I had NO idea...

Turns out I can be more emotional than I thought. I've never been much of a crier. But Annie started school this morning. I cried before she woke up, then managed to keep it together until the second I walked out of her classroom, and I've pretty much been a wreck since then. I think people driving down 1st N thought someone had died as I pushed the stroller home bawling. She's in first grade, and it's just such a huge change for her to be gone all day! It's about more than I can handle. Oh jeez, I'm crying again just writing about it.

On the other hand, Annie was totally fine. They even did a last second teacher switch on her, and she rolled with it (a lot better than me actually). She will absolutely love it. If I wasn't 100% sure of that, I couldn't do it.

Guess I better bust out the waterproof mascara for the next couple of weeks.

Sweet Maelie Bea

Our little Amelia Bea turned one on August 3rd. She doesn't have teeth yet, isn't walking, and is still relatively hair-less (that's nicer than "bald" right?). So she doesn't seem like a one year old to me. She says about a dozen words though and is cruising all over the house. At first, we weren't sure who she looked like, but now it's apparent she is her Gramma's girl. She looks a ton like the Hammond side of my family (to me at least), and she's become quite the tow-head like her mama. 

This little girl is as sweet as they come. Eternally patient with her big bother and squishter, there aren't many things that make her upset. She's just been easy all around. When she wants to show affection, she doesn't kiss, she leans in slowly and does a gentle forehead bump. It melts me!

I did a quick photo shoot when the kids were playing so that we'd have some one-year-old documentation. And there are also some shots of her birthday at the zoo.

Checkin' out the monkeys at the zoo.

Opening presents!

And demolishing a cupcake of course! She blew a candle out at home when we were practicing, but got a little stage fright when it came time to let-er-blow. She didn't hold back when it came to snarfing the cupcake though.

Where the heck have we been?

Seems like it's always harder to keep updated in the summer, even though that's the time I have the most exciting stuff to blog about. So here's a condensed post of our summer activities.

We've spent a lot of time at the park (free lunch is where it's at)! Mom is seriously sick of pushing kids. If you hear of a swing pusher for hire, let me know!

We've almost died of heat exhaustion a few times!
The Idaho summer has been ridiculously warm (which I LOVE), but it's been an adjustment for sure.

Annie played t-ball in June. It was a challenge for her, which I appreciated and she didn't. She doesn't handle not being the best very well. I think it's good for her. She did fine overall, and I might even be able to get her to play next year!

This has been the year of the bikes (or anything with wheels really). The kids ride all day long. On this particular outing, Max took the dirt hill on his trike and ate it hardcore.

Fourth of July races with cousins. Annie got third in her age group and Max was second. 

Waiting for the parade in Menan. No chocolate milk this year though. Major letdown!
See if I support the United Dairymen of Idaho ever again!

Max caught this fish at Wade lake. He was the proudest little guy I've ever seen. He thought the fish was "disgusting," but ate it happily for dinner.

Maelie struck a pose for me at the lake. She is a water lover like I've never known! She sat there for the longest time even though the water was freezing. She liked to sneak handfuls of rocks into her mouth from time to time. So when Annie was playing eye-spy with Dallin she said, "I spy something wet and full of rocks..." and Dan quickly guessed "Maelie!"

And the biggest project we've been working on this summer is yet to be unveiled!
The K I T C H E N ! We totally gutted and renovated it. So here is an old image of what it used to look like from the dining room. We need to finish the floor still and then I will upload photos of all the stages. It's been exhausting, but I absolutely love it!

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Annie's class was in the Standard Journal online this week when the bears came to visit. There are some cute pictures of her at

http://www.uvsj.com/fuzzy-visitors/collection_db036c5c-6e11-11e1-9ef0-001871e3ce6c.html#axzz1p8D9ZOMe

Annie Eye Over!

Annie has her own camera with about 900 photos on it. So she's starting a photo gallery blog! She does the comments herself, and we might include some poetry and artwork she does. If you're interested it's www.annieeyeover.blogspot.com

It is private, so if you'd like an invite comment here or send me an email.

Take that Disney!

I overheard a conversation between a neighbor boy and Annie the other day.

Brian: "So I'm going to be a truck driver like your dad when I grow up. What are you going to be? A princess? Ballerina?"

Annie: "You can't just be a princess when you grow up. That's not a job. I'm going to be a dentist."

My heart is full.

All Celebrated Out

With Annie's birthday on the 23rd. We party pretty hearty for a few days. Here's a photo montage of our festivities.

We always decorate gingerbread houses for Annie's birthday. Max took advantage of the craziness and decorated his digestive system with candy and frosting.

Annie gets better and better at decorating every year. This year we were able to go to the cabin the night before her birthday. So there were lots of people to share the fun with.

Five candles was a little hard for Mommy. I don't know why, but five is just BIG!

As you can see. She LOVED her new tangled paraphernalia from Gramma.

So Christmas Eve. We spent with the Mounts clan. Here the kids are holding up their illustrations of the nativity story.

Then we opened pajammies. Maelie was so into it that she went a little cross-eyed.

This is a super fun age for Christmas. Max and Annie were both SO FLIPPIN excited for Santa to come. They could hardly stand it.

Porter had a bit of anxiety over the whole Santa thing though. In a moment of frustration, he'd written Santa a letter claiming that he didn't want anything for Christmas, and "he meant it!" So when Christmas Eve arrived, he was pretty sober. Thankfully, the Big Man disregarded the request.

Annie checking out her haul.

Maxwell got some trains from Santa. Obviously Santa is willing to overlook A LOT of bad behavior, because Max has had a heck of a year...

So now we're just laying around the house detoxing from sugar, late nights, excitement, and presents. If you come over, don't expect to find me out of my pj's until the new year.