End of The Peaden Life: Volume VIII -- Part I

Last year we had 1472 pictures for the whole year, which meant we had to break our year into two books. We said "Someday, we'll learn to condense our pictures to just our very favorites." That wasn't this year. Because this year we had to go through and cut 66 pictures just to squeeze our year into two books. (13 pictures from January to June and 53 pictures from July to December) We're squuueeeezing into the 1150 picture per book cap with a grand total of 2300 pictures.

What can we say? We have a lot of favorite pictures!

The story of our awesome summer vacation will be continued in Part II...

Staycation

Because we opted to do a staycation (with a short trip to Idaho later in the week) this year, we wanted to make sure we did a bunch of fun things together while David was off of work. Sometimes David and I feel drawn to trying to make things special by spending money. (For example, going to Kangaroo Zoo, going to Boondocks, doing things that we wouldn't normally do.) But we realized, that for this week - our kids didn't need us to spend extra money on them, they just needed us to be with them and to play and have fun with them. So we didn't do anything that cost extra money, but we did spend all of our time together and we all loved it. The kids didn't know the difference, and we were able to save the money for later trips and just enjoy the things we could do - being together. We played at home. We went to the splash pad, got a pizza, and played in the water for hours. We went to Thanksgiving Point for their Melody Makers (music class), which was Lydia's request. And we had banana splits and a movie night. It was great.

"Roasting Marshmallows" over the Campfire at Home

Special Breakfast

We let the kids pick out some special sugar cereal at the store for breakfast. Anything to make the staycation a little more special. 

Little River Splash Pad

 I love the splash pad in Highland because it's a little river that runs through the rocks. It's fun, but safe, and we all love it. We headed up there with our new SportBrella that I got for Christmas (which I loooooove). Caleb hung out in the shade while David and I took turns splashing in the water with the kids. We were having so much fun that we decided to just grab a little Caesars Pizza and eat lunch there, too. It was just what we needed.

Melody Makers at Thanksgiving Point

When we asked the kids what they wanted to do for our Staycation, Lydia requested going to the music class at Thanksgiving Point. It was held outside and was a beautiful day. It didn't cost us anything because we already have a membership there, but was such a fun activity! I take the kids occasionally, but David hasn't ever come - and everything is more fun and more exciting when Dad is there. 

Movie Night/Banana Splits

We let the kids pick their own flavors of ice cream then borrowed Finding Nemo from a neighbor for a special movie night and banana splits. It was as simple as pulling the couch forward and letting them watch a movie before bed, but definitely a favorite activity of theirs.

We just feel so blessed that David was able to take so many days off of work to stay home and be with us. By the end of this week I was feeling all sorts of heart-eyed love for Eide Bailly and how much time they give David off each year. I even remember thinking "busy season is worth being able to have so much time off in the summer!" I will probably feel differently when we are in the middle of busy season again- but for now, we are just soaking up every minute that we get to spend together!

Tomorrow morning we are headed out for the vacation part of our staycation! We are going to stay in a little lodge at a state park in Idaho and hopefully see something resembling a volcano. So glad that we got this week do to staycation things - and especially that it's not over yet.

Insta-May&June

insta-may AND insta-june

{5.6.17}

And just like that, this girl is five. (Technically yesterday but we were so busy with all our birthday celebrations that there was no time to post about it.) I frequently tell Lydia to stop growing, and threaten to put a really heavy stack of books on her head to keep her from getting taller, but she keeps insisting on getting older! Truth be told, watching her grow up is the most wonderful thing. She's kind, funny, creative, and I'm so so glad she's mine. Also, she still loves #pawpatrol and has been requesting a paw patrol cake since her last birthday. (And she still thinks Zuma is a girl, shhhh.) #lydiaelise#birthdaygirl #imnotreadyforkindergarten

{5.9.17}

This is how we do yard work. 😎 #workinghard#thedandelionbattlecontinues#alittleghetto #icallitinginuity

{5.12.17}

Lydia - Bright Blue. Austin - Hazel. Caleb - Dark Blue (for now). I sure love these eyes.

{5.22.17}

Snuggling this baby today has me all 😍😍😍. #totallyawesome

{5.23.17}

This girl learned how to ride a bike today! She asked if we could take the training wheels off and so we did. With almost no help from me she figured out how to balance and with every lap she got better and better! I'm so so proud. 🚲🚲🚲 How did she get so big???

{5.31.17}

David was supposed to work late tonight but came home early so I could make a trip here tonight. I'm so filled with love and gratitude for the temple right now. #ilovetoseethetemple

{6.4.17}

The best part about Sunday morning is fighting over who gets to lay by Baby Caleb on the couch. ❤️💙💙

{6.5.17}

June 5th might just be my favorite day of the year because it's the day this guy and I hitched our wagons together and started this awesome journey! Eight wonderful years. *insert super sappy post about how much I love @davidpeaden * ha. Truly, I'm grateful every single day that his stubbornness outlasted mine. (Probably the only time that's happened!) Swipe right for wedding pics! #junewedding #togetherforever

{6.5.17}

The Farm, The Gardens, then the Tower for ice cream. 🐎🌷🍦 A great way to celebrate the birth of this kind, smart, and incredible friend of mine - @cassdelahunty. We met almost 11 years ago at our Student Ward's opening social, where we found that we had a mutual love of Pride and Prejudice. 😍 I'm so glad that through all those years, plus almost five kids later, I can still count her as such a dear friend. (She even shared her birthday with us for our wedding day eight years ago... Sappy post will be forthcoming). Happy Birthday Cass! Thanks for making time for me to celebrate with you today!

{6.9.17}

Hanging out at swimming lessons. Playing I-spy and taking selfies is a pretty good use of time, I'd say. #swimminglessonsforthewin

{6.9.17}

Swimming lessons for Lydia this week (and next), she loves it so much and wishes she could do it every day all summer long.

{6.9.17}

We took this crew to the pool after swimming lessons were over. 7 kids 6 and under (6,5,5,2,2,1,0) Pizza 🍕, chicken nuggets 🐔, and lots of sun ☀️, that's what childhood is made of 🏖️😎. O distinctly remember my mom counting us kids off wherever we went, but especially by water, 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5. I thought she was worrying too much but now I totally get it! Pool time isn't as relaxing as it once was, but it's still so fun, and again... Childhood memories, right? Except my kids will remember me as "1-2-3-4-5-6-7... Stay close to the blue line! You have to have your floaties on!" #summer#cooperpeadencrew#sorryboutthehatcaleb

{6.11.17}

3 months yesterday! I've never enjoyed the newborn stage so much and I'm honestly a little sad at how quickly it had gone by. The kids call him Bae-Boo or My Baby, David calls him Baby C, and I call him "My Caleb Love" or "My Sweet Baby". He super smiley, especially after some good food and a nap and he's tough enough to take all the love he gets from his older siblings. We just love him so much.

{6.15.17}

Who needs double stroller when you've got this going for you? #notus#threekidsonestroller #swimminglessons

{6.16.17}

Hanging out at the Parade of Homes today. 🏡🏡🏡My favorites so far: #11 and #12. One of them was a 1989 Parade of Homes winner that was completely updated. It was gorgeous! If it was about one million dollars less I would be seriously trying to get David to buy it for me. So happy to be on a date with these boys of mine. #uvparadeofhomes #friday

{6.23.17}

Parade season started tonight at the Lehi Roundup Mini-Float Parade! (It might be my favorite parade of the year.) Free balloons from Pioneer Party and some yummy square donuts from the Lehi Bakery and we were pretty much in parade heaven, until the first float threw candy and Lydia was so excited that she ran without realizing her balloon was tangled and popped it off its string. There were many tears as it flew away into the sky. 🎈 (Balloons bring the happiest highs, but the worst crashes as soon as they pop/fly away.) We enjoyed the rest of the parade, but Lydia asked if we could go see if they had any extra on the way out. They were just closing up shop as we got there and the lady was so so kind and gave Lydia the biggest balloon ever and said she was the winner. On the way back to the car Lydia asked if that meant that she got to be in the parade tomorrow with the other parade winners. Also, Baby C's first parade! Summer is the best. Just... The best. #swiperight #paradefamily #bestfamily

Parade of Homes

David and I love going to the parade of homes. It's fun to be together, to see beautiful things, to talk about what we like and don't like and make plans for a future dream home. This year I surprised David with ticket's for Father's Day. (And by surprised, I mean he said "maybe you should get me tickets for fathers day" so I bought us tickets sent him a "happy early father's day" text, then still bought him a different present for Father's Day. It's called budget manipulation, people.)

Regardless of how we came by the tickets, I'm so glad we went this year. We set up a couple of babysitters, and went several times over the course of the two weeks. A couple of times we even braved going with all three of our kids and it was much more successful than I thought it was going to be. We even convinced Amy to come with us one evening. (I don't have pictures of Amy or the kids, which is too bad.) Caleb was our constant little tag-a-long and he was SO good. I just wore him in the carrier and he rarely cried and was pretty good at getting in and out of the carseat without much fuss.

(One of our Parade of Homes dates took a detour so we could do a little car shopping, too. Caleb is seriously the best little baby. He didn't make a peep the whole time. Also, car shopping is not nearly as fun as it should be.) 

My two favorite houses were both remodels. The first was a 1989 Parade of Homes winner, and they went through and modernized everything into 2017 standards and at every turn I was in awe with how much I loved everything about it. The master bedroom had a stairway and loft in the room and it was incredible. (My neighbors growing up, the Cote's, had something similar in their master bedroom but it was a smaller loft with a metal circular staircase and I thought that it was SO neat. I'd love something like that someday if I could fit it into my "dream" house. The second house was a home that a family had purchased with the intention to flip, but then fell in love with and updated it with their family of eight boys in mind. There was a slide hidden behind the entertainment center, a lego-loft area, pathways between rooms, and a gorgeous play area in the basement. I loved how they were able to fit so much fun stuff into their space. Both houses used their space so well and so creatively. It was fun to see ideas of things that we could implement into a future home without having to make it be a HUGE house. If you can be creative - you can make your house really special. It's fun to dream big with David and talk to each other about the things we'd love in a future dream home.