We are Alive!!

Hey friends & family --
I just wanted to post a quick note to say thanks for checking in on us and yes, we are alive & well!! Things have been really busy and more than one thing has been pushed aside and my blog is in dire need of updating!! The kids are doing so great and I will try to get some pictures posted soon. Don't lose faith in us just yet...Jenny

1st Day of School

Connor & Emma started school last week. It was a day of mixed emotions for me. I don't want them to grow up so fast but I was a little excited to have a little free time (is that bad??) Connor started 2nd grade and has Mr. M this year. I'm glad Connor has a guy teacher this year - I think he'll do really well and Connor thinks Mr. M is the COOLEST! Emma has a very sweet but strict teacher this year which I think will be a perfect fit. She has lots of cute friends in her class and seems so grown up now that she's in 1st grade.


Emma is all about fashion. Last year I just shopped for her and then she wouldn't wear half of what I bought. This year we went shopping with my sister, Julie and her daughter, Shaelee and also Grandma. It was a fun girls shopping day and I was really proud (or should I be scared?) of Emma -- we were gone the whole day and she didn't complain once. I'm afraid she likes shopping WAY too much!


Connor is such the GQ little man. He would wear anything I bought for him but of course he is loving the plaid shorts and anything surf related. He looked so handsome and grown up when he walked into his classroom. He's getting so stinkin' tall that I'm afraid he'll probably outgrow me by the 4th grade. Oh, well, I guess that's not really much of an accomplishment =)


Anyway, it's now just Alli & me during the day and she asks me (or tells me) every day where we are going. She starts a 3 day preschool in September and is really excited about that. I'm sure she'll be bossing everyone around in no time!

Happy Birthday to Emma!!

Our sweet Emma turned 6 last Thursday. We started out her morning by piling presents all over her!! She loves little animals and all things girly. After the presents, we took the kids to Lego Land for the day. Here are some fun pics of her special day.


Where's Waldo - I mean Emma in this pile of presents??



Lego Land was fun - the rides were geared to smaller kids so all of us could go on the rides together.

Okay - so my favorite ride that the kids got to go on was the Volvo driving school. There were two separate courses - one for the 3-5 year olds and one for the 6-13 year olds. The two older kids headed to the big kids course and Alli to the little kids course. They all got to drive their own little Lego cars and it was too cute. Dana said when Emma turns 16, she's all mine to teach!! She was the craziest driver and it's a good thing those cars don't go very fast =)

Here's our Birthday Girl!!

Connor was an awesome driver and he even got his Lego Land driver's license after the ride!

I was a little worried about Alli driving by herself since she'd never done it but she did great and had a huge smile on her face the entire time.


Since we were at the beach, we made a beach birthday cake and decorated it with sand (graham crackers), shells and sea creatures! Hope you had a GREAT 6th birthday, Emma. We sure love you!

San Diego was a BLAST!!

Thanks to my sister CERISE we headed to San Diego last week for a quick vacation before school started. We stayed in a condo right on the beach and it was so much fun!! My kids all loved the beach and it was so relaxing to just sit and watch them and, of course, read my Stephenie Meyer books (yeah, I'm addicted and have already finished Breaking Dawn...sooooo good). Anyway, back to the vacation. Dana was lucky enough to go golfing at Torrey Pines (where the US Open was just held). He loved the course but said it was BRUTAL!! We also took the kids to Lego Land on Thursday for Emma's 6th Birthday. I can't believe my little Emma is 6 years old and now in the 1st grade. Happy Birthday to Emma - our little princess!! Here are some fun pictures of our awesome week!

Alli loved playing at the edge of the water but wouldn't go much farther than that - thank goodness!! She was usually completely covered in sand and loved digging in it.

Emma is a SEA SHELL lover! She was constantly scouring through the sand trying to find any shell she could. She got a little braver by the end of the week and would go out in the water until it was almost to her waist.

Connor is a WATER lover and learned to boogie board. He's such a natural athlete and once he learned how he spent all his time catching waves!!


Here's a super cute picture of Emma and Alli with their cousin, Kenzie. They all play so great together and we love spending time with cousins.


Connor and his cousin, Steven both love to golf. Luckily, so do both of the dads so they both got to go golfing and had soooo much fun!



Cerise has two older kids - Ashley and Bradley. They are both such awesome cousins to my little ones and we really appreciated having them there to help with the kids. Also, Ashley loves the Stephenie Meyer books too so she went with me at midnight to Barnes & Noble to get our books!!

Hat Club

My mom has a small collection of old hats. When we were at her house this past weekend the kids all decided to model the hats and it was so completely adorable. I had to share some cute pics of our little hat club...

Here's most of the girl cousins having fun playing dress-up with Grandma's hats.


Alli, Emma and Connor - aren't they sweet??


My nieces - Kenzie, Natalie and Shaelee


More nieces - Ashley (the oldest cousin at 15) and Hailey (the youngest at 8 months)

4th of July Fun

I love the 4th of July and dressing the kids up in red, white & blue. I'm so grateful for all the men & women that have served or are serving our country. I feel so blessed to have freedom and love to CELEBRATE the 4th of July!! We escaped the heat and headed up to Snowflake/Taylor for the 4th of July. The weather was SOOOO nice and we had so much fun. My entire family was in town and the cousins had a ton of fun playing together. There are 18 cousins - oldest is 15 and youngest 8 months - CRAZY TIMES!!

Friday morning we headed up to the Show Low parade. Here are some cute pics from the parade. All the kids were lined up waiting for someone to throw some candy out.



After the parade we hung out at my sister's house. The kids all went swimming in Aunt Julie's pool - thanks Aunt Julie for letting us all crash (destroy?) your house!!


On Friday afternoon we decided to head down to the ball fields and play a family baseball game. It was super fun and the kids all had a blast! I also got to visit with my bestest friend in Taylor - Jolene. She has a little girl (Brooklin) a few weeks older than Alli and she happened to stop by the ball fields while we were there. It was so great to visit with her - if only she would update her blog more often (just kidding Jo!!) Here are some pics of the kids getting ready for baseball...



Taylor celebrated the 4th of July on Saturday morning with their traditional anvil explosion and the Jennings band. Dana headed out the door at about 5:00 in the morning with Connor in tow. Connor loves following the anvil and watching it explode into the air. I didn't even think to send the camera with Dana - so unfortunately no pics of that. All in all a great weekend with family, good food and all American FUN! We hope you all had a great 4th!!

2 Dancing Princesses

Emma & Alli had their dance recitals on Saturday. They both did so great and I was so proud of them.

Alli is in a tap/ballet combo class and they did a cute tap routine to "ma, he's makin' eyes at me". All the girls in Alli's class are so sweet & completely adorable. It's been so fun for her this year and we sure love the girls & their mom's. Here's Dancing Princess #1...

Here are the girls in Alli's class - aren't they the CUTEST??


Emma is also in a tap/ballet combo for her age group. She has had a lot of fun and it's been fun for us to see her become a little more graceful. She loves to get all dolled up and was so excited when I put some makeup on her for her recital. She is such a beautiful little girl and she is growing up way too fast. Here's Dancing Princess #2...

Here's part of Emma's group. Most of the group shots I took with my camera didn't turn out well so I'm hoping one of the other mom's has some good pics.

Happy Birthday to Connor!!

Sunday was Connor's 7th birthday. I have no idea where the last 7 years went - 7 years old seems so big! We were up at my mom's house and did a little family birthday party with some cousins. We are going to go bowling next week for his friend party and I'll post more pictures of that later. Connor - we love your energy and your sweet smile - our family would not be complete without our sweet boy!!
See how sweet & innocent he was when he was born??

He was super cute on his blessing day and had even put on a little weight!!

At 6 months old he was even cuter and we spoiled him ROTTEN for his 1st Christmas.

Pictures from his 1st birthday...

He was already into cars by the time he was 2 years old. He already has about 4 cars picked out that he wants to own when he gets big (a blue Mustang, a monster truck, a Dodge Charger and a Toyota).

He was a true 3 year old and I don't know how I survived that year!

By 4 he had mellowed a little bit but he still keeps us all busy!

The movie "Cars" came out one day after his 5th birthday so we went to the movie for his party and had a ton of fun!

Last year when he turned 6 we were at Lake Powell - we'll always remember his fun birthday at the lake!!

Here he is on Sunday blowing out candles at my mom's house. He is such a good boy and we are so lucky to have him in our family.

Last Day of School!!

I was so ready for school to be out and my kids to be home with me. They had such a great year and we're READY FOR SUMMER!!

Emma's kindergarten teacher this year was SO GREAT!! She is super sweet and Emma is really going to miss her. Here's Emma with the best kindergarten teacher EVER!!

Emma loves to sing and I was so excited to attend her kindergarten program. I was not prepared for her sadness - she cried with her head down the ENTIRE program. It was soooo sad! I think she wasn't feeling that great and when she saw me come into the cafeteria she wanted to sit by me and not with her class. Oh, well, here's a sad picture.

She did perk up as soon as the program was over and it was time for snacks!!

Connor is sooo excited to be a 2nd grader next year. He took off this year and did awesome in math. His teacher was great and we're going to miss her!

Here's Connor with a few friends - Carson & Christian.


Now - Speaking of summer - the last day of school was crazy weather here and not like summer at all! My kids wore jackets to school and as we were walking home from school it rained on us and was actually chilly!

Right after school we drove to Utah for a wedding and guess what?? We got snowed on more than once. When we stopped for gas in Panguitch it was snowing - the kids were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues - it's a little hard to see the flakes but they were there!! Anyway, it was freezing!!