End of the year...(school year that is)

This school year started off a little different...and not "good" different.

Jordan had seminary at 6am and was starting her first year at Skyview without her best friend.  But I think it turned out pretty good:

Football Games

School Dances

Square Dancing (Jordan's group actually WON!!)

Relay for Life

 And of course...Cruise!

Kya was sicker than a dog her first week of school, then struggled a little getting used to her first year of Junior High.  But she got the hang of things and ended up having a great year:

Football Games

Honor Society

Volleyball

 

Choir

School Dances

 Tyson was put in a class without any of his friends.  But of course he made great new friends and had a pretty good year.

Fifth Grade Camp!!!

Track

And of course, the end of the year party with some friends from church!

Junior High {CHECK}

Jordan started Junior High the year we moved to Washington.  She had done 6th grade at a middle school in El Segundo, CA so we were excited to enter Junior High with a little experience.  She was still a new kid...at a new school...but at least she was still the youngest grade, so most of the kids were starting Skyview for the first time.

Here is Jordan the summer before starting Junior High (7th grade).  She had super long hair, wore make-up once in a while, didn't have a phone (only an ipod), and was just entering the phase of getting dropped off at places like the mall!  (And of course,7th grade is one of the ONLY years I didn't take a picture on the first day of school!!!)

Fast forward 3 years...she's glued to her phone, won't leave the house without make-up, booked up just about every weekend, on the verge of driving herself wherever she wants to go...AND...

...off to CRUISE with all her friends.

I love the way the boys ask creatively.  It was nice that Jordan had a friend who she knew was going to ask her, so she just had to wait...and he actually managed to surprise her!

I got to do her hair...we tried the waterfall braid and I think it turned out so pretty!

Then she went to her friend Anni's house to get ready and take pictures.  

 Then they met at the school and bused out to the cruise ship...where they danced, ate and cruised around the Puget Sound for a couple hours.  Kids these days are so lucky!!

Here she is with Kya on the last day of school.  9th Grade and Junior High COMPLETE.

Summer at TWO years old

Here's a little about our adorable little 2-year-old Summer:

She is fiercely attached to her Mommy...and moderately attached to her blanky (blanky needs to come in the car, store, bed, or if she's sad, or hurt, but Mommy has to be with her ALWAYS).

She loves to watch Winnie the Pooh and Curious George the best.  But she also likes Dora, Daniel Tiger, and Strawberry Shortcake.  Almost every time she wakes up she says "watch a movie."  And if anyone else is watching tv...look out.

Her favorite books are Where are you Pooh?, 10 Little Princesses, Three Little Pigs, and David Gets in Trouble.

She loves to play outside, especially with the water in her little pool.  And if it's not warm enough to play in the water outside, she'll play in the bathroom or kitchen sink...probably for hours if I let her. 

She loves taking care of babies.  Pretending to change their diapers, feed them, sing them a lullaby and put them to bed.

At bed time she sits on Mom's knee and I ask her if she wants me to sing her a lullaby or hum and she almost always says "hum"...I'm not sure how this started, I must have hummed it once and then she requested it again and again.

She loves to pay with Ollie (our kitty).  They'll chase each other around, she'll try to pull him into her bath, or throw him at his food.  Today I found her standing in his litter box--yuck.  But her job is to fill up his food and water dish.  It is so cute to see her kneeling beside his bowl with a bucket of food and a scoop.  She is still learning to be gentle...most of the time she doesn't try to pick him up by the neck...well maybe not most of the time-yet.

She loves to talk and sing.  I am amazed at how many words she knows!!  She repeats almost everything I say.  A couple of my favorite lines are:  "what the heck?",  "doing?",  "have fun" (when she leaves someone she makes sure to tell them to have fun), "one minute", "good stuff".  This past week in nursery we were about to have music time but Summer wasn't done her snack and she leaned forward to the music teacher and said "one minute, still eating" it was the cutest.

I like to call Summer my little angel.  She really is such a blessing to our family and we can't wait to see what each year will bring from that magical little girl.

 

Sweet Party for a Sweet Girl

Summer loves so many things right now, but when I started thinking about what theme to do for her second birthday party, I settled on Strawberry Shortcake pretty quickly.  Red, Pink, Green and strawberries!!  What could be sweeter?!

Decorating is always so fun!  I loved how the banner/garland turned out...and my valentine hearts turned into strawberries...my glittery "2" on the other had was a bit of a disaster.

We did pizza for dinner, since it's one of the few foods that we are guaranteed she will eat every time!  I think by the time the night was over she had THREE pieces!!  She also thinks she is too big for her high chair and insists on sitting at the table with the big kids.

So grateful to have family close enough to come down for her party.  It makes me a little sad that my older kids missed out on living so close to cousins when they were younger!  Mom and Dad came down a day early and helped get everything ready (including fishing a piece of broken glass out of my foot!!  Thanks Dad!).

I was really happy with how the cake turned out (only next time I'll remember to take it out of the fridge a little earlier because it was a bit stiff).  Summer was sure happy to blow out her candles and have everybody sing to her (she had been talking about it for days--so sweet).

A great party for the sweetest little girl.  After she went to bed, the other kids stayed up way too late watching movies and playing video games while the adults hung out answering questions and laughing hysterically (sorry Jason--hehe).

Taking cuteness to a whole new level!

Our house is no stranger to cuteness!  I have four very cute kids.

 One of those kids has an adorable, very tiny, dwarf hamster.  What could be cuter than that?!

And then, as if that wasn't enough, this weekend, the cuteness in our house went into overload, when we picked up this little guy...Meet Oliver (Olley)!  So far he is the perfect little kitty...mostly because he loves to snuggle!!