Ears Pierced

Malia has been waiting for this day since McKenzie got her ears pierced.  Now that she is 8 she is finally able to get hers done too.  She has watched and waited for her turn for a long time and we told her that if she waited till we moved to Minnesota, we could get her ears pierced in the Mall of America (really we just wanted her to wait until we moved so we didn't have to worry about taking care of her ears in the middle of chaos).  So she waited even longer than she wanted, till November even (things were really nuts till after Halloween) and we finally went to the Mall and had them done.  She was a trooper.

 She didn't cry at all, although I do remember her getting a little light headed and need to sit down for a bit.  We gave her a lollipop to help perk her up.  Such an excited girl!!!

Fall 2015

 Moving into a new home right before the holiday's started proved to be difficult.  Not having a whole lot of help unpacking since kids were in school and a husband at work, left me with no time to decorate or even really do anything fun for Halloween.  We were lucky to find costumes for everyone.  Our ward had a trunk or treat a few days before Halloween and then we ventured out into our new neighborhood.

 Here's right before we left for a candy haul.

 We did carve pumpkins...

But only 2.  It was too much to handle.

We also were informed about this nursery that has a huge corn pit.  It was girnormous!  The hay stacks went up to about my waist and it had to have been about10-15 feet across and 20-30 feet long.  It was like a swimming pool of corn.  The kids loved it.

 Can you tell?

We also had a couple concerts in the fall.

Hopefully I'll get my act together soon and remember everything that happens.

McKenzie's 15!!!

And just like that she's 15!  Going back and posting these life events has really made me see just how fast things change.  I stopped blogging right as McKay was born and now here I am 2 years later trying to catch up and it seems like yesterday we were leaving Utah.  I have 3 short years with this girl before she graduates.  She has grown up before our eyes, next thing we'll know, she's be having kids of her own.  I remember turning 15 thinking being an adult would be so much more fun, ruling my life, doing what I want, when I want.  But I realize my teenage years were one of the best times of my life.  I hope she sees that right now.  I hope she enjoys these years and stops worrying about trying to grow up so fast.  I promise lil Kenz, those days will come and you'll miss these annoying teen aged years.

 I don't remember what we did for her birthday other than sing to her.  Probably because we had just moved in and restarted school so I was heavily involved in unpacking and trying to settle the kids into a new routine.

 But this girl can always bring a smile to my face.  You never know what is going to come out of her mouth, what "deep" question she is going to ask or what masculine burp will escape.  There is never a dull moment with her around...unless she is on her phone snap crapping.

 While unpacking we found a pair of XXX sized sweats Randy bought for work back in Indy as a backup pair for his employees just in case there was chemical spill.  Not sure why he got such big pants but Kenz and I decided to put both of our booty's in those before finding them a new home.

 Over the years she has changed her mind a few times of what she wants to be/do when she grows up.  Some days it's been a veterinarian, other days a nurse or a teacher. At this moment of her life, she wants to be a cosmetologist.  Not sure where she will use this kind of makeup, lol. 

All I know is that she is really good at captivating an audience.  She loves to engage people in doing something fun.  Being the social butterfly that she is, she is never content sitting around at home and I know as soon as she gets her license we will never see her again.  Stay little Kenz, for my sake. 

We Love Missionaries

Living in Utah you don't realize how little you see the missionaries assigned to your ward.  The only reason we ever saw them while we were there was because at some point Randy was the ward mission leader and when we had the chance to feed them (which was very few and far between) we would, but we never really got to bond with any of them.  Not the way we have since leaving Utah.  We had instant bonds with many of the missionaries.  We would have each set over at least once a month, usually more depending on how empty their calendars were, and at one point we had 3 sets of missionaries. So they were over a lot.  It was always hard saying bye to these valiant young men and woman, but we are grateful for the friendships we formed.  Let's see if I can remember all of their names.  This is Elder Diaz.  We like to call him Dinkus Diaz.  He was pretty forgetful.

 Sister Ben and Sister Sandberg.  They helped us clean and paint before leaving.

 Elder Hackney, we called him Acme or Acne.

 Elder Redmond, or Elder Irish.  He is the only Irish missionary out serving right now.

 Elder Lord's and Irish (again)  Kenz became really good friends with Lord's younger brother through Facebook. They still talk all of the time.  

 Irish, Wilkison, Clayson and Lords.  Wilkison was aka Wilki or Wilki Way.  Do you notice a theme with nicknames?

 Kitchen and Peel, haha, don't ya love that.  Those are not nicknames.

 Palmer!

 Vidmar and Peel. We called her Viddy or Auntie Kylie cuz we really wanted her to marry uncle James.  That didn't happen, but she is marrying Acme in August 2016.

 Sperry, a quiet soul.  Great missionary though.

 Sperry, Palmer, Viddy and Peel.

 Acme, Mortenson (Morty) and Palmer.  Morty just proposed to Peel. We are so excited for the two of them!!!

 Diaz, Morty, Lorsche (aka Vector from Despicable Me) and Palmer.

 I can't remember this missionary very well.  He didn't stay long, but you can see that Vector really like to be picked up, and Dinkus, who is actually married to another sister missionary who I never got to meet.

 Wilki, Tanner, Irish and Bair.  Masie sure loved Irish.  He was her favorite

 Bari and Irish.

 One more for the road.

Calvart or Canada.  She's from Canada so that was obvious.

Moving to MN we've even made some good connection.  Elder Taugavau or Tutu.  We found out that we are related.  His uncle Kilangi is married to Lenora my cousin.  So he would call me auntie a lot.  He is awesome!!!

 We have even become friends with some of the moms.  Elder Lord's mom sent me a message asking if we would take a picture wishing him a happy birthday.  Can you tell we love missionaries.

I know I will have more.  We just can't get enough of these crazy kids.  I guess growing up having missionaries over all of the time and having 8 siblings and parents serve mission has helped with this passion.

Randmoness

As I'm making these posts I'm finding more and more random pics from my phone that don't really have a  home but I thought they were either cute or funny so I decided to make a post all of its own of random shots.  Kaders was nervous about swings for a while.  Every time he'd swing, he'd grunt on the forward motion till he got use to it.  It was pretty cute.

 He sure loved playing in the sandbox.

Everyone did for that matter.

 We got a wiggle car for a killer price in the winter and since it's too cold outside till about April and we had a massive main level with lots of wood and tile flooring, this toy got a lot of use.

 Kenz stole my phone and had to get some selfies at the temple open house.

 This is how Masie usually sleeps.  Right up against the edge of her bed.  If it wasn't for her rail she would always be on the floor.

 Kaders discovered Nutella.  Or should I say his hair discovered it.

 Just being cute.

 More of the Children's museum.  This is in the ancient exploration area.  This kids are digging up things.

 Gotta make sure you wear protective gear, even it's on upside down.

 We like to try and wear these two out.

 More sandbox cuteness

 I did  take two shots of Randy's surgery. Well before his surgery.  He looks so forlorn.

 My cute boys

 And sometimes just weird

 OK, really weird!

 I guess it kept her busy during General Conference so that's all that mattered.

 Upon arriving to MN we found out that band starts in 5th grade so we jumped at the chance to have Micah begin lessons.  He chose percussion.  Hope my nerves hold up.