All good things...

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

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

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

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

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

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.