August- Ethan Goes to Kindergarten

On August 8th, the much anticipated and long awaited day was here for our not so little boy. Ethan went to Kindergarten. He was so excited. I wanted to be a "good" mom and take him to school his first day. I envisioned joyfully walking him up to his classroom hand in hand, departing with a hug and a kiss and then secretly watch him start his very first day through the classroom window. 

Unfortunately it was more like, wait for 20 minutes to find a parking spot, run him up to school 30 minutes late with Ellie and Mason in tow, and then giving him a quick hug while trying to keep a screaming and kicking Ellie from entering the classroom all while trying to carry Mason as well. I tried to act happy and excited for him though. Really, I felt like a circus act and I walked out of there in frustrated tears vowing never again to bring him to school I also felt so bad that his first morning of school had to be like that. I guess that is just sometimes how it is with 3 little kiddos. 

I did manage to get a picture of him in front of his classroom though. 

The next morning we decided to take the bus and things ran much more smoothly. He loves riding the bus! Pretty much all the neighborhood kids ride the bus so it makes it fun. Here he is with our neighbor Chloe. 

Our awesome neighbors, the Wagners, have kids the exact same ages as ours. I'd like to say that Ethan and Chloe are the best of friends but I think they are too much alike for that :)

If you would have asked me back in April if I was ready for Ethan to go to Kindergarten I would have said no way and probably would have teared up at the thought of it. After a full summer of "I'm bored"'s and refereeing between the constant fighting of him and Ellie, I was more than ready for him to go.  He desperately needed it and it has been one of the best things for him. For those of you who know Ethan, you know just how strong- willed and er... difficult... he can be. I really thought that the principal and I would be the best of friends. It turns out that Ethan is just the opposite at school. We have had NO behavioral problems and it seems like he is a dream to have in the classroom- HALLELUJAH!!! 

Everyday around lunch time I always find myself thinking, "Awww, I wish Ethan were here to eat with us" but when he comes home from the bus and tells me, "Mommy, I just LOVE school and I just LOVE my teacher" I know that he is where he is suppose to be and I couldn't be happier for him. I'm not going to lie, it's kind of nice to just have Ellie and Mason at home. I feel like Ellie always gets the back burner when Ethan is home and it's been so nice to get to spend one on one time with just her. 

One last thing, we had jut a little scare on about the 3rd day of school when Ethan didn't get off the bus. The bus driver walky talkied to all the other bus drivers seeing if Ethan was on their bus but no one had him. I think I kept my clam pretty well but inside I was thinking of all sorts of horrible scenarios of where he could be. After what seemed like forever, they finally found him at the school just waiting for his mommy to come pick him up. Nice. When I went to pick him up we talked about how he always needs to get on the bus! :)

He was only in school for 3 days when we took the whole family for a week long trip to the east coast. He has already missed 6 days of school and we are only a month in! I'm not to worried about him missing anything academically, the kid already reads like a 3rd grader. I guess we do need to get used to being a bit more restrictive on our travel though! Stay tuned for our trip details!

July Catch Up

Oh hello again. It seems as if my intentions on getting all caught up about a month ago didn't quite pan out but hopefully one of these days I'll make it a priority. Now I will be backtracking a few months to July. July was a fun-filled, busy month that consisted of us traveling to Minnesota to visit my parents and my brother and his family, lots of Dr. appointments,  closing and moving in our new house, finding renters for our old, and having my mom come and help us pack the whole house and move in just 2 days. Whew.

Let's start with our wonderful trip to Minnesota. We just love coming here every summer to get away from everything and spend time with my side of the family. We were there for about 12 days and my brother and his wife, Jessica, and their little (er...not so little) baby, Payton, were there as well this year. It was so fun to have everyone under one roof!

Ethan broke his arm just a few days before we left. Did I even blog about him breaking his arm? I don't remember. Anyway, he was pretty excited about his highlighter yellow cast he got and was even more excited to have the captain of our airplane sign it.

It was really cute. 

I am convinced that the Minneapolis airport is the coolest airport in the country. Hands down. Playground areas for the kids?? Ingenious!

There was a lot of fishing that happened just about every morning and evening and Dad caught 2 huge catfish

Chad was really frustrated that his pops showed him up and threw his fishing pole into the lake.

 Just kidding. He is just casting out but wow, he must have thrown that line pretty far! It looks like he should've been throwing a shot put or something :) Love ya Chad!

I know, beautiful right?!

We also went on a few canoe rides with the kids. It's pretty tough to canoe, however, with a curious and wiggly 2 year old and a 5 year old who just knows that he can do everything :)

Payton got lots of attention from E & E. 

 Isn't he a cutie!

It was so fun to have Jessica to talk to. She is a really great girl and we couldn't be happier with who Chad married!

 Swinging on the swings overlooking the lake is always a favorite of mine. So quiet and serene. 

 Mason was so little! He was about 7 weeks old during this trip. 

 One day we went down to Big Spirit lake and played at the beach that is there. We didn't have a boat but a blown up air mattress works just as good right?? No. Turns out it doesn't! It was fun to watch them try though!  

 This picture of Ellie cracks me up. It shows her cute little personality to a tea. She is so funny! Oh and I am happy to report that her mullet is growing out nicely :)

 The kids loved these misters and Ethan thought it was so fun to spray people. Ellie & Daddy got him back though.

One morning we went canoeing down the river with Chad & Jessica. We canoed for a few hours and it was fun to go sans kiddos. 

 Tractor rides are always a hit!

The eagles and their babies are still there nesting in the trees right by my parents house. This year they have 3 babies who squawk like crazy! Chad's awesome camera (where I stole most of these pictures from) caught some great shots of them perched up high in the trees.

Uncle Mike's house is always a favorite of the kids. Ellie was super excited to go gather the chicken eggs everyday with grandma.

My parents friends Kathy & Delmar came over a few times and we enjoyed some hamburgers and hot dogs and then some yummy smores to top it off with. 

I think the kiddos liked them. 

We also played this fun game shown below. I don't remember what the name of it was but I do remember that Justin and I were the champions!

Kathy made some yummy dutch oven monkey bread for everyone. At least I was told it was yummy... Do you know that I haven't had a bite of a dessert in 3 months!? It's tough when there are goodies like this sitting right in front of me.

Heading off to church at the nearby branch. 

The 4th of July parade is always fun to go to. It's not quite like Provo, UT on the 4th of July and honestly I don't know of too many places like Provo,  but for a small town of 500 people, it's not too bad! 

They throw out a TON of candy which the kids LOVE! They also gave out Otter pops and I think they each had 4- yikes!

I think all that candy picking/ eating wore these two out!

Grandma bought all the kids a festive shirt for the occasion and she was even able to find something for Mason. Cute!

He looks terrified in this pic!

I think this picture was the best of about 20! ha!

Ellie loved the sparklers! Ethan, not so much. Thanks Pinterest for the ingenious idea of using a cup! Ethan was a little bit more willing to hold it because of it. 

We celebrated Ethan's 5th birthday!!! I am still in denial that I have a 5 year old who is now a kindergartener!! Does anyone else think of themselves as still being 20 years old?? I sure do. 

And of course the boys helped my dad out with framing and putting up the dry wall in the basement. It looks like it should be more or less done by next summer!

After 12 days there we flew back into Phoenix just in time to help our friends from Mexico, Eduardo and Gladyss, move into their new house just right down the street from our new house!

They have two cute girls, Anette who is 10 years old and Mila who is 1 years old. Long story short, Eduardo worked with Justin when we lived down in Mexico and trained him in the world or agriculture. Eduardo is an agronomist and a super good one at that so Justin's company hired him to come work on Justin's team here in the states. They accepted the offer and moved their family here! We are so excited to have them here and I know Justin is so grateful for his help within the company. 

Oh and one more thing. I think I forgot to post what we made for Justin for Father's day. We framed this for him to keep at his desk at work.

Thanks again Pinterest!! 

At the end of the month my mom flew in to help us with the move. I really don't know how I could have done it without her. She was amazing at packing boxes and just holding Mason when I needed to do some things. Can you believe that I don't have one picture of our whole moving process?! This is the only picture I have of our house! Shame on me. 

We are all moved in but still have a few rooms with boxes to go through. Turns out it's a lot of work to move into a new house, unpack and decorate it all with 3 kids and lots of traveling. I think in the month and a half we've been here, we have actually only been in our house for half the time! We love it and I'll be sure to post pictures of the inside once it's decorated!