Wow!! I had no idea that it had been so long since I had posted here! Where has the time all gone. I can't believe another summer has come and gone..... and we are back in school. What a busy summer it was. We had the girls here again for the summer and got to have Sterling stay a week as well before he took off for boys camp..... it was suppose to be a day, but then it turned to two and three..... and before long a week had passed and it didn't seem long enough. We really enjoyed getting to know him better. The kids all call him "Uncle Sterl!" We found that he has got a great sense of humor and I loved playing football with him up at the canyon, going to 5 cent lemonade stands, getting pizza, making smores, and helping him pick out a sweatshirt from the BYU bookstore! I never laughed so hard as the week that he was around.
As to the rest of the summer, Celeste worked in the office as a receptionist/office assistant/MedicalAssistant in training!! She did a great job! She got to give her first shots, take blood pressures and vitals, and lots of other "cool" stuff. Her favorite item at our house was the "car keys" !! :) Late night talks (those are a summer tradition), going to get our hair done together, swimming, St. George, and going to the gym. And you can't forget the MTC!! That was so funny!! I am so impressed with her desire to go on a mission! She will be a great missionary one day!! Let's see .... what else.... so much I am missing! Every year we make a list of a 100 things that we are going to do during the summer, and we usually come pretty close to getting them all in. Dance parties, midnight walks, ..... I think about the only one we missed was going to sample all the snow cone flavors. How did we miss that?
Celina is getting so grown up!! I can't believe it. She was only 11 the first summer she came and now is 13 going on 14!!! She loves all the girly things, ..... painting nails, shopping at the mall, boys (oops... did I really say that??? :) Ha ha) And she is continuing to work on her goal of reading 1000 books that she started last year. The funny thing is she read Undaunted (A series of 7 books that is compiled into one) in about 3 days.... and I kept telling her she needed to count it for 7 books, but she insisted that since it was all in the same cover that it only counted for one. Then she moved onto the Work and the Glory.
All the family was there for my marathon. What a neat experience. Alec and Sterling even helped me on some of my practice runs.... riding a bike and handing me water and gu packets. Alec went back and decided to give running a try and made the VARSITY cross country team!!!! (As a sophomore!!! :) Unbelievable.) He has a natural talent for running. We attended his first track meet this past weekend. He did great!! He has got such a great group of friends on the cross country team, and I am so excited for this upcoming year for him. It will be one of his best I think. He is already counting down the days until he turns 16 and enters the world of dating!!
Sami just turned 10!!! I can't believe we are onto double digits!! She is my true helper! She is my righthand gal, and I don't know what I would do without her. She and TylerKate have their own rooms, but insist on sleeping in the twin size bed together each night! :) We found out that Sami is quite the baker. One night I called home to talk to Bret on my way home from the grocery store, and she announced that she was making Peanut Butter Sandwhich Creams!! (She was still 9) I asked, "Where is dad?" She says "Oh, he is in the shower, but I already got the meat out for dinner, and am just finishing up these cookies" I expected somewhat of a disaster coming home, but what I found were the most delicious peanut butter cookies I have had. I think we all ate about half a dozen a piece. Since then she has tried out all sorts of recipes, and I am learning that when she says "mom, I can do it on my own" .... she really can. She is such a sweetheart.
Bretty-Booper!!! I still cannot believe that he just turned eight and will get baptized near the end of the month. He was surrounded by girls all summer and such a good sport about it! He has gotten really good at building all sorts of contraptions out of legos and such. He continues to love art, and although he does not have a passion for reading, he is getting much better at it, and finding out that there are cool "guy" books to read like "king arthur" and "treasure island". Mostly he just likes to play with his best friend Bradley! Oh, and I can't forget "Pirate Island Pizza!!" That was a highlight for all of us this summer, that we did for Bretty's birthday. Celeste won 1400 tickets in a single try.... and then gave them all to Bretty since it was his birthday!!! How sweet! He used them to buy prizes for everyone. I told her that her lucky win was "genetic" just the same as Bret inherited "genetic ability to find front row parking... EVERYTIME!!"
Tanner..... wow!!! If I could have even a tenth your energy I would get so much more done!!! Always on the go!!! He loves to tell stories and play pretend robots, monsters, dragons, and anything else boyish. He also loves to do anything his big brother can do! He still makes us all laugh at dinner time. I don't know how he does it.... but he just comes up with the funniest things. He really missed "uncle sterl" and still talks about him a lot!! We found out that he is a little fish this summer. His favorite is swimming underwater!
TylerKate..... little dolly! Cute and mischievious all wrapped up in one. She likes to have her nails painted and pretty bows in her hair. She likes my little ponies and dancing in her princess ballerina costume.... and then all of a sudden she is tackling one of the boys and really giving them a run for their money. This is especially funny when she tackles Bretty because he is twice her size!! She even tries to tackle daddy. He is, and I think always will be her favorite!! No matter what she is doing, or where she is, when daddy walks in she senses it, and goes yelling through the house..... "daddy!! daddy!!".... jumps into his arms and wants nothing to do with me for the next hour!! Ha ha!! :)
Well,, pictures will come soon. I have got oodles of them from the summer... Hopefully in the next few days!!
It has been a great summer, and I look forward to the school year, although we are always sad to see the cousins go. It feels much quieter around, but I have never been the type to like it too quiet... :) I think it will be a great year for eveyone though, and I am excited to see all that this school year brings!!
