Ty for about 3 minutes.  Thankfully a good Samaritan hoisted our crying child out of the arena and he was safely returned.  It was Jacob's fault.  I would NEVER lose a child.  Ever. 



Swimming:

 Whose crazy children are on all fours with their mouths on the filthy ground?  Geez, some parents I tell ya.  They should be called in.  Once again-  Jacob.  I would never....

I have a feeling there soon may be a new author on this blog.  I'm about to be ousted.

Sprinkler Systeming:

 Three words for you:  

worth

every

penny

 
Don't you worry, there is plenty left.  Let's just say this is Documentation of Summer 2014 Intermission....