A Busy Summer

Wow! My last post was in April. It's now Mid August and I'm putting off school planning and book ordering to update you on our summer. Summer? Did we even have one of those. We finished up school the end of May and since then we have been going here and there quite a lot. This post is mostly pictures.

In April/May we finished up with Breakout. Enjoyed a couple days at Universal Studios and the boys camped out at the Coast Guard base and graduated up a level with the Cub Scouts.

In June we had a blast during our Church VBS. This year was Kingdom Rock and despite the 5 early mornings (none of us are morning people) they were always excited for the next day. Then we began swimming lessons. We've had a total of 6 weeks of lessons this summer and the kids are doing great! They love swimming and they have learned so much and really enjoyed the lifeguards at the pool this year.

In July we took a week long trip to Albuquerque to visit Devin's parents and attend his 20 year High School reunion. My parents drove down to spend a couple of days with us while we were there too!

We are wrapping up the summer in August with their last session of swim lessons and a week long British Soccer Camp. The kids loved the soccer camp! 

And so ends our summer. Or at least the long days full of activities. We've still got a few things going on and a long bucket list of things we want to do before we move. Now I better get back to my school planning and house cleaning!

Our Kids

I can't believe it's April! Where is the time going? There are never enough hours in the day to accomplish what I need to including keeping this blog updated! February and March were busy because we celebrated 4 birthdays! Here is an update on each of the kiddos.

AUSTIN
Turned 9 in March! My boy is getting so big. At 55" he's growing like a weed and is going to pass me in height in just a few short years I'm sure. It's hard to imagine telling your son what to do when he towers over you! He my difficult one but he can be caring and helpful when he wants to be. He still loves legos and coming up with new things to make with them. For a 9 year old he is big into looking and being cool. He picks up too much from tv and friends. He is far from a little boy anymore. *sniff*.

 

 

TEAGAN

Turned 7 in March! This boy is our comic relief around the house. He just has a way of  keeping us laughing. He maintains the average for shortest in the family coming in at 47". Poor kid. His current obsession is all things Super Mario Bros. When he likes something he goes all out and is devoted to that. It was Thomas the tank engine for a long time when he was little. He has no problems being the 2nd child/boy as he is super smart and his ability to learn and retain things is amazing. He knows it and likes being the "smartest" but we don't tell him that.

 

BAILEY

Turned 4 in February! She is tall for her age at 41" Being third in line is a bit hard on this little girl right now. She is very girly and loves princesses and pink and dress-up. But with 2 older brothers she can run right along with them. Nerf gun/sword fights, playing in the dirt and being obnoxious! :-) She can be helpful and caring especially with her baby sister. And she enjoys helping me with household chores.

 

KELSEY

Kelsey was 6 months the end of March! This little blessing is growing way too fast! I'm trying hard to cherish every moment with her as I will miss having babies around. Each stage of motherhood has it's good parts but babies are my favorite! She has learned to roll over and sit up on her own. She babbles and tries to yell as loud as she can. Which is good practice if you are #4 in line. She currently hold the average for tallest amongst her siblings. It will be interesting to see how long that lasts. I know she will be very vocal as she has 3 older siblings who would do anything for her I'm sure she will quickly figure out how to use that to her advantage.

 



 

 



Birthdays and Busyness

I wish I had more time to blog. Every few days I'll think of something to blog about but the time is not there. We have been pretty busy since Christmas. Back to a normal routine of school and extracurriculars. Teaggan is breezing through school and has alrady finishe 1st grade. I thank God daily for such an easy to teach child! Especially when my oldest struggles with learning it allows me more time with him. Bailey is just starting to show interest in doing school like the boys, so she has some alphabet and number books to color. We got a used GeoSafari (Does anyone remember those?) I loved learning things on it and now she does too.

The boys have been attending their weekly Bible Study and learning verses. They just had their crazy hair night. (sorry no pics of that). The next is a talent show. I don't know what they plan to do for it yet.
The boys have also been enjoying cub scouts. They just had their pinewood derby a few weeks ago. They love making the cars and racing them. Their cars did really well but not enough to place in the top 3. They were disappointed but quickly got over it. Thankfully they think it's just fun to race them!

 The Shark car is Austin's

Batmobile on the far right is Teagan's

We are now in Birthday mode. With 6 of us now we have 3 birthdays in a span of 2 months 2 times a year! February and March are the 3 older kiddos. We've decided to throw a "big" combined party for the 3 of them. Trying to come up with a theme the 3 of them agreed on took months! They finally decided on Super Mario Brothers with Princess Peach to get the added girliness in there. With the help of a friend the planning is coming along and should be a fun party. But I'll still be stressing over it and the work to be done. Oh the things we do for our kids sometimes right?

The end of January marked Kelsey's 4 month birthday! She is growing so fast and I hardly even remember the newborn days it seems. She is a very laid back baby but she loves to talk and be center of attention. She loves to play with her toes and suck on all her fingers. I'm finding every new thing she does kind of sad since this is likely our last baby. I will miss this age so very much.

 

The beginning of February was Bailey's 4th birthday! Where did the time go? 4 seems so grown up to me. She is no longer my baby girl. With the arrival of her sister she has been displaced and is less helpful and sweet than she used to be. But she can be when she wants to.



Christmas 2012

Well, as quickly as it arrived it's over just like that. It seems as soon as Thanksgiving is over we rush to get out the Christmas decorations and anticipate the big day. Then when the day finally arrives, it's over and done and we're exhausted and the aftermath is overwheleming. The house is a mess and I'm ready to take down all the decorations and get back to normal life. I think I'm starting to understand why my husband is a grinch. Or maybe it's because we have young kids. Or that every 2 or 3 Christmases are spent in a new city/state and new house and rarely with our families. Now, I don't want this entire post to be a downer. I do love Christmas. I have a lot of special memories of Christmases growing up. This year I tried to start some new traditions with my kids, I tried to explain the true meaning of Christmas. (As I do every year). I hope I'm creating some good memories with my kids that will not only have them loving and enjoying the Christmas season but also realizing the true reason we celebrate. The birth of our Savior was the best gift we could have ever received and we should want to share that gift with others. Sadly I never take enough pictures and I'm lacking in photography skills, but here are a few from the day.

Thanksgiving

We actually celebrated Thanksgiving with our dear family in the San Fernando Valley who came down on Saturday and unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that. We had 19 people! But it was so much fun!

On actual Thanksgiving day we took the kids down to the beach for a little photoshoot since we didn't have any of the four of them together. It's so hard to get them all to look good and smile nice at the same time!