More School

Luke and his friend from pre-school Brendan.

Luke and his teacher Ms. Ruiz

Luke with Nick - a friend from the ward and in the same class.

Here are Olivia's pics from Luke's first day of school. Luke attends the afternoon kindergarten class and on the first day Olivia frantically calls me at 12:25 pm asking if I know where the sd card is for the camera. Unfortunatly, I didn't know, but to Olivia's credit she didn't freak out, but took Luke to school and then took these pictures after school was let out.

When I got home from work on Monday I asked him how school was, to which he replied, "It was sooooo easy!" So, I'm relieved, he should do well this year, (not that I was worried with his McNeil genes and amazing tutoring from Olivia). Anyway, Luke loves school and was very disappointed he has to miss his first Friday while we run down to Mexico, as Friday's are special treat days.

1st day of School, (not the official version)

This is not the official version, but in order to avoid nasty comments I thought I should post a few pictures. A friend emailed these to us, so I have them at work. I'm sure Olivia will still be posting the official version later.

No phots for this one. I just am making a public announcement that I am trying to lose 5-10 pounds. I think that if I make it well known, and keep it updated, I may be more likely to actually do it! If anyone else is intrested in dropping a few pounds and wants to keep up with each other about it let me know! We can help keep each other motivated.

Well, since we've been home these boys still want to play outside, so they laced up their skates and blades to go around our concrete and asphalt yard. Took a few spills, but no gaping wounds. whew. I know, I know, chels, we don't have helmets on, but with the size and thickness of Luke and Noah's heads we thought they'd be o.k.

Noah also is trying to tell us he wants to be potty trained. He frequently must put underwear on, no matter what, so we thought he should share this with the world. And Billie Jo, as you can see Noah is keeping the competition going. If you look closely at the last picture you'll notice a very interesting color in our carpet, just below Noah. Yep, marker. At least he wasn't putting it on as makeup.

Despite Olivia's protest, I thought I would post a few more "old" reunion and summer pictures, further evidencing my boy's need to have a dog or horse.

What a summer!

I know old, the reunion is old news by now. I do have a few additional pictures of the reunion, but here are some other good summer pictures that have not previously made the blog. The first is of Noah and me on the fourth of July. We went to a dinner and party at Marleen's parents house. Noah loved the sparklers, but I had to help him or who know what he would have done alone! Dad was moving the horses from on field to the other and the boys got to ride bareback on Lynne and loved it. They both loved the two times they were able to get on horses while were in Utah. I told Rick we needed to buy a horse for them; Chelsea thought a minature might fit well in our "yard". Check out the picture of Noah with Zeke; really, you have to enlarge it so you can get the full effect of Zeke's tounge on Noah's face. Noah totally loves it. I can hardly believe a child born of my body could love such a thing. I love the picture of Noah pushing Luke on the swing at the reunion. For once they are doing something together...that isn't fighting. Well, we really did have a wonderful time this summer being able to spend so much time with family, being in the beautiful country, and not having any resopnsibilities! Back to life, back to reality. Luke starts school in two weeks! I am trying to teach more and more classes at the gym, and Noah is trying to think of how best to re-claim the naughty title from Mia. We love our family! Thanks for all the great times this summer!

Bike Riding

So..., I learned to ride my bike today. Dad thought we should go to the park where I could crash in the grass and not the road. I was pretty good, and didn't crash too much.

A day of fun

What a fun day we had! Grandma McNeil took all of the grandchildren to "This is the Place" state park. We had a wonderful time looking at the pioneer memorabilia, riding ponies, eating ice cream, riding the train, playing in the child-sized city, making a newspaper, kneeding bread dough, sitting through an 1867 school lesson, and having a wagon ride. As you can see, Noah's favorite part was riding on the pony. He could not stop smiling. He was also excited about the train; everytime I needed him to get into the stroller I just had to say, "Noah, do you want to go on the train?". He would resond with, "choo, choo". I asked Luke what his favorite part was and he said, "everything". Even though it was 102 degrees, we loved the experience.

After we were done at the park, the boys and I went to West Jordan for a Mortensen family get together. It has been so nice to be able to get with so much family while we have been here. Luke had a great time roughing around with Kaden and Parkar. Most of their evening was spent using "the force" to choke eachother! Noah particuarly love the cleaning up time. He was fascinated with the vacuum and broom. I think Great Grandma Mortensen was thrilled to have so many of here grandchildrena and great-grandchildren there.