Nathan's first day of school

Nathan started school on Friday! He was nervous, but he did great! He didn't talk much about the activities, but he did mention a few times that he had two recesses! He thought that was so cool.

Tomorrow is the big day!

Nathan starts school tomorrow! I'm so excited. He's not excited at all. In fact, he's pretty nervous about it, but I think he'll be fine. He is always timid in new situations. Dan gave him a father's blessing tonight, which he plans to do each year before the first day of school. It was really nice.

We also started reading the Book of Mormon as a family again. We've never really read it with Nathan, and we realized that it is time to start doing that with him. We should have been doing it all along. Anyway, we've only read a chapter and a half in three days, but I'm excited that we're doing it. I know the blessings will come from it. We've started doing family prayer again, too. Dan always said Nathan's bedtime prayer with him, but we weren't really saying family prayers. Dan and I had both been feeling like we need to step it up a notch spiritually. It's so awesome having such a righteous husband. I'm not saying that to brag, but I am really blessed.

Some more highlights from earlier this summer...

Our week long family vacation to the Catskill Mountains. Here we are at Zoom Flume, a fun water park that we went to twice.
Amber, Ashley, Nathan and I went to a miniature horse farm in Windham. It was really fun to see such small horses. Our hopes of getting one didn't turn out so well, though.

We did respite a couple times for Larry. What a cutie!

We saw lots of family that we hadn't seen in a long time when they flew in for Joe & Crystal's wedding. The cousins had an awesome time playing together.

Joe & Crystal's wedding. I just had to post this picture of Maddi, Jared and McKenzie at the reception. They, along with Zander, were in the wedding. They were so cute!

Catching up

Nathan took a LOOK class this summer, "Outer Space and Flying Machine Construction". He LOVED it! These are the projects he came up with. They are (from left to right), a bacteria saver, 2 rockets, a flying machine, a cannon camera (no pun intended) and a robot. The teacher said he has a great imagination. He went into great detail when he was sharing his creations with his classmates, and he came out of class each day so excited to show me what he made.
Nathan, Branson and Kaedon have been having some great times this summer. There's hardly a day that goes by without them playing at some point in the day, sometimes for hours at a time.

Nathan went to an MLS Soccer Camp this summer. It was such a great program. It was his introduction to organized sports, so I was really hoping he'd like it. Luckily, he did. He had a great time. The coach was so good with the kids. He got his own tshirt and soccer ball to keep. It was just 1 1/2 hours per day for a week, but he was so tired after each session. The coach really had them moving a lot. It was so good for him.

We celebrated my Aunt Diane's 60th birthday last week. My Mom and Kathy planned a really nice party for her at Kathy's house. I think she was really surprised and pleased.

We went to Storyland with Gus & Darcy and the kids on Tuesday. It was so much fun going with them because Nathan had friends to go on the rides with and Dan and I got to chat a lot with Darcy and Gus. The kids were really good and they all had so much fun going on the rides. Tannon is an amazing baby! He hardly made a peep all day! We had one big thunder shower around 2:30, but other than that, it was sunny (actually a little too sunny at times).

A couple more scrapbook pages

My friend Eliza Cedroni designed the kit that I used on this "My Little Star" page.

Before school starts...

Here's what I want to accomplish before school starts again:

1. Go school shopping for both me and Nathan
2. Finish Nathan's scrapbook (1 1/2 pages left)
3. Go into school several times
4. Go to Freeport (L.L. Bean and Play and Learn)
5. Visit Gram Record

Amber & Ashley's visit

Amber & Ashley are flying back bright and early tomorrow morning. The few weeks that they were here just flew by. I'm not ready for them to go back. There's so much more that I wish we could do with them. But, I learned a long time ago, to focus on what we were able to do with them because you simply cannot fit everything in. You have to be happy with it, and not stress about it. I used to stress myself out every summer trying to fit too much in. So here's what they were able to do:

Went on vacation to New York as a family
Went to game night with the Coopers a couple times
Watched a few movies from Netflix
Went to see a miniature horse farm in Windham
Went swimming several times (at Mom & Dad's pool, once at the lake, & once at Range Pond)
Played lots of games
Scrapbooked and stamped a lot
Had JJ, Allyson & Joshie over for a sleepover
Slept in the playhouse
Ashley went riding with Fe
Ashley went to Girls' Camp
Hung out with Ryan a couple times
Went to the races a few times
Watched Nathan at Soccer camp
Ate way too much junkfood
Got frozen custard a couple times
Went to the Maine Mall
Amber read the Mt. Olympus series
Went to see their Mom's side of the family for a few days
Made bracelets with embroidery floss
Played a lot of Gameboy and Nintendo DS
FHE, Young Women and church a few times
Hung out with Olivia & Felicia a few times
Amber went to O & F's 17th birthday party (Ashley was at Girls' camp)
Amber & I played tennis once

Positive cycle

I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes this morning. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is for me. I've been on a negative cylce for a long time. I stopped exercising, which led to gaining weight, which led to feeling bad, which led to eating more, which led to not exercising, etc. I am trying to create a positive cycle so I'll lose weight, even if it's really gradual. I'm trying to eat less and exercise more, which will lead to feeling better, so I'll feel like exercising more, and who wants to chow down when they've just put all this work into exercising? So hopefully, I'll be more careful about what I eat.