A Big Outing

We decided on May 25th that it was finally time to say good-bye to Sophie's mullet and get her her FIRST HAIRCUT.   Sophie's hair on its own grew long in back, but up front wouldn't grow.  We finally decided to chop some of the length in back so it wasn't so mullet looking... after 2-3 people made comments in church to us like, "whats up with her hair?"  ha ha.  No surprise that she is crying in front of the salon below, I wanted to get a "before" picture... but she was so excited to go in, she didn't want to.

Cutest thing ever is how much all Sophie's older siblings love her.  When I told them we were going to get Sophie's first haircut they were all giddy so excited and laughing and so happy to go on the BIG OUTING for their baby sister.  Dallin was helping the whole time, and Lily was holding her hand.  Everyone at the salon was laughing at the 5 of us surrounding Sophie taking pictures like her hair cut was the cutest thing ever... but it was.  And she was so good.

We couldn't get enough of her cute little face in that big chair.  The kids were all racing over who got to give Sophie her first haircut sucker.  When Ashlin and Emma found out they missed such a big outing they were so sad.

Swimming

In May Sophie took swim lessons again.  Ms. Lorie has taught all my kiddos and they all learned in the first month... except Sophie.  We tried it last summer and I thought she was just too young... hoping this year would be different.  Even though we go to the most beautiful backyard with the nicest teacher... Sophie still cried every day, driving there in the car, and through a lot of the lesson... up until the end when she got a licorice.  ha ha.

And Ms. Lorie is just always happy, wether they cry or not.

Finally a few weeks in to it, Sophie started to cry less...

 and even swam like an alligator on the step...

 .... but she never swam for Ms. Lorie.

HOWEVER, I kept working with her whenever we swam and she would cry and cry if I made her do anything, and she didn't even want to swim with me.  I could tell Bruce was annoyed that I was pushing her to "practice" instead of just letting her have fun on the steps.... but then guess what???  A few weeks later when her and I were at the Regimballe's pool, it finally clicked and she started SWIMMING!  She was so proud of herself.  Then all summer she loved jumping in from the step or the side and swimming to us.  So cute to see her little tushy when she would swim on her tummy to us, and kick and do her big reaches!  HOORAY Sophie is a swimmer now!  And she started just before she turned 3... so technically she was a 2 year old swimmer!!

Me and my good book

Isn't it lame that I haven't been blogging?

But I just had to post this pic I saw that is so me right now.

With every minute of free time I have been reading my 700+ page Charles Dickens book "David Copperfield".  I am going to cry when its over because I love it so much (its my 2nd time reading it).  I might even have to perform a funeral service for the end.  ha ha.

But an update on our life... we sold our house, well its in escrow, and are awaiting the home inspection and appraisal.... fingers crossed everything goes through.  I chose all the interior colors for our new house... for the which I painted sample colors on 20 different dollar store foam boards (ridiculous).

And now I am going to go read again.

But really, I am going to blog again here soon with all kinds of great family pictures and memories.

ha ha. :)

Catching Up...

Wellllllll.... the blog got pushed to the bottom of the priority list since the prom post.

We had to start getting our house ready to sell, which was not fun, and its been listed all summer (blek, even more not fun keeping it clean with kids home for summer), have had lots of big decisions on our new house, and with 6 kids to boot, its been kicking my rear.  Don't think the stress of it all leaves me no time to eat though.  Why can't I be like those people who lose weight when they get stressed... instead of... well, the opposite??  

But since this is our "Family Scrapbook"... here's to catching up.

We left off in Spring... so here are the 'Cliff Notes' of the end of the school year:

Ashlin's darling friends threw a surprise party for her and Lauren for their 17th Birthday (nooooooo time, STOP moving!)

End of the school year talent show. Logan played "Don't Stop Believing" on piano, and Emma sang "Love Song" while playing the accompaniment on the piano.  They were darling.

Dallin informed me 10 minutes before 20 kids arrived that he had planned a party and invited a bunch of friends over to play "007".... True story: the first 4 guests had to help us quickly clean the house.  ha ha.  But I was just excited for him that kids really came. :) Big spring for Dallin, finishing jr. high and now going in to high school.

Lily dressed like the cutest 50's girl ever for "Decade Day" at school

Emma loved the Grand Canyon Field Trip with her sixth grade.  Big year for goodbyes for Emma, no more elementary school!  But she's excited for Junior High AND that she is so close to being allowed to wear make up. (RULE: No makeup until Jr. High)

Her wonderful 6th grade teacher whom she loved and told me daily funny stories about.

 Logan got his BEAR award at Cub Scouts... now only a few more months in his moms den.  (Sniffle Sniffle, I love being his Den Leader)

Lily just keeps losing teeth... but the picture below is actually to document that when she was sleeping out on the deck with her siblings one night she got like 20+ mosquito bites on her little face.  It was so sad.  This picture doesn't do it justice... multiple people asked me if she had the chicken pox.  

 Dallin did lots of helping Bruce with the low voltage wiring in our new house.

 The end of the school year was a big one for Logan, because its his last at his elementary school.  Even though he is just going in to 4th grade, he is switching schools.  It was a hard decision, but we'll see how it goes.  Here he is bringing a garbage bag of home popped popcorn for end-of-year party. (Bonus to owning an industrial popcorn popper is that when you forget you were suppose to bring a treat to share for the party, your always covered with popcorn, ha ha!)

 Had to get pictures of Lily's LAST daddy/daughter Tandem bike ride to school that they did every wednesday last year (when weather allowed).  She would look forward to his day off all week like the cutest stinking thing ever.

So the kids all said GOOD-BYE to another school year...

and hello to another summer!

Now that there is less than 2 weeks of summer vacation left, I am going to try to post daily to get caught up to date.  Poor Logan said to me tonight, "Summer went by too fast".  Always does.  Same with life, and it makes me sad.  I always say to myself that I'm going to stop committing to so much so we can just slow down and enjoy the ride. 

Sophie's Birthday

My sweet Sophie turned 3 last week.  

And she had the cutest birthday party at our friend Sara's amazing pool with just my family.

Lots-A-Cousins!

I was leaving on a trip the next day and so my sweet sister Carrie offered to make the cake.  Sophie requested a "birdie" cake... so Carrie made a nest cake with cute 'baby bird hatching out of eggs' cupcakes!

Sophie is such a fearless swimmer now and jumps to us over and over again.  So cute.  The pool was huge, with a kiddie pool, huge jacuzzi, rope swing, 2 slides and a cliff to jump off of.

Check out this series of 3 pictures of Bruce's flip off the cliff:

Tarzan EMMA...

aaaaaaaaaw, Sophie and her grandpa:

A lot of showing off by Bruce and Dallin. (above)

True Story:  A week after the party Bruce was getting in the shower and I said, "What is that huge bruise on your rear from??"  It was like 6 inches by 6 inches at least... and well... turns out it was from  all his cannon balls/jack knives and cliff jumping at Sohpie's party... ha ha.  He had a soar rear for the whole next week!  :)  Boys....

And look... Coop-a-loops is sharing with the birthday girl!

 Happy 3rd Birthday Sophie!

It is so sad that my baby is getting older.  She makes us laugh every day.  Whenever we tell her that she is going to preschool in a few weeks, she cries, plugs her ears and tells us to "stop talking!".  She is not happy about it (even though its just a few hours a week).  Note: she is equally against getting potty trained.  Ugh.

**Photographs taken by the amazing: Sara Coral Photography**