Modge Podge

OK. SO, I'm a little bit of a slacker. What can I say? "Let he who has NEVER gone 10 weeks without a blog update cast the first stone!" Yeah. Take that. :D This is a modge podge (is that how you spell that??) of things that have gone on in our lives since the first of August. Mia started dance, the boys started school, Jaxon was baptized, Mia started school, and I dyed my hair. Pretty eventful! Enjoy the pics.

Mia's first day of dance

Cheese!

I love this girl!

Dallin was the first one to leave for school. He was excited about riding the bus. I didn't take pictures of that for fear of embarassing him! Off to the big intermediate school... 6th grade!

Bye mom!

Boys showing off their new backpacks.

Jaxon's first day of 3rd grade and Noah's first day of Kindergarten.

Jaxon before his baptismal interview with the Bishop.

Dad and Jax

Jaxon with Grandma and Grandpa Keeler

Jaxon with Grandma and Grandpa Smith

We're so pleased with you Jaxon!

Keeler Family 2009

Miss Mia's first day of preschool!

She was anxiously waiting for Miss Keri to open the gate for her first day!

One happy girl. :) She had to wait almost a MONTH longer than the boys to start, and she did NOT like that idea!

My new color! It's darker than I've ever gone before, but I like it!

Oh yea! 4th of July!!

How could I forget? I forgot to post pics of our fourth of July! Haha. Unfortunately, we were missing our Jaxon, because while he was visiting cousins earlier that week, he caught the swine flu. DARN! SO, I had to leave him up in Salt Lake with his cousins until he wasn't contagious any more. We sure missed him!

Summer pics!

We've had such a great time this summer! We've spent a lot of days lounging, but have had a lot of fun and we have the pictures below to prove it! Mia's dance recital was in May and she LOVES her trophy. :) She carries it around the house a lot! The first part of June, Dallin and Kirt participated in Lieto's Young Musician Choir Camp. They performed together in an AWESOME concert! After that, we had the Washington 11th Ward annual "Bike Parade". Mia thought she wanted to ride her own bike this year so we decorated it, but she ended up riding in the basket of Grandpa's tricycle (driven by Daddy) with Luke! We've spent a lot of days at the pool and LOVE that the rec center is right here by our house. It's definitely our choice for beating the St. George heat! Happy Summer!

Summertime...and the livin' is easy!

Tickets for Technology!

OK, it's honestly been SO long since I posted that I'm totally embarrassed and have NO idea where to start. We're having a FABULOUS summer! The weather has been wonderful for St. George in June.

Since my kids are TOTALLY into playing the computer, the Wii, and addicted to watching TV and movies, I decided I needed to make them "earn" their playing/watching time this summer. Every morning they each have 4-5 chores. In order to earn their tickets for the day, they have to complete their chores. They earn one ticket for every chore they complete, BUT they can't have their tickets unless they complete ALL their chores that day. Each ticket is worth 30 minutes of technology time. So basically, they get 2 1/2 hours a day, but when they're out of tickets, they have to earn more (by doing more chores) before they can play or watch any more. :) I also made the rule that if they are watching someone play the computer or Wii, it counts as one of their tickets!! They can go outside play with friends or sit and read a book for no tickets at all. (And there have been a couple of days a few of them have done that!) I am really loving this because a lot of days the boys do their chores, use up their time and want MORE time, so they pick chores off a master list that I created. I'm getting a lot of things done around my house and I must say, that it's the best idea I've had in a long time!