Kyler These Days

Kyler is the other one that is hard to get into pictures. He doesn't complain too much about them, but he is getting so busy that I just don't see him as much as I used to.

Kyler goes to soccer practice at least twice a week. He plays games on saturdays.

He is still serving as the president of one of the Deacon's quorums. It is remarkable how much he has learned and grown as he has served in this calling. He is an outstanding leader and he tries to do what Heavenly Father wants him to do in his calling (which is probably the best trait any leader could have).


8th grade has been good to Kyler. He is loved by all of his teachers. I have received separate emails from a few of his teachers praising him (not to mention all of the praise I have gotten from his church teachers, too). He is thriving in so many areas and we are so proud of him. 

At school, the teachers can give kids these character papers when they do well in class and what not. During first quarter, Kyler received two. At the end of the quarter, all of the character slips are put in a drawing at the assembly and there is a drawing to receive prizes. I always thought this was a bit silly, until the day Kacin sent me a text message that Kyler had won something. Our Kyler had actually won the biggest prize they give out--a one hundred dollar visa gift card! Oh you can imagine his excitement for that.

Kyler decided to work really hard for the next two weeks and take his money to buy an iPod touch. He was thrilled the day I took him to the store to buy it.


Ky is a loving ad helpful big brother.




And we definitely love him!

Kacin These Days

As my boys get older, it is harder and harder to get them in pictures. Especially Kacin. He is not a fan when I pull my phone out.

There may be less pictures of him, but he is not any less of a joy in our lives! Kacin truly has an amazing personality and I love being around him.

He really loves 7th grade at the Junior High. He loves switching classes and he has made some really great friends. There has been a bit of a learning curve with all of the homework and tests and projects to juggle, but he is figuring it out and I am confident that he will do well in all of his classes. 

His life has been baseball and friends. It was a last minute decision, but we let him sign up for Fall ball this year. He has connected better with this coach and team this season and so it’s been a good season so far. He has also taken a few private lessons from someone in our ward. I don’t know what has made the biggest difference, but whatever it is he is hitting better and playing better than he ever has before.

When Eric was out of town that week, I had to send the older boys to walk down to their orthodontist appointment on their own. Kacin called me when he got there and said they told him he was ready to get his braces off! It was three months earlier than they originally told us so we were surprised. Unfortunately, I had to say no to getting them off that day because we had to rush out the door. Kacin handled the disappointment well and we scheduled an appointment for the next week. And so now those braces are off! Here's our side by side before and after shots.



It was a Tuesday that he got his braces off and then a Friday that he went in for a big ear surgery. Basically, he had to have a hole, left from those four sets of ear tubes he has had over the years, fixed. It has caused him to have a mild hearing loss and to get an infection every time his ears went into water. The surgery lasted an hour and a half. It ended up being a little more intense than what we were expecting. He is recovering how he should be, but we weren't prepared for everything that recovery means. We knew he had to stay out of water for the next two months, but we didn't realize that he also can't play sports, bend his head forward, or lift anything heavier than a phone book. It threw us all for a loop. Kacin has had to miss his last few weeks of baseball and that's not easy. But, ultimately, I think he will be glad he did this surgery. He is such a tough kid.






I told him to wear his glasses instead of his contacts for the surgery, but I realized that might have been the wrong choice considering he was having ear surgery. We stretched out his glasses a little, but made it work.


Isn’t that an impressive bandage? He had to keep it on for 24 hours after surgery. 

Once we took it off, we realized why he had it on. Kind of gnarly, huh? He will have a scar behind his ear.

I just can’t end on that picture, so here’s some of the cute pictures of Kacin loving on his sister and spending time with some of his siblings. Kacin is the best big brother to all three of his little siblings and the best friend to his older brother.

I know I am so lucky to be Kacin's mom!

Disneyland (the last day)

We had our Magic Morning (an hour early at the park) at Disneyland on Thursday. It was a fabulous full day for us. By the end of this day, we had ridden everything in the park with the exception of two rides--the little casey jones train and the Gadget Go Coaster. I guess we also missed the Tiki room (tragic, I know!), but that was only because it broke down right when we were about to go in and we never made it back. We rode some things multiple times so it makes up for it.

One time we opted not to use wheelchair access for Star Tours so our kids could actually see C3PO and the other droids and experience all of the magical details of going through the line. We almost regretted that decision, but since it was early in the day we were able to help Perry keep it together.

      

I totally covered my eyes on purpose to avoid the bright flash. Just sayin'.

Another family favorite is splash mountain.

Kacin had our picture pose all planned out. And then last minute he chickened out and couldn't rest his head on his hand like he was supposed to.

We had a stormtrooper sighting..

A highlight of the day was the Jedi training that Layla was able to participate in. The whole time, I was so excited for Layla, but I couldn't help but still feel a twinge of sadness that as many times as we tried Kyler and Kacin never got to participate. Layla did an amazing job training and then facing off against Kylo Ren.

  

  

  

Some more Splash Mountain..
  

Winnie the Pooh is always a fun one..

  

At the end of the day, each of the kids got to pick out a souvenir. Ok, I kind of take that back. Perry actually picked out a Lego set from the Lego store the first day we were there, but the other three older kids chose a souvenir. Layla kept getting confused and called Dumbo "Dimbo".

We went back to the hotel for dinner and a short rest.

Another hug shout out to Jen for watching our baby off and on during the eek. She even let Perry hang out with her for awhile on the last day hen he needed some down time. Love you, Jen!

We went back at night for a few more hours of fun. Layla made sure that "Dimbo" got to ride his namesake ride.

 Perry, B, and Eric didn't make it that late, but the rest of us closed down the park.

Kyler rolled his eyes at my attempt at a dab.

It was such an amazing week at Disneyland!! We all had the greatest time. We were so grateful that we got to spend 4 days at the parks. We love Disney!!

Disneyland (day 4)

We went back to California Adventures on Wednesday. The game plan for the day was to ride the few rides we missed on Monday, go to some of the awesome shows, and ride our favorites at least one more time. But we planned to take it easy and leave earlier than normal because we would be up early the next morning and we were out late the night before. And that's what we did.

We went to talk with Crush (Kacin got to ask a question).

We re-rode all of the big rides.

We successfully rode the Ferris Wheel without Eric throwing up this time because we did not getting on the swinging one.

We also split up for a few hours. The boys went off by themselves to ride some rides while we took Layla and Perry to the Disney Jr. show. Then Eric took Perry back to the hotel while I took Layla to see the "Frozen" play (we thought it was absolutely amazing!!).

The boys had a little adventure of their own. While they were riding California Screamin', the rollercoaster broke down! They eventually had to climb down the stairs on the side of the rollercoater in order to get off. It was hilarious because we had just been talking that morning about what it would be like if that rode broke down while you were on it. And then they experienced it.

It was such a great day!! When we left California Adventures later that evening, we had ridden on or experienced every open ride and big show except for one (the jelly fish ride that we would've gone on except we were taking care of Layla's foot that day). California Adventures gave us two happy days.