Back to School

Another school year begins today and we have three little ones enrolled this year, plus Kooper who is now a sophomore. We enjoyed a relaxed and wonderful summer together and I was sad to send them off this morning. Everyone seemed quite well-prepared and ready for another year. Yesterday we practiced everything from waking up and morning chores to introducing themselves to new friends in class. New schedules and routines ahead will keep us ever-busy and ever-learning how to adapt to it all. How fun to see them all growing up!

Family Trip

We recently ventured to San Antonio, TX (about 3 hours away, which is about as feasibly far as we can get right now) with the entire family (yes, all 8 of us!). What a fun time it was - surprisingly so! We enjoyed a beautiful hotel right on the Riverwalk, visited the Alamo, and had a wonderful raw food dinner at green in downtown San Antonio. Talk about healthy and fun!! Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Here's James lounging poolside:

At the San Antonio temple...

Handsome Kooper on the Riverwalk:

We had the entire pool all to ourselves!

An incredible feast of antioxidants and nutrients at green...

Couldn't miss the Alamo...

Here we are on the Riverwalk before dinner:

A perfect vacation choice for us this year. Even Kooper enjoyed himself. He was a trooper with so many little ones! We will be back again I'm sure...

Madeline is 5!!

We celebrated Madeline's birthday this weekend with a small celebration at the splash pad! Madeline is a smart and spunky little lady and is excited to begin Kindergarten soon. We love you Maddie Kate!!

The 5 Cuties...

Back to the computer...

After almost two months without a functioning computer, we are finally back online! It was a lovely hiatus actually - quite relaxing to not be typing or looking something up on the computer every day. I am grateful though for a husband who knows how to fix these things and figured out what ailed our machine.

More posts to come soon... Happy summer!!

Happy Birthday Brendan!

My sweet Brendan is nine today! What a handsome and intelligent young man he has become... I feel so privileged to be his mother.

Brendan still loves legos and reading, as always. He has devoured nearly every book in our house and we thought it best to purchase lots of new reading material for birthday gifts this year. He opened a brand new book this morning at breakfast and was so excited that he started reading it immediately and then packed it in his bag for school.

Brendan is also excited to be part of the scouting program - now he'll be a Bear scout! He's not so excited about piano, but faithfully practices and attends lessons each week with a wonderful local teacher. Great work Big B!

We love you!!

Pole Vaulter

We recently attended Kooper's first home meet as a pole vaulter! We were very proud of him and he worked hard this season. At the home meet he cleared the beginning standard height of 8 feet after only a few weeks of practice. He loves the sport and is looking forward to working toward clearing higher heights in the future. Way to go Koop!