Brinley turns TWELVE!!

She opened a few gifts from "the fam" before school.
She had a cousin party the 2nd week of September
to celebrate all of the September birthdays, enjoy rootbeer
floats and exchange gifts. She has a combined skating
party w/ Parker and Tanner in two weeks.



Brinley, Tasha, Robin and Sister Campos
The Beehive class came to welcome her officially
into Young Women's and kidnap her for an evening of
treats and hanging out at the mall.




The Primary Presidency dropped by to bring Brinley
and Tanner a cupcake.  Brinley was already gone
with the Y.W., but do we have a rocking ward, or what?!

                                                                             

Brinley wearing her new church outfit.  The
skirt was from me and Brian and the shirt
from Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam.  (We
didn't even coordinate!) She loved her first
day as a Beehive and was very excited to
receive her first calling.  She is the 2nd
Counselor in her class presidency.



We love our Brinley Kate.  She is beautiful inside

and out.  We appreciate her being a friend and a

 peacemaker in our home.

Gwilliam Grandparents Visit

We love it when Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam come to visit.  They always make an effort to come in person to help celebrate special days such as a baby's blessing, baptisms and Priesthood ordinations.  Our children were soooo excited for their arrival.  It felt a lot like the night before Christmas with all of the anticipation.  Here are just a few things we enjoyed during this visit. 



We celebrated Tanner's birthday with a
few gifts and his baptism. 




We all attended Parker's football practice and
football game. It was BURNING hot.  Sorry and
welcome to Texas in the fall???





Of course, there was lots of silliness and snuggling with
 Grandpa. He even did the pig song for the Vore cousins.




We asked for Grandma's help in stitching up some pants. 
She had to put at least 10 tucks in Tanner's Sunday pants. 
He is pretty thin!




We had dinner at my parents one night and watched the kiddos get one last
swim in before it got too cold. Tanner enjoyed trying out is new scuba
gear he got for his birthday. I thought a picture of our children's grandparents
together would be fun to look back on in years to come.

Joyce and Jerry ate lunch with the kids at school.  They also read to the kids, visited with each one and loved on them a lot!  Joyce made us her delicious pancakes, cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies.  Grandpa took time to listen to Brinley and Tanner play the piano.  He also helped the boys with their scouting and helped me chop things up for dinner.  We had a wonderful, relaxing visit and were sad to see them leave so soon.



Tanner's Baptism

     Tanner turned eight last Saturday!  Yea!  He was very excited to get baptized.  He really wanted to be baptized on his birthday and as early as possible on that day.  Luckily it worked out  because September 22nd fell on a Saturday, and we had the baptism at 10:00 that morning. 
     Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam flew in from California for a long weekend (yahoo!!) and Gram and Grandpa Vore had an off week from the temple, so we had a good base group of support.  Also, many other friends and relatives were able to attend.  Grandpa Vore took the pictures and did an excellent job, as usual!   Thanks for all of the love and support!



Gram and Grampa Vore with Tan-Man.




It was wonderful that Brian's parents, Joyce and Jerry, were able to come.








These are little #8s stuck together w/ toothpicks.
I thought they were really cute, but the kids were
just happy to have donuts.



Tanner woke up to this plus a few presents on the kitchen table.

Tanner was excited to receive his scriptures just like Bryn and Park did when
they turned eight.  He has been trying to read each night too.



LOVE this picture.  Grandpa Gwilliam is always teaching, teaching, teaching the gospel.  He helps the kids learn scirptures, the Quorum of the Twelve, The Ten Commandments.  He knows what is most important in life and reminds the grandkids all of the time.



First Week of School

Brinley, 6th grade

      The first week of school was rough...for me and Brian at least!  We were both sick, sick, sick.  (Sinus and ear infections that wiped us out.)  Luckily our kids are hardy and faired pretty well with the limited parenting that went on that week.  I overslept on the first day (b/c I didn't feel well), and we were late!  Yup, go Gwilliams.  Go Mom!  I felt badly about that one.  Brian was already up and getting everyone ready, but we needed both of us to take care of all of the last minute first day of school details!  Owell. 
      We have them all at Reagan Elementary this year.  So fun!  Aubrey had a great first day of kindergarten.  Tanner wasn't saying a word about anything for the first hour after I picked him up.  I think he was tired and maybe still processing everything.  Parker had tons to say about Mrs. Gutierrez (Mrs. G.) and Brinley had fun being a big 6th grader.  They all loved seeing their friends and playing on the new Reagan playground.

Parker, 4th grade   I was so grateful that my sister Becky was visiting and gave the
boys much needed haircuts that I should have taken care of sooner.

Tanner, 2nd grade

Aubrey, Kinder

The first Friday.  Love seeing them all in their Reagan shirts!

Aub and Bryn had haircuts scheduled the evening of the first day of school. 
So on day two she had a whole new look: this cute bob cut!

The End of Summer (sniff sniff)

Tanner was a big help mowing this summer.

The last week of summer was filled with activity.  We went to the Children's Museum with the McKown family.  We had two sleepovers with Vore cousins.  We met friends at the Reagan playground and had some fun. Our next door neighbor's grandkids were visiting and the kids played for hours. We sold popcicles twice and swam with friends.  We went to Cheddars (with popcicle money) and everyone ordered their very own HUGE monster cookie.  (Several waitresses came to our table to see "who the crazy mom was" that was allowing that!)   All in all, it was a wonderful last week of summer.


This blower is super heavy....Parker is strong!



Lauron showing me her "fort" which has a swing in it.

Aubrey's fort was under the tramp.

Charity and Brinley built a really cool fort by the fence.  It had two stools to sit on, a cook stove, a shelf and more.

Their shelf.  They got a piece of wood and stuck it in the fence.  Then sat their water bottles, aquarium and more on it.



Forts, snacks, turtles and playing outside all
day on the last Saturday before school.



Puppet Pals.  How cute is this?  Bryn and Park
got creative with a T.V. box.

Paker showing off  a dog and an ambulance puppet.

Bryn posing w/ a few characters.  They did this one evening when
Brian and I were at the adult session of Stake Conference.