Two Full Hands

 You know you're old when it takes two full hands to show a person your age! :) Ethan has finally made that all-important milestone. He is no longer a single digit.

We spent Ethan's birthday in appropriate Linn family style... at a sporting event. It was actually at Ethan's (& Spencer's) football scrimmage. It was their first ever tackle football game(ish) and man - it was intense! It was really special to him to have Little Gramma & Little Papa and Regloo come watch for a bit!

A few notes about the new 10 year-old Ethan:

Favorite Food: Fried Chicken, on the bone
Favorite Movie: The Avengers
Favorite TV show: Adventure Time
Favorite Book: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Favorite Color: Purple
Favorite Fictional Character: Jake from Adventure Time
Favorite Hobby: Baseball

Quote from Ethan: "I love to draw and be creative and stuff"

I love love love this kid!
Happy 10th Birthday Ethan!

Conditioning Week

I have a super weird story: and it goes like this...

The boys are playing Football right now, instead of Baseball.

The End

Now that you have recovered from the shock, let me tell you about our first week...

 It was AWESOME! I absolutely love the intensity of this sport. Coaches are always yelling just because they can and parents are so excited. It is such a fun change.

(Don't get me wrong, I still love baseball!)

The boys hae to work their booties off though! It has been HOT, in fact we are under a heat advisory (ha! Like that is something new??) but they have been running, and running and running and doing some other workout stuff in between runs. They have such heart though. I have been SO proud of Spencer & Ethan they have been going strong so far!

At the end of the last practice the boys got a visit from Kwamie Lassiter, apparently he is a former Cardinal's player. They thought it was pretty cool that he came out to see them.

Next week is when the FUN begins!! They wear the pads and they get to start hitting each other! woohoo!

First...errrr...Second day of School

 Today was the first...errrr...second day of school for the kids! Now that we live in the Chandler school district they start early. They have a modified year round schedule which gives them a shorter summer but longer Fall & Spring breaks. I love it! The kids are still not quite sold on the idea but they seemed pretty excited for school today!

Unfortunately Ryleigh was the only one that made it to the actual first day of school. The boys and myself were down with the flu, so I didn't even get a proper picture of her on her first day. ooops.

Lets start with miss Ryleigh since she is the oldest! I can't believe that she is going into her Freshman year of high school! Seriously! What the heck! She has a full schedule this year, including a 0 hour, which means she has to be to school at 6:20am! She doesn't seem to mind too much though. Her electives are P.E. (she decided to get that out of the way this year) and Sign Language, plus she is in seminary. They are learning about the New Testament this year. Her bestie, Macayla, doesn't share a single class with her but they do share a lunch thankfully and Ryleigh has never struggled with making friends so I am sure that she will have a blast this year. I am so excited for this school year for her! 

Spencer is in his last year of elementary school! Yep! 6th grade. The big man on campus. He has a guy teacher this year who is totally into sports, especially football. I am hoping that will be a good connection for Spencer. Spencer has never struggled in school and always seems to enjoy learning. I am hoping that this year his teacher will prepare him to be independent and be ready for junior high next year! eek!

Ethan is going into 4th grade this year! ugh! 4th grade was the year for all the kids that seems to be the most difficult transition. I am hoping that Ethan with transition smoothly. His teacher seems very confident and experienced which I am praying will be perfect for him. He was ecstatic that she was his teacher because apparently she is "nice"! I am just excited that he is excited.

Even though Olivia is not going to school this year, I thought I would post a picture anyways. This is her last year home with me. :( I could put her in preschool this year but it was expensive and I am in no hurry to be missing her all day long. I love this girl!

The last year...for a while

Spencer & Ethan - September 2007

Five years ago the boys were SSSOOO excited to be going to school together! Five years later it hasn't changed one bit. Spencer was so excited this morning to hear that Ethan was healthy and ready to go to school with him.

It dawned on me yesterday that this will be the last year that these two will be going to the same school until Spencer is a JUNIOR in high school! wow! :...( I hope that I will remember to get a picture of the two of them then too.

I am so glad that these two continue to be best friends. I know that over the next few years as these two mature at different rates things will change but I cherish these days and am thankful for their closeness and hope that deep down that never changes.



Spencer & Ethan - July 2012



Livy-ness

Olivia is in a hilarious stage! I find myself either LAUGHING with her or yelling at her. Not much in between. She is super curiously independent and yet a total baby (we will not talk about how she has reverted to being a baby this summer with the kids home from school {ugh!}) Even at 4 1/2 I find her milestones precious and feel the need to document them. My only regret is that I was not as thoughtful with the others.



One night, Olivia was arguing with me, telling me that she was not tired and not wanting to go to bed. I sent her up to bed ahead of me. When I got up there (less than 5 minutes later) this is where I found her - of course NOT tired at all! haha!




Olivia LOVES the boys! She wants to be a boy. She wears pants with no shirt almost daily - I have to constantly remind her to put some clothes on (in fact, that is what she is wearing as I type this!) She even asked me to cut her hair like the boys, but of course I objected. Dan is encouraging getting her in some sort of dance class ASAP!



Livy puts her toys in the most precarious positions. I do believe she believes that they are all living things. Babies get seat belted into the car, babies to to bed (and get disciplined - for what, I have no idea) and toys end up sitting, standing, bending in the strangest places!

Our friends Andrew & Steph went to Hawaii and brought Olivia back this outfit! She loves it!

This says "Daddy" see it??? Ya.. we are a work in progress

She is into coloring (NON STOP!) I can't keep enough printer paper in the house. (btw, Walmart has the cheapest price on that) She is coloring on everything, including herself - not including furniture (thankfully!) But I just love little kid drawings. Nothing is more sweet! I think the balloon picture is a self-portrait! ;)



I just LOVED this!!!



Work-Out!

The boys are starting tackle football this fall. Conditioning week starts the first week of August. Even though we know that nothing can really prepare or make it easier for them when it comes to the first weeks of practicing in full pads & helmets in football we have been trying to make sure they are as in shape as possible. The other night we took them to workout with Chad at MVPZone! They had a blast and they were sweaty when they were done! We even had Ammon come along.

Of course, Chad had to start off showing us how awesome he is at hitting. Thanks Chad.

They broke up into circuit groups. Chad & Ammon were in one group.

Spencer & Ethan were in the other group

Then they had to plank as a team. yuck. I sure am glad that I was just taking pictures. :)

In all seriousness I am so proud of the boys. They are working so hard and are dedicated to being good and strong and as ready as possible for football!

Jett

 My baby sister Kristi had a baby! His name is Jett. We were lucky enough to have the two of them come visit for a couple of weeks while she was still on her maternity leave. He is such a cute baby and all of my kids just loved him! I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will move here too! I don't want him growing up without his cousins.