The Gardner's

All good things...

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Tue, 08 May 2018 22:18:00 +0000

I have loving blogging for our family. It has been so fun to look back and see how much our kids have grown and all the fun things we've done as a family. The blog started out as a way to keep family and friends updated on what was going on with our family. Once I figured out how to get our blog printed into a book, it developed into our family history.

With instagram and facebook being so popular, I feel like our every day lives there are a great update for our friends and extended family. I have decided instead of journaling on the blog and then recreating it into our blog-book, I am going to skip the blog and go straight to the book and stop updating our blog. Although our blog won't be updated anymore, you can follow us on other social medias.

October 2017

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 18:04:00 +0000

October really was pretty chill too. I'm starting to think when school starts we get a little boring. Somewhere in the past couple months Bentley learned to ride his bike REALLY good and can do it without help at all. Macy started practicing more and learned to start and stop and has been rocking her bike too. Almost every day the kids ask to go to the skate park right when they get home from school. They meet their cousins and a couple neighbor kids over and play until the parents tell them to come home from dinner. It really is a pretty magical childhood for them right now. It's starting to get colder so the days are numbered, but they are taking every bit of warmth and sunlight they can get.

I did get a bunch of cute pictures of Ella this month. She's just so sweet. I walked in on her sleeping with her hands behind her head the other day, it was so cute. I just wanted to pick her up and kiss her, but I let her sleep instead.I did her hair in pig tails one day and the next day her hair was CrAzY. She wouldn't let my comb it and it was pretty rockin' all day.

We made volunteer hours for the year at the Petrified Forest Marathon running the kids back and forth to the aid stations. It's always fun day. It wasn't too windy OR cold these year. Yay!

We took our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Steven and Meghan joined us and the Larsons for one VERY windy trip. We were there for a whole 25 minutes before we left. Instead of taking all our 10 kids to a restaurant we decided to get pizza and come back to our place to play games.

Halloween was so much fun this year! I was subbing that day and really didn't want to miss Park's parade. Luckily the teacher had a prep right when I needed it and I drove super fast to the school and was able to catch London. I'll have to upload the picture when I get connected to my phone :). Macy was black cat, London was Moana, Bentley was Branch, and Ella was a puppy. The night before Halloween the HS did a trunk or treat that we joined in on. There was a VERY long line for not a lot of candy, but it was still fun and the kids got to dress up. For Halloween we decided the kids were old enough to go to the doors on their own. Kyle, Ella, and I stayed in the car and followed the kids as they went from door to door. It was so fun listening to them say Happy Halloween and Thank You without us standing over there. Bentley was so cute and got so excited when someone would give him a lot of candy. We heard a lot of "This is the best day EVER" and "Yay! Oh Thank you! Thank you!"They had a blast. We stopped by the town Halloween Spooktacular after Trick or Treating and got the kids bags all filled to the top. They had one great Halloween.

October

September 2017

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 16:40:00 +0000

September wasn't took exciting, but our little London turned a whopping 7 this year!! Oh London, we just love her. She is such a sweet girl and FUNNY too. Her Daddy went to lunch with her to celebrate and then the next day we had a Moana party. Between the bounce house and a snow cone machine it kept the kids pretty busy for a good hour and a half. They had a blast. I didn't get a picture with London and all her friends but she had about 14 kids and Karen Estridge that joined in the party.

The County Fair was in town and we did our annual trip to the Demolition Derby. We've actually missed it the past few years with Kyle reffing, but he was able to be there this time. Good thing too because two of his nephews entered and one of the won! Go Brandon! Tyler, his other nephew, ended up getting 4th- but he did really well. too! We sat by Steven and Meghan and their kiddos. They were nice parents, we left ours at home with a babysitter.

The kids had dress-up week at school and Bentley dressed up as Buzz Lightyear for one day. It was a huge shock and full of cuteness when he best friend showed up as Woody. They were adorable and it was totally unplanned!

The rest of the month was just life. Homework, projects, subbing, getting kids to dance, Park Performers, dinner, laundry- just normal stuff.

Side Note! I started doing Park Performers this year! The music teacher at Park School left and they were unable to hire a full time teacher. They ended up hiring a long-term sub and then asking me if I would do the after-school program. It is held on Thursdays and just teach the kids that signed up some songs. Super fun and I'm really enjoying it!

August 2017

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 16:32:00 +0000

August was a pretty fun and low-key month., I turned 30 (!!!), the kids started school, we went camping, I started substitute teaching again, Ella started daycare and learned that she LOVES mud!

30 was a really big birthday for me. Birthdays have never really bothered me before, but leaving my twenties was hard. It shouldn't be, I have 4 kids, I'm married, we have a house, a van, a lawn... all the adult things, but it really did hit me hard this year.

Macy is in 3rd grade now! I whole new school for her and some big changes. It took a little while for her to adjust to a new school and a new teacher, but not (December) she's loving school again. London started 1st grade and is such a go with the flow type of girl. She doesn't talk a lot to teachers at school but she always says how much she likes it. She's really grown in reading this year! Bentley started Kindergarten!! I couldn't even believe it. It definitely tugs at my heart strings. I started substitute teaching again this year and I have really been enjoying it. I don't think I would enjoy it as much if Ella did do so well in Daycare. She is a pretty baby and confident little girl and has done really well there. The first two times I dropped her off she cried but after that she just hops down and gets to playing.

We usually make it a point to do camping on Labor Day or Memorial Day, but this year the only free weekend our families had was the first week in August to go camping. We headed over to Williams and had a pretty good time. A highlight was stopping at Walmart and seeing a transformer!! That was pretty neat. There was one day that is rained ALL day- and that wasn't so cool- but the kids had a blast. It was also Ella's very first time sleeping in a tent and wearing tennis shoes! She did great!

Holbrook puts on the Dirty Bird Mud Run every year and this year we decided to do it as a whole family. We dropped Ella off with Meghan and then ventured over. It was SO fun. Macy didn't have a blast, but half-way through I realized having her run in jeans was probably not the best mothering decision on my part. She stuck it out and we all finished just great.

I did throw in some cute pictures in at the end just from the month. Ella's personality is really starting to come out and man is she CUTE. Bentley has really blossomed into a LEGO lover. He got a Stars Wars ship for his birthday and LOVES to build it and take it apart to build it again. Sometimes he skips a step or two but he can pretty much do it by himself.

July 2017

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 16:17:00 +0000

We took the rest of the July pretty easy. We took a couple trips to the pool, projects round the house, a couple birthday parties, lots of kids coming over to play (especially when we busted out the water balloons), and one adventure over to the chocolate falls that were flowing pretty good.

Macy and London were in a week long music camp where they learned some songs and choreography. They performed for the dedication of the Rec Center and then again during Wild West Days. Macy couldn't bring herself to go on stage for WWD's but they both rocked it during the dedication.

The kids were so excited to go on a hike! They got their backpacks filled with all kinds of provisions (granola bars and a water bottle) and had a blast hiking.

Happy 36th Birthday Babe!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Bentley!!!

Broadway Teachers Workshop, NYC

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 19:27:00 +0000

We are lucky stinkin' ducks. We have been so dang spoiled in our marriage with traveling and babysitters and it just keeps getting better. Kyle has always wanted to attend the Broadway Teachers Workshop in NYC. After the success of Mary Poppins he really felt like he wanted to really start learning the ins and outs of musicals, and what better way to do that than going to NYC. The school was awesome and approved to pay for his ticket into the Workshop and for 3 nights of the hotel if we paid his meals and flight. Deal! There's no way I was going to let him go without me- again- so I called up my Mom and booked her for a week.

After the festivities of the 4th of July, we packed up the van and headed down to the valley. We met my parents at the airport and swapped the kids out and headed to our flight!

Since this happened 6 months ago (worst family blogger ever) I'm going to hit the highlights, I don't remember a lot of the little things (UGH!!).

We stayed in a pretty nice hotel with a huge bathroom, which is a hot commodity in Manhattan. Honestly, I don't even remember which day we did things so this might be a little sporadic.

We hit up a yummy pizza place- like really yummy, walked around a lot, checked out Time Square, found the location of the Workshop so we wouldn't be lost the next day, and then hit up our very first musical of the vacation. Hello Dolly. We got tickets through the discount Tckts booth and scored front row seats. They aren't the best seats in the house since you can see every single detail (and bead of sweat and spit) but it was a whole new experience for sure. The show was SO good and we LOVED it.

The next day was the first whole day at the Broadway Teachers Workshop. We spent the day in classes and then went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that night. Not our favorite. Definitely, my least favorite that we saw on Broadway, hands down. Some of the sets were cool, but I just didn't feel a connection with the characters at all. It was actually nice to finally be able to say "ya know, I didn't like that" after seeing a show on Broadway because now I know that I'm not just saying they are amazing because of the location :).

The next day was another day filled with classes. Oh, and we got to sit in on a discussion with Pasek and Paul. The writers of Dear Evan Hansen. Only the best musical ever, and really the whole reason why I went to eh NYC, to begin with :). They talked about creating Dear Evan Hansen and the process. It was so cool to see them! That night we went and saw Anatasia. I loved it! Kyle didn't love it but enjoyed it.

The third and final day of the workshop was a pretty low key one and my favorite day of the whole trip. We had a small session altogether and then we went to the Disney theater there on Broadway and got a tour of the set. There was such cool history surrounding the building and it was very neat to learn about it all. Part of the tour was being about to hold some of the props from different Disney productions. It was so neat!

Next was the best part and the best musical. Literally, it got voted Best Musical so I'm not alone in thinking that :) We got to see Dear Evan Hansen. Kyle wrote up a beautiful review of it, and if I can find it I'll share it. Let's just say, it was an emotional workout. After leaving, I just felt emotionally drained. It was beautiful and funny and sad and happy and all the emotions that you can possibly feel. It was. Amazing. In every sense of the word.

After that emotional roller coaster, we went and saw Come From Away- which is a musical in the time of 9/11. It is about the town Gander in Newfoundland where the flights coming into the US were sent to when the US's airspace was closed. It was so good!!

The next day was Sunday. We went to church around 10am at a chapel that was in the temple and then took a stroll around the central park. We went back to the hotel, took a nap, and then ventured off to see our 6th and final musical, Groundhog Day and get a pretty sweet tour of the NBC studios, including Jimmy Fallon's studio! So cool!. Groundhog Day was pretty close to the movie and although it was entertaining, I didn't like it. Kyle did though, so that was good :).

As we were getting ready the next morning to go home, we got a text that our flight had been canceled. Talk about a moment of stress. Kyle found us another flight and we got to the airport within 10 minutes of our plane boarding, it was a close one!

I loved our trip together to NYC. Since we usually travel with my mother in law, who I LOVE, it was nice to be on a vacation with just my best friend.

Red White and Blue

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 23:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite holidays, especially in Holbrook, is the 4th of July. The morning always starts off with the bike parade/carnival where everyone is decked out in their patriotic red, white, and blue. Kyle's family from the valley always comes up to get out of the heat and we love enjoying their company. This year was extra special with the new addition of the Shaved Ice machine. After the parade, shaved ice, and a little family time- it was time for the Gardner's to head to the valley for NEW YORK CITY! We head to the airport to drop off the kiddos with my parents and to catch our flight! That trip will definitely be all on it's on the blog- but we had a blast!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ella!

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 19:45:00 +0000

Ella pretty much had the best first birthday a girl could ask for. With summer in full swing, we decide we got a group together and ventured to Clear Creek to enjoy the sun, warm weather, and friends. We were hoping to get there around 10ish and with a few hiccups ended up getting there closer to 12. We borrowed some Kayaks from some friends of ours and couldn't quite get them tied on right to the roof of our van. We had to stop a few times on the way and resituate them and never really got them tied down super well, but we made it!

Ella pretty much ate sand the whole time. Notice the sandwich in her right hand, but apparently sand tastes better. As long as she was on the shore, she was eating it. Luckily, we got our hands on a cute tiny baby life jacket that kept her occupied on the kayak and in the water. We borrowed 3 small youth kayaks and the kids took turns all afternoon riding them. I wouldn't be surprised if we were proud owners of Kayaks in the future, they are so much fun!

After a day at the Creek, we raced home to have Ella's 1st birthday party. We had cake, ice cream, friends, family, and a few bounce houses. What more could a kid want?! We really love our Ella. She has fit in perfectly with our family and is just the piece we were missing.

Play Ball

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 21:10:00 +0000

June was packed with a ball game almost every night. Bentley and London were on the same t-ball team and we had Macy on coach-pitch this year. The t-ball kiddos did MUCH better than last year and Macy was a lot better with throwing. She was able to hit the ball a few times but her throwing the ball improved a lot. I can't find pictures of Macy at the moment, but I did find these of Bentley and London at a game.

Swim Lesson and STEM

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 22:05:00 +0000

June has been a blast! I got to go to Girls Camp (!!!) this year. It was so much fun! I was a 4th-year cabin mom with a friend of mine, Marr-Rhyzle. The theme this year was Anchored in Christ and all things sea and nautical. They did an amazing Faith Walk on Monday night with meeting with Peter and then a beautiful section with a life-size picture of Christ where the girls could ponder on their thoughts about Christ. I got to be in charge of Skit Night (woot-woot) and I was SO nervous about it. Skit Night is always famous for being the best and most fun night- which is so hard to have those expectations for! We actually ended about an hour early and decided to teach the girls a dance from EFY to fill in the time. It was a blast and the girls all loved it. By the end of the week, I was really excited to see Kyle and the kids. The kept down the fort at home and just hung out.

The 19th the kids started Swim Lessons. I am happy to report- we have two swimmers!!! It has been a long journey to get these girls this far, but they are doing SO well in swim lessons. Macy is a really good doggie paddler, but I'm okay with that. If she fell into the pool she would survive. London is a pro at swimming underwater and can hold her breath for a really really long time. She still has trouble coming up for air, but with a little strength she'll get that down pretty good. Bentley has a new teacher this year and is responding really well to him. Hopefully, he's our next swimmer. This year I didn't get the kids all in the same time slot so we let Macy and London play in the baby pool while Bentley does his lesson and vice versa. We have a little water baby with Ella and I'm really hoping she stays that way. This year started taking her first steps a few days ago (YAY Ella!!) and just climbs into the baby pool and starts trying to walk around!

Macy was invited to do a STEM Garden Club this year during the summer time. They had 8 meetings in June and learned all about Gardening and what a Garden needs. She had a blast and I was glad she got to do something a little extra this summer. The last day was a meet and greet where the parents were invited to see what the kids had learned. They showed us all about the parts of plants, the different minerals plants need to go, how composting works, all about worms, how to transplant plants, and how to dehydrate fruit. At the end, we came home with lots of yummy snacks and a new flower pot.

Last night the kids and I tagged along with Kyle and the YM and YW to the Reidheads Pond to have a little cookout and swim in the water. The pond is a little water reservoir that they use to irrigate with and it surrounded by tons of fields. It's so pretty out there and the kids had a great time. There was a little dock that London was super brave and jumped off of a few times. I'm so glad they are getting less and less scared of the water!

It's Summer Time!

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 16:32:00 +0000

This summer has already been so much fun. It is by far my favorite time of the year. Our big first adventure was chaperoning a Youth Temple Trip to the Valley. We woke up bright and early, loaded up at the church, and we arrived at the Phoenix Temple around 11:00 am to do baptisms for the dead. Afterward, we ate lunch in the parking lot and then headed over to the Gilbert Temple to do some more baptisms. We spent some time around the Temple grounds and then went over to Bass ProShop to look around. A family that used to live in Holbrook has a house in Lehi and offered up their house to crash at. They made us an amazing BBQ for dinner and it had probably the best hamburgers I've ever had, brauts, corn, and all the fixins and then we went scorpion hunting. The kids found like 1t scorpions around his place- they were so gross! The next day we hit the Mesa Temple at around 7:00 am.

We've enjoyed so much all the perks of a small town so far this summer. The school district started the free breakfast and lunch program so the kids have enjoyed a picnic in the park almost every day, which has been so nice to not have to cook lunch! Every Wednesday the kids get a stamp to get into the pool free and on Thursdays, they get a free summer movie stamp. The Library has had a pretty good lineup of summer activities. They had a summer kick-off party that the kids really enjoyed. I'm so grateful for things to keep us busy!

A new tradition we started this year is Smore's Thursday! We've invited friends over and build a fire and roast some marshmallows. The first Thursday was Steven and Meghan and our neighbors the Jensens, then the next Thursday was just the Jensens. The kids had loved having friends over and it's nice to watch all the kids play and have fun.

Since we bought our house, I've had a "Sewing" room. It really wasn't make sense anymore since I don't really craft or sew and the room really started turning into a junk room. I decided we had the space and we needed to start using it more productively. I took a day and went through everything in the room, donated a TON of stuff, and boxed up the stuff that has just been sitting in there that we couldn't get rid of. Then we shortened the legs off of the table that was in there and made a kids room. Right now it has all the kids legos, all their art stuff, a kid table and chairs, and some bean bags for the kids to sit on to read. They love their room and use it a lot more than I thought they actually would.

Fresh Start!

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 16:04:00 +0000

Let's be real. 4 kids is hard. Hard if you want to get everything done that you used to do when you only had 3. I have *finally* gotten Ella to take naps in her crib (it was a LONG 7 months of holding her every time she slept) and I'm getting the hang of 4 kids. Ella is almost a year so I'm taking that as a win, it's the little things right? One of the things that has gotten push to the back burner since Little Ella has joined our family is obviously our blog. Which makes me so sad, because our blog is really what as turned into our Family History and journaling for me. With Kyle off for the summer and Bentley going into Kindergarten- (I KNOW, CRAZY!!) I'm going to do a fresh start and try to get back into blogging on a regular basis. I'm going to do one long post to catch up on the highlights of the past 5 months and then join right into what's going on in our lives right now.

February was filled with quiet family time, Bentley killin' it at Legos, the Jr. High musical "Peter Pan", taking the big kids to Matilda, Ice Skating, and just livin' life. It was a good one.

In March we had our Choir Tour. The kiddos went to Buckeye to hang out with my parents and Kyle and I took 70 people to Universal Studios (Harry Potter World!!), Disneyland, California Adventure, and Finding Neverland the Musical. Disneyland was packed, the food was fabulous, and the kids did great for my mom. I also got called to be our Ward Primary President.

May was nice and jammed pack with a dance recital (Bentley and London is so good! Macy decided she wanted to do dance again next year. She took this year off and started piano lessons.), choir concerts, Kindergarten transition day (I'm still in denial), London promoting to 1st grade, Father and Sons camping trip (Bentley's highlight of the year), the last day of school and the start of one fun-filled summer!

January Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:34:00 +0000

January was a pretty uneventful month- with two super fun things right smack in the middle. Ella grew and grew, but was still pretty much set on being rocked during her three naps a day. I didn't get much done anywhere, at all. We made a New Years resolution to get back into the habit of our morning scripture study. We did really good for a few weeks and need to get back to it again. There really is a sense of unity in our family when we read every morning together. It was our wards turn to clean the church this month so we did that every Saturday. Other than Macy's birthday and Baptism (yay!!) it was just an ordinary month.

Macy has been very into all things sciency lately. From the shows she watches to the things she reads to the gifts her asked for for Christmas- all things were Science! Of course she would want a Science Birthday party- and let me tell you- we delivered. She had about 10 friends from school walk home with her and we got started. Kyle is always our party DJ and stepped right in to get it all done. I actually woke up that morning with a migraine (blurred vision, numb face, the works) so he was able to get enough down time in the day to get the experiments ready and the cake baked. I did help him with the frosting- but he pulled off a great party. The first experiment was a bubble one. We cut up water bottle, put a thin towel on the end, dipped in a soap solution, and out came long bubble. The kids had a blast with this one. It looked like it snowed by the time they were done. Then we did the lava lamps, and they made their own ice cream. We accidently got salt in the kids ice cream so that didn't work too well. Luckily we had backup ice cream for them to eat. She had a great time at her party and so did all the kids.

The next weekend (January 21st, 2017) Kyle baptized Macy a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She was so excited to be baptized and we were so proud of her decision. We talked a lot about what it means to be baptized and always made sure she knew that it was just her decision and she didn't have to, but she made sure we knew that she wanted to. We had the Gardners from Joseph City, Marie, Kathleen and David, My parents, Steven and Meghan, and Derek, Alison, Chris, Brelee, and Emali drove up to join us. There was a MASSIVE snow storm that Friday night (like the news said "if you're planning on going up North, don't) so Chris left Tucson early and made it here in about 6 1/2 hours (it usually takes MAYBE 4), and Derek and Alison called to see if we could postpone until Saturday afternoon so they could come. We made the arrangments and it all worked out great. We had a small luncheon for those that attended the baptism in the church Multi-Purpose room and it went great. It really was a great weekend. I was so glad we did her Birthday Party and Baptism on different weekends. We were able to just focus on one thing at a time and I feel like it really made her baptism it's own special day.

December 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 17:42:00 +0000

December is always so fun! Especially this year since instead of being sick on the couch all Christmas season- we got to actually enjoy it! The biggest exciting news... Steven and Meghan (My brother and sister-in-law) and their 3 little boys moved to Holbrook! And two houses down! The kids have loved having cousins so close and it has been fun having someone from my side of the family around.

Ella learned that she loved the piano and actually really enjoys all types of baby toys. All my other kids just wanted the things we used, but she loves anything you'll give her. Food- not so much. She just spits it out and doesn't really like it.

The Kindergarten classes had their annual Polar Express night and the kids were super excited to ride the train. Too bad there wasn't a train. There might've been tears when the kids found out we were just walking to different classrooms doing different activities. We've been before so I'm not sure why they thought we were riding an actual train- but they survived. We got to see Santa and eat cookies. Good night in my book!

A friend in Holbrook did a cookie exchange night and it was so fun! All us moms just sat around and chatted and I got to make some festive cookies. It was super fun!

A HUGE highlight of the month was when Kyle had to go to St. Johns to help his Uncle with his TV and the kids got to ride horses! Our friend Laurie Farr lives there and has been telling us for awhile she would love to take the kids for rides. Macy loves all things horses and was soaking it all up. She led the horse around for the other kids and got a good horse fix in.

Bentley had his Preschool Christmas Program and oh my gosh he is so cute. He sang so loud and was so into the whole thing. We got a few comments afterward about how they could tell his Dad was a music teacher. He let his voice be heard. I love that all our kids have done the same program, same songs, and even same props. It's too cute!

We did the traditional gingerbread houses with the Larsons, tamales with Marie and Meghan, got some shooting in, and had our Christmas Eve Party with pinata and leg wrestling. On the way home the two little ones fell asleep and were not into opening Christmas PJ's. Bentley pretty much cried through the whole ordeal and Ella slept. Christmas morning they were MUCH happier though and enjoyed all their presents and Santa gifts. After breakfast, we all got dressed and headed to church at 11. I didn't have a good attitude about having church on Christmas but it turned out so good. Then headed off to the valley for Christmas dinner, more cousins, bubbles, lots of lego building, and hanging out.

We stayed for a few days and took the long way home through Prescott and Cottonwood to visit the Great-Grandparents. The kids loved seeing them and I'm glad we stopped. It was a great December.

November 2016

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 01:03:00 +0000

As I went through my pictures of November I realized it was a pretty boring month. Not much happened. I still rock Ella, kids go to school, Kyle goes to work, I cook and clean. Just life. It's good that way. Ella's growing like crazy and still won't sleep by herself. I just have to remind myself how lucky I am that she sleeps in her own bed at night. It could be worse. She tried cereal this month and wasn't a big fan- at all!

The girls are really into a game called Tumble Stone on the Xbox and are SO FAST. They beat Kyle and I like we're sitting still. At one time Macy would kick London's booty so I would tackle her and cover her eyes while London played. We get crazy around here. The kids and I went down to the valley for a few days while Kyle was at All-State Show Choir and I introduced them in Starbucks. They love their cake pops and I LOVE their Apple Cider Spice drink. Oh so yummy. Thanks Stormy for introducing me! We came home to empty trees and took a morning putting them into bags. I think we got a total of 18 black garbage bags this year with leaves- there were a ton!

I think a highlight of the month was when Kyle's brother Brent went with Marie to Grandparents day at the girl's school. I wasn't there, but from what it sounds like he was the hit of the party. All the kids were following him around the playground and just loved him. We are grateful for amazing families that love our kids!

This year we had Thanksgiving at Mike and Trish's' house in the valley. Kathleen and David, Holli and Rocky, Micah and Lyndzi, Kellie and Karl, Marie, and our family had a ton of family hanging on and the kids had a ton of fun with their cousins. We spent the night at Mike and Trish's house and took a little venture out that night to check out a house that was on The Great Light Fight. I have never seen a home with so many Christmas lights! It was pretty amazing. I'm super lame and only got a picture of the snowman but the house was dang impressive. We woke up early the next morning and Cameron took some family pictures. I loved how they turned out and she did a great job! I'll share those one in a bit :)

October 2016

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 16:30:00 +0000

This blog isn't in exact order of events in October, but it's all here :) I remember in October really thinking that Ella was getting a little personality. She started inteacting with her toys more and was starting to turn into the baby the kids were looking forward to. Since she's my last baby I've really tried to soak up all her babyhood and she's sure letting me. She won't fall asleep unless you rock her and now we spend a lot of time in the rocking chair.

We did our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and had a little visitor with us this year. My niece Brelee came up to visit for Fall Break and we had a blast having her here. Kyles sister Kellie and my brother Chris live pretty close to each other and since Kellie and her kids were coming up we talked Brelee into hitching a ride with them. Macy and Brelee played all day every day with very little interruptions. When Kellie comes up Bentley & Lincoln and London & Ava play so well together and Macy doesn't have a friend her age. It was a nice switch-up for her to have a friend too. We did a lot of crafts and finished it up with the pumpkin patch and our typical Trappers dinner and pie. Yum!

There was one day that Kyle wanted to go to the temple and we really wanted to be with him. Instead of doing a session we decided to take the family and do a little lesson about how important the temple is. We got some pretty cute pictures of the kiddos and then walked around and sang primary talks and talked. It was a fun family trip.

The girls school does a cute program called I'm A Kind Kid and they focus on being Bucket Fillers instead of Bucket Emptiers (fill someone's bucket with kind words and deeds). London and Macy both have gotten Bucket Filler awards this year and it's always nice to hear when your kids are good while you're away from them.

Speaking of kind kid- London is such a little Mom. She loves to carry around Ella, play with her, read her stories, and just love on her. I makes me wish I would have spread the kids out a little bit so they could remember having a baby in the family but they'll jus thave to soak up Ella like I'm trying to do :)

Halloween this year was super fun! The kids had their Halloween Parade and got to dress up in the costumes and walk around the park. Bentley was very excited to see all the costumes and kids. There were lots of super heros and princesses. The next night (I think) was the 31st! The town did their annual Halloween Party which was a lot less crowded than last year thank goodness. They added a spooky hayride that the kids loved. Somewhere in October the Shumways threw a Halloween Party and invited just about everyone. We had a fun scavenger hunt that I swear we should of won- we went so fast I'm not sure how the old people beat us :) Kyle was Jake from State Farm and I was a Petrified Forest Marathon Finisher. We had ran the water stations for the Marathon that day and it's all I had haha.

September

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 16:41:00 +0000

September! It seems so long ago. This is why I love blogging right when it happens, you remember so much more of the little day to day details that you take for grated. Our days mostly were spent getting the kids to school, Kyle to work, and little Ella sleeping and eating. I'll go over the highlights and then just add some cute pictures we got throughout the month.

We always go Labor Day camping in September but I was pretty nervous to take an infant in the cold. Instead, we opted to go up early one morning and just go home that night. The kids were a little confused about going camping but not taking the tent. We usually just hang out at camp but this year we decided to go check out the Ice Caves. We brought the baby carrier for Ella, strapped her to me and headed down into the cave. Getting into the cave was a little tricky but it was smooth sailing after that.

London was born on Labor Day and her birthday is always pretty close to it. We are going to have to do a birthday party at home pretty soon but this year we were able to do a party camping again. She got lots of shopkins and loved her chocolate cake.

Bentley, for some reason, was having a particularly hard day and didn't want to go to Primary. We ended up just taking him to Grandma's house and he hung out with Kyle's brother Brent and Marie. Brent came down for a couple months to get some medical help and then headed back to New York.

This years Homecoming Parade was much different this year- we just had Ella and Bentley and Kyle was actually able to watch it with us. It was low key but the kids got a ton of candy and had fun. We met up with the Larson's and Mollie and Bentley had a great time sitting next to each other.

Our friends, Steve and Beth Miller, were headed off to a mission to Madagascar (so cool!) and we decided we needed one last date night with them and the Reidheads before they left. We usually do dinner in Snowflake or Show Low but we decided to make a whole afternoon of it and go to Flagstaff. Kyle and I found a fun game on Pinterest about Uno Bowling and decided to try it out. First we stopped at Oregano's and introduce them to Pazookie (a pizza cookie)- which the loved. So yummy. Then we went bowling! It was so fun and I'm pretty sure the entire bowling alley wanted to join us. You bring a deck of cards and just draw from the top. Each number had a different way that you had to bowl (spin in a circle, hop on one leg, other players choose). We love our Miller/Reidhead dates and are really going to miss them! That wraps up September!

August!

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 18:39:00 +0000

August! August was quite the month! At least the first week was. First we had Bentley's birthday party! He turned 4 this year and wanted a party with Uncle Brians bounce house. We are so lucky that they own one and let us borrow it. We just let the kids play outside, had cake and ice cream, and then opened presents. It was low-key but the kids had a ton of fun between the bounce house and the trampoline. Bentley wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirate cake and for whatever reason every store in Flagstaff, Holbrook, and Winslow decided to not stock up on Jake and the Neverland Pirate anything that month. Luckily I had Derek and Alison and my parents coming up from the valley that stopped and got a few supplies. Thank you!

The next day we blessed our new little Ella in church. Kyle gave a beautiful blessing and Ella cried. All went well :) Steven, Chris, and a few of their kids made the venture up as well as Kellie's family and Mike and Trish. We have such supportive and awesome families- we need to do better at that!

The following Wednesday was the kids first day of school! Macy is in 2nd with Ms. Alley, London is in Kindergarten with Mrs. Allison, and Bentley has moved on to 4 year old preschool with Mrs. Ceccareli.

London has been so excited to go to school and eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Macy despises it but is a great helper and will go with London in the mornings if London wants her to.

Now it's just me and this sweetie in the mornings. She has started her first smiles and she's so sweet! She's a fiesty thing and definitely knows exactly what she wants when she wants it- but she's sweet when she wants to be :)

Macy, London, and Bentley are constantly wanting to be involved with whatever Ella is doing- they love having a baby around!

August 6th we took quite the adventure. Kyle's brother Keith is staying near the Washington/Oregon border right now and Marie wanted someone to go up to visit him with her and asked us to tag along. We flew Allegiant airlines and they fly out on Thursday's so we arrived in Washington on Thursday, drove to Yakima, and then drove the rest of the way to Seattle on Friday. We spent quite the day walking around and seeing the sites. We hit the most touristy places like the Market Center (That had the most GORGEOUS flowers) and did the underground tour of the city. We had dinner at a fancy little restaurant that was way too expensive for the portions we got. I ordered crab legs and really just got a leg. Marie got a caesar salad and man was it fancy- they didn't even cut it up! It was just like 6 pieces of whole romaine lettuce. Then we hit the Space Needle and called it a day. The next day Marie and Kyle went and saw Keith while I got to hang out with one of my life long BFF's Whitney! We hung out at the hotel, took some beautiful pictures of Ella, and then went to eat and did some shopping. We hung out until Kyle and Marie got back and then Kyle and I went to a really yummy place for dinner while Marie stayed at the hotel. We ventured over to Whitney's house and spent the evening laughing and hanging out. On Sunday we drove around the country for way too many hours and then flew home. It was a great trip!

My Mom came up and watched the kids for us so they wouldn't miss the 2nd and 3rd day of school. She's awesome like that. Kyle got a super cute picture of London being the saddest/cutest little ladybug.

The next weekend (so like the teen something) we went back down to the valley for Ryan's homecoming! He just got home from Russia and gave a great talk. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Kyle's family.

And the big news of the month... Macy lost another tooth!! I think we are up to 4!

I just had to document this sweet baby's hair. Right after a bath- this mane is crazy! Check out that frow! Macy was a little concerned that Ella didn't have a favorite "stuffy" yet so she let her borrow the beanie baby that Barkley had given a nose job too. Oh the love.

The kids did great in school and are loving their teachers. Ella is doing good- but we did have to switch her up eating a little bit. She was a good nurser (well, she ate) for the first month of her life and then one day it just all went down hill. We probably went a week with her screaming during every feeding and things just weren't going well. She had a check-up coming up and I decided to talk to the doctor about it. He was a concerned because she was born in the 20th percentile, lost a little weight (normal!) and then got back up to the 20th percentile, but now was down to the 8th. He wanted me to give her some formula to see if that would help the screaming and weight gain. I thought a lot about it and decided I would just pump and see if that would help. Well, it did. She wasn't crying at feedings anymore and after 2 weeks was back up to the 20th percentile. If she were my only child, I would've totally kept up on pumping- but after a month, I was done. It was way too much work for this mom. She is gaining weight and eating MUCH better now. Everyone's happy :)

July

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Sun, 31 Jul 2016 21:17:00 +0000

July! July was jammed packed with loving on our new little girl. Between the 5 of us I don't think Ella ever got put down. Kyle was amazing with her and always volunteered to do anything he could. For the first time we had a summer baby so Kyle was home for 3 weeks! It was so nice having him here. He took the kids on walks, bike rides, we went to an art show, and just hung out around the house. We had lots of visitors- my parents, Kathleen and David, Kaleb, Ashley, and Savana Shumway. Bentley and I went on a little Mommy and Son date to A&W, we had a ward pool party, a trip to the valley to get Kyle a gun for his birthday and a birthday party for my brother Steven, and we had a fabulous 4th of July and wrapped it up with Kyle's mom came over and helped him make homemade noodles. Whew! It didn't feel like we did that much but it was a relaxing end to a great summer.

Ella Rose

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 17:49:00 +0000

The BIG event of June- Baby Ella's arrival!!

We really tried to stay moving and active throughout June- but the last week was really hard. It was hot, my clothes didn't fit, and I was ready for little Ella to be on the outside. At my 37 and 38 weeks appointments I was dilated to 1cm and just about 50% effaced. I wasn't really having a lot of contractions and that was good and bad at the same time. I was so grateful I didn't have a 3 week labor like Bentley but I really wanted to feel something moving. At my 39 weeks appointment my doctor said I was a tight 2 cm and just a little bit more effaced. He gave me the choice to wait another week and see what happens or we could schedule something for Wednesday, June 29th. He made a phone call and we were all set up for Wednesday! yay! The next day we cleaned the house from top to bottom, my mom came up, and we took the family out to see Finding Dory as our last adventure as a family of 5!

I slept awful that night. I slept for a few hours and was wide awake around 2am. I had plenty of time to watch some shows, get ready, and off we went around 7am. It was the weirdest feeling to know we were going to the hospital and just going to have a baby. I've always gone wondering if it was the real thing and if the contractions were doing their thing. I actually liked this way!

They hooked me all up for 30 minutes or so to check out babies heartbeat and to see if I was having any contractions. I had a few good ones, but nothing painful and nothing too exciting. I had dilated just a little over the last 2 days so they gave me a cervidil (pill that helps with dilating and effacing) and had me go walk around. I started walking around 9am off and on until 1pm. At 1pm they started pitocin and I got the epidural around 2pm. During the epidural I told the nurse that I thought I was feeling some trickling of fluid. While she was putting in the catheter she checked my water and said it was still in tact and we'd just wait for it to break or the Dr. would come in soon to break it.

I was pretty slowly progressing and the nurse told me our plan was to let the pitocin do it's thing, my contractions to do their thing, and for the doctor to come break my water when he had a break. For the next 5 hours we kept waiting for him to come but he kept pushing it back. First it was "when I get a break", then it was "after I'm done at the office", then to "after I get some dinner". The nurse finally asked him if we were just going to see him at delivery. He laughed and said he'd be there soon... ya right. The nurse checked me around 4pm and said that I was about 5 cm dilated so they didn't want to check me again until the Dr. came to break my water. The baby was still pretty high so we probably had a lot of laboring down to do. At around 7 I started feeling uncomfortable. Not too bad, but I was starting to want to switch sides a lot and I was just feeling uneasy. I kept asking my Mom and Kyle if they were really hot because I felt like I was sweating. No matter how they helped me move I just could not get comfortable. I started feeling claustrophobic and just really uncomfortable and pretty irritable. I remember at one point my mom asked me if I wanted a light on and it really irritated me because I didn't care about the light. I didn't care if all the lights were on or off or if they didn't work anymore- I was just uncomfortable haha. The nurses came in, upped my epidural, tried to help me get situated and then said she'd call my Dr. to see if we could get things moving. Around 8:00pm I told her I was definitely feeling pressure. She said the Dr. would be here any minute so we were just going to wait to check me again. At 8:30pm I called her back and told her that I felt A LOT of pressure. She finally checked me and Ella was crowning. She ran out to call the Dr. and he was there within 5 minutes- maybe even less than that. With just 2 pushes and at 8:43pm Little Ella was born! We did skin to skin for an hour right after she was born and then they did all the weighing and checking things out. She was 6lbs15oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

The nurse started to write down things about the labor and asked the Dr. when he broke my water. We were all very confused because he never came in and I never felt a huge gush of water breaking. We are pretty sure that between getting the epidural and the catheter it started a slow leak because it had definitely broken by the time Dr. got there.

We had a good night in the hospital. I got a few hours of sleep and she did pretty well that first night. She was a little noisy but didn't cry much at all. When Kyle went and got breakfast he came back with this sweet crayola art set for me. I love crayola! The girls were pretty jealous when I showed them all my crayons and markers :) At this point in time we hadn't decided on a name yet. We actually had been calling her Oakley since she was born but I just couldn't give that name to the lady that does the Birth Certificates. Around lunch time I text Kyle (while he was out for lunch) and asked him how he felt about Ella. Oakley seemed like a name we were trying to force on her and Ella just seemed like it fit so much more. He agreed and we signed the papers. Ella it is!

My Mom broke the kids later that afternoon to meet their new sister. They weren't nearly as afraid as they were with Bentley.

Bentley was adorable with her. He was obsessed with her little fingers and toes and sang her supercalifragilsticexpialidocious to put her to sleep.

That night Lorin and Lisa came by to see us and hung out for a hour or so. Kyle was pretty ansy to leave and sleep in his own bed so we busted out of there at 8:30 the next night. Almost exactly 24 hours after she was born. One of the stipulations from the pediatrician was we had to get her to see a dr. the next day. Since we left so late that night we missed her coming home in the carseat picture so we took one on the way to the Dr. the next day.

Even though London doesn't look it, she was extatic to wake up to her baby sister at home. They held her all morning until we left for the dr. and then insisted on kisses before we left.

Ella has probably been my most challenging baby. She's very particular about her eating, how she sits, and how she sleeps. I breastfed her for a month until she had stopping gaining weight like she should at her 6 week appointment. She had been a pretty fussy eater for the last 2 weeks but I was able to pump a lot of milk so I thought she was getting plenty. I started pumping her bottles and she started gaining weight. At her 2 month appointment she had went back up to the 20th percentile and the Dr. told me to keep doing what we were doing because her growth was up from the 8th percentile. I pumped for a month and have just decided that formula is doing to be just great for her- I just can't keep up with pumping and 4 kids. Now that we've settled into a normal feeding routine things are getting better, she's just needs lots of attention :) She's lucky we have 5 people that are always willing to hold her. We call London our little "baby whisperer". She can always get Ella to go right to sleep when we need her to. We are happy to have little Ella in our family and I absolutely love having the older kids here to help me. It doesn't feel so much like it's all the little ones vs. the parents. I love having helpers!

June!

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 16:59:00 +0000

With the new baby girl being due date the end of June we figured we needed to keep June super busy to keep me entertained and my mind off having a baby. We did pretty good at doing something fun everyday. I'll go through the highlights :)

On the anniversary of when Kyle's Dad passed away (June 6th), we went over to the cemetery and cleaned up his headstone and talked to the kids a little about Grandpa. The kids had a lot of questions and it's a hard thing to explain to them. Afterward we went over to Marie's house and had her tell the kids some stories about Grandpa.

The kids were very used to being busy all day at school and starting asking us every day if we could go somewhere. On this particular day, I was not up to doing much so Kyle took the kids over to Hunt Park and just played. The did some frisbee golf, checked out the new racquetball courts, and then finished up the morning burning some energy in the park. He is such a good dad, we love him and are lucky to have him.

We had a new missionary in our ward and we learned to really like him and his companion. They would come stop at our house a few times a week to give the kids a little message, play, and get out of the heat. I'm pretty sure they just stopped by because they knew Kyle was home and it was somewhere to get a cold drink of water. The kids really loved them and they loved to sword fight a.k.a. beat Elder Sandberg with the swords.

The kids started Swim Lessons this year and Macy and London learned SO much. Macy can now swim all of her own and I'm not so afraid of her falling into water and not being able to make it to the side. She really has come a LONG way in the last two years with swimming. London did awesome in the baby pool and swims with her head under the water and can hold her breath for a pretty long time. Once we get her in the big pool she forgets that she needs to stay horizontal and her feet sink to the bottom. She still needs a little work. Bentley. Oh Bentley. He needs a lot of work. He hung onto his lifeguard Jedee the entire time. He didn't learn much. We did spent a long of time at the baby pool outside of lessons though and he does much better on his own. He'll put his head under the water and get his face wet.

Kyle's brother Brent has been sick and in the hospital for a few months. We had some vouchers for plane tickets so we offered one to Marie and Kyle took the other to go visit him and his family. They had a great visit and got in some broadway shows. I keep telling Kyle he needs to get on here and do his own posts (for Mary Poppins and his trip to New York)- we'll see if he does :) Before he left Macy insisted that she take a picture of him. I think she got a good one :) My Mom came up and stayed with me while he was gone. With being 37 weeks ago it made me nervous to be alone. While she was here we redid the girls closet shelves and finally made somewhere for the baby's clothes to go. He got home on Father's Day this year and enjoyed the yummy peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes that I made for him and the ward. They were the first "fancy" cupcakes I've made and I think they turned out pretty good!

Like two years ago we took the kids on a hike in the mountains behind our house and London has been asking us ever since to take her on another one. I was 38 weeks pregnant by this time and definitely not about to go hike a mountain, so Kyle took them on his lonesome. I got worried after an hour of them being gone, but they decided to hike up the mountains, through Maverik for a treat, hit a geocache, and then to Grandma's house where I picked them up. Kyle said the kids did great and he never had to carry them.

That night the kids had their last tball game. It's been fun watching them and how far they went during the season. Bentley still had a little trouble hitting the ball (the t was too tall), but the girls did really well! Macy will be plenty ready for coach pitch next year. They went from never hitting or catching the ball to always hitting the ball and most of the time being able to catch it :)

As it got closer and closer to my due date we started to spend more time at home, I was getting more uncomfortable and tired. The girls pulled out all their My Little Pony's one day and prettied them all up. They are one of the toys that have been super popular at our house and our collection just keeps getting bigger!

I had my 39 week appoint on June 27th and I was a little more effaced and a tad more dilated. Dr. Izenberg asked me if I wanted to wait another week or if I wanted to schedule something, so we scheduled something. He asked "how Wednesday sounded" and I told him "it sounds great. Tuesday sounds even better." :) He was on call for Wednesday so we scheduled an induction with the hospital and called to let my mom know! She came up the next day. We got all the final touches ready for baby (like washing blankets, buying diapers, you know- those things) :) and the took the kids to see Finding Dory for our last night as a family of 5!

May!

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Tue, 31 May 2016 17:52:00 +0000

I'm so behind on documenting our family happenings! Super far behind. Instead of doing individual posts to catch us up- I'm going to go by months! When we came home from Disneyland, we jumped headfirst into Kyle's HS musical which was Mary Poppins. It was a HUGE hit and we are still hearing people say how great it was and it's August! May was full of end of school concerts and such. First was Macy DinoStars musical and her first research project! She is part of Park Performers and they put on the cutest musical! They had the cutest costumes and everything, but I failed to get a picture. I'm such a slacker! BUT I did get a picture of her first research project! She did a Brachiasorous and had to put together a poster to show all the different things she learned about. It was all in preparation for her first field trip to the Petrified Forest! She had a blast.

Hulet Elementary had their annual Healthy Holbrook Night and the highlight was Bentley getting to sit in the fire engine! Hulet really does a fabulous job with their Healthy Nights. They had a healthy dinner (this year was turkey tacos, all the fruit and veggies you can think of, yogurt, cheese sticks, and a million other things you can choose from), TONS of outdoor games for the kids, and a whole plethora of sports and booths inside. This year we lucked out and got in line fast enough for all the kids to get free helmets and fit them!

Since London is going to be in KINDERGARTEN next year, the 4 yr old preschool class does a Kindergarten Transition Day and this year London was up! She was SO excited and has been talking about it since she found out it existed. They go to all the specials (P.E, Computers, Music, and Library), eat in the cafeteria, and play on the playground and get the feel of the school. London is a crack up and is always so quiet at new places. You could never tell she was extatic but I'm sure she had all the enthusiasm in the world on the inside.

The next day was London's dance recital. This girl LOVES dance and it always so excited to go. She loves her skirt and always tries to wear it. They did a cute little dance to Trashin' the Camp from Tarzan. Her favorite part- the flower at the end.

Next up! Bentley's Preschool program! They finish school a week before everyone else and did a cute program. It was the exact same songs and words as Macy and London's- we'll have this thing memorized by the time Ella gets there :) He did great with his part and loved his goodies at the end.

That weekend the boys had their first Father and Sons campout! Bentley was so excited that just he and Dad got to go hang out and absolutely loved all the rootbeer and treats that he got. They went out to the the Reidhead Pond and had lots of fun playing with trucks and watching everyone go on the zipline. I was a nervous wreck knowing that their was a big pond there but everyone was fine and Bentley wore his lifejacket most of the time. While the boys were away, Macy, London, and I went to Flagstaff to get some girl time in. We did some shopping, had some Chic-Fil-A, and then went and saw The Jungle Book. We even splurged and got candy and popcorn at the movies.

The next week was London's Preschool Graduation! They did some super cute songs and a little graduation ceremony. They keep it very sweet, short and to the point. We are really really really going to miss London at home- especially Bentley. They play so well together all day and he is really going to miss his buddy. We know she'll do great though!

Macy's school does what they call "Character Counts". There are like 6 pillars of how to get character (like honesty, loyalty, and so on) and when they are caught being good or using their character they get their name in a drawing for the end of the school year. They have a big assembly and then draw their names for a bunch of different prizes. The big prize is a BIKE! and Macy WON! Which wouldn't be so funny if she HATED riding bikes. She cries when we say "let's go ride bikes!'. A teacher told me that when her name was called to come get the bike she really didn't want to get up and take it. She came home and said "Hey London, you got a new bike!" London has been riding it since Macy got it and loves it. She can't get on it by herself yet, but she rides it really well. Macy was the most excited for 6 bubble wands she won. With the winning of the bike, that wrapped up the school year!

With being like 35 weeks pregnant I knew that if we didn't keep ourselves busy I was going to go insane with wanting this baby to come out. We sure kept ourselves busy! First up was Austin and Mikals wedding. Bentley was IN LOVE with the bride. He wanted to dance with her and be with her all the time. He cried when she went inside because she needed to use the little girls room. We had a talk with him about how it's her wedding and she wants to go talk to all the other people that came to see her too. He was a little heartbroken about that but nothing a smore couldn't cure. :)

Since I was in the 2nd part of my 3rd trimester, I had weekly appointments with my OB. Tradition meant that we stop by Subway and get lunch. Kyle kept up the tradition even though I'm sure he wanted to go somewhere else- he's a good man :) This particular appointment we also came home from Show Low with a trampoline! We knew we wanted to get one and figured what better time than the beginning of summer! The kids were SO excited and spent every minute they could on it.

We signed the girls up for t-ball again this year and learned that Bentley was right on the deadline for his age group and could play with year. I really don't think he was ready, but he would've been just as bored sitting on the sidelines with us. They had practice or a game almost every night and learned a TON more than they did last year. They had two high schoolers as their teachers and really liked them.

To wrap up the month of May we went Memorial Day Camping! We stopped on got some new tires before headed into the woods and ate at Oreganos while the tires were getting put on. We introduced our kids to Pizza Cookies which was probably a mistake. We had to put a stop the scarfing it down and made them start taking turns so we could get some bites it. Camping was a smaller group this year but the kids still enjoyed being in the forest and loved playing with their cousins Jack and Easton. They also spent a lot of time in the trailer with Grandma Bochat and they were all loving that. Grandma Bochat brought some ceramic figurines for the kids to all paint and that kept them busy fora good hour or two. The last day we went on a walk with the kids and did some geocaching. We had lots of good food and family. Perfect camping.

After getting home, we spent time getting the yards cleaned up and the sprinklers all on timers. It's taken us 7 years to get these things finally running on their own and boy is it nice not to have to turn them on and off every morning! One morning Bentley ran out to help Kyle and just threw on his boots- he's a cuties! We also helped Marie spruce up her yard a bit. We found a hummingbirds nest too! It was a great end to a great school year and great start to a great summer!

Disney Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (AI for Teachers Today) — Wed, 18 May 2016 14:59:00 +0000

After a super adventurous first day at California Adventure, the kids were so excited to go to actual DISNEYLAND. With all their Disney Jr. and Pixar characters, California Adventure still felt like Disneyland- but I was excited to take them to the real thing. We started out with an awesome Breakfast with the Characters (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!!!) and it was such a cool experience. There were SO many characters and the breakfast was awesome.

Captain Hook was a pretty funny guy- he had to use his hook to hold the kids books down. Eeyore was probably the favorite- he was so sweet with his bashfulness. I don't know how we missed a picture with the Fairy Godmother, but we loved her too! She was so sweet. Grandpa Carbonneau might have that picture- I'll have to ask!

We tried to make some plans about what rides and fast passes to do next and ventured off to get some fast passes for Splash Mountain and then hit a different ride, but with a 10 minute wait we decided to go on it. Bentley and I couldn't go on so we decided to stay back and at the last minute Macy decided she was too scared and she was going to go on rides with us. The two kids and I went on the Winnie-The-Pooh ride and then sat and waited for the others. Macy was SO mad that we went on one ride and then had to sit and wait. She thought we were going to go on a bunch of rides while they went on their one and was VERY grumpy with me. When they got off the ride she was basically in tears and had to have a good heart to heart with Dad before this turned into a big thing. She didn't love that we went on Winnie-The-Pooh AGAIN (for the others in our group that didn't go yet) but it helped her decide she was just going to go on the big rides with London. London LOVED Splash Mountain and was so happy that she decided to go.

We figured with little kids we would spend a lot of time in Toon Town and Fantasy Land- and Toon Town gets CROWDED fast, so we went over there. The line for It's a Small World was only 10 minutes so we jumped in there. On Kyle's school trips we have a late policy for meeting times- for every minute that you're late, you have to ride It's a Small World. If you are two minutes late, you have to ride twice- if you're 10 minutes late you ride it 10 times in a row. The first year we didn't have a single kid late- ever! The year, we had a few kids like 3 minutes late and they learned their lesson with that. As they ran up the whole group would sing "It's a Small World After all...." We had to get a selfie with the ride and let everyone know we were just going on it for fun- we weren't late for anything :)

I love this picture that Kyle got of the two kiddos- pure Disney aw :)

Next up- Toon Town! The kids were having tons of fun just playing in the houses and cars but really quit decided they wanted to just go on more rides- I was so proud. What's Disney without the rides?! The hit the Roger Rabbit Ride and then over to the Go-Gadget Rollercoaster. We were SO excited that Bentley go actually go on that one. I stepped to the side and Bentley went with Kyle and then London rode- they all loved the little coaster.

We asked the kids whether or not they wanted to go hit some more houses (Mickey, Minnie) or go on rides and they picked rides- so off we went! We saw the Storybook Land ride wasn't very long so we went on that. What a deceiving little line that is. It makes you think about 10 times they you're almost there but NOPE. We waited in line for probably 30 minutes and thought it would only be a few. The girls got to be the "whale watchers" and sit on the very front of the boat- they loved it.

We had some fast passes for the Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters and my parents had some for Space Mountain that we needed to use and off to Tomorrow Land we went. The kids LOVED Astro Blasters- of course. It's my favorite :) So fun!

By this time it was about noon and HOT outside. Ice cream for lunch it was! We needed to wait for Grandma and Grandpa and my hands were getting SWOLLEN. The ice cream was SO yummy and I'm really grateful we asked for cups AND cones. Most of out ice cream would have landed on the floor had we not had the cups, it got drippy pretty fast. Macy kept complaining that he legs were hot and I'm sure they were, it was pretty hot outside. The kids found the little shade they could.

After ice cream and getting back in touch with Grandma and Grandpa, we went over to Fantasy Land where we stayed most of the rest of the day. We hit the carousel (even ME! But there doesn't need to be photo documentation of that and my big ol' pregnant belly) and pretty much every single ride in Fantasy Land. Somewhere in there Grandma, Kyle, London, and Macy went on Star Tours while Bentley, Grandpa, and I went on Peter Pan and another ride, but we went on them again with the girls.

All day long we were also searching for our Easter Eggs to put stickers on the chart. The kids really loved this part of the trip and were always so excited to put their stickers on the eggs. Kyle got an especially cute picture of London and Grandma skipping while they looked for eggs. Too cute!

We finally found a ride that our whole family fit on! Alice in Wonderland! That was pretty exciting!

Kyle had a brilliant idea with souvenirs- if the kids ever said "I want this!" then we took a picture. After the whole trip we flipped through the pictures and the kids told me what they wanted. Then at the end of the day Kyle took the kids back to the hotel and I went and bought the one thing they decided they wanted. Poor London would have come home with these ADORABLE ears if I would've let her. I couldn't spent $30 (!!!!) on pink sparkly Minnie Ears that she would probably want to wear the church every Sunday. I wanted her to get something she could actually play with (and under $20!!) She did look stinkin' cute in them though, and they were TOTALLY London ears.

A must at Disney is the teacups- I took one for the team and sat out for pictures but the kids and Kyle sure had fun!

The sun started going down and boy was I grateful- it was such a hot day. We finished up Fantasy Land with trying to pull the sword out of the stone and then went over to the Finding Nemo ride in Tomorrow Land. Bentley didn't last long after the sun set. He was TIRED. The girls LOVED Finding Nemo and kept asking me if we were really in the ocean. A shark would come and they would squeal and get nervous. Disney is so fun with kids. As the carts of glowing things came out my Mom pulled out these super cool twirling toys for the kids. They were a huge hit and our kids still play with them to this day. I really wanted the kids to go on Pirates of the Carribean so Kyle and sleeping Bentley went and found a spot for the parade (he found an AWESOME bench!) and we all went on the Pirates. They kept asking me if we were inside or outside- Macy was so confused "I see a house and stars and lights, but Mom- we went inside a building! Are we inside or outside?!" I'm the worst liar but would not kill the magic so I just kept saying "It's cool huh?!" and "Whatever you think we are, we are!" :)

After Pirates we found Kyle just in time to sit down for the coolest light parade I've ever seen. I'm not one for taking pictures of parades, but this was seriously cool. In maters truck were thousands of light bulbs that danced to their music- they were AMAZING. Little Mermaid was pretty cool too- they were all SO cool!

My Mom and Dad and I went and did the souvenir shopping while Kyle took the kids back to the hotel- he is such a smart guy, that saved so much time by not taking the kids/stroller through all the stores. My parents have Year-Passes to Disney so we got to use their discount for buying all the things- awesome! I got a Disney zip-up hoodie, Bentley got Big Hero 6 toys, London got a super cute baby Ariel, and Macy got a Anna and Elsa doll that pretty much became a failure- but more on that in a minute. My parents had parked in the parking lot (free with their season pass!), we made a quick stop to Subway, and then dropped me off at our hotel. Kyle and I watched some Jimmy Fallon while eating our midnight subs and then off to sleep we went!

We hopped the kids would sleep in the next morning and luckily we got to sleep till around 7 and then they were bright eyed and bushy tailed. We passed out the kids toys and got two YAYs and one Nay. Apparently Macy wanted the Elsa with JUST the Elsa- but I got the Elsa with Anna. They come with different pieces apparently. She made such a fit about it I really wanted to give the toy to London and just tell Macy "now you don't get anything." but I really wanted her to have something to take home from Disney. We needed to go to the Downtown Disney Easter Egg Hunt anyway, so we met up with my parents and took back Macy's toy and let her pick a new one. She walked away with a package of the fairies from the Tinkerbell movies. We went into the Lego store and Kyle found his souvenir- a big lego set! It was like $30 off and he was super excited for it. The kids played with the legos for a bit and got a little surprise from the lego worker- some legos to take home! While my Mom and get went and got the last of the eggs Kyle, my dad, and the kids put together their little lego sets.

I am so happy that we got to take our kids to Disneyland and let them enjoy it. It really is such a magical place and we love going. It's family friendly, clean, entertaining, and there is never nothing to do. I'm so glad that my parents were able to come and that the kids got to have them there to experience it with. It was a huge help to have others to go on rides with and extra sets of hands and eyes. Thank you for coming with us!

Disneyland is FUN! Day 1 & 2

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 21:02:00 +0000

This past January Kyle and I decided we really needed to take our kids on a vacation. We've taken them to Las Vegas (cousin's wedding) and to the valley a billon times, but we've never been on a real family vacation. We've always used the excuse "They are little, they won't remember it anyway" but even Bentley remembers things from a year ago that I would have never thought he would remember. Maybe in 20 years they won't remember a lot, but for now they'll all remember the experience and family time. We knew we wanted to take the kids to the beach so we started looking at different options in California on where to go. First we looked at San Diego, Lego Land, and Sea World and after looking at prices it would only cost about $50 more a day to go to Disneyland. When you're already spending the money anyway, you mine as well through the extra $50 in! That was that- we were going to Disneyland! Spring Break was looking like the best option so we booked our hotel and invited my parents along. We ended up telling the kids about 3 weeks before we went and I'm so glad that we told them. Half the excitement around here was the kids looking up Disneyland YouTube videos and deciding what rides they wanted to go on first. They were SO excited!

The trip started on Sunday. We went to church, ate dinner at Maries, and then loaded up the van to go to Buckeye. We got to my Mom's house where she had goodies for the kids, really it was more like a Disneyland stocking- these goodie bags were packed with all kinds of loot! They had crayons, coloring books, jelly beans, shirts, playdoh kits, lanyards, autograph books, and all kinds of other goodies. I'm still shocked that the kids slept that night, but after a good nights sleep we were off to California the next morning!

Our first stop was the beach! The kids Grandma and Grandpa Gardner served their mission in Tonga and Marie came home with shells the size of your face that the kids love to play with when they go to her house. I kept prepping the kids that they won't find those kind of shells at the beach we were going to which made the shell aspect a little anti-climatic for them. They did thoroughly enjoy putting their toes in the sand though, the second they saw it they whipped their shoes off! It took a little bit for the kids to get comfortable with putting their toes in the water, but we finally got them to let the water come up to the feet and then run away from it. They were loving it! It was so fun to watch them laugh and giggle at the waves. They were all having a ton of fun so I went and sat by my parents while Kyle ran with them in the waves. Everything was going great until a bigger wave came and literally took the kids feet underneath them; it was the saddest/ funniest thing! The wave came and all the kids got completely drenched. Kyle swooped up Bentley so it wouldn't take him and then started looking for London, Macy was crawling out of the water as fast as her arms and legs would go. They all came up in big crocodile tears cold and wet. London finally warmed up to the water again and went and ran with Kyle, but Macy and Bentley were both done. They came and sat by my parents and I and we played in the sand a little bit. Then we went back to the car to get the kids warm and a change of clothes and then walked up and down the pier to kill some time. There were some surfers that we enjoyed watching for a little bit. My mom anxiety was on full force and I was pretty paranoid about the kids falling off the pier, but everyone had a hand and I had to focus on breathing a lot- we got through it and the kids had a blast. :)

We all hoped back in the cars and made our way to the hotel. The kids were completely amazed with our hotel- Macy kept saying "This is the life!". We probably haven't had to stay in a hotel with the kids since before Bentley was born so this was a whole new experience for them. Macy kept telling me it was way different than she expected- she thought it was going to have a toy box maybe and a bed, but it has TWO beds AND a TV! It was pretty adorable. It's so fun to see new things in kids eyes. We brought it all the luggage, freshened up, and then met my parents at Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. It was my parents wedding anniversary and we tagged along to celebrate!

Side Note: We've stayed at this same Super 8 Motel the past 3 times we've gone to Disneyland with Kyle's students so we decided to just stay there again. We know the hotel, it's walking distance away from Disney, and a good price. I was going to just book two hotel rooms for us and my parents until I read the fine print that said only one parking space per reservation. With two cars, we needed two parking spaces. I called my dad, told him the hotel, and was on the phone with him when he booked his own room. Fast forward to Sunday night before we went to bed and my dad said something about the address of the Super 8 on Katella. I told him I wasn't sure of the exact cross roads but I knew it was the Super 8 on Disneyland Drive... well apparently there are 2 Super 8's. One on Katella and one on Disneyland Drive and we were staying at both... we booked different hotels! Bummer! We each had a 24 notice cancellation policy so we were stuck.

The kids were pretty good at the hotel, especially for all sleeping in the same bed, and woke up bright and early ready to go to Disneyland! They each got two new Disney shirts and were so excited to wear them Kyle took the kids down for breakfast while I finished getting ready. They were all chatter boxes and talking about the things they were excited to do.

When they came back we got their Disney water bottles (also in the Disney stocking), their lanyards, and autograph books all out. We stopped at the van and picked up the awesome sit-n-stand stroller that I borrowed from my friend Stormy, and off we went! We are pretty much the luckiest people ever and scored a few free tickets to Disney (from a friend of ours that works for Disney) and waited for my parents and our favorite Disney employees in between Disneyland and California Adventure. While we had some down time we laid out some trading pins that my Mom got off Amazon and let the kids each choose some to trade through out the day.

We got into the park and snatched a picture with Robin, said a billon thank you's, and headed over to get some fastpasses for Radiator Springs racers. Since the kiosk for them is right by It's a Bugs Land, we went through there to check the line for London's first choice, Tower of Terror. The line was pretty short and the fastpasses for for the next hour, so we decided to head over to Monster's Inc for our first ride all together. On the way we found Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and Frozone! The kids were a little star struck, but we got all out books out and they all got signatures. Everyone that could go on the big rides (everyone but Bentley and I) got in line for that while Bentley and I continued over to a It's a Bugs Land for the first CHURRO of the trip and a few rides we could do.

Bentley was loving life and the rides- the girls decided they were never going to go on Tower of Terror again. Pretty much the worst ride ever. We took them over to pretty much the slowest ride ever to help them realize how fun Disneyland was. The great thing about the little kid rides is the toddlers get to sit on laps, which means our uneven numbers weren't a problem most of the time.

After our group found out we got a churro they were pretty jealous, so we made a family churro stop. Raisin' kids how they should be raised. By this time we noticed that the Disney Jr. shows were starting and wanted to try and watch one so we headed over to Hollywood Land to see if we could catch a show. On the way we found Doc McStuffins (London's favorite!) and Jake (Bentley's favorite!) they were the big "we had to meet" so we were SO excited when we found them. After standing in line for them we barely made it into Disney Jr. show. They had the characters from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Doc Mcstuffins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Sophia the First- at one point in the show gold zabloons fell from the ceiling! The kids loved the show.

The figured the girls could use some little rides after the terrifying Tower of Terror experience, so we hit the Little Mermaid and then some space ride. The big kids went of Goofy's Flying School (my FAVORITE ride) and the girls didn't enjoy that one much. London said she didn't like the dips and Macy didn't like when it felt like you were going to fly off. While they all went on that Bentley and I jetted over to Soarin' Over California to get everyone fast passes. I'm not really sure why we couldn't go on that one, but we couldn't. We met back up, ate lunch in Cars Land (at the Cozy Cone- yum!!) we got a chili cone, a chili verde cone, and a macaroni and cheese cone that we passed around to everyone to share. Super yummy!

After lunch it was time for everyone to go use their fast passes so Bentley and I stayed in Cars Land to do some of the rides in there. The line for the first ride (Mater's Jamboree) was pretty quick but the line for Luigi's Dance Cars took forever. The ride kept breaking down. Luckily half the time we were in air conditioning, but Bentley was getting pretty restless. I was totally one of those parents that pulled out my phone to keep him entertained after an hour of waiting. The girls, Kyle, and my parents went on Radiator Springs, Soarin' Over California and ______________ and loved them all. Their favorite was Soain' Over California. They even got to meet Goofy and Mater!

The day was going quick and before we knew it, it was time to line up for the parade. Bentley was getting pretty tired and the girls just needed to relax for a minute. We found a bench and got some ice cream to hold us over while we waited for the parade to start. The kids all loved the parade with the music and dancers. Macy kept saying "This is the best parade I've ever seen!!" and she was totally right.

We stopped to eat at Flo's Diner where the kids all scarfed down their food. My sandwich wasn't the best, but Kyle's chicken was pretty good. We figured we had enough time for a ride or two more, so we went over to Toy Story Mania. The line was only 45 minutes and knew the kids would love it. We got on the ride and poor Macy's shooter wasn't working. I tried to get her to use mine but she was just sad. We got off and I let the worker know it wasn't working and they let us right back on so Macy could have a chance at the ride. I'm really glad she did because Macy was nothing but smiles, she had a lot of fun! The kids noticed the carousel on the way to Toy Story Mania and about lost their minds until we promised we would go after Toy Story. Then we tried to hit the big ferris wheel but they had already closed it for the World of Color. Instead we decided to stroll through Cars Land before we went back to the hotel, it is such a neat place at night time with all the neon! About this time we realized that we needed to finish up the Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt that we got at the beginning of the day! We got a little map and after you find all the eggs around the park you get a souvenir egg that you get to take home. They were way tricker than we thought they would be and we found a couple of people that were looking for them too. It took us a little while and more walking, but we got all our eggs!

The kids were totally wiped out by this point. Bentley fell asleep pretty early on and London fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. It was such a great day at Disney. At one point in the afternoon we had a couple breakdowns, but it was hot and it was easily overcome. It was actually a lot easier than I expected our day to be! At the hotel, the kids all went right to sleep. Day well spent!

Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Kyle and Alli) — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 17:56:00 +0000

Easter this year was pretty low-key- that's kind of been the theme for this year :) I've totally been slacking on taking pictures and the bulk of March and April were spent getting ready for Kyle's big musical Mary Poppins, so other things just didn't get that much attention. We did make a point to dye some eggs, the kids got Easter baskets from the Easter Bunny, and we did a small egg hunt at Grandma's house after dinner. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.