FIRST YEAR GIRLS CAMP!

Seriously?! That was a huge trip - sending my own girl off to girls camp! When did I get so old? How is she about to have the experiences that I had when I was her age? What the what?!

She was so excited to go and Maddy Parry stayed and went with our ward even though they moved so her and Emma could go to camp together for at least one year.

Camp theme: A.R.M.Y. (A Righteous Mormon Youth)

Emma loved it so much! She came home with lots of great stories! She got to give her first talk in Sacrament the next day and it was a really great talk! (She spoke for 5 minutes, nice and slow and looked up at the audience - way better than I ever do - and she doesn't even know how lucky she has it - when I gave my first talk, my dad made me practice in the Sacrament room at the microphone and he sat in the back and made sure I gave him good eye contact and timed me!)

Emma learned about Josie and the 444 project, gathering different weapons of armor to prepare her against the adversary, what it must have felt like to be Christ and have nails drove through your hands and feet, etc - of course there was also the skit night and a dance party night too!

Here are some pictures I got from a lady in our ward....
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CUB SCOUT DAY CAMP!

Back in the beginning of January we went to a little meeting one Sunday night with Eli and learned about what his baptism was going to be like, cub scouts, etc. They also talked about cub scout day camp, but you had to be 8 by the time the camp came or you couldn't go. Eli was very disappointed because his friends were old enough to go, but he wouldn't be. Right before the camp came I got an email asking me to fill out all the info for Eli - so I called the primary ladies to see what was going on and it was indeed a mistake and he should not be going. Then a couple days later I got another phone call from someone else asking us to fill out more info for him to go - and we let her know that he wasn't old enough. Well, he lucked out and since the ward mistakenly filled out a form for him to go and paid for him to go - he got to go! He was pumped. Bad news was it was the same weekend as the baseball All-Star games. We tried to make them both work as much as possible. He got to go all day on Thursday with Jared, Friday during the day he missed because of baseball games, but then since they lost the baseball game and there was still another 4 hours of scout camp left - I hauled buns over to the camp and luckily even though he didn't have his mandatory t-shirt with him, a very nice lady in our ward still let him stay, gave him $5 to buy something from the gift shop and brought him home to us at 11pm. He was exhausted and THRILLED! He LOVED scout camp. Since he had 2 baseball games on Saturday he didn't get to go back, but he loved the time he spent there playing volleyball, passing water buckets in a relay, shooting arrows, BB guns, etc!

Thursday:
 
Eli and Bo
 
 Malahki, Eli and Talan







Friday:


 

Friday night at 11:30pm - this starving boy needed some dinner after his shower before he went to bed - so we hung out the 3 of us :)

 

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

It is such an exciting day - wearing new clothes, new back packs, lunch boxes, new classes, etc - but then I am so sad that the summer is over and my kids are gone off to another year of school, another year older and another year closer to leaving me :(

The twins started 1st grade and we decided to separate them this year - for one reason - which I won't post on here because it's none of the boys business when they read this when they are older :) It was a very hard decision - I wanted them to stay besties, but I knew one of them needed it for the chance to grow academically. With the help of Mrs Birch - we decided to put Tyson into Eli's old class with his fantastic teacher and put Tyler into Mrs Lapham's class because she was just like Mrs Birch and since Tyler did great with her - we knew he would do great with the new teacher. I worried about Tyler the most - he is the quiet one - would he handle it being alone - he acts tough - but deep down he needs his Tyson - every night he climbs into bed with Tyson and always makes sure Tyson is ok.

That morning we took the boys to school - since the school bus drove right past the stop and didn't pick anyone up. We walked Eli to his room - he did great! (The first few days of school I find myself constantly worried about Eli - he is different - he has a smile on his face, but it isn't a real Eli smile - I finally realized this year - he is stressed and nervous - poor buddy!) Then we took Tyson to his room - he went in - took care of his business and didn't think twice about us. Then it was Tyler's turn, bum bum bummmm....we started to walk out of Tyson's room and Tyler grabbed our hand and looked at us and his eyes were red - I knew if he started to cry - I wouldn't be able to hold it together and I would switch him right then and there. We walked to his room, he found his seat, and then Mrs Lapham came over and said, "Hi Tyler friend, can I have a hug, high five or knucks - whatever you give?" I thought, this is the moment of truth, if he responds - we are golden, if not, I am gonna be sick in my stomach all day. He waited a few seconds and then looked at her and said, "high five" and then he held his hand out for her. YES!!!! success!

 
 
 After that - Jared and I headed back home to finish help getting Miss Emmerson ready for 7th grade - JUNIOR HIGH!! How is she in junior high?! And dare I mention - shaving her legs, wearing black mascara (instead of clear) and lip gloss - yikes! With her new ombre hair (compliments of Aunt Jenn) she was ready to rock it - she told me she wanted to go "casual" to see how every dressed first -
 
 We drove her to the bus stop and waited for a while and then she was off!
 
 All the kiddos came home and had an awesome first day of school! I was worried about Tyler, but he did great and I was worried about Emma being at jr high but she did great too - she came home full of smiles and stories! Right after school she went straight to dance to help with Kaitlyn to assist Stacia in a class and then we took the boys swimming at Rj's house. After Emma was done, we picked her up and all of us headed to Wing Stop for dinner. It was a great first day in deed!

The next day the boys actually got to ride the bus to school so I drove there to make sure they knew what to do since it would be different from kindergarten. They got off the bus and saw me and walked over and each of them gave me a  hug and then took off to play! I love my boys! I love my life!

This was the 2nd day of school but the first school bus picture I could get!

FAMILY NIGHT AT THE DBACKS GAME!

Jared was able to get free tickets through his work to go to the Diamondbacks game right before school started. We were able to let Emma and Eli each take a friend too! It was a lot of fun - I love when our family gets to get away from our crazy schedule and just spend some time together!

Tyson, Caleb Ely, Eli, Tyler

 Emma and Maddie

 Caleb and Eli

 Jared, me and the crazy Diamondbacks Dog - its $24 - but we had to try it since it's a huge deep fried corn dog - fun to try - the family all tasted it - but we won't be getting it again - ha ha!

 Our babes....

the whole gang....

WCDE NATIONALS!

I was not looking forward to Nationals this year - I was keeping a secret and I knew that secret would change everything. Emma's group would no longer exist. This was the end. This wasn't the great nationals I was hoping it would be  - the girls didn't do one dance to their best - each dance one girl would do some totally random mistake they have never done ever - the moms were all a little moody - everything was off - it was almost like no one wanted to face what they knew was coming - the end. It was hard. We still had a good time though and laughed and made some memories, but I will forever be sad that things will never be the same and I will no longer be dance sister wives with Elsabe and Tiffany and Emma was about to lose her best friends and she had no idea what was coming.


SUGAR - have to go for their crazy drinks!

Andrea posted this on facebook


We had to ride the "High Roller" - it was brand new and is the world's tallest ferris wheel. We did a little shopping while we waited for our ride time...

 

 We look sexy but we are really making fun of someone :)

While Bella and Ella danced in the Gala - we hit the mall for some back to school shopping! Have to have the best clothes for the first week of junior high!

Love these girls - they will forever hold a special place in our hearts

Some lady took 20 selfies of herself down by the pool so we had to make fun of her too - it's not our fault we made fun of a lot of people - they asked for it :) (to my kids - some day when you read this - be better than your mom - don't make fun of people - its not nice!)


Tyson made us a sweet note at home all by himself!

 Jared took the boys to Flipside one day while we were gone