August and September 2010

After a extremely busy July it was nice to have a relaxing August. Then School started up again and we are super busy again! It’s all good though!!!

The highlight of August was Susie coming home from her summer in Utah!!! She had a wonderful time with family and friends out there but we missed her terribly! I think it was the toughest for Katie, ok well maybe she was the most vocal about it. Susie made her a doll before she left so she could sleep with it and whenever she was sad and missing Susie she could hold her doll. It was very sweet of Susie. Well Katie literally packed that doll everywhere for the 6 weeks Susie was gone! Couldn’t find it a couple of times at bedtime and it was trauma! Katie really really missed Susie. Becca missed her too. Alot. Becca had been counting down the days to “graduate” from primary when she turned 12. Well then Susie left soon after and Becca decided that Young Women’s isn’t nearly as fun with Susie gone…poor kid was counting down the days until YW then had to start counting down the days until her friend Brooke turned 12 and could join YW too. It was a long month for Becca. And Xander… every night as he said his prayer he would pray that Susie’s plane wouldn’t crash on the way home!!!

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And the low of August was our neighbors and good friends moving away. Our kids have spent the last 3 years playing with the Andrews on a almost daily basis! So we had lots of sad tears as we sent them off on their new adventures in Louisiana…we wish them well and miss them lots! We have many many fun memories with them…This is the hardest part of living in a military town. The longest these families stay in one area is usually 3 years so friends come and go and it’s hard to see them go…

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Becca actually started school (7th grade) on July 14, the day our Freston family flew home from their visit here! She had mixed feelings about starting already but she did good being the only one in school…we are doing the year round schedule for Becca and the traditional calendar for Susie, Katie and Xander this school year. So Becca started early, Susie went to Utah with our family, Katie and Xander hung out together for the month of August! School for them started on the 25th of August. It was an exciting day for Susie, her first day in High School and an exciting day for Xander, his first day of Kindergarten…I had rather mixed feelings of having my oldest start HS and my youngest start K. We are officially in the next “phase” of life! Katie (now in 4th grade) had a first too, her first day at the new Elementary school we switched her to. She was very nervous and not very happy about the switch but she came home very happy and loving it! This new school has a fun tradition that the kids are met on the first day of school by teachers in tuxes and the principal in a fancy dress and they roll out the “red carpet” for the kids to walk into the school. It was very fun!!! We of course had to do our traditional cookies and milk when they all got home! We invited our friends the Escobar’s to join us!

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Susie made the color guard team for Havelock High School. They started practicing at the end of last school year and they had lots of practice time and activities all summer long. Well since Susie was in Utah for 6 weeks she missed alot. When she got back she worked really hard to get caught up and is almost there. She was able to perform part of the routine at their first football game, she snuck in on the last movement. She was super nervous when I dropped her off but afterwards she said it was awesome, she wasn’t scared at all! Way to go Susie…it was fun watching her but seriously they need some major help with their outfits!!!! They are awful, not even school colors and what is up with the socks! I can’t believe we actually paid money for it!!! They should pay HER to wear it!!! (btw I wouldn’t be saying this here if Susie didn’t agree with me 100%!) High School has been quite an adjustment for Susie. She is absolutely exhausted! Her day starts at 5:15 and she is off to early morning seminary at 6:15, school is out at 3 and then MTH she has Color Guard practice, W she has YW, then Friday night a performance at a football game and then a competition that takes up most of Saturday. Each night she is averaging 5 hours of homework so she doesn’t get to bed until midnight or sometimes later. It’s CRAZY!

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Becca continues to do great in school, gets her work done quickly and rarely has homework. She decided to try out for the volleyball team, thanks to her cousin Jaicee who plays and while visiting us in July got Becca interested in it. (Of course I have suggested it several times but NOOOO mom’s are clueless don’t you know!!!) She LOVED it! They have a strange program here though, really stinks actually. They cut the season in half and doubled up the games so they play each school twice but it’s all in one night. So their season was a total of 5 weeks! Seriously…it’s all about money, or lack of. She got to play quite a bit and did really great. Becca has really matured physically, she is almost as tall as me and has a beautiful girly figure now. A few months back she had to get glasses and they are so adorable, she wasn’t too happy about it but she only has to wear them to see the board at school or watching TV.  After the Dr. told her she would need them she said “Great… glasses now and next braces, I am going to be such a nerd!” She is scheduled to have her braces on in December. Becca is on her 3 week break right now, we’ve had fun hanging out together, she is such a fun kid. She has LOVED rubbing it in her siblings faces that she gets to stay up late and sleep in while they have to go to school. When I picked her up on her last day before break she was absolutely giddy…I told her this is the most excited she has ever been to start break. She told me “Of course I am excited…I get to sleep in, have the computer to myself, the TV to myself and no bratty kids around to irritate me!” Does she sound like a teenager or what!

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Katie had kind of a rough summer. She really struggled with Susie being gone, with her best friend Sophie moving, fighting a lot with Xander, anxiety about starting a new school again. But once Susie got home and school started up she cheered right up. She loves school and does really well. We always get great comments from her teachers about how they really enjoy her. Her new teacher Ms. McNay is perfect for Katie. She does these “brain breaks” during the day and has taught the kids some dances and songs, some are line dances. Anyway Katie loves it of course, this is Katie who sings ALL the time!!! I was volunteering one day when they had a brain break and it was so cute all the kids singing and dancing together. She came home a week or so ago just bustin’ at the seams! She had made the Singing Gators group at school, it’s like honor choir. She was beyond excited!!! Katie also had a fun Activity Days night. They had a modesty fashion show. All the girls were silly about it, a bit embarrassed walking the runway to model their clothes. Not Katie, she was swinging her hips and striking a pose at each stop like she had been modeling for years! Then her 2nd time through we all just cracked up, she came waltzing out in her nice dress bouncing a basketball! Only Katie could pull something like that off! What a character!  There are a few random pics of Katie being a Karate Kid and another of her playing Daddy dress up, and of her just being silly Katie!

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Xander has been so excited for Kindergarten to start. It was a long month of August waiting for the 25th to roll around. He marked off the days on the calendar for both school and Susie coming home. School has been so good for him. The last few months he has really struggled with his attention span, or lack of it. He just can’t stay focused, school is helping. He has loved meeting new friends and his favorite part of the day is centers time. I love volunteering in his classroom and having him run and give me hugs. I miss him at home. They talked about and read chicka chicka boom boom and made their own CCBB tree out of food. For family home evening that night he gave us a detailed description of how to make our own CCBB treat and helped us each make one. He REALLY likes to be in charge! He was also super excited to go to the book fair because he could dress up as a super hero! He is too cute! He has also discovered that he likes to color. It has been very surprising, he has never shown much interest in coloring or art, only if someone is doing it with him and even that was iffy. But suddenly he is a pro. telling us how to do it, what colors to choose, making sure we stay in the lines, describing what color his friends were wearing at school, who was the model for the day. Each day they all draw one friend, who gets to take home a book that day of all the portraits of them. He is doing much better writing too. But even with all this school stuff his favorite thing to do is still using his imagination! I did have to take a picture of him one day because he had actually gotten out all of his cars and lined them up and was playing with them. It was literally the first time ever that he has done that. He has played with cars here and there if it is with a friend but never by himself, it’s just never interested him much. I was shocked and had to take a picture of it! Xander and his Daddy have really bonded lately. They have so much fun together…being guys! They went fishing and they love to joke about ‘bro’s before doe’s’ and all the bodily functions that boys and men seem to think are hilarious!!! He sure loves his Daddy!

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Jason has been super busy. He is doing great at work, he’s on several projects. He has traveled a bit over the last few months… Texas, Virginia, San Diego and Arizona. In Arizona he had the great luck of being there the same time his brother Kevin was there on vacation so he got to meet up with Kevin and Shelly and have dinner with them! He was thrilled to see them again. With us on one coast and them on the other we don’t get to see each other very often. Being the Bishop has been good for him also, at least most of the time. I guess I should ask him but from my perspective it has been neat watching him through this process of stepping into such a huge calling and responsibility. It hasn’t been easy, he has had tough stuff happen and I have found myself on several occasions crying as I am on my morning run because I feel so overwhelmed for him. He is handling everything so well though and has helped so many people it is just amazing to me. I still can’t call him Bishop yet, it’s too weird…

I have been busy trying to build my photography business. I am enjoying it so much. Probably too much 🙂 I’ve been able to do so many different sessions (newborn, maternity, engagement, families, kiddos, military…)and with each one I am learning more and more. Check out my website for all my latest work…www.familyphotosbyjamie.com. I am also enjoying a quiet house during the day. Enjoying my solitude before they all come home and it’s rush rush from one thing to the next.

We ended the month very WET!!! It started raining last Sunday and rained nearly nonstop until Friday. They released school early on Wed. and canceled school on both Thurs. and Fri. due to flooding. We had our usual ‘Swan Lake’ in our front yard that we always get when it rains but the ‘river’ rushing into the back forest behind our house was pretty impressive. So add on Conference this weekend and we have had a 5 day weekend!!!

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