The Big Squeeze!

Squeezing my Heart!
We all headed back to school on Thursday! The kids were all pretty darn excited. Brig headed to Middle School and 7th grade. Katry is attending elementary school in 5th and Seth headed right back in the door to have homeschool for 3rd grade with Kaleb, Kai and I. Well I must say it was much much easier sending off a 12 and 10 year old for their first days of public school than I imagine it would be to send of a kindergardner. They were excited and enjoyed it quite a bit. Katry was nervous about not knowing anyone. But three little girls from her class came right up to her and asked if she wanted to play on her first recess and she hasn't looked back since. Brig made the Middle school soccer team and has been wearing himself at that for a couple of hours every night. He has been wearing our ears out at night telling us about everything that goes on at school . I love it! Brig has been riding his bike to school and today Dad, Katry and Seth rode their bikes to school to greet him as he was leaving school. He said that he was happy to see them, but a little embarassed to have his family show up at the school. We squeezed every bit of summer out that we could the three days before school started. I have been wanting to make pretzels all summer and we finally fit it in. Yes these pretzels tasted as good as they look. Way to go kids!
We watched a video, went swimming several times, did last minute school shopping, got all our supplies ready, rode bikes and ate popsicles galore. Wednesday night, Brigham gave us all Back to School Blessings. We love having his calming priesthood power to bless us. Thursday morning we arose and began our school routine. We excersized as a family, read scriptures, ate yummy waffles and strawberries, then headed out the door.
Our little Kai- for your viewing pleasure. The kids like to dress him up.

Kaleb & Lindsey 8/8/08

Hey- I just figured out how to add more than five pictures to a post. Unfortunately, they didn't tag on to the end of the post like I wanted them too. Anyway- here are some more pictures I like from the festivities.
Uncle Kaleb teaching Brig a new tie style.
All the grand people in the family. Parents and kiddos

Kaleb if you can't remember that wedding date- you are in trouble! :) The wedding was so super sweet. Both Kaleb and Staven had great Sealers. They had a tastey luncheon before the sealing and a fun program. We made up another diddy honoring the couple. It was to the tune of "Rise and Shout". Brigham is so creative in coming up with things like that. If the other song we did was out of tune- this one was even more so. Oops! Anyway- it was fun. After the luncheon we had a few hours to kill so we went to Farmington- then came back for the wedding. After pictures etc. it was quite late, but we were all hungry- so we went out to eat at Fudruckers. It was fun gabbing the night away.
I loved this picture of the girls all holding Lindsey's dress.
Twirling Angels
Before and during the recption on Saturday we had a bit of a drizzle. I thought it was lovely. The reception was a lot of fun. There was a bouncing ball and cotton candy for the kids. There was also a chocolate fountain for dessert and the kids were all covered in chocolate. Good thing the pictures were before the party.
Towards the end there was a fun dance with a lot of party music. It was fun dancing under the lights.

Lehi Water Park with The Thompsons

After the second day of the Grand Retreat- we headed to Lehi to their fun water park.
It was so much fun cooling off and partying with our fabulous cousins.
Inseperable buddies, Maizie and Kaleb
Love those little fat rolls, and those handsome eyes.
Pure joy!

The Grand Retreat

For the second year in a row my parents held the annual "Grand Retreat". It is a day of learning and fun with grandparents and grandkids. This year was a little different cause Grandma Naegle ended up taking a trip to the hospital so Grandpa took the kids up and did his activities with them one day and the next day Grandma taught the lessons. The kids loved all of it. Wednesday they went up to Silver Lake in American Fork canyon.
They caught bugs, and swam in the lake.
They practiced shooting targets with 22's.

They BBQ'd pizza's ate a yummy chicken and rice dish, and then later that night roasted marshmallows and made s'mores around a campfire. Then on Thursday, Grandma taught them lessons on developing Christlike attributes. Each grandkiddo was assigned an attribute to give a short little lesson on. They all did a great job. They were each given a statue of Christ to help them remember the things that they learned and who they want to be like. What a treasure the whole experience was. Thanks so much Grandma and Grandpa for the amazing lessons and fantastic Memories.

Staven & Ashlee- July 30, 2008

My fabulous brother Stave and his gorgeous wife Ashlee were sealed together forever. Our whole family is super thrilled. We love Ash and we love Stave. The ceremony was perfect. They had a lovely, intimate wedding dinner at this home. There was great BBQ and a fun little program. The Thompson Troop did a dance for everybody and Brigham and I made up a little jingle for our family to sing- honoring the love birds. It wasn't sung in tune- but it was performed with great love.
To end the program- Stave and Ash had a romantic dance, then the parents joined in- followed by anyone else who desired. It was so fun dancing with Brigham, Brig and my dad. Such great gentlemen. Katry also had a sweet dance with her dad and Brig cut up the rug with Aunt J. Seth and Kade ran around eating cookies and causing havoc. We all had a great time.

Uncle Micah, Uncle Heath, Brigham and Kaleb relaxing.


Beautiful Ladies

Showering Our Brides with LOVE

These lucky ladies right here- plus a cute Kelly in Florida are super excited to have two new sisters join the family. (These cute ladies have already joined the family- but since I am back tracking to get a good deal of our happenings recorded here in my picture journal....play along with me and pretend it is really just July 19th and the weddings haven't actually happened yet.) Mom, J and I threw a little shindig in celebration of the upcoming nuptuals. Mom found us a delightful store called "Dear Lizzies" in Highland. It was a super fun backdrop. All the ladies in our family, cousins, aunts, grandma's etc were invited. J put together a super fun video of the Stave and Kaleb answering questions and we ate some super cute cupcakes with huge red and pink flowers on top- all swished down with a yummy cherry drink. Delish. I loved watching my brothers answer the questions- they are just too cute and sooo funny.

These are my beautiful new sisters. Ashlee is married to Staven and she is next to Jaleah and Lindsey belongs to Kaleb ( she is next to me).
Katry was super excited to come along and join in the festivities. She helped me as we played a memory game that involved candy. She loves candy- so it was right up her alley. Isn't she beautiful!
A big thanks to all our fabulous family that came and celebrated with us. My only regret is that we totally spaced sharing more information about Ash and Linds. Woops!

Happy Birthday Daddy-O!

We celebrated Brigham's 37th Birthday on July 16th. It is hard to believe that we are getting so old. My how time flies. Its a good thing that some things get better with age. Brigham is amazing and he is definitely more wonderful every year. This cake threatened to set off the fire alarm.
It is nice to know that his lungs are still in good shape!
37 Things We Love About Dad
1. He is nice (Katry)
2. He is awesome (Seth)
3. He is thoughtful (Brig)
4. I like Daddy (Kaleb)
5. He never gets angry (Heather)
6. I like it when he plays soccer with me (Katry)
7. He plays games with me like Axis and Allies, Risk and wrestling (Seth)
8. Riding bikes with Dad (Brig)
9. I like to play Memory game with Daddy (Kaleb)
10. I love how concerned he is with our happiness (Heather)
11. He is a tease and that is fun......sometimes (Katry)
12. He is happy (Seth)
13. I like talking with Dad (Brig)
14. Wrestling with Dad (Kaleb)
15. I love what a sincere, honest person he is (Heather)
16. I like to race dad when he comes home from work. I'm on my bike, he is in the car (Katry)
17. He is talented- he can fix stuff (Seth)
18. He is a good teacher in work projects (Brig)
19. I like to play Go Fish with daddy. (Kaleb)
20. I love how kind and respectful he is to everyone (Heather)
21. He is a good teacher in soccer (Katry)
22. He is a genius- very smart (Seth)
23. I like how he copes with Kaleb- he doesn't scream (Brig)
24. I like daddy to watch me play soccer (Kaleb)
25. I love how he leads our family to follow Christ (Heather)
26. I love what a good sport he is (Katry)
27. He is athletic, I like to watch him play soccer and basketball (Seth)
28. I like how he wants me to do good (Brig)
29. I like him to tell me stories (Kaleb)
30. I love how caring and considerate of my feelings he is (Heather)
31. He teaches me things I need to know (Katry)
32. He is a master bug killler (Seth)
33. I like how he loves mom so that I know that we have a good strong family (Brig)
34. He takes us to do fun things like Germany(Kaleb)
35. I love how he shows us by example what true love is (Heather)
36. He loves us all so very much (Katry)
37. He is the best Dad in the whole universe (Seth)
WE LOVE YOU DAD THANKS FOR BEING OUR ROCK!