Bittersweet

So, my last baby just got on the Kindergarten bus!

He was soooo excited that we ended up going out to wait for the bus twenty minutes early.

And . . . then the bus was about 15 minutes late.

He looks a little nervous here, but he walked on all by himself.

I can't wait to see how happy he comes home.

I think he has such a great teacher!

At least that is my impression from my brief 2 minutes meetings with her before school started.

I think teaching Kindergarten just might be her calling in life . . . so I am so excited that Austin will have such a nice experience at school.

Soccer, Soccer, and More Soccer!

Soccer has started!

This is my FAVORITE season, despite how busy it makes our life.

For Halle's game yesterday, there was water everywhere!
It was POURING the night before.
The night of our ward campout . . . which we attended 100%.
Anyways . . . 

the field was flooded in the middle!

So . . . it made getting the ball around a little difficult.

This year, Halle moved up a level (to the fifth/sixth graders), is playing on a bigger field,  with more players on the field, bigger goals, and more competition.
  She is once again super aggressive and played so well yesterday!

She has THE BEST coach as well!
Her coach has scheduled three hours of practice time a week!  This means that Halle has soccer games or practice 4 days a week . . . which just equals heaven for Halle.

Gwen wanted to play this year!

After taking a break last year, she was ready to try it out again this time.

She is so confident out there!

I wasn't sure what to expect after taking a break last year, but it's like she didn't miss a beat.

Austin is in Cub Soccer again!

It's weird to think that this is our last year of Cub Soccer.

All of our kids did this . . . for two years each!


Austin is pretty excited to have his own games for us to go to.

He has improved since last year!

He seems more willing to run after the ball!

Austin has a pretty awesome coach too! :)

And the assistant coach is very handsome . . . (Ben will fill in sometimes if the coach can't be there:))

Austin also knows a few of the kids on the team, which makes it nice.

First Day of School

Abby is starting 8th grade.

She seems happy with her new scheduled classes.

She was able to skip Orchestra II and move onto Orchestra III!

I think that is so amazing, especially considering she just starting playing
the violin when she was in 6th grade.

Halle is starting 5th grade.

She was really hoping for Ms. Roach to be her teacher, and she got her for the morning!

She has a different teacher for the afternoon.

Gwen is starting 2nd grade.

Her teacher is Ms. Sahline, and Gwen is so excited to be in her class.

I absolutely LOVE that the bus stop is right in front of my house!

Someone Lost a Tooth!

Austin first told me it was loose when I was in Missouri visiting my sister.

 I had told him to not let it fall out while I was gone! :)

Luckily, I did not miss the big event, and was even home for a week or two before it actually fell out!

Adamson Weekend in Missouri!

My sister Kristi had a baby this summer!

 The weekend of her baby's blessing, my other Lisa and I met up with our 

Mom and Dad in Missouri for some Adamson fun!

Here we are where Kristi's husband Steve teaches, at Missouri Western University 

in St. Joseph, Missouri.

We visited Liberty Jail.

This was an interesting little museum.

The visitor center is built around a replica of the jail, but where the jail actually was.

After visiting Liberty Jail, we went over to Independence Missouri.

Here is the temple of the RLDS church, which I think is now known as the Community of Christ.

We did not have time to go inside, but I would have liked to see it.

Across the street from this temple, is the LDS Visitor Center.

This Visitor Center reminded me a lot of the one on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

Just smaller.

Here is first edition Book of Mormon.

Across the street from the LDS Visitor Center, and next to the Community of Christ temple, is the land we believe to be the temple site for the Independence Missouri Temple.

The area is very beautiful.  It will be interesting to see how everything plays out. :)

The next day, we went bowling.

My niece Ashley likes me. :)

Later that day, we went to Adam-ondi-Ahman.

This place is beautiful.

And so quiet and peaceful.

It was really fun to be there!

My dad has a favorite spot. :)

I may have discovered something here :)

Then the event we came for!

Madelyn's blessing day!

She cried through the blessing . . . it was awesome!

Growing up, my mom always wanted us to stand on the stairs for pictures.

Luckily Kristi's house has stairs, so we could do it again!

Such a fun weekend!