Back to School

Summer flew by and and now we are back to the daily grind.  I think we could've used one more week of summer vacation but oh well.  The kids are all doing great in spite of feeling like summer barely happened.

Henry is in 2nd grade and I'm quite proud of the fact that he didn't wear a single new thing to school on the first day--old shoes, old backpack, old hoodie.  

Henry made sure I didn't forget to make rainbow pancakes for our 1st day of school tradition.

Henry is my only bus rider and boy was he getting nervous as we waited for the bus.  The first day jitters were real.  But he did great and has a couple friends in his class.

Parker is in 7th grade and super excited to finally have a phone that has a whole lot of restrictions on it.

He bikes to school unless it rains and I'm loving the no-carpool life!

Landon is a sophomore with a drivers license.  Hooray!

Landon drives the van to school/early morning seminary.  It's almost got 200,000 miles on it and is leaking oil but still runs so hooray for that!

And three cheers for Landon for getting up at 5:35am to go to early morning seminary by himself.  Randy isn't teaching anymore so Landon being the capable boy that he is, gets up and out the door while we sleep.  It's amazing!  And what's more amazing is how quiet he is.  I almost never hear him.

The college boys are both doing amazing things their sophomore year.  Ethan (Utah State) is leaning towards dental school and works as a dental assistant.  Marcus (BYU) is leaning towards law school but still has business strategy on his mind.  He's grinding at lacrosse and seeing what a difference getting to bed on time makes for those 5am practices.  I love that both boys call me frequently.  It's so fun to hear about their lives, even though they aren't having nearly as much fun in college as I think I had! :)

Ethan is a Senior

Ethan had his first day of senior year yesterday and I didn't even remember to take his picture until he got back from class!  In my defense, he's doing all his classes through Bellevue College so he doesn't have to set foot at Skyline, and that's fine with him!  He's taking lots of classes, raising his GPA, and working at Jersey Mikes.  Ethan has discovered the most delicious sandwich recipe ever.  It involves steak, cheese, bacon, special sauce, and lots of peppers with a toasted bun.  It's delicious!  When he isn't working or at school, he's mountain biking.  Ethan even convinced us to let him go to Canada with his friends for some epic mountain biking this past summer.  He loved it!  This boy is an adrenaline junky and loves to catch air, do tricks, and defy the laws of gravity.

I had to include his first day of kindergarten pictures because he was just so cute.  Time flies, but I'm getting used to it.  I sure do miss the good old days when my boys let me dress them in something other than Nike and they never left the house without their hair combed.  Oh well. 

First Day of School

School started and summer died.

We are not off to a great start.  That excitement that's supposed to come with the first day of school, especially when it's the first day of a normal year post-pandemic, was definitely missing.  It felt like we were already back to the daily grind.  I blame our extremely short summer for this.  We need to be sick of summer and ready to start school.  But we are not.  

Landon started 7th grade, had friends in every class, and had no problems opening his locker or trading his granola bar for something bigger and better at lunch.

Parker started 4th grade and didn't have much to say about it.  He's so easy going until I make him practice the piano.  Then the demon is unleashed.

Ethan is taking classing at Bellevue Community College this year and it doesn't start for a few weeks and Henry starts preschool next week.  

Goodbye summer 2022!  We miss you!

First Day of School 2021

Hallelujah! It finally happened!  The boys went to school, all day, and in person. It almost felt too good to be true and you better believe I nervously attended the latest school board meeting to confirm that the kids were really going back in spite of the latest rising Covid numbers. But they went and weren’t even phased by wearing masks, except for Marcus. We dusted off their backpacks, washed out their lunchboxes from days long past, and away they went! I was amazed at how quickly the old routines fell into place like scrambling to catch the bus even though there was plenty of time to be ready.

Marcus is a Senior!  He is counting down the days until he's done at Skyline and is only taking the bare minimum to graduate.  He gets out of school early so he can work as an intern at a physical therapy office.  And how cute is that picture of his first day of kindergarten?  It was even in Farmington, where he wishes he lived now.  Oh, the irony! We are still waiting on the results to come back from his MRI but he's so used to limping around we've forgotten what it's like to have a normal ankle.  And his heel is numb but the wound healed up fine.

Landon started middle school!  He was so excited because our middle school is awesome and Landon makes friends easily.  He was the only kid at our bus stop waiting and waiting for the bus that never came.  I went down to check on him as he stood there all lonely and then a coyote ran by.  We quickly ditched the bus stop and I drove him to school.  He is loving it and always gives me a full report of what he ate for lunch.  Today it was a cheeseburger and only 7 fries and no fry sauce.  LOL

Ethan is growing up!  He's a sophomore this year but last year was so weird he still kinda feels like a freshman.  He's taking Drivers Ed after school (online), works at Dairy Queen, and spends most of his time with his friends or wishing he could be with his friends.  He's almost as tall as me but he's still growing so it's only a matter of time.  

Parker is in third grade and all alone in elementary school until Henry joins him in a couple years.  He has another amazing teacher which means he's had two years of excellent teachers so this boy better go to Harvard.  This year he's in the portables but he sits on yoga balls instead of chairs (#awesometeacher) and wearing a mask is no big deal because he gets to play wherever he wants at recess instead of being stuck with his "pod" like last year.

Henry started preschool! HALLELUJAH!  

 I can't overstate the joy this brings me.  He only goes three mornings a week but already I feel like I have a new lease on life.  The house gets clean and stays clean, I run errands like a boss, and I wish I wasn't so cheap because I really should fork over the $600/month to have him go five days a week.

He is the cutest!  Which is why he gets two pics.  He's our tiniest boy so far but his big personality makes up for it. And yes, he picked out his clothes, even his underwear.

*This First Day of School is brought to you by NIKE, the only shoes my boys will wear, along with their Nike shirts and hoodies.  It's ridiculous.  But it sure makes shopping easy!