So Many Pictures, So Little Time!

One of the things that I wanted was some pictures of Maycie in her helmet! Emily did such a good job with them! I am so glad we are going to be able to have these to show her when she gets big! And well, we had her helmet off for family pictures so she got some beautiful pictures of her without too!

New Family Pictures!

So Jeron had some vacation days during July that he was going to move around but I asked him to go ahead and take them so we could have some family time. We didn't really DO much just be together mostly. But we did take the opportunity to have some family pictures done. Jeron's sister Becky's sister-in-law is the one who did my kids pictures a few months back. She has had a set of twins since then and I was worried she wouldn't feel up to doing our whole family. I asked Becky to feel her out and I was excited to find out she was just itching to do some pictures! So with one of our family days we headed to Ogden to meet them (Becky had to come too to help with Emily's four kids!) for the afternoon!

I have a tendency to not like pictures of myself! But I have to say that Emily did such a good job that I even like me in some of these pictures! It helps that my hubby and kids are so cute! It makes me look better!

Aren't they so cute!

Sisters are special!

Brothers are built in buds!

And together we make a family!

She took so many pictures I just don't know what to do with them all! I'm going to have to do an album of just pictures from the photo shoot! We had so much fun! It was a wonderful family day! Thank you again Emily, so much! If you would like to see more of her work go to: http://portraitsbyemily.blogspot.com/

Emma's First Day of Preschool!

A lady in our neighborhood does a preschool out of her home and she is very reasonably priced. Emma being my overachiever I knew another year at home with me probably wouldn't be a good thing! My heavens she has already taught herself how to write her own name!

She almost looks scared in this picture!


There, that's better!

Emma and "teacher" (Sister Brown at church!)


Emma and her friends!

There are 16 kids in her class! Wow! Brave lady! I have a hard enough time with my 5, and I get to ship 3 of them back to school all day!

Crystal Hot Springs

This weekend we went to Crystal Hot Springs with my family. When I was a kid camping was how we took family vacations. Some of my best memories are of those camping trips. I am so glad that we have kept it going as we have all gotten married and started families of our own! I am even excited for the day that I get brave enough to take our little family on a trip of our own! But until then we have fun tagging along with our parents!

I wasn't feeling so hot this weekend and all the sun and water didn't really help so I wasn't all that great with the camera. Luckily dad was on top of it and got at least a few photos for us!

Emma had so much fun in the water and out! She definitely keeps us all laughing! What a little poser!

This was Maycie's first official helmet free weekend! Yea! It has been so nice not worrying about having to get her back into the helmet. She has gotten really good at pulling bows out and then she holds them out all proud of herself!

We are so lucky that she is such a happy baby! She really is this happy pretty much all the time!

My mom keeps telling me that without the helmet Maycie looks alot like my baby pictures. I can totally see it with this one! I will have to find a baby picture and post them together and see what you all think! I said she will show off her bows, but really she will show off anything! TaDa!

Emma kicking back with a capri sun!

Connor says camping is fun! He gives it a big thumbs up!

Making faces for the camera!

While at the pool the boys perfected the cannon ball!

Porter getting ready to make a splash!

That was a good one!

Connor is going in!

And there's the splash!

I didn't get pictures of it but we also got Emma to jump in the pool to us, and put her face in the water and blow bubbles! At one time or another all of my kids have been nervous in the water. I guess that comes from being broke and not being able to get them in the water on a regular basis, I don't know! Anyway, this was a good trip because they all seemed to be pretty comfortable in the water by the time we left. I guess we just have to find the money someplace brake down get the pass at the community center and keep them in the water really often!
Anyway, we had a really good time and are glad we made the time to get away! Jeron even did his best to make it a vacation for me! I have such a good hubby! I guess next year we just make sure we go before football starts! Thanks mom and dad for making sure we keep up this really wonderful tradition!

The First War Wound!

Okay, when I first found out I was having a boy I was completely against football and MY boys were never going to play! At least that is what I said! I had a husband who played and when we got married my little brother-in-law was playing and played all the way through high school, but that didn't mean mine had to play, right? As the boys grew we didn't push (does anyone know how hard that was for Jeron? He is such a good dad!) and then the older Porter got the more we knew HE was MADE for football! So I started preparing my self. It was coming, and some how I knew I would be okay. And then out of no place Jaxon decides he wants to play! We knew we couldn't do both this year and so Jaxon being the oldest got first dibs. Monday and Tuesday was a camp put on by the high school. Starting Wednesday was "tryouts" and the real work began!

Wednesday night he comes home with this. And THIS would be the reason I didn't want my boys to play! It happened while someone was trying to tackle him, and you know what he didn't go down! He has never said once "Can I quit?" He is at the point that he thinks he isn't going to do it next year, but I think that will change.

He is exhausted! And having to leave camp on Friday to come back down was hard. His arm hurts and his knee was really bugging him, but he kept on going!

He is even starting to look like a football player! Keep up the good work, I am proud of you Jaxon! I am even really okay with you playing, I promise!

Trading Helmets!

We had our LAST appointment with the plastic surgeon today! Maycie is officially done with her helmet! Her head isn't perfect but he feels that any more changing it is going to do it will do on it's own! So we are just finishing up Maycie's busy helmet season and trading it for Jaxon's busy helmet season!Maycie's last helmet picture!

Well, kind of! She tried Jaxon's helmet on and didn't like it much!

Jaxon thought if Maycie could try his helmet on he could give hers a try!


Our kids!

We walked in the door with no helmet on and they all started Cheering!

They are such good big brothers and sister!

I have to say thank you to everyone for all your love and support! I don't think we could have done this without you! Your prayers have been felt and I have truly been uplifted by your love! Thank you 100 times over!

Cousins!

Maycie is lucky enough to have 2 cousins very close to her in age on the Collins side of the family. Baby Thomas was born in February and Baby Livy was born in April. I love pictures like this and we just haven't taken the opportunity to take one until now!



Thomas is almost as long as Maycie and Olivia is almost as round! I hope these kids realize how lucky they are to have built in friends like they do! Always a friend to play with as kids and life long friends as adults!

Emma's Imagination!

I was in the living room folding laundry and Emma brings me the camera and asks me to take a picture of her and her baby. Okay, fine! (I love that I don't have to worry about things like that with a digital camera!) I take the picture and she "lays her down for a nap" and then she is asking me to take a picture of her and Chip. For those of you who don't know Chip is her imaginary husband! No worries, they were married in the temple!I was about to argue with her when she says, "Mom I need you to take a picture of me and Chip for my blog!" At that point I lost it and HAD to take the picture! My kids are so funny! Everything is all about the blog and I love it! I hope it helps them learn what a journal is and how important it is. I love this, because I am so much better at logging on and doing a blog entry then I have ever been about doing my scrapbook pages or writing in all the kids journals. And now this way I have it all down and can go back and update things when I can!

Please excuse the hangers off to the side! Isn't this the cutest picture of Emma and Chip! He looks so handsome in his bow tie! (She is holding his hand with her right hand! Just in case you were having a hard time seeing him!)

My Life as I Know It is OVER!

My life is over! I feel as if summer has just begun and is already quickly coming to an end. But wait, you say. We have a whole month before "summer" is over. But no! Jaxon has decided to play football this year and Emma's preschool is starting next week, so my summer is over! We thought we were going to be able to sneak one last camping trip in this weekend before all the craziness started, but no such luck! Jaxon has football camp Monday and Tuesday this week (fine not leaving until Thursday) and tryouts I thought were just Wednesday. But no they are Thursday and Friday too! Luckily we don't leave until Thursday and instead of leaving as soon as dad got home from work we will leave as soon as Jaxon is done! And we are just going to Crystal Hot Springs up by Tremonton so Jaxon and dad will be coming down for football Friday night and then head back up as soon as they are done! Is this my life for the next three months? And Porter wants to play too! I am so glad we talked him into waiting so I can ease myself into this!

And yes you read that right, Emma is starting preschool! There is a lady in our ward who does a preschool from her home and Emma is soooo... ready so we decided to put her in this year. She is going to be able to be in the same class as some of her friends from the ward! We just got our packet with beginning of the year info! She started the preschool when our school was year round and has just kept the same schedule. I can't believe we are here already! It is hard for me to believe my babies are all getting so big.

So my summer is only kind of over!

Baby Girl Holdaway!

For those of you that don't know I am the oldest of three girls and one boy. In fact on my mom's side of the family there are alot more girls then boys. Even Jeron comes from a family of mostly girls. So when I had Jaxon I was kind of surprised! And then I went on to have two more boys it was kind of like a miracle! I had all three boys before my sister Abby had any kids so it wasn't as big of a surprise when she started out with a boy and then went on to have two more! What is really funny to me is that Abby didn't have any faith in the pattern that had been set forth before her and was just sure she was having baby boy number four. At her ultra sound they had to tell her like a million times that it really was a girl! I don't think she believed it until Daryl came home with a really cute dress for the baby! She is even coming around to the idea of PINK EVERY THING!

Baby Girl Holdaway joined the family Friday July 17 at about 1:30 in the afternoon. She weighed in at 7lbs 2oz and is adorable! It took a little longer to come up with her name then it has ever taken them before but when they did they knew it was right! She is Kami Jane Holdaway!

Easton has been so excited for his baby sister to get here. From the moment they told him he was going to be a big brother he would ask Abby, "The baby coming yet?" And when Abby would say not yet he would always come back with, "Too long mommy, too long!" I'm not sure I have ever seen any of Abby's boys as excited as they were on Friday! Their bodies were not big enough to hold it and they were bouncing off the walls! It was so cute and fun to see them so excited for their baby sister to be here!

When Jeron's sister Ashley had her baby in February we were all sick and didn't want to take that to a brand new baby so we didn't get to see Thomas until he made a trip to Salt Lake. When Jeron's other sister Alicia had her baby in April I was feeling a little off and so I didn't get to hold her when we went to the hospital to see her and I didn't even remember my camera to take pictures! So when I realized Jeron was going to be as Scout Camp with my van when Abby had the baby I was a little upset! I really didn't want to have to wait to see her! I had done enough waiting and we all know patients is not one of my strong points! But my sweet sister Megan made sure I got down to American Fork.

You look wonderful Abby and she is beautiful! Oh, and good luck with the pepto explosion!