Fall Field Trips 2014

One of my favorite "Mom duties" is helping out at kids' school and going on their field trips.  I love to see how the kids interact with their friends and having one on one time with them.   Luckily my Mom is so willing to babysit so I can go.  We  ended up having two field trips to the Dino park in the same week.

I had the nicest little group to keep track of for Carly's kindergarten class.

I was watching my niece, Emma, the day of Hailey's preschool field trip, so we brought her along.  We met up with Hailey's friend, Oakley.  But Hailey calls her Oak-a-ley.  

 These three girls were inseperable the whole day.  They had so much fun together.

Best little guy ever

The 4th graders had a field trip to the Stratford Dairy farm.  I seriously loved watching Luke with his friends.  He was so fun to be around, and I also finally got to see the girl who he has the 'biggest crush' on.

Carly is 6

Sometimes it's hard to believe that Carly is only 6.  She is such a big helper, she reminds me of everything.  I kinda feel like she's my personal secretary.  Her preschool teacher last year, told her that she's the 'honey in the middle' since we have 5 kids.  She loves it... she likes to tell me that she's special because she's the honey in the middle.  

Carly has always been a little bag lady.  She used to carry 3 or 4 bags around, while pushing 3 or 4 dolls in her stroller.  Over the years she's downsized.  She's now down to this one bag and only occasionally pushes her babies around.  She takes this bag EVERYWHERE.  I've put my foot down with church and school... but it comes with us everywhere else.  She usually has a snack or two packed for any emergency.

 Instead of talking about her favorites like our usual birthday tradition, I thought we could just take a look through her bag.

The purse

contents- 7 pencils
                broken camera
                hand sanitizer
                sandwich bag with gross floam from the library
                sandwich bag of beads from broken necklace
                flashlight
                broken phone
                post its
                perfume
                address book
                necklace
                4 mini purse/wallets

mini pink purse contents- 7 chapsticks
                                          bubbles
                                           name tag from preschool
                                           5 facial tissue box tops (now it makes sense why they were all opened)
                                          Beau's notebook (sorry, Beau, I guess she 'found' it)

mini leopard purse contents- nothing

mini tan purse contents- 8 dollars ( not quite sure how she acquires all her money)
                                        coins
                                        mini white purse (empty)

mini lady bug purse- quarter

Going through her bag made me laugh.  She's so funny, and she wants to be all grown up.  She has saved me on occasion when I needed a pen, band aid, and money.  Yes, I borrowed money from my 6 year old.  I told her to keep one of Isaac's binkis in there but she thought it was weird.

For her birthday, she wanted to eat out at Pizza Pie Cafe.  So the Saturday before, we went out to eat.  On the night of her birthday, we had some family come over for cake and ice cream.

She picked cereal for her special breakfast

 It was love at first sight when she saw this cake at Costco.  It was so heavy that it broke in half.

  

 She loved her little outfit from her Dawson grandparents.  She couldn't wait to wear it to school the next day.

She is all about coloring with her personal art set from her Jenkins grandparents.

So grateful for our Honey in the Middle!

1/2 of a year

This sweet little guy is 6 months old!  

Not a day goes by when someone doesn't say... "I'm so glad we have Ike", "what would we do without Isaac?", or "isn't he the best?".  He has made us a better, more loving family.  

Ben and I were sitting on the fence about having a another baby.  We had been out of the baby stage for a while, the older kids were a piece of cake by then, we didn't know if we wanted a baby so much younger than the rest... but oh my goodness, what a good decision we made.  He is the perfect caboose to this family.  He is so loved!

Favorite people- Mom and Dad (of course)

Favorite food- Mother's milk (Ben calls it that), formula, and applesauce (in that order)

Favorite thing- Being with his siblings.  He seems a little sad when they're all at school.  He likes to        be in the middle of the craziness. Carly's always hauling him around on her little hip and 

     he loves it.

Favorite place to sleep- In his crib.  I used to take naps with him on my bed every Sunday, but now          he just pokes at my eyes and pulls at my hair until I give up and put him in the crib.  

Nicknames- Ike-y baby (given by Hailey)

                    Mr. Winslow (given by Carly)

                    Bubbs (given by Abigail)

                    Sir Isaac Newton (given by Luke)

 19.5 lbs. (77%) 

28.75 inches (98%)

Carly wanted in on the pictures

My favorite

Jake and Hailey saw us taking pictures, so they wanted in too.

Ike was slowly falling backwards and Jake put his arm back to catch him.  Jake and Hailey were both so excited that he saved Ike's life.  Seriously, they talked about it a lot.  They are hilarious.

Arizona!

Brent called us up to let us know that the Chargers were playing a Monday night against the AZ Cardinals this year.  We can't resist a road trip to see family and watch the Chargers.  We all dropped our kids off with family (I almost couldn't leave Ike, but I did it, and it turned out great) Jed, Shannon, Blake, Me, and Ben headed down to Cedar City Saturday night.  Sunday morning we drove  to the Grand Canyon... which way more amazing than I pictured.  It was a first time being there for all of us.  The first 25 minutes were spent in the visitors center because of the hail, but then it let up enough for us to go out.  

We got to Brent and Shelley's house that evening. We said hi, ate dinner, then Ben and I drove 40 minutes to Gilbert to see Fred, Heather, and kids.

Monday was so nice and relaxing hanging out with my siblings.  I seriously didn't know what to do without kids to look after.   Brent and Shelley showed us around the Thunderbird campus,  we went shopping, ate dinner, and then went to the game.  It was sad because the Chargers lost, but it was still so much fun.  It rained like crazy the whole time we were there.  

Blake had to go into work on Tuesday, so he flew home that morning.  So it was just us four driving home.  Blake got home before we even left that morning, which made our drive seem even longer.  Since the heavy rains eroded the freeway in LasVegas, we took a very scenic route home.  

We had a blast on this trip... we have a lot of great memories with everyone!

just a little wet from the rain :)

It was a little foggy, but we still got a pretty good view.

Blake barely got us in the picture :)

Blake, being awesome by the tree

watching the rain from the deck

Our wonderful hosts!  We miss you guys!