That last post was looooooong. Longer than I had originally thought it would be. I just didn't want to leave anything out! But now, I'm ready for a short and sweet report.
Samantha started 4th grade and Logan started 1st grade on August 30th this year!
Samantha has Mrs. Agostinelli who was one of her kindergarten teachers. She's sweet and kind and she's so great with Samantha. We love her a lot. Samantha has been excited so far this year about being part of the "promotions team" for the school store. That basically means she got to help make the posters they hung around the school advertising the store. With her love of drawing, it fit her well!
Logan has Miss Jolley. I knew my nephews had her so I asked my sister in law Kathy about her and also my Aunt Carol who works at the kids' school. Both described her as very "techy". That sounded like it was right up Logan's alley! He loved computers and video games and other technology. She is very into geocaching and has done a lot with the kids with that. (I had to ask what it was!) She even has a class blog. Logan loves to see himself on it.
On the porch
One cool dude ready for 1st grade!
Heading into her 4th grade year!
The following Sunday was beautiful weather. I'd been thinking in church how adorable Timothy was in his little tie. I decided to preserve that adorableness and add to it by taking pictures of the boys in the back yard. The following caption goes perfectly with it, I think. There's not much cuter than little guys in clean white shirts and clip-on ties! Rebecca wanted her picture taken too. How could I resist this little beauty?
I then decided to get a picture of the girls and as I got them set up on the blanket Ross told me to just stay there and smile. Glad I did.
But I'm also glad we got one of just the girls, too. I love when I'm in the present enough to know I'll want things like this in the future!
A new job. A new town. A new state. A new house. And most importantly, a new baby!
When things like this happen to a brother and his family whom you love very much, excitement abounds! Still, we were so sad to see Ryan and Celeste and their beautiful children move away from Helena after getting to spend six years with them living so close.
I've tried not to regret all them times that we didn't set up play-dates for the kids or go on a double date or invite them over to play games, etc. "Could-have-beens" aside, we do have good memories with their family and I'm so grateful for all that we did while they were here.
It seems like Celeste and I were often pregnant at the same time, so our kids are really close in age and I love it.
My Samantha is 6 months older than Maryann. Ryan's Isaac is 3 months older than my Logan. My Luke is 2 months older than Olivia. My Rebecca is 5 months older than Hyrum. My Timothy is 9 months older than Ella.
In the last few days before they moved in August, we got to spend some really fun time with them. We went out to see Ryan's kids at my parents' house while Ryan and Celeste were at the hospital bringing baby #5 into the world. (Well, Celeste was probably doing most of the work.) ;o)
All the kids played hard and loved much that day at Grandma's and Grandpa's. For fun, I took and texted the following pictures and words of encouragement to Ryan and Celeste at the hospital. How cute are these Lay kids? Adorable!
Maryann (who wrote her own sign)
Isaac and that cute toothy grin
Sweet Olivia
Hyrum (This may have been about the seventh or eighth picture I took of him. He was a more challenging subject! But the expression on his face here really makes me laugh.)
The next day we went to Lockey Park and met Grandma and Grandpa and Ryan's kiddoes there. It was a beautiful day, but hot. Ross went and got a big bulk package of bottled water for all of us. We got some fun shots and I hope it's a day not soon forgotten.
I guess I like the "Show me your muscles!" shots because I seem to have a lot of them!
It may look like a tender hug from Isaac, but I'm pretty sure Luke was actually playing the prisoner in this game. Ha. I love boys.
Maryann and Samantha
Samantha and Rebecca at the top of the tube slide
Livvy peeking through the bars
Papa Lay and Becky
Swing time, Baby!
Speaking of swing time, I dare you to watch this video and not start to giggle yourself. Hyrum is so cute! (I love the part where he starts saying my name!)
After the park we got to go to the hospital to visit Aunt Celeste and our brand new cousin, Baby Ella Kate Lay. We got there after 5:00 PM on a Saturday and realized the main doors were already closed. It was pretty hilarious to parade all nine kids around to the back of the hospital to be able to get in the Emergency Room doors. The kids were troopers. Ross and I might have whined a little bit... I thought our little procession down the hallway was darling.
Rebecca meeting the soft, sweet, brand-new Ella
Grandchild #22 meet Grandchild #23 (Aaawwwww!)
That night I sent Ryan a text that pretty much sums things up. It said:
Thanks for letting us come and see your beautiful new baby girl. I have always loved being with my older brother Ryan and it's amazing that that now means squishing 14 people into a hospital room to celebrate a new life. Love you all so much.
The following Monday two things happened, although for the life of me I don't remember in what order. My mom and I went to a park out by the fairgrounds here in town. We took my kids and Isaac, Olivia, and Hyrum. (Maryann was being mother's little helper with the new baby, I believe.) The kids got to run around on the playground first and then we took them over to the duck pond and fed the ducks and geese the few food items that we had. Mostly french fries and Cheetos, I think! The Lay kids also came to our house to play during all the packing and cleaning that was going on at their house. A look at our fun that day:
Little Mommies Becky and Olivia
Samantha joins the fun with her Chipette Brittany (This was another picture I took numerous times and could NOT seem to get all three girls to look at the camera at the same time!)
Here's the boys bonding over video games
And here they are again bonding over Transformers
Note the popcorn all over the floor. They obviously really enjoyed their snack! (And how cute is Timmy peeking around the corner here?)
Challeeeeeeeeeeeenge!
The following video again makes me laugh and laugh. Sweet Olivia's stance versus Hyrum's relentless attack is so funny! I just wish I hadn't cut off Olivia at the end when she turned to me and said, "I'm done!"
(Note: Click on the title of the video, which will show up if you scroll over the top, and watch it on YouTube. For some reason Blogger is cutting off the right half of the video and you can't see what Hyrum is doing. It's not as funny if you can't see him!)
On Tuesday, Ryan, Celeste and family finished their packing and headed out to their new home. Celeste's wonderful mother was along for the ride to help them get settled. They stopped at my dad's office to load up a few things they'd been storing there, so I took Logan with me so we could go say one last good-bye and I could drop off a lullaby CD that I'd made for Celeste.
I'm not sure I can adequately express how much I LOVE this picture. They are such darling buddies and Logan truly misses Isaac!
I also love this shot because it's of Logan saying, "Take me! Take me!" (And what an amazing packing job there, Ry!)
Ryan and I used to live in the same apartment complex before I got married and so I got to spend a lot of time with him then talking and bonding probably more than we ever had growing up. I wouldn't trade that time for anything. He has always been someone to look up to and admire. He's a big tease and funny and strong and passionate about what he does.
It was always funny to see girls look relieved when they found out I am Ryan's sister and not competition. :o) But can I just say how right for him the girl he married is? Having met a LOT of the girls who were madly in love with my brother, I can honestly say that none of them ever compared to Celeste. I remember a time that I believe was before I even met her when Ryan talked about her to me. In addition to being beautiful (Seriously, have you seen this woman? Just look how great she looks in the top picture mere days after having a baby!) and having a fun personality, he said something like he loved how spiritually mature she was. That may not sound like a romantic quality, but if you'd seen the look on his face, he was a man smitten. She is fantastic! I love being able to comfortably converse with her and share thoughts and feelings on the Church, life as a mommy, family and friends.
I was trying to think of what to title this post and finally the song "Saying Good-bye" from the movie "Muppets Take Manhattan" came to mind. I am a huge fan of the genius of Jim Henson and love that movie a lot. When I listened to the song again, it seems to fit this post.
Saying goodbye, going away Seems like goodbye's such a hard thing to say Touching a hand, wondering why It's time for saying goodbye
Saying goodbye, why is it sad? Makes us remember the good times we've had Much more to say, foolish to try It's time for saying goodbye
Don't want to leave, but we both know Sometimes it's better to go Somehow I know we'll meet again Not sure quite where, and I don't know just when You're in my heart, so until then It's time for saying goodbye
Somehow I know we'll meet again Not sure quite where, and I don't know just when You're in my heart, so until then Wanna smile, wanna cry Saying goodbye
We love you, Ryan, Celeste, Maryann, Isaac, Olivia, Hyrum, and Ella! We are so happy for you to be where the Lord wants you to be and we can't wait to see you again!
Who joined the "Boys of Summer" this year? Why, our very own Logan did! That's who!
We signed him up for baseball in the spring and he waited excitedly until practices finally started in June and games in July. He was our ever enthusiastic boy and played the game with his whole heart even when he was still learning. The 6-7 year olds' team that he was on used the pitching machine. Logan used the tee a lot as well, but by the end of the season got a hit or two off the machine which made us all cheer!
He was on the Werner Plumbing and Heating team and was ultra cute in his little uniform. His shirt was enormous (but he was thrilled to get the #1 shirt!) and his hat was too big and made his ears stick out funny (How adorable is the above picture of him?!).
We spent many a Tuesday and Thursday at Ryan Fields. I spent a LOT of time watching my brothers' little league games there as we grew up. It was a treat to get to take my little boy to the same place to play. We loved that he got the experience and can't wait until next year!
Base running
Throwing hard from the outfield
On a night when his team got to go meet the Helena Brewers. He was with #75, who I think, from all my searching online, might have been a player named Ruben Ozuna. We'll go with that.
Running to the outfield with his big Brewer baseball buddy!
Goofing around at Kindrick Legion Field with a teammate.
He was always very proud of himself for making it all the way around the bases as you can see here (Note the thumbs up at the end.):
(continued from previous post) We packed up from the lake and headed home. For a whopping $5 we'd purchased a Cars 2 slip-n-slide a few weeks earlier. We were all still in our swimsuits, so why not pull it out now? Yes! That sounds like a great idea.
Logan was so ready to be first to try it out!
Uh, yeah. That'd be me. Tons of fun, but can't believe I'm actually posting this.
Ross got into the fun as well!
Luke was only brave enough to run up and down the slide. Eventually, he'd slide on his tummy, but not that day. It certainly didn't ruin his good time though!
Samantha was busy inside working on a new paint by number picture she'd received for her birthday. Becky and Timothy mostly just played outside and didn't venture into the water. We also got a kick out of using the high speed feature on our camera to take pictures of ourselves shooting down the slide. The kids still love to watch me flip through it in our photo program!
Our 4th of July FEAST! We had barbequed pork sandwiches, hot dogs, corn on the cob, a few other typical Independence Day picnic type items, I think. But no watermelon. I'm not a fan. Wish I was, but I just don't like it! And do you know what I love about this photo? It, without a doubt, would be rejected by Good Housekeeping or Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, but it still feels patriotic to me!
This is our red,white, and blue Key Lime pie. I got the idea off a blog I read. I just used red food coloring for the lime filling. I felt so creative! ;o)
That night we went out to the Zinn Ranch up on MacDonald Pass. We met up with Ryan and Celeste and their kids and had a great time once again at the fireworks show. It's such a beautiful mountain setting!
Luke and Olivia (Logan, Isaac, and Hyrum in the background)
Samantha sitting pretty
My awesome photography (ha ha) of the beautiful fireworks
Baby Timothy and I enjoying the display
And so, dear Independence Day, that was our fun day. Did I do better this year at celebrating the freedom that is ours? I think so! It was a memorable day. Can't wait until next year. See you then!
Dear Independence Day (aka The Fabulous Fourth of July),
This is a letter of apology. For the past few years, I feel I have let you down. I have not celebrated in a fashion that becomes you. Plans have not been made. Effort has not been put forth. No fun picnics prepared. Just finding some fireworks to watch in the evening and calling it good. (Although, last year you fell on the Sabbath and it rained, so you've got to give me that.) However, this year -- well, this year, I did it! I planned! We partied! It was probably the most memorable day of Summer 2011! So now, at this moment, I will once again relive the amazing day we had celebrating freedom and family. Come and see. We did so much this will take more than one post!
The weather was beautiful. Clear skies. Warm and very pleasant. And green showing up everywhere thanks to the wet spring we'd had.
I called my brother Ryan and his family to see what they were doing and he invited us to come with them to Clark's Bay on Hauser Lake. My parents were invited too and we spent a lovely late morning there splashing and sunning, picnicking and playing. Ross as we arrived
Squinting Becky Boo next to the moat that Uncle Ryan built as only Uncle Ryan can. (I think that's Isaac, Olivia, and Luke in the background. And the kid with his hands down his shorts is thankfully not related. Ha Ha!)
Luke and his super muscles
Logan and Isaac and their super muscles
Where do those boys get their super muscles? Apparently from Papa Lay!
Kicking back on the beach
Timothy spending his time relaxing as only a 7 month old baby can!
Samantha and Maryann showing some love
The "Raise your hands in the air!" shot. Ross must not have heard me.(And I promise that even if you can count his ribs in this picture, we do feed Logan.)
