First Grade

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Aaron's first day of first grade ~ 2012.

All decked out with Avengers lunchbox, new Adidas shoes, new socks, new hand-me-down shorts, last year's backpack, last year's t-shirt, and the cutest smile ever! by the way, his t-shirt is not dirty, he wipes his wet hands on his shirts. :)

He is so handsome.
His hair is nice and flat, which is just what he likes.

He calls this hair style the 'flatty flat'. :)

His class following their teacher into the school.

He used this backpack most of last year as well... it is the backpack I took on my mission and used the whole 18 months in England. It has held up well.

A blurry 'I Love You' in sign language.

My sweet boy.

I don't like it one bit that they don't let us parents walk the kids to their classroom. I know that would be chaos, but I hated not being able to take Aaron directly to his classroom. I sobbed for over an hour after I dropped Aaron off at school that morning. It was rough.

When I picked him up that afternoon and he told me how much he loved school, it made it a little easier for me to let him go back the next day. I still cried the next day as well, but not for as long.

I found out a few weeks after school began that Aaron's teacher, Mrs B., is married to a friend of Aaron's from high school. She and her husband were at Aaron's funeral... such a small world.

Anyway, I hope and pray Aaron makes great friends and has a wonderful year.

Aaron, you are growing up too fast, and I love you so very much.

I am not sure if it is true or not, but the morning of Aaron's second day of school, I found this flower on our windshield. I figured someone had left it to brighten my day after having such a tough morning the day before. :) Not sure who left it, but it made me smile. Thank you.

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Random August ~ 2012

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Stella, Hannah, Elise, Henry, Angus, Aaron 

Chic-fil-A for lunch to show support.

 Aaron and Stella are in the bottom right.

 

 Charles John was blessed in August.

He is sure cute and is such a sweet baby.

We love him.

 

 

 Isn't he beautiful?

 

 Mama and Charles John

John and Lisa's family.

That night, we were having a gathering in my parents' front yard to say good bye to Robert and Teresa and Zach (leaving for law school). We were sitting in a circle on the lawn and as Tawnie showed up, she had a police escort for some reason... she was being pulled over right in front of all of us! It was so funny!

The officer was a good sport. She didn't get a ticket... she had supposedly not stopped completely at a stop sign. :) Henry, Gus, and Michael had fun talking to the police man.

My sister was in the hospital for a couple of days...

we got to babysit Charles John for a whole night and most of a day.

Aaron was in heaven. He got to hold him a lot and so did I...

we loved having him with us.

Cute sleeping baby.

 

Pals.

Aaron made this mask out of cardboard and an ace bandage.

I think he was calling it a ninja mask, but in his words, it would be a

'Minja' Mask.

I couldn't resist snapping a photo of us brushing our teeth together.

I sure love this boy.

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Charles Bruce ~ Oregon 2012

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~ Charles Bruce ~

August 6, 2012

We went to visit Spencer and Kristi's family in Oregon in August.

We got there two days after the birth of little Charlie Bruce.

I got all of these photos of Charles Bruce within a week and a half of his birth.

He is such a cute and sweet baby. We love him.

Aaron seriously adores the new babies.

He talks all the time about the two new Charlies and how cute they are.

Proud brothers.

While we were visiting them in Oregon, they decided to go ahead and bless Charles while we were there. It was so great.

Mama and Charlie

Spencer and Kristi's family

I love him.

So, Aaron and I were going up to Oregon in August and had those plans for several months.

After we made those plans, family members found out that there was going to be a basketball camp up there sponsored by Jabari Parker.

If you want to know who he is, click on his name. Sports Illustrated called him the best high school basketball player since LeBron James. And guess what? He is Mormon. :)

So several of my siblings took their kids up to the basketball camp that was happening while we were up there. Aaron did not attend the camp, but since Spencer was helping with the camp, we got to go in and Aaron got to meet Jabari Parker and get his autograph. He was a nice kid.

 

 

 

Here are just a few of my nephews with Aaron.

Luke, Aaron, Spencer, Thomas, Daniel, Jack, Benjamin

I wish I got photos of everyone who was up there that weekend.

 

Thomas, Spencer, Aaron, Daniel, Jack, Luke,

Lila, Benjamin

 

Benjamin, Lila, Daniel, Jack, Aaron

All of the basketball camp goers left early Sunday morning of that first weekend.

Aaron and I stayed because we were going to be there to help out with the kids and help Kristi after having the new baby. We were there for another week.

Benjamin, Luke, Aaron

Tired Papa and Mama

Aaron was showing me how big he is.

Spencer, Luke, Benjamin, Aaron

pirates? not sure.

Lining up oldest to youngest to go over the bike ramp.

 Lining up youngest to oldest to go over the bike ramp.

When school started, Aaron drew himself on the bike ramp as what he did this summer.

Please ignore my ugly voice and laugh in these videos.

Fun balloons.

Lila and Benny.

Luke and Aaron.

Lila and Andrew.

Andrew, Luke, Spencer, Benny, Aaron, Lila

Aaron will never grow tired of playing in the dirt with shovels and tractors.

Even by himself.

Andrew, Luke, Aaron, Lila, Spencer, Benny

They found snails and they were racing them.

Ever heard of racing snails? Well, leave it to these kids... they will find some.

We had fun in Oregon.

Lucky for us, Richard had flown up the Saturday evening before we left. He flew up there to ordain Spencer a high priest because Spencer was called into the Bishopric while we were there. He also helped to bless the baby while he was there. Then Richard drove home to Utah with Aaron and me at the end of the weekend. It gave my parents peace of mind knowing it was not just Aaron and me alone on the road. We had caravanned up there with Travis and their kids. Thanks Travis and Richard.

and...

Thanks Spencer and Kristi!

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