Firsts

The end of August and the first week of September were filled with lots of firsts.  First day of school.  First day of cheer.  First day of soccer.  First day of football.  First Porter niece.  

Madison started third grade.  Jaxon started first grade!  Colton didn't start for two more weeks, but he wanted to be in the picture.  

This year is a big year for us.  Madison, Jaxon, and Madison's friend/neighbor Hailey are riding their bikes to school.  Alone.  It. Has. Been.  Awesome.  Seriously, life changing.  We live really close to the school.  The kids only have to cross the street twice.  Once in front of the school with a crossing guard and once directly in front of our house.  I can't even express how freeing it has been to save 45 minutes a day to get the kids to and from school, not to mention that I have more flexibility with nap times.

Here's a time lapse of the kids from preschool to current day.  Jaxon at 3, 4, 5, and 6. 

Madison at 3, 4, 5 and 6 (poor little broken arm girl, that was a hard day)

and here's 7 and 8.  Goodness they are growing up quickly!

As I said, we started sports practices.  This fall Madison is doing: choir at school, cheer, piano, and activity days.  In October she will start jump rope club.  Jaxon is doing football and piano.  Colton is doing soccer.  We have practice every night from 6-7:30, which I thought would be terrible, but it has actually been pretty fine.  I get 1.5 hours to spend with Madison twice a week while Jaxon practices and 1.5 hours twice a week with Jaxon while Madison practices.  So far the weather has been ok, hot, but not rainy, so he have spent a lot of time at the park, which the little boys love!

 There is a 5K for Graham in October, so I've been making madison run with me to train for it.  She really doesn't love it while she's doing it, but I like to think that secretly she is proud of herself for her hard work.  I just really want her to learn that she can do hard things!

Colton's buddy Rocco is on his soccer team along with 2 other boys from our ward, so we have a fun little team!

My brother's wife had her baby.  They named her Zoey Marie.  She is beautiful and we love her!!  

Jaxon had his first football scrimmage.  He did great.  Hudson makes a cute football, but he would be really hard to throw!

Madison and I went to Houston over labor day to meet Zoey and to be there when they blessed her.  Chris couldn't go because he is a stake auditor and he had to finish an audit that day, so Madison and I went and Hudson tagged along.  

Madison loves babies and she loved having a girl cousin on my side of the family. 

Obviously there's a considerable height difference here. 

Madison's favorite thing to do with Uncle Garrett is longboard!

Garrett and I with our babies!

Our babies side by side.  Hudson looks huge, even though he's actually only 16th percentile. 

On the way home we stopped to see the huge Sam Houston statue on the side of the road.  

Madi helped Sam clear a few things up. 

Monday night of Labor Day weekend we went rock climbing.  We wanted to do a fun family activity since we were in separate places all weekend.  

The kids loved it.  We will definitely be going again!  

Now that the big kids are in school we have been doing fun playdates with some friends in the ward who all have boys around Colton's age.  Hudson loved the trampoline park!  

Colton has become obsessed with a certain lego set.  I mean it's become borderline OCD.  He talks about it non-stop.  He has a picture of it he carries around with him.  One night he decided to make his Christmas list, never mind that his birthday was 2 weeks ago.  His list said, "Lego set, Lego set, Lego set, new car, new car, new car."  He has a one track mind.  

Our buddy Graham came home from the hospital!  Our ward and community had a parade for him.  The kids were supposed to dress like super heroes!

We met up with Graham and family later at the fire station!  It's been so fun to have him around again!

Chris and I had our final anniversary celebration.  We went to the same temple we were sealed in 10 years ago!  We are a little older and a hopefully a little wiser!  I'm grateful that we can still go to the temple together!

Sports Saturdays started at our house.  As Chris put it, "This is the first day of the rest of our lives."  I'm really not a sports fanatic.  I really don't care if my kids are athletes, but I do want them to gain the benefits of being in a sport: self confidence, coordination, commitment, sportsmanship, perseverance etc.  I think there's a lot they can learn.  Plus, so far they all really love their activities, so that's definitely a bonus.  Also, yes, Jaxon poses like a girl.

Colton scored three goals at his soccer game.  Also, don't we look like twins in this picture?  We all know where Colton's big head and round face come from....

and finally, finally, finally, Colton started preschool.  He was dying!!!  He loves preschool and he was so excited to go back to the same school he was at last year.  The day he started school was the best day of his life!