::supercalifragilisticexpialidocious::

Mary Poppins came to Salt Lake!!
And we got to go see it!
And it was fab!!


Just Chloe & I. Matt stayed home with the other kids and ordered pizza and played Mario. I told Chloe the play was going to start right around her bedtime. She didn't care...she was SO excited. We met up with Grandma & Papa Kitty and Grandma & Grandpa Asay for the 8 o'clock show.

We loved it! Chloe was so excited she almost couldn't contain herself! She's been watching the movie all week, so she was excited to see the play rendition. She noticed some differences, but thought it was completely awesome! She did get a little tired during some of the slower parts, but during the faster, more fun songs, and after some gummy bears and coke at intermission, she perked right up :)

Steffanie Leigh played a great Mary Poppins. We loved how she went upstairs. Our favorite parts were the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and the rooftop acts. The rooftop one had something like 50 people onstage dancing all together and tap dancing, and also Bert walked in slow motion up the wall and on the ceiling and tap danced upside down! It was kind of amazing.

We had so much fun! We're excited to go see Beauty & the Beast next year (Port will want to go to that one) and also the Sound of Music. Usually I don't go for musicals, but these ones I like.

And that was our Friday night.
:)

::a wedding::

Yesterday, we had the privilege of attending Keely & Casey's wedding (Matt's older brother's daughter). They were married in the Bountiful temple (same as us!), and had a reception later in the evening. I kept thinking all day how weird it was that she was getting married. Time just goes by too quickly.


(Keely (age 9-almost 10) at our wedding in 2002. She caught my bouquet! Isn't she a doll?)

She's all grown up and married. Married!

Aren't they beautiful??



Chloe was completely in awe of Keely. Almost speechless. Almost. "Mom she's so beautiful! Look at her dress! I want a dress like that, but maybe I want a pink one. Did you see all the sparkles? Did you see the diamonds? Keely looks so pretty, Mom!"

(a quick snuggle between cousins)

The reception...


On our way out, I grabbed a quick shot of the bridesmaids decorating Keely's car. They're cute aren't they?


Congratulations, Keely & Casey! We wish you every happiness in your new life together! Thanks for letting us share in your beautiful day!

::over the weekend::

So we made it through our first week of school. I think they both had a great week, but were excited for the weekend. They were pretty tired. Portie played at a friend's house on Thursday. His name is Jaken. He's cute. They're on the same football team. So after they played in the afternoon, they had a game that night. When they got home (the other kids and I stayed home this time) I asked how Portie did. Matt said "horrible!" He said that Port and Jaken kept goofin' off and weren't paying any attention to the game. haha

So, Jared & Sarah moved to their new apartment last week. They kept a lot of their things at my parents' house (so they wouldn't have to get a storage unit), and we helped them get it all moved in to their new place on Saturday morning. After they got all the stuff loaded, Matt took Coopie home with him (he was going to take Portie too, but he wanted to stay and play with Liam and Tristan), and Grandma and I bottled some tomato sauce and salsa (both made from tomatoes from our gardens :) ).

So here's what we did. We tasted the salsa. It's pretty spicy. We want to do some more in the next couple of weeks, as more tomatoes ripen.


So while we were hard at work, the little cousins played, painted, and slept.




In other news...
We leave for Texas in about a week and a half. I'm SO excited! I was looking up some places on google maps (our old houses, church, school, Matt's apartment, etc). It was fun. Things have changed quite a bit since I was there. I'm excited to see it all. I can't wait for some GOOD BBQ and Mexican food! I can't wait to hear the locusts in the trees, to smell the air, feel the humidity, touch the grass, hear the bumps on the road when you change lanes, see the sideways traffic lights (which I never thought were sideways 'til we moved here). I wouldn't mind a good thunderstorm. I'm excited to just drive around and see if I remember how to get places. I can't wait to see the stock yards, Cowboys stadium, Northpark Mall, the Harbor, downtown Dallas. Bluebell icecream! I'm excited about the North Mesquite football game and the reunion banquet. I can't wait to see old friends. I'm pretty nervous too. I hope that subsides a little and doesn't get worse. I'm having a lot of anxiety about leaving my 3 babies for 3 days-AND being in another state! I hope everything and everybody is okay while we're gone.

::first day::

What a day!! It started at 6:30 this morning. I got Chloe up at 6:45. She popped right out of bed--she was SO excited! She got dressed, we fixed her hair, brushed her teeth, she ate breakfast, Bubb came out to the kitchen, I made Chloe's lunch, she woke up Portie, I got the 2 boys breakfast, I fed Ava, got me, Coop, & Port dressed, fixed Port's hair, got a few pictures of Chloe, and we were all out the door by 7:40.

The second grader...

...the kindergartener

Then all 5 of us went to Chloe's school to see her off. We went in, took some photos, found a desk for her to sit at (she got to pick where she sat), hung up her backpack, took some more photos, kissed her goodbye, and we left. Back to our house (Port's school didn't start for another half hour). So I took a few pictures of Portie, grabbed his backpack, put on a bit of makeup, and we left our house by 8:25.

(Chloe's school. 2nd grade. Mrs. Barker's class)

Then the 4 of us took Portie in to his class. We said hi to his teacher, found his chair, said hi to his buddies, hung up his backpack, took some pictures, kissed bye, and left. Then it was just Bubb, Ava, and I. Bubby kept saying "no big kids, just us!" We played in the pillows on my bed, did the dishes, showered (me), and took BeeAva to Grandma Snowman (because I volunteered to ride Portie's bus with him-parent volunteers help the drivers figure out their route and which kids get off where). Portie and Bubb thought the bus was the awesomest thing ever--until we'd been on our bus ride for over half an hour (first day of school-takes longer).


(My baby boy in his big school. It's not preschool, it's kindergarten! He was so excited. I thought he'd follow me out the door and grab my leg like he used to do in preschool, but he didn't. I felt pretty good about him being there, but was still a little worried. I hoped he'd have a good day and make friends.)


(He had an awesome day! He told me all about it too! He colored a gingerbread picture, learned about gingerbread, and ate gingerbread (strange time of year for gingerbread, no?). He played outside with 3 little friends. He likes his teacher, and said he loves to be in big school. )


(Us on the bus. His bus driver seems a little scary. He's kind of a grumpy-old-man, and yells at the kids who are being loud. Even at the ones not being loud. He just yells-and he's kind of gruff-even to the parents. I just told Portie to be good on the bus so he won't yell at him! And also a photo Bubb & Port having some lunch after school.)

Then, a few hours later, Chloe came home! She had an awesome day too. She told me about a game they played, a new friend she made, how she sat with 2 girls on the bus she knew from last year, and her lunch was SO good! She was a little bummed that Portie played games and had a treat at school and she didn't. She had to listen to dumb rules all day. Poor 2nd grader!


And that was our first day of school.

In other news...

Bubb is showing Chloe his owie. He fell off his little bike and I guess he hit his mouth on the cement. It was all bloody. I felt to see if any of his teeth were loose-they weren't, but he chipped his front tooth. The chip isn't too bad, but it's a little sharp. I called the dentist to see if we could have it filed down a bit (got an appointment for tomorrow). As the evening wore on, his gums started to show a pretty dark purpley bruise. Now I'm nervous that might've done some major damage like kill his tooth or something. Cross your fingers that he didn't! Portie chipped his tooth last year, and when Matt was little, he completely knocked his front ones out! Welcome to life with boys, I guess.

::back to school dinner::

We had our 3rd annual back to school dinner tonight. I made my Aunt Jeri's spaghetti (oh! it was goooood!), olive oil dip (for the french bread), and some little cupcakes.

(Remember how I wanted to do a theme? Well, that's what I came up with. I figured Portie would be learning a lot of new things this year, and he tends to give up easily and get mad any time he has to learn something new. He thinks it should come easily, and it doesn't always. Anyway, I thought this was a good one.)



(mushtashes and my "I feel like I'm smiling, but I'm really not" face. And also a very fingerprinty fridge-don't look!)

Now they're in bed. Their clothes and backpacks are all ready. I'm so excited for them! I'm a little nervous too. Chloe's going to a new, big school. She has some friends in her class from last year and church. I hope she has fun and learns a lot. I hope she likes her teacher (Mrs. C set the bar pretty high!). School starts earlier and gets out earlier for her-so that'll be interesting. I can't believe Portie is going to kindergarten! I hope he likes it. I hope he has fun. I hope he makes lots of friends. I hope he learns a lot. He's a pretty cool kid, so I think he'll do great in school. I hope Bubb doesn't miss him too much. He thinks he's going to school with Port. We try to tell him he's not, but he insists that he is. Tonight at dinner, he said "I'm gonna miss you, Pohtuh." I wanted to cry because it's so true.

Good luck, you little babies! I hope you make good choices, are good examples, and always remember who you are.

And also...
Do your best, and NEVER give up!!

::swimmin'::

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, and also swimmin' Saturday (part of our last week of school acivities-more on that later). So we decided to combine the 2. We all got together here...

That's the barn. It's Uncle Kerry's (Papa Kitty's brother) & Aunt Eunice's house. Their pool is SO much fun! There are cliffs, slides, a hot tub, waterfalls, all kinds of fun stuff!!






The cliff was pretty scary! It's gotta be about 10 feet up from the water. We all took turns talking ourselves into jumping off. I only did it once. It took me a few minutes to actually do it. I was scared. Matt did it a few times, so did Papa and Billy. Chloe did it about a million times! Such a tiny girl on such a big cliff!!




(Grandma & BeeAva played together a lot. She fed her and dipped her feet in the water. She liked the baby pool best. It was quieter and not deep.)


(The baby pool. Isn't it great? Bubb liked it and the hot tub best)


(water cannons)


(Portie didn't want to jump off the big cliff, so he jumped off the rocks. Bubb liked the black slide. A lot.)

We all had lunch @ Shakey's (a pizza buffet in American Fork) before swimming. It was pretty good. We gave Grandma a sparkly purse and a little compact mirror. She loved it. The purse is a little crazy, but Chloe insisted that we get that one for Grandma-because she's fancy. Grandma likes it. She said she'd take it to work on Monday. After all our swimming, we got ice cream and called it a day.

Happy Birthday, Grandma! We sure love you!
(and tell Uncle Kerry & Aunt Eunice thanks for us. We sure had fun in their pool :) )