ALEX STARTS KINDERGARTEN

I can not believe that we are starting the school phase.  Alex was excited and nervous to start kindergarten.  She was selected from the school lottery to attend the Spanish Immersion Academy.  We were excited about that because most of her day will be in Spanish.  The week before school we went to the back to school night.  One of the days she had to go in for a short test.  The test was to see where she (and all the other kindergartners) were academically so that they could spread them all out evenly between the classrooms.  On the first day of school I took her to school and showed her where she would go after the bus dropped her off.  All the kindergartners met in the cafeteria and the teachers read out the list of kids in their class.  Alex was assigned to Sra. Morales.  Then we all went to the classrooms and said our goodbye's.  Kindergarten is all day.  We catch the bus at the corner at 8:20am and Alex gets home at 3:55pm.  It's a long day but all of the schools have all day kindergarten and no option to have half day.  Shane wasn't too affected that day but a few days later he started asking if we could get Alex from the bus only a few hours after she left.

WEDDING

My niece Kelsie got married in Colorado.  It happened to be the weekend that Alex was starting school.  I didn't want her to miss her first day of kindergarten so we opted that just Maggie and I go to the wedding.  As the weekend got closer we found out that kindergarteners started school a few days later than the rest of the district but by then it was too late to get plane tickets for everyone.  Maggie was such a good little traveler.  She was only 2 months and was very patient with the early mornings and chaotic schedule that wasn't nap friendly.  We flew out on Friday morning and spent the day with family.  Saturday was the wedding and reception.  Sunday morning we flew out really early and got home just as church was getting out.  The kids were so happy to see Maggie.  It was nice to get away for a couple days and spend time with my siblings and mom.  The only picture I got was at the reception of all of the sisters at the reception (and Maggie in the carrier but it's hard to see her).

BATH TIME SMILES

Maggie is two and a half months old and smiles all the time.  She is such a happy baby.  She loves bath time and usually cries when I take her out.

This one makes me laugh and reminds me of E.T.

ALUM CREEK LAKE

With a new baby it's hard to get out.  As a result our summer was less than exciting.  In August we decided to go to the lake before our lake weather days were done.  We invited some of our friends and enjoyed playing in the sand and water.  Mike helped the kids learn how to float.  It's kind of embarrassing that the kids don't know how to swim yet.  If we were still in Arizona they would know for sure but here there isn't much opportunity to swim.

ALEX LEARNS TO RIDE A BIKE

I started trying to teach Alex to ride her bike last year but shortly after, I got pregnant and that stopped all progress.  Now that I'm feeling better I decided that it was time.  I took a few days to let her practice balancing and then we went for it.  It only took her a few tries to get the confidence to ride.  She was so happy and loved practicing up and down our sidewalk.  I took her to the school at the end of our street to practice as well because they have a big play area in the back where she can ride.  Mike took her on a few bike paths at a recreation center near our house and she loved it.