A bunch of firsts

This last week was a bunch of FIRSTS in the Nielsen household. 

First, first, Jersey's started school on Monday becoming a big 3rd grader. Is it weird that I remember 3rd grade and the things I did in 3rd grade? She has a great teacher who is actually my neighbor's SIL. So I'm excited about she will do. 

Jersey on the first day of school

walking to school with friends

Jersey and her BFF Krystal

A other first was that Phoenix got to meet his teacher on Monday for first grade! Weird that my baby is in first grade. He was a bit shy but I know that he will be fine once he gets into a routine with the whole school thing. 

There is my happy boy!

Another first Phoenix was that on Tuesday he started school. When we got to the playground and waiting for which his line he should be in, he hung onto my legs for awhile. I started to worry that he was going to start crying, but he didn't I did though. No tears but my heart was starting to hurt that he getting so big. That he is in school all day.

Phoenix on his first day of school

Something else that was a major first for our family was that I changed my schedule. For 10 years Mike and I have worked oppisite shifts. When we were first married, he worked at night and I worked during the day because of our school schedule. Then when we had children we switched and Mike worked in the day and I worked at night. 9 YEARS!!! I haven't been home for homework, bedtime, or dinner time. Since Phoenix was going to be at school all day I didn't see the point to be home all day and miss the kids at night. Luckly I work for a good company where all my supervisors have played this game while they had little children at home so that they could also be a mother. 

I know that Mike and I will have some adjustment to deal with since we haven't ever been home at the same time and a new routine will have to be set up. So far so good. I have been happy to have our schedules be the same. Jersey has been begging for Family Home Evening so it will be nice that we can start that as a family. 

He is mad that I want another picture

Here is to a new and happy school year!

What's an aquarium?

After going with Jersey, on her field trip to the Aquarium. She kept talking about how she wanted to go back and show Phoenix all the things that she thought was cool. While the children are out of school I have been thinking of things that we can do that we don't normally do. Like going to the Aquarium. 

Jersey's real motivation for going there was for me to get suckered into buying her something from the gift shop. I would rather go to Seaworld and buy something there than buy something at that shop. Alas our Aquarium in the desert, proved that it was really expensive for the hour that we were there. I was surprised that Phoenix didn't show much interest after all the talk his sister gave to him. He was actually afraid of the animals. I thought he would like to see the penguins or even want to touch the sting rays but nope he didn't care. He even asked why there were only fish there. We took our souvenir photo booth pictures and left. The kids did think that the anaconda was cool. But that is about it.

Beautiful Baby

I know she isn't a baby anymore and is growing older every year. But she is still my baby girl. With Jersey turning 8, she will also get to be baptized. We are doing that at the beginning of June so that my parents can be here to be part of Jersey's special day. 

I wanted some pretty pictures of Jersey in her baptism outfit. We first went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to shoot some pictures but the grounds we closed. So we went downtown to Temple Square. The tulips were blooming and the sun was shining even though it was a bit windy. 

We also captured a few of Phe and Jers together that were funny.

Conference Weekend

We enjoyed Conference just like everyone else I'm sure. I found some great activities for my children to keep themselves busy during the talks. They finished their packets during the first session. Luckily there was more to the packet. It came with these cut outs of the First Presidency that you attach to toilet paper rolls. Jers and Phe colored them and I helped attach them to the toilet paper rolls. There was also a suit of armor for the Armor of God. So they cut out that as well and we attached it to a balloon. For the face the kids wanted me to put glass on the balloon for Harry Potter. I don't know how that correlation works but it was still funny. 

I was really happy that they did sit and listen. Then they were talking about what they learned later. Just random thoughts that I didn't write down. We like to have the radio and the TV on at the same time during conference. Jersey was surprised that downstairs was fast than the upstairs. 

I am truly grateful for my children! 

BTW.... we got our conference handouts from Sugardoodle.net