Family Pix 2013

We had pictures taken with Neil's family end of August. Here's a few of my favorites.

Korver's 4th Birthday!

Korver turned 4 this month and of course he wanted a motorcycle cake. So I combined a motorcycle cake with the #4. He was a spoiled guy with lots of presents and it was fun this year that he got to have a lot of his aunts, uncles, grandmas, cousins, and grandpa there. I'm appalled that this is the best picture I have of his birthday. He wanted most of it on video so I didn't take very many pictures. I know he looks super excited in this picture, but he really was excited all day and loved his gifts, hanging out with family, eating happy meals at McDonalds, bike riding, and playing at the park and with all his new toys. We love you Korver! You're my big teddy bear!

I thought I'd also give a quick house update. We are supposed to start building tomorrow! So hopefully in about 3 months we'll be moving into our new home! (I know it's sad that it has taken this long to get started. We blame our draftsmen for that one.) =)

1st Grade & Preschool

Cole started 1st grade end of August and despite not having any of his friends there and not knowing anyone he was really excited to start school. He has been such a good sport through all this transition. The first little bit was hard and he didn't always have a friend to play with, but he never complained and instead focused on the good whether it was what he had for lunch or how much he loved his teacher. Now he's quite adjusted and has lots of new friends and apparently a girl that is quite fond of him (he seems to find one of those wherever he goes). He loves school, still really misses his old friends, but he's happy and that's all I could ask for.

Korver was up and down about whether or not he wanted to go to preschool and I was having a hard time finding one. I finally found one, even though it wasn't very close to where we are living, and Korver was excited to go. That excitement quickly changed and he soon was not looking forward to preschool. He said it was boring. Which, to be honest, I totally agreed with him. The lady I originally met we both loved, but the lady that ended up being his teacher was less than energetic and welcoming. She wasn't mean or anything, but she wasn't what Korver needed to get him to want to be there. He needed to feel loved, and he didn't. Anyway, we decided he had been through so much change and if he felt like he needed to be at home then that's where he should be right now. There's no point forcing him when we're just going to be taking him out in a few months anyway. 

The sun was way too bright so we ended up taking a different picture too.

Here's Korver with his preschool bag that he got to decorate. Can you tell this kid loves motorcycles?

SuMMer!!

Here's a quick recap of summer!!!!!

Tracy Aviary-

We have the pass of all passes so Carrie and I took the kids, and our cousin Joseph who was staying with my mom, to Tracy Aviary. It was hot..... but fun. I think the kids loved the splash pad next door even more though. =)

Boating-

Christy came to visit us from Boston!!! So we rented a boat and headed to Pineview for some skiing and tubing. Loved it!! Isn't Shailee the friendliest thing you've ever seen?

Does it look cold and stormy? Oh yes..... It was. Luckily, it cleared up.

Dog Lake-

One of the things that excited me the most in moving back close to family again was being able to mountain bike more with family and my mountain bike! Ok so technically it's not my mountain bike. My brother works for Specialized and is so incredibly awesome that he just keeps my bike for me until the day I decide to actually buy it from him, but still it's pretty much my bike =) And I just realized it's not in this picture. Did you notice my dog is though? Yeah, I missed her so I went and picked her up from Payson and she's back with us now. 

Can't seem to find the picture that is actually being taken here. But I like this one better.

We missed you Matt and Alicia. One day you'll be better and you'll be able to come with us! After all, you're the one that taught me to love it. But at least this picture explains why I'm such a dork. It runs in my family. =)

Carrie's Pool

Carrie got a pool so we spent the 24th of July up there swimming.

The pool was a little deep for the younger ones so they decided to have a tea party instead. 

Shailee LOVED the slide. She went  forwards, on her tummy, head first, on her side, didn't matter. She would go underwater almost every time and it didn't matter. She LOVED it!

Mom's Splash Pad-

My mom lives just a few miles from a splash pad that's never very busy, so we rode our bikes here a couple of times. Cole and Korver liked to see who could pour water on them the longest. =) I think Cole might have a slight advantage on this one.

This picture is just to prove Shailee was there so she doesn't feel left out. She would never hold still long enough for me to take her picture.

Swimming at Grandma's

Trampoline! -

We found a nice Regal trampoline on KSL that had a nice brand new enclosure and it also came with a in ground trampoline ring so we can put it in the ground at our new home. This was my plan all along but I didn't think I would find it all in the same place. AWESOME!!! We've had lots of fun with jumping, playing games, sprinklers, and playing basketball.

Fireman Squirt and More Splash pads!-

The Murray firefighters came out and squirted all the kids at Murray Park. My boys LOVED it! 

I couldn't find them at first but then through the crowd I found them like this.

Shailee HATED being squirted. She wasn't a big fan of this adventure.

I don't get to see my friends much so I made the effort to go visit my friend Katy who just had the cutest little boy!! And I didn't even take a picture of her or her cute kids! Grrr.... But she does live right by this awesome splash pad. Hehe.... This picture cracks me up.

Yes Shailee was there too. =) Although once again she's not big on being squirted. The end of the summer she did better and began to like things like this.

Hill Airforce Base

Brett and Tiffany took the boys to Hill Airforce Base to see all the cool planes!

Onion Days-

We are being audited on our 2010 taxes and of course the paperwork we needed was in our storage unit in Payson. But luckily it was Labor Day weekend so we were able to enjoy Onion Days and the boys were able to hang out with some friends that they miss soooooooooooooo much!!!

And we were able to find something that Shailee likes to do!

Oh how I miss Payson..... And especially this awesome family. 

Wheeler Farm-

So it's been so long since I've taken my kids to Wheeler Farm, mainly because they get bored of it, but they acted like they had never been there before. They loved seeing all the animals, especially Shailee. However, the bathrooms were closed so the boys found some bushes and apparently a beehive. Cole came running out of the bushes crying because he had been stung, and Neil swatted a bee off Korver and then Neil was stung! At least he was able to save Korver from being stung. Lesson - if you go to Wheeler Farm don't pee in the bushes.

Seven Peaks

It seems we lived in the water this summer with the pools, sprinklers, and splash pads, and if we weren't doing one of those things then we were probably at Seven Peaks. We loved our Pass of All Passes! And I didn't take any pictures at Seven Peaks because I didn't want to ruin my phone or camera or have it stolen. So here's one from the Internet. Hehe....

We had a fun crazy summer with lots of changes, and I think by the end I was ready for it to be over. I was definitely ready for school to start. And so were the boys.

Randomness

So we're here at my mom's and honestly I'm loving it, but I wanted to post some random pictures of things that went on before we left. So here goes.

We LOVE to go on bike rides, but we get sick of just staying in our neighborhood, so we went to a different neighborhood and we found some dirt trails that the boys had a lot of fun on. Here's Cole.

Here's Korver. Oh I can't wait until these boys are old enough to take mountain biking! They are going to love it! And luckily my mom lives close to LOTS of dirt trails that the boys have been loving!!

So while we lived in this house the kids were never allowed to play on the railing, let alone jump off it, but on moving day...... We made an exception. =) Once again the videos off this are much better. Oh well!

This is not the best quality of a picture but my neighbor texted it to me and I loved it. This was one of the hardest things for me to leave......my kids friends. This was their little gang, and they all lived within a few houses of each other on the same street. I miss these kids! My kids always had someone to play with. I hope my kids are able to find a crew like this again.

Somehow this picture got pushed out of order and I'm too lazy to fix it. So here's Korver jumping off.

We had to give up Nahla for a few months while living at my mom's. Oh how we are missing her. I talk to her every Sunday on the phone as she's staying with my friend Julie, but I can't wait until I can bring her home again. She is such a good, fun dog!! And look what she puts up with. =)

I tried to take the boys and and a few of their friends to the Spanish Fork splash pad before we moved but when we got there it was closed! It was too hot to just stay and play at the playground so I drove them back down to Santaquin to a small little splash pad there. Luckily, they managed to still have some fun. 

This was our kitchen table for the week before we moved completely out. Can you tell that was a rough week?

Our last fire. I'm going to get in trouble for posting this picture but I think it's so funny. Neil has smoke in his eyes, Korver is out to conquer the world, and Cole looks like he hadn't a care in the world. I will miss that fire pit! We plan on having another one at our new house, but by the time we get to it, I think it's going to be a few years out. So sad.

We actually had a lot of fun this night. We went for a family bike ride a few miles away and got caught in a huge downpour. We just kept riding our bikes and the boys kept singing "rain, rain, come today, so we can go out and play all day." Somehow we managed to start a fire after that too.

So a little bit on our move.... it was really really hard for me to leave our home. On moving day my sister-in-law stayed behind with me after the truck left to help me clean. We cleaned for a few hours and I was fine, but when it was time to leave I broke down. I didn't  think I could leave it. I couldn't believe that we were really leaving. We have so many memories in that home. I loved that home. I thought it was beautiful. I've raised my kids in that home, brought home my babies (except Cole) to that home. Taught them how to walk, run, and talk. All the laughs, tears, and craziness we've had there. It was home! But I just had to trust that this was right. And I knew deep down that it was. So I left.

I was really homesick the first day or so but now we are loving it. We love being close to family. We're having so much fun. The kids have adjusted great and are loving seeing grandma everyday and their cousins and grandma and grandpa lots more. We have lots of new parks and bike trails to explore too. Neil and I love our new found freedom to be able to leave the kids and go have a little fun. We love putting the kids to bed and then being able to go on a bike ride at night. So it's been a lot of fun and so far we're happy. =)