Go Buckaroos!

The first day of school was August 18th, here in Monticello. It was a lovely experience. I love the new clothes~new backpack~packed lunch~fresh start feeling :)



Shylee started the day in her (temporary) cheer attire for the pep rally. (Her actual uniform arrived before the first football game, and she is thrilled :) When she came home for lunch I shot a few pics of her "first day of school outfit :)

Football is on!



We played a pre-game with Price (which is a 3A school) and we did very well! Lance got in some action and I will post those pics later!

Monticello

Since we have moved back we have been pleasantly busy. Shylee made the cheer/drill team here and Lance is on the football team and in the midst of practicing. They have all taken swim lessons and enjoyed plenty of time at the local pool. We have travelled plenty, which will always be the case living rural. Lance loves the hospital he works at and fits in very well. We had a family reunion just this past weekend. It was terrific. There was fishing, riding horses, cooking out and enjoying the outdoors! Great job Cassy!
Our lives have been greatly improved by moving here. We are close to family which allows us to attend and participate with family frequently. The sun is always shining and when it rains, it's appreciated!

We love being in an area that appreciates that we are here. We are treated like assets of the community and that has been a long time awaited!
Living in Ohio was a struggle. We hope we learned some valuable lessons and we KNOW we grew as a family. I wouldn't want to take the opportunity away, but I am so very relieved that we have moved on to a better place where we belong. It's time we can take a sigh of relief and enjoy being where we belong. Hopefully this will be a permanent place where can plunk down some roots!
These are some pics from fishing during the family reunion with my kids and nephews! It was a blast!

Anal Retentive

I love my kids. I don't think I brag about them the same way other parents do. If my first grader was on a 7th grade reading level, I don't think I would brag about that. But if, in this situation, he decides that he needs to organize his day, down to the last "drop" (hehe) you bet, I'm gonna brag about that!!! Those are the moments in life that make all the other hum-drum-having-a-bad-day-can't-figure-out-what-to-fix-for-dinner moments worth it!

Plus, his priorities are in order.

"hug mom"

is above

"poop."

Props to me!

The photos beneath are the work of Rider Allen. I give him a camera and he loves to take pictures all around the house and yard! I love his perspective. The simple things add up to being the most important things :)

Pics on Mother's Day

For Mom's Day I wanted to take some family pics.





So we, being imposing, were driving down a road called Phalanx Mills Herner, and decided to ask some super nice people if we could take family photos on their property!!!






They were super nice and we got acquainted for a while and then took some nice photos!



We aren't use to the sun here, so we were all pretty much squinting the entire time! But it was fun and nice to have some pics of the family in Ohio!

Happy 13th Birthday Hunter!!!

I love this boy. We had such a wonderful night for his birthday! After track pictures Lance and I whisked him off to a night with mom and dad! We took him shopping so he could choose exactly what he wanted.



Then we went out to dinner at his place of choice (Applebees :) then home for cake and ice cream with the family.

He is an amazingly gracious young man. He kept saying that he wanted to go where we would like to eat. He only spent half of what he was allowed to spend on presents! He kept wanting to make sure that we were enjoying ourselves too. We were LOVING every minute!!!


He is a sweetheart. He is always complimenting and trying to understand people in different circumstances. He has always been my affectionate one. I am so glad he has such a kind heart and is such a wonderful example and asset to our family :)

PS Shylee, being a sweet daughter, made the cake while we were out and about!!

It's Great to Be 38?!

Rider and I were having a lovely drive back from dropping kids off at track practice. He was rambling on about his life as a 4 year old. He then takes a completely different route in the conversation and asks me


"How many are you?"

I looked at him to make sure that he really wanted the facts and he asks again intently

"How much are you?"

With a smile on my face, wondering how this was going to go, knowing that he rarely even counted that high on the number line, I said

"38."

And this was his response (I had him rein act the face, which actually doesn't even do justice to the original.




After his quick realization that he doesn't speak old people he immediately pulled a U turn in the conversation and got back on course with his previous conversation (that didn't include the number 38).

Happy 10TH Birthday Trapper!!

Today is Trapper Talkeetna Allen's 10TH birthday! During the day we went to the matinee of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules.

Fisher got to skip a day of school to party with us! Trapper is home schooled, and he didn't have to do a stitch of work today either!

YAY!

They wanted to take a picture in front of Hop, just for fun!


After that we went out for pizza, then came home and had cake and ice cream with everyone and opened presents!!!


The kids were so full of dinner and treats that they didn't have one bite of cake or ice cream :) In the pic of his cake, you will notice the little koala bear, Rider was dying to include!



Trapper said it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! That means a lot!