It's Official.....

Well, today was a big day for us.......We excepted the job at McAnany Van Cleave & Phillips! We feel very blessed to have such a great offer, and even though it is not the location we planned on in the beginning, we LOVE the midwest, and are very excited to get to stay for possibly a few more years:) The kids are all excited about it as well. Blake can't wait to live closer to Science City, and Michayla is very excited to paint her new bedroom......(in a year or so). It seems like a long ways away still, but we are excited for the new adventures that await us. Thanks for all of your prayers on our behalf! Love you all!

September in a FLASH!

WOW! This last month went by SOOOOOO fast. I barely know where to start, so I'll just give a quick photo, and then a synopsis of the happenings:)

Michayla gets her haircut.

Before the madness
The torture
The fuzzy end result. It wasnt my idea....I LOVED her long hair, but she sure does look cute!

The injury

Brent twisted his ankle playing B-ball. It was swollen for almost 3 weeks!
It was pretty nasty how we watched the blood spread day after day, eventually into his toes! He is finally doing better, but not 100%.

Lisa comes to town!

This is one of our outings to a Japanese resturaunt. The picture below is Blakes face when they lighted the stove on fire. Allyson was so scared she was shaking. We spent a lot of time in the bathroom with her because she was scared while they were cooking:)

And Last but not least, Fathers and sons! The last month has been absolutely GORGEOUS, and luckily, this camping trip went 100% better than the last one. Blake loved every second.

Michayla learned how to ride her bike! Wahoo!

The kids in the neighborhood could all ride their bikes. Michayla was determined to learn. We started out on the side walk, and for a couple days she was frustrated and couldnt quite get it. Then Brent took her on the grass behind our house, and she did great! From then on she practiced and practiced! I am SOOOO proud of her.

Starting School!

This was quite the big school starting year for our family. 4 out of the 5 of us were starting school this semester:) Michayla went to 1st grade at McCarter Elementary. Blake is in Kindergarten at the same school. Brent of course is at Washburn law school, and I am doing my internship at Blake and Michaylas school and taking a couple other courses from ASU online. What a change its been for us! The kids have done great! Brent and I actually have our easiest semester so far, so we are very much enjoying it!

Sweet Michayla posing with her favorite Backyardigans lunch box.
Blakester flashing a star wars pose.
Heres the crew. We were all excited to get school started!
Blakester waiting in line at his new school.

Happy Birthday Blake

My BABY Boy is 5!

For Blakes birthday in AZ we took a large crew up to Showlow to go watch KungFu Panda. It was so much fun. We had an entire row in the movies full of kids, and their laughing loud during the funny parts made it so worth the effort of taking ALL these kids! Thanks Jodi for letting us take your 15 passenger van! (And especially for letting us take our van, so we didnt have to drive with you and 13 kids:)

Proud Blake displaying his insect catcher. It came with an insect vacuume......really here in Kansas though, there are no bugs, so we'll have to wait to use it until we move back to AZ. Right Kansas friends?

Yehaw!

In Arizona, one of kids FAVORITE thing to do was to ride horses with their cousins. Especially my Allyson. She is officially OBSESSED with horses. She always has some horse with her now, and the funny thing is that if you ask her what the name of the horse is, she will always say "Star".

Allyson and Briette on Oreo
Michayla and Paige on Splinkey
This is Allyson with Parci. Parci took Allyson for a ride almost everyday. She quickly became her "favorite cousin" of the trip:)
Blake and Briette on Star

If you look really close, you can see the Snowflake temple in the background. Its just to the left of the 2 big trees. There is a hill that you can see, and the temple sits on it, but since its bright outside you cant really see it.
Michayla riding Star all by herself! She loves to ride too, but she is not quite as obsessed as Allyson.

Happy Birthday America!

Well, very late I wanted to make sure and document our possible last 4th of July in Kansas.

We LOVE the 4th here! This year the kids got to decorate their bikes and ride in a cute neighborhood parade along with some of their friends. Brent got to show off his mad bass drum skills! No, it wasnt his idea, and he did it a bit reluctantly, but doesnt he look good doing it? A proffesor of his asked him to fill in when we got there, and I think he actually had a good time doing it.

After the parade, the kids were able to do some foot races, and Blake took 2nd. He did awesome. They also had turtle races, and ice cream sandwhiches for everyone.

That night we went out to some friends house for some major fire work displays. The best part of living in Kansas is that fireworks are completely legal! It feels like World War III for about a week, and on the 4th there is some major smog over the city, but its well worth it. The kids really enjoy it.