Anson and Aaron start school

This summer has been great but after we returned from our trip to the Smokey Mountains we were ready for school to begin.  Anson is in 2nd grade and Aaron is in 1st grade so they are both gone all day.  This will be such a change especially because Rachel is also starting PreK tomorrow.  

Here is Aaron ready to go.

 Here is Anson, not wanting to take another picture but willing with a smirk.

They are both such cute boys and we will really miss them while they are at school but oh the fun things they will learn.  I'm glad we live so close to the school so I can be part of so much.

Talks and scriptures in Primary

So our kids have the opportunity a couple times of year to give talks or read scriptures in front of their Primary, that is 20 or so kids their age at church.  Aaron had the opportunity to read the scripture last month.  Anson has the opportunity to give a talk on having good friends help you choose the right today.  Aaron had a hard time practicing the week of his scripture, he just couldn't be pulled away from playing.  SO he had the consequence of reading the scripture all the way to church.  Our church is 15-20 minutes away so one can read a few verses many times in that amount of time.  By the time we arrived he was very fluent with his scripture and did a great job in front of his peers. 

So how will Anson do?  Is he going to practice before church or many times on the way to church?  He's talking about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and those are tricky names to rattle off in front of people.  I'm sure he'll CTR, choose the right, and practice and do a great job today.

from Anson:
It is a little long.

from Mom:
But I know you can do it!

from Anson:
I know I can do it too.

from Mom:
kiss on your cheek

This is a real dialogue Anson wrote on this blog. :)

The new ride!

So we've said goodbye to our first family car and a big hello to our new van.  We were hopeful that our Grand Caravan would stick with us for a few more years but this year has been expensive on repairs, one of which was a transmission line.  The transmission would be going in the next year or two and with a few long driving trips coming up we decided to make the change now instead of breaking down in the mountains in the middle of who knows where. 

We were thrilled to get a new Honda Odyssey.   The kids especially love the new DVD.  We took it on our first trip we just returned from to Gatlinburg, TN and it worked great.  Here are the cooperating kids hanging out the window.