Kayla and Kindergarten!

On August 12th Kayla had her very first day of Kindergarten! I can't believe she's in the big school now. Time just flies. I had so many people ask me how I was doing and I think they were surprised to hear that I was excited for this day! It's a little sad because I know, now that Kayla has started, the rest will follow very quickly. With that said I was counting down the days I got one out of the house, even if it is only for 3hrs. She was so cute and she thinks she is so big. She loves her teacher and her class and even has a few of the girls from church in her class. She is so excited about school and I'm so grateful because it makes getting her out the door very easy! We are so proud of our big kindergartner!

These first two pictures were actually taken in her classroom during an orientation

First day of school

Walking to school

All the kids have to wait in a line outside and the teacher comes out and takes them into the classroom

Bye family

Utah

We took a trip out to Salt Lake to visit with Brock's family for a few days. It was so fun seeing all the kids and how much they've grown. Our kids loved playing with their cousins and it was fun to watch them all get together and interact. We just hung out, played some football, watched Sadie(one of the cousins) play soccer, had a sleep-over with Aunt Brit, celebrated Hunter's and Ella's birthday and went to Lagoon. We had so much fun we kept forgetting to pull our camera out! I have a few from the day we went to Lagoon and that's about it. Sorry. It was a great time and look forward to the next time we can get together!

Ella's the one waving and she's sitting with Grandpa

Happy Birthday Ella!

On August 11th we celebrated Ella's 3rd birthday with our friends Jeff and Jamie and their kids. She is finally talking and is my biggest drama queen by far! She is also my girliest girl. She loves princesses and dresses and getting her nails painted. She is so fun and we love her tons!

Rachel and Ryan

On Aug. 1st we were in NY at my parents for my "baby" sisters wedding. They got married in the Palmyra Temple and had a reception in my parents backyard. Most of you know my Dad's not a member so because he couldn't attend the temple ceremony Rachel had a seperate one in the backyard as part of the reception. Me, Jes, and Sarah were bridesmaids and she had Kayla, Kiera, and Ella as flower girls and Josh as the ring bearer(with Brock's help). The idea was that we would play the wedding music and we would all walk down the isle with our escorts followed by the flower girls and the ring bearer and then my dad would walk Rachel down and pass her off to Ryan. Sounds adorable right? Unfortunately it didn't happen so smoothly. All of us bridesmaids were wearing shoes with a very long heel and as beautiful as they were they were very hard to walk in. My shoes kept piercing through the isle we were walking down and I was dragging it behind me. My escort, Ryans brother, was bringing his knees up to his chest to avoid tripping over the isle. Somebody saw that my shoe picked up the isle and pulled it off and I think tried to hold it down so that we could get down the isle. We made it and stood in our places while everyone else came down. Kayla and Kiera made it down good but Ella, who was carrying a cute basket full of flower petals, tripped over the isle and flew forward face planting right in front of the mirophone. The basket of petals went everywhere and she of course was upset and crying. Then Josh was screaming so Brock had to carry him down the isle and the cute pillow with the rings tied to it. Needless to say it didn't go as planned and I'm so sorry Rachel. Good memory though right?

Some of my Dad's side of the family drove up from Maryland to be there too and it was so good to see them! Starting on the right going counter-clockwise is my cousin Crystal, my Aunt Lynn, my Grandpa and his wife Mary lou, my cousin Jeff and his wife Brooke and Crystals husband Brian(the guy in the yellow striped shirt).

My Uncle Jeff, very left of the picture, and my Aunt Robin with Josh

My Uncle Ron

After a yummy dinner it was dance time. It of course started with Rachel and Ryans first dance

Then the Daddy/Daughter dance

Then everybody else

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jes with Kiera

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Rachel with Kayla and Ella

Cousin Crystal and Brian

Uncle Jeff and my mom

Cousin Jeff and Brooke

RJ and Aunt Robin

What cute boys!

Look at these party animals!!

What a cute couple! It was a beautiful wedding and we're glad we could be there. We are very excited for you Rachel and Ryan and know that you will make each other very happy (most of the time). We love you and wish you the best!

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Whew! It's been awhile. July 25 we celebrated Joshua's 1st birthday. I can't believe how fast this year has gone and the older they get the faster the years go by! I love this stage of life. It is so fun watching his personality come out and interact with his sisters. He is so happy and active! And already a tease! I just love this little man!

The ribbon was his favorite thing the whole night!

Daddy's taking the ribbon away so we can have some cake.

Oh, poor baby:-(

Mmmm cake.

A birthday's not a birthday without your birthday suit.

Way Behind!!

Just a shout out to everybody to say SORRY! I'm crazy busy and blogging has taken a back seat and I will catch up with everybody hopefully within this next week! Some quick updates: The girls got summer haircuts and the lady did a fantastic job! Joshua has finally gotten his top teeth, is climbing stairs and everything else, standing on his own, and yesterday took one step to the side two different times!!! Ella is talking more clearly: I haven't really gone into Ella but she is almost 3 and still can't talk but everything appears to be fine with hearing and everything else so were not sure why she's not speaking yet but in the last month she has really made some big steps so hopefully we'll avoid speech therapy but we'll find out in Aug. so I'll let you know. I'm flying to SLC tomorrow to help my sister, Sarah, drive back all her stuff from college and she'll be staying with us until my other sister, Rachel, gets married. I can't wait for the help and the company:-) Sorry no pictures, I'll post some when I get a chance!

Another long story!

Congratulations to my sister Sarah who just graduated from the University of Utah with her masters in nutrition! 2 weekends ago me and the kids drove out to Utah with my mom and Aunt Rachel for Sarah's graduation. Since Ella was potty training, and we didn't want to stop every hour, we packed her little potty in the backseat right next to her car seat for potty convenience and it worked out great! She didn't have one accident, in the car, the whole way there!! We got in around 1am Thursday morning and as soon as we checked in to our hotel we crashed! Everybody that is except Joshua! So lucky me, Rachel, and Kiera got to listen to him scream for an hour before he finally passed out. Then Rachel, who was sleeping in a bed with Kiera, calls out to tell me that Kiera has wet the bed. I had no idea what time it was and Kiera had slept right through it so I told Rachel that I would take care of it when she woke up. Well an hour or so later Rachel woke up soaked in pee because of absorption spread and had to take a shower and then sleep the rest of the early morning in her towel because her bag of clothes were locked in the car and she didn't want to wake me up. Isn't she so sweet! Joshua kept me and Rachel up until 5 in the morning the next night too! Sorry Rachel! Great birth control though! So my dad was able to fly in and my brother came down from Provo and we all were able to attend Sarah's graduation which was really great and special for her to have everyone there. We missed having Jes and Kevin there but it was really great to see everyone else. We were also able to see Brock's side of the family as well and had fun meeting them at Liberty Park where we had a picnic, visited the aviary, and fed the ducks and then the next day we all went to the Hoggle Zoo together where Macy's was doing an event and we got our faces painted and free ice-cream and did normal zoo stuff like see all the animals and ride the train and the carousel. We also got together for a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa Brockbanks where we ate some really great food and got to visit with all the Aunts, Uncles and cousins. It was so fun to see everyone and how they're growing and our kids loved playing with all their cousins! Thank You Brockbank family for having us and making my side of the family feel so welcomed! We love you!!! On Sunday we headed back to Colorado with my mom and Uncle RJ. Rachel stayed for an extra week to get engaged!!! Congrats!! So my mom and RJ drove my car with Joshua and Ella and I drove my moms car with Kayla and Kiera. Before we even got started Ella had an accident in her car seat so my mom put napkins down as a barrier between her and the wet seat. And she didn't put panties or anything on Ella before buckling her in. We drove for an hour or so and then had to stop for gas and Ella had fallen asleep but we thought it would be good to take her potty. There were some napkins and stuff on her lap before I could get her out of her seat and when I lifted them off there was this brown mushy stuff sitting in her lap. It took a moment but when I realized what it was I was, words just can't explain it. My brother started to laugh and moan and Ella began freaking out because she hadn't even realized that she messed herself! I took her out of the seat and my mom was trying to peel plastered napkins from her bottom and wipe her down while I was cleaning the seat. We ran out of wipes and of course the gas station we were at didn't sell any kind of a wet wipe so we just had to do the best we could with what we had and luckily there was a garbage bag in my car, thank you Rachel, that we could cover her seat with for the remaining 8hrs. of the trip! There were other incidents where we had to pull over on the side of the freeway because my brother is a big baby but I'll spare the details. What kind of entertainment would there be on these long boring road trips without kids! OH, one more thing I have to tell you and it didn't involve the kids. We stopped to get everyone some dinner at KFC and stretch a little bit. We sat at a table where one side was a booth and the other side had chairs. Me and RJ were on the side with chairs and the kids were in the booth. When my moms food was ready RJ ducked under the table real quick to sit in the booth with the girls and I attempted to scoot over to make room for my mom. I had forgotten that me and RJ were sitting in chairs and not in a booth so when I "slid" over to make room for my mom I fell flat on my butt making a huge crashing noise that put the whole place in a dead silence and all eyes on me. RJ broke that silence with laughter and my mom decided to sit at a different table all together. I was so embarrassed! Never a dull moment! We had so much fun seeing everyone and we are proud of you Sarah for working so hard and making this happen and we're glad we could be there to celebrate this great achievement with you! Congratulations and we love you!!!