SHAWN'S HOME!

Shawn got to come home for the weekend between his away rotations. We did it- we survived one month without him and only have one month to go.

Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium

We love the zoo. If the kids are out of school, Shawn is home, or we are bored, we head to the zoo. We have loved having zoo passes and love going to the zoo and aquarium. It is the perfect zoo/aquarium for us. It never gets old and the kids never get bored.

Tail

Henry is the cutest booger ever. He knows exactly how to push each person in our family's buttons. Charlie cannot handle it and it is a good thing Charlie gets a break while at school. Iva, on the other hand, is a trooper and takes it like a champ- even when Henry pulls her tail.

Guinea Pig Backpack

This year for school, Iva wanted a grownup guinea pig backpack. She picked out a cute one on Amazon, but it was $79! It was surprisingly hard to find a guinea pig backpack that wasn't "baby" so she settled for a red backpack and an iron on patch so we could make one that looked like the one she wanted. I still can't believe she is in kindergarten.

Dance Skills Showcase

Iva had another dance skills showcase. She has loved doing dance and was sad that this season was coming to an end. Ms Ashton has helped Iva gain so much confidence. Iva loves Ms Ashton and stopped wearing a leotard to dance because Ms Ashton doesn't wear one.

Birthday Party for Tatum

Iva made the best of friends during her first year of joy school here in Arizona- Tatum and Jane. Sadly, they have both moved away, but luckily, they didn't move too far away. We got to go and celebrate Tatum's birthday. The kiddos had a blast.

Ear Ache

Oh Charlie. He is not a fan of school by Thursday each week. He loves going the first few days a week, but by Thursday he says he is done listening and sitting still. So on Thursday when his teacher called and said she thought he might have an ear ache, I was skeptical. After strapping him into the car and accidentally bumping his ear with the seat belt and screams happening, we headed to urgent care. Sure enough Charlie had a middle ear infection. He handled it like a champ and loved the taste of the antibiotics.

Emma June- Six Month Checkup

Emma's six month check up went much better than her four month check up- they had the immunizations this time. She is growing right along and hitting all the milestones she should be. They did say she needs to eat more food- and drink less milk. All of my kids drink too much milk. Emma is a smiley, happy baby. She loves her siblings. She can sit up when propped up. She tried rice cereal and was not a fan. She sleeps through the night- goes to bed a little later than I would like, but I can't complain. She is so easy going. She is used to being dragged here and there and just hanging out. She sometimes does not like her car seat, but usually does pretty good most of the time.

Emma June

17 lbs 11 oz

Back to School Haircuts

Shawn usually cuts the boys hair, but with him being gone for the month that didn't happen. I splurged and took them in to a salon for cuts. Charlie loved it and getting the royal treatment. He got to pick his seat and the movie he wanted to watch. He laughed a few times because it tickled. And then there was Henry. He was insane. He seriously went crazy and would not hold still and was screaming bloody murder. We strapped him down while I continued to hold him down and we still barely managed to get his hair cut.

I trimmed up Iva's ends at home. It was amazing what cleaning up her hair did- it made her look a lot older. I didn't get any good after pictures of Iva's hair.

Ward Melodrama

Our ward is blessed to have some amazingly talented people in it. One of them, Kendra, decided to organize a ward activity that was a ward melodrama. I had debated going or not because Shawn was in West Virginia and I didn't know how it would go with all four kids alone. I am so glad I went and embraced it. The kids had a blast and considering the audience was supposed to boo, cheer, and ah it was the perfect activity for our family. It was really fun to see some of the primary children act in it and of course, we needed pictures with the stars of the show. Before the show started, there were carnival games to earn tickets and then after you could purchase drinks, candy, and popcorn for the show. It was perfect.

FaceTime

We are so thankful for modern technology and being able to FaceTime dada while he is gone. The kiddos get so excited to talk to him and see his face. What would we do without it?

First Day of School 2017-18

Both Iva and Charlie were excited for their first day of school.

We dropped Charlie off at the gate with no tears and no looking back.  He was out of here. He really is my brave and outgoing (and sometimes wild) dude. He was ready for school and I was ready for a break.

Iva was excited too, but you could see the nervousness on her face. There were no tears. I had no clue we were expected to come into her classroom and stay for awhile while they got situated. I was in my pjs, hadn't brushed my hair and Henry had on no pants. I made an awesome first impression. And I am sure you are thinking that it couldn't have been that bad, but it was. It was so bad another mom from the ward saw me and offered to bring me dinner that night because I looked overwhelmed. Ha! I just wasn't planning on getting out of the car.

Henry wanted in on a few pictures after school. Iva spilled her lunch on her shirt and could not wait to get home and change shirts. Iva, also, got picked as student of the day and got to bring home that black panther for the day. She was so so so excited.