First day of Kindergarten

Kimberly started Kindergarten today. I can't believe my little baby girl is old enough to go to school. She was so excited to start school. It is only for 2 1/2 hours but it is still Kindergarten. She had a great day and really loved it. She already met a new friend too. She said that was her favorite part of the day.

This is Kimberly's kindergarten door.
This is her teacher Mrs. Packard. This was the open house night. She is really nice and I know Kimberly will have a good year.

Kimberly insisted wearing her dog shirt the first day.

She had to have a Hannah Montana backpack. They don't make small backpacks.

She even has Hannah Montana shoes.

Heading out the door, Matthew insisted he have a backpack. He wanted to be big just like his sister.

Showing off the backpacks.

Matthew was so cute taking his sister to school. He told her bye sissy at the door and was just cute walking off. Then he gave her a big hug when we picked her up. But he did enjoy his time with mommy. I saw more tears from siblings leaving the school than I did Kindergarteners or parents. Luckily Matthew didn't cry. He wasn't too sad. Hopefully that is how the entire school year will be.

Oh they grow up so fast.

Family Reunions

The past two weeks we were lucky enough to go to 2 fun family reunions. The first one was the 1st Annual Peterson Family Campout. Brian's family got together for a campout. Granted, not everyone could camp overnight but those of us who were able to had an experience. First of all... our camp was a little ways away from where we parked and were the flushing toilets were. In order to get all our gear up to our campsite, we had to use the one and only handcart. Did I mention it was very hot the first day we were there. Well we made a bunch of trips from the cars to the campsite and we were getting an appreciation for what the pioneers went through (granted we weren't coming even close to the trek they took).

We had a nice night once we got setup. The first night we only were able to stay for dinner because Brian had to work that night and there was no way I was camping with two kids and no daddy to help. The next day we came up and stayed the night. The daytime was fun but I had my scares for the night. It didn't help that the camp rules talked a lot about snakes and many other creatures. Oh and did I mention that earlier in the year they spotted a bear cub there. So needless to say, I didn't sleep any the entire night. I was too busy listening to our sleeping kids, the nighttime noises, and thinking about having to walk the mile if I had to potty. Ugh. Oh and about the time I finally decide I can't hold it any longer and decided to hike the mile to the bathroom, it decides to thunder, lightning, and rain. Lovely! Luckily for us our tent stayed pretty dry during the rainstorm that lasted until we had the cars packed up that morning. We all went home a little soggy and a little tired but we did have fun. We also found out my father-in-law was in the drama club in high school and was in a play or two (something no one could ever guess!)

The other family reunion was my Toomer family reunion. My grandmother was one of the people in charge so we decided to go. Not something I normally do but this year was something special. I am not sure if my grandfather will be able to make another one so we wanted to be there for him. We saw and met many family... some I don't think I have met before. My grandfather's siblings were all there (with exception of my grandfather's brother Tip who died at a young age). It was neat to see them all together.

That is my grandfather in the middle with the oxygen. He is flanked by uncle Blake and uncle Roger. Behind them are aunt Cheryl, aunt Janine, and aunt Uletta. My great aunt Uletta came all the way from Houston to be here despite her health problems

This is all the siblings and the spouses that could make it. My grandmother is behind my grandfather.

This is my grandfather's clan that could be there. There are a lot more of us but only a few that were close could make it.

Makes you appreciate all the family you have. Much love to everyone of them.

Blessings until next post :-)

Things that have been going on

Kimberly lost her 2nd tooth. She is pretty proud to have two teeth gone.

This was the sunflower cake I made my mom for her birthday.

Mom in her party hat that Kimberly insisted she wear.

Mom on her birthday right before she blew out her candles.

Blowing out the candles.

One of our many sunflowers at our house this year. During the spring, I held preschool and we planted sunflowers. Well we had a few seeds left over so this spring we planted them. At first we planted them in two pots. Well they started outgrowing the pots so we planted them randomly around the outside of the house. We didn't think they would grow to much but this is one of our fattest ones. We have some giant ones... one in our garden is at least 10 feet tall. Something fun for this year. We are pretty proud of our flowers.

Just some of the ones in front of our house. If you look above the house at the sky, you will see it is orange. I wish I would have taken a picture of the sun that day. We had about 24 fires in northern utah that day from the lightning storms the previous night and our sky was orange all day. It was pretty interesting... fun from the kids' point of view.

Next on our list... family campout and Toomer reunion. Hopefully to have some pics from those fun events.

Blessings to all until next post :-)

Happy Birthday Mom/Grammie

Happy Birthday Mom/Grammie. 56 years looks great on you!

We love you very much!