Hadley's First Day of Preschool

The long awaited day finally came..... the first day of preschool for Hadley.  Ever since Allie started a few weeks ago, Hadley has been (mostly) patiently waiting for her day to come.  She was a giggles and smiles waiting for noon to arrive, choosing out her dress and hair bow all by herself.  We even decorated her brace with some colors and bling to make it especially Hadley.  

 With school bag in hand, she excitedly hopped in the car to go to school for the first time ever!

 Luckily, she has a friend she already knows, Blake from church.  They both loved the whole day!

 After school when we picked them up, Hadley was still all smiles and was so excited to tell me all about her day and her awesome headband.  It is going to be a great year at Shining Star Preschool!

Miles and I hit up Home Depot by ourselves as well as the thrift store and picked up a slushy on the way to pick up the girls.  He was just excited that I decided to share my slushy.  Hooray for a new school year!

Family Night Fun

For Family Home Evening this week, we talked about temples. We discussed the importance of going to the temple so we can be a forever family. After we talked for a little while, we got down to the fun stuff. We made our very own temples out of sugar cubes.

Getting started with the sweetness (to make it better, they were held together with corn syrup).

Miles was just happy to be outside.

Starting to come together here. 

Hadley made a Salt Lake Temple. 

Allie made a Mesa Temple.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

It has finally happened! After about a month of continuously telling everyone that she meets that she has a loose tooth, Allie has finally lost it! For the longest time she was afraid to let anyone pull on her troth because it would hurt. So she continued to wiggle and wiggle that tooth. Tonight, after much coaxing (and a decent amount of wrestling) she allowed us to pull on her tooth. Magically it popped right out!

She was so proud to show off the new whole in her smile.

Look at that big grin!

A better view of the cavernous hole that it left in the front.

Now there is the loot for the Tooth Fairy!

She may not be able to sleep tonight after this big moment. I'm also sure that now every stranger we meet will know that Allie lost her first tooth.

Broken Clavicle

It happened.  Hadley was the first in our family to break a bone, but at least she did it having fun!  Hadley was at the Phelps Slip-n-slide FHE, having fun going down with Mike and they had gone down only a couple times when as they were walking off, a big kid came down and took Hadley right out, landing on her shoulder.  At the time, we thought it was just an owie and that she would feel better soon.  She calmed down and even wend down another time or two with Me.  Throughout the night, she held her arm close and still said that her arm hurt.  We looked at her arm (even though it ended up being her shoulder) and didn't see anything wrong, so we went home, gave her some ibuprofen and put her to bed.  She could not crawl into her bed and woke up a couple times saying that her arm hurt. 

The next morning, she said it was more her shoulder and I, being an awesome Mom, decided we should wait it out and see if it was just a muscle strain.  Same thing happened that night, not wanting to crawl in bed.  She was fine most of the day, as long as she didn't put her arms up above her shoulders.

Wednesday I called my mom to ask what she thought.  She thought we should take her in and around 4 pm, we were at the park and Hadley was trying to swing but was crying because it hurt.  That was the kicker for me, so I called Mike and told him to meet us at the kids urgent care center since they had an x-ray machine and here is the x-ray.

It was pretty obvious it was broken, so the Doctor gave us information to an Orthopedic to figure out  the next step.  For the meantime, we were to keep her in a sling (ha!) until we saw him.

The Ortho said that although the break looks bad, kids' clavicles grow back like salamander tails and we don't have to put a plate on it.  Hooray!  Hadley just has to wear this figure 8 brace for the next 4-6 weeks and stay away from activities where she could fall - like bikes, parks, tramps, etc.    She took a couple of days to get used to wearing it 24/7, but does great now and doesn't even notice it anymore.

This is the night we've waited for...

It was the annual Phelps Family Night Slip n Slide. This is always a crowd pleaser, with water, soap, and a 100 yard slide. This year, Allie was brave enough to go by herself (and after the first run, we hardly saw her again as she kept going up and down the hill by herself all night). Hadley and Miles needed some help.

Allie showing some of her great moves down the slide. 

Hadley got wiped out at the end of our 2nd run, so we don't have any action shots of her. After that point she wanted to hang out on the side instead.

Popsicles help make everyone feel better though.

Miles liked the popsicles better than the sliding (he has a nice little red goatee here too).

All the kiddos posing for the camera.

One shot of the family. 

(probably should have taken this before the sunset was at burn-your-retina-intensity, oops)

Miles 11 months

Miles has reached the ripe old age of 11 months. Magically he has not caused himself a concussion (although he has tried on multiple occasions), but he continues to explore the house. He still loves to be outside and gets really excited whenever anyone opens the door (and really sad when it gets closed). He has a great smile, a sad cry, and a strong desire to talk (which is generally manifest by loud outbursts of sudden squeals).

His new found mobility makes him nearly impossible to photograph. 

Emotions turn on a dime.

We are glad to have him around (especially when he is happy)!

Walkin' Life

Miles is now walking everywhere, rarely crawling now.  All of our kids were walking by 10 months... crazy!  Miles is a bit fearless and because of that, has a few bruises of show.  People keep asking me what happened... and I say on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday he bonked his head, on Thursday he bonked his cheek.. etc.  He is getting better, but still adds a bit of color to his complexion often.  

Allie's first day of Kindergarten

On Wednesday, Allie had her first day of Kindergarten, and you would have thought it was Chrsitmas  she was so excited.  She was counting down the days for weeks and finally got to meet her teacher, Mrs. Schreiber, on Monday and then go to her first day Wednesday.  

Here are Allie and Patrick on the meet the teacher day.  They were in the same preschool together so it was nice to have a friend.  Upon seeing Patrick outside waiting, she grabbed his hand and they walked hand in hand on the way to the classroom. 

Wednesday finally came and Allie woke up bright and early (though she always does) and was so excited to get her new school clothes on, pack her lunch and go!  

The excitement rubbed off on me, excited and only slightly nervous to see her grow up so much and go off to all-day kindergarten.  We headed off while Steph and Brendon watched Miles and Hadley so we could navigate our way a bit easier.

We made it to the kindergarten playground and found a few friends and Mrs. Schreiber. 

 This morning we found Hallie (not to be confused with Allie or Hadley) and walked hand in hand to  class.

Just a few minutes of waiting in line outside of class and she was off, not looking back to say goodbye.  Here's to a great Kindergarten year!

The Holmes' visit the desert

We were lucky enough to be an extended pitstop for Steph and Brendon on their way to California and we had so much fun!  We haven't all been together since our cruise together before we had any kids.  A bit has chanced since then... like 6 more family members!  

We went swimming together in the morning, played a bunch and went to the dollar theater to see Rio 2.  Once kids were in bed, we played games and caught up.  Man, I wish we could live closer to these friends.... but at least they will be a bit closer soon when they are done with school.  Hooray!

Steph played ring around the rosie with the kids to their hearts content.... which was a really long time.  Thanks Steph!

 Fun in the sun with some cookies!