my baby is FIVE

Terek is such a joy to have in our family.   He is growing up so fast!  He loves to play and fight with his big brothers.   He loves to play with his friends... he plays Star Wars and fights with light sabers.  He loves all super heroes and still loves to play dress-ups.   He loves to play on daddy's iPad and the wii... a little too much.  He loves to ride his scooter and gets to ride home from school on his scooter with his big brothers.  We love you Terek!

Back to School {2013}

Back to school... back to super busy life... back to work... back to routines... always mixed emotions.  Glad the kids are back in school but bummer I have to go back to work!

 Brenner 4th Grade.  Red Mountain Elementary. Mrs. Hancey

Joren 2nd Grade. Red Mountain Elementary. Ms. Drawe

 Anisa. At-risk Teacher. Dixie Middle School.

Terek. Kindergarten. Red Mountain Elementary. Ms. Belka

Looking forward to another great year!!!

Summer Recap {a long post}

I like to get the kids an end of school year gift... this year I decided on this huge inflatable ball from Costco.... just wanted them to have something to play outside.  It was fun for awhile (until it split at the seam and couldn't be repaired)

The boys also got new battery operated squirt guns.

The first weekend of summer, we went hiking on the Dixie hill.  I had accidentally left my phone at home, so I have no pictures to share... while we were gone hiking, my van window was broken and my purse was stolen.  Not a very good start to our summer.

 Brenner joined the summer swim team.  He had practice 4 days a week for an hour and attended 2 swim meets.

We tried to have weekly outings with our friends.  This is the first one... to Ivins reservoir. (We only ended up going there twice)

 

Another outing was the skim park.  The boys have a good time there.

We went camping at Tropic reservoir with Lucas and his family, Grandpa and Grandma Blake and Craig Degen's family.

 We bought passes to 7 peaks, so we headed up north.  We went to a park in Daybreak.  We also went to a BBQ and saw lots of friends from our Oquirrh Park neighborhood.

 The boys had a blast at Lowes with their cousins.

Another friend outing to Veyo Pool.  We spent as much time swimming as we possibly could this summer.  We also went swimming a lot at a lady's house in Ivins.  She would let us use her pool every Wednesday afternoon.

 For the 4th of July, we went to Kanarraville.  Our theme for the parade was "America is Sweet"

 For the evening, we headed back to Ivins and set off fireworks at Grandma and Grandpa Blake's house.

 On July 9th, my sweet mom passed away.  She had been battling cancer for 5 years.  Her body just couldn't fight it any more.  Even with Chemo, the cancer was growing rapidly and had spread into her brain as well.  I think this is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  I miss her so much every day.

 Since we had family in town for the funeral, we had a Sunday BBQ up in pine valley and grandpa took us fishing.

 Another outing with friends... bowling!

 We headed back up north to spend another weekend with cousins.  We went to the Discovery Gateway children's museum.

 We also went to 7 peaks again.  I don't have any pictures because I didn't want to carry my phone around with me.

We have always loved the day of 47 parade float preview.  We were able to go to the preview before we headed home.

I was in charge of our ward's primary float for the 24th (that's the reason our 4th and 24th floats were relatively the same). 

 We had our annual Scholes family reunion in the city of Tropic, UT.  We mostly got rained on all weekend.... but when it stopped raining, we were able to get a couple of hikes in near Bryce Canyon.

 Rain=muddy 4-wheeler ride.

 The day we headed home, there wasn't much rain.  We were able to stop at Red Canyon and go on another hike.

 We got home from the reunion and had a day to pack for our surprise trip to Disneyland!  We hadn't been to Disneyland since before our kids were born, so it was about time we go:)  We spend 3 days in Disneyland and had a blast!

 We were able to hit the beach on the day we headed home... wish we could have stayed at the beach longer.... the kids had so much fun there.

 Now, school has started again... I'm grateful to be back to routines....

Brenner is {NINE}

(Ok, so Brenner was nine over a month ago).  I can't believe how fast time has flown.  My baby boy ins't so small any more.  Give him another year and he'll be taller than me!

Brenner continues to do great in school.  He still loves to read.  He isn't much into sports, but decided to join the swim team for the summer and has really enjoyed that.

Brenner has become quite independent.  He can cook his own food... he loves to bake cakes and brownies.  He has a job mowing grandpa Blake's lawn and has saved up his money to buy his own iPad mini.  And that is what he enjoys doing the most is... watching youtube, netflix, playing minecraft, dragonvale and other such games on the iPad.

Brenner enjoys playing with his best friends, Xander, Topher, Trey and Dustin.  He's a pretty obedient boy and does his chores and helps around the house... only give me attitude sometimes:)

end of school {recap}

I know... I'm really behind on my blogging.  I don't know why I'm bothering to try to catch up.... but I am.

Brenner and Joren both got the "superhero of the month" award.  They are picked by their teachers for being a great student.  It was fun for them to get it at the same time... and fun for me to be able to sneak away from work to surprise them and watch them get their awards.

At the same assembly, we found out Brenner won a kindle from the kite festival!

 

Brenner got to be a wolf in the "character matters" play that his class put on.  

Terek attended two preschools this year.   One was with Miss Robyn.  He had her for two years.

The other was at RMES with Teacher Toni (aide), Teacher Sara (teacher), Teacher Cheryl (aide). 

Now, on to summer:)

Everyone else's spring break:)

Our spring break was really early... the 2nd week in March... but after our spring break, the rest of our family started having theirs.  That means lots of cousins in town!!!

 Shane's kids were here from California.  So, we got them addicted to perler beads.

and since they were out on the table, Joren and his friends worked on them too.

Here are some of their final products!

 We also had Shellie, Legacy and West in town for their spring break.  West was so fun to play with.

 Grandpa was so good to take the kids on 4-wheeler rides over and over again!

The kids got to go on a few easter egg hunts.  Ivins city had one, the Scholes family had one... and the Easter bunny barely had the chance to come... the boys were so busy.

 I had to make some deviled eggs that I had seen on Pinterest!

 Here's the boys on Easter afternoon in their Sunday clothes.

 And we snuck in a family picture at Shane's wedding!

Spring Break 2013

If you ask my kids, we had the worst spring break... we didn't go anywhere fun!  Well, we can't afford to go to California for every holiday, so we have to find some closer, less expensive fun!

First up was Valley of Fire State Park.  We planned this trip with some friends and neighbors.  It started out as a camping trip, but it rained on our plans.  We decided to make it a day trip... and even though we drove through snow to get there, we still went.  It ended up being the perfect weather.

The kids loved all of the rocks to climb on an explore around...

 We had to climb up all of these stairs, but at the top were some awesome petroglyphs.

 elephant rock.

 There were a lot of crevices in the rocks that the kids liked to explore.  (good thing it was too early in the year for creepy crawlies).

This "cave" had a built in slide inside.

 (or a "birthing" canal... as the men called it).  Really, who's the bigger kid?

During the middle of the week we did a lot of park days...

... and night games...

 At the end of the week, we decided to head to Moab.  It was still a little chilly there, but we still had a great time!

 On the way there, we stopped for a potty break.  The kids had a blast playing in what little snow there was... my kids are way deprived.

We love the Moab skate park.  The kids always find fun things to do.  They took their scooters, and roller blades, but they always find other ways to keep themselves entertained.

The kids' favorite thing to do to sled down the sand hill.   Brenner would trudge all the way up the hill. Super, messy fun.

We went on a few fun little hikes.   I don't remember what this one was called.

 We went on a little dinosaur bones hike.  There was also an old mine there.

 Sunday morning before we headed out, we hiked up to faux falls.  It was really pretty.  We also did a bit of geocaching on this trip.

Good times with good family.  We need to get back up there right after school gets out!