Kinder!

 Rowdy's first day of school!

 Here is his teacher (meet the teacher night) I didn't even cry like I thought I would I am sure it was because of meet the teacher night. I still felt like I had cried.

 Ezra wanted to wear his backpack to take Rowdy to school

Walking to school already. Today was the first day he rode his bike

He's so big. I already miss him during the day.... although it is much quieter around here.

 So sweet

He seems to like it. He is pretty quiet about school by the time he gets home. I have been in his class at the end of the day a few times to help out & thats been fun. He says his favorite part of the day is getting to play superheroes with Miles at lunch.

Week before school

So the Cancienne's are in Reno. Our sweet neighbor friends, sisters, babysitters, musicians, comedians, help out in a pinch go to girls. We are going to miss them. We went out to eat at Olive garden the other night. It was a fun see you later girl party.

The girls were all insta-gramming it up.

 And so Megan is a super morning person and hungers and thirsts after righteousness and is so fun. So I am bummed she is not going to be in my seminary class. But Paige will make up for the both of them I am sure.  Megan did make it to the first day before she had to take off. And if Mckay were here I would've invited her to come do a musical number. She has the best voice. The peeps up there in Reno are super lucky.

There was a Seminary conference in Dallas and the sweet Stamps sacrificed some hotel points so we could go down to Dallas early to "plan" seminary stuff. We did get a lot of seminary stuff talked about and also a lot of non-seminary stuff talked about, all while eating thai, swimming and dodging huge cockroaches. This is my last ditch effort to remember the fun via photo. The seminary conference was excellent and I was grateful to have made it there. and grateful for the good company. I love this girl.

 In getting ready for seminary we have been cleaning out the toy room quite a bit and used the give aways to make some "robots" with the kids.

 They told me where they wanted stuff and I hot glued it for them

 They were fun for a day

 Randomly one of Elliot's favorite snacks is dried seaweed. 

Its one of the only green things we don't have to beg her to eat.

 I imagined painting a theme for the seminary year on the wall, but I thought it was a good theme for our family to have up too. Here are my lovely assistants

 and my other lovely assistant...the T.V. It was a small miracle that with all the paint and chaos and kids there was not a major spill or re-doo.

 I was only going to paint the seminary room but Cody got excited and painted over all our kid marks. It looked great. Who needs to clean? When you can just paint over it? haha We upgraded to semi gloss because the matte was not washing off.

 Thanks Paige and Megan and Livee for all your help w my little project

 I don't know why but i have always loved coveralls and Cody surprised me with my first pair! perfect for painting. after this project I painted a sign for Rowdy's soccer team. It made me want to paint something crazy with no lines because of all the tight letters I've been doing.

In addition to the obvious,... The Lord is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever.

This whole week I felt like Heavenly Father was helping me take care of so many things to be able to be ready for seminary. The room and paint with all the kids home was pretty smooth. I would have thoughts come into my mind to call a kid on my roll and even where to go to get Rowdy a specific backpack for school (jansport all the way)(we still have ours from high school!) I felt buoyed up. Which is amazing. Especially when I was trying not to be nervous about all the logistics. But I know Heavenly Father will continue to help me out if I do my part. He loves these kids so much, and I feel so lucky to be a part of this great seminary endeavor.

Ezra you are Free! Happy Birfday

Ezra's birthday breakfast of choice

The night before the Carmacks had come over and given Rowdy a mini "cars" launcher and Ezra loooved it and thought it was his birthday present. Rowdy loved it too. Before Ezra woke up Rowdy decided to wrap it up and give it to Ezra. Everyone was happy.

Ezra wanted to go to the jump house. Our old faithful ended up being closed on Mondays. So we found a new one in Hurst. Ezra had fun.

 

We all did.

After the jump house we ate at Market street and popped in with our popsicles to the Brownies for an impromptu swimming party

 

Its all fun and games tell mom gets sunscreen in your eyes :(

 My first sunscreen incident of the season had to happen to the birthday boy

 Yaya and Papa sent pakages full of goodies and funny dancing cards

We got him a spiderman costume for his birthday. 

Its funny to me he hasn't  watched the cartoon, he just likes Spiderman

This picture cracks me up. 

But, even better is when he puts on his bike helmet and cruises up and down the street

Blue cupcake for our birthday boy

-Ezra is fiercely loyal to the things he likes. For example the color blue, Spiderman, Super Why and the Super Why song, Diego, jump houses, his blue pillow and whatever toy he decides he is into that day. He is good at sharing but he lets everyone know what he likes.
-He is doing good at potty training stuff. He still thinks that every time he "goes" he gets to play Dad's phone.
-We have been battling molluscum w him for a long time now It is finally starting to clear up. We have some lotion now and he will pat me while I put it on him and say,"I'm just trying to make yo feel better Mom."
-He has been making up silly songs that he sings to himself...and cracks up about them. We love eaves dropping.
-He likes to sing poppy songs that Rowdy or the cousins are singing. My favorite lately is, "I don't know your beautiful" :) but he has busted out a few times "Mom you don't know your beautiful" aww. Thanks lil' buddy.
-He still is a little jumpy around dogs and spiders and super loud noises, but not so much thunder anymore. But Rowdy loves to get him riled up..(related to Pops much? :)
-Before going to bed every night he comes out of his room and says,"Can I tell you a question?" Then he tells us some random line from a cartoon , or something he and Rowdy were laughing about. He fake laughs and then goes right back to bed.
-He is still so cuddly and makes messes pretty much every time he eats
-He is a good boy. Always glad to give a cuddly hug, for which I am uber-grateful
Love you Ezra.

Lil Anderson Time

So while we were away in CA for the summer Locke and Katie stayed at our house. The timing worked out great. They helped keep the grounds and had time to look for a pad of their own.

 We lived together for 3 days in our house and then they moved to their new home in Coppell. Their house is so cute and in a great neighborhood with yummy places nearby. Its 40 minutes away from lil' ole' us and closer than that to Locke's work. Anyway we went over there and helped them move in one time and popped in to spend the night another time. and they watched our kids while we went to the temple another time. Its been great.

 Opening night. In the Anderson kitchen

 and backyard

 The kids were so well behaved while we unpacked the ktichen. Thanks Peter Pan

 When we dropped the kids off to go to the temple I guess Ezra was pretty tired. 

Cody and I had such a nice evening. Thanks for that Locke & Katie

Anyway. Its been fun to have you guys closer. Look forward to more fun times ahead. xo

Ketchup

I am not all done but I have uploaded most of our adventures from May and the beginning of June. If you want to check em' out you can click on the archived months to your right.
Don't get so burnt out on old posts you don't look at the Father's day montage we made for...Father's day. The kids ask to watch it still, and all sing at the top of their lungs. Rowdy surprised us with that song as we were driving out to California he just woke up in the middle of the night and started singing it. He said he had heard it at a soccer game. All of the cousins would sing it together too. It came of because our song for the summer...,minus the lame-o first part.
enjoy

Rowdiest 5 year old we know

Happy Birthday Rowdster! 

Donut breakfast

 cupcake lunch

 We met cousins and a few friends at the Roanoke splash park

 

We played Phineas & Ferb tag

 Loved wearing this shirt today. Thanks Letti!

 played more tag

 

I had spent all morning doing water balloons. Ezra snuck a bunch of them

He Reminds me of Cody. So sneaky :)

 Water balloon game didn't last too long :)

 That is Grayson hanging upside down. I had mercy on Zoe and didn't put up the picture of her getting the bucket.

When we got home we rode bikes and played w water guns, using the dry ice from the popsicles to make it more interesting

 Brain Freeze!

Rowdy really wanted to watch the Phineas and Ferb movie and play "olymics" on the wii on his birthday. He wanted to decorate both nachos and ice cream for his birthday dinner.  When Nan called to asked how his party went he said, "I was so happy I bursted with joy!"

Happy Birthday Rowdy! We love you