Hailey is way into my pregnant belly lately and she just laughs histerically every time her little brother kicks her hand. So today she asked me, "Mom why are babies so kicky?" and I said, "well they can't walk and they need to move around." She said,

"I think it's because he says, 'Hey! It's dark in here! Who turned out the lights!"

Hailey is so funny. We'll see how her teacher this year handles her class clown personality- she starts next week :)

Scott is in 1st grade!

 Thursday was the first day of school for Scott. He came in my room at 7 am grinning ear to ear saying, "I washed my face, I brushed my teeth, I got dressed and put my socks and shoes on! All that's left is breakfast!" (he even made his bed!) Yeah bud except school doesn't start until 9! :) In Missouri we started at 8 am so I guess he's use to rushing....or he was just SUPER excited for his first day of school!

 A bit scary of me first thing in the morning, but I thought my little 1st grader was just too adorable. I can hardly believe he's in the 1st grade! Whoo hoo buddy!

 My pictures have been pretty dull lately because lets face it- our life right now is consumed with opening up boxes! I will probably have some pictures of the house next week. My sisters keep bugging me but they are going to have to wait! :)

 Ari gets her own room in this house and is thoroughly enjoying every minute! Especially since she gets the kitchen in her room which is her favorite toy to play with

 I gave Scott a haircut but he refused to let me touch the top. I told him that was okay as long as he combed it over nicely, but every now and then he thinks he can get away with a mohawk- I don't think so bud!

Last Saturday night we went out to dinner and he ordered a rootbeer with his meal. So he's sitting there sipping on his drink saying to Hailey, "Haha Hailey my drink tastes like cherry coke!" I'm like, "No it doesn't quit saying that. Like they would give a 6 year old coke." Well he kept on so I grabbed it and tasted it and it was! He wasn't too thrilled when we exchanged it for rootbeer. He's had caffeine one time in his life and it wasn't pretty. He was running up and down a giant hill for 2 hours without a rest. lol

 Hailey is still in her jammies and clearly doesn't have her hair done, but the kids were "helping" me put all my memoirs into my cedar chest one day last week. They love looking through that stuff and I also have each of their outfits they wore when we took them home from the hospital. Hailey's doll just had to wear her outfit.

 The biggest excitement of the week...

Arianna is riding her trike! She has been "riding" it for a while but couldn't quite get the pedals down and this week she has been riding all over the street, up and down hill.

 She has a cousin her age doing jumps off of ramps on a bike without training wheels....she likes to take things slow what can I say :)

Kevin reminded me that all our kids got their bikes when they turned 3 which she will be doing in just 6 months. I can hardly believe that. She's still my little baby girl!

I use my camera remote to take pictures of my pregnant belly and Ari was having so much fun the other day. She took at least 20 of herself :)

Only because I haven't shown any pictures of my belly in a very long time- here ya go.

I'm 32 weeks and feeling huge for sure

Baby Boy is still waiting on a name....maybe you can help. Kevin's middle name is Jay so we would like to use that possibly. I have my mind pretty made up but as usual, Kevin just can't decide. Ya'll know our last name, here's some choices for first and middle.

Jay Russell

Russell Jay

Branson Jay

Jay Branson

Pierce (don't know a middle for that one)

After we got back from California, my Mom wanted to help out with the kids while we finished up on the house and got things ready. She thought it would be easier to do it in Las Vegas rather than come watch them with all the chaos here, so they got to stay in Vegas another week! I took my mom's car to Utah and helped Kevin with the house. He went to work while I painted the house (with a very hefty mask don't worry) and then at night he worked on the wood floors while I painted some more. We also ran a gas line to our laundry and kitchen and got carpet. We also took advantage and went out to dinner almost every night while we were kid-less.
What a life saver seriously! Thank you so much to my Mom and Dad (and Candice and Rick) for watching the kids for us!

So my parents brought the kids back in our car on Friday night and then all of our stuff arrived (finally! been in storage for 2 months) on Monday. My Dad told Scott it would be like Christmas and he said, "What do you mean?" Well he finally got it while he was opening up all his toys he hasn't seen in months and was yelling, "This is like Christmas!!"

So we are settled (somewhat) and unpacking our things. I will for sure post some before and after pics of the house, but it won't be anytime soon!

The kids having a paper party in my bathtub with all the packing paper :) 

 Ari patiently waiting for her cookies out of my dream oven. I looked everywhere for a dual fuel double oven and found it! Gas stove top and electric convection double oven. Whoo hoo!

We got to go to Newport with my family for a week. The first night we were there we took a little stroll to the beach (in our street clothes) to just dig in sand look around....or so we thought but Scott and Hailey were too excited and kept going towards the water. Hailey was standing there near the waves and a huge wave came and flipped her up onto her back! She was a good sport about it, but I know it scared her a bit!

So for a week the cousins got to play on the beach and dig in the sand. It always amazes me how long the sand can entertain. So much fun! Here's some pictures from the week. We love Crystal Cove beach so most of the time was spent there. We did go to Newport one of the days. (I'm too lazy to put these in order!)

I love how you can see Grandma the "water girl" in the background of this picture. I don't think she kept track, but getting buckets of water was pretty much her full time job :)

Kevin has a record of about every other year so he missed this one and was home fixing up the house and working. We missed him!

cute little Mia

also known as "sand goddess" just because she literally lays in the sand all day long!

Grandpa was Ari's buddy a lot of the time because she just loves getting in the water and he was nice enough to take her every minute of the day

Grandma, Laith and Hailey watching Uncle Wally on the boogie board

The day we went to Newport there was a big ledge of sand...perfect for Hailey to launch herself over

Cute little Laith

Ari got to spend one morning playing at his house and had a blast. They're only a few months apart so these two will probably be like Scott and Mia when they're bigger. I wish we could get them together more!

Scott was pretty funny digging holes for all the younger kids. They would beg him for a "seat" and he would have to tell them to be patient ...he could barely get one done without someone asking for another.

Chairs he built out of shovels for him and Ari

Digging in the sand with Grandpa and Uncle Rick (aka adopted Dad for the week, and weeks in Vegas)

 digging for sand crabs

 There are several fun candy stores we like to go to, and this one on Balboa Island is always a blast just because we get to take the little boat trolley over.

 

Ari was so adorable picking out her candy. She would pick up a piece and show me and say, "This one?" and I would tell her yes or no and then she'd drop it into her bucket. Just adorable! :)

 

Here they are with Grandma and Grandpa with their loots

 Looking for creatures at Crystal Cove...Grandma's favorite thing to do!

We also happened to be there the same time as the Orange County Fair so we couldn't miss that! We were back and forth about it and I'm soooo glad we went. I think it was the funnest night by far.

In the agriculture section my Dad was showing some kids (not our family) how to put their hands in the baby cows mouth and watch how they latch on. Everyone was looking at him like he was crazy, it was pretty funny. People don't realize this city kid grew up on a farm raising cows- both my parents did. It was pretty funny!

The kids rode TONS of rides! Hailey was too short for about half of them, but the guy let Scott be her chaperon on this fun monster truck one.

I guess Mia hates roller coasters, but she jumped right on with Scott- these two are the best of friends for sure.

 Ari was too short for the rides so Grandma took her to get her face painted. Cutest thing I've ever seen! :)

 

At the very end I thought the big slide would be the last ride, and Ari got to go with Grandpa! Yeah! She was so excited 

We ended the already late night with some ice cream. I searched all over the fair for Gelato ice cream because I knew they had it and usually Scott has to get a slushy or lemonade. I wanted him to get the real ice cream experience and most of Gelato is dairy free. By the time I brought it to him it had melted a bunch but he didn't care he was so excited. He said it was the best thing he's ever eaten. :)

Just a random cute picture of Mia and Scott at the mall. The week he got home to Utah I asked him if it was nice to be home finally and he said, "Yeah, but me and Mia are missing each other already!"

Here's some pics I took of just Scott, Hailey and Ari on the beach

ARIANNA

basking in the sun

driving trucks

 

dig dig dig

 

splashing in the water

 

 

HAILEY 

posing for Aunt Candice lol

splashing in the waves

SCOTT

building and digging