First Day for the First of our Kids off to School

This year Hallee started kindergarten. I think it was a little harder for her than a usual kindergartener because we had just moved and she hadn't made any friends yet. But she is doing great- even though every day is a struggle to get her to school. (Hallee tells me every morning when I wake her up and every night when we are getting things set out that she isn't going to school.) She is learning a lot at school and she has made 2 friends that she adores.

Jason took her to school the first day and said that there were a ton of moms crying in the hall. I am glad I didn't take her. I would have been one of those moms.

I was awarded the 'Worst Mom of the Day' award (I gave it to myself). At Hallee's school they have early release every other Monday. Well, the first time she had early release I arrived at her school at 11:50 and when I didn't see any other parents pulling in or kids coming out at 11:55 when her school lets out it dawned on me that it was an early release day! I sprinted inside and found Hallee sitting with her teacher coloring in the foyer. I was 35 minutes late. I almost cried but I just had to promise Hallee I would never forget again and all was forgiven.

My favorite story about Hallee so far this year was on the bus. Every day I put a little snack in Hallee's backpack (it makes her happier to go to school) and Hallee and I have compromised that she rides the bus 3 days and we take her and pick her up 2 days. The first time she rode the bus I asked her if she ate her snack (swedish fish) on the 30 minute drive home. She said, "No. They told us no food or drink on the bus." It was so cute!

After 9 Months...

After 9 long months of Jason working in Pocatello and the rest of our family in Nampa- we have sold our house and moved back to Poky! When Jason took the new job back in the end of October, we thought it would MAYBE take 3 months to sell our house. When it took longer than that, I decided that everything would work out as long as we were settled somewhere before Hallee would start kindergarten in the fall. I guess timing is everything because we closed on our house on August 6th but we can't move into our rental house until the 20th and then school starts on the 24th. We will barely be settled by the first day of school- but I guess that's all I hoped for.

We are so excited to be together again but the situation is bitter sweet to us. We loved our house. We loved living close to Jason's family. We loved our ward. We loved the treasure valley (good shopping, better weather, lots of things to do). It was hard to leave. I will miss so much.

Our family has so much to be grateful for and so we are going to make the best of this move. A new school, new ward, new friends, and new experiences all in my old hometown.

Snake River Stampede

It has become a tradition in our family to go the the rodeo at the Idaho Center each year. Every time we drive past the Idaho Center from the backseat I hear, "There's the rodeo!" This year our family went by ourselves because Jason was still in Poky when our relatives went to watch Brik and Blake do the muttin' bustin'- but we still had a great time.

Colt made horse noises for about the first 30 minutes. He was loving it! We had to buy the girls some treats to keep them happy and occupied for the entire duration- but on the way home we asked Hallee what her favorite part was and she replied, "My favorite part was all of it!" She even thinks next year she should try a little muttin' bustin' herself.

4th of July

This year our family didn't do much for the 4th. We spent the morning packing up and driving home from the family reunion. After unpacking, cleaning, laundry, and a nice long shower- Jason and I were too tired to do anything. It was pathetic. Only later that night when we saw all of our neighbors doing fireworks did we regret our decision.

So, the next day we rummaged up leftover fireworks from Grandma and Grandpa Robertson and came home to have our own little show. The kids favorite fireworks were the smoke bombs. They would ooh and aaah and Colt only tried to run for them a couple of times. After we finished up, our neighbors who had been out of town, invited us to their house for more fireworks. We stayed up way, way too late but the kids, Jason, and I had a good time (and the kids didn't even know we were a day late celebrating :o) .

(I don't know why but I couldn't move my pics in this post so it looks a little silly).

Deadwood Reservoir Reunion

This year was the first annual Royce/Robertson family reunion. We went to Deadwood Reservoir (somewhere in the mountains above Banks). We had to drive on a dirt road for an hour to get in to the place. It was steep and scary and it took forever! At times however, I thought it was beautiful. We saw a deer right by our camp and the kids kept catching frogs.


While we were there we did some swimming, four wheeling, nature walk :), and Jason did some fishing. Colt loved the four wheelers- he couldn't get enough but he kept falling asleep when Jason gave him rides. Make sure you don't miss Jadyn posing in all the pics!

The weather was pretty nice the whole time except for the night I was in charge of dinner. We said the blessing on the food and about 1 minute later it started raining on us. After a while of sitting in the truck, we ended up in our tent. Here is Jason with the kids during the storm (and two little peeping toms in the window- Oakley and Maycee).

The kids loved camping most of all. I have to admit, I was glad to leave the outhouses and dirt behind (no surprise). These are our 3 yahoos leaving in the truck. They were filthy!

Summer Fun

A few weeks ago, Hallee, Jadyn, Colt and I were invited to spend a hot afternoon at a park in Meridian (I don't even know the name of it). The park had water features, swings, a rock climbing wall, jungle gym toy thing- and of course- lots of our cousins! We brought lunches and then let the kids play for a couple hours. It was really hard for me to keep track of my 3 kids because there were so many places to go and things to do but they had a great time. They spent most of our time in the water as you can see in the pics.

Colt took a while to warm up to the water sprinklers- but then he loved it.

Jadyn trying to get a drink.

Hallee warming herself up with cousin Kinley.

Father's Day (Along time ago)

(Hallee and Jadyn painted this sign so we could decorate and have a serious party. They were disappointed we didn't have balloons. :) They also made him card with a ton of stickers.)

We had a great Father's Day celebrating our great Dad! I made Jason breakfast that morning and then we opened presents. We got Jason new tools (socket set and screw driver set) since many of his were stolen building our house. Then it was off to church where our ward did 'Desserts for Dad.' All the sisters brought a dessert and the last 15 minutes of church all the dads got to go crazy and dig into a ton of goodies (while the rest of us were in class). I think Jason really enjoyed it. After church we made fajitas and then went to the Robertsons for a little family party.

I am so grateful for Jason. He is a wonderful father. When he gets home from Pocatello the kids want nothing to do with me for at least 24 hours because he is their favorite. He is so fun and helpful. I couldn't ask for a better father for my children. We love you Jason Royce!