A lot like childbirth!

I waited too long to write this post. Moving across the country with two cars, five children, a husband and a dog was a lot like being pregnant and going through labor. It quickly leaves your mind, so that maybe if you ever have to do it again, you won't remember the pain and agony that accompanied it. Am I being a little dramatic...well maybe, but just a little bit! I did have to ask my husband for a step by step account of our trip. I had pictures, so therefore I thought that I would remember. I make this mistake all of the time. I don't remember. Thank heavens for my husbands unbelievably good memory...now I can share it with all of you, and one day when the kids ask about it, I can just send them here and not ever have to talk about it again!

Saying goodbye to our good friends the Jenkins Family! 

I really am just kidding. We were truly blessed on our trip out to Ohio! I guess I will start from the beginning.

We had our summer turned upside down when shortly after it began, we got news that Tad was being promoted to VP of Sales and that it would require us to move to Ohio. After a lot of prayer, we decided that Ohio was to become our new home! The preparations began immediately and our house was turned upside down to put on the market ASAP!  In a few short weeks, we found someplace to live in Ohio, got the kids all signed up for school, made all of the preparations to run Whimsy from afar, and all of the dozen other things that we had to do to make such a big move! The kids were excited, scared,  and so very helpful! Moving weekend came and the packers went through our home like Tasmanian devils getting us all boxed up in one day! The weekend before we had spent an amazing weekend with my family and on the Saturday before we moved, Tad took the kids down to spend time with his family while I stayed behind...we had two weddings to shoot that day! The kids (and Tad and I) loved every minute that we spent with everyone. It was hard to say our goodbyes. I will have to do a post about our mini family reunions soon! On Monday the movers came. Grandma and Grandpa Tatum came up and we all went to lunch and tried to stay out of the way.  We spent our last night in Logan at a hotel! The kids were so excited to finally get on the road the next day! After about two hours in the car the "Are we there yet" started. I gave them all my evil eye and told them that they were going to get sick of asking that question really fast, as we had seven more days of travel!

1700 miles...I am sick of looking at the back of this truck!  (Just leaving Bear Lake!)

Tad had planned our trip out with a lot of wiggle room! We usually have our trips planned out knowing what hotels we are staying in, what we are doing for entertainment and where the best restaurants are...this situation was completely different. With two little girls under two, as many of you know, the car seat is not always your best friend. And when the screaming starts and there is no end in sight...the driving day is done! Our first day was great though! The kids were amazing and we made it to Laramie, Wyoming.

Tad's truck...the cool truck...everyone was always happy!

My van...one happy one!

Bright and early we were off to Lincoln, Nebraska!  When we arrived into town we were heading straight to the Hampton Inn and right next store there was a hotel that looked like a castle. The kids were of course freaking out wanting to stay in the cool castle hotel with the knight on a horse in front. They were in luck because this Hampton wouldn't accept pets. Ainslee was having a little bit of a rough time, it was late, she was tired and sick of her seat...you get the idea. Aurianna took her over to the knight while Tad was checking in. She thought that it was amazing and wouldn't stop talking about it all the way up to our rooms. We got two rooms every night and split the babies up just in case one of them woke in the middle night we wouldn't have a room full of screaming babes! Anyway, I was tucking Ainslee in and she was talking about the knight and as I was looking at her I could see her train of thought start to change as she talked about he knight being right downstairs. All of sudden she started looking around the room and every time there was a noise she started saying..."knight coming, knight coming". Tad had to take her back outside to the statue of the knight and show her that it was fake. She of course doesn't know what that means so he called it a toy. From that point on for the rest of our trip, every statue was called a toy...and we saw a lot of statues...I mean toys!

Okay...as I see the length of this post....and there aren't a whole lot of pictures to go with this post....time to make this a two parter! I will be back soon to post the second half!

Milana

I'm Back!!!

I have had this blog in the back of my mind for weeks now and I think that I am now ready to return to this wonderful world of blogging! I feel like I have dropped off the face of the earth the last year or so. For some of you, the only way I know what is going on with anyone is by reading your blog. And thank heavens for those beautiful blogs! Without them I would get to see my nieces or my friends across the country and world. I have even gone back and read over mine, which is so much fun! I love writing in my journal, I also love to scrapbook (way into project life right now:)), but it is so fun to see the stories with the pictures with just a click of a button! Anyway...this is just a small hello...it is midnight! But I will be back in full swing this weekend! I am going to start passing on great FHE and sharing time ideas, some new recipes that we have been trying out and also the adventures of our gigantic garden we are growing this year! Plus there will of course be all of the Thornton kids adventures! I also think that I will go public again for a little while. I was gone for so long...I think that most everyone has stopped stopping by! Anyway, I am excited to be back! This is going to be fun!!!

Milana

Cache Cup Carnival!

Aurianna had a blast playing in her first tournament, the Cache Cup!

Their team finished in fourth place, but for their first tournament experience, they played great!

I have very few pictures of the actual tournament. Ainslee is all smiles in the stroller now, but that didn't last long and she turned into Curious George. In fact now that she is nearing 18 months, that is going to be her new name...Curious George! Trey and Livia had a blast though! When they weren't cheering on their sister and her team, they were playing on the park (or the trees!).

After a week long of awesome soccer, we celebrated at the Cache Cup Carnival! The kids were so excited to see their friends and have a BBQ! Ainslee skipped the burger and walked around to each of the kids plates and ate their chips!

The girls waited in a forever line to get bling strings in their hair. I think that is why they have the cranky looks on their faces...it was hot and by the time they sat down, the bling strings weren't as exciting as they thought they were going to be! Once we got to the air conditioned car they thought their hair was awesome though and they were discussing ways to comb around their bling so that they could keep them in Forever!

Trey was all about the bouncy toys! He was all smiles even though he had to wait in a lot of long lines!

Cache Cup was such a good experience for Aurianna and the girls on her team! They are so excited for their next tournament in February!

Trey Time!

It is time to give a shout out to my little guy! My fine fella amongst all these little ladies! The one that has Mom wrapped around his five year old finger! Seriously this kid is awesome! He snuggles up to me every morning (before the baby he was the first one up) for as long as he can before he needs his "cup o'joe", aka his chocolate milk! This year has been fun because he has started to make some really great friends through preschool and church (now that they added more to our ward!!! Before he was the only boy in his primary class too...at home and at church, bummer dude!), so he is hanging with the boys a lot and having some really fun play dates! It feels weird to have him up at a friends house for the entire afternoon. For the longest time he was my baby, and now he is starting Kindergarten...man, where does the time go? OK, enough Mom sappy moments (wiping the tear away!). Now onto Mom bragging moments!!! Are you ready for some pictures...here they come!

This is what much of the soccer season looked like! If it wasn't Trey, it was Livia! Trey loves soccer and was so excited to play this year on a "real" team. He has spent the summer's in soccer camps with Aurianna's club, but he wanted to be on a team that actually played games!

GOAL!!!!!!

Trey and Liv played on the same team this year! They never played together though. I asked the coach to put them in at different times. I was afraid that Livia might try to coach her brother out on the field. They had so much fun cheering each other on!

On to Baseball!!!

Trey didn't take his hat or his shirt off for three days after he got it...gross, I know, but I just washed it every night, well except for the first night...seriously this kid wouldn't take it off! He loved getting Dad out on the side yard and play pass. Then taking his sister's out back and have a little game!

This smile was rare...it was reserved only for the third base. The rest of the time he was Mr. Serious. He takes after his Dad with his love for this game. He would watch every batter and be the first kid to his coach to find out where he belonged out on the field! He was so sad at his last game. He is already talking about next season!

Trey has his own cheerleader section! His sister's love coming and cheering him on when he is up to bat! And guess what...Trey loves it!!! He made sure that everyone was coming to his games. We all loved to see those big smiles and thumbs up and see how much fun he was having!!!

Well, as you can see, I'm am a little proud of my little guy! He makes me laugh everyday and all he has to do is smile and he has Mom in the palm of his hand. As I was putting a band aid on his finger the other day, he asked me where the sauce was...sauce being neosporin! It took me awhile to figure out what "sauce" was, but now that is what we all call it! He was the perfect boy for our family. Each one of his sister's adore him and he is full of kisses and hugs, for the babies at least! He is sweet, kind and all boy and we are so glad that he is a part of our family! Love you Trey Paul!

4th of July

As you can see, I am playing royal catch up! Stay tuned, I have more funny Livia & Trey stories, more parades, baseball, soccer and of course baby, baby, baby! The fourth of July was really our first big outing after Audrey was born! On the first Logan had their fireworks and we went up to the park above the University with the Bells! The kids get all of us excited every year for this tradition, even though they really could care less about the fireworks, they want the glow sticks, the picnic food, the sparklers, and of course the candy. I don't have any pictures of this night...I was too busy counting to five. I became really good at it in fact. Number five was always in the same spot, number 1 through 4 were running around like mad men! Actually they were all really good. They started a soccer game with everyone, played on the park, and made friends with everyone around us! Sparklers were a hit at first until Trey tried to put it out with his fingers(don't ask me why...times like this I agree with Bill Cosby!). Then sparklers were banned from Thornton fourth of July bashes for the next ten years. Thank heaven's for Jeannette and her glow sticks!

But the highlight of the night for me was listening to Ainslee. Jeannette was holding her and she told her to say Oooh and Aaaah when the fireworks started. Ainslee was so surprised when they started you couldn't get her to look at anything else! She finally started to listen to Jeannette, but instead of saying Ooooh and Aaaah for each separate firework, she made it into three words said one right after another....ooooo oooo aaaaah. She didn't stop all through the fireworks. Well I should say she didn't stop until her head dropped and she started snoring! But the entire next day anytime someone said firework, she would say her new found word with a gigantic smile on her face!On the fourth of July we went to Hyrum for their parade. Livia was in the parade with her cheerleading group. You won't see any pictures of Livia though because she got into the truck right when she got to us and she was on the wrong side and I wasn't quick enough! Don't worry, I have other pictures of her in other parade's and each parade looks the same...in fact I could totally picture lie right now and put a Smithfield Health Day parade pic in and no one would ever know...but I won't...mostly cause I don't want to download any more pictures! But as you can see I have plenty of pictures of everyone else! Audrey slept until the very end...but she looked mighty cute in her 4th of July shirt! Ainslee was in heaven!!! Someone next to us brought a few adorable puppies...she kept giving them kisses. By this point she had had a little bit of candy so her dance moves were brought out! I don't think that there was even any music, maybe just honking horns...but that didn't stop her...this girls can DANCE!Trey and Aurianna all ready to get themselves all candied up! They are pros by now...they totally don't mind going and supporting their sis, not when there is candy being thrown at them! Thanks Aaron and the Bells for saving spots for us!

Because our kids were so disappointed about not being able to go down to SL for the Sugar House Park fireworks and spending time with their cousins, we had to do something new for them. So, mom, thinking that she was so cool bought the BIG DOG firework pack. This was the first time we have ever done our own fireworks...so that is what I blame it on, as Tad and I had to watch the same firework over and over again like 30 times. Thankfully the kids didn't even notice! They just thought it was cool that it was in their front yard!

And of course glow sticks helped again!
All of our neighbors had huge fireworks that they were letting off, which were awesome! Except they woke up Ainslee, so she joined us at about 10 o'clock. Just remember how cute she looked earlier before you look at this next picture!
Oh the hair.....I think that it is time fore bangs! She had fun, although she was a little confused. I could see the wheels turning in her head..."so this is what you guys do after you put me in my crib...I knew it!!!!"
We missed all of our family, but it was nice not to fight crowds and traffic! What a fun weekend celebrating this great country that we live in!!!

Ainslee Update!

Our little Ainsee Q is 17 months this week! I cannot believe how fast the last 17 months have gone by! We have enjoyed every last second with her! We all waited so long for her to join our family and she has been the center of attention since the moment she entered this world. I feel bad that I haven't blogged all of our fun times over the last 17 months, but I am trying to do better and I have a feeling that there are going to be a lot of blog posts about the adventures of Audrey and Ainslee!

Ainslee is our happy girl! She is all smiles, all of the time (except for as of late with all of her teeth coming in at once...more on that in a minute!)! She LOVES her sisters and brother and even the dog! She loves to dance and LOVES to sing! She sings ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Patty Cake, oh, and the Star Wars theme! She says Ivia (Livia), Auna (Aurianna), Bruber (Trey), Baby (Audrey), Dadda, Mamma, Kaya, bub (boob(:)(too much nursing!!!), more, poop, and much much more!

Since she was 14 months old she has only had her two bottom teeth. As of three days ago, she has three teeth coming in on the top...ugg! I can't imagine her with a mouth full of teeth. She has been toothless for so long!

Ainslee doesn't walk, I don't think that she ever walked. She RUNS! She runs, climbs, jumps, rolls and makes messes! If there is something to get into, she will find it. She especially likes electronics! She learned how to unlock my phone by pushing the two special buttons, she loves daddy's iPad and loves my cordless mouse. We put them up, she finds a way to get them! She loves cheering her brother and sisters on in there sports and parade marches! She is a little muncher, eating it feels like all day! But she is my smallest at only 13% of her target weight. She loves her little sis! She kisses and kisses her all day long.

We can't imagine life without our Ainsee Q! She brightens up our days and makes us always smile!

Livia's Kindergarten Graduation!!!

Wow...where did that year go? School is out and it is officially flip flop, shorts and t shirts, swimming pools and park season...come on rain, just try and stop us!!! Livia has absolutely loved this year, and in fact did not want it to end! She loves everything about school...her teachers, her friends, homework(yes, I said homework!) and even the tests! She would come straight home from school everyday and sit down to do her homework. At the beginning of the year I didn't think that this would last very long, she has a ton of homework for a kindergartner (two pages of math, front and back, spelling and reading), but it never got old to her! In fact she asked Aurianna to start bringing home extra homework from her class so that she could work on it at night. I have to say that Aurianna might not like to do her own homework, but she is an incredible teacher! She has taught Livia how to multiply by two's, three's, four's and five's and nine's! Anyway, back to the end of the year...Livia is devastated. It doesn't matter how many times I try to remind her of all of the slushies and play dates, she is not wanting the end of the school year to come! But end it must!She has been so excited for her graduation! She has had her dress and shoes laying out for three days and knew exactly how she wanted her hair and even picked out a new nail polish color when we were at the store the other day!!! She was all smiles through the entire program and cheered on her friends during the award ceremony! She made sure to give lot's of hugs to her teachers, Mrs. Larsen and Mrs. Chocolate (Peterson!). What a fun year it has been!!!!

Trey was a great photographer today!