We had such a great summer! We kept plenty busy, played lots, and by the end we were all ready for school to start again. We had a super busy last week of summer…
Grandpa Eliason turned 60! They were going to be in Utah on his birthday so we surprised him early with bowling! The kids loved hiding out before he got there and then running out to him and yelling Happy Birthday! Beau wasn’t knocking very many pins down and he was getting so frustrated. He usually does pretty well at sports so this was killing him. It was pretty funny, especially when the younger kids would knock down more pins than him.
Brandi had us over for a pool party. She had an awesome blow up slide and tons of water balloons.
We went with Cahills, Allreds, and Sagers to Spring Mountain Ranch with the older kids to see Peter Pan. It was so much fun (except for the actual play which was super long and kind of boring, haha). We went a couple hours early and ate dinner on the grass and played games. It’s cooler out there than down in the city and it was so nice to sit outside and still be comfortable!
Kayli and Milani loved the Art Camp they went to so much and wanted to do their own Art Camp for some of the younger girls. They typed out lessons plans and gathered all the materials they needed, they came up with snacks and even had matching outfits! They were pretty excited and it was was cute to see them plan for it. They are little teachers in the making! I kept checking in with them during it to make sure everything was going ok and Kayli said that it was going great-much better than she thought it would!
Beau’s birthday was on the last day of summer break and during a pretty busy time! We had Teacher-Meet-and-Greet and Kaci’s wedding dinner that day and we needed to go help set up for the wedding. We weren’t really sure what to do for his birthday and how to make it a fun day for him with everything going on. He waned a birthday party this year and he has so many cute friends so we decided to go to FLIPnOUT the night before his birthday. We invited friends and all the family and had a blast. The boys loved dodgeball and laser tag the most. He was so excited about his Vegas Golden Knights cake!
On his birthday he was so excited about all of his presents. He had mastered the roller skates so he was anxiously waiting and hoping he got roller blades for his birthday. We felt bad that we were going to go set up for the wedding on his birthday but also wanted to help out with that. He was cool with it though and it ended up being perfect because he just skated around the gym for a few hours practicing roller blading! He also wanted Nike stuff and since he’s obsessed with hockey and sports in general, his presents from everyone were perfect. Trey and Talon gave him Golden Knights stuff which was so fitting because they all love playing hockey so much. Grandma Eliason made him a Golden Knights blanket and gave him hockey balls he was needing. He got lots of Nike clothes from Grandma and Grandpa England and Kelli and us. He got a football from Benny which is so fun because Benny’s football obsession is slowly rubbing off on Beau. He got UNLV and Golden Knights legos from the twins and athletic clothes from Carter and other fun toys from everyone else. I love this athletic boy! We ran to the Meet and Greet after that and met the kids’ teachers. Then Beau chose McDonald’s for lunch and then he had a couple of friends over to play. That night we went to the wedding dinner and Kaci had everyone sing Happy Birthday to Beau. That night after the other kids were in bed we had Stuart come down to babysit while we took Beau to the store to spend his $10 from Grandma Taylor. He was dying to go to the new Smiths and look at their toys and spend his money. It was so much fun watching him pick out his own little toys and figuring out the math and how many could he get. I think he actually ended up having a great birthday! We sure love our 6 year old!
August 11th was Kaci and Braeden’s wedding and it was the best day! Taylor was here and the kids looked adorable! Kaci looked beautiful, the ring ceremony and the reception were beautiful- it really was just the perfect day spent with family! The ring ceremony was the cutest thing ever. The nieces were the flower girls (Kayli was so excited) and as they walked in down the aisle it was seriously the cutest! Beau got to be the ring bearer and he was so dang cute! He was so nervous. He kept asking me during the ceremony if it was time to get up and what exactly he was supposed to do. When it came time for him to take the rings out he did perfect and I loved it. I can’t wait to see pictures and videos. I want to always remember how cute he was doing that! The reception was a perfect party of course! Kayli ran around the whole night with Kaci’s bridesmaids and she LOVED dancing with them. Her and Kaci are really close and I know she just looks up to Kaci so much so it was so special to see Kaci dance and sing with her and just have the best time. She also loved when Taylor told her to run and jump into his arms and that he’d spin her around above his head. She had the biggest smile doing that! Trey ran around all night from person to person. I’d see him eating with Kenny’s cousins, then over eating with someone else, then back with the cousins, then with someone else. He just loves everyone! It was a fun weekend I hope we never forget!
That next Monday school started. I was so ready for some routine, some quiet while the younger two napped, and to hear about the kids’ days. I’m so glad I get to be a stay-at-home mom but that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes miss teaching and I especially miss it at the beginning of the school year! Beau and Benny are in the same class this year so that made it easier to send Beau. He found all of his other friends too and they all play together at recess. He has a sweet teacher and a good class it sounds like! Kayli was so relieved to see one of her good friends from last year in her class and her teacher is awesome. She is young and cute and so funny. She seems like the perfect fit for Kayli. I’ve been to help in both of their classes and I have been impressed with their teachers. I hope we have a great year!
We went to Madden’s birthday party at the BMX bike race track. All the kids got scrapes and bruises but had a blast at the same time.
Sami turned 1 on August 19! This year was hard and exhausting and great and fun all at the same time. She has been the best fourth child. She is so easy to please, sooooo happy, such an easy-going and friendly baby. She isn’t walking on her own yet but walking along things, crawling up the stairs, playing with all the toys and loves mom to hold her. She really won’t go to anyone else! She waves and says hi to everyone we pass and smiles and squeals about everything. She really is such a good example to me of being positive and happy. I hope this sweet personality of hers stays forever and that she will continue to be a blessing and an example to our family. What a joy she has been! She loves her new Violet that Uncle Taylor gave her (it’s tradition on the kids’ first birthdays), Minnie, playing with the toy kitchen, going for bike rides, dancing, and eating. We had family over for her smash cake and desserts on her birthday. She went right for the cake and smashed and ate it. We love our Sami!
Kenny took Kayli and Beau skating at Crystal Palace and they have the rollerblading down! They are both fast and love it.
We went to our neighborhood’s Movie in the Park and the best part was playing before the movie started. The weather was awesome and we had lots of friends there. The kids played tag, we had popcorn, and played on the swings. Kayli got stuck in a kid swing so that was pretty funny. Milani ran over to tell us that she was stuck and when we looked over there she was this huge kid stuck sitting in the swing. My friend was over there and asked her if she needed help and she said no so when I showed up she said she thought she recognized her and asked if she needed help but funny Kayli didn’t want her help and would rather wait for us. Trey loved that we found the Pollocks there and spent most of the movie sitting with Michelle.
We started a playgroup for the 3 year-olds.
The last thing we had to do on our Summer Bucket List was to go to Cowabunga Bay. We didn’t make it there until the end of summer when we could leave Sami for a long time. She hung out with Grandma and Grandpa all day. They took her grocery shopping and said that she was so friendly and that she’d wave and say hi to everyone and everyone would stop to talk to them. I said yep! Sounds like her! Kim and Austin met us at Cowabunga Bay. Kayli’s favorite was the water slides that we could go down together and the wave pool. I LOVED sitting in a tube in the lazy river. I’m usually holding Sami and worried about where Trey is but with Kim and Austin there hanging out with Kayli and Beau and Kenny with Trey- I was free to lounge! Beau got tired and ended up cuddling with me and we went around in the lazy river like that for a long time! I loved it!
We had Emily’s baby shower! We’ve been so excited for this baby to come for so long! It was fun spending a lot of time with her and getting ready for the shower. My mom and sisters and me did the decorating for the shower. Leslie, Dawn, Michele and Elizabeth all came out from Sacramento and they took care of the food and it was all amazing. My family met early that morning to start decorating. We did a balloon arch and it turned out so good! I had never done one and when I looked at the youtube videos about it I kind of thought “forget it” but Rachel had done one before and said we could totally do it. It was fun hanging out with all of them so early and we made a good team! The shower was at Em’s church because we figured it’d be a huge shower since Emily is so friendly and knows everyone and has so many people so excited for her to have this baby! We had a huge turnout and I got to see Mari (baby showers are the only time we see each other now!) and Alise and her baby who is 4 1/2 months and bigger than Sami! I hadn’t met her baby yet so it was good to see her too since she’s so far away. It was so good to see Dawn and her girls and Leslie too! Kayli loved playing with Elizabeth and after the shower she came to our house to play. That night I took her and Kayli and met Em, Leslie, Dawn, Michele, mom and Scott for dinner. I loved having extended family in town! We don’t get that very often! The next day we went to Logandale for Reese’s blessing and then had lunch at Nick and Kelsi’s. The kids loved playing over there and on our way home we stopped at Em’s to visit with everyone again before they went home the next day. Dawn taught Beau how to wrestle and we listened to Michele sing and play the ukulele and chatted for a long time. The next day was Labor Day and it was nice that after a busy weekend we had zero plans. We ended up going for a bike ride, then swimming, then played hockey, then shopping, and then we had tacos at the park with friends. It was a great weekend!
Beau earned the Citizenship award for showing Respect. It was so cool that him and Benny were the two chosen from their class!
Trey started a Sports Sampler class with Madden and he did great. I was so happy that he went just fine without me and obeyed the teacher and did everything happily and on his own. Kayli and Beau always had a hard time with stuff like that!
Beau and his buddies started another season of baseball! They are the Braves and had their first game last night. They have grown so much in the past year and did awesome last night. Beau loves to play shortstop and he likes to stop the ball and throw it to the basemen. Kenny is helping coach again and he likes that a lot too.
I love when I check on the kids at night and they’re all reading…
Trey loves to go shopping with me but he’s usually really naughty at the store. He asks every day if we can go to Target mostly because he loves to look at the little toy animals. I usually do give in and go there at least once a week because I like to go there too but once we are there I usually regret it! The other day I was headed to the grocery store and asked if Beau wanted to come with me. He is so good and fun to shop with. Trey overheard and wanted to come and begged and cried and I felt so bad I said he could come too even though I knew it’d probably be bad. He actually did so good for about 5 minutes but after that he was pretty naughty. He runs away. He knocks things off shelves. He hides. He’s super loud. Anyway, I found these pictures that Beau had taken and I didn’t know. They’re funny to me because I can see Trey’s naughty smirk in all of them!
Kayli spends her time playing school or rollerblading. She loves creating new things for her classrooms and typing out signs or lesson plans. Her and Milani have schools set out at both of their houses and they just come up with bigger and better ideas all the time. She comes right home and does homework and then plays school until it’s cool enough to play outside. She loves to read before bed and is now reading chapter books pretty quickly. She loves to rearrange and reorganize her room and classrooms that she has set up all over the house.
Beau is still obsessed with playing hockey every night. He is a smart boy and knows most of the answers to his homework but getting him to focus and do it is so hard. I lhave to be patient every day that I sit and do homework with him because it takes forever. Sometimes he explains an answer to me but goes so in depth that 10 minutes later he is still explaining-or something reminds him of something else and then all of a sudden he’s on a crazy tangent-or his mind just completely wanders and he’s telling me about other things. It’s fun one-on-one time with Beau but I laugh about it every day. I tell Kenny all the time that he needs to experience homework time with Beau. He also can’t remember details about school. Usually me and Erin have to text each other to get the whole story because between Beau and Benny we maybe get the full details. Pretty funny. He wrote the cutest paper in school about hockey with big Trey.
Trey is still crazy. He makes us laugh and want to pull our hair out at the same time. He loves to play with friends but isn’t a great friend while people are over at his house. He is in the “won’t share his toys” phase and about has a heart attack when people touch his animals or move them out of the part of the zoo that they should be in. He loves going to other people’s houses though and I think he plays much better at friends’ houses. He is so good on his bike and now stands up while he rides! Yikes! He will run you over if you get in his way too. While we’re getting bikes and hockey stuff out each night he gets on his bike and rides down to Alexis’ house and asks if she can play. Then he goes to Owen and Grant’s house to get them. I always see his bike in the street down at their houses while he’s up at the door. I think he talks their ears off too. I’ve had to tell him he can’t go down unless I say he can but he does it so much! He loves to go to Splash and always knows exactly what he wants. The other day Kenny said, “Trey has his own drink order?!” when the boys went and Trey knew exactly what he wanted. He is still obsessed with his animals.
Here are a few pictures of Sami too…
A few more…
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