Gettin' Down & Dirty

So this is what happens when the kids got bored one day & I couldn't handle them in our little house anymore. They decided to turn the hose on & it turned into a mud bath. Of course, at first I was a little annoyed, but there was no sense in getting mad....so I took pictures. :) The only problem here is that the dirt is red & it stains EVERYTHING including their skin. So needless to say these clothes are now the designated "play in the dirt" clothes.

Kids Adventures

These are just a few pictures of some of our little outings with the kids - we've been trying to find things to do together as a family since that's all we've got here....each other. :)

Maizi's school had a carnival earlier this year & the kids chose to get their faces painted & Maizi wanted her hair sprayed different colors.

Soakai's class did some face painting at school one day & he chose Spiderman.


There's a really cute carousel in a park in downtown St. George that's pretty fun.


We had a first here....our very first babysitter that was not related to us! We have been getting our babysitter, Brooke so we can go on some date nights. She's Soakai's pre-school teacher's daughter - it has been such a blessing to have a good babysitter here. She's great with the kids & always does lots of activities with them. This is the first time we got her & the kids made masks - when we got home I went to check on them and this is how I found Soakai sleeping. :) (They were glow in the dark too).

Hiking

Here are a few pictures of our hiking adventure. We took the kids on their first hike in St. George - this is just by our house. Pretty, huh? They had a lot of fun-- Maizi did say that it got a little long so it was making her heart hurt. :)

First Days of School

Figured I better post the kids first days of school before it's time for me to post the last day of school. :)

Maizi started Kindergarten this year....one day before her 5th birthday. I can't believe I have a kid in school already. That went by WAY too fast. I was so worried for her, starting school, moving away from her family & friends, but she did great! She was so excited to go & thankfully there were no tears (from her anyway). Maizi's teacher is Mrs. Cowley & we haven't had any problems there so that's good news. Maizi does really well in school & likes going most days - she occasionally complains about PE - sounds like me!! :)

I had some trouble finding a preschool for Soakai, but we were able to find one in September and we love it. Soakai's teachers are Teacher Brandy & Teacher Shelley. He goes on Mondays & Wednesdays for 2 1/2 hours at Shelley's house. She has a whole set-up in her basement & they do the cutest things with the kids. He also did great on his first day - walked right in, started playing with the toys & didn't even really care about saying bye to us. I was so relieved! His teachers have most recently told me that he's really started opening up & talking to them & the other kids. I was shocked when I heard that he didn't talk at school - that's all that kid does from the time he wakes up til he goes to sleep is TALK! :)

So the school year has been a success for us so far ~ hope we make it last for a few more months.

Prescott

Time for another attempt to update our blog....if I learned to do this more often I'd be better at remember the details. :/ Anyway, back in August Sione had an event in Prescott so we got to go with him & to make it even better we got to meet up with my family! Zachary, Teresa & my mom met us there - so did Sage & Dana. I was pretty homesick at this time so this was a much needed visit with some of my family. :) I am so mad now that I'm looking back at my pictures...WHY didn't I take more pictures??? While Sione was busy one of the days we drove to Jerome to check it out. It's a pretty cool little town with some neat stores, but I am warning you the drive up is TERRIBLE. It's this teeny, tiny, narrow, windy road up a mountain & we almost got hit head-on so, be careful. On our way back we saw all these antelope so we stopped to watch them for a bit. We had a lot of fun & the kids were so excited to see everyone again - probably too excited since we got a call from the front desk of our hotel asking us to please keep our kids quiet. SORRY!! :)

On our way home to St. George we stopped in this little town called Seligman. It was a fun, cute little place that has lots of old history as part of Route 66. There was this really cool little restaurant - they had a lot of old stuff to look at & old cars. It reminded me of stuff my dad would love.