Bumblebee and Back to School

I feel like I just blogged about the kids last day at school and already I'm blogging about their first day back. This summer flew by and we had a blast at every fun trip we took but I think we all needed school to start again so we'd stay home more.

On a little side note we have some friends who live by us that have a car that gets our kids all rowled up every time they see it. We first saw it at the car show here in town...It looks like Bumblebee, it sounds like Bumblebee so my kids are determined that it is the actual Bumblebee!


They were beyond excited when our friends Bill and Suzanne came over to take them for the ride of their life in it.


They had so much fun that they were smiling the rest of the night.


Now onto school...
Its funny how I get so excited for them to get back into some sort of routine, and meet more friends, and actually do something constructive each day that I forget how emotional I get every time the day actually comes for them to start school again.

We switched the kids this year to attend the school that the rest of the kids in the neighborhood attend. And I'm so glad we did! It was the brightest morning; a perfect start to a very exciting day.
Kollin started 3rd grade this year.


Kaylee started 1st grade this year and was ecstatic that she got to stay the whole day.


Oh I'm gonna treasure this picture! Kol and Kay have been best buds since they started and I hope it will bring them closer as they go each year together in school.


We only have one bus stop in our neighborhood and the other day I counted 42 kids getting on.


Kollin is beyond me following him around with a camera so Kaylee got it bad! Here's my sweetie starting her first day of 1st Grade.


Kooper started Kindergarten this year but had to wait an extra week from the other kids. It was the longest week of his life but we had a lot of fun it just being him, me and Khloe at home together. But the day finally came and Kooper was the first one to be ready to go that morning. I know its not going to be like this very long so I captured every second...




Kooper sits at the same table with two of his friends from the neighborhood so he was excited and ready for me to go. Reading books all day, play-do, drawing, recess, snacks, riding the bus...I'm starting to wish they had a Kindergarten for moms:)


I'm so proud of who my kids are becoming. Yes we have our rough days but I know I've done my best to teach them right and wrong, how to act and how to treat other people. They'll have days where they make mistakes and wrong choices, but that's all about growing up isn't it?! I am loving and treasuring every moment of them being young...it'll be gone too fast!

Holidays Part 2 and New Years!

We've had a fun but busy few weeks since Christmas trying to get back into schedules and activities and I realized today that I never posted the second half of our Holiday...

While we were down in Salt Lake a few weeks before Christmas Kollin and Kaylee went to my Moms work and went Caroling with her Residents. Kollin LOVED this! So much that he wanted to go caroling to all our friends and bring them some treats...sooo with MUCH love I agreed! (I love to sing...by myself! I cannot carry a tune and was nervous as heck to go sing in front of our friends.) We spent two nights caroling and visiting friends and I know I've said this in previous years posts but there are NO words for how much I love Vernal at Christmas time. Main street is decorated, our beloved town dinosaur is dressed up, there are lights on so many buildings and I just love going around the town just soaking it all in! One night we went to the city offices to see the lights with the COOLEST glasses ever! You look in them and all, I mean ALL the individual light bulbs become either Santa Claus's, snowmen or snowflakes...as if lights by themselves weren't beautiful enough!

We were hoping for more snow to fall before Christmas but it all came after...there still was enough to enjoy though. Kevin and Kooper having a snowball fight.


Me and some of the kids with our hip glasses!


Our sweeties...Kaylee and Khloe.


Since we moved here two years ago we've found our favorite spot to take a simple family shot each winter. This was this years...


This was last years...(as I was saying, the snow came earlier last year)


And if only Kevin were home I could get the one of our first year here in Vernal...but I cant get the dang computer to recognize our hard drive storage from our old computer...
Its sweet to see how much the kids have grown in only a year!

And now to the really good stuff...These are my favorite shots taken from Christmas Eve and Morning.
Our Christmas Jammies...


Grammy with the Grandkids at the house in their jammies...


We were so excited to have my Mom and Kyle and Stacey here for Christmas this year! I have never (since that night) heard of the TV show "Minute to win it". Well my Mom put together some of the most recent ones from the show. Man, we had a blast and the kids wanted to do them over and over and over again!

Here's Kollin and Kaylee trying to jump until all the Christmas ornaments come out of a little hole in a tissue box...


Kooper and Khloe tryin it...


Even us adults got into the action. This is my sister Stacey and I playing. (Love ya Stace...I posted this one mainly because it didn't show my crazy face, but I LOVED yours!!)


We also played one where we had to blow these ornaments til they stayed in the taped off square...A LOT harder than it looks!


One of the kids favorite Christmas Eve tradition is opening a present that they chose for each other.


Then we did the traditional "Nativity Story" and read a Up on the Housetop book the get the kids all excited for Santa Claus and got his plate ready.

All the kids placing cookies on a cooking sheet. (Yes these are pre-made cookies but they are the BEST pre-made cookies ever and their our favorite!)


"Rylan, is there something in your mouth?" He was so funny...loved the cookies and they weren't even cooked yet:)


We all went outside and spread some reindeer food (so the reindeer were sure to find our house)...


And got those kiddos to bed!! We got everything laid out...



got a few hours of sleep...

...just in time for the kids to wake us up READY to go see what Santa brought!


Kaylee asked Santa for her own Pink DS this year...I think by her expression Santa delivered!!


My Mom got all the kids snow toys which we needed soooo bad! They were ready to get out there!


And they each got their own snuggie...


Its amazing how quickly the house gets TRASHED on Christmas!


Holy Moly...bring on the trash bags!!


The kids big present was a new trampoline! Our friends that lived here before didn't want to move theirs and offered it to us...um YEA!!! The kids were wayyy excited...now we look at it under a huge pile of snow! But Christmas morning they were excited!! (I didn't want to walk out too deep into the snow so I only got their expressions in the shot...not the trampoline. But you know what they look like:)!)



Since moving here Kevin has picked up a new hobby that our boys are lovin...Hunting!! Kollin and Kooper got their very own BB Gun (that they'll only use when Daddy's around...nope, I'll shoot my eye out for sure!)


And they weren't the only ones getting a gun...


Paul and Cindy came out the day after Christmas and gave Kevin his very own Shotgun!


And I have to brag because It completely caught me off guard but Cindy and Kevin got me a KITCHEN AID!! I've wanted one for sooooo long but knew I'd never have the money. Oh man does this baby dish up some amazing cookies...well cookie dough:)


It was an incredible Christmas. I'm sad but in a way so glad its over. Because Kaylee, Kooper and Khloe got their very own DS or Leapster this is how the kids were A LOT until school started! At one point we had Kollin in the kitchen playing his, Kaylee on the stairs, Khloe on the couch and good ole' Kooper was on the toilet playing his...ALL AT THE SAME TIME!! So fun!!


For New Years we had some great friends come over. We had WAYYY too much food! But sooo good. Chocolate Fondue with pretzels, marshmallows, strawberries and bananas and Mozzarella Fondue with Cheese sticks and French bread and meatballs, and Queso Cheese fondue with quesadillas, chips and taquitos AND BBQ wieners, chips and dip, soda...I'm serious - I'm still workin all that off! We played some more games...






We had a relay that went from trying to get a cookie into your mouth without touching it...


...to scoot around the island on a towel...




...to putting together cereal box puzzles...


...to trying to pick up noodles with one spaghetti noodle!


Here's Kollin trying to do the cookie into the mouth thing...wayyy harder than it seems!


It was such a blast and was so great having friends to share it with!


I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and safe New Year!! But here in the Ashcraft house we've started yet another year...our schedule is already crazy with non-stop activities each day. The kids have soccer starting - this year Kollin, Kaylee and Kooper get to play and Khloe has Itty Bitty Ball starting in a couple weeks and Dance starting in February. Kollin has Piano each week, Kevin has Church Basketball and we're playing on a Co-Ed Volleyball team at the Rec Center which is THE MOST FUN EVER! I'm also playing on a 4 on 4 volleyball team and doing an all day Split Mountain Volleyball team in March...CRAZY FUN!!

But I think the thing we're most excited about is for Valentines Day this year Kevin and I are going on a CRUISE!!! We've never done one but have seriously been dreaming of one! Our friends here invited us to go with them on a Mexican Rivera Cruise for 7 days! YAYYYYY!!! We have some other friends who offered to move into our house for the week and watch our kids...so 28 days and counting!! And the weather here hasnt been warmer than about 10 degrees since Christmas so man on man we are dreaming of the BEACH!!!

Until next time...