Birthday Parties and First Grade!

The First Day of First Grade!

The dreaded day finally arrived. Chico had not been looking forward to it all summer. But the day arrived and he actually seemed kinda excited the morning of. A little nervous, but excited still. 

It's funny to think back to the first day of school last year. Sanna was a week old in her car seat in the picture. She's so big now!

Thought I'd be like all the cool kids and have him hold up 1 for first grade.

 When he put on his pants that morning (for the first time) I said, "Woah!" (cuz he looked so grown up) and he got a big smile on his face and said, "Do I look like Brent?"  He felt so proud of himself, it was so funny.

We actually got ready a little early so we had time to take a few more photos around the yard.

And since we were ready so early we also had time to get a little messy. :)

We had two different birthday parties this week, one was combined with the Hatch side, then later we had a combined party for all the August Birthdays on my side of the Family.

So here is Sanna getting sung to...

Getting a little help with her candle...

Her own little miniature cake... she wouldn't eat it with her hands so we gave her a fork...

I took away the fork, she wasn't too happy about that, but then she cheered up and ate some more.

" Okay, I'm done. Where do I put my plate?"

She loves this piano from Grandma but she thinks it's hilarious to stand on the keys. Crazy woman.

Opening the rest of her presents...

I am in love with these next two pics...

 Sanna got this pillow rhino but boy oh boy Griz just loves it and has claimed it as his own.  Good thing Sanna is good at sharing. :)

Speaking of sharing, luckily her cousin didn't mind sharing his new ball with her for a bit.  She just LOVED it!

"Hip Hip Hooray it's my Birthday!" (that's what her shirt says)

When I made her other tiny cake I made this one at the same time and saved it for this party.  Unfortunately she wasn't feeling great and didn't feel like eating very much.

This next picture shows how much Chico and Sanna look alike I think:

Chico was really wanting in on some of that action, I love the look on her face.

I had put a big chunk of cake in her hand trying to get her to be okay with eating it and this is her dropping it, the look on her face just says, "Mom, I just don't want it right now"

So we let the boys have at it. They were more than willing.  Griz thought the term cake smash meant you actually smash the cake up and he didn't eat any.

 Chico never got to do a cake smash as a baby so this was his moment. :)

From the Phone:

Once nice thing about this last week was the cooler temperatures (so unusual for this time of year).  We played at the park almost every day.  I happened to take a few at this park that the kids love with the dinos.

They especially love the dino with only two springs. It's a much more exciting ride!

Later that day we (and half the Wasatch Front) went to the Ogden Temple Open House. The line was so long and the kids were so grumpy by the time we got into the temple that they were whining throughout most of the tour. But as we walked into the celestial room with all three of our children I was reminded of my temple covenants, reminded of the day I received my endowment with Brent there, reminded of how grateful I am for my children, my posterity.  I felt such a desire to return there with them someday when they are all older and felt a renewed desire to be a better parent so that I can help them make it there.  All of those feelings made the long line worth it.  I'm grateful we could take them there.

We were playing at the playground after school one day and Sanna really wanted to wear Chico's backpack. She just likes being one of the big kids!

My Birthday...

I decided we should do something a little adventurous for my birthday.  I wasn't sure I could get Brent to agree to do it with me on any random day (he claims he's not a swimmer) but since it was my birthday he had no choice.  :) We did a Sprint Triathlon, we don't like to pay race fees so it was just the two of us on our own at the rec center. We did it backwards, ran 3 miles first, then biked 12, then swam 350 yards.  It was fun having someone to do it with and I think I might have a new swimming buddy finally because he liked it better than he thought he would. Yay! :)

 We were starved after that tough work out and went and each had a pizza at Settebellos.  Yum!

 After we picked up the kids from my parents we took them home and they decorated the house for my birthday and we had brownies with ice cream and watched America's Funniest Home Videos on netflix.  It was such a fun birthday! Oh and that morning we had a neighborhood party, the neighbors had a bouncey house and made an amazing breakfast.  It was really a lot of fun, the kids were so cute, they thought the party was for me. :)