Bradley 15th Birthday

The kids birthdays are all pretty close together. In the past I used to make homemade cakes and plan fun themed parties but now that they are older, and life if quite different from when they were young we have moved to simplistic.  

We celebrated Bradley's 15th birthday yesterday on June 10, 2020.  It was a good but relaxing day. 

We started out with donuts, a swim lunch at Grandma and Grandpas ( with Chloe, Sydney, Beck, Christy, and of course Grandma and Grandpa) , Chinese food,  presents (lot's of books), cake, and a movie at home. 

We are very grateful for Bradley. He is a sweet young man with many developing talents.  He is musical and funny.  We love you Bradley!

Baden's 12th Birthday (5/31/2020)

Baden is 12! He is officially out of elementary and moving onto middle school.  We did our best to have a fun birthday despite the restrictions on places we could go during this worldwide pandemic. 

Baden had his cousins, Ryan, Jack, and Jane over for a swim get together on Saturday. On Sunday for his actual birthday we had sugar and carb overload with donuts in the morning, chicken patties for dinner, and cinnamon rolls for dessert.  Baden didn't even want to eat his cinnamon roll he was too stuffed.  It was a simple but hopefully a good birthday for Baden.  We love you Baden!

Jillian's 17th Birthday (3/31/2020)

Even though I did not post several of her past birthdays, it doesn't mean it's too late to start it up again. Jillian turned 17! She has been driving since last August and is such a sweet girl.  I am so grateful for her!  We spent the day riding bikes, eating quarantine style chik filet, doing a social distanced visit with Grandma and Grandpa, Eating pizza, opening presents, and munching on some yummy dessert. 

Hopefully she had a good quarantine birthday!

Long Time

I haven't posted on this blog for a very long time.  Last time I posted Baden was in Kindergarten.  He is now on his way to Junior High! Time has flown by and I can't believe it.  Jillian is going to be a Senior next year.  She is trying to figure out what she will be doing with her life after HS.  Bradley is going to be a Sophomore.  He is 6ft tall!   It's been 6 years, and a lot has happened in that time span, including a world wide pandemic this year. I would like to write everything down that we have done in the past 6 years but that feels like a tall task that at this point I am not willing to do.   I am grateful for my kids and the people they have become. I look forward to the future and I hope I post more often to continue to keep a record of our lives.

  

Bedroom makeovers

I should have posted 6 months ago. I redid my bedroom this summer. I was sick of the brown and dark colors. I was ready for soft natural colors. I originally wanted to do Kelly Green, navy blue, and coral, but when my mom and I went to the fabric store we found the fabric that I originally wanted for my family room. It was $21/yd when I wanted it. We found it for $3/yd. Ummm ya we bought it and I changed my color scheme. I painted the walls and bathroom in 2 tones. The two tones used together to create the stripes. I painted the dresser blue using $2 paint from HD. All the pillows and curtains were hand sewn and the mirror painted yellow. The art work is a very simple painting of leaves and a bird. I am not an artist but it works. I also took a black chair and recovered it.

Before

Process

 After

Summer... Full Steam Ahead!

Hello blogging world!  I really want to continue blogging regardless of who views this blog.  This is a record of my family and our lives.   Kids are done with school for the year. I finished my first year of substitute teaching.  It was a transition to go back to work but it worked out and we all grew because of it.  Life doesn't always go in the directions we are expecting but that doesn't mean we can't adjust and roll with it. Sometimes the adjusting period takes a little longer than expected though.  I just keep one little quote in the back of my mind when life feels hard, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming...." Yup that Dory really new what she was talking about.  The best thing to do in life when you are not really sure where things are going is to just keep swimming or moving.   So that is what we have done and to be quite honest we have had a great school year!    Jillian finished 5th grade, Bradley 3rd, and Baden kindergarten. Bradley played flag football and Jillian played soccer.  She tried out for her first competitive team and made it. She is a good little soccer player and we hope she has great experience playing on her new team.  Jillian is also going to do student counsel next year in 6th grade.  The boys continue to love the video games and I continue to tell that to get off the video games so their brains won't rot. So far their brains are just fine.  All the kids did great in school! Even little Baden. We weren't sure how he would do this year.  He was ahead in all of the areas of study for Kindergarten. He really has come a long way.  Way to go Baden!

As always pictures below...

Baden and his Mrs. Rackle

Baden graduation

Baden Graduation. Cute smile

Jillian's project. She was The Unsinkable Molly Brown. 

Jillian Student Counsel 

Bradley's project.  Sir Isaac Newton

Jillian with her friend at wax museum.  Yup I made that hat.  

Jillian Soccer team

My pulled together backyard from random pieces of furniture. I love!

Hello.... Anybody there?

As you know it is the middle of May and and I have slacked on my blog posts.  Even though very few people look at my blog, I do want to keep it up as a record of my family and our happenings.   The kids did have birthdays, Christmas, and other celebrations this year and I am usually so good about posting something from these occasions.  This is my attempt at trying to make up for lost post entries.

Christmas. Look what Pete the Elf did to our tree!

Christmas Eve before dinner. 

Christmas Eve.... Kiddies

Christmas Eve... Birth of the Savior.

Pajamas!

Christmas Morning

Jillians Gift

Skirt from Grandma

Valentines day! Baden 

Bradley and his cool box. 

Jillian and her cute box. 

Ragnar princesses! 5th year!

Jillian Birthday! 11! Mystery dinner and a movie.