First Day of School!

The big day arrived too soon!  Ashlyn started the 4th grade at MATES, Alyssa started middle school (6th grade!) at Redwood, and Amy began her final year at Redwood as an 8th grader! Wow! Aly was especially happy to be dressed in new clothes instead of a uniform, and they all had a great first day! Brandon was happy to stay home with a new computer game to keep him busy. Kindergarten starts September 12th for him!

Amy- 8th grade

Alyssa - 6th grade

Ashlyn 4th grade

My beautiful girls!

Last Lake Trip of the Summer

We took one final trip to Lake San Antonio- it was the best one yet!! Jake, Dez, Dane and Addison, Jeff, Hayley, and Brayden, Tyler, Paige, and Tucker, and Mike and Brent Dubin came along and it was awesome! All the kids skiied and tubed, and Amy learned to wakeboard,wake surf, and kneeboard this trip. Aly, Ash, and Brandon learned to kneeboard, and Ash got up on a wake surf board with her new pal Brent! Dad got in some ski runs, as well as wake surfing, even with Brandon sharing the board! Ty celebrated his 18th birthday with us at the lake too. What a great way to end the summer!

Amy's Birthday Week Extravaganza

It's official- she's 13.  She got home from Girls Camp, had dinner out at Bandits, celebrated with another fun party- with the family this time.  Such a lucky girl! 

Birthday haircut- She looks beautiful

Amy's 13th birthday party

So I am officially entering the crazy world of raising a teenager! Amy is turning 13 on Friday- she will be off at Girls Camp for the week so she had her friends over to celebrate early.  They swam, ate tons of pizza and snacks and cookies and ice cream, and had a great time together.

Happy Birthday Amy Girl!

Ashy's haircut

So Ashlyn decided to cut her hair before school, and I suggested she get bangs! I have never liked bangs on kids so none of my girls have them, but I figured Ash needed to be first at something (the 3rd child never is!) so here she is with bangs. She looks precious!

Our little garden

Grandma Jill helped us by planting our first garden! I don't have a green thumb so thank goodness for her help!  We have been getting quite a crop of crookneck squash, zuccini, cucumbers, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Now the apples are going crazy, the grapes are starting to grow, and there's a few oranges on the tree! Yeah! We can't believe the watermelon- this one is growing right on the tennis court- through the fence.

Photos

aly age 10

So I got inspired to work on my photography skills- set the camera on Manual and figure it out!! Fortunately I have lots of pretty models around my house! Here are my favorite shots of the day...

Old Favorites

Ok- so I have so many thousands of pictures of my family that I had to share a few favorites, just going back into 2009 and 2010.  Enjoy!

Slightly disturbing, I know, but they really like to hunt!!

Just one of my favorite pictures that I took- Mojave Desert