First Days of School

This week is the first days of school at our house! Garrick started 1st grade! He was so excited to be at school ALL day AND to eat lunch at school! Aleksia had a orientation type day the day after Garrick started, then her first REAL day by herself was today. These first few pics of the cookies are supposed to be at the end, sorry.

It has become a tradition to make cookies on the first day of school. It started with Garrick, in trying to make Aleksia feel better about him being gone to kindergarten last year. "You can make cookies while I'm gone!" he told her, like that was to make her feel better by doing something fun. Well Trestin remembered, and when it came time for Aleksia to go to school, "I make cookies!" So we got Aleksia off to school, nursed Cassiah, then we made cookies! He got to pick, so we made; chocolate chip, white chocolate chip, and Heath bits cookies! Here he is helping to measure the ingredients.

Big helper.

Chillin' with Cassiah while the cookies baked. Yes I did wash his hands after this picture!

Yummy!


Eating breakfast on his first day of 1st grade on Tuesday.

I figure this is a nice spot to take their annual 1st day of school pictures, and we can see how they grow from year to year compared to the logs! So here he is sporting the #1 for 1st grade!

Gotta show me the backpack, with matching lunch box!!!

He crossed the street to the neighbor's driveway, then walked down the hill to his first day of 1st grade!

Aleksia eating breakfast on her day of orientation, Wednesday.

Aleksia and her teacher, Mrs. Corbin

Beside her locker. She's one of the few that gets it all to herself!

On the carpet listening to Mrs. Corbin read a book.

Drawing a picture in her new classroom.

Eating before her 1st REAL day of kindergarten. Can you see the excitment on her face?

1st day of Kindergarten

And the backpack with Bus Tag, even though she's a "Parent Pick-Up" it lets everyone know she's a kindergartener, aka Clueless so keep an eye on me cause I don't know where I'm going or where I'm supposed to be yet.

Kid Pictures

So before school started I wanted to get some pics of Cassiah now that she's smiling and some of all 4 of the kids. I know they change so fast at this age, but I want to get some pics along the way in addition to our annual jammy picture around Thanksgiving! They all did awesome for the 15 minutes of pictures! Got alot of smiles luckily! When it came time to select what I wanted, it was tough, but luckily with a coupon of $3.99 a sheet, I got alittle of several of the poses, and spent less then $30! So I was proud of myself! Here are some of the poses, and fancy Portrait Creations they tried to entice me with (but I didn't fall for it!)!

FHE Activity

So those of you that grew up in Tri-Cities know what I mean when I say, "Ice blocking at Carmichal Hill." It's a hill at the middle school, that in the summer you put a towel on an ice block and you slide down. Very fun! Well for our FHE activity we tried it at the school across the street (mainly to try it out and see if it would work as one of my events in the "Water Olympics" for the Activity Day Girls activity I'm in charge of next week. It will be a relay race). It's not as long, but at the front of the school is MUCH steaper! Wow we got flyin'! Good thing the girls will be in their swim suits, cause they might just pee their pants!

Than giving it a try (this is at the back of the school, less steep and scarrier for Aleksia!) on two blocks. It was alot less wobbly. Go figure! My butt doesn't quite fit on the ice block like it did in HS. I blame my 4 precious angels!

Cheese!

Trestin just sitting on the block. He liked being a cheerleader better then ice blocking, "Too gary!" (too scarry!) Like his stained shirt. We had breakfast for dinner, and he enjoyed the berries on the waffle alittle TOO much!

Garrick was awesome! He was flying, with his light weight he flew!

This is at the steep part, and his block got away but he made it most of the way. Aleksia chickened out and that's her block tumbling down on the right.

Cassiah watching from the stroller

Than about took out Garrick. Sorry it's blurry, I was laughing!

Grrrr! He thought it was quite heavy! Plus cold, so he didn't want to touch it. Go figure, I cold block of ice!

Than's first time down the steep part. He was a bit nervous, since he said he hadn't gone ice blocking since before his mission!

Girls Camp

Well that is what Aleksia called it. It was an all girls camp out for our church. She had a blast! She kept saying, "Thanks for bringing me to Girls Camp Mom!" "Isn't this fun!" "This girls camp is so fun Mom!" It was at Kamiak Butte, which (I timed) is 12 minutes from the edge of Pullman to the camp site! So nice that we have camping so close, and it's in the pine trees! So it's like you're in the forest, but it's in the middle of wheat fields! Very cool!

They had some singing activities, and the little girls where helping with "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly." Aleksia got to hold the "old lady" while Lucy, Poppy, Rachel, and Emily took turn putting on the spider, bird, cat, dog, yeah you know the rest!

Aleksia and her new good friend McCall (I hope that's spelled right!) hold up a prop for another song, that I had never heard, but it was cute!

(Blurry, sorry) Some of the girls that showed up! We had all ages there! So much fun!

Cassiah got to sleep on a pile of blankets on the floor of the tent. I wasn't bringing the pack'n'play for one night! She doesn't roll yet, so we're good!

Aleksia was soooo excited to sleep on the air mattress with me! Normally she sleeps on the ground! Yes an air mattress. I'll pee behind a bush, I don't mind, but I need an air mattress while camping!

Some of the girls at breakfast. Our ward had 3 sites, and we happened to set up ours at the main one where all the cooking was done!

The little girls playing with one of the bigger girls! Aleksia thought something was very funny!

This cracks me up!

I have become a huge Twilight fan! I've read all the books, and now have the first two on cd, so I now listen to them around the house, on the way to work, nursing Cassiah, so pretty much all the time! So you could say that I'm addicted! There are alot worse things out there, really! I found this on someone's blog, and it CRACKS ME UP! Now our ward at church isn't like this, but it shows just how crazy and popular this series is! I personally, would be on the left side, but that's just me!

The Dunes

Sorry,they are all out of order!

So after we went to the dunes, we stopped at the dam to show the kids the ladders. They loved it! "There goes another big one Dad!!"

Despite the dirty window, we still saw some fish.



Garrick & an almost sleeping Cassiah. Soaking in the river for 3+ hours wiped her out.

"Look Mom, I fimming!" He thought he was pretty cool! All he was doing was army crawling, and he called it swimming.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5" ... jump, splash! Since it was so shallow he enjoyed jumping up and landing on his knees.

Look, finally a picture of me, and I'm waving to you! That's as good as it's gonna get, I'm always behind the camera!

Very pretty!

Our set up on the beach. The kids spent 1/2 their time in the water, and the other 1/2 on the beach playing in the sand.

Looking at a catfish that wasn't very scared of people.

Keeping her shaded in the nearly 100 degree weather.

Trestin having a great time!


Trestin and Aleksia swimming. Well they thought they where swimming!

Having a great time!

Garrick with his goggles and "flippers" (fins on his feet to "help me swim") on.

I know he looks like he's peeing, but he's really just playing!

Using his goggles and flippers

Cassiah chillin' in the floaty under the umbrella, playin' with her toes.

Chillin'. The green shovel was a "stopper" so she wouldn't float away so I could let go of her momentarily to take her picture!

See how far out Than is, and it's still only to about his knees. He can still go out further, but he said it drops off pretty quick. Like from your knees to over your head in about 4 steps! But the shallow forever is so fun for the kids! In our prechildren years, we had a church activity out at the dunes and they played volleyball in the water! Do you remember that Rachel D.? I think you where pregnant?