First day of Pre School!

Yeah it was so weird to send Peyton somewhere and leave him all alone without my constant supervision. I have heard people say that it is hard to let go, but didn't understand it until now. I was so nervous the whole time. I mean he has been away from me plenty, with grandparents, aunties, uncles, and even at church. But this was different, he didn't know his teachers or any of the other kids. What if he needed something and they couldn't help him right away? Peyton was pretty used to being the center of attention, how would he react to the teachers having 20 other kids to look after. It was actually quite emotional for me, I didn't cry but I felt a lot of different feelings. It is hard to trust that someone else is going to look after the best interest of your child when you aren't there. Then hope that he adjusts well, doesn't cause interruptions, and gets along with the other kids. It was a lot to take in at once.......but we made it. The first few weeks were kind of tough, we had a few days that he didn't really want to go, one day I went to get him out of his seat and he grabbed on to me and wouldn't let go and started crying....the teacher told me to park the van and come in for a few minutes. So we went in and they tried to distract him with some toys, nothing seemed to work and he kept getting more and more worked up. I was afraid that he was going to cause the other kids to get upset so I asked the teachers if it was ok if I took him home for a few minutes and brought him back. They agreed. Tim was still home that day, he was just about to leave to paint my sister Tracy's house. I called him on my way home and told him what was going on......."I'll take care of it" was all he said. As soon as I pulled in the driveway Tim got Peyton and took him back. I was very curious to see who was going to win this battle. About 10 minutes later Tim came back alone, very impressive. He said when they got back there they were about to say "The Pledge of Allegiance". Tim was in all of his paint clothes, with his hat on (with major bed head hair) and he said that he had to take it off. He pulled his hat off and said "what does my hair look like", I was rolling on the floor, his hair was so wild. I so wish I had a picture of that! But after Tim sat there with him for a minute he just finally looked at Tim and said "I'm all better now, you can go back to work" and that was that.

Another cute story his teacher told me was about the first day. She said they were trying to explain to all of the kids that everyday they would stand and say "The Pledge of Allegiance", and when the finally had all 20 of the kids standing with their hands on their hearts and had them all under control......Peyton shouted "All Aboard"!! (don't ask me where he got that) She said everyone just started laughing.

Oooo-tah!

This is our lot!
This is the house we are renting.

That is how Peyton says Utah, it is so cute I say it that way now too. I have to say I was very glad to be done with Alaska this year. We are really liking it here (at least I am, I hope Tim is too). We bought a lot just down the street from this house that we are renting and are going to try to start building. We have been working on finding the right plans for over a month now. It is so hard when you don't really have any limitations. I like someone to just say you can do A or B. Not "we can really do anything you want"! But I just picked up our house plans today and hopefully if everything goes just right we will be able to start here in a month or so. Hopefully the Utah weather cooperates with us. I love the lot we got, it is in a cul-de-sac and the back yard backs up to a field like the house we are in right now.

The Boys!

Uncle Tony
Uncle Taylor
Uncle Tim
My beautiful sister-in-law Katy
Uncle Tim and Peyton playing "following the leader" from Peter Pan

Well before I move on from Alaska 2007, I wanted to thank my brothers (and sister-in-law). My kids are lucky to have so many people around them that love them and want to spend their time with them. I know that Tony and Taylor (my two baby brothers) wouldn't come out and admit it, but deep down they secretly loved when I would ask one of them to hold Addison when I was busy with something. They were really good about helping me out with the kids this summer.

Mama "K"

I love this picture, she stood out on the back deck the entire ride home and had the biggest perma-grin I have ever seen!

The next person to come to our rescue this summer was Tim's mom (Ma K). She was on the last shift and she had the dreaded job of helping us clean up, pack up and get ready to shut down. That is now officially dubbed my least favorite part of Alaska......I seriously can't even say how much I hate it. Anyways Alanna is sooo good at getting me organized, and helping me keep my spirits up about the situation. I felt so bad because we left her babysitting way too much. I swear one of these times we will actually get her out to see how beautiful Alaska is! Somehow in the middle of all the mayhem we did manage to get her out fishing a few times. The last time she was in Alaska we didn't get her out fishing for halibut. So she got her first experience deep-sea fishing with her three-month old granddaughter....thank goodness the water was flat that day!!

July in Alaska

My parents were so excited to meet our little sweetie pie, in this picture dad was telling Addison what a big double chin she has........wonder where that came from;) I love you dad!
I know, those of you who don't know who this is.....it is my mom, not my sister!
This was one of our really good catches this summer, I didn't have my camera that same day on the second trip.....but the fish were even bigger!

This is Tim's Salmon Shark......we only see about one a summer. Pretty cool!

For those of you who aren't familiar with a July in Alaska one word will probably sum it up.......ciaos! Last year when my brother Tim and Katy called to tell us that they were going to have a baby, of course I was totally pumped for them but was thinking "oh wow we are in so much trouble next summer without Katy to help us". Well about two weeks later I wasn't feeling well myself and discovered that hmmmmm I was prego too. The first call I made was to my parents to tell them the news, and to make them swear that they would come up in July to help us, now I was totally freaking out. I did not know how the heck we were going to make it through. After Katy's mom left my mom arrived a couple of days later, then a week or so after that my dad showed up......whew, once they were there I felt so much better about life. My mom had our office whipped into shape in no time. July is always our busiest month, we are pretty much booked solid with all three boats having two trips a day (6-8 hours each trip). The only way we get a day off is if the wind is blowing enough that the boats can't get out, which didn't happen to much this year. I tell you all of this because with having that many trips you can imagine all of the fish that comes into our office. That is where Dad comes in, and let me tell you that guy is a fish cuttin machine! I know that my parents probably worked more this year than they wanted to, but we couldn't have done it without them. Thanks!!!

Cousins, Cousins and more Cousins;-)

This was in August when Tina and Ava came up to visit, it was the first time that we had all three of them together......we took sooooo many pictures!

I love this picture, Peyton wanted a picture with all of the girls, they all started crying and he thought they were tickling him. I love the look on his face.

Addison is so lucky to have two girl cousins so close in age. Isabel is 3 weeks older and Ava is 3 weeks younger. We were lucky to be able to spend this summer with Isabel. Katy and I had so much fun being moms together in the same house (although with 11 people there it was a little crazy at times). But I thought it was actually a good experience to have someone to talk to about how they were eating, sleeping, pooping, and all of that stuff you aren't really sure if your baby is doing right. Katy's mom Karla was up helping us in June, she was my surrogate mom when I got home from the hospital and had to take care of both Katy and I. She was so good to us up there, I don't think I could ever repay her. She had to do just about every early morning check-in for us....which is very dreaded when it is 4:00 a.m.!! Then she would come home and try to make everyone dinner, and would usually stay up late making lunches for all of the guys for the next day, she was truly amazing, and I never heard her complain once. We are definitely so thankful to her for helping us up there!

Now that we are back in Utah we are loving being so close to Tina and Ava. Addison and Ava are just getting to the point where they are interested in each other and when you lay them down together they get really excited and just want to grab at each other. I can't wait for Thanksgiving to get them all together again.

California

Addisons first taste of ice cream.
Just like her mommy......she loved it!

Well this is my first go at blogging.......we'll see what happens. I was inspired to do this by my brother and sister-in law that have an awesome bolg. I don't know if I can keep up with them. But I would love to do this for friends and family that we don't get to see everyday. Also so that I don't have to send out huge picture emails anymore. We recently made a trip out to California to see Tims parents, it was her first time meeting Grandpa Kelly. She doesn't know it yet but he is going to get her in alot of trouble:)

It was a long drive but we sure had a good time. We had a chance to go to Marine World with Tims brother Kevin and his daugher Grace. They got to ride and elephant, see a whale and feed some birds. The guys also took Grace and Peyton fishing at a trout farm. Petyon loved it. I think Grace liked it but wasn't so sure about all of the mud....that girl definetly doesn't like to get dirty!