Splash Park

There is a splash pad in the park by our house. The kids absolutely love it. The water is super cold but that doesn't bother the boys. They run around the whole time. Ellee walks daintily around the side and once in a while gets a little adventurous and puts her hand in the water or her hair. It is so fun having places like the splash pad and pool close to our house. The kids really enjoy it when we go with cousins and friends. Here are some of my favorite pics from the splash pad.

Summer Fun at the Pool

So, I decided that since summer is clearly over I should probably post some of the fun things we did over the summer. We spent part of almost every day at the pool, even if only for an hour. It is so nice having a pool that we can head to whenever we want. Plus, we figured out the schedule when it wasn't too busy and made sure to get over there during that time. We also had a fun time at the pool with Sarah and Brody. They were at the pool with us just about every time we went.Ellee was a little hesitant at the beginning of the summer to get in the pool, after her incident at Dimple Dell last winter. It only took her a couple weeks to be comfortable floating around in the pool again. She started with her water wings, but then fell in love with her pink tube and just climbed right in and floated around the pool.
Luke was completely different this summer from last summer. He started out in his green tube. He loves jumping right into the water and floating around. He also discovered that he can reach in the three foot area and was so proud of the fact that he didn't have to stay in the "baby" section of the pool. Luke is quite the swimmer underwater. He loves swimming under the water and would even swim to the side after doing cannon balls into the deeper water.
Cole is our little fish. He LOVES the water. He is fun to watch, doing somersaults under water, handstands, playing tag, etc. He can go anywhere in the pool because he's really gotten pretty good at swimming. We didn't sign him up for lessons this year but he is still picking it up pretty well. Damon has been working with him on using big arms and swimming on top of the water instead of just underneath and floating on his back.

It's Beautiful!

We made our own pizza for dinner tonight. When Damon is at work I try to keep the kids busy so spending time making pizza and cookies is a good, fun way to keep them occupied. The kids love helping put the cheese and pepperoni on. While it was cooking they went upstairs to clean up their rooms. Ellee finished first and came running downstairs to check on our pizza. She looked in the oven and immediately said "Mommy, it's beautiful!" I never considered pizza to be beautiful but maybe that is how I'll have to explain it from now on. It was so cute. Had to write it down so I wouldn't forget.

Preschool

Luke and Ellee in preschool? They can't be old enough already! The twins started preschool a couple weeks ago. They are going to Learning Dynamics where Mama is the director. I don't even think they know the name of their school. They just call it Mama's school. It fits.Their teacher's name is Mrs. Chester and they absolutely love her-even when they don't get their way. At the end of the first week of school they were rotating the toy buckets and getting new toys in their room. Luke was really excited to play with the new toys, but Mrs. Chester explained that they had just rotated them and that toy time was over but they would be able to play with the new toys the following week. My little stinker decided that wasn't the answer he wanted and told Mrs. Chester "I want a new teacher". Luckily, Mrs. Chester has a good sense of humor and just thought it was cute-and of course everyone at the school now knows Luke's logic :)
They've been reviewing and learning colors at school. The kids are supposed to wear the color they are learning for the day to school. You all know Ellee's nickname-Pinky---well imagine trying to get the girl in any color other than pink. We did just fine with purple, red, and green (because it was a dress with green and pink flowers on it) but when we got to blue-she had a complete meltdown. The nerve Mommy has to dress her in BLUE!!! What was I thinking? She absolutely refused until we searched through all her drawers and found a blue skirt (so she could be a princess) and put pink bows in her hair. We are looking forward to this week when they are learning black and brown. Fun times for me. She has lots of pink and brown outfits, but not much black---looks like I might head to the store to find some black and pink clothes.

Luke doesn't have any purple clothes so we didn't have any issues with his clothes. He was all too happy that he didn't have to wear purple--he doesn't have pink either, maybe I should try to find him something pink-that would go over well.

They love school and are doing really well with their work. We couldn't be happier for them. It's fun watching how excited they get every time they get ready for school.

1st Grade

Well-it's official!!! Cole is now a first grader. It makes me so sad. I can't believe I have a six year old and that he is now in school all day. I've had a harder time with first grade than I did with kindergarten. I think it's because he is in school from 8:50-3:50. That seems like such a long time for him to be away from us. His teacher is Mrs. Bennight. It was so cute--when Damon dropped him off at school yesterday he said "Dad-I like school... but I miss my family, too." Ohhhhh! That just about broke my heart. He had a rough time adjusting to 1st grade and came home a little bit sad for the first couple weeks. Damon and I have been stressing out and trying to figure out what we can do to make him enjoy school and to want to be there, even though we are really wanting him home with us. It was such a relief to pick him up yesterday and to see his huge grin and happy face. He got in the car and told me how much fun he had at school. I am so glad that he's used to the full day, has made friends and is now enjoying it a little bit more!!! Luke and Ellee obviously miss Cole and talk about him all day long. They start preschool soon and ask almost every day when they will get to go to "Mama's school". They are so excited....we'll see how that goes.

Our little lady

I had volleyball camp down in St. George a couple weeks ago. My sister Teresa stepped it up and helped watch the twins for almost a week while I was coaching. While the twins were with her she took her daughter Alyssa to get her ears pierced. It was so cute. I immediately started working on Damon. He wanted it to be Ellee's choice about getting earrings. Ellee is the girliest girl I know and she started in with asking Damon, too. I know we could have waited, but it was innevitable that it would happen sooner rather than later. We ended up taking Ellee to get her ears pierced while down in St. George. She got to pick which earrings she wanted-pink flowers, of course. I was surprised-she actually asked for purple first. My daughter who cries when I dress her in anything but pink? Well, they didn't have purple so she went for the pink flower earrings. She only cried long enough for us to open a sucker and pop it in her mouth. She is so proud of her earrings. It is one of the first things she shows off to people when we are out or when we have people come to our house.

The Manti Pageant

We went down to the Manti Pageant last month. We went down with Sarah, Adam, and Brody. The first attempt we decided not to brave the weather and ended up just staying at Adam's parents house playing games and watching movies. We decided to try again and actually made it to the pageant. We had lots of fun while we were waiting. Damon and the kids had an awesome wrestling match. I think Damon ended up winning-I really think the kids almost had him beat for a little bit though. It was fun to watch the kids' reactions to the pageant. Ellee stayed awake through the whole pageant. Cole and Luke both fell asleep about halfway through. I think we might wait a few more years before we attempt it again. At least until the kids are a little older to be able to appreciate it.