Kenzie Turns Three!

On monday, Kenzie turned three! We had brandon's parents coming over after the temple on Tuesday so we just pretended that her birthday was on wednesday and she had no idea! We had cake and ice cream, opened a few presents and called it a day! She got a cute baby from brandon's parents that she  calls "big baby" and a cute blanket for her new baby from brandon's grandma lorna! We let her pick out her present and she got a little baby feeding set with a bowl, spoon and bottle for her new baby! She is pretty easy to please, her whole life evolves around baby dolls so you don't need to worry about what to get this girl! She is definitely the wild child in our family! She can make the biggest messes and is super sneaky in not a good way. She gets in to everything and you never hear a peep. I am so glad that she is three and hopefully will start to grow out of the messy stage and just play! She is in a little joy school which she loves and hopefully soon we will start potty training her (she has asked multiple times but i am not ready yet!) Happy Birthday kenzie!

First Day of School 2016!!

The School year has begun!! I am ready for these cute boys to head back to some routine!! This summer we tried hard to work on workbooks, flashcards, and reading but as summer does we were not great at keeping up though we sure tried! They did awesome to clean their rooms and the playroom but we are happy for school to start! We are attending George Washington Academy again, and we couldn't be happier!

Both Boys have been counting down the days and were ready right at 7:45am to head to school!

 Hayden and I went on a little bowling date a few weeks ago and we went after to pick out his backback! This year he chose a hotwheels backback and a super hero lunch sack!

Coleton is so predicatble that i just grabbed his backpack! He still loves minions and so we are going on two years of loving them! I am ready for a new faacination!!

This is one thing that i absolutely love about my school year prep! I have two fridges, one inside and one outside! I use the outside fridges for school lunch items, which makes my lunches so easy! Each day (if they decided they don't want school lunch) i pack a sandwich or somethings similar and i let them head to the garage for three lunch items! My mom gave me the idea last year and it has been amazing! They are all presized in ziplock baggies or prepackaged and they have to school different varieties! We have everything from string cheese, fruit leather, yogurt, fruit cups, applesauce, chips, granola bars, crackers, beef jerky, fruit roll ups, rice crispy treat, and it changes for whatever is on sale at costco!! It saves me! 

Here are the boys class assignments! I was so sad this year that Hayden did not get in his friend marcus' class (sophie his twin sister did though) but he will do great! Coleton at first was sad that he wasn't in Ginger or Ornestos class this year but luckily at back to school night, i ran in to Ornestos parents and they said that they has received an email saying that he was placed in the wrong list and was now in Mrs McCoy's class so luckily they have each other!

We are always a bit nervous when school starts, like any parent, but this year will be an interesting one for Coleton! We have decided as of this past year that Coleton is struggling enough in reading that testing is going to need to be an option! We haven't mentioned much about what has been going on with Coleton mainly because we don't know our selves but we have been concerned since kindergarten that there was an underlying issue that is slowing down his progress, he is a smart kid and loves to learn but often while reading he completely mixes and rotates letter and numbers to where frustration levels get to him so this year we have decided to have him tested though the school to see if they can pinpoint any issues. It is amazing how much we have had to fight to get to where we are, but as a parent we feel like it is a sort of Dyslexia that he struggles with and would love to find out how to help him in school! Like i said, he is a smart kid, very social, and is very creative and loves art but as his mom, i feel like we are missing something that could help him but i just don't know what it is, which is so frustrating as a parent but stay tuned to that and hopefully we figure something out!!

Our kids and their toys!

It is so funny to me how similar my kids are! I bet no one remembers this but four years ago, Brooklyn decided that she wanted to give her baby a bath...in our toilet! It was disgusting and i remember scrubbing and washing the baby in bleach because it was one of my old cabbage patch dolls! Well fast forward four years and now madi is brooklyn's age and i am right back to wear i started! Cleaning the same cabbage patch doll that has had two baths in my toilets!!

Here is my kenzie!! This is so her!! she ALWAYS has a baby, and she ALWAYS is in a pretty dress, whether its a dress-up princess dress, or a fancy church dresss she alwyas has one on unless i put my foot down and make her wear normal clothes! She changes her outfit four or five times a day and will normally go through a few outfits while she "trys" to go to sleep in her room! She is my challenge! She makes messes, screams more then i can handle, and wants to do everything herself, but she does have a pretty cute smile that kind of makes up for it! (kind of!!)

Brandons 32nd Birthday!

This year for Brandon's Birthday, we took a whole week to celebrate!! We started it off Saturday the 30th and triple dated with our close friends, the Allens and Seals! We decided to try the new Mystery Room here is St George and it was so fun! Brandon and i have never done anything like it but it was quite the adventure of solving multiple clues and riddles to escape a room in one hour! We had a random couple from up north join our group but it was still a great time without our kids!

Then on Tuesday night, Brandons parents came and stole all five kids for two days as Brandon's Birthday present! We stayed home and they took the kids to Cedar! It was so relaxing! We went out for Breakfast at Kneaders, hit zeppe's italian ice, ate dinner at peruvian Chicken restaurant, napped, played mini golf, walked around walmart, deseret book, and Lins without kids, and just enjoyed the quiet! We love the kids but having sometime alone is amazing!

On Friday we had a ward party at the park where their was a BBQ, dunk tank, and foam machine, which was super fun for the kids!

Then on Saturday the 6th, his actual birthday, i had stake baptism for a few hours and then came home to make his special birthday cake! I had found a chocolate cake on Pinterest that was suppose to be super moist(brandon's only classifications for his cake) and off i went to make it!! Well after making this super moist cake i started putting it together and disaster struck!! It was too moist and its like an earthquake happened and it slit it to fours!! a definite Pinterest fail!! it was suppose to look so pretty but in the end looked like a mess, though it tasted wonderful!!

After the cake fiasco, we suited up to go swimming at the rec center like we normally do on Saturdays! Once we got to the rec center we found that they had a special event going on and they closed the pool! It was quite the let down! so instead we headed over to papa murphy's to grab brandon's favorite pizza dn headed home! For his birthday present this year, we decided to dryclean all of his suits for the school year so there wasn't much to open! It was a fun birthday week, and we are so lucky to have this guy in our lives!! Happy birthday, Brandon!!

Summer Swim Team!!

Last year after Coleton attended a end of school year party and the Washington Community Center with his first grade class, he walked in the door and we asked him how swimming was, he explained to us that "i drowned" He had a life jacket that we sent with him knowing that he needed it but since all of his friends were not wearing one he decided he didn't need one either! Though he was being a tad dramatic and actually just swallowed a little water we realized that he needed to learn to swim so we didn't have a real accident!

We got a pass to the Rec center and Brandon took the boys every Tuesday and Thursday to teach them how to swim! They loved it! I loved it!  They were making great progress and after a few months of practive were doing up to 20 laps unassisted! We had made our goal! They boys could swim and keep themselves safe in the pool! We told them that if they continued to progress that they could try out for summer swim team and they were so motivated! They worked hard and once school was out of session, they both tried for the SUSAs summer swim team and made it!

They went Tuesday through Friday in the morning and then had about six swim meets during the summer! We were lucky to be able to carpool with Bonnie Flitton and her son Burke It was so fun to see a sport they enjoyed and were decent at! They never complained about practice and they tried their hardest to improve and we were so impressed with how well they did!

Hayden was in the six  and under age group (which did not have as many)and Coleton was in the eight and under age group (which was quite large!) so Coleton and Hayden both did great but with smaller group for the six and under group Hayden received more awards!

 We were sad to see summer swim team end, but Coleton has already told us that next summer he wants to do it again, so hopefully this wasnt the last time at a swim meet!

Madison Update!

I have not kept very good records of what Kenzie and Brooklyn developmental developments! I use to be so good at keeping track of what they were doing and at what age they hit milestones but taking a break from blogging limited what i kept track of so i will just take not of the things that i do remember!! I went in for Madis 16 month check ups! She has been healthy and doing great but she needed vaccinations so off we went! Luckily, Brandon had taken the day of to read (he has been reading a lot of church book about the controversial topics so he has been home reading) so i was able to leave Kenzie and Brooklyn home with him! I took the older boys with me so after the appointment we could do some back to school shopping for uniform items (mainly shoes) I got her stats and Madison is weighing in at... 25 lbs  which is 75% and height is at 31.5 in which is 72% so she is healthy and happy! The doctor didn't see anything that he was concerned about and she is hitting all of her mile stones! She is walking, and running when she needs to which i love!! She doesn't need me as much to carry her around and she follows the other kids all over the place! She doesn't really play with baby toys since i have pretty much gotten rid of all baby items! She is in her own room, and is a great sleeper! She doesn't mind staying in her crib for as long as i will let her and loves the time alone! The two girls share a room and about 3 months ago we transitioned Kenzie to a toddler bed which has been and interesting struggle! Brooklyn has always been a night owl and is up late playing in her bed and Kenzie us to just fall asleep when she got bored but now that she is in her own toddler bed she seems to have the freedom to get up and play til the wee hours! This is the time of night that kenzie can be difficult! She takes off her diaper and falls asleep, plays dress-up and gets All of her clothes out, or just dumps the books on to the floor! Brooklyn and kenzie get along but when they both get tired, oh the drama that can happen! Madi does seem to have a bit of the kenzie crazy in her which makes us a tad nervous! She has just a few months til nursery and we couldnt be more excited to get her in! She went last week because i taught sharing time and Brandon lead teacher training and she went so well! It will be nice for the first time in our marriage to attend our classes with out a child! It will make church a completely new experience!!

Daddy Daughter Date

Last night Brooklyn (age 4) was sitting quietly at the table, and I couldn't help but wonder as I looked at her, "what are you thinking?" So I asked!
She responded "um, can we go on a date?" 
I'm not even sure where she got the idea (we've never done that before) but I agreed, and asked her what she wanted to do. She quickly replied, "can we go on a walk to the park and play on the slide?"
Again I agreed, and tonight we did just that. Our very first daddy daughter date, walking to the park where we played on the slide. . . And it was awesome!
I'm not sure I know what I'm supposed to learn from this whole unexpected event but I hope I don't forget it any time soon!

Life is good!

Surprise Gettaway!!

This past weekend, Brandon surprised me with a two day trip to salt lake with out the kids!! We headed up to Cedar to celebrate Grandma Lornas Birthday and then about 5:30pm we headed for salt lake! It has always been a dream of ours since we were unable to afforded it as newly weds and so he scheduled the anniversary inn for us!! i was so excited!! when we finally made it there about 10;30 we were told that our reservations were made for the night before (so when we actually got online and reserved it) and that our card was already charged for a no-show! it was a pretty devastating blow! Lucky there was another women their that had had the same issue of reserving a room online and it reverting the date back! They were booked at the location that we were at but said that they had a few rooms in their second location that we could go to down the street and so we did! The other building was beautiful!! They had told us that since they made an error they were going to five us a discount on the Diamond room suite since it was the similar one to what we wanted but still upgrade us with free drinks, in room breakfast, and free cheesecake! It was amazing!! We were in the Meadow room and it had a Jacuzzi tub with a waterfall shower, balcony seating and was so cute! It really was just as magical as i hoped it would be for the past nine years!

We also went to the new Church History Museum, the Joseph smith building garden restaurant, hit PF Changs (which was amazing, went to Seven peaks without any children, and slept in!!

It was an amazing surprise and it was so nice to get away from the kids and just have fun as a couple! Having five kids in seven years can really wear on you so it was fun to be alone again! Thanks joleen for watching the kids! And most of all thanks Brandon!! Love you Honey! 

Time with the boys!

Hayden's school needed 30 desks put together, so we made it a father-son thing. I've never seen a six year old who loved manual labor (and power tools) so much!
It was pretty neat to see the proud look on his face after two hours of hard work, and hear him say "that was fun! Can we do it again next week?"

Parenting can be tough, but today was a win