BYU plays UT

We were excited to go to Austin to watch BYU play UT this year.  Now that they are not in the Mountain Conference we don't have our normal gauranteed games to go watch.  The trip ended up being a very quick one.  We drove down Friday after the kids were done with school and drove back late Saturday night, or should I say Sunday Morning (we got home at 4:30 a.m.).  We went and saw the State Capitol building, it was beautiful. 

All the gang before going into the Capitol building

State Capitol building

Ellen with a tea party protester

Looking up to the ceiling

Senate Room

House of Representative Room

Looking down to the floor

Congressional Library

Even the door hinges were imprinted

 After the Capitol Building we went to the Capitol Building Museum.  The kids all had fun dressing up and looking at the stuff they could touch in this building.

Emily and Landon dressing up in the little kids costues

Abigail riding her horse

Abigail and Emily

Justin

Ryan

 We met up with Darlene, Bridget, and Brian for the game.  We had tickets on the very top row.   They ended up being nice tickets because you could see the whole game and there was a little more room to move around, not to mention the breeze you could get.  It was a very hot game the first half.  BYU started out good, but they couldn't get it together in the second half and ended up losing by one point.  It looks as though it is going to be a very long year for BYU. 

Ryan

Emily reading her book during the game

Abigail

Justin with his head all sweaty after taking off his BYU hair

Tyson

Darlene and Ryan

Brian and Bridget

The huge stadium

Princess Party

Abigail had her "kid" birthday party the other day.  She had so much fun with all of her friends.  I had bought them princess and knight stuff to dress up in, but I thought if I give them it at the beginning it is going to be lost all over my house so I had them earn it after completing a task from each Disney princess.  They had a lunch filled with pink items and then played games and become princess and knights in the end.  Here are some pictures from it.

Ryan and Abigail dressed up to deliver invitations

Molly and Abigail eating their lunch

searching for jewels

playing musical carpets

searching for dragon eggs

pinata

Princess Abigail

Blowing out candles

Sir Cole

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school, and it was a big first for most of my kids.  Emily started High School Today at FHS.  She also started early morning seminary this morning at 6:30.  Tyson started Jr. High at FMS, and Ryan started Kindergarten at Bennett.  Justin started 3rd grade, but is still at the same school.  I think I get more nervous than my kids, but they all had a great first day, and no one got lost trying to find their classes. 

Emily didn't want to get out at the high school and pose, and because of traffic at the elementary I wasn't able to take  a picture of her before school.

Tyson

Justin

Ryan

 We have a few traditions on the first day of school.  One thing I always try to do is have fresh home made cookies waiting.  I love to have them waiting for them with the house all clean. 

 The other tradition that we got from a friend is a "no Manners" dinner.  Jeff lets me know every year that he hates this tradition, but the kids love it so we do it anyways.  This year we played twister with colored pudding as the dots at the end.  It was a lot of fun.  I think this would be really fun for a group of friends to do.

The kids playing twister, the pudding was almost gone by now.

Everyone after it was over

Ryan

Emily

Justin

Abigail

As you notice there are none of Jeff.  He was a party pooper and did not participate.  He did take the pictures though.  He did eat his spaghetti with his fingers since there were no forks!

Abigail Turns 4

Abigail turned four on August 20.  She was so excited to finally be four.  She had been waiting all summer (Looking back it probably would have been better to tell her her birthday was when school starts instead of  saying her birthday was in the summer!).  Abigail got the Fisher Price loving family and doll house from us.  She also got a few more dress up clothes, and she got some dress up clothes from her Grandpa and Grandma Cluff.  She loved every minute of her birthday.  She is going to have a friend party after her preschool starts back up so she can invite her friends from school.  Here are a few pictures from her big day.

Opening some of her Doll house furniture

Showing the gift Tyson and Justin gave her

Modeling the dress from Grandpa and Annabell

Showing off the nightgown she got from Emily

Showing off her cake

Her new Bell dress

We love Abigail.  She is very full of life.  I love her enthusiasm for everything, she is definitely passionate about the things she likes.

Tyson Turns 12

Tyson turned 12 on August 10.  This was a big birthday for him because he can now hold the Priesthood.  It took a while for me to post because I wanted to show pictures of everything from his birthday and he just had his friend party yesterday.  He also passed the sacrament for the first time today.  I was so proud of him.  When I took him school shopping he had me buy him a new suit to wear since he has outgrown his other ones.  He had a fun birthday.  His big gift was an i-touch.  He has really enjoyed playing on it.  I don't think he uses it a whole lot for the music, but he enjoys the apps.  He had a combined party with his best friend Miller.  They both wanted to have their parties at the same place, and since they are only 8 days apart we decided they mine as well have it at the same time.  They went to a new gym here in town where they played laser tag, soccer, basketball, and they climbed a ropes course.  This stuff was all wonderful, but the best part of his birthday in my opinion was last week when he was ordained a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood.  We love Tyson.  How blessed we are to have him as a part of our family!  Here are a few pictures.

Tyson with his new i-touch

Tyson with his cake and his new soccer jersey

he blew out all the candles in one blow!

Tyson's new BYU shirt

The party goers waiting for Laser tag

Tyson eating pizza

Getting ready to blow out the candle on his cupcake

The boy I was so proud of at church.  He took his suit off before I got a picture of him, when I asked him to put it back on he wasn't happy about it.  This is what I got from him.  He really did look nice at church!