This'll be a long one, and the pictures are a little out of order. But there's so many of them I'm not going to fix the order.
Little sister had a double digit birthday! 10 years old, we can't believe how fast time flies. She wanted a big party with friends, so we did that this year. She had a blast. We also did a party with the family. She loved being celebrated, that's for sure. We sure love this girl. She decided to try contacts instead of glasses and is awesome at putting them in and taking them out. She's been working on several things in school with her amazing teacher, like staying organized and penmanship, as well as writing. She's always struggled with the putting ideas onto paper thing. She started really getting creative with her stories and writing some fun things. She has made wonderful progress this year, she's such a joy in our family.
Big sister was supposed to dress up as a celebrity for school. She decided that mom already had all the ingredients for Minnie Mouse. Pretty cute, if you ask me!
When your baby sister is pregnant with her 2nd set of twins and is finally getting GIRLS after having 3 boys, you throw her a serious baby shower. On her birthday. And you have your amazing friend make her a gorgeous (and, I might add, delicious) cake. We had a very successful baby shower for Scooby, and it was fun to be in charge of it. We had to host it at my mom's house since ours was undergoing renovations.
Husband, tearing out the old stuff.
Little brother wanted to help, and whaddya know? He really did help! He pulled out lots and lots of staples from our subfloor.
Big brother really does love to clean - sweeping and vacuuming in particular. He was in his element with all the demolition debris to sweep up.
The laundry room, all painted and new flooring and put back together.
The new cabinets have been delivered!
Installation day!
Finished!!! Except for the light fixture, we've put in a new one now. Husband did the flooring and it turned out so nice. I LOVE it all!
The new fireplace - still working on the finishing touches.
Our new railing
New kitchen - thanks to wife's dad for doing the backsplash!!!
For spring break, we decided it was time for another trip to Goblin Valley. The kids have been dying to go back. We got a pretty nice camping spot.
Unfortunately, we discovered that some of our tent poles were missing. Oops. Pretty sure we left them at Coral Pink Sand Dunes, the last place we went camping. Oy. So husband came up with a bit of rope trickery and the tent went up. Hooray!
We brought along cut up pieces of our old railing and mantle to burn. The kids thought it was a little sad to burn it. lol
Unfortunately, Daddy's fix didn't stand up to the wind gusts we got that night. After getting big brother settled into bed, the tent started collapsing. The kids were all in tears, scared that we were going to lose all our stuff and that we wouldn't get to finish our vacation. We decided to head home for the night, sleep in our own beds, get up early and head back in the morning with Husband's parents tent poles (they have the same kind of tent.) Husband is normally not a fast driver, but we made record time getting home and put everyone straight to bed. Up early in the morning to go pick up the poles and head back. LOTS more driving and gas than we'd planned, but the kids were thrilled to get to finish our trip. They love playing in the Valley. We explored a little further this time, finding some caves and really cool spots. Despite the little hiccup, it was a successful trip.
Easter! The kids loved dyeing eggs, and cousin Kylie joined us for our candy hunt. Husband had to work, just the joys of working in the retail/medical field. We made the most of our time together and had a wonderful Easter, though.
All dressed up for Easter Sunday!
Big brother turned 8! He also begged for a friend party, so we hired a magician. Best money we've spent in a while - the kids were enthralled and it was perfect for our Bucky boy's personality. He loved having so many friends come to his party. We also did his family party, so this boy got celebrated!
All dressed up for our first Scout meeting! He was, of course, not loving the idea of something new. His scout leaders are amazing and really helped him feel comfortable. He loves it now. Yay!
It was time at school for big brother's big round of testing to help figure out his IEP moving forward. They asked and we gave permission to run every test they had. It was the longest IEP meeting we've ever had - 1 hour and 40 minutes. over 100 pages of results. All indications are that he is on the autism spectrum. He's been tested before, but only had what they call "tendencies." The spectrum is always changing, so now he is considered on the spectrum. Doesn't change a darn thing, just helps new people understand his struggles better. We made some very specific goals and they made some really good recommendations for his IEP. We love the help he gets at his school. Most everyone is in agreement that, given the right help, he will grow out of a lot of these issues. Every blessing he ever gets tells him how special he is and how he will overcome the challenges he has. This boy has sure expanded our hearts with those sweeter than sweet brown eyes and killer smile. It's an honor to be his parents.
Big sister turned 13 - we officially have a teenager!! She's (for the most part) a pretty awesome kid. She enjoyed her family party, and ended up just having mom and dad pay for her to take a friend with her to Lagoon when her guitar class went on a Saturday after her birthday. That was much easier than a whole big friend party - I don't know how I got talked into doing so many friend parties this year!
We took big brother to the temple for some pictures for his baptism invitation. He and little brother loved being so close to the temple.
My handsome boy!
Little brother and little sister had eye appointments. Little sister got her contacts and little brother was supposed to just be getting his kindergarten check up. about 30 minutes before the appointment, little sister threw a ninja toy at her brother. It scratched his eye pretty bad. So instead of a check up, we got antibiotics to heal the scratch so it wouldn't damage his vision. Oy.
On our next appointment with little brother, the doctor said "Oh, you're related to big sister, aren't you?" Oh, dear! Big sister has terrible eyes. Little brother does, also. Apparently. He picked out some glasses and is thrilled with them. And with the fact that he can see. He says it's like looking through the camera on "zoom".
Big brother got some superhero capes for his birthday. He's been insisting lately on helping dad load the dishwasher, and on this particular night he also insisted dad wear a superhero costume. I love that Husband donned the cape for his boy - I love this picture!
My sister had her twin girls. We sure love holding them!
I need to find other pictures, but little sister and big brother performed in their Up With Kids play, Beauty and the Beast. They both did fantastic! Little sister played Flounder and delivered her lines absolutely perfectly - I loved her little facial expressions. Big brother got to tell 2 knock knock jokes. He worked on them quite a bit and when the time came, he delivered his lines slowly and clearly - no small feat for him! He also did some solo cartwheels during one of the dance numbers. It was SO fun to watch these kiddos perform! They loved it, too, and are looking forward for next year's play already.
We took a day trip out to five mile pass and broke out the four-wheelers. The kids had a blast riding and playing in the dirt. Big sister tried out the 250 and was awesome on it. Little sister got some help with the throttle from dad, and was feeling a bit better about riding little blue. Then her cousins started pushing her on the machine - they weren't going fast, and she figured out the steering thing. She asked if she could just ride on her own and she did awesome just riding around our little camp.
Daddy has been slowly working on cutting down our pine tree out front. It's been killing everything around it. All that was left was the trunk, so on Memorial Day we used the truck to pull it out. The kids thought this was AWESOME!
Hooray for new rose bushes to replace the tree!
Big brother got baptized at the beginning of June. He was a little nervous, he'd watched someone have to get baptized 3 times because her toe kept coming up and he was very worried by this. Daddy practiced with him and reassured him, so he decided to go ahead and be baptized. He had a wonderful day and seemed to enjoy it all. Here's our handsome boy!
We had a friend make Isaac a cake for his baptism and he LOVED it! It also tasted amazing. It really was a fantastic day for our boy.
Summertime is upon us! We like to hike, and we managed to start the summer strong with this fun hike with the whole family. The Little Cottonwood Creek trail leads to an abandoned mill, and it was a good place to safely watch the incredibly powerful flow of water. Then we went to Lisa Falls, a fun, very short hike.
For our family vacation at the end of June, we went to Bryce Canyon. We stayed in the Kings Creek Campground, about a 20 minute drive. You can ride four-wheelers out of the campground, and there was a fun reservoir as well. We balanced hiking in the canyon, four-wheeling, and wading each day.
The kids liked the look of the Navajo Loop Trail the first day. We weren't planning on anything quite that hard, but they wanted to go so we gave it a shot. SO cool. These trees have to grow so high to get to sunlight, it was amazing to stand at the bottom of them. The hike goes down and then back up, and back up was pretty rough. But everyone made it and enjoyed it for the most part.
Playing in the reservoir
Another hike
Helmet hair!
Four wheeling all together
Daddy and little brother
Big sister
Little sister and little brother are the only ones who wanted to hike with mom and dad on the last day. The other 2 stayed in the trailer and played cards.
driving home through red canyon. SO pretty!
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