Madison's Award

Madison received the Citizenship Award at their very first assembly! Way to go Mad!!!

Much needed R&R

John and I celebrate our 10 year anniversary in November and decided this was the perfect year to go on a vacation ALONE! We chose Cancun mostly for the Zip-lining. That is something that we ALWAYS wanted to do. We convinced my parents to stay at our house and watch our kids for 7 days. We headed off to Cancun the first part of September. (We celebrated early since Hurricane season is in November.)

We had a GREAT time!!! It was hard being away from the kids for so long but we knew they were in good hands. 

We spent most of our time relaxing and just having a great time!

Our resort was BEAUTIFUL!!!! It rained a lot, but that did not stop us from doing anything we wanted to do. We even got to go to sacrament meeting at a local church. It was really neat to be there. 

 The streets were flooding as we were heading into downtown one day. I couldn't believe how fast the water was rising.

 This was our view from our room. This is obviously on a rainy day. Every room had a hammock on the balcony. It was perfect! I really enjoyed reading in that hammock!

We went to this natural adventure park called Xplor. It was AMAZING! We got to Zip-line, swim and canoe in underground rivers, romp through the mud in these little jeep cars, and eat some yummy food.  

 

 

These photos are blurry because it was PORING Rain! But it was still a lot of fun!

Near our hotel their was a ferry to a island close by called Isla Mujeres. We decided to spend the day exploring the island. It was very cool. You could rent a motor scooter or a golf cart and drive around. We decided on the golf cart and explored for a while. 

 

These iguana's were all over the rocks at one of the beaches on the island.

We were hoping to snorkel on the island but it was pretty expensive. We did find a nice beach to swim in but there was NO fish or sea life!

This is our hotel in the background on our way back from Isla Mujeras. 

We had fun playing with our underwater camera.

   

 On our way home we got to stop in Houston and visit with John's brother Cris and his family. It was so FUN to spend time with them. We went to this great Aquarium in downtown. It was really neat. Next time we are in Houston we need to take the kids!

 We got to feed stingrays.

They have these beautiful white tigers. And you can get really close to them through the glass.

We even got to go on some rides.

Then we headed home to relieve my parents. 

 

 

It was a GREAT trip but I think it was a little too much time away from my crazy kids!

The tooth fairy is EXHAUSTED

 

 About 4 months ago when the kids were at the dentist the dentist told Madison that she should be loosing her bottom teeth soon. The x-ray showed the big teeth very close to the surface. She kept asking me when she would lose those teeth. Well the day finally came. The first tooth fell out the day before picture day at school. I did not know it was even that loose. 

 

The tooth fairy brought her 4 quarters. She was SO EXCITED!

The very next day as she was getting ready for bed her other bottom tooth fell out.

Then Charles lost another one of his too!!! I think it was on the same night!

 Claudia felt like she was missing out on the photo opts so she requested a photo too!

Claudia is 3!

While we were on vacation Claudia had heard 3rd Birthday! My mom was kind enough to help make her day special. Aunt Jennie and Grandma Garthe met my mom and Claudia and Katelyn at Chick-fil-A for lunch and Claudia got a special birthday sundae.

Then they celebrated some more with cake and ice cream with Grandpa, Aunt Goo, and Aunt Janelle.

 Katelyn enjoyed the cake too!

Claudia was a lucky girl this year, not only did she get to celebrate on her birthday we got to celebrate 2 more times with both the Anderson's and the Garthe's. She was very spoiled and had lots of yummy cake! 

(Not sure what's up with this attitude face.)

Finally!

Our little girl has finally started to WALK!!!!

It has only taken her 2 months longer than the others. But I guess she just does things on her own time, when she is ready. She's also started getting a mouth full of teeth. She is cutting all 4 top teeth right now. It's pretty funny because one of the side tooth is coming in faster than the front. She looks like a kindergartener who just lost their two front teeth. It's so funny!!

1st Day of School

With this move came a NEW School. 

Our new school is much bigger both in size and enrollment than our previous school and it is definitely going to take some getting used to. I didn't realize how great we had it at our old school. The office staff and principal knew every kid by name and the school was nice and small. It really felt like home.

But I know that our new school is a Great school too!!! And the kids will do very well here.

It is really nice that Charles has his cousin in his class and Madison has two cousins in her grade.

That was one of the biggest factors for our decision to move.

So here they are......

 Charles is now a 3rd Grader  &   Madison is a 1st Grader           

Madison was very very nervous about her 1st day of school and even struggled through the first week. But she was happy to go this morning so I think things are looking up!

Playing Catch-Up

Since I feel like I am Soooooo FAR BEHIND on my blog I am going to try and just post photos of our summer to catch us up.

It has been a VERY crazy summer. One of the hardest of my life. We have been stuck on a roller coaster for most of the summer with the whole house process. We've had some highs, LOTS of lows, and lots of unexpected turns. But we have finally arrived at the station and have gotten off the roller coaster in our NEW home! And it was TOTALLY worth it!!!!! The ride really sucked but the end result made it all worth it.

Despite all the craziness that we went through I still tried to add some fun things in for the kids to do. All my grand plans of the kids setting goals and working on them daily went right out the window and my kids were "plugged" into electronics WAY more than they should have been. But we made it through. So here are some highlights of our CRAZY summer!!!

Celebrating 4th of July with Family
Celebrating Charles & Katelyn's Birthdays
CHARLES BAPTISM
Family Reunion
Beach

 Fun at the Splash Park

 Cow Appreciation Day

 Fun at The Cove

 Roller Skating with cousins!

This was Charles' 1st time skating

 L.A. Temple Visitors Center

 Cheesecake Factory 1/2 price Cheesecake for John's Birthday

 

John's Birthday with the Anderson's

  

Just Hangin Out!

 Playing at the Park

 Fun with the hose and some buckets

 Saying "Goodbye" to our Old House

 MOVING

 Meeting a New Friend in our New Yard

 Fun with a MUSTACHE

 One last trip...to the OC Zoo and Irvine Park. My favorite place

We did NOT Finish everything on our Summer To Do List, but I think we still had a GREAT Summer!!!

Some of the things not checked off got completed after we moved. We just didn't take the list with us.