One year older and wiser too!

We just love this guy so much. 10 years ago a brilliant little man was born. 

He has always been an old soul in a little boy's body. 

Grandma Judy likes to call him Benjamin Button, and it seems that "Wilbur" fits him too :)

What ten year old boy is more interested in getting a credit card than having a birthday party or getting presents?  Who else notices and wants a green suit jacket than an old man is wearing at church? A jacket that looks like the ones from the Masters golf tournament. Who else clips coupons and saves his money to buy a king mattress for himself?  And who else saves a root beer glass bottle so he can refill it with other various drinks using a funnel just so he can drink out of a glass bottle over and over? 

 Nobody but our cute little Will, that's who!

We love his inquiring mind, his quirky ways, his adorable smile, his good manners, and his kind heart.

Happy birthday baby boy! 

He requested a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup cake:

Tearing into his present...

And he scores! A tablet and a $100 Visa card!

And just for fun we threw in the "Frozen" movie. We love that show!

That night Sambo posted this on his Instagram. It made my heart so happy. 

Cougar football

We love going to the BYU football & basketball games so we joined the Cougar Club again this year!

There is usually enough tickets for our whole family to go and sometimes even bring friends along. 

We enjoyed cheering for Cody Hoffman, Taysom Hill, JD Falslev (Heidi's friends), & Kyle Van Noy.

Football season just ended but we look forward to some basketball games in the coming months!

 Will was lucky.  His friend Trevin invited him to a game with sideline tickets! So he got to hang out on the sidelines with the players.  He loved every second!

#3

I love this.  I love my boys. I love #3. It's my new favorite number :)

Wilbur the Wonderful

Will had a wonderful football season!

Because of the new Elementary school boundaries, he also played on a new team.  But luckily there were a handful of the same friends that were on his team last year.  BS was an assistant coach and loved every minute of it!  He enjoyed coaching with his friends.  I loved hearing him tell me all about how awesome Will did at practice and all of his funny mannerisms and all of the funny things Will says. 

He played "center" and did not have one fumbled snap which is amazing!

He also played outside linebacker on defense and did a great job keeping the ball on the inside.

Despite his lack of love for of running, he was a trooper and went to every practice without too much complaining.  In his perfect world, he would play in games and see his friends everyday...but not have practice :)  They finished the season with 6 wins and 2 losses.  They made it to the second round in the championships and we were so proud of them!

Fishing Deer Creek with Grandpa Jim

These boys do love to go fishing with Grandpa!

They were extra stoked this time because they caught a Walleye!

8th, 6th, 4th, and FIRST!

People who know me best know that I am not a fan of school starting.  It just means that summer is over and my kids leave me and we have to wake up early and have a schedule and keep track of a million papers/dates, and then do homework and many various projects.  Ugh!

Usually I am somewhat prepared for this.  But this year it snuck up on me from behind and it hit me HARD!  In the weeks leading up to the big day I was very busy with the start-up of our new business (Aerie*) among other things.  Traditionally I plan a fancy "back to school" night for the kids where I cook a favorite dinner and decorate and and have a fashion show and we get all pumped up.

This year it didn't happen.

School started on a Tuesday so we settled for FHE with a steak dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  Lone Peak football had a big kick-off party as well with a scrimmage so that was fun too.  And of course, because I was so unprepared, I was taking the boys to get their hair-cut at 8:55 pm, just before they put up the CLOSED sign.  There was no way I was going to let them start school with crusty hair-dos.

Texas Roadhouse

Well, ready or not, the morning came and here they are, so cute and excited for their first day of school:

Notice Sambo is in a white polo and navy shorts. That's because he is going to a new charter school for 6th grade.  Surprisingly, he is not too bugged about wearing uniforms.  That was until he had to wear a white shirt and tie on Monday.  Every Monday.  I was nervous for him, starting a new school - but when he got home the only complaint he had about his first day was "there aren't very many cute girls there."  So I figure if that's the worst thing, then it's going to be ok :)  

First day at Mountainville Academy

Mrs. Burnside's class

Mrs. Worlton

BS and I got the kids dropped off (because we do a lot of being together these days thanks to Aerie*) and I came home and started doing the dishes.  And then it hit me and I started to cry. And then I started bawling. The reality of it all came at me so hard and so sudden...the reality that we are officially on to the next phase of life.  The phase where there are no more littles at home.  No more buddies to play/eat/run errands with. Call me weird but I like having kiddos with me at home.  I've been doing it for 13 years and now here I am.  And I missed Quincy already. I don't want her to be so grown up. Any of my kids.  Then BS came downstairs and saw me crying and then we decided that we were at a huge milestone and that we needed to celebrate!  

So we went to the movies!  Here we are, the only people in the theatre at 12:15 in the afternoon, with our feet on the chairs and a huge bucket of buttered popcorn and a soda from the fancy soda machine.

It helped me feel better.  

As I write this, school has been going now for 7 days.  I have yet to have some time to myself at home while the kids are at school (again thanks to Aerie*).  So yes, I am still bummin about them being gone.  But I'm sure once I get a taste of it, I will like this new phase more and more.

The kids and friends after their first day of school. They all had a great day!  Except for Chops.  Just when he thought things couldn't get worse than the cone of shame, he had to go all day without the kids around and he got lonely :(

Just for fun, I took some pics the next day of the 2 littles walking to school together.  

So. dang. cute.  I LOVE that they can walk and ride their bikes together.  And I can go with them too!  And Chops!  I feel really lucky that each of my kids are excited for school to start and not sad, nervous, or whiny about it :)

 

Still have tons to blog about from summer, but wanted to get school started.

*Information about Aerie coming.  Stay tuned.  

Mean Yellow Machine

Another Pinewood Derby come and gone.  Last year Will's car took 1st place - so, it's hard to come back and not win.  This time he wasn't so lucky, but he still made a great car he named

"Mean Yellow Machine"

This video says it all:

Dance Festival '13

I say this every year, but I swear the time between the annual school dance festival is getting shorter and shorter.  I feel like I was just posting about the one last year!  Sheesh, time needs to slow down!

This year's festival was, as always, really fun to watch.  And the weather was beautiful.  Quincy danced first to "Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly lolly lolly...."

She looked adorable and did a great job!

Then it was Will's turn.  He danced to "Feel this Moment" by Pit Bull and Christina Aguilera.

I was a little surprised about how he got really into the dance and wasn't embarrassed at all. 

What a cool dude!

And then it was fifth grade.  They danced to Footloose, the Blake Shelton version.

The first half, they danced on their own but then the second half they danced with partners.  Sambo happened to get paired up with Lilly, his "crush."  He was such a gentleman and they did so good! 

 

This was the first year that Millie wasn't dancing {junior high} and we didn't have a little rugrat watching with us.  I can't believe we have reached this point already.  But I can't complain...walking with Sam to the school and sitting outside in beautiful weather watching our kids perform ain't too bad.  

 By the time the festival ended, it was almost noon and getting hot.  So we checked the kids out of school early, grabbed some lunch and a Snoasis, and went to the local splash park to cool off.  Quincy's buddy Connor came with us too.

Field Trip x 2

I was super lucky to go on 2 field trips this month - one with Will and the other with Quin.  They both happened to be to Thanksgiving Point, which was perfect because it's close and it was so nice to be outside in the warm sunny weather.  We had a great time and I love hanging out with these guys and their cute friends.  I love that my kids still ask me to go on field trips with them...I know it won't last!

 And here we are the next week at Thanksgiving Point:

On the bust

Tessa

Megan

My group of rugrats