Sunday Photo: 33

Before church:

After church:

Today Avery found an air soft pellet in the backyard and was carrying it around like it was a jewel.  The backyard is full of them thanks to our older cousins.  Then she shoved the baby up her nose.

And at moments like this, even though I know it could be an emergency, I am glad Wade held it together.

I mean really - seizures, heart surgeries - those I can handle, but when things go up noses?  

(Because Avery has done this before) 

All I can do is laugh.

Poor Wade was in the bathroom trying to lecture her about what to not put in her nose and I was hiding in the other room laughing. 

Wade kept it cool and got her to blow it out.

Proud moment,

let me tell you.

Happy, Happy Sunday.

~~

ps.  I changed some privacy settings with blogger.  I don't think I'll go private just yet.

{Eli is 3}

Look who turned 3...

Eli Owen!

Wednesday Eli celebrated the big day by turning "free"  He has been telling everyone he meets that his birthday is in August.  It took him a while to convince that he really was turning 3, he wanted to be 4, or 2, or even 1.  But finally he has got the hang of it.

Eli is a great little boy.  He loves to play outside and loves cars.  He does not like spiders, and will scream like it's an emergency if he sees one.  Ants, on the other hand he will play with and smash for days.

I asked Eli a few questions and got these fun answers:

Favorite color: blue

Favorite song: That's what makes you beautiful, and Popcorn Popping

Favorite toy: bike and scooter

Favorite movie: Cars

Favorite animal: "elephants, and giraffes, and tigers, and monkeys and dolphins and more dolphins"

Favorite food: candy

Favorite drink: chocolate milk

Favorite thing to do: play with Avery

Favorite person: Avery and Daddy

Eli is such a fun boy.  He really does eat just about anything we give him, although he does really love candy too.  If he can find it than he will eat it..and sneak it..and find a way to get it.  He loves to have drinks of juice or chocolate milk.  He loves sausage and pancakes.

Eli has been of my easiest babies.  Maybe it's because he has his fingers in his mouth all the time, but he really is a pretty easy going boy.  He loves his blankies (he has two) and his fingers.  Take those away (the blankies, not the fingers) and he gets pretty mad.  He sleeps really well, loves his big boy bed, and still takes a nap every afternoon.  

Eli loves his bike.  He could ride it all day every day.  One day I saw him riding in circles in the backyard this summer and when he saw me looking at him he yelled to me, "ME SO HAPPY MOM!"

Unfortunately, I hit his bike with my van last week and it damaged the wheels.  Wade says it is fixable, but we haven't done it yet.  We were thinking of getting him a scooter anyway, so he got a new scooter for his birthday!  He loves it.  He rides it in the house and out of the house.  He rides it pretty much all the time.  He got a new helmet from Grandpa.  He loves to wear it around and hit things with his head! haha.  

It took him a long time to come around to it, but Eli loves nursery class at church.  He walks in and waves goodbye and doesn't even look back.  His favorite part is in our new nursery he gets to eat gummy bears if he sings during singing time.  He loves to tell me after church every week, "I eat gummy bears without you mommy!"

For Eli's birthday we celebrated by taking a walk around the block with his scooter.  We went to the park and we played at home.  We went to McDonalds to play in the playplace and cheeseburgers and had ice cream cupcakes.  He had a great day!

Three is the terrible twos in our family - so this year will be a challenge, I am sure.  But Eli is great and we are so happy he is part of our family!

We love our Eli!!

First Day of School

This week we had the first day of school!

We moved this summer, so our kids are back in traditional school.  I ended up really enjoying year round school last year.  I might miss it, I might not, time will tell.  Hopefully we don't get one month in and the kids start asking when they can go off track!

Noah started first grade!  What a nut.  

It's hard to believe he will be gone all day long.  

I had to pack 2 lunches this morning!

He is most excited about eating lunch at school.

Their school has two tracks for the kids - early or late schedule, and we picked early, so they both get home at 2:15, so it honestly doesn't feel like all day long, but it's still a change.  

At school lining up:

Favorite part of the day: eating lunch 

What do you want to learn this year: about skeletons

Least favorite part of the day: learning the rules

Something funny: "When I told the people around me that they couldn't eat me because I am an early bird and they are later gaters....get it mom, they are gaters and would eat me because I am a bird.  But they can't eat me, right?"

~~

Gage started 4th grade!  Wow, that makes me feel so old!

(look at Noah the crazy boy dancing in the background!)

This is Gage's 3rd school in 4 years. We've talk to him a lot about making friends.  Good friends, versus bad friends.  How to make friends.  I think this guy is amazing.  Not everyone can move so much and stay so positive.

 He was excited and nervous, but headed off this morning like a champ.

At school lining up:

Gage wouldn't tell me much about his day.  He did make some friends.  He said he played tag at recess.  His room is really hot.  He said his teacher has Percy Jackson books and he wants to read them.  He says the school day seems much shorter since he gets out early.  He likes that.

~~

This morning they were totally hamming it up.

I told them to stand still and make one nice face.

This is what I got - and you can still see it in their eyes!

Love these boys.

They make my day.

~~

After school we had our traditional first day of school root beer floats.

Here's to a great school year!

Private

Don't be alarmed, nothing has happened and nothing is wrong...but our blog will be going private for a short time.  If you would like an invite please email me at: wadeanddebbi@gmail.com

That's all!

Bow Hunt 2013

The bow hunt opened this weekend.  

We were totally bummed that Wade didn't draw out for it this year.  I am not sure how that even happened, I thought everyone always drew out for the deer hunts, but that is just how our luck has gone this year.

Either way, he went to help his brother and it was a fun opportunity for  the big boys to go camping with dad.  

Friday night when Grandpa got home from work, they loaded up and headed out!

They camped this year with my sister in laws family.  It's like their family reunion, because the camp has well over 100 people in it.  From this picture you can see the circle camp below.

Gage's favorite part was the zip line.  He went down at least six times he said.  Noah wouldn't go down.  And I don't blame him.  I've been down this exact line once (back before kids when I actually went on the hunt with Wade) and it is super high!

Gage in the trailer

Grandpa catching a nap.

Riding the razor.

And Sunday they have a little church meeting.  Noah was pretty stoked about being able to have root beer in church.  This picture cracks me up.

Of course, since Wade was over documenting this, I didn't get a lot of pictures.  But they did have a great time.  They had a candy hunt for the kids and lots of activities.  My favorite story is that Noah tried to show everyone in the big camp how to make farting noises with your arm pits.  Lovely.

I tried to upload a video of Gage on the zip line. My sister in law took it.  It gets a little shaky at the end, but it's fun.  Hopefully it works!  I love Gage's face at the very end.

~~~

As much as I like camping, especially with babies - hahahah!  - I like staying home from the hunt and having a girls/crafty weekend.  (Plus Eli...poor kid always get bunched with the girls.)  Next year he will be potty trained and get to go!  It's always fun to plan a craft, put the littles to bed early and watch chick flicks and eat chocolate.  I got series one and two of Gilmore Girls at the library this year and did a few projects.  I sold some of my scrapbook kits earlier this summer and have been saving my money for little things here and there.  I used my secret stash money and spent less than $20!  I did get a head ache from the modge podge though.  (or it could have been from Eli screaming about not wanting to watch the Barbie movie Avery picked out at the library?)

I made some state art.  Not the best picture, the modge podge is still wet, but they turned out super cute.  All the states we have lived and where everyone has been born.  Iowa (Noah's state)   Utah (Wade, Gage and Lucy's state) and Washington (Avery, Eli and my state).

I printed some of my favorite summer instagram pictures and made a photo block.

And then when the boys got home I finished my last project, new feet pictures.

~~

I think it was a perfect weekend overall - the boys had fun and we had a relaxing weekend at home too.  

Can't wait for the hunt next year!

Sunday Photo: 32

My boys are all home from the bow hunt.

I got a text message from Wade this afternoon that said they were coming down the canyon and they would be home around bedtime.  

And then I got this picture message too.

"How Noah feels about having root beer during church."

Awesome.

They all collapsed from exhaustion when they got home.

I can't wait to hear more about it tomorrow.

{Summertime} part 2

The last part of the summer has flown by.

School starts next week so summer is officially coming to a close.

We've spent time with some super friends.

We've spent time riding around in Grandpa's yard.

Lucy has made art with mash potatoes.

One week we went up American Fork Canyon for Family Night.  We took some fried chicken.

Everyone loves a good chicken leg.

We threw rocks in the river and played in the water.

Wade has started to grow this beard.  I am not sure what I think of it.  This was day 3.  I need an updated picture.  I am hoping that after the bow hunt is over he will shave it!

Lucy Lu ate lots of ice cream.

One afternoon we headed out to Neptune Park in Saratoga Springs.  It has this huge climbing pyramid and not your typical park toys.  It's so fun!  

One Saturday we drove up and hiked at Cascade Springs.  

The fires out west have been turning our sky orange!

There is a great splash-pad/river park in Highland that the kids have loved to visit.

Noah proved he can do a head stand anywhere!

Noah and Eli are quite the little monkies!  They have figured out how to climb Grandpa's walls!

The bow hunt is this weekend as the fast hurrah before school starts.  

I can't wait to see all the pictures and hear all the stories they have to tell me about their adventure!

And hopefully I can blog that soon too!

Bullard Reunion 2013

The last weekend in July was a big one for us - it was our Bullard Family Reunion!

There are six kids in my family and we live in 5 different states: Colorado, New Mexico, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.  Add to the mix that my parents live in Washington,  and you see why it's a pretty big deal when we all get together!

We try to have one every other year, the last one we had was in McCall in 2011.  Since then we've had two more grandkids added to the mix!

This year we ended up hosting the reunion in Utah.  My sister Kathy did a lot of the work, although I think since I live here I was technically supposed to help too?!  My kids were so excited and kept asking every day when everyone would be here so we could have the family reunion at the cabin.  

Lunch the day before the reunion with my parents, Lucy found the water fascinating.

Thursday afternoon, off we went.  Someone was breathing someone else's air, someone was in someone's space and someone was touching someone else - all before we left the driveway.  Good thing we only had to drive to Heber!

We stayed in two different cabins to the east of Heber.  My parents and older (more boring) 3 siblings and families stayed in one cablin and then the younger (cooler) siblings and families stayed in another cabin.  Can you guess what cabin I stayed in?  I am number 5 in the family.  

Ours had this cool magnet wall with pipes to make ball runs.  It would be so easy to add this to a house - you can bet I will have one like this someday!  It entertained my kids (and husband) for hours!

Friday morning there was a little business: we were supposed to meet with my parents and a lawyer over skype to go over fun stuff...like what happens when mom and dad get old.  Really - not the highlight of the reunion, but I think it was a good idea.  (okay..I totally skipped the skype meeting, but I thought the younger siblings didn't have to be there!)  Anyway - I showed up at the end, and I did have some ideas and suggestions.  After losing Wade's mom so fast this spring, we realized it is possible.  And it is a very wise idea to sit down with everyone and talk about plans and what we expect to happen, before it gets too late.

moving on....

Friday we headed over to Park City to do some fun touristy stuff.  

We rode the Alpine slide.

And Wade made fun of me the entire time on the ski lift.  

I was freaking out.  I cannot ride those things.  Add 4 kids to the mix, I thought we were all going to die.

You can all laugh at me now.

Gage and Noah jumped on the trampolines.  I don't know why I don't have any pictures of Noah.  I did get videos of both of them.

Since Avery and Eli didn't weigh enough to jump, they both got a turn on a kiddie ride. 

Saturday we took some family pictures.  Then we walked to the top of the old Homestead Crater in Midway.

That afternoon we rode the Heber Creeper.  It was a huge hit with the little kids!

These cute little cousins were joined at the hip.  They had such a fun time playing together!

One of these Christiansen boys is excited - one is not.  

Our train got robbed!  And when the gunman came on the train and yelled "hands up" Noah dropped flat to the floor!  Silly boy.

The train ride was fun, even with the gunman.  They had a girl playing live music and she would take request.  She played Star Wars for the boys - and then she even played the Happy Birthday Song and the whole train car sang happy birthday to Grandma!

(It really was her birthday!)

Saturday night Wade made everyone cotton candy.

Sunday we relaxed.  Grandma came over to our cabin and french braided all the little girls hair.  Avery had been asking when Grandma could do it for so long.  She was so excited and sat so still.

Sunday evening we met at the grown up cabin and had a family meeting.  We learned some family history and played a few games.

I took a couple pictures of all the grandkids.

 (minus 2, one that had to work, and another who is serving a mission).

Look closely at Eli in the one below.  This has become my all time favorite pictures of him! What a nut!

And then Monday morning came and we tried to relax and soak in all the nature and relaxing quietness we could before heading home.

It was such a fun time.  I am thankful we could go and that my parents made it possible for everyone to be there.  We have been very blessed to have such great parents who are loving examples to us.  

I can't wait till the next one - 2015!