Tiger

Dallon brought this baby kitten home from football practice last friday. A teacher at the middle school had shown 3 baby kittens to her class and let the students know that they were strays and if any of the kids wanted to take one home she encouraged them to do so. So, Dallon decided to surprise us with Tiger. Yep, he already had him named. And he was already attached to him too. And of course, Dawson loves cats so he is very excited about the new arrival. All of us have had a lot of fun with him around. Well... all of us except Easton. He doesn't like him. He thinks Tiger is going to eat him. He literally says that... "he's trying to eat me". He also says, "he won't stop chasing me", "he's sitting on my foot", etc... He doesn't hold him or go near him unless by accident. Hopefully he'll warm up to him soon.

Easton said...

Can I go to Pappy's house? I said, not today. He said... Come on, Mom. It's my best house!

first day of school

Dallon started 7th grade yesterday. He knew what team he was on, and who his advisory teacher was, but other than that he didn't know anything else before going to school. He wasn't even given his class schedule until first period. That's just how they do it at this school. For the most part he seemed ok with his schedule. They divide each grade level into 4 teams. You have classes with the kids that are on your team only. With the exception of PE. So, lunch time is one of the only places you can see your friends that are not on your team. Each year one team doesn't get to go to lunch with the other teams in that grade level. I guess only 3 teams can fit in lunch room at one time. Dallon had lunch with almost all 6th graders last year and that was so fun for him. Dallon was bummed today because he is on the 7th grade team that doesn't do lunch with the other 7th grade teams. That stinks! So, there are friends that he just will never see. His best friend is not on his team, and will not be eating lunch with him... but they are in PE together so that is at least something. Dallon is excited to be able to participate in school sports now. He will be playing on the football team and he is excited about that. He was carrying his helmet to school for practice afterwards. He stayed after school for 2 hours to practice football. He said football was lots of fun! I felt like he was gone forever yesterday. I hated it. I really missed him. I was so excited to go pick him up at 5:30.

Dawson started 3rd grade! He didn't sleep much the night before. He said he felt like the night was paused, because he kept waking up over and over and it was always still dark. He must have been a little nervous or excited. Probably both. He was up and out of bed before I woke him. He got ready fast. We ate a good family breakfast. He and I walked hand in hand into school. (which was a nice surprise for me... because when we went to meet the teacher he was too cool to hold my hand. But, this morn he grabbed it and never let go. Must have been the nerves. I'll take it!) He has the same teacher this year as he did last. She moved up a grade and was able to keep some of her class. He has lots of friends in the class and is excited about that. He can't wait to learn cursive. He said that him and his friends didn't like recess at all. That they are too big for the playground now, all the stuff to play on is so easy for them. Ha Ha. He had a good day. After school he kept reminding me that he is a 3rd grader!
This was Dawson's favorite part of his day. Spanish class. He was so proud to learn how to say these things. He taught me how to say "hello, what is your name?, my name is..., how are you?, and goodbye." And then when Aaron came home the spanish lesson began again. It was so cute.

All in all I think it went well. It felt good to get back into a routine. Easton sure missed his big brothers.

what mom wouldn't love this?

I pulled into the garage after a trip to the grocery store and was surprised with this! It totally made my day.

while i was away...

The boys had a great time with Aaron when I was gone to stay with Jenna. These things pictured are just some of the fun things they did together. From what I hear, the highlight of the week was watching all 6 star wars movies in one day! They ate popcorn and sweet treats and had a blast. That is something they have always talked about doing... and they finally did it. They did 2 star wars puzzles together. One 300 piece, and one 500 piece. And the boys had a really good time with their Daddy.

10 things i love about...

When I went to stay with Jenna I left behind these gift bags for all my family. Inside each bag was 10 things I loved about each of them with a treat for that day attached to it. (My trip was 10 days including the days I traveled... so that is why I did 10. One for each day). They were told they had to read the thing I loved about them aloud to each other. I knew that would make the kids feel special to have their brothers hear what mommy wrote about them, and I also knew the kids would love hearing 10 things I love about Dad. They loved it. Aaron said that it was the first thing the kids did each morning was run to their bags. And each day when I would call home they would tell me which love note they had pulled out of the bag. It was fun!

10 Things I Love About Easton...

#1. I love that “You are my Sunshine” is our song. I love that when I sing it to you, you sing along. You know all the words and it makes me so happy to hear you sing it. When the song is over, you usually say, sing it again Mom. You are my sunshine Easton. You make me very happy!

#2. You love Curious George. You sleep with him at night. You give him love. You love to read Curious George stories with me. They are my favorite stories to read to you.

#3. You are good at doing puzzles. I love to do puzzles too. It’s fun to do them with you! Can we do a puzzle together when I get home?

#4. You love to run and you are very fast. I love that you have “fast shoes”. I loved it when you and me ran in the Clubhouse road rally the other day. I thought that was awesome how you ran 2 laps around the track without stopping. You were faster than mommy!

#5. You like your sonic runs as much as mommy. We love to go to sonic and get our diet coke and apple juice together!

#6. You love cars. I love collecting the cars with you and watching the movies together.

#7. Your favorite color is yellow. And I love the color yellow too!

#8. You wear big boy underwear! That is awesome!

#9. You love to give me kisses on the cheek. I love to kiss you on the lips. You always tell me just the cheek… but I always go for the lips and we both laugh after I get you.

#10. You are my baby.

I love you Easton. Love, Mom

10 things I love about Dawson…

#1. You love Baskin Robbins as much as I do. Ice cream dates seem to be some of your favorite outings. Do you think we could have an ice cream date before you go back to school? Let’s plan on it. Just us.

#2. You are daring. Nothing seems to scare you. I especially like to ride rides with you at six flags and other theme parks, because you like the wild and crazy ones like I do.

#3. You have lots of style (or as you say, “swagger”).

#4. You always offer to tickle my arm or play with my hair. I love that you show love to me in those ways. You have always been really cuddly with me and I love that too.

#5. You love to collect things. I love to see all of your fun collections. I wonder what you’ll collect next?

#6. I love your art. I love it when you color me a picture. I love seeing your art hanging in our home. I love it when you leave sweet notes for me in my “mailbox” in my room. You create beautiful art, and sweet notes. They make my world happy.

#7. I love to have you sleep in my bed with me at night. You get so excited! I love it too!

#8. You are a great ball handler. From the time you were very little we could tell you had a special talent. It’s so fun for me to watch you move on the basketball court. You dribble the ball down the court and make it look easy, when it’s not for most of us.

#9. You are a great pet owner. I’ve been so proud of you for being so good to your cat, Spots. You show him so much love. You have been responsible to help with feeding him and cleaning out his litter box. It’s been so much fun to see you love him and enjoy him so much.

#10. I love to watch movies with you. Eat popcorn and junior mints and cuddle up with blankets. Oh, just writing about it is making me want to do that with you right now.

I love you Dawson. Love, Mom

10 things I love about Dallon...

#1. You are fun to do puzzles with. That was so much fun doing the 549 piece puzzle with you. Ha Ha… that stinks that we were one piece short at the end. But, it meant the world to me that you wanted to do that with me this summer. I can’t wait until we do another one together. Maybe next time we can go for a 1000 piece puzzle.

#2. You have great taste in music.

#3. You love your heavenly father and always try to choose the right. I admire you so much for your strong desire to do what is right. I learn so much from watching you. And I’m inspired to be better because of your example. I am proud of you for being the deacons secretary and taking on the extra responsibility. I am happy you always want to go to YM. I’m proud of you each time I see you pass the sacrament. And I love that you always want to go to church.

#4. You show love to me by letting me take countless pictures of you. I know that a photo session is the last thing you’d choose to do with your time, but you do it for me. That’s why it means so much. You know how much I love to go out and take pictures of you. I cherish every one of the photos I’ve taken of you.

#5. You mow the lawn for us. You do a great job. And you are a hard worker. I think it’s awesome that you mow the lawn for the Cosby family too. Good for you, Dallon.

#6. You are great at rollerblading. I love rollerblading with you. Why don’t we do that more often?

#7. You are the best helper ever! I am so thankful for all that you do to help me. I know a lot is asked of you, and you always step up to the plate. I appreciate you doing your chores everyday. I love you for babysitting the boys for me so often as I run my errands. And I can’t thank you enough for helping Dad with the boys this week so that I could go and spend this time with Jenna as she has her first baby. It would not be possible without your help and Dad’s help. And I love you so much for that!

#8. I love that you love to read. I think people who love to read are awesome and interesting. I would really love to read a book with you this summer. I know you mentioned that as something you wanted to do with me. Can you pick out what one you want us to read while I am gone? We can start it the day after I get home.

#9. You cuddle up to me on the sofa. I love that. I love that you’ve been showing me more love this summer. It means so much to me that you want to be near me. I want that too, Dallon. You are my sweet boy and I love to be with you.

#10. You are a peacemaker.

I love you Dallon. Love, Mom

10 Things I Love About Aaron...

#1. You work hard. You are a good provider for our family. It was so much fun for me to come to your work and see your new offices. They are beautiful. It is always fun for me to meet the people you work with, your team. I can tell they all love to work with you, and that you do a great job managing your team. You are successful at what you do. I am proud of you.

#2. You love me unconditionally. You don’t try to change me.

#3. You are handsome!

#4. You have made it possible for me to be a stay at home mom. That is always something that has been important to me. I love that it is important to you too. I will always be so happy that I spent all these years of my life at home as a mother. I will never regret that. It was a dream of mine… and I’m thankful for it.

#5. You care about things, and people that are important to me. Because of you, I get to be with my sister as she has her first baby. I get to go and take care of her afterwards. And share in that special moment with her. It’s something I’ve always hoped I would get to do. I love my sister so much. I know this will be a time when she will miss our mom so much. I know my mom must be so happy to know I will be there with Jenna too. None of this would be possible without you. You are taking care of all of my responsibilities at home. It means so much to me that you have been so supportive of me going to stay with her. Thank you for taking care of the kids and the home. I love you so much for it!

#6. You believe in me and encourage me. You support me and the things I’m passionate about. I love that you are so supportive of my photography. It brings me a lot of joy and I appreciate you letting me put so much time into learning and growing with it.

#7. You do the dishes a lot. It lightens my load so much and I really appreciate it.

#8. You are awesome on the grill. I love it when you grill up burgers for us. I love it when we have people over and you are the chef.

#9. You are good at all kinds of computer stuff. That has been so nice for me. That kind of stuff is always over my head. It’s so nice to have someone who knows all about computers around who can help you when you need it.

#10. You are a positive person.

I love you. Love, Jaimie

Isabelle, my three boys, a trampoline and a sprinkler...

it's a really fun combo. We love Belle. All my boys love to play with her. Even Dallon, being years older, is so darling with her. They had a blast jumping and passing around the beach ball in the sprinkler. I had fun outside playing with them too. This day was definitely one of our most fun days this whole summer!

meeting madelyn. love.

I flew to Idaho to be with Jenna and Jared as they welcomed their sweet baby girl into this world. I've always wanted to be with Jenna when she had her first baby. To be able to take care of her... to see her become a mom... and to meet her sweet baby. I can't believe I was lucky enough that it worked out so I could be. Madelyn was born on July 26th, and she is the most beautiful baby girl in the whole wide world!!! She looks just like her momma. She is so perfect. It was so fun to be able to hold her and snuggle her. Oh... how I miss her already! I enjoyed my week so much. It was the highlight of my summer! And I love Aaron dearly for taking care of our boys so that I could spend this special time with my sister and her sweet little family.

swimming with our friends.