The braces are on...

Sierra got her braces on today. She was so nervous but so excited! She chose pink and green for her rubberband colors. They took out her palate expander. She looks so cute!!! She said "it didn't hurt when they put on the braces just when they put on the wire and it hurt really bad when they took out the expander." Dr. Pair is so sweet, he gave her a hug and told her she did such a great job, she is such a great patient and he gave her Iggy.

Sierra and Dr. Pair

I don't know her name, I want to say Rebecca but she assisted Dr. Pair today and she was so sweet with Sierra too. She told me Sierra has happy feet. She was moving her feet alot. I laughed and said she's had happy feet since she was a baby. :)

and...it is this young lady's Birthday today!!!

Happy Birthday, Janelle!!! And many more! You are a great mom, grandma and friend! You are so wonderful, we love you dearly!!!

First Day of School!

Today was Sierra's First Day of School, 3rd Grade!

Isn't she so cute and yes that cute bag is her lunch box!
We got there and the teacher had them immediately start trying to connect a series of 9 dots with out lifting their pencil. Sierra got right to work. I was standing by her not sure if she was ready for me to leave and whe turned to me and said "mom you can go." Wow, huge for her, okay, here I go! :)
Ashton on the other hand, I took him to preschool and he would not let me go. Crying and he had a death grip on my sweatpants. Ms. Jan helped me she grabbed him and was holding him and being very sweet, "let's wave to mommy, she'll blow you kisses." I did wave and blew my son kisses as he stood at the window waving and crying. I stepped off the sidewalk today and cried. So hard when they are holding on so tight and crying...I was now by myself and my emotions came over me. I kept busy and before I knew it it was time to get him, he had a great day-fun as usual!
I was excited to hear about Sierra's day when I went to get her. She said her day was great, so much fun. She loves her new school and she said she made a new friend named Brittany. We were asking her tons of questions, where she ate lunch, what she did at recess? She said they put a box of toys and games out in the parking lot in the back that the kids played with (she said the puddle jumpers were fun) and at lunch she ate in the cafeteria, they had tables to sit at. She sat with Morgan S., Carlie G., Kaitlin G. They played a lot of Getting To Know You games in her classroom and she is learning how to say the alphabet backwards.
After school we went to say goodbye to the Daniel's. They are moving to Colorado tomorrow. Kerry called me last night to tell me they were moving and asked if we could come over because Gracie wanted to say goodbye to her best friend in the whole world. We put a photo book together for them with pictures of when we babysat them and Sierra and Ashton both wrote notes to Gracie and Ava. We took Gracie home with us so she and Sierra could play one last time and she had dinner with us and then we took her home. Sierra kept telling Gracie that she will miss her so much and Gracie was doing the same. Ashton told her that he will miss her too and that he loves her! :) So sweet! We are excited for the Daniel family. They have all of their family in Colorado and have wanted to move back for a while. We wish them the best of everything!!!

Our official last day of summer...

It has come, our last day of summer! :( Sierra was supposed to start school today but her school had it's building inspection last week and they had to move all the doors out 3 feet so they needed to postpone school one day. I woke up this morning feeling like we needed to do something fun. We called Sierra's friend Morgan who will be attending school with her and we took her to our pool and swam and then came back to our house to play. Lincoln and Rocky came over too! Ashton went to Lombardi's with Sophi and brought home a plum for Sierra and 4 ears of corn, so NICE!!! Morgan went home and me and Sierra ordered Coraline from On Demand and watched it until she had to go to her piano lesson. After piano we got Daddy and went to the school to meet Sierra's new teacher, Ms. Jennifer, and see her classroom and the rest of the school and they fed us dinner, mac and cheese, chow main, pizza bagels, smoothies. Her new school is awesome!!! It even has an elevator! :) Her teacher was so nice! Sierra said she was so nervous before we went tonight and now she is just so excited! Daddy gave her a Father's Blessing, Sierra reminded him yesterday and again today. She was making sure she was getting it! :) Sierra is so excited, when I put her to bed she said "I don't think I can sleep, I feel like it's Christmas or my birthday, I can't wait until morning!" :) Overall, it was a good last day!

Contention!

Today was a great Labor Day! Not to much Laboring was going on! :) We went to the Ward Pancake breakfast at the park and Ashton was in the swing for a long time, he still loves the swing! Sierra was off with some friends. Then my kids were playing so nicely together in the sand making a sand snowman. Went and got In 'N Out for lunch but ate at home. Kids played and watched a movie, we read, took little naps and Jake watched some baseball. For dinner we went to Jake's parents house for a BBQ and enjoyed the company of several friends from the Ward (Greers, Teresa J., Dalton's and Kevin and Emily and their kids, CT), Aunt Leanne and Marne, Travis and Miriam.

Tonight we had a conversation with the kids about our cat...
Since we got the cat there has been a lot of contention in our home. The kids fighting over who gets to hold the cat. The cat crying because Ashton is pulling her tail or flinging her around or squeezing her. Then us yelling at Ashton to put the cat down. HORRIBLE STUFF!!! Our kids are on probation, no more fighting, no more torturing, NO MORE! Or the cat has to go which will make even me really sad because I love her, she has been a nice addition to our family but I cannot handle the yelling and fighting anymore. :( We'll see how we do... I love my kids tremendously but this is such a peaceful time of day...

What's New?

This last Thursday was Sierra's first Gymnastic's class, Cheer Tumbling. She loved it, she had so much fun and said to me, "I don't want to leave!" She did backward and forward somersaults on the cheese, cartwheels, she jumped across the giant trampoline and she jumped in the pit. Ashton loved watching her from the viewing room and he would say to me "I want to do that!" I tried taking a picture of her during her class but there is glass and when I took the picture all I got is white...so this is what I got of her walking out to us...

And Football Season has officially begun...My husband LOVES FOOTBALL!!! Specifically College Football, USC FOOTBALL, he is a huge and loyal fan! Last night we went to Shane's first football game and watched Hart win 39-0. Jake stayed for the Varsity game because...he loves football! Sierra stayed with him because she was having so much fun going on the field with Grampy during half time, talking to the cheerleaders and playing and hanging with Brynn A. Ashton had enough and we headed home to eat bean burritos and watch Speed Racer.

Yes, today consisted of Football...

and more Football...

He is a good man, he did all the yard work this morning!!! :)

I took Ashton for a haircut, and he had a new guy cut his hair and Ashton was being very timid, he acted like he didn't want to get in his chair, but he did. This guy had tattoos covering his arms and on his chest. He was a big guy and he would call Ashton "Bro and Dog." Get the picture? I asked Ashton when he was done what he thought of that guy and Ashton said "good, he looked like a Halloween guy!" and then the kids and I went swimming.

Jordan David Brixey

Remember him...this is Baby Blake that we babysit and

now he has a new baby brother that we met this morning for the first time!

Jordan was born August 18, 2009
We all enjoyed holding him and kissing him...the first thing Ashton said was "mom his fingers are so tiny!"

Ashton's First Day of Preschool!

Today was Ashton's First Day of Primetime Preschool with Ms. Jan. When we got there he started clinging to me when we were walking in and he said he's scared. I told him it is okay to be scared because it is new but he will have so much fun!!! When we got in the classroom he stuck by my side but was not clinging and was not crying. We found his name tag and put it on, he liked that, and then we found where his lunch box goes and put it away. I asked him what he wants to do, there were so many choices, he sat and decorated his name sign and I stayed with him and then I said what do you want to do next and he said "I need to decide, there are so many things." He decided to sit and play with the dinosaurs. I sat with him for a minute and then I told him that I was going to go, he said "I don't want you to leave." I told him that I will be back soon and he will have so much fun, "give me a kiss." He gave me a kiss and then I walked away and when I looked back he looked a little nervous but he never cried or ran for me. I cried the moment I left the sidewalk all the way home and then some more at home. I told Jake that "he just didn't know anyone maybe I should have stayed longer." Jake said "he'll be okay." I thought about him the whole time he was at school and I was so excited when it was time to go pick him up. So hard for me, these first days of school. I don't think they ever get easier. I feel a sense of strings are being cut and they are going out into the big scary world. Mom was a mess, but Ashton did great his first day! He said he had fun, he didn't get to play outside because of the smoke, he watched a short movie about a turtle. He said that for snack a girl next to him had square cheese and circle meat and she put it all together like a crabby patty, I asked him if that looked yummy and he said no it looked gross! He said the kids were nice but didn't really play with him. :) Overall, I think he had a great start!