4th Grade Egg Drop

 Sunny participated in the 4th grade egg drop today.  I managed to snap a picture as she was heading to school this morning.  We used spray foam stuff, sprayed it, let it dry, cut it in half, and hollowed out a spot for the egg.  We did the same thing for Jack last year, so we were pretty sure it would work.  

Sunny was mostly interested in making sure it looked good, so then we had to fancy it up a bit.

We spray painted it aqua and added turquoise polka dots.  She was pretty happy with it.

All the kids were sitting outside when we got there.  Cam loved getting a front row seat in Sunny's lap.  That is her best friend Rakel next to her with the cute hair.

Mr. Padeken (Jack's old teacher) and Sunny's current teacher, Ms. Bjornestad  were up on the roof of the school dropping all the different containers the kids created to keep their eggs safe.

What we learned:  Balloons do nothing to slow down the containers.  Parachutes work...sometimes. Nerf footballs work well, Soda bottles or water bottles do not work.

G was there!  He is getting ready to support Alabama in their first game of the year this weekend.

After the drop, we followed the students back to the classroom where they opened up their containers and checked to see if their egg survived the fall.

Her egg survived!

(There were only about 5 in her class that broke, and luckily the kids took it pretty well.

As I was walking around the class checking out how many broken eggs there were, I came across this gem!  This is Sawyer's idea.  A diaper filled with mini water balloons.  I thought it was great.  His egg survived!

More School

Day #3.  She is loving this school thing!

Lila's First Day of Kindergarten

My sweet little Lulu started school today!  She was so excited.  I love how brave she is and it was nice to have a tear-free day on both of our parts!

I am not sure what I am going to do with her gone during the day.  I really love having her around.  She is so helpful and spends a lot of time entertaining the little boys.

Aunt Jess...please notice the matching turquoise fingernails!

Specials curls for a special day.

Lila is so much fun.  I love her personality.  To most people she is just a super sweet, fun little girl.  Our family knows the truth...she is super sweet, but this little girl is pretty darn sassy.  We love that about her.

Another thing most people don't know about Lila is that she is loud!  She doesn't show that side of herself in public, but man at home does she ever.  She is pretty bossy and likes to yell up the stairs at people.  When she cries, it is ear splitting!

When we got to school, Lila found her friend Tylee from down the street.  They walked hesitantly toward the gate and then I noticed them each reach out and clasp hands.  I think it made them feel a little braver!

I know my babe is going to have a great year!  She has Miss Lindberg for her teacher (same teacher Sunny had) and I can't wait to see all the things she learns.  She is most excited to play on the playground, and to learn to read.

Sunny is Nine

My birthday girl! 

She is so excited that the big 9 is finally here and she has waited all week to wear this outfit on her special day.  Looking at these pictures makes me think I should have taken them in front of a better background than the porch railing, but it was 7:30 in the morning, so I'm pretty sure my brain wasn't functioning yet.

Sunny has been such a blessing to our family.  From the day she was born she has had a sweet, calming, peaceful presence.  I remember as a baby she never cried. Really...except for during the hour that I used to play the piano at church and Ryan had to hold her.  She screamed so badly then that he had to take her out of the building.  She was just super attached to me.

She has always been so easy going and helpful and that has just increased as she has gotten older.  I have so much fun hanging out and talking with her.  I have to remind myself sometimes that she is 9 and not 13.

She has such a presence in our home. She is always taking care of her brothers and sister, cleaning, organizing, or doing something helpful.  She loves to create chore charts for everyone to follow.

Random Sunny fact:  Her room is spotless. Always. I never have to tell her to clean it.  She also cleans Jackson's room when she just can't stand how nasty it is anymore. She is in charge of putting her own laundry away, as well as Lila, Griffin and Cameron's laundry, and it is always done.  She just loves a clean and organized space.

Sunny is very creative and artistic.  She loves reading and writing.  She loves drawing and is really good at it.  She also loves dancing and singing.  I love the way she looks at life and the 

perspective she has on things.  It is very different from me and I love that.

When I asked her about her future plans and goals, this is what she said recently:

I would like to go to college at Southern Utah University (in Cedar City where Josh and Jess live) and become a teacher.  After I graduate, I don't want to start working yet, I want to go to Africa and help children in orphanages and the people there.  Then I want to come back and get a job at a school and start teaching.  Then I want to get married and adopt a couple of orphan children and I might have some babies, but I might just have the children I adopt.

She is definitely her own person. One of the things I love the most about her is her self-confidence. She doesn't care what people thing about her at all and she doesn't judge others.  She just does her own thing. She is a great friend and is super kind to everyone. Kids at school flock to her and everyone loves to hang out with her.  She is just the kind of person that people like to be around.  

The part of her that I love the most is that she really is so wonderful, but she doesn't know it!  She is so sweet and humble.  She is just happy to be here and happy to live her life every day.

I have said this before, but I love it, so I will say it again:)

I truly could never have know back when she was born, how perfectly her name would fit her.  I'm really not sure why we even named her Sunny.  It was kind of random, but I think that Ryan and I both just felt that was her name...and it is.  

If I could describe her with one word, it would be SUNNY!

Happy Birthday to my first baby girl.  We love everything about you and are so grateful to have you in our family.

Bike Riding

With the big kids back in school, we have had lots of time to fill during the day.  What better to fill it with than bike riding.   G is getting pretty good on his balance bike.  He is still way to clumsy to ride a real bike though.  Maybe next spring?

The beauty of being the last child in a big family.  You get to ride all the hand me down bikes and wear hand me down helmets.  So, if you're Cam, riding a pink and purple bike with a purple butterfly helmet is an everyday occurrence.  (In this case, the bike and helmet happened to belong to our friends, but between my friend and I, Cam is the youngest of 9 children, so it totally applies : )

Love having theses 3 home together.  They get along so well.

Cam riding his buddy Maci's balance bike.  He didn't do to much riding, mostly just cheesy smiling!

His birthday is coming up fast.  Can't believe my baby will be 2!

Back to School 2008-2013

2008 Kindergarten

 2009 1st grade and Kindergarten

 2010 2nd and 1st

 2011  3rd grade

 2011 2nd grade

 2012 4th and 3rd

2013 5th and 4th

Back to School 2013

It was a fabulous morning.  Bacon, hash brown, eggs.  Lots of diet coke for me :)  

Kids are off to school.  We have loved every minute of our summer, but they were so excited to see all their friends from school.  Life is good!

Random PIctures

Well folks, my poor phone has run out of room, so I am in the process of transferring all the pictures and video to my computer.  Yes, I just did this like 2 months ago.  It is a pain in the butt!  So, I have lots of stuff to blog, but here is a random sampling of what is to come.

(Plus, I still haven't blogged about our St. George trip.  I promise I will get to that because I have some adorable pictures you have to see)

Top picture:  My two kitchen helpers.  G loves to help cook and he is really good at it.  Cameron could care less about cooking or helping in the kitchen, but he is all about doing whatever big brother is doing.

My sweet baby Cam.  He never falls asleep anywhere other than his bed, but this day we were so busy that he didn't have any nap at all and he crashed in my arms during Sunny's dance class.  I loved holding him and snuggling him.  He is such a big kid, which is fun, but I sure do miss baby Cam.

We had dinner with Katie a couple weeks ago.  She is getting ready to head back to Florida for the summer and then she is off to serve a mission in California.  We had a wonderful time.  She has grown up to be such a lovely young women.  We love her lots!

This kid had a birthday and turned 4.  Lots of pictures of that coming.  I also need to find a night to go take some official 4 year old pictures of him

Trip to the aquarium with Mimi.

Griffin's first attempt at writing his name.  I feel like I really should have let him try it sooner, but I forgot...whoops.  Anyway, he will get lots of practice in preschool this year and next year and I know he will love it.