First Day of School

Jack is finished with grade school and on to Junior High.  I remember being in Junior High, so it feels strange for hi to be there already.  After a week, he loves it.  He's been good about managing his time so far, let's hope starting with good habits keeps them up. 

 

He still humors me about first day of school pictures.

 

The girls and I walked him to school.  The first day was for seventh graders only.  The student council had music blaring and balloons as the kids entered.  

  

Bella is going to a new school this year, we moved just outside of our old boundaries.  She is in fourth grade this year and was excited for a new experience!

She gets to ride the bus this year.  When we moved into our first house in Lehi seven years ago, it was just before Jack started kindergarten.  We had been in Midvale before and Jack loved seeing school buses and city buses and such, like any little five year old boy.  Well, when he found out that we lived too close to the school for a bus and we would be walking he was really disappointed.  Funny that now we live where we are too close to his school for a bus, but his little sisters will get to ride, life is unfair! ;)

New Family Pics

 

 

Our friend Sanae came out in July and we were lucky enough to have some family pics taken by her.  She does an amazing job!  I have a lot of blogging I keep meaning to do but haven't done.  I think it may be better to sum it all up.  Isabella turned nine at the beginning of the summer and Tessa turned one three days later.  We then moved into our new house.  We got settled in then went to Oregon for a week to help my mom with a yard sale.  While we were gone Nate painted the garage floor.  We had two state baseball tournaments to attend in Salem in July.  I turned 35.  We had a few family BBQ's mixed in there and hope to have one more before it gets cold.  We went to Idaho Falls for Nate's 20th high school reunion.  Jack started football.  Then he started middle school.  Bella started fourth grade at a new school and loves it so far.  The little girls and I miss the big kids while they are gone.  That sums it all up so far. 

Goodbye Old House

Last fall we decided we were bursting at the seams in our house.  Tessa is in our room, the girls are in bunk beds, which is fine, except for the ceiling fan that keeps the room cool in the summer is right next to the top bunk. And with the kids getting bigger, the house seemed to be getting smaller.  So Nate and I started looking into new housing options.  We visited various model homes and looked at a few things for sale here in Lehi.  In November we decided to build and picked out a floor plan and a lot.  Then right after Thanksgiving we put our house up for sale.  We thought with the holidays, we really wouldn't have any interest in the house until after the new year.  And knowing that house building is a bit of a slow process, we thought we had a lot of time to worry about selling the house.  Well, just before Christmas, about three weeks after we put it up for sale we had a buyer.  We went to Oregon for Christmas and then came back home and put ourselves into moving mode.

  We packed up all non-essentials and stored them.  Then I found a place to rent and we were out of our house by the end of January.  After we had cleaned everything out we took an opportunity to go say goodbye to our home of almost seven years.  It was good to hear everyone's favorite memories and think of all the changes we underwent as a family.  We moved into the house with two little kids and left with four.  We tried to improve things in the house and yard.  We made many great friends and had great neighbors. 

We are excited to move onto the next chapter and see our new house when it is finished!  We have been blessed to be happy and close wherever we are!

Baseball Season

Jack is on the Twins this year, for which I am grateful, from a fashion point of view.  I have noticed many of the teams main color seems to be gray, The A's and the Angels seem to have variety, but everyone else is a shade of blue or gray.  I know-silly to care, but c'mon, make the Padres orange or black.  Put a little variety in the mix!

Anyway, Jack has played catcher, second base, and third base thus far.  He has fun playing baseball.  It doesn't seem to have the same intensity as football has for him-for which I am glad.  He just goes out there and does his best and has a good time.  I suppose baseball isn't usually as physically taxing as football, so maybe that is part of it.  I missed a lot of games last year because so many of them start at 8.  And I know this year will be similar, so I am really trying to enjoy the ones we all get to go to.  This year Nate isn't coaching, so he sits with me and wrangles the girls. Well, Sophie mostly.

I wish I could remember how well Jeff and I paid attention at A's games when we were young when my dad took us.  We were pretty little, but he would load us onto BART and we would ride out to the stadium.  Jeff was really little, because he once fell asleep and peed all over my dad.  I remember this as being hilarious.  It probably didn't occur to my dad to bring a diaper bag or change of clothes or not let Jeff drink tons and tons. But I am sure at the time my dad didn't think it was very funny.  I do have an appreciation of watching baseball live as a result.  It just isn't as fun on TV.  I like the atmosphere at games, especially small ones.  Nate and I have been to a few big league games since we've been married, but the minor league ones and the ones Jack play in are my favorites.  I just wish the seats were a bit more comfy!