Goodbye summer

This week I have been feeling slightly depressed about the end of summer.  This has been such a fabulous summer filled with so many fun things and good memories.  I asked the kids what their favorite things were we did this summer and they all said "playing on the circle with our friends" as one of their favorite summer memories.  When we decided to buy our current house it was because of the unique street filled with wonderful neighbors and friends and lots of kids.  We liked the actual house okay, but we LOVED the location and street full of friends and lots of activity. 

Because of Elizabeth and the craziness of getting out the door with a baby and 3 kids I didn't sign the kids up for any lessons.  We didn't do swimming, sports, music or anything. We didn't even go to the zoo, museums, water parks etc... I thought the kids would miss it, but no one did.  We had laid back, relaxed days, and sometimes we wouldn't even leave the street for a few days.  Danny would make fun of me, and say I never leave the steet anymore!

We feel so grateful  to live where we live and to enjoy having such an amazing place to live.  We are so blessed!

Here's to an amazing summer full of sleeping in, night games, playing in the backyard, running in the sprinklers, eating several popsicles a day, sidewalk chalk, bike rides, climbing trees, Taylor mowing the lawn for $2.00, potty training Isaac, trips to the "Shiver Shack",  Wii parties in our basement with lots of smelly boys, lemonade stands, making cookies, fushing, hikes, the boys playing "Army" in 95 degree weather and dressed in full camoflouge,
read-a-thons, swimming, afternoon naps, cousin sleepovers, BBQ's with friends and family, boating, staying up late, and having
NO schedule. 

Anyone that knows me understands that I like having some sort of schedule and structure for my days. I usually thrive on a schedule for the kids.  But this summer I learned to sit back, relax and see where the day takes us.  It was a wonderful thing for me to learn and it made for a fantastic summer break!  The kids loved days when they could sleep in, leisurely do their chores and a little homework and we had no where to go. Then they could play outside all day long using their imaginations, being creative and enjoying the long hot days of summer. 

Fall is great, but with fall comes structured schedules, sports practices, cub scouts, homework, school commitments, cold weather and less time spent outside. 
 Luckily we have the wonderful memories of summer to last through the cold winter.

6 months old!

Elizabeth is six months old!  I can't believe she has been in our family for half a year.  She has grown so much and is doing new things every day. 

We went to Monica's house the other day to let the kids play.  She was nice enough to do a quick, unplanned photo session of Lizzie.  We started with both Lizzie and Ali -but she got tired and went down for a nap.  She got so many adorable pictures of Lizzie but here are a few of my favorite. 





I love that smile!

At six months old Lizzie likes to roll around and she is starting to sit by herself.  She loves to be outside, and going on walks in her stroller.  She puts toys, jewelery her toes and fingers etc.. .in her mouth.  She likes her warm baths, unless Isaac is splashing her.  She loves attention from anyone but especially from her big brothers and big sister.  She is starting to track food from our mouth to the bowl and wants to eat real food. 

Both the girls were sad and grumpy, but it's still so cute!  These girls are the cutest in the world!

These next few shots are when she gets nervous, scared and then starts crying.  It's so funny to see her facial expressions change so quickly!

These babies are pretty moody, now she's all happy again.  She just wanted her dress and headband off!

Thanks so much Monica!  I really appreciate your taking her pictures.
I want to capture her at every stage because she is growing so fast!

Back to School!

It's hard to believe I have a son in 3rd grade!  Taylor was really exciteed, but tried to act like it was no big deal. 
Emily is thrilled to be going to Kindergarten and will have a great year.  She has school in the afternoon, so she will walk home from school with this great group of kids.  I am sad to have in her school, she is such a great helper and she plays so well with Isaac!  He will definately miss having her around the house.

Back to school means back to schedules, and lots of things going on.  I wish we could pause time and jsut have a relaxed, mellow summer forever!  I love Taylor and Emily so much and I am so proud of both of them!

Hope it was a great day for all the kids back in school.

Today was the first day of school!  Emiy doesn'tactually start until next week, but she got out of bed for a few pictures. 

It was hard to get the kids in bed last night, because they are used to going to bed around 9 or 10 and waking up at 9!  Well all of that sleeping in stopped today, because Taylor has school at 8:25!  He leaves with his friends to walk around 8:05, so he was up early.

Jackson Hole trip

 We just got back from an amazing weekend in beautiful Jackson Hole.  We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Deppe in their timeshare at the Teton Club.  It was in the Teton Village at the base of the huge, amazing Teton Mountains. 

We had tons of fun and the scenery was breathtaking and so gorgeous!  We spent our time hiking, hot tubbing, riding the tram to the top of the mountain, fishing, eating out, relaxing and spending time with G& G Deppe!

We took tons of pictures because it was so fabulous, so here are a few of our favorites. 

We went to church in Jackson Hole and then walked around the town for a while.  We had to get our obligatory family picture under the antler arch.  The kids loved the park, and had fun eating ice-cream and buying magnets and colored rocks from the store. 

Taylor and Lizzie had fun playing on the slides at the playground where we stayed.  Elizabeth thinks Taylor is so funny lately.  She laughs whenever he comes around, it's so cute. 

Lizzie did pretty good on the drive. She is such a sweet, mellow baby.  The only hard part was her sleeping at night. She woke up several times during the night which makes for one tired mama!  Oh well, who needs sleep, right?!

One afternoon while Isaac and Lizzie were napping we took the tram to the top of the mountain.  It was an amazing climb of 4400 feet and the elevation at the top of the mountain was 10,400.  I got a little nervous going up, because we were so high above the ground.  Taylor and Emily loved it, they had the time of their lives! 

Once we were at the top we hiked around for a while.  We took pictures, checked out the amazingly beautiful views and the kids collected rocks.  There was a little store that sold drinks etc.. and they made waffles.  So we ate waffles filled with sweet Nutella on top of the mountain.  It was unforgettable! 

I actually got a few pics. of Taylor, one with Nutella all over his face and the other he has magnetic rocks on his ears.  Such a cute boy and growing up too fast!

These pictures do not do justice to how gorgeous the mountains are.  It was SO beautiful and such a fantastic day!

The next day we went into Teton National Park and took a boat ride across Jenny Lake.  Then we hiked to the waterfall.  Later we swam in the river, ate lunch on a beach and fished for a few hours.  Everyone had a great day!
(I actually had a terrible migraine so I stayed at the room to sleep with Lizzie. I was so sad to miss such a fun day!)

We love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Deppe.  We miss living near them and always have so much fun when we see them!  The trip was so perfect and we had a fabulous time!

We drove home late Monday night, and the sunset on the drive through Idaho was amazing!  There was perfect light on the clouds, and there was wheat fields as far as the eye could see.  It was a gorgeous drive home, until the sun went down. 

Here are a few more pics of that beautiful sunset.

It was the perfect way to end the summer.  Now off to do laundry and get back into the real world!  We have had the best summer, and I wish it would last forever.
School starts tomorrow!

End of Summer Strreet party!

We had a wild and crazy, fun party last week to celebrate the end of summer on our street!  We rented a huge bouncy slide from 10am -10pm and we played on it all day long!

The kids were in their swimming suits for almost 11 hours and they never came inside the whole day.  They used the bathroom at Grandma Shields house because she lived closer to the slide. 

During the day everyone played on the slide and ate!  We ordered pizza for lunch, made popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones etc... Then for dinner everyone on the street had a big BBQ complete with homemade ice-cream! 

The day was perfect weather, not too hot.  Even the teenagers had their time on the slide.  The best was after dinner all the kids were kicked off the slide and the adults all played on it.  It was hilarious to watch the mom's & dad's race down the slide and get soaking wet.  It was tons of fun, Danny and I went down several times each! ( too bad I didn't get any pics. of the adults, I was too busy getting wet!)

Isaac earned his "Shiver Shack" by pretty much being totally potty trained!  He is doing great, and I am so happy!

Go Natalie! I know you are thrilled about me posting this picture! HA HA!

It was such a fantastic day, everyone was exhuasted by dark, and ready for bed.  We love our neighborhood and all of our friends and neighbors.  We feel so blessed to live in such a great community! 

This has been an exhuasting week with Isaac, but it's worth it because he is finally getting potty trained! 
I decided last week, enough was enough and he HAD to get potty trained!  He threw a fit, cried, whined and acted like a baby.  He wouldn't be bribed by the usualy stickers, candy,. toys or ice cream.  Then Taylor told him he could get his own fishing pole at "Cabela's" and he got all excited! 

The only problem was for the first few days he only wanted to pee outside.  I let him a few times and then he thought the grass was his personal potty.  So with some convincing he started going inside!  He is a funny, stubborn, strong willed boy. But we sure love him! 

Right now we are taking it day by day.  Some days he does great, others not so good!  But at least he's trying. 

Here's a few of my favorite Isaac Quotes from the week:

He yells while walking out of the store and then as he was talking to Danny on the phone "I did a Pee at Costco!"

"I don't want to wear underwear, I just want to wear my shorts!"

He was playing outside and we hear "Yes, I went pee by myself again outside!"

It's been a funny, exhausting, crazy week with this boy.

We went swimming with Mono and her girls and Aunt Natalie last week.  Elizabeth and Ali have the same swimming suit!  It's so cute on their chubby little bodies!

They are both growing so quickly!  I love to see the changes in these babies.  They are grabbing toys, rollilng all over, using their voice more, and Ali even eats a little solid food.

If only we could get them to sleep better at night, then the bags under my eyes would go away! 

We love you baby girls!

More summer fun

I LOVE that smile!  Elizabeth is in the best stage right now!  ( not including her horrible night time sleeping habits!) But during the daylight hours, she is such a sweet girl! 
She loves to be outside, and is always observing everything around her.  She loves being in her saucer, or rolling around on a blanket on the grass.  We go for lots of walks around the neigborhood, because her older brother is always riding his balance bike and needs to be supervised while crossing the street. 

This is a typical Lizzie face, covered in barf .  We call her "Barf Face" a lot lately, because she is constantly throwing up or drooling.  But it can't cover up her huge tootheless grin!
Oh, hot I love to kiss those chubby cheeks.

We went to the Gateway fountains one day this week.  We met some friends and Grandma Shields, Mono, Becca, Natalie & Turner.   We also brought our good friends Ryan & Zach, the kids had so much fun! 
Here are the few pictures I took.

They all played in the fountains and got soaking wet, then they would dry out on the cement and then do it all over again. 
It was a blast!

I am in denial that school is starting soon.  I really wish it could be summer forever. 
I am especially going to miss my little Emily!  She is such a sweet girl and my best helper with Lizzie.  She gives the best hugs all day long, and she lets her little naughty brother play with her and friends nearly everyday!  We are going to miss her when she starts Kindergarten!