KINDERGARTEN

Today was Samantha's first day of Kindergarten. I can hardly believe my little girl is already old enough to go to school, or that I am old enough to have a child going to school. It is weird, but such an exciting time! She has been excited for school for such a long time. She's been talkin about it, and asking how many days til she starts. We went and met her teacher, Ms Moon, last week. I think she is really going to like her teacher.

2 Sundays ago she asked Ben about giving her a blessing before she started school. She kept telling him "don't forget to give me a blessing!" I never really talked to her about father's school blessings and neither did Ben, so I'm not quite sure where she heard about it, but I love that she asked him. So last night after we got Mason in bed, we sat down in the living room and talked to her about blessings. Then we told her she needed to be really reverent while daddy gave her the blessing. She was so quiet, I couldnb't believe it. It seriously made my little heart go soft to see my little girl asking her dad for a blessing. I loved it. Then after Ben was done, she went over and gave Ben a hug and kiss and she said "I will remember this always!" She is one really special girl. She will do great things in her life!!!!

This morning after we got home from the gym, at 10:30, Sam and Mason wanted me to make them their usual lunch of turkey boats. (turkey sandwich minus the bread, they love them and ask for them all the time) I kept trying to tell Sam that it wasn't quite time to have lunch but we would in just a bit. So when it was finally time, she wanted to go straight to the bus stop after she was done eating. I told her we had to wait until the clock said 12:20. So my cute little girl goes and gets a chair and sits right infront of the clock watching for the clock to turn.

It was finally time to walk down to the bus stop. We walked down and I watched her get on the bus. Mason was a little worried that Sam was going so far away, and right when she pulled away on the bus he said " I miss Sam!" We walked down to pick her up after school and she jumped off the bus and looked so darn happy. She kept asking me "do I get to go to school everyday?!" I love that she is so excited about it. She will be such a great student, and I hope that she will always be excited about learning! I love her so much and am excited about this new chapter in our lives!

SUMMER WIND DOWN

We have had such a fun summer and I can't believe it is basically over. Lots of fun things have been happening. We spent quite a bit of time at Bear Lake! My kids couldn't get enough of it. We would go up without Ben (he would meet us up there after work) and sometimes we would even stay longer without him. Samantha had lots of little cousins to play with, Mason just hung around with Mom, Dad and Aunt Anna (when she was there, he is quite taken with her!), and Lu just did whatever. We took a few day trips to Lagoon. Sam got used to the rides after a while, but Mason just loved them no matter what. We worked in our yard a ton! We got quite a bit done, but still have quite a bit to do. Maybe by next summer we will be able to enjoy it. Ben is so great though, he works hard all day and then comes home and works hard in the yard. He never complains about any of it, just does it. And my dad has been such a lifesaver. He has spent a lot of time over with us, helping us dig (with his backho), giving us advice and just checking in on us. My kids just love it when Grandpa comes over. I personally think it gives my dad a good excuse to come and play in his BIG TOY!!!

Even though summer was so fun, I'm kinda ready for the cooler weather to come. Not the snow, but the sweatshirt, jeans and cute boots weather.

Here Ben and I are at Rich and Kate's wedding reception

Happy Birthday Heather!!! I love my sister Heather so much. She lives out in Ohio so we don't see eachother much, but I went out to visit her this summer (you probably saw the mile long post about it!). Even though we don't see eachother, we talk on the phone multiple times a week. She is so talented and such a great mother. She just handles it like a pro. I love calling and asking her advice and I love it when she does the same with me. Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Tiffy! I don't really know if she likes it when I call her that, but sometimes it just comes out and I think it is cute. Tiffany is one of the cutest and funnest girls I have ever met, and I am so lucky to have her as my sister in law and good friend. I LOVE this girl! We've been blessed to have little babies around the same time, and it has been so much fun to share that with her. She is the kind of person that is always up for anything. We had a blast running a 1/2 marathon earlier this year together! It was so much fun. She and her little family have been through some rough times, but she has handled it amazingly. She is a great mother, and my kids just love her. I love her so much and hope she knows how much she means to me. Happy Birthday Tif, love you!!!

Here are some of the sister in laws at a wedding reception

Good bye Bobby, Sara and Duncan. We are sad to see you go, but I know you are in for a great adventure. Bobby and Sara moved to Pitsburg for school. We had one last adult dinner. It was fun to be able to hang out and chat and not be interupted by little chilins.

At our last 4th sunday dinner at my mom's house Sam, Bridger and Stillman had a blast jumping on the tramp in the rain. Grandma had some extra clothes for them to put on and they just went to town. I remember jumping on the tramp in the rain when I was little. I loved it!

Lu and Rebekah at the family dinner. Doesn't Rebekah just look beautiful!

Yep, that's my sister!!!

Bear Lake buddies

I took the kids to Lagoon for one last summer outing with Emily, Stillman, Bridger, Rebekah, Jessica and Spencer. We spent some time at Lagoona Beach and then hit up the rides. After Lagoona Beach, and a few rides Mason was ready to go home. He gets so funny when he is away from home. As soon as he gets somewhere he wants to go back home. He always says that he misses Molly or just needs to be at his house. Such a home body, just like his mom was and is. Samantha had fun staying longer with her aunts and cousins.

We have spent alot of time in my parents backyard this summer. It is one of my favorite places to hang out. They have this covered patio that is just pleasant all the time, rain or shine. So we go there and sit under the shade and let the kids go crazy playing in the yard. I got this cute picture of Grandpa and Charly and Luella.

We've had some fun game nights in the Rich's backyard. Jim sets up the badmitten, bean bag toss and usually the boys play and the girls sit on the blanket and watch. Every once in a while the girls will get a turn to show the boys how good we are.

We seriously had a full summer and tons of fun. I'm sad to see summer go, but I'm glad for the change of season and what fall brings. It was a great summer!!!

OHIO BABY!!!

This post is so late, but I guess better late than never. So my family planned a trip to Ohio to visit Heather and Joe and the kids (especially since Heather just had her 3rd and they were going to be blessing cute little Jonathon). Ben decided that it would be easiest if just I go with the 2 girls, and he stay here with Mason. So I headed out to Ohio with my girls. We left on Sam's birthday and she was so excited about it. She loved the plane rides and didn't mind the 5 hour layover in Chicago. She was thrilled about the whole day. I got her a new backpack and filled it with some great things to keep her busy on the plane and in the airport. She LOVED her leapster. It was so cute. Doesn't she just look so cute and grown up!!!

Finally in Ohio!!!

Samantha and Martha had so much fun together! Even though they had their frenemies moments, they just loved eachother.

Meet Jonathon Taylor Chrisman. Isn't he so cute?!

Heather was so sweet and made Sam a birthday cake. We celebrated all together the day after her birthday.

There are our little salt and pepper babies.

Look at that happy girl getting ready to make her birthday wish and blow out her candles.

Sidney County Fair

We went to the county fair and it was such a blast. It was really hot, but that didn't seem to bother anyone. We had fun going and seeing all the animals, milking a cow, petting an alpaca, and just hanging out together. You never know what might come of all of us siblings getting together. See Luella's head piece, this is something the aunts rigged up.

Samantha looks like such a big girl in there petting the alpaca. She really has grown up so much.

I forgot to mention that the second night at Heather's Hilary decided that she wanted her hair braided, her whole head braided. She decided this at 7 pm and we didn't finish until close to 3 am. Jessica, Hilary and I had fun staying up and laughing about everything. Apparently everything is alot funnier at 3 am.

These 3 girls had so much fun hanging out for a whole week.

This little girl looks exactly like Heather did when she was younger.

We went to Walmart for a quick something and when we put Lu in the cart she held on for dear life. Look at the grip she has on those straps.

Grandma B and Rebecca giving Jonathon a little bath.

Luella was and still is my little buddy. She just keeps pretty close to my side, all day long. I just love this little girl.

My little Lu had a really hard time going to sleep, which is not normal at all. So we tried all sorts of things to get her tired. Rocking her, just letting her stay up, and taking her out onto the front porch in the dark. Rebekah put some earphones on her and let her read her book. She was so cute in this tiny little chair, just her right size.

THE LAKE HOUSE

Someone in Heather's ward was so nice and let us go to her lake house for the day. We played games, read, swam, canoed, boated and just hung out. This was so funny, there was box that Velda (she owned the lake house) told the little girls had candy in it. So when they went to open it, a pretend mouse pops out. Samantha loved it but poor little Martha not so much.

These were some of Jonathon's first smiles!

RANDOM PICS AT THE CHRISMAN'S

JONATHON'S BABY BLESSING DAY

Heather had these cute matching dresses, so of course we put Sam and Martha in them.

Jonathon loves to be held, so we put him in the Moby. He loved it, and Heather was able to get stuff done while holding him.

SWIMMING AT JOE'S AUNTS HOUSE

ON OUR WAY HOME

We had to get up and on our way to the airport by 1:30 am. Since I drove and Jessica stayed up with me so we knew where we were going, Sam and Hilary got to sleep in the car.

Any chance Hilary got she would wear the moby and have Lu in it. Luella slept great in it.

Our way home was super crazy. We were supposed to go from Columbus to Chicago and then home (and make it to Salt Lake by 10:30 am) Our flight to Chicago got delayed and then we missed our flight in Chicago to Salt Lake. So we had to find another couple flights. I felt bad about bringing Luella with us on 2 more flights, and my parents and Mckay were flying into Chicago right before we were flying out; so Mckay booked it over to us before we got on and snagged Lu, a bottle and a diaper. My mom took Luella straight home to Salt Lake. Samantha was such a good sport about all the plane rides. She actually just loved it. She kept saying "when are we getting on our next plane?!" So, we finally got back to Salt Lake that night. It was such a fun trip! Fun for all of us to be together and to be able to go out and see Heather and Joe and their kids.

When I got home, my little Mace didn't feel good. Then the next morning right after breakfast he just went over to the couch and layed down and fell asleep. He is so cute! I missed him on our trip but he had so much fun with Dad, Honey and Aunt Anna ( who he just loves by the way!!!)

Thanks Ben, Honey and Anna for taking care of Mason so I could take the girls and go out to visit Heather. Ben is always doing things like that so I can go off and take trips with my family. I love him so much!!!