Adahleigh's Baptism/Malia's Blessing

Adahleigh turned 8 this last year and decided to be baptized, so we were able to participate in that with her.  She made the decisions on how her program went.  Keisha had the opportunity to lead the music, so we tracked down a stool she could stand on so everyone could see her and set up the music stand even though she couldn't read any of the music.

We tried to get Adahleigh to write about her baptism right after it happened but this is all that we could get out of her.
-Last night was Adahleigh's baptism! It was a lot of fun.

Adahleigh was baptized on Halloween at the Stake Center. It was originally the child of record date, but they moved it to November, and we had already made arrangements with family. All Grandparents were able to make it out, Aunt Jenny, Riggin, and Aunt Karli.

After the baptism, the kids were able to go door to door for trick'o'treating. This hasn't happened since we lived in Reno  because the city just does a trunk o treat put on by the local businesses. They probably walked over 5 miles and trick o treated for 3 hours. By the time they were done they ended collecting their weight in candy.

Sunday we had Malia's blessing, everyone was able to stay over and be part of that. Uncle Josh was even able to join us after getting off work and driving  over late Saturday night. We enjoyed a nice get together after church before some family had to get back. The girls got up early the next morning to say goodbye one last time to Grandpa and Grandma Wilde, before they left back to Utah.

Malia has been growing tons since then and is getting close to crawling. Here's a video from a couple months ago of her blown raspberries. It was a one time deal since we've tried to get her to do it again and she won't. Luckily we got it on video the first time.

Winter Fun

   This winter we had quite a bit of snow. It all started when we wanted to make a trip out to Utah for Thanksgiving. A 10 hour trip turned into a 20 hour trip. The first three hours of the trip was spent just 10 miles down the road where we got stuck on the highway closed due to the foot and a half of snow we got in one day. We have continually been getting snow on and off since then.

   We decided to go get a Christmas tree A couple weeks later. Also  decided to dump a bunch more snow. Only Charlie and Keisha were willing to brave the snow to find a tree. They had a blast trompping through the woods and shaking snow off the trees to find the perfect one.

   Adahleigh and Keisha made sure to make snowman. We still have some parts of snowmen in the yard, a month later.

   At the end of the cul-de-sac the plows have been piling up the snow. Our neighbor has done some of the plowing and made sure to stack the snow so that we had a sledding hill. The kids have spent several days after school sledding down it. They usually do it on an innertube.

Summer 2015

Our summer has been pretty uneventful, we spent most of it just relaxing at home.

 Adam took the kids fishing a couple times and on a couple hikes and swimming.

He also took them to lava hot springs for his family reunion and to visit with family.

The kids enjoyed swimming like they always do. Adahleigh even jumped off the lowest platform, and the older three enjoyed the slides.

He also took them on our yearly outing to kah-nee-tah to swim and sleep in tepees with there cousins, grandma p, and most of there aunts and uncles. While I got to stay home with two day old malia and grandma w and catch up on some sleep!

Adam decided it was finally time to put in a sprinkler system which lasted most of the summer with early mornings and late nights. Our grass is beginning to be green and not so patchy, so next year the kids may have some grass to run around on. 

We ended our summer with a trip to the valley over Labor Day weekend. It was Adams long weekend and he had plans to go to the temple Saturday with the youth in our ward so we decided to make a weekend of it at his moms. The kids enjoyed spending time with there cousins. Miles and Erin were planning a day trip to the coast so we tagged along. We stopped by a casino on the way for lunch at their buffet. Adahleigh  was ecstatic to be going, her favorite restraunt is chuck a Rama, and to hear this is just like it but bigger and better she couldn't wait. All the kids ate their weight in jello and pizza and topped it off with ice cream. 

We finally made it to the beach where the kids played for the rest of the day, Malia enjoyed her first beach trip tucked away in the moby. 

The weather at the coast that day was very nice. 

Jer enjoying both ends of his cones at lunch.

The kids all trying to build a dam to stop the water. We didn't get many pictures for Adam dropped his phone the ocean when we first got there and I spent part of the time taking care of Malia and going shopping for some rice for Adams phone. 

This little man loved the beach and getting dirty and just getting to run!!! We all enjoyed are end up summer trip to the beach.

We spent the rest of the time celebrating birthdays, having an outdoor movie party, the kids thinking they wanted to swim but  realizing it was just too cold. 

We headed for home the day before school started to get things ready and to get the kids ready for bed at a decent hour.

We enjoyed our lazy summer and for all the family we were able to visit with throughout it. 

We are slowly adjusting to getting back into school mode, but the kids are all enjoying school and doing well.  

Malia Rhys

We left for the hospital just after 11 on the night of the 14th, after what I thought was my water breaking. After a few tests and waiting around they finally admitted us. She was finally on her way! 

Malia was born August 15 at 6:57 am. She weighed 8 lbs & 21 1/4 in long. She was very content most of the day, when she wasn't sleeping or eating she was wide awake. Adam left mid afternoon to go home and get the kids and grandma w to come meet "baby sister" ( this was her name at the moment because we had yet to decide on a name for her). They each had a turn to hold there new sister! 

After only a few minutes of being there, Jerrick was sitting on the bed with me when he turned to me and told me to get my shoes on it was time to go home. When I asked him if baby sister could come home with us, he said no she has to stay here. Needless to say they have become best buds and he is a great big brother to her.  

The rest of the time was pretty uneventful, Malia slept the rest of the afternoon, and Adam took kids home and spent sometime with all his brothers and there families who were visiting for the weekend. Her first night was a little rough with constant crying and little sleep, once we finally got her to sleep it wasn't much later the nurse came in to wake her up to take her vitals and prick her heal to get some blood. She couldn't get enough blood so she had to prick both her heals. Eventually later that day putting a line in her arm for a blood draw because the blood kept clotting so they couldn't use it for what they needed to test it for. She slept most of the day. And of course we had to wait around most of the day before being released to go home. That night she cried most of the night with little sleep. I think she got it out of her system, she's a pretty good sleeper now. 

She is now 5 weeks old.

 She loves to eat and enjoys her bathtime. She sleeps well at night only waking 2 or 3 times to eat. 

We have managed to survive the last few weeks of church, she enjoys being  wrapped in the moby so my hands are  free to wrangle the other four so we're not to disruptful during sacrament meeting. 

Reptile Zone -Bend, OR

This is an old draft that never was posted after we started it.

This is our all time favorite pet store ever. We really enjoyed Mckee's in Pocatello, because of the petting zoo that it had out back, but the Reptile Zone is like your own reptile collection. The owner lets and encourages you to get the animal out and handle them.

The kids love going and seeing all kinds of reptiles. 

These photos are from our first year back to Oregon, as is obvious by how young the kids look and the absence of Jerrick.

The Reptile Zone has actually moved to a different location since these pictures were taken.

Here's a more recent picture from the Reptile Zone. We still enjoy going as often as possible to see and handle all the reptiles there.

Disneyland

   Once again we have allowed the blog to fall behind, so we'll continue where we left off. Our first full day of activities in Anaheim we spent the day at Disneyland. This was after having enjoyed a peaceful Sabbath with Aunt Utahna and Renee. We enjoyed attending church with Utahna in the morning and an afternoon of visiting.

   Ashley picked out Disney appropriate outfits for the parks, and even did the girls hair to go along with the Mickey theme. The kids were so excited that it was hard to get them to sit still long enough to get them fed and ready.

  We didn't end up taking a ton of pictures in the park but here are a few of the highlights. The lines for most the rides weren't too bad, and the kids actually did an excellent job be patient to get on the rides, including Jerrick.

   The tea cups were fun for some, but not for all. Keisha really enjoyed them spinning and kept saying faster, faster and Charlie was the opposite and didn't want them to spin at all. Of course we only listened to Keisha and got them going as fast as we could. No one got sick on them so that's what's really important.

   Some of the lines were so long we avoided waiting at all. The girls did want to get a picture with Tinker Bell, but the line was probably an hour long. Instead, we too a picture in front of the fairy cove and if you zoom in you can see Tinker Bell in the background.

The Marvel exhibit was of course a huge hit with the kids and the all chose their favorite Iron Man suite and got a picture in from of it. They also really enjoyed the interactive part of the exhibit where they got to test out the virtual Iron Man armor.

After a full day of activities the kids were still going strong for the most part. We forgot to get a picture out in front of the park on the way in, and had split up on the way out, so the girls where the only ones to get a picture in front of the Mikey lawn.

Spring Break

     We have once again fallen behind on our blog, so going back to the end of February we finally were able to take our first big family vacation, which with all the fun we had I'll break into a couple posts. This year we decided to take the kids to Disneyland. We made it and early spring break trip for them since Adahleigh didn't actually have spring break until mid March. We went earlier to avoid some of the crowds and the pricing is better before the first of March.
     We first told the kids about the trip at Christmas, they were excited but didn't really know what to expect. Over the next month we planned out with them which rides they wanted to go on, so that helped them get more excited for the trip. We figured with four of them to chase around we needed a little extra help, so we invited Grandma Phillips and Aunt Karli along to help out.
     We left out Friday (Feb 21) after Adahleigh was done with school, since the school was already giving us a hard time for her missing too much. We broke the 13 hour trip down into two days, and met Grandma and Karli in Sacramento.
     We stopped and got everyone dinner at burger King in Klamath Falls, so their bellies would get be full and they could get to sleep for the next few hours till we made it Sacramento.

    The Next morning we had breakfast and took the kids to a local park so they could burn off some energy before getting back in the car for most of the day. The weather in Sacramento was great at 70 by 10 am, compared to our regular 40 high for the day. Keisha has become quite the acrobat and likes to show here skills off.

     Charles also wanted to show his hanging skills, but would do it from the monkey bars.

     She also has a grip of steel, which she can dangle for long periods of time. She made it across the rings several times, but once the camera came out she couldn't get all the way across.