{First Day!}

We have now all officially had our first day of school this year!

Last week the big kids started!

Our school is starting a new tradition this year and all the kids are in "houses" similar to something you might see in Harry Potter.  Their houses were selected last spring and at back to school night they all received a house shirt and a letter welcoming them into their house. I have to admit...at first I was a little leery about the house shirts on the first day, Avery had a special outfit picked out.  (my boys don't care, as long as it's basketball shorts and a tee shirt they are good to go).  But then the thought came to me... not every child at the school has the opportunity to have a new special outfit.  How would I feel as that parent, or as that child?  The house shirt might not be my thing, but I LOVED that everyone started the first day with something new!

 I also get the opportunity this year to be a house mom.  I'm in a different house than all the kids, but I'm so excited for this and I think it will be so much fun.  I attended an assembly the first day of school and got to see all the kids in the school sitting together in their houses.  What a sight to see!  It really was amazing.

On the first day of school our teachers and staff went over the top in welcoming the students back.  They always work so hard!  They lined the sidewalks with balloons and had music playing and all were out front welcoming and dancing with the kids.  It was such a fun atmosphere!  If any kid was sad to go back to school, this party probably changed their mind!

Avery started first grade.  

Of course, she came home and said she loved every minute of it.  She has Mrs. Blair who is new to our school this year.  She doesn't have a lot of her friends from kindergarten in her class but she said she remembered what I taught her about introducing herself to someone and said she made a new friend.  She said her favorite part of the day was eating lunch with Noah.  (the 1st and 3rd are in the lunch room at the same time).  She said she loved the assembly and learning and doing her class cheer.  She said the only bad thing she can think of about first grade is it makes her really tired.  A couple days into school I asked her if she liked Mrs. Blair and she replied "Well of course I already love her, why wouldn't I?"

Noah has started 3rd grade this year! 

He seems so big and old all of the sudden.  He was super excited last year when he got picked to be on the orange house (that is his favorite color).  He was even more excited when he found out their animal is a turtle (his favorite) and the teacher in charge is the librarian.  Noah loves Mrs. Mercer.  Noah has a lot of friends in his class this year.  I think almost every single 8-9 year old boy in our ward is in his class.  I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing for his teacher, but Noah loves it!  He says he really likes Ms. Sweat and that she is really nice.  He says is excited for her because her son comes home from his mission soon.  He said his favorite part of his first day was eating lunch with Avery and his friends.  He says 3rd grade doesn't seem as long as 2nd grade, but he said recess seemed shorter.  He is really excited for this year.

Gage is in 6th grade this year!

(wow that make me feel super old!)

Gage is pretty excited to be the oldest in the school this year.  Last spring the school had pictures taken of all the 6th graders doing different action shots and the PTA blew them up large and decorated the front foyer with these pictures.  They are super fun to look at and show a lot of the different personalities.  Gage was very relieved when he saw his class list and saw a lot of his friends in his class.  He gets pretty anxious about what friends will be in his class.  He says Mrs. Martin is very nice and he likes that they get to rotate around to all three teachers in 6th grade.  His favorite part of the first day was the dance party at the beginning of school and his least favorite was that the air conditioning is broken in his classroom.  It's been a week now and it's still broken, but they are working on it.  He says it is pretty miserable in the afternoons, but they make it work.  He missed the deadline to be a hall monitor, but he is hoping to be able to help put up the flag every morning.

And then finally.....Today was the big day for Eli!

Despite my best efforts to keep him little forever, my little guy is growing up.  I usually am not a crier on the first day of school but today got to me.  Eli is my little buddy and I will miss him every morning.  But he is so excited and ready for school.

Today the school went all out again!  Kindergarten has a different start and stop time so all the classes were able to come out and line the sidewalks and cheer for the kindergarten kids. They had balloons and music and the works!  Eli seriously felt like he was on the red carpet.  It was so fun to watch him.  He gave so many people high five.  There was a line of 6th grade girls who all lined up and gave him five and you could just see his confidence level soar!  I walked him back to his class line up spot were his teacher, Mrs. Gasser was taking each kid by the hand and singing them each individually a song about their name.  (probably to help her remember all of them) but it made them each feel so special.  Eli has a different teacher than Avery had last year, but I really don't think there is a bad kindergarten option at all this year!  Any of the teachers would have been wonderful.  We are very excited for Mrs. Gasser.

Eli says his favorite part of the day today was going to school and playing at recess. When I asked him if there was anything he didn't like he said "nothing".  He really had a great day and already looking forward to going back.

 And then, not to be left out...I got to spend the morning with this silly girl, Lucy! Who is showing you her grumpy face and exactly how she feels about being the odd one out.  Since she has a late birthday she won't turn 3 until November and is too young for preschool this year even though most of her friends are starting it.  She spent the morning looking around the house asking for E-I?  Age?  Woah?  Abery?  She even asked for her cousin Charlotte....then she would answer her own self and sadly say  "oh yeah...at school" 

After 11 years of my arms being full of kids (and extra kids when I have watched kids as a job)....How is it possible for my arms to feel empty when I still have one child? It looks like it's going to be a long 3 years of just me and her.  But we did figure out we could eat chocolate together and not have to share!  So we just might make it work!

Here's to a great school year!  

{Five!}

My favorite little guy turns five today!

Eli is such a fun boy to spend time with and be around.  He comes up with the funniest things to say and is always making me smile.  Eli was our little surprise baby and then a surprise delivery too- he was the one and only baby out of the 5 kids that I actually went into labor with.  I still remember that morning 5 years ago.  I'm sure it was pretty comical.  We were running around the house not knowing what to do, or when to leave, or if it was labor or not...and this wasn't our first time around.  This was baby number 4!  We laughed and laughed (between contractions) on the way to the hospital about how we got to baby number four and still didn't even know what real labor was like.  Eli (and Avery) should have been the only two kids that were delivered by the same Dr. but since Eli came on his own and a little early, he was delivered by a medical student.  I guess his little spirit wanted to make sure all five of them had different doctors and different stories.

Eli was such a good baby.  He likes to boast that he is the "perfect" kid because he didn't have a heart defect or has had any seizures.  Not sure that qualifies him for perfection, but we'll take him just the way he is, any way he would have come.

Eli loves his sisters.  Which is a good thing since his older brothers like to tease him and tell him he is girl trapped.  He is always quick to tell Avery that her outfit looks nice or that Lucy looks pretty when we are getting dressed in the morning.  He loves Avery and misses her while she is at school.

Eli is SO excited to start school this year.  I really wish I could freeze him in time and not send him, but he is ready and so excited.  He took his assessment test last week and the teacher said he did great.  He knows all his letters and sounds and he is reading site words.  He will be the baby of the class, but he is ready.  He says I don't need to worry because  he will give me a big hug and a kiss every morning.

We're still working with him to learn to not suck on his two fingers.  It was such a lifesaver when I had two babies so close together...but man is it such a hard habit to break.  He does pretty good for a couple days and can even go to sleep without them, but then he'll have a bad afternoon or get upset and I'll find him downstairs in his bed with his blanket, sucking on his fingers.

Look - he uses one whole hand to show how old he is!

Eli's favorites, in his words:

Favorite color: blue

Favorite song: A long time ago in a beautiful place song.

(I Know that My Savior Loves Me)
(I have to say - there is not much better in the world than listening to Eli and Avery sing this every night at bedtime.  I LOVE this song and their little voices.)

Favorite movie: all boy movies, not barbie

Favorite toy: spiderman legos

Favorite thing to do: go to the kid museum (museum of natural curiosity)

Favorite food: I like everything in the whole wide world but mash potatoes

Favorite drink: root beer

Favorite show: Paw

Favorite book: spiderman books

Favorite animal: dogs and monkeys

Eli is always cracking us up.  Just the other night Wade asked if everyone would like to say bedtime prayer, Eli replied "no, I would rather do a puppet show instead"

He was laying in his bed, in his pajamas with socks on his hands.  This is just one example.  I could write a book with the funny things he does and says.

We think Eli is pretty awesome around here and we love him so much.  

Happy Birthday Eli!

Sunday Photo: 31

Three little monkeys.

Somehow church with just 3 kids should have been easier, but I felt like I had played a tackle football game by the end of sacrament meeting.  Silly kids.  Good thing they are cute.

I was reading through old blog posts this week and came across one from the beginning of the year.  My word for the year.  

Strive.

{make great efforts to achieve or obtain something}  

Heading into the school year I think it is good to remember this.  I will strive to be a better wife, mom, friend, daughter, sister, reader, runner, Christian, missionary, visiting teacher, employee, listener, writer, blogger.

I feel like I kinda lost it there for a while this year - my goal, what I wanted to focus on, but I still have a couple months left of the year.  I can still work on this.

I am going to strive to be better at being here in the moment.

Happy Sabbath Day

{Bullard Family Reunion 2015}

Every two years my parents host a family reunion for our family, since all of us are scattered in different states (except for me and one sister) and don't get to see each other that much.  We have the family reunion in different locations.  Since we really got serious about them we've had them in Washington (twice), Tennessee, Idaho and Utah.  This year was a family reunion year and we headed to San Diego (Carlsbad to be exact).

My sister found a house for us to rent right across the street from the beach and it was beautiful. (the singer Jewel used to own it) It fit all 28 of us, and we were missing my oldest sister's family that would have added 5 more.  We decided to drive instead of fly - I'm always up for a fun road trip.  So at 5am bright and early we headed off.  Wade was hoping that since we kept the kids up a little bit later the night before and tired them out at the ward pool party that they would all go back to sleep.  That NEVER happens.  No one went back to sleep, but Lucy, who feel asleep as we got off our exit 4 minutes from the house in California.

Wade was so happy!  He found out that our new van still had satellite radio.  He thought the free subscription had expired, but it worked!  We all humored him (and wished we had fallen back asleep) because he listened to the Hair Nation station all the way to St. George.

Then we found out even better news about our van...the wireless headphones!  The kids could listen to their movie and we could still listen to music too!  Maybe this is old news, but it was new news to us! haha

Road trip tricks:  New (noisey toys) for toddlers

And lego sets for big kids, and if you open the box like a tray they can hold it on their lap and build.  We haven't lost a piece yet!

We counted up how many states we have all visited on the way there.  I have NEVER been to California...everyone gasp now.  But I am still leading the way in states I have visited.

(and I realize that isn't the state line sign, I missed it, and took the one of Nevada on the way back home)

Number of states we have now visited after this trip (not including ones we only visited in an airport)

Wade: 30

Debbi: 37

Gage:21

Noah: 17

Avery: 9

Eli: 8

Lucy: 10

And then finally we made it!

(can you spy Gage?)  

With cousins outside the house.  

The sunset from our room.

The boys really enjoyed the theater room.  Sorry for the dark picture, they were watching Star Wars.

The first day (after visiting the beach again) we headed down to San Diego and went to the Mormon Battalion in Old Town.  It is SO cool and the kids loved it. (plus it was free!)

Then we ate some yummy Mexican and headed back home towards the beach.  We also stopped at the San Diego temple to walk around for a little bit.  

The first night there I fell in the water on the beach.  We weren't really expecting to go swimming, we just wanted to walk out and see what the beach was like.  I also twisted my ankle and my phone got wet.  The next day I woke up and found my phone charger stuck to my phone and looking like this!  Woah!  My phone (kinda) works now.  But it didn't work too well before either.  My ankle is on the mend.  My podiatrist husband has no sympathy for me because he says I wear flip flops too often and I have been running on it too.

I don't think we would have had this many tablets and electronics at our first reunion 10 years ago....this was just ones I gathered from the kitchen table one day while cleaning up. ha!

I really could overload this post with pictures from the beach.  Since it was so convenient - right across the street - we spent so much time there.  Everyone loved it!

The house came with a bunch of beach stuff - chairs and toys and a body board.  Wade didn't think one was enough, because we sent him to Costco one afternoon for essentials (diet coke, milk and ice cream) and he came out with diet coke, milk and another body board.  The kids had a great time laughing at me when I got out and tried it.  It was fun.

Lucy loves her cousin Charlotte.  Charlotte is like a big sister to Avery and Lucy.  Lucy wasn't too sure about the beach at first and was making me carry her and hold her a lot.  Then Charlotte came down and walked past us and into the water.  Lucy immediately looked at me and said,

"Put me down.  I be like Charlotte"

then she ran towards the water.

Eli LOVED the house we stayed in.  It as so big and so fun for him to wander around and explore.  I could never find him!  He loved playing with his triplet cousins.  He said "They locked me in a closet mom, and it was FUN!"

ha!

Friday we stayed pretty close to the house and did some family activities.  (and had more beach time).  We also had family pictures....and these two acted out some sort of shenanigans while waiting their turn.

I made this a trip of all sorts of firsts...My first trip to California, my first time body surfing in the ocean and my first time eating In-N-Out burger.  I realize that I live 5 minutes away from one, but I've never tried it before.  It was great (but the fries were not my favorite), I also tried my first fish taco from a little seafood stand in Carlsbad.  I don't think I'm a picky eater, but I've always been a little weirded out by fish tacos.  It was pretty good too.

Saturday we headed to the beach again (is that a surprise?) and Wade took the older boys to LegoLand!  They have always wanted to go to LegoLand, but then as we were preparing for this trip this year they got looking at it online and decided they would rather just spend their lawn mowing money at a lego store.  Plus they are getting a little older and they really didn't think it looked as fun as it always had. They didn't really care too much about rides or not....but then my sister and her family had a 3 day pass that they had one day left on they said we could use it.  So off the boys went.  They had a good time with Wade looking around and riding some rides.  They said it was pretty crowded, that the rides were "alright" but they did like going and they spent all their money at the stores there and had fun doing that!  Then they were ready to hop in the car and head home as fast as we could (because I wouldn't let them put together a big set until we got home)

I asked the kids what were their favorite things about reunion - they said:

Gage: the beach & buying legos

Noah: the beach & Lego Land

Avery: the beach, seeing Grandma & reading to her (they had the best spot...see below)

Eli: the beach & playing with the triplets

Lucy: Charlotte

Sunday morning we relaxed a little bit and slowly packed our stuff to head home.  Everyone gave Grandma and Grandpa big hugs and then we were off.  

I am so thankful for my mom and dad and all their hard work they put into this. They really worked hard at accommodating everyone and making sure everyone was happy.  I am so glad they work hard at keeping us all together although we all live apart.  I really lucked out and am blessed in the parent category.  I can't wait for our next reunion...it will be in 3 years for mom and dad's  big 50th!

{Lego Family History}

For our family reunion last week my mom gave each family an assignment to do a "family history project."  It was fun to see what everyone else did.  One of my sisters made some cookies for everyone to try that was a popular recipe where our ancestors lived.  One of my brother's family sang a song.  My other brother made a google map with points to birthplaces back a couple generations.

I thought and thought about what our family should do , but then one day it hit me...if I could find a way to combine legos and family history, the kids would be hooked.  So I told the kids a story about their 5th great grandmother who also spent some time living in Lehi, where we live now.  Then we set up a Lego movie with it.  They made a lot of it (but I did a lot of the voices).

All seven of us have a part in the movie at one point or another.  Wade has a part and Lucy even says "twain."

The kids really learned the story by making it interesting to them. 

(the boys thing the pig and gingerbread lego men photo bombs are so funny) 

Thanks mom for the idea...it was something we will need to do again!

(you can read the story by clicking here)

Sunday Photo: 30

It's garden time! I love having a garden and all the fresh food we get from it.

Tonight our dinner came almost entirely from the garden.

It doesn't get much fresher than garden-to-the-dinner-table in a matter of minutes!

Our corn didn't do as well as we had hoped this year, but we did have some really great corn on the cob tonight.  Avery and Eli ate so much!  Then we had assorted colored peppers chopped up, mixed with BBQ sauce and grilled like a tin foil dinner (SO yummy!).  Another side of these addictive Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Slices, and then some hot fresh Cabbage Farm Buns.  After a walk around the neighborhood to burn off  some energy we finished the meal off with some Lime Zucchini Cake (Wade made this one with lime instead of lemon and we are hooked!)

Wade put together this jar of picked vegetables yesterday too.  I can't wait to try it, it's all from our garden and so pretty!

Today I got to share a message with the Relief Society (women) at church.  I talked about goals...I think August/July is such a great time to re-evaluate how your goals are going and think about if you need to make any changes or make new ones.

I set a goal this year to read 52 books.  One book a week.  I little bit of a step down from last years 100 books.  But as of today I've read 64 books!  I think I'll change my goal and shoot for 100 again.  I need to find one more half marathon to run this year too.

I think goals are important.  I think they drive us.  I think when you have goals for the right reasons, for the right purpose you can really achieve true happiness. 

I really love this quote about goals and motivation...

“True motivation to achieve comes from a desire to serve the Lord. If you can see in each 

of the goals you select an opportunity to improve your ability to serve the Lord—which 

includes, of course, serving his children, and the first ones of his children that you must 

serve are your family members—then you’ll receive a desire to achieve that cannot be 

obtained in any other way. That motivation will be lasting because it will bring a continuing 

feeling of satisfaction. When I say “service,” I don’t mean just “service at convenience” 

because that’s not service at all. That’s only a self-serving activity.”

At the beginning of the year another member of our Relief Society presidency introduced our theme for the year and challenged the sisters to set goals that are focused on sisterhood and building up and  bringing our little group of women together.  So today I passed out the same hand out and asked the sisters to re-evaluate the goals they might have made at the beginning of the year.

At the end of the lesson I shared this video.  It is a little bit longer, but it's amazing. Worth the time to watch. I know that when we set goals that have the right purpose and we use our gifts and talents  with those goals that we can lift one another.

We need more lifting in this world.

I need to remember this.

Happy Sunday.