Swimming!!!

We have wanted to put the boys in swimming lessons for a long time, but I always seemed to miss the sign up date, Dilan got tubes in his ears, and after school is always so busy. I finally decided that off-track lessons would probably be our best option. We put the older three in, because most people have told me to wait till your kid is at least four, because they grasp the lessons and principles they need to learn better, and I really don't think Tyler is ready. My kids are like fish, they love the water! Bryson was in the pre-level, because he was only five and hadn't had lessons. Trevor and Dilan started in level one, because they were older and hadn't had lessons. Trev has been able to swim for a while, but we wanted him to learn the proper techniques and different things that go along with swimming. This was good and bad, because he knew how to swim, he thought it was okay to goof off more. As a mom it was so frustrating to see him goofing off with his instructor, but I have to say his teacher had a lot of patience and really kept his cool....I was going nuts watching him though. I was also trying to hold a super squirmy 18 month old, which added to my frustration. They ended up being the only three to sign up in both classes, so they combined the classes and made one class. This worked out to my benefit in some ways and not so much in others. Tyler's preschool got out the same time as the swim lesson. If it was just Trevor and Dilan I would have felt better grabbing Tyler from school, and coming back for them, but I just couldn't do this with a five year old. Wednesdays were super busy mornings, but the boys loved swimming and it made it all worth it in the end.
Here they are on the side listening to their teacher.



and here is Bryson on his back



I wish I could have gotten more and better pictures, but Kairi really hated sitting there for the 30 minute lesson, and my phone (which is the only camera I usually have on me) was busy trying to keep her busy with either a cartoon or game. The swim lessons were a big success for two main reasons. First, they learned to swim a little bit better and second, it gave them something to do every other day while off track. It made off track time so much more fun, and seemed to make time just fly by. We plan to do another round of lessons next time they are off track too :)

YUM!!

Just a cute little blog on Tyler....Every once in a while we like to have ice cream downstairs. We really don't eat ice cream a lot at our house, and only after somebody's birthday do we even have it in the house. One special night we were eating ice cream as a family and watching a movie together. Can we say yum? Look at that long tongue!



Digging in deeper...



Spoons are for suckers!



He came up for air....



He managed to get every drop!



and look at that big, happy, messy grin....He is such a cutie most of the time.

Halloween!!!

Wow, time really does fly when your having fun :) My blog is so sad lately, it has been a month, A MONTH! We had a great Halloween. The kids were off track, so it didn't feel rushed at all.
We went and got pumpkins about a week before Halloween this year. The boys picked them out so fast, it only took about 5 minutes. Kairi loved riding in the wheelbarrow.

I really wanted a cute picture by all the pumpkins, this is what I got....

and this....at least some of the kids are cute in each one...ha ha

Then we took a hay ride. Everybody likes the hay ride :)

Carving pumpkins was fun, and the kids were crazy, but really I am not sure when they aren't crazy :)
Tyler was happy, because his was a happy pumpkin.

Trevor had a hard time deciding what he wanted to do this year, but he liked it in the end.

Dilan ended up drawing over the entire pumpkin. It was hard to get him to pick the face he actually wanted, but with some minor adjustments and a good scrub, later he chose his face.

Bryson wanted a mad pumpkin, and copied the same expression....seriously, he is so crazy!

Then he proceeded to kiss it!

I also managed to get this little video of the "Real Bryson." Dilan is funny in it too....they loved this video and have watched it a million times.

Trevor wanted to be a mad scientist, but I couldn't find a lab coat, so I suggested a zombie. He decided that he didn't want to just be a zombie, but a cone head zombie off the plants vs zombies game....here is what we came up with.

Bryson went to a pirate birthday party, and got most of his costume there, but we added the earring, beard, a better eye patch, and rotten teeth!

I bought this dragon costume a couple years ago a bigger size than I needed, because I couldn't find the size I was looking for. Then I went to another store and found the smaller size, so I planned to take this one back. Well, it has been sitting brand new in the bag for two years, and I decided to just pull it out and put it to good use. He was excited to have a tail, and didn't remember he was a dragon two years ago :)

Dilan wanted to be his favorite super hero BATMAN! I am actually surprised he hasn't wanted to be this before, because he loves batman! He looked awesome too, but he didn't like how the mask hooked under his chin (there is a little of his mom in him.)

Kairi was a ballerina, because her costume is actually a pair of pajamas she already had. I did get the little slippers for her. She was so cute, and seemed to really enjoy all the Halloween festivities that were going on.

We had a great Halloween!!

Labor Day!!!

I have some really great friends in my neighborhood. My friend Amy asked all of us if we would like to join her at her parents cabin in Island Park, ID over Labor day. We couldn't pass up an offer like that, so we drove up Friday(9/2/2011) afternoon, and got to the cabin about 9 pm. We ended up stopping and grabbing a few things I knew we had missed packing. Spencer got off early, so we left a lot earlier, and I ended up packing really fast. There was five different families that ended up going, 25 people in all.
Here is an inside picture of the loft in the cabin. This is where our family slept.

Saturday we all woke up and we were in charge of breakfast. We made waffles with Strawberries and whip cream or syrup for the non-fruit eaters, and then bacon(our bribe tool.)
We all got ready after and headed to Cliff Lake. It was a beautiful blue lake....amazing blues for being a lake.

The kids loved going out on this little paddle boat.

They were just as excited to sit on the little dock.


We had a picnic lunch on the shore.


Trevor went off his first rope swing. I didn't get a picture either :( We walked along the edge of the mountain to a spot that had a wire hanging down. It was steep, and you fell into the water about 15 ft from swing to water. Trevor didn't even hesitate to go. There were all these teenagers going and some were really scared, but Trev got on and went so fast all I could do was panic. He did awesome and loved it! Dilan wanted to go too, but we didn't have his ear plugs (I was secretly happy) Here is a shot of one of the husbands going.


This is a group of all the "friends." These girls are so awesome!

After the lake we went home and got everybody ready to go to West Yellowstone. It was only about 15 minutes away, so we decided to have an eat out night. We went to a little cafe type place that only had one server, one busser, and I am guessing one chef, because things were moving pretty slow! It was all good though, we had a lot of fun and laughs with everybody.
Sunday morning we decided to go to Upper Mesa Falls. These falls are huge and beautiful! We even caught a rainbow on them.

Here are some of our kids with Kate. Poor Kate only had boys to play with, she is such a cutie.

Kairi's new word was wow! She said this the moment she saw the falls, I managed to get her mouth open :)

Our kids wouldn't hold still for a picture of all of them, but I did get a blurry one!

Then we headed to a spot on the Warm River that you can't fish in. There are soooo many huge fish in this section, and if you throw bread in, they will come up to eat it. It was awesome, because some of these fish (I think were rainbow trout) are HUGE!
We all had fun seeing if we could get the really big ones to come up, especially the boys.

Then we headed back to the cabin for some lunch. After lunch a lot of people took naps, I read on the deck for a little bit. Then Spencer and I decided to head outside to shoot an air soft pellet gun. Trev had gotten the gun for Christmas, and we hadn't had a chance to use it. It was fun! Trev went first, and he was the only kid strong enough to actually cock it.

Dilan had this funny way to shoot, he likes to think he is a secret spy, so it was fitting.

Tyler was cute trying to shoot, he could careless if he hit something.

I am not sure what happened to my picture of Bryson shooting, but he had an amazing aim, and always hit a target. We let any other kids shoot that were awake or there, because some were packing up to leave, and some were with some family. We had a fire Sunday night too, but I didn't bring my camera out, but we got to roast marshmallows while we listened to coyotes howl (it was awesome!)
Monday morning we woke up and cleaned the cabin. It was pretty easy, then we all packed up our cars and headed for Yellowstone. We didn't have a lot of time here, so we went to see Old Faithful.

We packed Kairi around, because it was crowded. Spencer held both Tyler and Kairi, so I could get my picture....he is so awesome!

Then we ate a picnic lunch. We were down to three families, and 16 people by this point, but a table full of kids still :) Look at all those boys!

Kairi was so cute playing in these trees.

Then we headed to the painted pots. We let Kairi walk this one, because we were trying to wear her out for our drive home.

Here is a group shot of all of us Sunday morning.

All the kids actually got along and played together a lot. We as adults every night would get the kids in bed and go downstairs to hang out. There was a pool table, ping pong table, foosball table, air hockey table, big screen tv, and games to play. It was so much fun at night to just play around with a group of adult friends. These are times in my life I will never forget, it was a really great weekend, and we are so blessed to have such awesome friends in our lives.

First days of school!!!

This year was kind of a crazy start. Trevor started fourth grade on Monday August 15th. He got an awesome teacher named Mrs. Mower. I can honestly say she is awesome, because I know her personally. She is in our ward, and we picked our track purely on the wish of getting her. Trevor was really excited this year for school, and so far he is doing really awesome too.

Dilan went to meet his new teacher Mrs. Rubalcava on Monday, but didn't actually start First grade till Tuesday. He was really excited, more to eat lunch at school, but he is a great student and is super excited to have his buddy Parker in his class.

They were so excited! and so cute together :)

Bryson was sad he didn't get to go yet, but put a smile on for the camera anyways.

I got all three boys in for the next picture...nobody wanted Bryson to be sad.

Bryson went in Wednesday August 17th for his testing, and did really well. I have had so many people tell me to hold him back, because of his birthday being in August. I didn't feel like this was right for him as his mom. After his testing in which he read a book, his teacher Mrs. Woods was super impressed. I told her I was a tad worried, and she agreed that holding him back wasn't necessary. His first day was on August 23rd, and he was so excited to ride the bus!


Tyler started preschool today September 14, 2011. He has been so excited to start school, but today when I went to wake him up, he told me he decided to not go. I laughed and asked why, he said it was because he had an cut on his finger, so I told him we could put a Mickey bandage on, and he was all smiles and ready after that. I thought there might be a little hesitation when I dropped him off, but he didn't hesitate at all and went right in with the teacher, I was so proud of him! When I picked him up he was really happy, and said he had so much fun. He played in the sand box, made his hand, and sang and elephant song. Sounds like a successful day :)

and we got a group shot of the smallest three while we were at it.

I know preschool isn't necessary for every kid. I like to read and teach my kids at home too, but I think there is something else they get from going to school and away from mom and their homes. I LOVE PRESCHOOL!!! Here's to hoping for a great school year!