A Blog of Firsts!

The first day of school.....Katy is especially alarming looking all teenagery and going to Jr. High. Of course Jordan is not shown here because he had football at 6:00 am even on the first day of school. Also, he is pretty much done with first day of school pics. Picture or no, he did start his first day of High School, Allyson is in 1st grade and Jillian is in 4th. Where has the time gone? I'm like an acutal mom of big people now--the reality is really starting to set in!

Another "first" as of late is that Brady is sporting his first little teethies! You can also take notice in these photos that his eyelashes finally grew in (he missed out on some crucial hair growing days in the womb), and he is wearing his first big boy Beatles shirt that his Nana gave him! He also is showing off his first bonk on his forehead. If happened of course while I was trying to take pictures of his new teeth...


The last "first" for today is the first snow of the year! It was so wierd to see several inches of snow on the branches outside my window this morning. I guess the good times of scraping the car off in the morning are upon us. (the pesky gym is taking up my garage...) Allyson came bounding out in this getup this morning ready to take on the snow. I guess she didn't get the memo that it would be all melted by the time school was over. Anyway, she looked so cute in all her accessories that I had to do a quick pototshoot in the 1 minute we had left before we rushed to school. Funny how the spur of the moment pictures sometimes turn out to be my favs!

Last Day at the Pool...

I think this trip ended up being the last one to the Lehi Pool for the summer. Melody already posted some of the funny pics of Gaby, but this slideshow will have some more of the cute cousinly pictures. Usually Brady gets in his swimmy clothes just for the pics because he doesn't love the coldishy water, but this time Katy got him in at the end and he actually liked it--just in time for summer pool days to be over. He did however sit in the pool chair for about an hour playing with his toy which gave Cami and I ample time to get some cute shots at many different angles. I love those immobile baby days that are just about to end...I tried to just post my favs, but he has so many wiredo faces that I chouldn't choose!

So when I put the blog together, it wasn't arranged like this, but I'm not doing it over because it took me forever. Anyway here is a slideshow of the rest of the pool pics. Somehow, Jillian isn't in any of them. I wonder if she was on the diving boards or the slide or something. Who can know!

Funny Boy!

I guess Brady was still a little apprehensive about the big boy tub...I'm happy to report that since these pictures, he has decided it is ok to let go of the sides and splash around!

Also, Jordan got out his baby sports gear from back in the day when the Chicago Bulls and the 49ers were awesome, so here he is getting dressed up like a Build a Bear! Seeing Brady in Jordan's clothes makes me miss my little "Jordan pants." Luckily he is fun and funny (name that movie...) and not too hideous of a teenager yet, so I am certainly enjoying his current age and I will try not to cry for the past...

Photography Group

As many of you readers may know, I have been working on my photographing skills in a group with Cami every other week during the summer. Most all my readers are actually in the group and thus will have already seen this collage, but for the 2 of you who haven't, here is Brady showing his awesome sitting up skills, chewing skills and playing skills. The object of this class (if I can remember since I am backtracking and it has been a while...) was to take pictures of the same thing from many different angles and then make a collage. Photoshop is not really my friend yet, so the pictures probably could have been edited and such and I just made the collage with Picasa. Anyway, the class has been so fun and Cami is a very knowledgeable, patient, and gracious teacher. We took a little break to get back to school, but I am excited to resume. Our assignment for next time is to take a picture of every color of the rainbow. I think Cami has a blog that has all of our assignments to date in case you are interested. It has really helped to work on one specific thing at a time and have a fun purpose too!

Brace Yourselves...

Everyone brace yourselves because there is going to be a slew of new posts coming your way. I've been neglecting this little blog due to back to school, preschool starting, football games, and of course cute Brady. It has been so nice to have an excuse (nursing) to sit down and do nothing and even watch a little TV. I forgot what an awesome excuse babies are for getting you out of a plethora of things! Anyway, I thought I better backtrack a bit fill you in on the last happenings of our summer. First in a series of 7 blogs (isn't this fun, it's like a BBC mini series) is our JBC to Thanksgiving Point. I love the gardens there and the Children's garden is awesome. We went on a day that was threatening to rain, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Also, thanks to Cami for buying a pass so we could all get in half price! In the following slide show you will see Allyson in her most hideous old swimsit, Brady and Gabe "playing", Penny loving the water, Brady not loving the water, the kids playing in the cute little stream that is probably just for boats, Juju and Ally joined at the hip exploring, and Brady doing obsenities. Here goes!

The 24th of July

Computers are so dumb. For days I haven't even been able to put pictures on my blog, send any to costco etc. and then today it magically works. I will never understand...anyway above is a slideshow of "Foam Day" which everyone loved, well except Katy who was all hot and teenagery. The girls had the time of their lives along with Cami's kids and then it was off to "The Property" in American Fork for a Graham family picnic. Jordan and Todd finally got home from their campout to hike Kings' Peak and made it in time for dinner, except Jordan had to get straight to a surprise party for his neighborhood friend, so he could not grace us with his presense this holiday. After dinner, Lili and Jeff brought over some fireworks and Cami brought some sparklers for one last hurrah. Jordan came home just before the fireworks and got Brady right out of bed because he missed him so much. 4 days IS a long time to go without kissing those cheeks. So, everyone is home safe and sound and the fun times were had.

Conversations with Allyson

Earlier today...

While eating a hardboiled egg "Mom, this yellow part is the oak. The oak is the best part, but only when it is cooked and hard. When it isn't cooked, the oak is gross."

While at our garden...
We looked at our zucchini plant and surprise--It was ready to harvest! "This is the best day! Well, maybe not the BEST day, but this is so fun that we got to pick this--let's eat it!" She was amazed that our plants had things growing on them, and frankly so was I!

While walking home from the garden...
"Mom, otter pops are just snow and flavor. Cause I sucked out all the flavor and it tasted like snow!"
Holding up the zucchini with one hand "I'm the statue of zucchini!

Ally and I found ourselves home alone with the baby tonight while everyone else is out camping or having sleepovers, so we decided to get a brown topper from Arctic Circle. "I can't wait to tell Jillian what we did, she will be SO jealous!" Yikes, I think someone was a little jealous that they weren't having a sleepover...

Later on...

"Mommy, thank you for the ice cream. When I be a Mom, I'm going to take my kids to get ice cream-chocolate dipped!"

Anyway, It's fun to have one on one time with the kids sometimes. I feel like it's hard to make sure I spend enough time individually with each of the kids. I took a cute picture of Ally with the zucchini, but it won't upload or whatever. Maybe when Todd gets home from scout camp he can have a look see.