Week 36

I've been admiring all the fall leaves this week. The drive through the canyons is so pretty right now and since I've been out and about a lot this week I've hit all of them - Provo, Parley's, and Ogden Canyon. I need to get out with the camera before it's too late.

We had an open house Tuesday - the house has never been cleaner and no one showed up to see it! So frustrating. But it's only the first real week "on the market" so I really shouldn't expect much progress yet right?

The only photos I snapped this week were of Tyler - he's my little buddy now with Kate in school. I found him out behind the house one day Off Roading on his bike and having so much fun. He's All Boy I tell you - rough and tumble, dare devil, doesn't let being smaller than all the other kids slow him down. Sam and I are constantly amazed by him and how athletic he seems to be.

We had to go down to the base yesterday to get new ID cards, power of attorney, etc. Having Ty tag along was amazingly easy. He had a blast looking for trains on the drive (we saw 3!) and didn't complain one bit. We took a little time out to show him the planes on the base (need to get the photo of him by a couple of the planes off Sam's phone and post them) and he thought that was cool. And Sam and I are happy to be this much closer to getting things taken care of. One more trip down to the base Monday for a briefing on the move and he'll be off...yikes! Some days it hits hard that it's all Real and actually happening - yesterday was one of those days.

Week 35

Dance class has started! Tyler now goes on Friday mornings (of course I forgot the camera in the rush to help Mom set up for the first day) and Kaitlyn's class in on Monday afternoons.


Of course, most of our time this week has been devoted to getting ready for the move and the sale of the house. Sam has the paperwork in and will be leaving in a little over a week (ack!) so he will be all set to start his first day on Oct 4. And I've been doing a declutter on everything, especially the closets, so that we're all set to start showing people through it. Fingers crossed it sells fast!
(These are the photos I took to put on the flyers.)

Week 34

It was a week of ups and downs. Friday my computer screen died (and you know I'm lost without it!) and since I was already stressed to the max about Sam finding out about a new job...well it wasn't the best Friday ever. Also, no photos for this week because I haven't loaded the software onto Sam's computer. And I'm pretty sure I didn't pull the camera out much this week anyway - ugh.

We decided to have some fun on Saturday so we took the kids to the pool. Then they went to Gma and Gpa's for a sleepover and Sam and I had a date - which he planned. He packed a picnic for us and we went up to Smith and Morehouse and hiked a bit. It just so happenend to be our 12th (12!) anniversary of the day we got engaged so we spent a lot of time reminiscing.

It was Labor Day Weekend (kicking ourselves that we didn't think ahead and go camping or something) and somehow we muddled through the rest of the weekend. Tuesday morning Sam had word about the job - he got it! It's an AGR (Active Guard and Reserve) spot at Pope AFB in North Carolina, combat arms. So, huge change for us but we're very excited. And what a relief to finally have a direction for our lives. The rest of the week has been spent gearing up for the move - Sam doing paperwork and me starting the final declutter to get the house ready to sell.
*update: found a few photos from the week. Looks like Sam and Kaitlyn made pretzels too.

Week 33

Just a few highlights from the week

We took the kids to the aquarium - fun.

Granpa Brent's 60th Birthday Party

Took the training wheels off and Tyler is now a two-wheeler riding pro! Honestly, it's amazing how quickly and how well he took to it.

Week 32

Summer ends, school begins.
Saturday was our annual BBQ with the Girls (Alisha, Cheri, Beau Dee) and their families, here ar our house. Fun fun! The kids were so cute and played so well together while the adults sat around visiting.

Sunday Tyler got hit by a sky high fever. Poor guy was miserable. Luckily it was only a 24hour thing and the only symptoms were the fever and some watery eyes. Which meant we could focus on Kaitlyn's going back to school.

Monday we went to the open house at the school to meet her teacher and see her classroom.

Ty also insisted on testing out the playground.

Tuesday was Kate's first day in First Grade! She was SO SO SO excited. And the first thing she said when she walked in the door was "I had a good day."

Grandpa stopped by for something that morning and Ty ended up getting to spend the rest of the day with him. They had lots of fun, and finished off the day with a horseback ride.

Luckily Kaitlyn was home by then and got to go for a ride too.

And on Wednesday, I pulled a few friends together for brunch for our own little Back to School Moms' celebration.

Week 31

Sam was home for the weekend after what was a very frustrating week for him at the base. So Saturday was family fun time at the pool so the kids could show off all they've been learning. Kaitlyn was excited to get another crack at that diving board - she is now so confident she will run and jump off it. And both kids went on the big slide over and over by themselves. Sam and I were happy to not have to walk up all the stairs and happily waited for them at the bottom. Then the kids were off to a movie with Gma and Sam and I got a date - yay!

Sunday was a lazy day. Grocery shopping. Nascar race. And washing the truck (Sam and the kids washed it, I took photos. Thus the reason they got bored and didn't bother to wash the Yukon for me :( )

Final week of swimming lessons for the kids. They LOVE it. They were so excited that both were packed up and in their suits a good hour or two before we had to leave each morning. It was a pleasure to see how well they both paid attention and how much they learned in just 2 weeks. Both kids passed with flying colors. Kaitly is excited to move on to Level 3. We'll have to see how we feel about Ty next year - his teacher thought he would still be pretty small for the next level but suspected that if we signed up for the same one again he'd be well ahead of the others and would probably be moved up after the first day.

Sam had classes at the base this week and had to dress up a bit on Monday. He hardly ever has to wear this uniform so we grabbed a couple photos. Then the kids had to play photographer - this is one Tyler got. Are you impressed? I cropped it down of course, but not bad for a 3 year old! (I was so nervous letting him have the big camera without me keeping a hand on it)

We got a bit of the farm life (yikes! flashbacks for me) on Wednesday. I ended up helping Wyatt and Dad "haul hay" off and on most of the day (trying to get it in before the rain hit) and the kids tagged along with me. They thought it was great and I (surprisingly) didn't mind it until about 4:00. That's when we ended up waiting around for Dad to finish raking a section and the kids ran out of patience. We had some fun taking photos while we waited. But when 5:00 was closing in we gave up and went home for dinner.

Week 30

We are enjoying the last little bit of summer and gearing up for school. We took Kaitlyn to finish up her school shopping on Saturday. Mom came with us too (and let herself get talked into buying a few things for Kate that I wasn't going to spring for haha). It was a fun and relatively easy outing - no problem finding things we liked and needed, just hard to resist buying everything in sight! :) Tyler was a great little shopper too. He didn't get too upset when he had to leave most stores empty handed. And he had a great time trying on shoes at the last stop, and walked away with his very own pair of "Transformer" (green and black - not sure why he thinks they're Transformers) Sketchers.

We stopped for lunch at Panda Express and this was one of the fortunes.

Perfect for the day huh?

The kids had their first week of swimming lessons for the year. They LOVE them and are always dressed and ready to go a full 2 hours before we have to leave every morning.
Ty has a fantastic teacher - I was suprised to find out this is the first class he has taught. (Kate's is no slouch either, but Ty's is seriously impressive) And I've been happy to see that Tyler fully pays attention and participates the entire time. It's so fun to watch. Aren't they cute all lined up to practice diving?

Kaitlyn is turning into a very good swimmer. She says her favorite part is diving for the rings, which also happens to be the part she has the hardest time with. Her skinny little body just doesn't quite have the power (yet) to get her all the way to the bottom of the pool to grab them most of the time. But she tries and tries until she manages it, or until the teacher helps her out a little by holding them slightly off the ground for her. She is making great progress with the front crawl. And I'm most impressed by what she calls the "air glide" (they push off the wall on their backs and glide as far as they can with their hands above their heads before doing the back stroke to the other side). It just looks so smooth and effortless when she does it (especially considering that less than a year ago she couldn't quite relax enough to float on her back on her own). As you can see, she loves it.