Book Fair

I took the kids to the book fair, and Collin got a really cool book.  And by really cool, I mean he and I like it, but the rest of the world probably thinks we are just a little bit nerdy.  The book is about all the elements on the periodic table, and has a page or two devoted to facts about each element.  Nerd power!

Caitlyn was so excited to go to the book fair.  She reminded me daily about it.  Heck, who am I kidding, she reminded me multiple times a day most days!  When she went to the book fair with her class, she found this cute little kitty journal with a real working lock.  It was everything a seven year old girl would ever want- pink, kitten on the front, and the kitten even has a princess crown on its cute little furry head!!!  Holy cuteness overload!  It's the girly girl trifecta...all in one item!  When I finally took the kids to the book fair (on the very last day, during the very last hour it was open...), Caitlyn rushed over to the spot where she previously saw the journal, and IT WASN'T THERE!  Cue the crying and whining...  I was able to make out phrases such as, "I told you we needed to go to the book fair yesterday, Mom!" and "Now I'll never have the kitty journal!"  I tried to get her to look at other (possibly not quite so pink) books, but none of them interested her.  I recruited Cameron to distract her.  Poor boy did his best, but she wasn't going to be distracted!  I walked around looking at different books.  "Look Caitlyn!  This one has a kitty on it!  This kitty is playing with puppies!"  Because really, what's cuter than kitties playing with puppies?  NOTHING!  "Here's a princess book!"  Nothing would take its place.  The other kids picked out their books, and as I was gathering them to leave, I happened to glance over at one of the tables, and THERE IT WAS!!  The KITTY JOURNAL!!!  She grabbed it, I paid for everything, and we all left.  I was the triumphant hero of the day!  At least until the next major catastrophe struck.

Cameron chose the next book in the series he is currently reading- he's so practical.  He wanted to know what the point of purchasing a book is.  You know, because usually the library has all the books you can read.  And they are free.  Love that boy and his darn logical thinking :)

Caleigh chose a fashion designer type book.  It has stencils so she can draw pretty princesses and pretty dresses.  It's cute and she loves it.

Pictures are a'comin' as soon as I wrestle my phone away from the baby princess :)

Caleigh the Soccer player

Caleigh Bug started soccer this year!  She went to her first game on Saturday, and was SOOOOO cute!  She is 4, and very small for her age, so I worried about her playing, but she loves it!   Her uniform is HUGE on her, and she can't even wear the shorts provided with the uniform, but after a few minor modifications, she was able to get dressed in her uniform and play.  She played the whole game.  She chased the ball up and down the field.  She was usually about 5 yards behind the crowd, but her little legs were moving super fast!  She's about a foot shorter than everyone, so she had to take about two steps for everyone else's one step!  

Here's a picture of her in her uniform.  Gotta love the delay on my camera phone- misses darn near every cute expression!  Oh well,  good thing she's such a cutie pie :)

Jason Aldean Concert

This past weekend John and I went to the Jason Aldean concert in Glendale, AZ.  It was awesome!!!!!!  Luke Bryan opened, and put on a good show.  Well, at least what we saw.  We ended up being stuck in traffic half a mile from the venue for 1.5 hours.  We planned on being about 30 mins early to the concert.  The venue holds about 20,000 people.  Having spent 7 years in north Texas, we know that 20,000 people is a good 3A or average 4A Friday night football crowd...plenty of people, but nothing out of control, right?  Riiiiiight....  the city of Glendale does not believe in crowd control.  20,000 people headed to that concert and we all had to go through the regular stop signs and stop lights- no cops were out directing traffic.  The line to get into the pavilion was literally at least a mile long in every imaginable direction.  IT SUCKED!!!!

Once we got to the pavilion and found our seats, it was awesome!  The music was loud.  The crowd was great.  Time flew by, and before we knew it, the clock struck 11, and we were on our way back out of the pavilion.

Unky Sussin is Married

This weekend, my brother, the kids' beloved Unky Sussin got married.  I was a total dork and didn't even bring my camera, but I'm hoping to steal some pictures to put on the blog eventually.

The wedding ceremony took place in the Mesa, AZ LDS temple.  During their sealing, I was honored to sit in the "mother" spot beside my brother, and to watch the whole ceremony up close and personal.

Laura, his wife (Justin has a WIFE???  Awesome!), looked beautiful on her day, and Justin was so handsome.

After the temple ceremony, they had a ring ceremony.  It was such a treat to have so many family members on hand to celebrate his big day.  After they exchanged rings, we had a Hawaiian-themed luncheon that my dad and step-mom had catered.  It was REALLY good.  That evening we had the first reception in Mesa with mostly her family and friends, and will have the second reception this weekend for the Gila Valley folks.

They should be returning from their honeymoon in a couple of days...then I will be eagerly anticipating an announcement regarding a new niece or nephew!  (I kid, I kid...kindof.... ;) )
 

Random Summertime Memories

I simply cannot believe this summer is almost over!  We had great plans for awesome vacations this summer, but between work and general "busy-ness" we didn't do anything too awesome.  We had fun, though. Here's a quick rundown of some of the things we did this summer:

 Caleigh at her last day of school pool party

 Caleigh with one of her friends from school.

 I built the girls a playhouse (with lots of help from my Dad!)

 Caleigh painting the playhouse.

 My hard worker :)

 Grandpa Bryant visited and brought the girls some pretty princess dresses!

 They were soooo excited!

 Caitlyn in her pretty dress

 Caleigh in her pretty dress

 Caleigh with her tiara

 The girls and Nanny :)

 The whole crew at the boys' baptism

 Our familia at the baptism

 My grannies at the baptism

 Collin and Nanny

 Caleigh at the Arizona Science Center.  The company John and I work for sponsored the museum for July, so we were able to take ourselves and up to 6 guests each to the museum.    

 Caitlyn at the museum.

 Cam cracked me up in this picture :)  This science center has SOOOO many exhibits!  We will definitely need more time to explore when we go next summer!!!

 This was an exhibit that represented a heart.  There are red balls to represent oxygenated blood, and blue to represent deoxygenated blood.  Caleigh just stood there.  There were some wild boys in the deoxygenated area who overwhelmed her a bit.

 We stopped by the Mesa temple and walked the grounds after leaving the science center.  

Let's Play Ketchup!

Here they are on their baptism day. All three of my boys. All dressed in white. Awesome!

Here they are again :) This is more like it! hehehe!

Here's the whole familia! Meanwhile, I went to the temple for the first time and took out my endowment. It was an awesome experience. We've set a goal to attend the temple weekly. My brother took out his endowment later the same day. We have some pictures of us in front of the temple, but they're on a different camera, so they will have to wait. But just imagine them here :)

 The day after the boys were baptized, we were able to go to the temple and be sealed as a couple, and as a family. It was awesome! It was just us, the temple workers, John's sister and aunt, my dad, and one of our home teachers in the sealing room. The kids looked absolutely beautiful. It was a perfect day. We have pictures of our sealing day, too, but they are also on the other camera, so they too will have to wait :)