4th of July Parade

Tonight we went to the park and the kids participated in a 4th of July parade. All the kids marched around the park 3 times and then they did sparklers. They also played in the water, went down the slides and rolled down the hill. I was videotaping Dillon doing somersaults down the hillside and wishing that I had his energy! It was a great evening with our friends!

Two cute boys!

Dillon played his harmonica and Daniel had jingle bells on his ankle.

Action shot!

Oh to be 5 again!

Swimming Lessons 101

Dillon took swimming lessons this week. I knew that he was ready for lessons when we went swimming in California back in April. He thought that just because he turned 5 he could swim. Makes perfect sense to me! We went down to the pool at our hotel and he walked up and jumped in the pool. Luckily Brandon was there to pull him out.

He did a great job during his lessons. He has a hard time using straight legs to kick. He tends to buckle his knees and try to kick, which makes him sink! However, he loves his new Darth Vader swimsuit and new goggles. He wears the goggles in the bath tub and holds his breath and pretends to swim. Miss Amber was a great, patient teacher. We are going to have to go swimming a lot this summer so that he can practice what he has learned. Here are a couple of highlights from his lessons.

Dillon knew most of the kids in his class. He had a great time swimming with his friends.

Dillon did great floating on his back.

Since they listened so well during their lesson, Miss Amber let them go down the water slide. Definately a highlight of the day!

Funny sayings by Dillon

Dillon has always pronounced some words with his own unique spin. Some examples are smarshmellows, Chocky Milk, smushrooms, oh the list could go on! However, yesterday, I about died of laughter when I heard him say this to his Daddy

"Dad your neck is all SunburMed. You should have put on some SunscreeM."

He continues to entertain us!

So long...farewell!

Well, this week we had to say goodbye to Brandon's brother Bryce, his wife Leigh and little Abigail Ruth. They left Friday for Minnesota to go to Dental School for the next 4 years. We got together on Thursday night for a delicious dinner of ribs, seafood salad, baked beans, veggies and yummy strawberry dessert. We put the young ones to bed and then played Settlers. I recently found out that I LOVE that game! It is so much fun.

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Brandon and Jordan (his youngest brother) and Grandma watched O Brother, Where are thou? That is such a great movie. We overheard Brandon say about 50 times "This is my favorite part!" Which was followed by roars of laughter.

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We went to Grandma's house on Friday to say our final goodbyes. I thought it wasn't going to be hard, but it was! We all hugged and shed some tears. I know that we will see them at Christmas, but it just won't be the same here without them. So, to Bryce, Leigh and Abigail...good luck! We are so proud of you and can't wait to hear how the move went.

Preschool Graduation

Last Thursday, Dillon graduated from Preschool. This has been such a great year for him. We went from crying because he couldn't cut with scissors the first week of school to being able to read! His teacher, Ms. McIntyre is one of the most patient, kind, wonderful teachers I have ever met. He absolutely loved going to Preschool and I am sure that most of that was because of how special he was treated and how much fun learning was in her class. We are sad to see it end, but excited for Kindergarten.

They had a water party earlier in the day and ate pizza. We took our waterslide and set it up for the kids. They also had squirt guns, sponge water relay races and sprinklers on the trampoline! It was an exciting day.

Here are some highlights from their graduation ceremony. It was so cute.

The proud graduate! I couldn't help but think when I first saw him in his cap and gown that I would be sitting at his High School graduation before I knew it. It made my weepy to think about how fast these last 5 years have gone and how fast the next 13 are going to go!

Bright Beginnings Preschool Class of 2008!

She taught them so many cute songs. This was one of them.

(Dillon REALLY likes to do the ocean action!)

Ms. McIntyre and Dillon.

Congrats to all the 2008 graduates -Dillon (Preschool), my nephew Todd (High School), my niece Breckyn (High School), Brandon's brother Bryce (UNLV - headed to Dental school), David (ASU, married to my niece Malia - he is headed back to ASU for his masters and then to Law School) and everyone else. Great work!

It's Official!!

I guess it is about time to announce to the bloggy universe that my friend Molly and I are opening our own business. It has been in the works for about a month and we are super excited to get going. The name of our business is...

We are going to jump into the world of vinyl lettering. We got our cutter a couple of weeks back and this past Monday, Molly's sister-in-law Brittany (who I knew about 15 years ago - small world) came to train us on the software. It was an awesome day and so far we have designed a couple of ideas. It is seriously the greatest job I have ever had. It is so much fun to design things for people.

We are also going to have an Open House on July 17th at my home to celebrate Christmas in July. We are hoping to be able to offer neighbor gifts, teacher gifts, gifts for anyone for Christmas. We will hopefully also have Halloween and Thanksgiving thrown in there as well.

It is going to be a roller coaster ride, but I am so excited. I seriously think about it all day and sometimes can't sleep at night because my brain won't shut off.

The first thing I made was a treat bucket for Dillon's preschool teacher. It was so much fun to design it and see it cut out and then put on a plastic container. I was so excited to give it to her last night at their graduation.

So, we are just getting started and getting our ducks in a row. But, if you need anything or have any ideas, please let us know. We would be happy to help!

May the Force be with you....

Yesterday as Dillon and I were walking into church, I went to grab the door and Dillon yelled "MOM STOP!" I turned around expecting to see that he had fallen or something and instead saw this:

I said "What are you doing?" With this huge grin and determined look on his face he simply said "I will use THE FORCE to open the door." He put his hand up to the door, squinted his eyes and stood there. I couldn't believe that he really expected the door to open. I let him sit there for about 30 seconds (I was afraid people were going to drive by and wonder what on earth these Mormons were teaching their children now!) So, I grabbed the door and opened it and he joyfully said "See Mom, it worked! I AM a real Jedi."

So let this be a warning to all of you that take your children to Disneyland - if you let them do the Jedi training, some of them might think they are a real Jedi! Now I just need to get him to figure out how to use The Force to do all the housework and clean up the toys! What a funny kid.