Ally is Eleven

 It was love at first sight for Josh and I on that bright September morning eleven years ago when Ally entered our lives.  The years have flown by and she has turned into such a cute, sweet "tween".  Here are eleven things we love about our Ally:

Her big blue eyes.

Her determination.

Her perfect handwriting.

Her smile.

Her kindness to others.

Listening to her play the piano.

Watching her dance ballet.

Hearing her laugh.

Her cheerful attitude.

Her cute sense of (modest) style.

Her ability to deal with having three little brothers. (She needs a medal for that one!)

Since her birthday was on Tuesday, and it wasn't a "friend party" year, we didn't do much for her birthday. We ended up going to dinner at Idle Isle with both sets of Grandparents.  We all had a fun time watching her open presents and just celebrating having her in our lives.

Here she is with all her gifts.  She got stuff to make flower bows, lots of craft kits, pajamas, some clothes, socks, recipe cards, and a gift card for Wal-Mart.  She also got a cute Birthday haircut. We are also going to let her join the 5th grade orchestra as one of her birthday gifts (cellos aren't cheap).  We love our Ally Boo!

Labor Day in the Uintahs

The kids begged all summer to go camping, so we decided to go over Labor Day weekend.  Josh's parents took their trailer up to Sulpher Campground in the Uintahs.  This picture was taken just a little ways past our campsite.

We brought everyone's bikes and Logan had tons of fun riding around the campsite.  The rest of us decided it was lots of fun going down the campground road, but not so fun coming back up.

Look!  It's a rare picture of me on the blog!  I'm doing what you're supposed to be doing while camping: nothing but sitting and enjoying the scenery.

Ally and Bubs by the river.  We enjoyed taking walks around the river and looking for fish.  Holden liked throwing rocks in the river to scare all the fish away.  We also saw several moose including one we could see from the trailer.

We took the kids fishing at Butterfly lake where Jensen caught two fish.  Nobody else caught anything. 

 After spending one miserable night in the trailer (Bubs wouldn't sleep, it was uncomfortable, there were icky bugs and lots of dirt-yes we are spoiled)  we decided to drive to the cabin for the next night.  We enjoyed a nice relaxing weekend after that.  We'll see if we ever go camping again...maybe at the Holiday Inn!

First Day of School!

Jensen was just a little excited for Kindergarten!

He is in Mrs. Coburn's class in the morning.

Logan is in Third Grade and has Mrs. Hardy for a teacher.

Ally is in Fifth Grade and Mrs. Argyl's class.

It was pouring rain this morning so I couldn't take pictures of Ally and Logan on the front porch this year.  Holden wanted to be like his siblings and popped in the picture!  Notice Ally's flower that she made expecially to match her outfit.

I am so excited to have everyone back in school, but it will be hard for Holden.  He loves to be with his siblings!

The Rodeo

Our kids love to go to the Rodeo!  My boys are cowboys at heart and Ally even found some small piece of cowgirl in her for the night. 

Aubrey and Jensen are so cute when they get together.  Such good little friends.

Cowboys

Ally decorated her Cowgirl hat for the rodeo-complete with lots of sparkles. 

Bolinder Reunion

My Mom's side of the family had a reunion at Palisade State Park.  We went down for a day and the kids had a really great time.  We stayed in a little cabin that had air conditioning (yay!) but no bathroom (boo!).

They had just built this cabin so it was really nice.  Jensen was having a "poor me" moment.

It didn't take Holden long to figure out how to climb up on the bunk bed!  It was impossible to keep him off of it, let alone get him to go to sleep. He even figured out how to climb out of the portable crib.  Goody.

More fun on the bunk beds. Jensen's favorite blanket "Pooh Blank" ended up getting left behind.  Someone (?) shoved it between the matress and wood side as we were leaving.  The campground found it for us and it's been quite the challenge getting it back.  Jensen has done surprisingly well without it, though.  He's growing up. Sigh.

We went swimming in the resevoir but the highlight for the kids was definately catching toads and minnows.  We even brought home a couple of minnows.  Apparently they eat Beta Food-who knew?

Can't help but imagine that the toad is saying "Don't squeeze me any tighter, Logan!  My eye might pop out!"

Ally joined in the toad catching fun, too!  Jensen was the first one to catch a toad.

Meet Mr. Toad, Holden.

We enjoyed seeing family members and eating lots of yummy food.  Uncle Bud sure knows how to cook with a Dutch Oven!

Around Home

Since we went to Disneyland in January, we didn't really get to go on a summer vaction this year.  We spent a lot of time at home.  Holden was most of our entertainment:

He loves to hide and play peek-a-boo with pillows and blankets.

Here he is peeking out from behind the door.

Holden and his blanky.

This is another common sight at our house. Ally playing the piano.  We always have music in our house.  She gets a little annoyed when Holden is napping because I won't let her play.  Logan enjoys playing the piano, too.  There have been quite a few fights over whose turn it is to play the piano!

Overall it seemed like a pretty long summer at times.  Next year we are for sure going to go on vacation during the summer!

Daisy Duck

Our poor lonely duck.  We started with four ducks.  The first one was a runt and the others pecked it to death. The second one got eaten by a racoon. The third one drowned in a bucket (didn't know ducks could drown, did you?). Now our poor lonely duck spends it's time looking at it's reflection in the garage door.  On the up side, she has started to become really friendly with us and follow us around.  The kids love having her as a pet!