First Day of School

The first day of 8th grade...I can't believe it. I took Alexa to school this morning, she goes at 7:45am.
She looked so stylish and she was pretty excited to go back. I think this year will be really fun for her. She is in Sewing and Public Speaking and I think she will learn a lot. I hope she will be able to get all A's again this year!!!

Alex was ready to go at 8am even though school doesn't start until 8:20. He is starting 4th grade and has a new teacher (again). He always seems to get the new ones.
He is looking forward to school starting and I know he will learn lots. 4th grade is full of projects and stuff and he loves that kind of thing so I think he will have a lot of fun this year! It is nice he just gets himself up and rides his bike to school!!

Max was pretty excited to go back to school too. He thought it was great that he got new school clothes and went to bed pretty good.
I am glad that he gets to go to "Grandma Cope's" school. He is such a smart boy and he learns a lot there. He also gets to play with some of his cousins too and that is always fun!!

I hope this school year will be great for all the kids and that they will all be successful and have tons of fun!!!

Haircuts For Everyone...Almost!!!

I made appointments for Alex and Amberly to get haircuts. Amberly has never had a "real" haircut before, mom just always cuts her hair. I thought she would like it and she did.
Alexa decided when we got there that she needed a trim and they had someone available so she got in on the action as well. I took them to the beauty school here in Spanish Fork.
Alexa told Alex that he should get "steps" and so that is what he did. He was pretty happy with his new haircut but he was really itchy because I guess the hair went down his back.

 

Amberly loved having her hair washed and she just got a few inches cut off. Nothing too drastic, I didn't want mom to be mad at me. Alexa took a really long time and while we were waiting I asked about waxing for Amberly. She has facial hair (OK she has a full on moustache and beard). There was a girl available and so Amb got waxed too. I thought it might hurt her but it didn't and she couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror.
Here is the final result. Alexa looked a bit like "Annie" and we made fun a little but I knew it would flatten when she slept and it would look great for the first day of school!!!

That night when Amberly was brushing her teeth Rich and I could hear her in the bathroom talking so we listened. She was saying: "Wow, I am beautiful, I am like a whole new woman." It was really cute and I am glad that she feels beautiful!!

Aquarium

I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Aquarium for family home evening. Alexa had a birthday party and Rich was working so me, Amb and the boys headed there ourselves. I have never been and I won free tickets on the radio so that is even better!
I wasn't really sure what to expect.

 

Max and Alex LOVED looking at all the fish. I thought it was so cute how they got excited at each tank and wanted to make sure that me and Amb saw everything too!

 

Here is a glimpse at some of the things we saw. Alex really liked the Octopus and I hope I didn't blind it because I read the sign about NO flash photograpy after I had already taken the picture! Oops, sorry Octopus!

 

I think the jellyfish were my personal favorite. It was cool how the lights in the tank kept changing colors and it made them look so beautiful. They are pretty amazing to watch, so graceful.

 

Alex wasn't sure if he dared to touch the sting ray. We walked past them the firt time and we all just watched and I told Amb and Alex to touch them but neither of them would. A little bit later Alex got brave and decided to try it. He said it felt slimy.
Alex liked touching the star fish and I convinced Max to touch it so then Amberly felt like she had to because he did. She was a little scared but thought it was cool.
If that was a Great White...that would have been really cool!!! We had fun watching the shark swim around the tank. All in all it was a fun trip!!
We went to Target after and ate dinner there and did a little bit of shopping!!

Fashion Show...School Clothes

I gave the kids all their school clothes today and they were really excited to have a "fashion show" for me!!

 

 

You will notice Alexa posing it up...

 

and Alex has pretty much the same pose the whole time!!

 

Even Max got in on the action...he was only willing to try on 1 outfit and then he was done but you could tell he could "work" the runway if he wanted to!!

My mom always had "Linda's Loft" for us before school started each year where should would set out stuff like clothes and school supplies and then we would all pick out what we wanted and then we would go to the "check-out" and we would pay her. It was alot of fun and I wish now that I would not have been too lazy to do that for the kids. I guess there is always next year!!

Park City Weekend

For our "family reunion" this year we are all meeting in Park City to stay at a motel for one night...LAME right?? Well I guess you gotta take what you can get!
Me and the kids left in the afternoon and the Harris's were already there so we all hit the pool. It wasn't that warm and it was sprinkling a bit. The pool was half inside and half outside.
We hung out in the outside "hot tub" that was a little cooler than a warm bath. The one inside was scorching hot though so what do you do?? The boys had a great time swimming. Mandi and her friend came to chat with us for a while.
We got changed and hit Walmart while we were waiting for everyone else to get here.

We met up with the rest of our family at Pizza Hut where we enjoyed a delicious meal of pizza, pasta and bread sticks. It was really good and it was on mom and dad, thanks so much!!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and hit the pool again!!

 

 

All the kids were having a blast swimming and having chicken fights. Brooklyn was loving jumping into the pool making up new tricks.
I took Korver for a little swim but the water wasn't too warm and he didn't last very long.
Here are the all the people who refused to swim...you can't see her but Monica is back there somewhere holding a baby...Monica my sister who thought she should have been born a dolphin not swimming...I was shocked!!

 

Even more shocking was Melanie joining me, Amy and Melissa for cannonballs into the pool...totally not Melanie's usual behavior!

We had a good night and the next day we did a little shopping and went to "Flippin' Burgers" for lunch. It was a fun place to eat and the BLT I ordered was delicious!! We hit the outlets but it wasn't much fun shopping with all the kids. The shopping wasn't the best but we all got a few things and then decided to call it a day!
We took Amberly home with us to stay for the week. We stopped at IKEA for dinner, just dinner, no shopping. They have good hot dogs and pretty delicious cinnamon rolls!!

Alexa's Photo Shoot

The latest photo shoot took place downstairs in her bedroom. I am not sure why she wanted the camera in the shots with her.

 

 

She is 13 years old and just starting 8th grade...I wonder if she will grow out of it or if it will just keep getting better??

Funny Stuff

The following are just some funny things that the boys have said in the last few weeks. I am trying to write them down as they happen and then I will just post them every few weeks!!! This is GOOD STUFF!!!

Last night Rich and I were in the kitchen doing the dishes and watching the news. Max was playing with his ball in the living room. Max yells, "hey dad come and join me in here!"

This morning I was leaving for work and Max was watching Spongebob. I went in and told him good-bye. I got to the kitchen and he yelled, "Mom, can I kiss your lips?" Of course I didn't pass up that offer. He is such a sweetheart!

The other day Max was pretty ornery...yeah I know, hard to believe (ha ha ha). I told him no for some reason and he said, "fine, I don't like your dress!" Then later on in the day he was mad about something else and he said, "fine, then I am not your mom!" He meant to say that I was not HIS mom. It was pretty funny and I started laughing and that made him even more upset. Funny stuff!

Michael Jackson died today (June 25th) and we were talking about it in the car on the way home from baseball games. I said, "oh Michael Jackson, the ""King of Pop"" is dead." Alex says, "what?" I say, "the ""King of Pop"" he says, "why do they call him that, does he drink alot of pop?" We all busted out laughing and he felt embarrassed.

We were watching the fireworks at the baseball field and Alex and Max were having a great time...wrestling. They were being pretty loud and obnoxious. Max kept saying to Alex: "come get me, you fool!!"

We were at the Provo pool yesterday and it was time for the "pool check" they make everyone get out for 10 minutes (every hour) while they check for who knows what!! We were all getting out and Max said to Rich: "Dad, who pooed??" I just busted out laughing because last time we were at that pool we had to get out because someone really did poo and there was a log on the edge of the kid pool. Naturally Max just assumed someone had pooped again!!!

Alex called my cell phone to tell me the following: "Somehow when I got in the car a wasp flew into my shorts and stung my butt, twice!!"

We were at the Orem Owlz baseball game and Parker had bought a can of sunflower seeds. He left them on top of the dug out where we were sitting. A girl came over and picked them up. Max said: "Mom, that girl just grabbed Parker's nuts." Alexa and Kenzie busted out laughing and I couldn't help myself, it was so funny!!!

On our drive home from California we were deciding what to eat for dinner and I told the kids we were just going to have bread. They both said they didn't like the bread and didn't want it. I said: "bread is good for your soul." Alex replies: "Oh please, I have no soul." It was hilarious!!!

Long Drive...but not home yet!!

We got up around 9 or 10 and got ready to check out. We are hoping that it will be smooth sailing all the way home!!!
We didn't have any problems on the way home thank goodness. We pulled into Spanish Fork about 4pm but we just did a little bit of unloading and grabbed a few things and then we had to get back on the road for 2 more hours to get to Logan!!
I was really anxious to see Max, we all missed him!!!
We got to Logan about 7pm and Max was so happy to see us all! We hung out all night and talked about our trip with my family!!!