Yes, We are Still Alive!

Whew! I know some of you were sure that I'd never do this again, but here I am! We have been so busy that it's hard to know where to begin. I started coaching the Colorguard back in mid-May and since then our life has been crazy! In June, I took Miri with me to a 4-day long band camp with the high school kids while Ella and Brock split their time between Chad and my mom. Almost right after band camp, we headed off to CA to see my sister Brittany and Mark get married in the LA temple and visit with some other family down there. On our way back, we stopped in Vegas and took the kids to see the Knights At the Round Table show, which they all LOVED! Miri even had her moment in the spotlight (literally!) as Merlin came over and commented on how cute she was. Chad and I were pretty proud to have the spotlight on our baby girl and hear the entire arena give her an, "Awwwww!"

We had two parades in July that Brock and Miri marched in with me (more like rode in the stroller) lots of practice in August, and then Ella headed off to first grade! Going to school all day was challenging at first, but at this point she is doing well, constantly coming home with fun stories to share with us. During my practices during the schoolday, Brock and Miri sometimes went to a baby-sitter's house, stayed home with daddy, and even tagging along with me. They have put up with so much over the last few months, and have been great about it! A big thank you to all of our family members and friends who have helped out with babysitting as I have been at various shows and especially a big thank you to Chad for taking 4 days off of work to stay home with the kids, while I went down to St. George with my students. By the last day, I was MORE than ready to come home. Having to fight the urge to steal some stranger's child was proof that I was going through withdrawls!

As for our family, everyone is doing great! Ella is enjoying first grade, learning how to read, and looks forward to girl scouts every week. Brock enjoys walking to the bus-stop with me and he just lights up when he sees the school bus come around the corner! Miri is crawling everywhere and getting into everything! She helped herself to my wallet, Brock's sandwhich, and even dove into Moby Dick the other day. Chad was asked to take a class with his company in Salt Lake a few weeks ago and he was really excited to get to meet the CEO of the company as well as one of the founders. We had fun on Halloween, taking our little Leia, Obi-Wan, and Ewok out. For now, we are all looking forward to a relaxing Holiday season at home this year!