Megan

So for most of the morning Megan and I get to hang out together. She misses Lia, Laura and Josh while they're gone, but it's been fun spending some one-on-one time with her. Probably too much of that time is spent running errands, but she's great to take places and we try to get some good story time and snuggling time in too while the big kids are gone.

First Day of School

Here are the first day of school pictures for Josh, Laura and Lia. Josh was so excited to start kindergarten! He was so cute. I was sad to see him go, but excited for him too. He loves his teacher and I love to see the progress he's making. I also love how serious he is about the instructions he gets from his teacher--what needs to be turned in, etc. (or at least how serious he was...it's worn off a little). Lia and Laura were also really excited! One of the great things about staying here in Utah is the kids get to go to the same school they've been going to. They have friends there and are comfortable and I've been really happy with it. I love that Lia and Laura and Josh get excited when they see each other at school and they look out for each other.

End of the Summer

In August we sold our house and moved pretty much up the street. We decided we wanted to stay in the area and keep the kids in the same school. We were excited about the move, but sad to leave this house. We spent eight years here and loved it! When we moved in we just had Lia and when we left, our family was complete. We will always be grateful for the experiences we had there and the things we learned. We will miss our neighbors, who were the best neighbors ever, and our ward, but we're still close and it was time for our family to move on...

 The week we moved in we were so excited to have our friends the Lepores over for a visit. They used to be our neighbors but are now living in France. It was great to see them!

 Emilie, Laura and Lydie. Emilie and Laura were babies when the Lepores moved in.

 You woudn't know it now, but Lia and Eric used to be inseparable when they were preschoolers. They still like to see each other, I think, so long as they don't have to touch each other.

We also had a visit from our friends the Thaynes. The Thaynes are friends from our old ward and moved a few days after we did. It was fun to see them too!

 Josh, Lia, Megan, Alexis, Ryan, Laura and Tyler.

This was our last swim of the season. Our friends the Reynolds moved into the Thayne's old house and invited us to swim. They lined themselves up on the chairs and were so cute I had to take a picture: Lia, Katelee, Laura, Josh and Megan.

Megan's Birthday

So as I mentioned before, I don't have any pictures from Megan's birthday. What a bummer. Especially since she got her first bike for her birthday this year. And she had her first birthday party with her friends Grace, Tanner and Shine (also known as Leah). But, life must go on. We celebrated Megan's birthday a couple weeks early because I wanted her to be able to ride her bike around the circle for a couple weeks before we moved and we were hoping to move on her actual birthday. So, we had a little party with her friends, celebrated up the canyon with some friends that night, and celebrated with our families a few days later. Megan is definitely the baby of the family. Lia and Laura remind me all the time how she always gets what she wants. I tell them that's because she's the loudest screamer. But really, as much as I try not to treat her any differently, I'm sure I do because I'm seeing the days of having a little one slipping away and as a result I probably baby her more than I should. Either way, it's not her fault. 

Megan is at such a fun age. She says funny things like "can you help me put on my swimming pool?" instead of swimming suit. And recently, "I need my suitcase to play in the nose," instead of snow suit to play in the snow. She also always confesses when she's done something she shouldn't have, wants to do her "homework" when everyone else is doing theirs, and when she and Josh are playing she'll ask him, "are you being nice to me?" just to make sure she knows where she stands. She always has a baby in tow and loves to play with her friends. I love that she likes to snuggle and give kisses. And I love having her in our family!

Josh's Birthday

I somehow manged to lose the pictures from Josh and Megan's birthdays. I am really sad about it, but I can still write about what we did and all the cute things they're doing right now. Josh turned 5 in July. He had a superhero party with his friends where he dressed up like Spider Man. He was so excited for his costume to come in the mail. I made him a Spider Man cake and we had a family party for him that night. Josh gives the best hugs in the world, especially when I'm picking him up from school. He also has a really cute way of talking. He loves playing with his friends and his Legos and watching super hero shows. He also started liking fishing and playing baseball this last summer. He asked Nate just about every night in the summer if they could go fishing or play baseball. When he's waiting for a pitch he gets this look in his eye and gives a little nod to show he's ready, it's really funny. Josh also likes drawing pictures of firetrucks and fire pits (I'm not sure why he started drawing pictures of the fire pits, but they're pretty cute). Whenever he takes a shower in our shower that has a glass door he'll stay in there all night drawing pictures of firetrucks on the glass. I love it when he and Megan play together, it is really sweet. They shared a room until we moved and are cute little friends (most of the time). We love Josh and are so grateful for him!! He definitely adds a lot to our family!

Barson Family Reunion

This year the Barson Family Reunion was in Park City. We stayed at a great house and had a fabulous time! It was so fun to see my brother and his family from Florida and my sister and her family from Idaho. Thanks Kellie and Ian and mom and dad for putting it all together!

My fantastic parents.

My brother Ryan and sisters Kellie, Kathie, Kristen, me, Korinne and Katie.

Kristen did all the girls' hair. My girls especially loved it!

We worked on decorations for the Festival of Trees tree we're doing this year for my niece Anna who passed away.

The kids loved the hot tub and got in it as much as they could.

This was our family skit. Only our glow sticks were supposed to show up, but the flash picked us up too. We did a dance to the song from Kung Fu Panda. 

Playing pool. I love Josh trying to reach the top of his stick.

Almost all the grand kids at my mom and dad's before the reunion.

4th of July

We spent the morning with Nate's family at the East Millcreek Parade. The kids got to ride in the back of Nate's dad's truck. They were so excited!

Then we went down to Provo for my family's 4th of July party at BYU. We missed my brother Ryan and his family, but we had a great time!

Once again, thanks for the pictures Korinne! Can I just take you with me everywhere?