Bus Driver

On the first day of school, my camera stopped working right when Karleigh got on the bus, so my friend took a picture of her with her bus driver...Karleigh was so excited! 

Karleigh is loving school.  She did come home a little upset yesterday when she found out she has to exercise at school.  She has PE on Monday's and she was NOT  a fan, but other than that she is really enjoying it.  I'm not going to lie, I am loving it as well!

Grayden's First Day of Preschool!!!

Grayden had his first day of preschool today!  He is in Miss Susie's class.  He has been so excited for preschool ever since Karleigh started going 2 years ago.  He ended up LOVING it!  When I came to pick him up, his teacher said that she loved him and that he is so animated.  I asked him how it went and he said "FUN."  He was also very excited because he got a snack in his backpack. 

He looks so big to me in these pictures! 

I think he is going to have a fun year.  His teacher seems really fun.  It will be nice to get a little alone time with each of the kids, since Gray goes to school in the morning and Karleigh goes in the afternoon.  I guess that will all change in about 2 months when baby brother gets here (yay!), but for now its fun to get some 1 on 1 time.

Karleigh's First Day of Kindergarten!

I am not sure where the last 5 years have gone, but today Miss Karleigh started kindergarten.  She has been looking forward to this all summer, and especially this weekend.  Last night, Karleigh and Gray both go father's blessings for the school year.  It was so special to watch, and the they were so excited about their blessings.  Karleigh was really excited, so she woke up extra early this morning.  She is in PM kindergarten, and it about killed her to wait all morning to go.  Her teacher's name is Mrs. Bigham. 

Grayden was feeling left out, so we got some pictures of him too.  I think he struggled the most today.  I am not sure if he was sad about Karleigh leaving or what, but he STRUGGLED today.  He kicked Karleigh in the face and smacked her in the face this morning before school.  I really thought she was going to go to school to her first day of school with a black eye, but luckily she did not. 

Karleigh got really into the picture taking before school.  She wanted to pose in a variety of places.  I only posted a couple of the pictures that she requested. 

Here she is at the bus stop with the little neighborhood girls.  The bus was 20 minutes late today, and it was over 100 degrees outside, so we were all very hot while we waited. 

You can barely see her cute face looking out the window.  I thought she would be a little nervous about getting on the bus, but she got on like a pro.

I met her over at the school after her bus ride.  All of the little girls were holding hands when they got off the bus.  It was precious. 

Here she is waiting to go into her classroom. 

Here she is in her seat, all ready to go. 

The first thing she said when she got off the bus was that school is really hot and that she wanted to take a cold bath.  Her poor little face was bright red.  I can only imagine how hot the bus ride is.  She also mentioned that recess wasn't quite as long as she was hoping. I asked her what she did at school and she said that she colored a picture, read some books, practiced flushing the toilet, and that's it.  She said it went by really fast and that she wanted to stay longer.  I guess that is a good sign. 

We let her choose where to go for dinner tonight, and she chose Chili's.  We also had some yummy chocolate cupcakes to celebrate her big day!  I think she is going to have a great year! 

Washington Rec Center

 Last week me and the kids went to the Washington Rec Center, which has the cutest pool ever.  Karleigh and Grayden absolutely loved it and can't wait to go back.  It is so kid friendly!

When we got home, they wanted to try out the bathtub in our new house...They loved it!!!

Grandma Wheeler Visit

We got a special visit from Grandma Wheeler today!!!  She had meetings in Cedar City for work, so she decided to come visit us when she was done.  She treated us to dinner and then took the kids and bought them each a new back pack to start school with!!! 

Karleigh and Gray had to think long and hard about which backpack they wanted.  It seemed to be a very major decision in their little lives, but I think they were both happy with their choices. 

Thanks for coming to visit us, Grandma Wheeler!!! 

Kindergarten Testing

Today, my little 5-year-old had her kindergarten testing.  I can't believe Karleigh will be starting school in 5 short days.  She did so great today and I was so proud of her.  It was so fun for me to sit across the room and watch her as her teacher tested her.  She did awesome!!!   

Of course we had to document the event with some picture taking before we left...

THANK YOU!!!!

We are finally in our home and getting settled. We don't have pictures on the walls and the yard is a mess, but we are just happy to be here. We are so, so, so grateful for all of the people who helped us out this summer!!! First of all, I owe a big thank you to my grandparents! They let us live at their house until we found a house to move into. We really could not have done it without them!! I also have to thank my family and Brad's family who were such huge helpers when we moved from Monroe and moved into our new house here. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! You really have no idea how grateful we are!!

Cute Kids

I really can't believe how fast time is flying. My kids are getting so big. I went to Karleigh's back to schoo night last night, and it's crazy that she is going to be in Kindergarten! It actually freaks me out a bit. Grayden starts preschool this year too! Anyways, these are a few random pictures of the kids.

This is how I found Gray man the other day. He was on timeout because he was really naugty at Walmart (what's new?). I went in there to tell him he could get off time out and he was fast asleep on the hard floor.

The other night, I went to go and check on him, and he was sleeping with his Book of Mormon. So cute.

Karleigh loves her makeup! Doesn't she look beautiful? She's been pretty funny lately. She is really into playing resteraunt. She told me her dream is to one day be a waitress...

Busy Summer

This summer has been such a crazy one. We have been so busy that we haven't had much time for regular summer activities. We are finally all moved into our house, so I am trying to get caught up on our blog. These are just some random pictures of things we have done this summer.

We have tried to go on some bike rides, which is a bit hard lately because it is so HOT!!!

We have gone to the pool a few times.

One Saturday, while I was working, Brad to the kids to Jumping Jacks and they had a blast.

We have definitely ate out way too much this summer with all of the traveling and moving, but it has been great, since I despise cooking.


One thing I love about St. George is the Splash Parks. We have found 2 that we really like. We have spent a lot of time there this summer.

One of the splash parks even has a cute carousel for the kids to ride on.

The good news is, it's going to be summer here for a while longer! I actually can't wait for it to cool down just a bit so we can enjoy it a little more.

Grandma Pickett's Visit...

As I mentioned before, my mom flew home with me when I went home for Kevin's homecoming. I owe her big time!! She came to help us move into our house. She was seriously so much help!! We got the house clean and all of the boxes moved over and most of the boxes unpacked while she was here. I couldn't have done it without her. On Thursday night, before she left she took the kids shopping to pick out a new school outfit. She let them pick out their own outfits. Karleigh and Grayden came home so excited and had to give us a fashion show...

We love you, grandma! Thanks for helping us out!!!

Kevin's Homecoming...

On Sunday, July 31, Kevin had his homecoming for his mission. All the siblings came home for the event, as well as my grandparents. Kevin did such an awesome job. I was so happy that I could be there to listen to him talk about his mission and all of the wonderful experiences he had. We all got there on Friday, so on Saturday we got to go have a little fun. First, we went to a wings place in Portland. Abbie is obsessed with this place, so we decided to go. It took forever to find, but it was nice to get to visit in the car with my sisters and brother. It turned out to be pretty yum-O.

I was told to do something funny in this picture...I turned out looking like a freak.

My favorite thing about this picture is Katie's messy face. She really enjoyed her wings.

After a little food, we went to Saturday's Market in downtown Portland. We didn't know that it was also the weekend of the Brew Fest. Let's just say there were some interesting folks to watch.

For some reason, there was a group of pirates that were wandering about Portland. My dad stopped them to ask what they were doing, and one of them said "It's a bar crawl" and the other one said, "It's Saturday." Apparently, it is normal to dress up like pirates on a Saturday.

The trip was so fun and so relaxing, as there were no kids involved. It went by really fast though! The best part was, that my mom flew home with me on Sunday night!! More to come on that...