Three Down, One to Go

Nope, not potty training (although that too, I guess...but that happened long ago.)


RIDING BIKES!! Ok, so it's old news by now. She's actually been riding for two months. I'm just that good at blogging. Ashley did great, though. It took a lot of prodding for the other two (...one...) but Ashley begged me to take off her training wheels one Saturday while Trevor was gone. So I did and we practiced and by the time he came home, she was showing off her mad bike riding skills. She could even kick off on her own. I guess she was ready. Now if Jason could just learn to ride a bike in the next two months, that will be all four kids learning in 2010. I won't hold my breath.


Not much of an action shot, but I couldn't take any while I was running alongside her, making sure I caught her if she fell over :)

First Day of School

Tyler had a great first day. Tyler's such a fun kid. He has some kids in his class from last year, but his two favorite friends are in the other class. He has a really good attitude about it though and says he can be friends with all the other kids and still play with his two favorite friends at recess.

I was worried Hailey might be a little shy in kindergarten. She LOVED her first day, though and feels so grown up. She loves getting homework and thinks her teacher is amazing (and she is). The elementary kids have lockers and everything :)

This is Ashley in a box sliding down the stairs. (PS I did NOT make them wear that helmet, they came up with that on their own. I thought it was pretty funny, actually) She has preschool this year, which she loves. But I didn't get a picture of her first day. Boo. Her first day was a week after Tyler and Hailey's and it just about killed her. It's funny, after her first day when I went to pick her up--the teachers were commenting on how different Ashley and Hailey were/are. They said Ashley is more outgoing and wants to answer all the teacher's questions. She plays with all the kids and doesn't cry a lot if she gets hurt :) Poor Hailey--that makes her sound bad. Hailey is SO great, just a little more sensitive and shy than Ashley.



So that's that. They had great first days, and I miss them while they're away. Jason hardly knows what to do with himself. If we ever drive past the school while running errands, Jason yells: TYLER! HAILEY! I'm glad they have great teachers,great friends and a great school.

A Family Reunion

We spent a weekend at Trevor's parent's house with ALL of Trevor's brothers and sisters. It was really a lot of fun to have everyone there! Bryson, Briana and Scott from Provo; Britta and Brett from California; Cliff and Lisa (and Nyah and Saibra) from Idaho, and us (from Montana :) )


We played a crazy game of whiffle ball...a little safer for the kids to participate. Don't think it wasn't just as competitive. :)


All the Strupp grandkids--except Jason. He ran off right before I snapped the picture. See next picture.


Here's Jason, in different clothes than he was the day he ran off. Just pretend he's in church clothes and standing nicely next to the other children, like a good little boy.


Hailey, Ashley, and Nyah getting ready to ride the horses. Nyah's quite the little cowgirl. She even gets a twang in her speech when it's time to ride. SOOO cute.


Lisa with Ashley and Grandma with Nyah. The kids love riding the horses!


We were able to get a bunch of family pictures (thanks Lisa!) And as soon as I have some copies I'll have to post them (Lisa? :) )

We also went skeet shooting so I'll have to post a picture of that one day.
Lots of fun over the weekend with the family. Lets do this again, OK guys?

Some Summer Fun

That's right, my kids haven't started school yet. :) So we still have some fun going on. These are random pictures from over the summer. I was going through the card on the camera and thought maybe I should share :)

The kids kept asking if they were going to get to do "gymnastics camp" again this year. It's way overpriced and very little gymnastics going on. More like a day care...but they had fun last year, so we signed them up again this year. Between their story time and craft time, I was able to get some pictures of the gymnastics they did.


Tyler (the one on his back) on the trampoline.



Ashley swinging on the rings.



Hailey swinging on the rings.


We visited grandpa and did some fun things at his house, including a ride on the scooter with grandpa. This makes me laugh. Never in a thousand years did I think my dad would buy a scooter. More of a motorcycle/4-wheeling kind of man. He is getting old though...


Hailey and Grandpa.



Jason was relaxing one day while eating his pizza. Such good manners. One day I'll teach him you shouldn't put your feet on the dinner table.

Because We're Spontaneous Like That

It's hard to be spontaneous with little kids. You can't just pick up and go places without planning--at least that's the way I see it.

Last weekend Trevor had a couple days off because he was supposed to go on a scouting thing. Well, long story short: it fell through. So after he got back from a morning golf outing, we wondered what we would do with the rest of our very rare time off together. Not wanting to waste this precious time on something that NEEDED to be done, I said: I think we should rent a jetski and go camping. And he said: OK. And so we did :) And because we're also such a good team, it only took us an hour to gather all our junk and pack it in the truck and rent a waverunner. I was pleasantly surprised.





Avert your eyes from the pasty whiteness that is my legs...first time out in the sun...


He's sleeping :) It was funny when we would take Jason out for a little ride, he wouldn't say a word. Didn't smile, didn't scream--just acted very nonchalant. Like he didn't care if he was going for a ride or not. It was kind of funny. We know he liked it because he begged to get back on once he was off, but when we were out on our ride, he was SOOO quiet. Anyway, must've been pretty relaxing (plus he was tired from going to bed late and no nap) but he fell asleep on the jetski! Poor kid.

The kids did really great on our camping trip. Makes me want to go more often!

Daddy's Boy

Jason loves his dad. He's finally gotten to the point that he doesn't cry for 10 minutes after Trevor leaves for work. That's probably because with Trevor's "summer hours" he leaves at 6:50 a.m. and Jason hasn't woken up yet. Rest assured Jason will wander the house after he wakes up (and intermittently throughout the rest of the day) whining, "Daddy, Daddy."

Then, when Jason hears the garage door open--whether it's Trevor or not--he gets all excited and runs downstairs to greet dad.

If Jason gets hurt, it's not me he wants to hold and cuddle him, it's Trevor.

When he's in his carseat to drive somewhere, he doesn't want me to get him out, he wants Trevor. Heaven forbid I do get him out, he squirms to get down to run to Trevor's side.

I gotta admit, Trevor's the best dad ever. And it doesn't even hurt my feelings--I think it's endearing to see my baby boy love his dad so much.

Jason always wants dad to sit and rock him or hold him when he gets home from work. In this picture it's about 5 p.m. Definitely a bad time for Jason to take a little nap, but he grabbed his blanket and binky and climbed up in dad's lap to watch a little Sports Center...and they fell asleep. I guess they were a little tuckered out.

A Little Bathroom Comedy

This happened a couple months ago, but when I think about this story, it makes me smile. So I thought I'd share.

We were all at church and I was helping Ashley in the bathroom. There was a guy at church that needed to talk to me about something and when he saw Tyler he asked, "Where's your mom?"

Tyler answered, "She's in the bathroom wiping Ash." (You might have to read that part aloud to get the full affect:) )

It took him a second to realize what Tyler meant, but had a good laugh with us as he told us what happened.