Birthdays

We have had two birthdays that I haven't blogged about. Sadie's birthday was at the end of August, and Derek's birthday was at the end of September. For Sadie's birthday we had a family birthday party at the lake. Grandma and grandpa Koltermann came out to help us celebrate, along with the usual Mansfield gang and Amber and kids. We all had a great time at the beach.

Here Sadie is modeling one of her birthday presents.

We also had a birthday celebration at grandma Mansfield's house. Allison's birthday is 3 days after Sadie's, so they got to celebrate together.

Sadie loved all of her presents.

And Melanie, of course, make a darling cake for the girls.

For Derek's birthday he decided that he wanted to go swimming at the Rec. Center with just our little family. We had a lot of fun, but forgot to take the camera with us, so we don't have any pictures. Derek also had a birthday party at grandma Mansfield's. He got his favorite things, LEGOS. He got two video games, Lego Star Wars, and Lego Indiana Jones. And he got about 4 different lego sets to put together.

Melanie even made the cake look like it was made of legos. Grandpa had a birthday too, so part of the cake was for grandpa and the lego part was for Derek. Isn't she so creative?

Surfing Fun?

Surfing was our sport of choice behind the boat this summer. We finally got Derek to try it towards the end of the summer. The surfboard was a little big for him, but he still managed to get up and do a pretty good job.

Wyatt decided to take Allison and Chloe out for a ride. I don't know that either of them were way excited about it, but they did a great job.

Wyatt really wanted to have Brynli give it a try. After a little coaxing and bribing we finally convinced her to try it. She was scared to death. I think that the faces she is making are so funny. I wanted to share them.

Here she is as they first get up.

Wyatt sets her on the board, so she can have a little more stability.

She is totally freaking out.

Holding on for dear life.

Still holding on, but looks like maybe it will be o.k.

I guess not, freaking out again.

Oh look, I think she might be close to smiling.

Now they are even surfing without the rope.

Brynli was freaking out the whole time, and she didn't even get her hair wet. Girls can be so dramatic. After it was all over she said that she would do it again. It's a little cold to try it now, but we'll see next year if she becomes a little surfer girl.

School's In

O.k. so I have been such a blog slacker. I have so much to catch up on, but we will start with the first day of school. All my kids are excited to be back in school, all except Sadie. We are at a new school this year, so we won't have to change schools when we move. Kamryn has lots of friends and a great teacher, so he thinks his new school is pretty great. Derek's best friend Nikolas is at his school (not in his class, but at recess), so he likes that. He likes his teacher, and he loves eating lunch at school. Usually when I ask him about school he will tell me what he ate for lunch. Brynli is glad to be in Kindergarten. She has an excellent teacher. She loves that she knows her teacher. Mrs. Pierce is our next door neighbor. Brynli was also excited to meet a new friend on the first day of school. She is so funny. When I asked her how her first day of school was she said, "It was fun, I met a friend named Ashley, but I didn't learn to read yet." I guess she expects immediate results from school. Sadie doesn't love all the kids going to school. She likes her one-on-one time with Brynli in the morning, but she misses the kids when they are all at school. When we dropped Brynli off the first day, Sadie cried the whole way home. Then she kept saying it was time to pick Brynli up. I'm grateful for the routine again. The quiet house is nice and it stays much cleaner. I don't love going to the school 3 times a day for drop-off or pick-up of kids, but they'll be able to ride a bus when we move, so that will be nice. I can't believe how big all my kids are getting. it seems like I really notice how much they've grown in a year when I take school pictures.

Tie Breaker

Well the ultrasound results are in and the girls win! Everyone is pretty excited except Kamryn, he really wanted a brother. Derek is glad because a sister means he doesn't have to share a room any time soon. Brynli and Sadie are excited for another sister, and to all share a room. Mom and dad are grateful that everything looked healthy, and that there is only one little girl. (My kids all kept saying that it was twins, a girl and a boy.)

24th of July

We had our annual Mansfield family camp over the weekend of July 24th. We went to Flaming Gorge to enjoy family, camping, boating, and fishing. We had a great time as usual. Most everyone headed up the mountain on Thursday evening, but our family didn't head up until Friday morning. Kamryn was a little disappointed about missing out on the early morning skiing, so we left early Friday morning and stopped at Steineker to ski on our way to Flaming Gorge. Wyatt and Kamryn were the only ones who wanted to get in the water that early. They did get some good skiing in. Kamryn is really doing well on the slalom ski.

We got up to our campsite before breakfast, set up our tent, and were ready for the day. It was kind of nice to put up our tent in the daylight. Friday and Saturday afternoon we went to the lake to play. The weather wasn't great (as usual at Flaming Gorge) but we still had a great time. I didn't get too many pictures because I didn't always have my camera with me. The surf was the favorite boating toy. Megan, Kevin, and even Grandpa had fun on the surf. Meggie and Mikey enjoyed the wakeboard, and Stephanie had fun with the kneeboard. I was able to surf without the rope for the first time, and Kamryn and Wyatt practiced there great skills on the surf board.

Saturday evening Grandpa and Wyatt took the kids fishing. All of the kids caught at least one fish. Kamryn even caught a fish with his homemade fishing pole. Wyatt had Brynli and Derek kiss there fish. Brynli didn't want to get to close, but she puckered up pretty good. All the kids came back to camp pretty excited about there fishing trip. They brought back about 4 fish that we cooked up. I think all the kids even tried some. Sadie realized that she really liked fish.
The kids also enjoyed just playing at camp. It is always fun to play with cousins, a little dirt doesn't hurt either. All in all it was a great weekend, even if we did all come home sick. We are already looking forward to next years family camp.

Construction

I've had a few requests for pictures of the construction of our new home.

FRONT VIEW

BACK VIEW

ENTRY

GREAT ROOM

MASTER BEDROOM: you can't see the view from this picture, but it is amazing!

KITCHEN

It's been exciting, fun, and stressful building a house. Everything is on schedule, and hopefully we will be moving in the end of October or first of November.

Sleepy Girl

Sadie doesn't take consistent or regular naps anymore. Sometimes she gets so tired she falls asleep in unusual places. Here is a couple I found her in this last week.

(She had drooled on her blue marker, and had a blue face when she woke up.)