4th of July

Finally caught up with the blog. At least I’m in the right month now. 4th of July was a ton of fun. We spent Saturday just hanging out, and ran a few errands. I went on a fun bridal shoot with my sweet friend Erin. Then Erin and her sweetheart dropped me off at David and Celise’s house for the North Las Vegas fireworks. Such an amazing spot to watch! The kids had a blast running around the yards and going swimming. And yes, mommy and daddy got in too. Have to, Riley thinks he can swim, Emma’s afraid of the water, and Beka has NO FEAR! UGH! But it was so nice to get cooled off after stomping around at Corn Creek.

The fireworks were amazing as always. We brought the kids chairs, but they didn’t sit in them. As soon as the first firework went off both girls were clamoring into my lap. But then they were happy to watch the big booms overhead.

  I’m trying to be included in more pictures. Riley was off with the big kids this year. Made me a little sad to see him not wanting to hang out with us anymore. But I guess that what you call growing up. After the fireworks were over they kids got to play with sparklers.  And poor Riley grabbed the end of his and burned the first 3 fingers on both hands. Poor little dude. We didn’t even know he had done it until he started complaining about his fingers hurting. I asked him what why, and he finally confessed about grabbing the end and now his fingers hurt. We put his fingers into a cup of water, but he still blistered pretty good.

The final detail of the night I want to record was how well our little niece Faith did with the fireworks. This little girl has always struggled with the fireworks, she is just not a fan of bright lights and loud sounds. But this year she watched the display with no screaming and really seemed to enjoy them!

Yeah Faith!

Sunday was fun. It was great to sing some wonderful music and hear some good talks about our country.  I had super cute dresses for the girls. I got them about a month ago, and couldn’t help myself! They looked so cute, and I wanted to get a picture with the two of them together…. yeah that didn’t happen. Riley insisted on jumping in, which is fine. But… Well you’ll see:

Yeah, someone was feeling a little feisty! Poor Riley. And the only one that kind of sort of turned… Emma is all burly.

So after church we went to Mom and Dad’s for dinner. And I tried again… Same problem with Emma:

But we got a few cute ones of a sleep Beka. We had a bunch of late nights, and little to no naps. She was glad when the festivities were over.

On the 4th we took the kids to see Cars 2. All the kids. It was Beka’s first movie! She did pretty well. She really liked the popcorn. Emma snuggled into Daddy and fell asleep and missed the end. After nap time we went over to Dad Leavitt’s house and went swimming and set off fireworks. Riley braved another sparkler. He didn’t burn his finger this time, which he proudly announced to everyone.  It was a great day and a great weekend.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th too!

June Fieldtrips

I have tried to have at least one fun activity each week. We have 3 really fun trips.

We were invited to go to Anderson dairy. It was fun, Riley had been there with his class and was an “expert” he was so excited to show us the ropes:

  

Eating ice cream at the end was the best part! They were so good, I was really pleased.

Another little trip was to the corn creek nature sanctuary. It was so fun. We went with our friends the Hatchs. The kids had blast running down the path. We ate lunch out there. It was lovely!

 

It was so pretty! UGH and the light!

The final trip we took in June was a long awaited promise to the bird sanctuary. Riley had been asking and pleading to go.

One of our more memorable moments was going to pet the goats. It’s been interesting seeing these fellows again. The last time we were there, many of them were just 1-2 days old. These goats are really pretty gentle. However, Emma is going through a panicking stage. And she flipped out. OK, let me back track. Riley asked to go in. I said sure. Emma asked to go in, and I asked her if she was sure she wanted to go. She was. Now, to get in to the petting part, you have to go through a double gate. Well, Emma went through the two gates but held the second gate open. Two goats went in the corridor, and Emma did to. So there she is suck in a little space with two big goats. And she panicked! She started to cry and scream. I finally was able to get her calmed down.

Well, I asked Riley if he would take her around. As you can see he is an amazing big brother!

Emma finally got brave enough to try it on her own. She was so proud of herself!

     

So, even with all the things we’ve had to do this summer, I’m glad we’ve taken the time to do some of the things that we want to do.

More June Happenings

One of the highlights of June was having my sister Demya and family visit.  We have so much fun with them, and miss them terribly now! We went to the park and played in the water, played in Grandma’s backyard, ate ice cream, and just plain had a blast. 

One of the things we did was getting a new cousin picture:

Pretty cute. I called it a success. I got everyone to look at me at the same time! We also wanted to get some cute Grandma and kids pictures:

Playing at the park was so much fun:

  

We loved playing in Grandma’s playground:

 

And we celebrated my birthday:

 

It was so fun to have them around to celebrate Riley’s graduation and my birthday! We miss the tons. The next time we get to see them they will be a family of 4! Can’t wait to meet my new niece! Thanks for visiting us guys!

Riley’s Graduation, and Last Day of School!

Ok, I’ve been so lame with keeping up with the blog. Hello last post was in May! It’s been really busy around here, and I lost my precious time during naps to blog with Riley being home. And I must admit, I kinda sorta been reading too many books on my phone’s kindle. So, I’m going to try to do a couple of posts of June and then what’s been going on in July (it is July 7th already!)

So, the month stated out with school ending. This was very bitter sweet for us. Riley has really done well this year. He has grown and changed. The saddest thing for Riley was that none of his school friends are going to the same school next year. Everyone of them is going to a different school! Pretty crazy! He cried on the last day of school. He didn’t want to leave! We can’t thank the teachers and staff that took such good care of our little hawlet! I took him out for a little photo shoot in his cap and gown:

   

This one is my fav:

Graduation was amazing! There were so many people there! It was so cute. Riley’s speaking part was K is for kindergarten. And he did great. They sang a bunch of songs too. Very sweet.

The principle decided to give each of the kindergartens a medal that is given to the high school graduates. Riley was so excited! Thanks Mr. Pesce!

He’s teacher made remarks about each kid as they came up for their medals. Her remarks about Riley were that he will become a doctor. He is always the first one there to comfort his classmates when they are hurt. He is sweet boy and so kind. And he learned over 200 sight words. Go Riley!

  In the above picture: Mr. Pesce (principle) Mrs. Valentiner (his teacher), Ms. Morison (teacher aid) and of course Riley.

Riley’s favorite special was library. He LOVED story time and picking out books. And he loved Mrs.. Nelson the librarian! 

Finally the support staff:

The family:

 

The Grandma:

And the Grandpa:

The next day was the last day. Riley was very sad to see kindergarten end. He LOVED his teacher so much. Bye NWCTA! Thanks for teaching Riley so much and for the great start he has had in his academic career! I can’t imagine a better start for him. Thanks for all the love he has been shown by all his big friends. He has missed you all! Now on to first grade!

Bye NWCTA until 9th grade!