Past Few Months...

Well Brad informed me the other day that I have really been lagging in the blogging department. So this morning since Devin is still asleep and Alex is at school I thought I would do a little catch up. The stuff I missed I will recap in our end of the year post.

Halloween
Alex was a Red Lego Ninja and Devin was Doc Mcstuffins.

Thanksgiving:
We drove up to my parents house in Oregon this year for thanksgiving. We made a pit stop in Boise and the next day made the 8 1/2 hour drive to the coast. I was a little nervous how the kids would do since we had never gone more than 7 hours before. But they did great! I would never attempt it if we didn't have portable DVD players though. The weather the first day was crazy! Raining and the wind was blowing up to 85 mph off shore. Wednesday we went down to the Aquarium in Newport and had some lunch on the bayfront. It turned out to be a pretty day with a little bit of sunshine and the rain stopped while we were at the aquarium so we could walk around outside. On the way back we stopped and the beach. The kids loved it and wanted to play in the water, with rain boots of course. Well since it's winter if you don't pay attention sometimes the water will get you. Alex and Devin were fighting over a rock and I was refereeing when a wave came up and got us. I picked up Devin and was able to keep her dry and told Alex to run, but her didn't make it and was drenched. So we headed back. Thanksgiving was fun. We just hung out with the kids, walked on the beach with great weather and ate some delicious dinner. On the way back we stayed in Boise with my cousin. It was great to catch up and see how big her kids are. My kids loved playing with Daniel and Kaylee!


Last weekend we went to the Zoo Light with some friends. The kids loved playing together and running around. The zoo lights were cool. It was packed when we first got there but by the time we left there weren't too many people. The kids rode the Carousel and loved seeing the few animals that weren't sleeping.

Oregon:

Watching Brave

The Aquarium with Nanny and Papa

Devin loved the sea lions

Wow, all of us are looking at the camera and Alex isn't making a weird face!

On the Beach! (Prior to the wave incident)

 Thanksgiving Day!

Devin Also moved into her big girl bed.

Sleeping in her big girl bed

Her new big girl bedroom. I refinished my dresser from when I was little and made her a bed skirt and pillowcase. 

Devin also started gymnastics

Devin Loves gymnastics. She threw a giant fit when it was over and we had to leave.

My little gymnast

 We started the Elf on the Shelf this year.
Santa wrote the kids a letter telling them about the Elf Scout and to be good, and our Elf Clarke brought us snow covered donuts for a North Pole Breakfast.

Clarke with all his goodies and letter from Santa

Eating their North Pole Breakfast. Yes Both of them dressed up for Breakfast

Zoo Lights

 Mirra, Alex, Ty & Devin 

Devin Riding the Zebra

Alex told me that his favorite animal was a Rhinoceros

And Mirra riding the Polar Bear.

Hiatis

Well, I took an unexpected hiatis from blogging for awhile. I will try to keep up with it, but with 2 kids and a business I am trying to get off the ground, I can't make any promises. Check out my business!
( http://carlybirdhandmade.blogspot.com ).

But if you are just here to check up on the kidlets, here you go!
In June we went to Lake Powell with Brad's cousins. The kids had a blast playing on the house boat, playing in the sand & water, and riding the wave runners. Our week down south was a blast!

We have been busy working away on the playroom mostly. More on that as soon as it gets finished, which is almost there!
They kids have been busy with swim lessons this summer, and playing with friends. We have been to a few BBQ's with friends and it is so great to see them growing up and starting to play together. Out of 5 couples we have 9 kids. We will be outnumbered in the next year!
We were able to celebrate our friend Nick and Ashley's little boy Dane's 1st birthday last weekend. The kids enjoyed the blow up pool and running around. I think we need a bigger pool for those 9 kids.
Devin's Birthday is next week! So the next post will be on that! But here are some pictures to get you by until then!

Alex getting his trophy from his baseball coach

Lake Powell

Alex brushing his teeth in the house boat, looking out the window. A totally random picture I know.

Alex taking his nap WITH his googles on. The lenses were all fogged up.

Chelsie and Devin ready for Powell!

Devin playing in the pool on the top of the house boat.

The kids playing with Cody and seth

Alex, Brad and Devin laying the water

Rori loved Devin, wanted to take her everywhere

Daddy and Devin playing in the pool

Summer BBQs

Devin and Breklyn drinking their milk together.

 4th of July

The kids eating their special 4th of July cupcakes

The aftermath

Devin and Daddy watching fireworks.

Alex and Hailey Watching fireworks

Dane's 1st Birthday!

 

The Birthday boy, trying to drink the last drops of a coke

Dane and Devin 

9 kids were in the pool at the same time

The water table!

Alex and the kids played soccer.

The little ones playing with the badminton net

Devin's Birthday!

Since my parents were going to be out of town for Devin's Birthday, we made up for it before they left. 

Nancy made Devin a cake! (IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!)

Devin's My Little Pony Train! 

24th of July

The kids wathcing fireworks. Alex LOVES Hailey

Devin & a sparkler

Alex and Hailey having a hay day with their sparklers

Randomness

Devin has been really into Minnie Mouse the last couple of weeks. She found Brad's old Mickey in Alex's room and has been carrying around and sleeping with him.

Weekend Getaway

I can't believe how long it has been since I have done a post. Been so crazy busy I don't have 2 seconds to sit down and write this.
These past few months have made me think about a lot of things and I just realize how thankful I am
Thankful for my 2 beautiful kids who drive me crazy, my hard working husband, my parents who dote on and spoil my kids, my loving family both near and far, wonderful friends to do those fun & crazy things with, the kindness of strangers, medical technology and knowing that God is always watching out for us.


Now onto Moab!
This past weekend we had planned a trip with our friends to go down to Moab, UT. We rented a condo. It was so nice to have a place to just hang out in, rather than a hotel. There was 10 of us that went down. We had a blast with a few mishaps along the way. 


Friday, we drove down in the afternoon and went to dinner with everyone, and spent the rest of the night talking and laughing.
Saturday, the boys were off on a mountain bike ride. The girls decided to head for a hike. We decided on Corona Arch. As we started hiking, we were only about 5 minutes in when a guy behind us said "Parrot". We turned around and lone behold there was a beautiful Scarlet Macaw. We sat there in awe, not believing what we were seeing. The guy behind us said "It's not like someone is out walking their bird." We were in agreement and just assumed someone's bird has escaped. Then there were 2 more flying above us. It was amazing. On we decided to hike. About another 5 minutes in a girl with us was starting to feel ill, so we decided to sit down and wait a minute. Then a guy starts walking down the trail and he has one of the birds. Come to find out he trains these birds on how to fly and come back. He is one of the only people in the world to be able to do it and he teaches other people from all over the world on how to do it. It was amazing, a once in a lifetime experience. 
Kim and Jandie were brave enough to hold one of them.  
We continued on our way up to Corona Arch. Once there we witnessed 1 person rappel off the arch and one more person rope swing on it. We headed back and waited on the boys, and headed to the pool for awhile. When the boys got back we went out to dinner. We tried finding some pizza place but after driving past the address 3 times and not finding it settled on a mexican restaurant, which was DELICIOUS! I highly recommend Miguel's Baja Grill if you are ever in Moab. After dinner we all went on a hike up to Delicate Arch. It was getting dark so it took a bit longer than it would have if it had been light out, but it was very cool to see all the stars and the arch in the dark. We hiked back and a friend of ours decided it would be funny to scare us by jumping out from behind a rock. I have never been so scared in my life. I screamed like a little girl! Glad everyone could get a laugh out of it except for me. After we got back we were so exhausted all of us ended up turing in early!
Sunday, 3 of the boys decided on a 10 mile bike ride. And the other 7 of us decided on a short hike to the Faux Falls. After we headed back to the condo pack up and meet up to go on one last hike up to a swimming hole. We headed on our hike and ended up missing the trail to the swimming hole. We hiked past it about 40 minutes before decideing to turn around and ask someone. We were super hot so we happened upon a little pool and all jumped in to try and cool off. We eventually found the trail after asking someone and hiked up to the swimming hole. There was a cliff jump there and eveyone decided they would jump in once and then we would head home. Everyone but Brad and I decided to jump. We hiked back down with everyone's backpacks. As we hiked down we could hear everyone chanting a friend's name, Bill. When we got to the bottom one of our friend's, Kim, came running up to us and told us Bill had bottomed out and dislocated his ankle. Brad and I ran over to him and we realized that we were going to have to carry him out. His ankle had popped back into place but he was in alot of pain. A guy was there who was an EMT, helped the boys carry Bill out. He was so nice. It was only a 20 minute walk back to the car but it took the boys over an hour to get him out. With the interesting end to our trip we got in our cars and headed home. 
When we got back into Salt Lake we went to the ER immediately and got Bill checked out. He had broken his ankle in 2 places and needed surgery. He had surgery Monday morning and everything went well.

The first night. We are missing a few people

Train Tacks through the canyon, on the way to Corona Arch

Kim, Jandie, Jenny and Me

The gorgeous Macaw

Chris the bird trainer with Grace and Siren

Corona Arch! With Jenny in the lead followed by Kim and Lena

Corona Arch

The Boys on their Bike ride, I think they did the Porcupine Rim Trail. (I could be very wrong on that one though)

Waiting for some Mexican Food. With Bill and Jake hugging, Kim, Me, Brad, Jenny, Jake and Lena, and Lena's husband Alex taking the picture

Hiking up delicate. 

Horrible picture I know, my camera couldn't focus since it was pitch black.

Faux Falls, with Jenny, Jandie, Me, Lena, Alex, Kim and Jake. Notice the us three single women on the left?

All the girls at the Falls

And finally the cliff jump. This is the jump that Bill broke is ankle on. This one is Jenny jumping. We didn't get alot of pictures since Brad and I hiked down before everyone jumped.