Dallin Is growing up

Dallin and Stephanie did a Mexican Dance called the Jarabe Tapatio for our wards enrichment on Thursday. They did such a good job and looked so cute.

Dallin's school had their annual Sock Hop. Dallin, Elise and Jayden dressed up like 50's style. They were so cute, it was fun dressing up.

My little boy is off to 1st grade. It is so sad to have him gone all day. I really loved having him home all day and sometimes I panick and think, will he be OK, is he prepared. I know so many other kids have gone off to school. I know school is good for him and he is learning so much, so I must let him go. We have a devotional every day before he goes to school, because I want him to always go to school with a spiritual thought. We sing primary songs sometimes, and the other day he came home from school and said, I had the primary song that we sang, "Dare to Do Right" in my head all day. I said, that's great!!

Here Dallin is in his school line-up. He loves school, but he does say that he wishes school wasn't so long. I know it is hard, but I know he has a great time especially at recess.

Elise misses Dallin the most. She really loves her big brother. She will always save something for Dallin or draw him a picture so that she can give it to him when he comes home from school. So sad.

My Little Elise

Elise loves her little brother Jayden. Jayden does whatever Elise tells him to do, and that is why they get along so well. Dallin doesn't do whatever Elise wants him to do, but they play well together most of the time. Elise will play with Jayden, and she'll call Jayden her husband. Sometimes they play doctor and I'll find Jayden laying on the floor while Elise is checking his heartbeat. These are such fun memories that I just don't want to forget.

If Elise isn't dressed as a princess she's wearing her swimsuit. This is her at Bear Lake this Summer. She had a great time and just loves the water. What a crazy girl.

Elise loves this dress that Nanny got in Utah. It is the perfect dress up dress and I think she looks so cute in it. She wears this everywhere, all of the time. What would life be like if you could just be dressed up like a princess all of the time.

This is Elise's poodle skirt that I made for her with a bunch of other girls to go to Hot August Nights. It was so fun to have all our kids dressed up and to see the old fashioned cars drive by. It was a night to remember.

I've just been thinking about Elise lately and wanted to write something down about her before I forget. She is so funny. The other day I took her and Jayden to the park. Jayden was at the top of the slide and an older boy was trying to push Jayden. Elise ran up to this boy and said very seriously, "Don't hit my brother"(She says bwoder), then she said "I just don't like it when people hit my bwuder." The boy stopped and that made Elise happy. She was just so cute, and I just wished someone was there with me to hear Elise. I just love her so much. She is so brave and just loves life.

SUMMER 2010

I decided to make a collage of our Summer. This has been one of our funnest Summers ever. We spent 3 weeks in Utah and at Bear Lake. Then we spent almost every day at the Waterpark while at home. We watched a play at the Pickleville playhouse. We went to my Uncle Stan's Wedding. We went boating with all of our friends and we hust had so much fun together. Dallin started 1st grade and we made poodle skirts with our friends. We went to Hot August Nights and saw the old/new cars. My how time flies. It was one of our best Summers ever.
I will miss this Summer and Dallin now that he is at school all day. Dallin will come home and say, "I wish I was still in Kindergarten." I know school is so long, but I guess we have to let him go sooner or later. It is just so sad to see him grow up. But, he is such a good boy. He always does his work at school and when his teacher corrects him, he quickly fixes his mistakes. He just amazes me. Also, he brought home all of his school papers with 100% , he was so excited and we put his papers on the fridge so that his Daddy could see what a smart cookie he is.
Elise is in Preschool/ Joy school and she loves it. She is really excited to be in ballet.
Jayden is entering his terrible 2's and causing disasters, but we sure love him despite this little phase that he is passing through. Life is great!!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

I was going to update my blog, but first I wanted to do a post about my Grandpa for his birthday. He is the greatest grandpa in the whole world. We have had so many great memories together from going to visit him and Grandma in Pocatello to going to Bear Lake together. We've been to Hawaii together and to Cancun. We have the best time at the Johnson Family Forever Rendezvous at Bear Lake each year. I am so grateful that my Grandpa wants our family to be together forever and that he tries to get us together each year. Grandpa is such a great example to me of setting goals and aiming high in life. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful Grandpa. Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

Wahoo my first 5K and Dallin's First 1K!!

I have always loved running, but never challenged myself to do a race. I never thought I was very good. But, my Dad was always a great example to me, since he would run every morning. I decided I wanted to be a good example to my kids and challenge myself to do hard things. So, I dragged everyone out of the bed at 6 am so that we could drive to Lake Tahoe, so that I could run a 5k. My hubby was such a good sport and so were all of the kids. It felt so good to finish the race. It was a hard up hill race, but it felt good to do a hard thing. I remember one of the General Conference talks, a quote I really like is "I can do hard things". This is one of my favorite quotes, so it felt good to do something hard.
The kids were so excited that Elise decided to run on the sidelines and Dallin signed up to run a 1K race for kids that was part of the 5K race. Dallin did good, but his shoe fell off in the middle of the race. He wasn't exactly ready to run. But, I was so proud of him that he went back and got his shoe on and finished the race. He was just excited to get a ribbon. What a fun time.

4th of July Week-End (Greenhorn Ranch)

I was really proud of myself for making this 4th of July dress for Elise. My friend Joanna showed me how to make this pattern. It was really fun.

I have to post something before it gets too late. We had the funnest 4th of July Week-End with our friends, The Tolman's, Dallin and Elise and Jayden got to ride horses for the first time. Dallin got to go on a 2 hour trail ride with his horse. At first he was a little nervous. He didn't know how to get his horse to stop, so he kept on saying "Excuse Me"to the lady that was teaching him. He was a very polite horse rider. It was so fun to watch the kids ride the horses. Dallin and Grandpa spent the entire week-end fishing and Elise and Jayden had so much fun running around chasing dogs. Instead of fireworks the ranch shot off glow sticks and the kids got to run and collect them. We had the greatest time ever.

Summer Fun

So this is what we do in the Summertime. Slip and sliding, making things and playing on cushions. We seem to keep ourselves pretty busy by going to the waterpark and library but, sometimes it feels so nice to just stay home.

Jayden is definately an outdoor boy. He could spend all day outside if we let him. It is so nice that he just can be outside playing by himself for hours.

Elise is getting used to the outdoors and is having so much fun this Summer. She doesn't enjoy the heat so much, but she loves the water.

Dallin is our science boy. He is always thinking of an experiment or of something that he can make. It is amazing to see the things that he makes.

For a while I have been saving toilet paper rolls. I decided that why throw something away that can be used for so many things. Toilet paper rolls can be used as telescopes, handcuffs (Dallin did this once by cutting them in half and taping them around wrists), firecrackers, birdfeeders, (arts and crafts like making giraffes), a wind sock and best of all we made this great marble run that we taped to the door and let the marbles run through the tubes. It was tons of fun and kept us entertained for a little while.

Elise and Jayden just love to play on the cushions. I think these cushions are their favorite toys. They make forts, dancing stages, and so many things out of cushions.