We did celebrate Easter around here… I am just a lazy bum and haven’t posted anything from it yet! So lets play a little catch up! Jackson and Lacey have asked about coloring eggs since last Easter! They love it and it is a fun little tradition to make the holiday a little more festive for us. This is one of those holidays that I don’t really have decorations for. So we dyed our eggs and then Sunday morning we did a little Easter egg hunt. Each of them had a sandwich bag with a little candy and they each got a little Easter type rubber ducky. They were thrilled and still play with those silly little ducks! We talked a little about what Easter means to us with the kids, and then our primary president did a fantastic sharing time about Christ’s atonement and Resurrection with several little “feel” items, explanations, and video clips throughout. She sent home a bag to each family with the items and my kids came home and explained exactly what each item was and what it helped them remember about the atonement and Resurrection. It was a really great way to have a nice Sunday afternoon discussion. Each year Easter is more meaningful to me (I guess every holiday is) – I guess I’m finally growing up a little! I think having to teach my children about these things and bear testimony of it actually helps me more than it probably helps them! We made some sugar cookie sandwich cookies and gave them away to neighbors and friends for Easter – they were a big hit!

In the last month of school and right around mother’s day Jackson’s kindergarten class has a “Mommy Makeover.” It was darling. Each child escorted their mom to their chair as we arrived, served us cookies and juice, gave us adorable art and writing projects they had been working on for a while, sang songs to us, had a little slideshow, and did our hair and make up. It was so fun, and it was nice to be able to have a little time just for Jackson and I! I love my sweet Jackson – he was so great!

Before:

After:

The last day of school was a little bittersweet for us! I am so excited that Jackson is growing up and progressing, but he and I are both sad he will be gone “all day” this next year. I don’t want to believe he is getting this old already. I can hardly think about it. I love having him around. I also was aware that I really only had the month of June to plan ALL the fun things I wanted to do and teach my kids, because July is full of traveling and then school starts again in August! We’ve done tons of fun crafts and games and learned a few scripture stories in June and it was a really great month! Father’s day was so cute – all the kids had something fun for Micah. Jackson had saved something in his backpack from the last couple weeks of school, which was really sweet. They all had such a great time celebrating their Dad.

There isn’t anything more precious to me than my children! I love them. For all the frustration and impatience I feel with them at some moments, they have brought 100 times that in joy and happiness. They truly are my greatest blessings.

Jackson started school August 8th. He is a big 1st grader and is gone all day now and we miss having him home. He is doing well now but the first few days were so hard. He was grumpy at the end of school and after the first day he had a hard time going back. He has a great teacher this year though, and I’ve been so impressed with how kind and caring she is and how well she teaches! She really has taken the time to make sure he is happy and comfortable. For him, I really appreciate that. He is a good boy and a great helper around here. He is so sweet to our babies and little sisters. I love this little boy that’s growing up way too fast!

Of course we needed an extra delicious treat to help ease the transition of all-day school, so we had these awesome chocolate dipped brownie ice cream sandwiches. Yum, yum! They’ve made a couple of appearances through the past few weeks too due to many, many requests.

Lacey has her first day of school today (Tuesday, Sept.4). She is READY!!! and has been for months! Ever since she left her last preschool she’s been wondering when this preschool would start. She’s written notes to Miss Judy all summer! She can’t wait to go to school! Her little spunky character is cracking me up! Last night about 10:00 PM Rachelle fell out of bed and I went in to check on her and Lacey was wide awake – she said, “I tried mom, but I just can’t get to sleep!” She is so FUN and silly! I know she’s going to love Miss Judy’s preschool. She is a fast learner if she will set her mind to it. I love my little Lacey!!!

Rachelle and I are glad to have time together just me and her while Jacks, Lace are at school and Autumn naps, but we definitely miss the others! Chelley loves the one on one attention though. This girl is only 2 but she acts like she’s older in so many ways. She is so thoughtful and kind most of the time and really notices and takes care of people. When she gets tired (she’s not napping regularly anymore) she gets a little whiny and bossy though. She’s at the stage where she has to do everything herself – if you pick something up for her you have to set it down exactly where it was and let her come get it for herself. Its really fun ;o)  We play lots of  “Don’t break the ice,” paint nails, she LOVES to be pushed on the swings, and play ring around the Rosie. I really enjoy spending time with little Rachelle. She is a great big sister and loves babies. In the picture below, these were the ponies she was trying to earn by potty training. Well, after a few days of 1 success out of 6 or more, I’ve decided to let go of the frustration and we’ll try again in a few years… I mean months.  I’m a little frustrated because at any given time she used to tell me that she needs to go to the bathroom and she would run in and go on the toilet. So I’m sure she knows how, she just gets lazy about it – its way more convenient to go wherever you want. This sweet and adorable little girl is showing me who’s boss! 

Wow – its been a summer! I can’t believe its been a whole summer since I blogged a darn thing! I’ve dealt with a few frustrations… Micah decided to load all the pictures on his computer because he uses the cameras so much more often. Well that sounded great, but he’s almost always on that computer and I’m still learning how to use it, so I didn’t have access to any of the pictures. I started writing a blog post about Easter and the Mommy makeover and I just kept adding to it – end of school, Father’s day, etc – and I never had a chance to get the pictures in. Soooo…finally we have the picture situation worked out and I can start updating again.
Anyway, We have had a great summer! We started by getting Jackson into swim team. He LOVED it, of course! Give that boy a little competition and he’s happy! I really appreciate how he doesn’t get worked up about winning or losing – he just loves competing. Its always nice to be the winner though ;o) I think this quality will serve him well through life. I always felt way too much pressure in sports or any competition.He really enjoyed having practice with several friends and cousins on his team.

Lacey and Chelle got to do a little dance class where they had an awesome time! They were so cute and so happy coming out of there.

We did some swim lessons, swimming in our pool, a visit to the lake with Papa-dad,  a little school work every day, a “stubz’ sicle stand” once a week and a few other fun crafts and activities I found online that would keep our time filled and productive. I had a lot planned for us for just a short month because we were taking the month of July for a long vacation.

The Thursday before we were to leave on our trip, Micah went to a conference. He came back Saturday morning about 10:00 and we left Saturday by 1:00 PM. There was so much to get ready to go! We cleaned out a lot of things that you just don’t usually think of: refrigerator, cabinets, drawers, every ounce of garbage/ garbage cans, and anything else I could think of that may get stinky in a hot closed up house! Poor Autumn decided to cut her first couple of teeth right before we left. She seemed to handle it well though. After all the preparation, we finally got off! Our first stop we went through Provo to stay the night. It was fun to be back there – it always feels like home. That Sunday we went to church in Highland to visit friends of ours that had just moved there a few weeks before. It was so fun to see the Smiths! Then we drove to Heber to a cabin to have the Stubblefield Family Reunion. We all had a great time and I love watching my kids get to know their cousins better. The kids didn’t want to leave! The boys could go exploring in the woods, the girls could play games and swing on the porch swing, and adults could hang out and chat. It was fun to play games in the evenings with several of the in laws and older nieces and nephews. We had a fun skit night, rocket building and launching, Wii dance, a bouncy water slide and a lot of other fun activities.

July 5th was the last day of the reunion. I had called my room mate from college Hannah to see if we could meet up with her family. It ended up that she was having a family reunion about 2 miles from where ours was, and she was able to come over to the cabin we were staying at just for a few minutes as we were getting ready to leave. It was so fun to see her and a little crazy that our kids are getting so big! It feels like yesterday that we were room mates at DT our first semester out of high school and playing and hanging out with the other girls on the floor. After that we went to Salt Lake. It started raining, but we went to a park where Micah wanted to see a youtube guy named Weezy waiter and his band. We picked up some lunch and went to this park in SLC. It was raining pretty good, so the kids and I waited in the car for a lot of the time. There were some of the most precious duck families there and we couldn’t get enough of them. Next we went to the City Creek mall to visit with some of Micah’s friends. It was nice to walk through the mall and get some ice cream and visit with Micah’s friends from high school that he hadn’t seen since before we were married. Our next destination was Yuba City. I can’t remember how many nights and where we stayed at places from SLC to Yuba City, but I know we had at least one night in a hotel. We stopped off to visit this park we thought would be really fun for the kids – petting zoo, little rides, etc, but none of that was there anymore. There were some nature paths and a little museum where we were the only people, but it gave us a much needed driving break.

The kids did amazingly well on all the driving, and we tried to find some parks at regular intervals so we could all be happy and get some playing time. Alright – that’s it for part one! I’ll have to break this trip into parts over the next few days or so and make sure I cover all of it!

In other news, we went and looked at puppies the other day (we go to the puppy store at San Tan every once in a while) and we’ve all fallen in love with this darling little one! He was precious and sweet tempered – if only he didn’t cost so much!!! We held him and played with him. I’ve been tempted to go back every day since we looked at him.  After we played with him for a few minutes we gave him back to the sales guy and he handed him right to a couple that was waiting to see him and Lacey yelled, “they’re going to steal our puppy!” Ha – I wonder if they did! I think Rachelle’s been dreaming about it, because she’s said to me in the mornings, “that was so fun to pet that cute puppy” and “can we go get that puppy?”