Back to School!

School started on August 12th. Nolan is in 1st Grade and Nicole is in her 2nd year of preschool (Pre-K). Nolan was most excited about eating lunch at school and about having 2 recesses! Nicole was most excited to paint.

Summer Fun

Here are a few snippets from the end of our summer:

One day I heard Nolan shouting, "HELP!" from the backyard, so I looked out and found him stuck in the hammock. His foot was caught and he really couldn't get out. When he saw me grab the camera he was pretty ticked off!

We went to Utah in July, and we got tickets to the Days of 47 Rodeo. This is Nolan on our trainride home:
After the rodeo, we went to The Old Spaghetti Factory with Nana and Grandpa Stephen. The kids were goofing around while we waited for our table. I thought this picture was cute:
This is Tammy's Great Great Aunt Irene on her 108th Birthday! That would make her my kids' GREAT GREAT GREAT Aunt! Not many people can say they have one of those! For those of you who keep track of my ancestry, Irene is my Mom's Dad's Mom's sister. She is such a cute lady! Nicole asked her what is wrong with her hands and she said, "Oh, honey, my ugly old hands are the least of my troubles." Every time we visit Grandpa Richard (Tammy's dad), he has some prizes for the kids. This time they were introduced to the one and only Whoopee Cushion. It provided several hours of giggling and pretending like the house was stinky.
In August we took the kids boating with some of my Young Women. Nolan was brave enough to ride the Banana Boat with them!

Grandma and Grandpa Miller came home from their mission in June, and since then they have been making up for lost time. When Nicole became potty trained last year, they promised her that they would take her to Chuck-E-Cheese when they got home to celebrate. So this was the big night, topped off with a visit to Krispy Kream. What a lucky girl!We took Nicole to Philadelphia for her 35th surgery in August. Grandma Miller came with us. Here is Nicole a few hours after surgery (she slept all day!), while we were waiting to head to the airport to go home.

Random

Yesterday Nicole and I had this random conversation:

"You know what, Mom?"
"What?"
"I know why Sleeping Beauty is allergic to burps."
"Burps?"
"Yeah, burps."
"Okay, why?"
"Because she doesn't know how to do 'em!"

(As you read, you have to imagine her scratchy voice, her lisp, and how her l's are pronounced as w's.) Random conversations like this happen every day, but I can usually figure out why she's thinking/saying what she's thinking/saying. But this one baffles me...I have no clue!

I have a lot of pictures to upload from the first day of school, etc., but I can't find the USB cord to get them off my camera. So stay tuned for more updates soon!

10 Years!

August 15, 1998August 14, 2008

Kevin and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary last week. We just happened to be at the Salt Lake Temple for our niece's wedding the day before, so we posed for a picture. Yes, we've gotten a little older, a little wider, but we've also become much more grateful, and a definitely a little wiser. We can't wait to see what the next 10 years will bring!

Nicole's Nightly Prayer

"Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for my family, and for my daughter [her baby Sophie doll], thank you for the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, thank you for Jesus and Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Nolan's nightly retort:
“Nicole! Don't say thank you for Heavenly Father, that's who you're talking to!”

Every night.

A few pictures

This was the day after the pictures in the last post: But then she went a WHOLE week without conking out, until yesterday:
Nolan's favorite time of day is when I let him play the Wii. He asked me to take this picture so he can see what he looks like when he plays.
I found Nikki walking around the house looking like this the other day:
That's our cute little one-eyed-girl!

To Nap or Not to Nap...That is the Question

Nicole is in the stage where when she takes an afternoon nap, she's up until midnight. But as you can see from these pictures...she can't quite make it all day without a nap, either. These were two days in a row (Sunday and Monday). Things just got quiet in the house, so I went to look for her and found her in the exact same spot, behind the couch, both days.