Since I am bragging about all the cutie neices and nephews I have...here is a pic of all of them! I snagged some of my favorite pics from their blogs!
Alexis 5 {Adam and MK}
Hailey 4 {Adam & MK}
Chloe 1 {Adam & MK}
Landon 3 1/2 & Kailyn 2 {Kendall & Brad}
Cameron 1 {Carly}
Mia about 7 months {Alli & Johnny}
Kyler was racing the waves into the shore...this is the direction I like! :) ...towards land!
Kyler is always a great sport about posing for the camera for me! Oh, how I wish all my kids wanted to sport their cheesy grins and still have every moment captured on film!
This sweet smile came after threatening to take pictures of him while he slept if he didn't give me some beach shots!
Kailee and Shawners...we went to Stewart Beach in Galveston. The beach that Shawn usually likes to go to is still closed from damage and unsafe conditions from Hurricane Ike...so we went here instead. I liked that there were bathrooms and showers to rinse off in! {Shawn is all about ruffin' it and makin' do with what you've got or what you can find...me, not so much. So this was a good beach for us...he thought I was having unreasonable expectations to ask for a bathroom nearby!! I know...asking for a toilet instead of sand and a piece of kelp is such a demand!}
splashing in the water with your brother...what could be better!
racing the waves and each other
Ty loved laying down and letting the waves crash into him!
Kailee...she had a lot of fun...her and Austin swam way out! I don't know how far I was in my happy place!
There was alot of this...brothers hanging out in the waves having fun and chatting with each other! There is something really neat about watching the kids get along so well because they have this love of the beach!
Austin just chillin'
Seeing how far they could dig down to find the little sand crabs that make the little air bubbles in the sand! :) They never did find one...but they dug deep looking!
This is Shawn patrolling the beach towards the end of our trip. We saw 2 dead jellyfish on the shore. We were close to the lifeguard station and there were about 15 people that went for jellyfish stings while we were there. We decided to end our trip a little earlier than planned because so many people were getting stung. It seemed to be happening all around us so we thought, better stop before our luck ran out!
While we were drying off and getting ready to go Tyson said he couldn't leave without making a sand angel! Thank goodness for those showers!
Kyler was soooo excited last week when he realized he had a loose tooth! It finally fell out while he was wiggling it on his last day of kindergarten! {He is the first child of mine that lost any teeth before first grade!} After it fell out, we took pictures, put it in a baggie so it wouldn't get lost and sat down to finish our movie. He sat next to me on the couch and turned to me about 15 times and kept saying "I can't believe I lost my first tooth, it's so special!" It was cute! {{There had been a video we saw on AFV and this girl left a crumpled up piece of paper cuz she wanted to keep her tooth and the next morning when she woke up instead of $$ she got a ticket!}} Kyler told us over and over he wanted to keep his tooth but he would give it to the tooth fairy cuz he DID NOT want a ticket. :) He got a dollar from the tooth fairy and a note that said he could keep his tooth cuz it was so special to him! He was thrilled...he is now saving for what else?....a Transformer!
Can you see that tiny little thing in his hand?
He fell asleep on the couch during our movie with his tooth in hand!! :)
walking in to the graduation music
getting his diploma from the principal Mr. Nash
picture with Robert the Lion
It also had answers to questions I had asked the kids one afternoon when we kicked Ms. Rigling out of class. Like "Things she taught you" {my favorite answer to that was always go to your right bathroom}, "Things you will miss" {my fav, we will miss loving her cuz we love her}, "Things she did that were funny or silly". The kids had so much fun helping me I will miss them all too!!
Kyler and Ms. Rigling...we will miss having her for a teacher!!
She loved the book, the card and her pedicure certificate!
Tyson and Ms. Wagner
Tyson won a few awards yesterday. He won an award for Excellence in Music! He was so excited about that. He also won the Academic Royal Achievement Award which means that he had an A average in each subject area the whole year!! Way to go Tyson!!!
Tyson got baptized this last year. He started violin and has really excelled at it! He is a super good reader and he LOVES science. He is so funny and quick witted! I am going to have fun with him this summer. He is going for the first time to cub scout day camp this month and has almost completed his Wolf Badge!! 
So Austin was on the Honor Roll this year...no easy task...you have to maintain a 3.5 GPA or higher the whole year. {{yeah austin}} He also was in the top ten students in 6th grade (about 300ish total) for AR points. {{that is a reading thing...you get points for taking quizzes on books you read!}} He had about 260 points! Also...he got the most points in all of Ms. Moore's classes 286...so she gave him a new basketball!! If you want to know more you will have to google it! We are just over the top proud of Austin this year...on top of all he has done to keep such good grades he has learned to play trombone this year and has really excelled at it! He has been a den chief for Tyson's Wolf Den. He also has been ordained a Deacon and is keeping himself worthy to pass the sacrament each week at church! If I do say so myself he has turned out to be quite a handsome young man!! I would say cutie....but he wouldn't approve!! :) Way to go Austin you ROCK!!!
Kailee's turn!! She of course got her awesome Choir award last week...Outstanding Choir Student in 7th grade. {see post below for more deets on that} She received an award for her participation in Destination Imagination. You will have to google that too. That was a great experience for her. She also found herself on the Honor Roll this year! She worked extremely hard all year to keep good grades and was self motivated to do so! I am especially proud of her for realizing how important her school work is and keeping on top of it! This year she was a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz at one of the local high schools...she also started taking voice lessons so she can continue to use that beautiful voice of hers! She will be performing "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus ion tomorrow night's POP Concert! She was recently called to be the president of her Beehives class! She is a phenomenal young woman and would make any mom proud!! ** One last thing....last night at the awards ceremony it struck me right away how proud I was of Kailee for looking so cute in a super modest way! I was shocked at how little clothing some of those young girls were wearing!! Great Job Kailee for setting a wonderful example!! :)
Kailee had her annual choir banquet this last Friday. They do awards and then have a DJ afterwards to dance and party with all the choir friends. She looked so cute. She did her makeup and I helped her with her hair...she had a new dress, cute silver flip flops and some silver earrings. She looked gorgeous!! I didn't go with her to the banquet...she said don't worry about it mom I won't get any awards. Shawn was out of town so I would've had to take the boys with me and it would've been a whole thing...she understood!
