Vacation

We went on a family vacation to Salt Lake City, Utah. We left the morning of July 3rd and got back the evening of July 8th. 

On the way down, we stopped in Rexburg, Idaho and stayed the night with one of my former young women (Shiloh) and her little family. Crazy how MY young women is now married with kids! It was great to see Shiloh, Scott, and their two little girls! 

Before we left Rexburg in the morning to head the rest of the way to Salt Lake, we stopped at the Rexburg temple. What a beautiful temple!

Then we stopped at the Idaho Falls, Idaho temple. Again, such a beautiful temple!

Once we got to Utah, we stopped at the Brigham City temple.

Right across the Brigham temple is the Brigham city tabernacle. This tabernacle is over 100 years. I believe it was built in 1903. We didn't think we would be able to go inside being that it was the 4th of July, but one of the doors was open, so we walked up and sure enough they were doing tours that day!

After seeing the Brigham City temple and tabernacle we headed to Salt Lake City and checked into our hotel. Then we went to Lehi and had dinner at watched fireworks with our friends the McCombs who used to live in Spokane. It was great to see them, it has been years! 

The next day (July 5th) we toured temple square in the morning. There were so many wedding groups all around the temple taking pictures. We tried to get a family shot, but there really wasn't anywhere to get a good one. Oh well, next time.

That night, Jeff and I were able to do a session that night. The McCombs came to our hotel and watched our kids. Kinley cried the whole time, sorry Ben and Nicole! Being in the Salt Lake temple was an awesome experience. There is so much history in that temple and I was in total awe of how beautiful it is. Being able to go to at temple for hands down the highlight of vacation for me.

The Christis, one of my favorite things about the visitors center.

Saturday July 6th, we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. The kids loved it. 

Saturday night was the Man in the Moon event put on by Glenn Beck. This was the whole reason for us going down. On the drive to the event, it was pouring rain. This was a rain or shine event, so no refunds were going to be given. We sat in our car in the parking lot for over an hour and a half, waiting for the rain to stop. We waited and waited and waited. Finally the rain stopped. Our "seats" were on the lawn. We only packed the boys' small character blankets and figured that would have to be good enough because no lawn/camping chairs or unbrellas we allowed at the even. (Probably so others behind you could also see.) So, we were totally unprepared for sitting on wet grass. While sitting in the car, I came up with the idea to take the fabric off the boys' boosters and have them take them in so they could sit on something dry. We also had one of those thick plastic mat things that you put under carseats to keep the kids crumbs and other stuff on the seat of the vehicle. We took that with us too. We also packed the Moby wrap so we could snuggle Kinley in to once she got tired. 

Kinley crawled around on the grass or sat with Jeff or me until the even started. She began to get tired, so I put her in the Moby and went to the back of the yard so I could stand up and get her to sleep. Worked like a charm. She stayed asleep the whole time!

 There were planes that flew over head a few times at the beginning of the show.

 That big circle is the moon.

Before leaving Utah, Jeff saw a fire station in Ogden. We stopped there for a bit and Jeff traded firefighter shirts with the firefighter.

On our way back home, we stopped in Rexburg again and stayed the night with my friend Shelley and her husband Blake. Their three kids are all around the same ages as our oldest three. Their oldest is 2 days older than Mason, their middle is 3 months older than Cooper, and their youngest is 2 weeks older than Shiloh. It was fun to see them! Our kids all got along so great.

June Happenings

 She sure loves her books!

Proof for later that Shiloh and Kinley did like each other.

Cooper got to bring Clifford the Big Red Dog home from school for the last weekend before school was out for the summer. Cooper took Clifford on a bike ride and fed him Cocoa Puffs for breakfast.

Cooper went on a bike ride with our neighbors and came home with this beauty. He woke up the next morning with a black eye. Poor kid.

Fun times at Krispy Kreme 

I found this random picture of a butterfly on the computer. I am guessing Jeff and the kids found it. It's a pretty big butterfly.

10 months

Kinley is now 10 months! It is so crazy how much faster time has gone with her than it did with any of our other kids. She seems to be doing things fast that the other kids too. She is climbing on things. Her favorite thing to do is sit on the bottom stair. It's like she is contemplating how to climb up the rest if the stairs. I'm sure it won't be long before she really is climbing them. The other thing she seems to be doing earlier is standing by herself unassisted. She goes from a squatting position to standing with her legs bent. I am beginning to wonder if she will walk before she turns one. I keep telling her that none of my babies have walked before their first birthday and she was not going to be the exception. I am not so sure she is listening.

 She is beginning to enjoy some table foods. Her most favorite things to eat are eggs, bananas, chicken, steak, and avocado.

End of school

Mason and Cooper have had great years. They have learned a lot, made great friends, and have grown a ton both academically and physically.

 Cooper with his teacher, Mrs. Hammond on the last day of school. (I forgot to get one of Mason with his teacher Mrs. Jordan)

As summer approaches each year, I worry about having enough fun things to do through out the summer to keep them busy. I saw on facebook or somewhere that a crayola crayon can stay lit for about 30 minutes. So I thought we would start summer off with a bang, and maybe a house fire if we are lucky. The boys thought it was pretty cool that you can light a crayon and use it as a candle, and no, we were not lucky in the house fire department.

Shock

Our friends, the Mansfields, have season tickets for the Shock. Brian took his son Aiden, Jeff, and Mason to the game last night. They got home really late. Mason was super tired this morning getting up for 9am church, but I think he wouldn't have traded more sleep for being able to spend time with his dad.

On two wheels

Exciting news on the bike front. Cooper can now ride his bike without training wheels. He worked really hard and got super frustrated at times, but he is over the moon excited about his accomplishment.

Kindergarten Patriotic Concert

All of the kindergartener participated in a patriotic concert last night. They all did so well and look so cute dressed in red, white, and blue.

I can't figure out how to turn the videos, so just turn your head.

Tooth pullin' good time!

The kids all went in a few weeks ago for a dental check up. All are doing great with dental health. No cavities! Yeah!

Our dentist recommended that we have one of Mason's baby teeth pulled though. He has lost three teeth on the bottom and two of the adult teeth have come in. The two adult teeth were beginning to move into the empty space where the other adult tooth has not come in yet. The dentist wanted to pull that fourth baby tooth on the bottom so the two adult teeth will stop moving away from the baby tooth and into the empty space. Also, once those two adult teeth begin to come in, there will be space for them to come into. With pulling this one tooth, the dentist said hopefully the teeth will come in straight and he will not need braces.

Mason was really nervous about having a tooth pulled, but the staff at our dental office are wonderful with kids and were able to calm his nerves and help him through the process.

9 months

Kinley is getting busier and busier everyday. I don't think there is a day that goes by when she is not doing something new.

 Crawling

Standing up to furniture-started that two days ago.

Getting more teeth. She now has two on top and two on bottom.

Now that Kinley is easier to "play" with, the boys are really enjoying her more too.

Kinley's 9 month well child check up stats were:

18.3 lbs. (38%)

28.5 in. (80%)

Science Fest 2013

This year's theme was on planets. Each grade level spent the year learning about a different planet. Mason's grade learned about Mercury and Cooper's grade learned about Neptune. Each child was supposed to bring a model of their planet to display at Science Fest. The students were supposed to make the model themselves, with help from their parents. From the looks of it though, I think some parents did the assignment all by themselves. Oh the competitive nature of some people! 

They had a robot in the gym that was controlled by a video game controller and it shot Frisbees. 

Mother's Day

I love getting homemade gifts from the boys that they have made at school.

Here is what Cooper made for me:

And here is what Mason made for me:

All in all it was a great Mother's day, but like I have said before, I don't need to be totally spoiled on Mother's day because I know 365 days a year that I am appreciated and I would rather have that then only feel appreciated one day out of 365.

Book Worm

This is a precious sight to me! 

Mason has struggled with his reading since kindergarten. He has always been well below his grades reading level and has never seemed to enjoy reading. Last year and this year he has been a part of a special reading group to help him with this. His reading teacher this year has been great, I am sure last year's was great too but I didn't get a chance to get to know her. His reading teacher this year was also his kindergarten teacher, so I think it has helped that he already knew her and was comfortable with her. She explained to me during his fall conference that his comprehension level is right where it should be but that his processing speed is not. So basically, he is able to understand everything he reads, it just takes him longer to work through the tough words, and well, lets be honest, the English language is not the easiest to understand. It's not like you can sound out 90% of the words or anything. 

After the fall conference, I was feeling very defeated as a mom. Mason's everyday teacher kept saying things like: "Mason is a good boy and he does well on his assignments, but I have to read him the directions to everything", or "Again, I have to read it to him" or "Because I have to take the time to read the directions to him", she made me feel like I am doing something wrong as a parent. So I called Mason's reading teacher and discussed the option of getting a tutor for Mason to help with this. She thought a tutor would help, but what he really needed was more practice reading because the more he read the better his processing speed would become. She also said that she has found that kids with problems with their processing speed just get it one day on their own after lots of practice. So, although a tutor would help, she thought we could help too, so we decided to just make more of an effort to read with him and encourage him to read.

Over the past few weeks, it seems the light bulb has been turned on in his head. His processing speeds seems to have improved, he is reading books at higher reading levels, and he now enjoys reading!

Oh Shiloh!

This girl of ours is so FULL of PeRsOnAlItY!

Need I say more?