Audrey Turns 4!

 I can't believe it! My baby is FOUR! She loves acting and performing! Her favorite thing to do is stand on the fireplace and sing songs. Her favorite is Carrie Underwood (Or Carrie Wonderwoman in our house) and Maroon 5 (specifically Sugar).  She is a little spunky and a lot of sass! She is also totally shy in front of people that she doesn't know. She is super smart and loves to learn! She is rarely without her best friend, Ainslee. And the two of them get into a lot of mischief!

 We were lucky enough to have Grandma Debbie in town for her birthday! We spent the day in our swimsuits starting with the magic water balloons! The kids have been wanting to try it forever now and it did not disappoint! 120 water balloons in just a few minutes and we had a great water balloon fight! Then we headed over to the pool!

 There was a little swimming, and then a few party hats...

 The girls weren't into them, but dad rocked it!

 Of course she couldn't wait for presents! Play doh is her all time favorite and of course princess shoes. There was also princess snow globe making kits and coloring stuff!

 She was a happy girl! She played with everyone in the pool and loved that the whole day was centered on her! She is such an amazing little girls and we are so blessed to have her in our family!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUDREY! WE LOVE YOU!

4th Of July 2015

4th of July is a favorite in this house! For all of the years that we were in Utah, the weekend was filled with family BBQ's and Sugar House fireworks! We miss those weekends, but we have loved our 4th of July memories while in Ohio! This year we decided to do something a little different and we got a hotel up in Polaris! It is an area that we love to visit with a lot of fun shops and places to eat, plus it is close to the zoo!

 We started the day with a lot of rubber bands and ribbons! Do you see the star?

 We had plans to go to Krispy Kreme, but when we got there the hot light wasn't on...and Tad was not eating cold donuts (he is a donut snob!). We ended up at a cute breakfast place! The pancakes were bigger than the kids heads, which they loved! After that it was off to the Zoo!

 We had a membership the first year that we were here and kind of had our fill of the zoo during that year. After a two year break, the kids were excited to get another membership, especially because they added some new animals (giraffes) and different enclosures! We had fun seeing the cool tiger exhibit, it had a plane inside that the tigers were playing on! The kids could go into the plane and watch the tigers from inside the cockpit! It was seriously awesome!

 But our favorite part of the day was definitely the pirate boat ride! We waited in line for awhile, but we had fun! There were photo back drops along the way, also it was along the water and there were a ton of garbage fish (I have no idea what kind they are, that is just what we always called them!)! The kids had a blast laughing at how big their mouths were!

 Everyone is ready to go! Ainslee was a little nervous!

 Trey was just flat out excited! There were all sorts of pirates (think Pirates of the Caribbean ride but a little creepier) and they popped out suddenly all over the place. There were also bridges over the top so that people could look down on you. At one point in time we were going right past the gorilla enclosure. I said to everyone, man that is a little scary, what if the gorilla decided to jump over here and take a ride with us. I had just finished when one of the pirates jumped out from behind the tree. I SCREAMED so LOUD. Not just a little jump, whimper scream. Like full on there is a monster under my bed and it just grabbed my foot scream! I was sure that it was a gorilla. Of course there was a bridge full of people right over us as I screamed...everyone had a good laugh. Especially Tad, oh, he thought that it was great! We also got wet a lot, which of course is always fun!

 As we were walking out to leave, the animal show was just about to start! We hadn't been to one at the Columbus zoo, so we popped over and got front row seats to a really fun show! The kids loved seeing all of the animals so close and they were able to pet some of them after the show! Tad has super 7 people selfie skills by the way! I think that we need a selfie stick!

 We decided to just do low key fireworks for the fourth. Like I said early, after years of Sugar House fireworks, we are used to big crowds, long lines and of course fabulous firework shows. We were a little farther from the fireworks than we would like to have been,  but the kids had fun catching fireflies....

 twirling glow in the dark sticks....

 and races!

 Plus the fireworks were fun and the finale was awesome! Plus, we had a big surprise at the end! We got a hotel just right up the road, so we didn't have to drive the hour home! The kids had a blast the next day getting Krispy Kremes (hot) and swimming in the pool! It was a great 4th of July!!!

Fall Part 2

We decided after much prayer and discussion that I would homeschool the girls for preschool this year. All three of the older kids all went to several years of preschool. But when I started looking for preschools,  I just didn't feel good about any of our options for them.  After talking to my mom who is retiring from teaching this year and my dear friend Nicole Nelson, who

Ainslee climbing to get the moon! 

Audrey climbing for the moon!

At our favorite library!

The man sorting the apples on the machine handed the girls small apples through the window!!!

Apple day! Bonus Apple slushies and a swing!

Painting the horse!

homeschools all three of her children, I was armed and ready to take on this wonderful experience of teaching them and getting them ready for kindergarden! Pinterest of course helps! It has been an absolute joy! I love the opportunity to take what we are learning in school throughout our day in everything we do! They have loved the projects, the games, the songs and the science projects! They pretty much love all of it! Around the same that we started a new branch of our library opened! It has an early literacy area for the kids...it is AMAZING!!! The girls wake up in the morning and it is the first place that they ask to go. There are so many educational toys and it gives me an opportunity to use tools that we don't have at home! I also get to load up on all of our books for the week!

Ainslee is doing amazing in school! She is so excited for kindergarden and she is so anxious to read! She loves horses and all animals, but horses the most! A few weeks ago Livia was invited to a birthday party at a horse stable. We went to pick her up and Ainslee was able to pet all of the horses and they even got to paint them! It was incredible and Ainslee was in heaven! Ainslee loved going to the pool all summer and still asks if we get to go back any time soon! She loves singing and dancing and playing pretend with her sister! She is a protector, even at just four years old. She always wants to make sure that everyone around her (especially her little sis) know that they are safe! She is an amazing little girl and we are so blessed to have her in our family!

Sensory play!

Audrey...well this little one is definitely the youngest of the group! She is our little princess in every way! She loves anything princess, girly, dolly and glittery. She is shy on the outside, but may randomly break out in song if handed a microphone. She memorizes songs like nobody's business! She loves music and loves to dance! She is loving school too! She is so excited to see what letter we are working on and she loves going around the house looking for that letter or finding things that start with the letter! She still loves to snuggle and be with mom all the time (which I am not fighting at all!)!

I am one lucky mama to be able to hang out with this crew everyday! My days are field with joy and love and laughter (and laundry and dishes and driving!)! I am having a blast spending my evening preparing for preschool and I am even tossing around the idea of starting to offer art classes in my area! At the beginning of the summer I started a program called Whole 30! It was AMAZING!!! I lost about 35 pounds and felt amazing. I stayed strong for about 54 days until we were in Utah and then kind of got off track. But I am determined to meet my health goals for the year so I started looking for an exercise program a few weeks ago. I tried Crossfit to begin with, but I could only go to the class at 5 am and some mornings that didn't even work. I girlfriend told me about a place just down the street, so I have joined that. They have a great spinning class and yoga class. The days in between I run on the treadmill which has been really fun! The child care area has been really nice and the girls look forward to going everyday (which helps mom stay on track!)! I just signed up for Livia and I to run a 5K in November!

Caterpillars! 

I should mention Tad in all of this craziness too! He is doing well! He is in heaven right now with all of the soccer, football and a great season of fantasy baseball! He loves going to all of the kids soccer games...love isn't even the right word for it...it is stronger than that! He plans out the weekends all week and looks forward to the games almost more than the kids do!

Everyone is happy and healthy! We are so blessed to have one another and live in such a beautiful place. We have faced trials that are more than we ever imagined, but I think that it has brought us together even more and even closer to our Savior and we are so thankful for that. Happy fall to everyone! Go out and get something pumpkiny!

Fall Part 1

I try not to discriminate against any one season, and I am pretty sure that at the beginning of each season I proudly exclaim to my family, "Yay it's _______, my favorite season"!!! But truly, I adore fall.  I love everything fall...pumpkins (and any dessert that it can be put into), leaves, colors, back to school, jackets, open windows, the smells...oh I simply love it all! The welcoming of fall was different for me this year. Summer was very hard for us, hard is putting it mildly.  I am not ready to write about anything yet, but fall was exactly what I needed to pull me and my family out of a very hard experience. I loved this quote by Lauren DeStefano  "Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale."   Fall also brings around crazy schedules!!!

Aurianna decided after attending a basketball camp at Fairfield Union in May that she wanted to change schools. Many of her soccer teammates attend there and she really liked the school and the smaller feel of it. She open enrolled and was accepted. We went in to meet with the school counselor a couple weeks before school started so that we could get a tour and get her schedule. We sat in his office to begin with so that I could fill out some paperwork and he could ask Aurianna some questions. He had her fill out a paper all about herself. It was a simple task, but two things happened in just those few moments that really show so much about who Aurianna is! When she finished and the councilor was reading it, Aurianna leaned over to me and said, "Mom, you know I love you right?" And I said , "of course." She said, " it asked me who I go to when I need help on things and I put Dad, but I come to you a lot too Mom and I love you." I chuckled when this happened and my heart swelled with the love that Aurianna and Tad have for each other. This is something that I dreamed of my entire life, that my daughters would have a father that they could be daddy's little girl.  I quickly wiped away the tears in my eyes as the councilor started asking her questions. He looked up at her and said, "It says here that you want to be a special education teacher. I don't think that I have ever met a seventh grader that knew that they wanted to be that. Can you tell me why?" She explained that last year she had some opportunities to get to know some of the kids in her school with special needs and that she found that she loved helping them and that they became wonderful friends to her and she knew that that was something that she wanted to do with her life. She had told Tad and I this during the year, but when I turned to look at the counsilor that I noticed wasn't saying anything, he was crying. He said that this subject was dear to his heart and that he could tell that she was an amazing young lady and would do amazing things in her life.  

  This councilor has turned out to be pretty amazing himself. He took it upon himself to talk to the special education teacher at the school and let her know that during Aurianna's free period that she would like to help. How cool is that?! She loves those days that she gets to help! She is loving her new school! She loves her classes and her teachers and she loves her friends there! I love the small town feel to the school and of course that she loves it makes it better for all of us! Aside from school Aurianna is heavy duty into soccer season right now! She has practice Mon-Thursday most weeks and then games all weekend. She has had two tournaments so far. Practice is, well, I don't think that I would last ten minutes! Her couch is an ex army helicopter pilot...go ahead, next time a helicopter flies over head, ask her what it is...she can tell you; if they don't get it right during practice they have to run! She loves it though and she is doing so well! She is amazing out on that field and I love watching her with the ball at her feet! She is also starting to train with Tad in the mornings for basketball try outs that come up in November! Aurianna is also working hard on her Young Women Personal Progress. Right now she is working on her ten hour project on Family History! She is having a lot of fun on familysearch.org. This is her Uncle's calling in his ward, so he is giving her some tips and then also has a lot of names for her to take to the next temple trip! 

1st day of school!

1st day of school!

Livia is loving fourth grade this year. She was sad to leave her Miss Allen, but she is really enjoying her new teacher! She is excited to move over next year to Fairfield Union and be in middle school with her sister! She is shining in school, as always and we get notes and texts every other day from someone that she has helped in some way or another. This girl has the biggest heart and just wants everyone to be happy. She reminds us every day that she is almost ten. I would be totally ok if it started going in the opposite direction once they started going in the double digits! But we are having a blast planning her party and that puts a big smile on her face! She is in her second year of travel soccer and LOVING it!!! She is on a new team this year and it has been awesome! Last year her team won...a lot, but she wasn't having fun. Her team is doing great, but even better is that her coaches are awesome and the girls on her team all get a long so well! She loves going to practice and even attends Trey's practice on the nights that she doesn't have her own! She loves to cook, read and do art. My mom explained her so wonderfully this morning when she said that Livia just loves to be doing something all the time. Last night as I was singing to her, she was coloring. Do you remember those pictures that you would draw with the continuous line and then fill in all of the spaces with a different color? That is what she is working on right now! I used to love those!!! It is fun to see what she is creating! She is reading a ton as usual...I can't even keep up with her and the books that she is flying through! I am so proud of her and the amazing girl that she is! 

Trey....Trey is 8 and I think that my sister-in-law Katie said it best over the summer...emotional 8. Love this kid through and through...and yes, he very much has me wrapped around every one of his adorable little fingers, but I tell ya...some days! Everything has to match and in no way can anything be embarrassing!  He got Miss Allen for third grade (Yay...the crowd go's wild!!!)! He has loved having her and he is doing AMAZING this year! He has gotten 100% on all of his spelling tests this year and is doing fabulous in math! He is even enjoying reading more which is so awesome to see because he wasn't really having it last year! He loves going to school and of course loves hanging out with his buddies playing flag football and kickball! Trey is in his first year of travel soccer and it has been awesome! His coach is great and Trey has had a great time so far! It looks as though he is going to take after his oldest sister and play Left Mid! He thinks this is pretty cool and takes every opportunity for Aurianna to show him what she knows! She loves this of course! Trey was able to start Scouts this last week! He is so excited...seriously, beyond excited!!! It isn't like in Utah where it is part of the ward so that was a little tricky. We lucked out to have some fabulous friends the Smiths! Their grandfather offered to have Scout's for our boys every week! I can't tell you what a blessing this is to us right now! Trey asks me every day if he get's to go to Scout's...it is pretty awesome!!!

1st day of school!

Ok...I know this is just the three oldest ones, but I kind of wanted to make a post all on it's own for the younger two! It has been an exciting fall for them also with lots of changes and all kinds of fun! The older three alone keep our evenings going from one thing to another...I will have to do a "day in the Thornton house" by times and who is going where. Sometimes I dread it, I won't lie...but I know that one day I am going to miss it like crazy, so I am just embracing it and trying to LOVE it!!! Fall part 2 will be on its way!