It's been a while...

So, a lot has happened since I last posted.  So to make things easier for me, I'll just list them and throw in a few pictures to go along. (These are not necessarily in chronological order).

• At the end of April we made a trip back down to Tallahassee so Tony could walk in his graduation!  He could have walked in December but we were a little busy having a baby that weekend. Tony's parents flew in to Tallahassee and celebrated with us.  Then they drove up to Athens to spend even more time with us.   We loved having them here and are so blessed to have such great support all around us!    

It was a long night for Elizabeth but doesn't Tony look handsome in his robes?!  We're so proud of him!

• School pictures--I thought they turned out so great!

Gracie--Kindergarten

Hallie--2nd grade

William--3rd grade

• William spent a week at cub scout day camp.  The theme was "Knights of the Round Table" and they did all kinds of fun knight stuff.  At the end they watch some guys dressed as knights sword fight then got knighted themselves!

Can you see Will in the middle?

• Swimming lessons
• A trip to the Lion's club fair in Athens.  
• Lot's of playing on our porch swing.

William, Hallie, Gracie, Clara, Elizabeth--we miss that swing!

• We moved in the middle of July to a bigger house more out in the country.  It has stairs, which was a priority for Gracie.  It also has a basement for storage with a storm shelter in it, which we actually had to use this weekend when the tornado siren went off.  Luckily, nothing happened, but it added a little excitement to our Sunday afternoon.

• We took a trip to Idaho and Utah!  We drove for 2 days to get to Logan Canyon where we camped with Tony's family for his family reunion.  Then drove to Newdale to spend a few more days with Tony's family.  We did so much fun stuff with them, like going to a Piano Guys concert!  Our whole family loves them, so it worked out so great that they were in Rexburg the week we were.  We bought their CD and listened to it tons on the drive home.  Whenever it comes on Clara yells, "piano guys, Mom!"

• After spending a few days with Tony's family we drove to UT to spend some time with my family.  My brother's kids were their the whole time so we got lots of cousin time!  

• While in UT, Hallie turned 8!  So she got baptized in UT so our family could come.  Beverly had this beautiful dress for Hallie due to a little mix up with my nieces dress, which worked out beautifully for us!   

We took a few pictures of Hallie wearing her baptism dress while holding her blessing dress to display at her baptism.  She looks so beautiful and we are so proud of her decision and the wonderful girl she is!

Right before the baptism.  I'm one lucky lady to have such a great family!

• We took 3 days to drive home so we could stop in Colorado Springs to see Tony's sister's family, then in Kansas to see our good friends.  Hopefully next time we'll be able to spend more than a few hours with each of them!

• A few weeks after getting home we settled into our new house and celebrated Clara's 3rd birthday.  We just had a few friends over to play and had cake and ice cream.

Everyone wanted to help.  And yes, we used Christmas wrapping paper..don't judge !)

• Now we've started at a new school.  So far things are going well and the kids are making friends.  Gracie is also playing soccer and William is playing football which means our nights are pretty full.  Gracie's first game is tonight and she cannot wait!

First day of school--William, Hallie and Gracie.  Clara was all ready  to go with her backpack too.  

• This weekend we took the kids to this little tiny splash park in Ardmore.  It only had 3 fountains shooting up, but the kids thought it was great.  Clara loved sitting on the fountains and Elizabeth loved trying to drink from them.  

•  A quick update on Elizabeth.  She's now 8 months old and crawling all over the place.  She can even go up the stairs but not down.  She can stand for a minute or two and even took a step the other day, but it's a little early to expect her to walk.  It won't be long though.  She got her first tooth this weekend with the second coming any day (I hope!).  She has the funnest personality.  She smiles all the time and loves to be where the action is.  She's incredibly determined (which will hopefully be a good thing when she's older) and extremely active.  We love her so much!