Chloe's 1st day of preschool --sept.

Could that be my youngest daughter looking so grown up? Chloe was soooo excited that today was her first day of pre-school! As soon as Colter left for school she kept asking me how much longer? She has afternoon preschool, so I knew I had to think of something to entertain her. First of all we got out her project that she was suppose to take with her for her first day. We decided to add a couple of things to it, so we needed to run to a couple of stores for what we needed. We also stopped at Kohl's hoping that they would have a hello kitty backback which is what she wanted. As luck would have it they had 1 left! It was also on clearance so that was a bonus for me! We also found her outfit that she has on, so she was doubly excited about that! Who can pass up an outfit with horses on it for a horse lover? As we were getting settled in the van to drive off from Kohl's I heard Chloe sigh happily and then say excitedly, "My braaaand-newwwww backpack!" That of course made me smile! It was so cute! Once back at home we finnished her project and she put on her new clothes. She at lunch, and we had time for pictures and then much to Chloe's delight it was finally time for pre-school! When I picked her up she had a fabulous time. She loves it! She had to tell us all about it.

Here are a couple of pictures of her posing with her "Brand-new backpack!"

I love this cute face.....I wish kids stayed young longer......

First Day of School--Aug. 20th

Well, the kids are back in school! It is bittersweet for me, because on one hand I am glad because of the times when they are not getting along, but on the other hand we really do have good times and a lot of fun all being together! All the kids were excited for school to start but also apprehensive. Here are Abby and Trevor, they were the first to leave bright and early in the morning!

I had to take a close up to replace the closeup I took of them last year that I have in the living room. Every other year these two get to go to the same school. Funny kiddos! :)

Colter was the next to leave. He started at a new school this year so he was nervous! We attended back to school night the night before to find his class and meet the teacher. That helped with the first day jitters!

Colter is such a cutie....I asked if it was okay for me to take his picture at his desk and he said sure! I wasn't sure if he would be embarrassed. I was so glad!

August 17th--Colter's birthday!

HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY TO COLTER!!

Colter with his treasure chest cake

(I'm a little behind on the the ol' blog) All morning long Colter kept wondering when we were going to celebrate his birthday. He finally asked...is my birthday just going to be presents and eating out somewhere? I laughed, and asked what he wanted to do. :) Colter picked A&W for his lunch and we also took two friends (London and his sister Kaitlin Abby's friend) with us. When we got home they all jumped on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath it, and then he opened his presents. As a special treat he also got to have his friend London (and Kaitlin) sleepover. He was so excited! At the first part of the next week I took Colter and London to the fun park and they were going to play laser tag and play the games (similar to chuckie cheese). No other kids came while we were there to play laser tag, so they did the soft play instead. We all had a slice of pizza also while we were there. They both had a GREAT time! It was so fun to watch them.

I can't believe my sweet boy is 9!!

Colter LOVES legos!! Fun on the trampoline

Chloe is 5!!

Wow! I can't believe that Chloe is already 5 years old! She has been so excited for her birthday and counting down the days. She changed her mind a few times of what she wanted for her birthday, and how she wanted to celebrate. She told me "Mom, I am going to wake you up on my birthday." I said, "you are?" Chloe "Yes! I don't want to miss it!!" It has been really fun watching her be so excited.

When she woke up, right away she wanted to know where her balloons were. Oooops! I didn't have time to get them because Colter had a dr. appointment at 8:45. After the dr. appointment we went to pick up the cake. OOOooops again! I had left my wallet out of my purse! So back to Smithfield! Chloe picked up my wallet and handed it to me and hurried and called my neighbor about getting together for Chloe's bday. Drove back to Logan, look in purse--no wallet! Back to Smithfield AGAIN, can't find my wallet in the house. Our neighbor Caroline came over with a card for Chloe and as I was talking to her in the driveway I look over and there is my wallet sitting on the passenger's seat in the van. Great. Third time's the charm....I drove back to Logan got all we needed and headed back home.

After we quickly ate lunch we (Abby, Chloe and I) all loaded in the van with Chloe's friends Lizzy, and London, and their mom Melissa (our neighbors). We planned to go down to build-a-bear to celebrate Chloe's birthday. I thought there was one in Ogden, but I didn't know the address, so I had Melissa call on the cell phone to find out. Surprise!! There is only one in SLC and Orem. With the girls all excited, of course we had to drive to SLC! When we were finding our parking spot they started chanting....Build-a-Bear! Build-a-Bear!! The excitement was building! They had a blast!! It was so fun to watch them! :)

Here they are rubbing their animals heart on theirs so it can love.

Here is Chloe at the washing station, before you go dress your animal.

This is Chloe's friend Lizzy. Chloe and Lizzy picked the same animal to stuff :)

Here are the girls with their finnished animals!

Here are all the girls (minus Abigail) heading out after their big day of shopping at Build-a-Bear!

Chloe picked Sonic drive-in for her birthday dinner. She wanted grilled cheese and to eat outside.

We got home too late to go to eat with Danny, so we postponed that and the cake until thursday. Chloe didn't seem to mind having her birthday last for two days! :)

CRASH!!!

This past week-end while I was at Women's conference Danny had all the kids up at island park. Trevor and his cousin were riding motorbikes, and Abby was behind them following on the fourwheeler. Apparantley she was going too fast to try and catch up with the boys and she lost control and crashed! At first she didn't tell Danny, and she texted me. I called a little while later after I got the text and pics she sent me. Yikes!! I was so worried! She couldn't remember what happened (not good) and she said "when I opened my eyes I was laying on the ground and my head was against the tree. She did remember her head hitting the tree really hard. Also later, when she couldn't find her shoes to go to the rodeo, she realized she flew out of them in the wreck! She had the accident around 11:00 am and Danny headed back home around 8:00 pm. On his way home he called and asked if he should, or if I wanted him to take her to the ER. I couldn't decide and had to conference with my mom and friend. We all decided that yes it would be a good idea. When he got back to Smithfield, he headed in the the ER. They checked her over really well and she had a cat scan. She has a concussion. With a helmet on! I am SOOOO grateful that she had the helmet on. I thanked Danny's cousin whose cabin they were staying in for making sure they wear helmets when they go out. I hate to think how it could have turned out if she hadn't worn the helmet. I had to say a prayer of thanks. She is dong well....she was real subdued the first while.

Quick Note~~

After checking Vicky's blog and seeing the SAME thing AGAIN I checked to see when she posted it, and then I checked to see when my last one was. Funny thing....hers was 6 weeks more recent than mine! Yikes! I really need to do better! Well it is 2:04 in the morning and I don't feel tired. I really shouldn't drink pop with caffiene after 6 p.m. I could be geting ready to go to byu-i ed week, but I am not. :) I took all the kids, Spencer their cousin, and two friends to the Logan Aquatic center today. We stayed for about 3 hrs. They have a family deal on monday nights. Danny joined us when he got home from work. It was really fun! Chloe, Danny and I haven't been swimming the whole summer. The other three kids sometimes go over the the high school and swim. Well....I guess I really ought to get to bed before Danny gets up to go to work! I also have to get the van over to the repair shop at 8 am to get the windshield replaced. Wish I would have made arrangements to drop it off tonight! :( I am off to pick up my friend Valerie tomorrorw night at the airport, she is from Arizona, and then we are going up to byu-i. I'll try to post something with pictures after that!

Good-bye Johnson's!!

We were so sad to have to say good-by to some very dear friends, the Johnsons- Mark, Amy, Cooper and Olivia. We invited them over for a BBQ before they left for California. It was fun to get together and share some last laughs and fun together.

Abigail, Danny, Mark and Amy at the table. After dinner we sat around the fire and visited while the kids goofed around. After dark we all had s'mores. Cooper decided to stay over night with us. The kids had a great time!

Olivia came back the next day about 11:00. The kids poked around in the fire, played with water balloons, the girls helped me make donuts, they played in the sandbox, the boys played a little x-box, made a trip up to the school to play and just goofed around having fun being kids!
They really made the most of their last day together!

Amy came to pick up the kids around 6:30. WHAAAAAAAA!!!! It was so sad to say good-bye! We miss you all so much already! :(

Sweet Koko

Abigail took this picture of Koko a few months ago. Last thurday two big dogs chased Fluffy (our duck) into our backyard. We were all out on our deck finnishing our dinner, so Danny jumped up and chased them out and closed the gate. I took some dishes into the kitchen and could hear the dogs barking in the front yard. I thought it was weird and told Danny when I went back out on the deck. After another couple of minutes I went back in the house and I could still hear the dogs so I decided to peek out the front door at them. As I looked out at them, they were right by our sidewalk by our frontdoor steps. When I first looked out I thought that they had a racoon in their mouth. Eeeeewwwww. Then it came to me....no it was Koko!!! I ran out and yelled at the dogs. I yelled drop it! Let it go!! I thought maybe they knew those commands. Koko was still draped in its mouth so I kicked the dog as hard as I could. It sill didn't drop it so I kicked it two more times as it was walking around our front yard. The whole time I was yelling at it and screaming so Danny came around the front from the back yard, and so did all the kids. The dog went over into Caroline's yard and Danny grabbed Colter's butterfly net out of his hand and started hitting the dog on the head with the stick end. It finally dropped Koko in the middle of Caroline's lawn. Once she dropped she didn't move. She just moved her mouth open and shut slowly. She had a little foam coming out also. It was like she was trying to meow. It was so sad!! All six of us gathered around her and basically watched her take her last few breaths. Oh I forgot to say that there was a small boy about Colter's size or smaller hitting the dog on the head when I had first opened the front door. He was running down the street and when the dog finally dropped Koko I yelled for Danny to follow that boy! I basically wanted the people to know that their dog had killed our cat. anyway TRAUMA!! The lady at the house said she was sorry, and asked which dog had done it. She said oh, he doesn't usually do stuff like that. Oh. Brother! Anyway, I ended up calling animal conrol and the animal conrol officer and a police officer both came to our house. The dog owners are going to get two citations for their dogs not being on a leash and also one for a vicious dog. They will also have to appear before the judge to determine what will happen to their dogs. I was just worried that the dog would attack another cat or dog. If we wanted, they would also need to pay for a new cat for us. We don't want them to. The kids all either wrote a note or picture for Koko, and then they put lilacs in the box with her and then Danny burried her. WHAAAAAAA!!!!! We miss our Koko.

Need a laugh?

A couple weeks ago (I meant to post this sooner) Danny and Trevor were out shoveling our driveway after that snow storm that left 14 inches in 1 day. Danny had parked the van out on the street so they would get all the snow off the driveway. He then asked Trevor if he would like to pull the van in to the driveway. Of course Trevor took him up on the chance to drive! I can't believe that Danny asked him, because his precious truck was parked in the driveway! All went well, and as they neared the entrance to the garage (the garage door was up), Trevor was coasting up to where Danny wanted him to stop, and he wasn't so Danny said stop! (Trevor's still coasting) STOP! So Trevor slams his foot down...on the gas!! They charged into the garage and hit a banquet table that Danny had out for a project he was working on. It shot up onto the landing to go into the house. Of course Trevor was devestated!! He ripped off the side mirror, dented the front wheel well (so you couldn't open the door all the way), and cracked the front bumper (from hitting the table). Danny was afraid that they were headed out the back of the garage! :) From the passenger side he reached over and flipped the gearshift into park. Whew! Danny came in the house to tell me what happened, and as I went up stairs I could hear Trevor bawling in the bathroom. When he came out he ran down stairs, so I went to talk to him. I said, "I heard you went for a wild ride!?" He said, "Don't talk to me" ....."I ruined your van!!!" Anyway......after $1700 worth of damage.....and a week without the van, it now looks like new again! :)

Hey There!!

HELLO!!!! I think I may have partially figured this thing out!!! It is 2:50 am and I have to get up at 5:30 with Abigail. Yikes!! I'll try another post tomorrow!