Scott says this to me this morning: 

"Mom, are Hailey and Ari like this all day when I'm at school?" 

(fighting, screaming, whining...) 

I said "Yes they are...all day." 

He said, "Well lucky for me when I get older I will be at work all day and won't have to deal with the kids!"

I was laughing so hard! He said, "What? I will probably have kids that will be all 'waaaa waaa waaa ehhhh ehhhh' " 

Had to write that one down...too funny. 

Back to School!!

My cute little kindergartner and 2nd grader! So fun to have them both in the same school. Hailey even gets to ride her bike to school with her big brother. How cool is that?

So excited! Dressed (in an outfit she picked herself of course) and ready by 6:45 am.

Hailey- Kindergarten. 

Says she wants to be an artist and an acrobat when she grows up.

 Scott- 2nd Grade

Says he's going to be a builder when he grows up.

This was my sister Candice's idea...so here is Hailey wearing her senior t-shirt "Class of 2026" and so she'll take a picture on the 1st day of school every year until her senior year and see how she grows into it. How darling is that!?

 Hailey in front of her class (looking a bit nervous...)

 Scott outside his classroom with his best friend David. The 2 tallest 2nd graders in the school. lol Scott has always been so tall for his age and then he finally met a friend taller. I don't think they will have any troubles on the playground, you? :) 

Here's the poem he wrote about himself (above where he is standing)

Scott

Cool, Tall, Good,

Loves his family,

Feels happy reading,

Is afraid of nothing,

Would like to see the inside of a pyramid,

Wants to be a builder.

Here for some reason they stagger the starting days of school. So Scott went last Thursday, Hailey this Thursday (today) and they Ari doesn't go until a week from next Thursday to preschool. She is just patiently (or not) waiting to go and is soooo excited for it to be her turn!

 Tis the season for going back to school, and that also means canning! Hailey and I have been super busy canning 3 big boxes of pears! We did about 21 quarts jars and then dehydrated the rest making about 10 or so quart jars of pear slices. So yummy!

 I usually just do it all one day, but this time we just did a batch each day so that way I still had time to do everything else I had to do. Hailey was getting a bit bored, so I put her to work. She was in charge of getting the seeds and "guts" as we called them out. She took her job very seriously...only a few water breaks and back to business :) She was such a great help! Always is!

We will have a few weeks break before the Brigham City peaches come on and then we will be doing that most of the month of September! I love me some early Alberta peaches!!!!

Well we have been doing some re-arranging around here. I just felt like I needed to have either both the boys downstairs or both the girls downstairs. Not that Hailey and Scott can't be trusted, but it's just hard and when Scott is getting older and wanting more privacy and when he has his friends over too...so we moved him upstairs (where now I can keep an eye -and ear- on him and his friends! lol) and moved Ari downstairs. 

I have had this girl bath stuff for about 3 years just sitting in a box so I got it out and we made the downstairs bath into the girls bath. Since I didn't have much decorations, I let my little artist Hailey draw some paintings. She sat in front of the shower curtain with a clipboard and drew....she is such a little artist. So cute!!

I let Ari paint in the backyard while Hailey was doing her art.

Jay cruisin along the stair railings. The kids like to go on the other side and play games with him

 Such a little ham

Random Happenings!

Last weekend we went to a SLC bees baseball game. Lots of fun! Reminded us of all the beloved Cardinal games we went to in Missouri. It was a perfect night. Jay even fell asleep on my lap in his jammies.

The kids really just enjoy all the popcorn and eating

Jay is standing up to everything and climbing into anything now...his favorite being the dishwasher. This week he also climbed all the way up the stairs. (with me behind him don't worry)

Here's another thing he loves...getting rides in a box by Hailey! lol

Don't worry, it was my idea. He totally loved it too. Here's a video of him laughing

Jay in the box from Nicole on Vimeo.

We started this year doing dates with the kids. Each kid gets a month and trades between mom and dad. So I took Hailey on a date (dance show and icecream) in May, Ari on a date (cookies at kneaders) in June, and Scott on a date (bowling and a treat) in July. Now it's Dad's turn to take them each on a date this quarter. So Hailey has been begging him to take her rock-climbing and she finally got to go last weekend!

There she is all the way at the top. Actually Kevin said they didn't even charge them to climb, they were just excited someone so young was taking interest in it. 

She was beaming when she got home. Best night ever. 

Friday night we went up Providence Canyon and had a fire and roasted marshmallows with some friends, and then we decided to get up Saturday morning and drive to Tony's Grove Lake. Sooooo pretty!

I can't believe we lived in Nibley for 4 years and never went to any of these amazing places. I guess Kevin was working graveyards and working every weekend, and I was pregnant with Hailey and then Ari...so I guess we will have to make up for it now!

We had a picnic lunch, walked around, canoed around and did some fishing.

 I only have a few pictures of me with the kids...it's always shocking to see myself with all 4 rugrats- pretty crazy :) And man I love them to pieces!!!

 Scott is in his element fishing and being in the mountains...he's always been that way

 Ari, Jay and I walked around on the paths for a bit. Ari loves to hike and when she does get to go, she talks about it for days and days until she gets to go again.

Fun little day trip! Next time we are going to camp a few days and bring our suits to swim too. Plus they have another hike (about 7.6 miles round trip) up to White Pine Lake. 

The Rydalch side (mom's side) had a family reunion last weekend and of course we went since Lava is only an hour away. The kids had a blast riding my Aunt Patty's horses!

 Scott and Grandma

 Hailey loves horses and always has since she was a baby. She didn't want to get off- pretty cute

 You don't even have to lead these horses, they just walk behind you

Ari really surprised me because she's unsure of a lot of things...even dogs. She loved the horse and was even mad when I stuck Scott on with her because she wanted to keep riding by herself :)

 Rick got his exercise that morning running and walking around with all the kids! 

Cutie pie Kellan

 Me and my Grandma Lill

 Grandma and my beautiful Mom

 and the kids

 I just LOVE Grandma! This is her expression 99.9 percent of the time. I guess that's where my mom got her positive attitude from.

We went to the Lava Hot Springs pool too. This is the slide I talked Scott into going on with his uncle Rick and he did! 

 I waited for 20 minutes and took pictures of all the wrong people and then missed him! Oh well I got one of him coming out lol

 and Rick :)

Some of my little cousins- all grown up!

 I use to babysit Savanna (bottom pic on the left) when she was just a newborn when I went to Ricks...crazy! 

Bre and Brooke didn't come, but Candice, Rick and their kiddos did

Scott and Hailey on the twirly slide

 Arianna enjoying the beautiful country views

 Jay and Kellan sitting with my cousin Nate's newest addition. Look at her she thinks these two are crazy! lol

 It was a fun little day trip. Kevin couldn't make it because he decided to fly to Colorado last minute to see his family. It worked out where he just left the car at the airport for my mom and Candice. I had fun with my mom and Candice Thursday and Friday night! We were brave and took all the kids to Texas Roadhouse, went to a fun park to play and watched a chickflick...and of course shopping! lol