Anniversary, Temple Open House, and getting ready for School

Stephen and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on August 16th.  Stephen's parents took the kids for the weekend and although I love them, it was real nice to have some time with just the two of us without children.  I am very grateful for Stephen and I am so glad that through our trials in life that we are there for each other every step of the way.

 August has been real busy.  We made time to go to the Ogden Temple Open House though this week.  We had a wonderful time.  The Ogden Temple was where my parents got married over 37 years ago and here we were able to see it newly reconstructed and looking beautiful.  I didn't want to have to carry a camera around the temple so we just took pictures with my phone.  You have to love technology. Sadly though since it was bright outside it was hard to see what you were trying to actually take a picture of so if some of the pictures seem off or at weird angles it's probably because they were being taken blindly.

 School starts next week for my boys.  Vance is in third grade.  He is at the same school he's been at since kindergarten, but he has a brand new principal and we think he'll be real good.  His teacher seems like a sweet woman.  She is young, I am thinking maybe late 20's.  Sadly, Vance will be having eye surgery in September, right at the beginning, but I hope that doesn't put him behind for long.

 Tanner is going to a new school this year.  They have an accelerated program in our school district and kids have to be tested into the program.  Tanner and his cousin Jillian both got in.  They only offer this program at a few schools in the district though so they'll have a little commute.  I really hope this is a good program for him and that it keeps his creative brain active and that he can find more happiness in that type of classroom than constantly being frustrated with his peers or getting used to being lazy with school work.  It'll prove to be an interesting year.

I plan to do preschool with Porter again this year.  It feels kind of weird thinking that this will be my last year to do it with my own children.  It's a fun age and is kind of hard to watch them get older, bigger, smarter, and ask harder questions I don't know how to answer.

Beginning of August

We made a trip to Rexburg, Idaho to see my younger sister, her husband, and one of my brothers.  It was wonderful to see them and to spend some time in Rexburg.  That is where Stephen and I met and fell in love.  We both got associate degrees from BYU-Idaho.  We also had Vance and Tanner while we lived there so it is a place full of lots of happy memories for us.  There are many aspects I miss about it, however I don't think I could ever go back to those cold winters.  Rose took some family pictures for us as well as pictures of each of the boys, and some of Stephen and I too.  I was so happy she was willing to do that.  We got some despite kids being moody.

Porter finished the reading lessons I've been doing with him.  He has enjoyed learning to read more.  He started picking it up on his own so I decided I better teach him before he'd completely taught himself.  I suppose seeing his brothers reading made him determined to know how to do it himself.

Here are a few more pictures that Rose took.

This weekend Stephen and I will celebrate our 11 year wedding anniversary.  Love that man.  :)