Kaden's 7th birthday party

Yesterday was a crazy day! We started the day (kind of) with Kaden's first soccer game (at noon, which is why the "kind of"). It was supposed to be his second, but the first one got rained out.

Kaden had his first "friends only" birthday party. I wasn't horribly stressed until I saw that the park we were planning on being at was reserved. Luckily we have a ton of parks close to our house, so I quickly found one that wasn't reserved and was basically empty. My sister, brother-in-law, my brother, and sister-in-law helped SO much with decorating and letting everyone coming know the change of plans. I wouldn't have been able to do this without them. Especially since Shane had to stay home with a very sick Lexi.

It was a Hulk party, which is why there are touches of purple here and there. 

(Hulk's shorts are purple.)

It was SO windy!

Cute baby Jared!

My sister-in-law, Angela, and her baby, Dewey.

Almost all of the kids. There were 15, but that was much better than the 22 I had thought were coming!

The game with the balloons was basically to see who could "HULK SMASH!" their balloon the fastest. I think the sharp blades of grass helped more than a few kids. ;)

They decorated their own cupcakes with Hulk faces.

Birthday boy!

Hayden (school friend) with his cupcake.

Ari and Ryley with their cupcakes.

Graysen!

Present time!

Ryley was so, so tired.

(All of my helpers in the background here.)

 Time for the pinata!

Serenity

Ryley

Ari (look at her expression - cracks me up)

Graysen

Kaden

Chase (school friend)

Logan (our resident baseball player)

Hayden

Jackson (another school friend)

Harrison

McKayla

 After we got through all the kids, the pinata was barely dented. I let Kaden have another few tries before turning it back over to the baseball player again.

Logan's turn again!

Logan got the hole big enough that candy started to fall, so I just dumped the rest out. The kids were SO happy and the parents probably hated me for giving their kids whistles and TONS of sugar and sending them home. Kaden said he had so much fun and that it was a great party!

Comic Con Anyone?

Shane was able to get some free tickets from his work for the Comic Con in Salt Lake on September 4th. We were so excited from all that we had heard about it and even pulled Kaden out of school early and Shane got off of work really early for it. Luckily for us, it was right across the street from City Creek. We walked to where the line was, and then saw that it wound around and around and around. One of the workers said it would be a FOUR hour wait from where we were. Forget that!

So we decided to check out City Creek since Shane and the kids hadn't ever been there.

 

We found the water! :)

We went to the Disney Store (I swear we are giving the kids so many clues about our upcoming trip!) to check it out. It was all of our first time's there. The kids were in heaven!

Loving the play castle that is set up.

Coloring time.

Disney songs and clips played in the background while all the kids colored.

 There were some items there that were on sale, so we actually had the kids pick out their own souvenirs without them knowing it! hahaha We told them that they can't have any of the stuff until AFTER the trip (but I'll bring it along and surprise them on the last day at the parks).

They were SO happy!

Shane and I felt bad that we had taken free tickets and then not used them when someone else in his office gladly would have stood in line for hours and hours, so we went back and the line was much smaller then. We stood in line for about 45 minutes and didn't move much. A family coming out of the building stopped and told us that, once you're inside the building (which we were still at least 30 minutes from), it was another 3 1/2 hour wait before we would get in to the kid area!!

At that point, the kids were tired, hot, and hungry (me, too) and Shane and I didn't feel badly anymore, so we got out of there! Plus, I learned that once you get inside, EVERYTHING costs money. $50 for a picture, $30 for an autograph, HOLY FREAKING CRAP! What was the point in charging admission?? I wasn't happy and will never, ever go to the Salt Lake Comic Con again. I've heard the San Diego one is run much better, but I'm really not that big of a nerd to want to attend.

Anyway, on the way back to the car, the kids wanted to play in the water area again. Lexi had a towel in the car, so I told her to get soaked if she wanted. :)

Kaden took some convincing to play in it.

Ari stayed on the outskirts the whole time. She wasn't a fan of the water.

Handsome little man! (Lexi got soaked!)

Cuddle buddies

Comic Con was a total bust, but we're still glad we went and were able to spend some family time at City Creek!

Back To School!

August 21st was back to school night for Kaden and Lexi. Kaden had soccer practice right before, so we had to rush over afterwards. His new teacher, Mrs. Dixon, had set up a photo booth for the kids with props to play with.

"Nerd" glasses.

I LOVE that Lexi made the bow tie a hair bow. It's so "Lexi."

Doing her mean viking face.

 August 25th was the first day of school!

Lexi was so, so, SO excited!

Kaden was more than ready to start school again.

Poor little Ari. haha

Cute kiddos!

 I almost forgot their graduation shirts, but remembered at the last minute. These are going to make great photo books for them someday.

They naturally pose like this. Best friends!

Random

I was looking through some pictures that I thought I had already posted here, but guess not! So now you get a random post with combined events. :D

While Steph (Hansen) was in town, we went on a shopping trip to IKEA. I have heard so much about their "famous meatballs," but neither of us had ever tried them, so we made sure to stop at the cafeteria/food court.

I'm not a big fan of meal in general, but I didn't think the meatballs were anything special. Definitely not something I would ever crave.

This amazingly scrumptious cake, however, will haunt my dreams until I get to have it again. I had to remind myself to snap a pic before it was gone! Steph got their apple pie and said it was heavy on the cinnamon, so I think their cake wins. :)

 

Playing in the ponchos

"Where's the arm holes?!" hahaha

Straight up gansta

August 3rd was my newest nephew, Dewey's, blessing. He looked very handsome.

My mom's face here cracks me up. She's a great grandma.

My kids can't get enough of babies! And, no, that doesn't change anything. ;)

And just a random picture of my kids...

Because how stinkin' cute are they?! Love!

Ogden Temple Open House

On August 15th, we went to the Ogden temple open house with my cousin and her cute girls. It was also my ward's day to volunteer there (which I found out after I'd reserved our tickets), which meant I knew a LOT of the volunteers working that day. 

Oh and we brought Cardboard Natalie, of course! haha

My friend/ward member in charge of the crosswalk let us steal her vest for a minute. That's our cousin, Stephanie, holding her baby, Abigail.

I need to figure out how to lighten them, but this is Steph with her oldest, Sophie, and Abigail.

Us with Cardboard Natalie and Sophie.

Our bishop was walking by and jumped in the picture, then I had to explain Cardboard Natalie to him. :)

Soph and Lexi. They LOVE each other.

We saw some sister missionaries walking around, so we grabbed them for a picture with C.N. The one on the right said while laughing, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever been asked to do!"

Potty break!

The temple was beautiful and the kids loved it. I'm always glad that they're so cute when they start being loud because people around me focus on "oh your kids are darling" instead of being annoyed that they're being loud. :) 

We went out for lunch afterwards at Arctic Circle to let the kids get their energy out! It was a great day!