Kindergarten Promotion

My little Kindergartener is off to First Grade!!!!!! They did a cute little program and got really nice diplomas with their pictures (same as the 8th grade!). Erin got her a Disneyland button that says "Just Graduated" - just like her's. She was so excited and so cute! We're proud of you, Kelcie - you did GREAT in Kindergarten!!!!!

8th Grade Disneyland

We made it!!! And, it was so fun! We left at Midnight and drove all night - went to Disneyland all day - and left to come home about 11pm - pulled into the school at 5am. We were really tired - but thanks to Dramamine, we at least slept some on the bus.

Disneyland is really prett and fun at night - we've never done that before.
O.k., scary picture of me, but I LOVE Space Mountain, so I had to put it on! So fun - still recovering!

Our Graduate!!!

Erin is DONE!!! She graduated from 8th grade tonight. Not only did she graduate........She graduated as Salutatorian (2nd in her class)!!!!!!!!!!! She and the Valedictorian were only 1/10 of a point apart. She was so glad because then she gets the recognition but doesn't have to give a speech :) Her job was to sit on the stand the whole time and lead the Pledge in the ceremony.

Erin with her Principal on the stage

Getting her award with the Valedictorian. She also got the Citizenship award (only 3 kids) and the Presidential Academic Award

Afterwards with her G & G Starr

ON TO HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!! Well, first we're off to Disneyland with the 8th grade class - wish me luck!

Happy Birthday, Kelcie!!!

Kelcie is 6 years old!!!!!!! There's no way...... But, alas, she is - she's been counting down this day ALL MONTH and has been SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

She got roller skates ( so she won't have to use Erin's old rusty ones any more :) )

We even had a party that morning with lots of fun little girls! She wanted a Littlest Pet Shop party - luckily we did this for Laura a few years ago and kept the poster. We played a bunch of games - geared toward pets, of course. The older kids were REALLY helpful and took over their responsibilities.

Pin the leash on the puppy

Pinata

Opening Presents

Blowing out the candles

And, of course, yummy treats!!!

We love you Kelcie - hope you had a wonderful, fun, and terrific day!

Kelcie - 6 years

Favorite colors: Purple, Pink, Blue

Favorite food: Spaghetti and Meatballs (I think - she picked it for her birthday dinner)

Number of teeth lost: 0 - she's a little concerned about that - the kids in her class are losing teeth.

Love to swim, read, play with friends/cousins, learning piano, and Littlest Pet Shops

My favorite thing: She's little and can still curl up in a little ball and let me hold her. She's really mild and layed back and happy - she tries throughing fits occasionally, just to see if it will work, but I can tell it's not really her.

Fathers and Sons

Fathers and Sons was a week ago, but Lafe just got these pictures off his phone. I had to share. They had a GREAT time and Talin was so excited!!!!!!!!! I hope these boys will enjoy this time together even though they are 10 years apart.

As for the girls - we went to a movie - The Last Song - good, but sad. I told my girls #1 Don't EVER dress like that and #2 that is what you call a "chick flick". Then we went to Olive Garden - they thought it was SO FANCY - it was really fun! Then, we had to paint nails because poor little Kelcie wasn't as interested in that movie as the other girls, so we made sure we did something fun for her, too!

Our New Temple!!!

We're getting a new Temple........SO CLOSE..........and we are SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've been wanting for a while to get a picture in the lot before they start, and we finally got it!!!

Started out with a few cranky kids, but it ended up being REALLY fun!!! The kids loved running through the alfalfa fields and I just followed them with my camera and the zoom.

Gila Valley Temple Open House

When our church builds a new Temple, they hold an Open House for the public to be able to see inside before they dedicate it as the House of the Lord. During the Open House, anyone can go inside. We took this opportunity to drive over to the Gila Valley and go through the Temple with our kids. It was so beautiful!!! Such a neat experience to be able to take our children into the Temple with us. After it is dedicated you can only enter when you're old enough and if you hold a recommend - meaning you are living worthy to enter.

My three little ones waiting to get a picture in the front.

We have a little joke in our family because it seems that anywhere we go we run into somebody related to Lafe - seriously! Well, as we were on the temple tour, my cousin and her family walked by in the tour ahead of us! We found each other afterwards, and then found out that her brother's (also my cousin, obviously) daughter was a missionary there at the time. They found her and we were able to get a picture. So fun to see them - I haven't seen them in YEARS!!!

It was a nice trip - it's really a beautiful area over there - I'd never been there before! I wish we had more time to look around because the drive in was so pretty between the mountains and all the beautifully groomed farmland!

If you want to attend or find out more: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/gilavalley/

http://www.lds.org/temples/purpose/0,11298,1897-1,00.html

Silly Kids...

Laura has been reading the Harry Potter series, so she was dressed up as Hermione the other day. She decided to dress Talin up, too, and found the "Harry Potter" glasses from halloween - we thought he made a great Harry Potter!

Do you think these kittens are loved or what????!!!?????