1st Week of School

We have finished our first week of school for the 2014-15 year. It was tiring and busy, but we all had a great time in our new classes and are thankful for our school.

Here's our Pre-K classroom that we worked and worked on this summer. It functioned pretty well this week!

 I have 16 little friends in my class!

 The girls were very excited about school on the first day and all week. We all loved having Daddy help us in on the first day, and he took great care of us all week!

 Good morning, Mr. Stahnke!

 Audrey's 1st grade teacher (and our preacher's wife) Mrs. Christian...Here's a funny story from the "Meet the Teacher" night: Before it began, I was admiring her frog bulletin board with each student's name on a frog. But I couldn't find Audrey's. I knew it was by accident that it was missing and Mrs. Christian would be embarrassed for Audrey to not find it up there that night. So I asked her and sure enough it had "hopped" off the table ;) Audrey thought that was too funny when I told her about her silly frog.

 Brenna with our initials from "Meet the Teacher" night.

 Brenna likes her teacher ok ;) She has done extremely well being a big helper, doing what she is supposed to in class, and understanding that I have to help everyone in there.

 Our sweet, big-hearted 1st grader

 Our smart and spunky Pre-Ker

 All the school girls on our first day

It's going to be a great year. This back-to-work transition has already been difficult in many ways, but overall, it is very exciting!

Shopping Celebrities

Now don't try running over each other trying to get our autographs after I show you this...but you probably didn't realize that we are shopping celebrities... 

Indeed, Mom, Audrey, Brenna, and myself made the FRONT PAGE of the Abilene Reporter News during tax-free weekend. Yes, we got some deals and cute stuff. No, we had not planned to hit the stores this particular weekend. Yes, the reporter said we had the most packages of anyone else she had seen that day. No, I didn't make Nana carry all the bags the whole time. Yes, we had a great day together and succeeded in making the girls hate shopping. No, we may not send you a signed copy of the paper.

More family wedding stuff...

My sister had a wonderful bridal shower! And isn't she still a beautiful bride? :)

 Then we were off to another family wedding (Britani's) where there were more cousins and more dancing!

 I love her little fingers holding on to his leg...

 A dance with the ring bearer Corbin

 Have you ever seen so much dancing in one family in one summer? We have loved it!

 How does my child know how to line-dance??

And some extra special news we received at the reception about baby Noah...

Hayden and Ann Maree asked us to be his Godparents. This is one of the greatest honors I have ever received. I may have cried a little ;)

Now isn't all this some great family stuff?!

Quick CO Trip

We went on a quick trip back to Pagosa Springs with our friends Brad and Jennifer. It was some great grown-up time with old friends! And we saw some incredible places we had not discovered before...

Echo Canyon was our first stop.

 Elwood Pass, where covered wagons made treacherous journeys over the mountains...we made it up here in a jeep.

 A hidden waterfall where we ate a picnic lunch...away from most everything in the world!

 Platoro, a tiny mountain community only open in the summer, totally off the grid...and loving wearing jackets in August!

 Chimney Rock Indian dwellings... This tour was incredibly on the edge of a very steep cliff.

 Remnants of the dwelling overlooking southwestern Colorado...

 The two huge rock formations, Chimney Rock and Companion Rock, were used in ceremonial activities/celebrations/timekeeping as the sun and moon will set exactly between the rocks (in the distance) at certain times of the year or decade.

 Treasure Falls, always an incredible sight.

We love this area, especially when enjoyed with family and/or friends!

Family Multiplying

These pictures were taken in June, so these little guys are already looking and acting so different...

This is when cousins Noah and Everett met :) They are two weeks apart in age.

My brother Austin holding our cousin Hayden's son Noah and Hayden holding Ev. (Hayden was like our brother growing up)

The girls are crazy over all of their new cousins...3 baby boys already this year with 1 more on the way! Baby Cade was born to my cousin Rylan a few weeks ago but I don't have pictures yet :(

I will share some very sweet news about this little guy soon!

I especially love all of these pictures because it reminds me of when Audrey and Layton were little baby chunks together!

Water Babies

We haven't done as much swimming as the girls would have liked this summer (which would have been daily!), but we have gotten a lot of water time in and still have a couple more weeks to splash around before school starts.

They both did great at swimming lessons early on in the summer. Brenna practiced swimming "underwater" even though she doesn't like to get her face wet...

Laney's swim party...

Jumping on the trampoline in the sprinkler...a favorite for sure.

An old tarp=redneck slip n slide?

Audrey doesn't look as tan yet in this picture, but they soak up the sun so easily that they are dark brown compared to their white hinies right now!

Nothing better than water-time in the summer time!

Family Weekend of the Year

It was family reunion time at Aunt Gwen and Uncle Craig's again, and as always, special memories with cousins were made.

Joined at the hip all weekend...Brenna, Reagan, and Audrey

Summer night sparklers...

Sweet Everett's first summer reunion!

My cousin Kale trimming trees :)

These guys are a boatload of fun!

L-R: Audrey, Reagan, Brenna, Kale, Layton, Cayden, and Jackson

And two weeks younger than Everett is Everleigh! Put them in one family reunion and they become Everettleigh!

Sea horse races were new this year!

Here's the photo finish!

Shooting contest...

Once again, Everettleigh! Sweet sweet babies...

Sunday morning family service:

Uncle Craig is a man of God.

Nothing quite as special as seeing your whole family and children at the foot of the cross.

Nannie's great-grandbabies, getting bigger (and more!) with each reunion!