Back to School Pics.

Breeley
Breeley being silly. She wanted to get in on the picture action.

The elementary boys. Abell had already left for Jr. high.

Addison was being silly too.

Addison's famous picture from the back. I always take a picture from the back. It is fun to watch the backpacks shrink as they grow.

Addison- Second Grader!

Hagen from the back.

Hagen- Fifth Grader!

Abell from the back.

Abell - Seventh Grader!

Well, the boys are officially back in school. It is so bittersweet. We have had a great summer. It was the longest the kids have been off from school. We have been on a year round schedule for the last five years so we don't get big breaks. Just lots of small ones. But since the school is switching to a traditional schedule, we ended up with a nice big summer break. (July 2 through August 24 might not be a big break in your book, but it is in ours!)

Abell started junior high. He is very excited. I think it will be great for him. He said he kinda felt like he was going to work. But he had a great day and really enjoyed everything about jr high.

Hagen is now in fifth grade and loves his new teacher. She doesn't believe in homework and neither does he, so I think they are going to get along great.

Addison also has a great teacher. He has a lot of kids from the ward in his class (minus his favorite friends Adam and Corbin), so he is really excited.

Breeley is going to be in preschool three mornings a week, and boy is she excited to start next week. She has some friends that are going to the same school, so that makes her even more happy!

I am happy that all the kids are happy. I know they are all going to do really well and have lots of fun. I am excited to get caught up on the house and do the organizing I have wanted to do for years. I might even actually craft in my craft room. We will have to see.

Another one...

While driving to swimming lessons the other day Addison says...

"Mom... You really should clean the screen. It's really dirty! "

He was talking about the windshield.

Only a kid born with today's technology would describe the windshield as a screen!

Now I am off to clean the "screen"!

Cowabunga Dude!

Breeley loved playing in the pool with the tubes!

Addison was super excited to be at Cowabunga Bay.
This is Hagens arm. I was trying to take a picture of him on the slide. Oops!


This is Chandler, not a good picture either.

Abell's picture turned out good.

Abell and Hagen on their way to the top!

Abell

Hagen

This is the 800 gallon bucket. It would dump about every 5 minutes. The purple bucket on the very left edge of the picture dumped 1200 gallons about every 8 minutes. It is the biggest one in the world. The next biggest one is in China and it only dumps 1000 gallons.

The boys at the very beginning of the 800 gallon dump!

Dumping! (1200 gallons of water)

The beginning of the 1200 gallon dump!

We were soppose to go to Lava Hot Springs with the Dicou's last week, but at the almost last minute Adam was called out of town for work. Since I am not interested in learning how to pull the trailer all the way to Lava, it meant no trip for all of us. BOOO HOOO!!! So we decided to have a "Staycation" and I took the kids to the new waterpark in Draper! (With the funny Dicou's!) The kids were so super excited and told everyone about it ALL WEEK LONG!

It was a ton of fun and the kids had fun the entire time. (That doesn't usually happen!) There was a ton of slides, and two buckets that dump 800 or 1200 gallons of water every 5-8 minutes. There was a smallerish pool that Breeley and Sarah played in and a lazy river that Addison was in about 90 % of the time. I was able to go on two slides with Breeley. But it was a bit too old for her. You could not get to the top of a slide without being completely drenched. There were sprinklers spraying, buckets (big and small) dumping, and guns that random people could aim at you. So it was a bit overwhelming for a brand new four year old!

We had so much fun. The kids would recomend it to everyone!

Gateway Waterpark :)

Waiting around for the big show!

Big show happening.

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers hug!

Abell

Hagen and Addison

5..4..3..2..1..

Blastoff!!!!

The rain dance.

On Monday I took the kids to IKEA and then as a bribe, I told them if they were good while we were there, we would stop on the way home at the Gateway and play in the water fountains. Well they were pretty good so we stopped for some fun. We got there right when one session was ending so we had to wait 30 minutes for the next one to start. They did however have some small fountains shoot off randomly during that time so it wasn't so bad waiting. Breeley wanted nothing to do with the water. So she sat and guarded my purse while I took some pictures. We had to literally run to the car at the end because we had a fabulously fun swim party to attend that night. The Gateway was fun, and I was really super proud of myself because I didn't even take Bree to Build a Bear and they were even having a sale. (I love you Adam :)) Why do I love that store so much???

Breeley's Birthday

The day started off with breakfast in bed! I made her favorite pancakes!
With chocolate milk.

THE Barbie cake! I pretty much spent the entire day making it.
Breeley loved it though, so it was worth it.

We had to put the barbies arms up in the air so they wouldn't melt from the candles!

Breeley and Halle!

Breeley wanted this barbie computer. She was so excited to get it!

Oh does she love barbies???

The barbie house that Adam and I built for her.

The barbie house took a lot of time, but it turned out great! It turned out to be 5 feet 4 inches tall by 4 feet wide. It is huge, but she has lots of room in the drawers for her barbies, and the barbies can actually stand up in it, and what barbie house is complete with out an attic and a deck. I wanted it to be big enough that three girls could play in it and still be able to access it all. I mod podged scrapbook paper to the walls, we put in some carpet and found some tile looking vinyl squares and even some wood looking vinyl squares that we used for the deck, bathroom and kitchen. I knew I needed to stop myself when I was trying to get up the courage to ask Adam if there was a way that he could hook nightlights to the ceilings in each room.

(maybe someday??)

The barbie house was a hit and watching how happy it made her, made it worth all the work.

(It will be a long time before I mod podge again though!)

Summmmmerrrrr Tiiiimmmeee!

Oh to be (almost) four again!