Random end of summer pictures!!

This summer will go down as the "Summer in Transition".  We all had a lot of adjusting to do and I'd have to say the kids did a MUCH better job than Mommy did.  We spent the summer in a foreign house, sharing rooms, and living on top of each other but we came out the other side with a firm appreciation of all that Daddy provides for us on a daily basis.  It wasn't necessarily the small space that got to Mommy, it was the fact that everything possible went wrong with our tiny space....ahhhhh!!!! Thankfull, Daddy is building us an amazing dream home and crossing fingers we don't have so many hiccups:)

2015-2016 Dance Team Auditions

This year has EXPLODED in the dance department.  Sophia did 3 week summer intensive where she was able to try a bunch of different styles of dance and of course she's excelling in all.  The good part is that she's becoming a more well rounded dancer(among other things) and the down side is Mommy's schedule is officially insane.  Sophia was asked to do a tap solo for this upcoming year(say what???AMAZE!!) so we knew we had that on our plate but teams are a whole other thing.  Last year she was on 1 tap team and this year....eh hem...she tried out for 4 teams and guess what???? She made them ALLLLLL!!!  In order to do a solo you have to "try out" for at least 3 competitive teams .  Our 3 going into summer intensives were tap team, jazz team(which is a highly sought after and VERY competitive team), and hip-hop team.  While taking her summer classes, Phia fell in love with musical theatre and wanted to try out for this team as well.  We didn't expect her to make all 4!!! So there you have it, our tiny dancer now dances 12 hours/week Monday-Saturday and will be rocking the stage starting in January on 4 competitive teams and a 1 solo(Mama will be VERY VERY nervous for this one...biting nails).  She is the most determined and driven child we know and we make sure to give her plenty of time to be a kid in between her insane dance schedule!! We believe in hard work and always staying busy...and of course, always making time to be silly and be creative(she loves her lego time!!!)
These are her 4 teams:
Petite Tap #2 - Instructor: Miss Danielle

   Alexa Aleman, Kayla Champeau, Ally Conner, Iyana Hannans, Breanna Mendez, Sophia Tees, Lilee Woodruff

 Petite Large Group Jazz - Instructor: Miss Danielle

   Lola Forbes-Black, Sophia Adler,  Lilee Woodruff, Maddie Jaraski, Iyana Hannans, Sophia Tees, Ally Conner,Kayla Champeau, Zoe Walker, Sammy Bulstrode

Petite Small Group Hip Hop - Instructor: Mr Guy

   Kayla Champeau, Ally Conner, Ilijah Hannans, Lauren Isidro, Emma Leon, Sienna Martinez, Sophia Tees

Musical Theater - Instructor: Miss Jen

   Ashley Hall, Zoe Walker, Maddie Jaraski, Iyana Hannans, Sophia Tees, Ally Conner, Lola Forbes-Black, Liliana Centeno,Alexa Aleman, Elleese Aleman, Karly Beswick, Sarah Rusnak, Riley Hunt, Allison Clunis, Jenny Alejo, Eric Frederich, Bailey Hendricks, Miranda Katler, Blake Hendricks

School has started!!

Oh big changes in our house! Sophia is at a brand new school! Our first baby is officially in Elementary School.  Thankfully 17 of her Kinder classmates went along with her to St. Rose so it's not too huge of a transition but Mommy and Daddy have a LOT of new things to get used to...starting with a 7:45am school start time YIKES!!! The boys are still at St. Peter and they don't start til 8:30 so thankfully we can let them sleep in on days Daddy can take Sophia.  We are loving the new regiment, and although it's SUPER crazy hectic, the kids are really settling into the routine.  Preston started Kinder and is like a whole new person.  He was one of only 2 kids  to move up 2 spots on the behavior chart the first day...gooooo Presto!!! And he's moved up nearly every day since.  We are so unbelievable proud of him.  Bentley is adjusting well to his 2nd year of preschool and asked "can I go 5 days Mommy bc I like my teacher so much?".  Love hearing that!!! We love both our schools so much.  There are a couple older girls at Sophia's school who dance with the same company as us so they seem to be taking care of her and showing her the ropes. First day of school they had an all school assembly where we all prayed together and after we had a "Boo Hoo Breakfast" where all the parents gathered and ate and cried? Eh...this Mama didn't cry.  This Mama is excited!! Oh and Sophia's AMAZING Kinder teacher Mrs. Meyer came to Sophia's first day of school(before she had to go teach Preston at St. Peter!!).  She loves to come to the first day to see her graduating Kinder class off to their first day of First Grade at their new school.  She's beyond words amazing!!  We think this is going to be an amazing year!!

Palm Springs week!

Mama is oh so far behind on blogging! We decided to take one last trip with the kiddos before they started school.  There was  a big ole fire right behind our house so we ended up leaving much later than usual but all the kids ended up falling asleep(except for our owl Sophia of course!).  The forecast for the week was 118-120 degrees so we had to get real creative.  Thankfully the JW has a ton of indoor activities for kids like cooking/baking/art, and even a movie theatre that played kids movies each morning.  There were also big tv's where the kids played video games so Presto was in heaven! We did venture to the pool late in the afternoon the 2nd day and it wasn't so bad if you stayed in the water! Olivia is our mini-Preston and hung out under a huge waterfall(there were tweens who were too scared to go under it!).  She pretty much never leaves the water! Bentley bear would rather wander around the pool but the heat drove him in.  We also spent the day taking the aerial trap up the mountain where we explored, had lunch, and went a mini "hike"(4 mini's can only handle so much outdoor adventure!).  This was our favorite day though as it was a perfect 78 degrees at the top of the mountain...great way to beat the heat!! On our last day we went to our favorite kids museum.  Sophia still LOVES it at 7years old! She spent nearly the entire time in the pizza parlor area making pizza's for all her customers and Bentley loved the grocery store!  We had the most amazing 1600 sq foot, 2 bedroom suite(which is bigger than our current rental...ahhhh!!!)...Mama didn't want to leave EVER!! We love our family trips!!!!(oh and as you can tell from the pictures...Oliva likes to climb...on everything...always...goooood times!!!)