July Recap/ Summer Break

July completely flew by! It consisted of Bryson's three week Summer break so we tried to pack in as much fun as we could.

I started the month off at girls camp with these fabulous ladies! The theme was "It's a Jungle Out There!" and we based the camp around "Survivor" with fun challenges. It was a total blast!

Love these girls...

I got home from girls camp just in time to welcome Bryson home from his last day of first grade. What a stud.

We spent the 4th of July at our local town days. Bryson enjoyed the haystack dive and walked away with a huge bag full of candy.

We visited the fair and Bryson especially loved this water bubble activity...



We ended the evening watching the fireworks across the valley from the top of our house. It was so beautiful!

We enjoyed a day up at our friends Ty & Kami's cabin and spent the day fishing, shooting, 4-wheeling, canoeing and relaxing. We love their cabin!

Mike and Bryson have started fishing on a weekly basis together and enjoyed trying to catch fish from their pond.

Bryson and Saki (our Japanese exchange student) spent hours and hours jumping on the trampoline with cousins and friends. Bryson mastered the front flip and is now trying to master the double front flip. He almost has it down!


We spent a day at Lagoon. Bryson thought he died and went to Heaven. He was finally tall enough to go on Colossus and Wicked and loved them.

This is how Lilly looked on every single ride except on the very slow little boats, the very slow little cars, and the very slow train. She almost smiled on those three rides....haha. She was not a fan of Lagoon.

Lilly's cousin Brody loved holding her and pushing her around in her stroller.

Bryson and Lilly took lots of bubble baths.

We went to see Wicked for the first time with Ty & Kami and loved it!

We also enjoyed several outdoor movies that our city puts on after dark.

We visited the zoo. I hardly recognized the place because it's changed so much since we were last there.

Lilly loved walking with the big kids instead of riding in her stroller.

Bryson played on Granny & Grandpa's big blow up water slide and had fun emptying out the water bags afterward. You'll see in the video why he enjoyed it so much...haha.


 Bryson went to his first live musical at the Hale Center Theater.

Bryson played his first season of rugby with this fine looking group of boys (his cousins).

And the month ended with him starting second grade! His Summer break was short and sweet but he's excited to be back at school and loves his new teacher!

Favortie quote this week:

"Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right."

President Ezra Taft Benson 

Life rules.

First Grade!

This is a conversation that took place the other day:

Me: Hey Bryson, I'd love for you to come to the store with me!

Bryson: Sorry mom, I already have plans.

Me (with very raised eyebrows): Plans? You're only six, what kind of "plans" could you possible have?

He then went on to tell me about all the plans he really did have for the day.

On Friday (we are on year-round now), I sent this little boy full of big plans off to first grade! He is seriously such a good kid and is such a blessing to have in our family. On Thursday we got to meet his new teacher, look around his cute classroom and find his desk. He's been pretty bummed about having to get a new teacher because he LOVED his kindergarten teacher but his new teacher seems really nice and I'm sure he'll end up liking her too.

Here's a full shot of the outfit he chose to wear on his first day.

Our new home is far enough away from the school that he gets to ride the bus now. I never got to ride the bus to school as a kid, but always wanted to, so this whole bus thing is totally new to me and to him.

He was happy to see our cute neighbor Madison in line.

His bus driver is so cute and gave Bryson a high five when he got on.

After school Bryson hopped off the bus with a great big grin on his face. The bus makes three stops on the way home and because this bus thing is new to me, I didn't even think to tell him which stop was ours (ours is the last stop). Luckily he was smart enough to watch when our neighbor Madison got off and then followed her off. I think the big smile he got off the bus with was definitely a smile of relief that he actually made it home. I think he was pretty worried he may not!

I loved listening to him tell me about his day while we went through his backpack. He said that at school another cute neighbor of ours, Kaieva, who is a few years older than him, helped him make friends at recess and helped him get to the right bus line after school. It was so sweet of her to help him like that and I know he sure appreciated it. I love this little boy to pieces and look forward to all of the new adventures that await him in first grade!

Favorite quote this week:

"Behind every great kid, is a mom who's pretty sure she's screwing it up."

So true. Life rules.

6 Years Old

Our little man turned six a month ago (on March 24th). I know I'm very behind in posting about his birthday and everything else going on in his life, so this post is going to be flooded with all things Bryson. First of all, I absolutely love the age he is at right now. He soaks up the world like a sponge and is so eager to learn about everything around him. There is something truly special about Bryson and we feel so beyond blessed to have him in our lives.

For Bryson's birthday this year he asked us for a globe and a liahona. I'm not sure where he plans on going, but at least he'll have a way to find his way there now...haha. The globe is illuminated and looks so pretty when it's lit up at night. In the weeks leading up to his birthday when family members asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he was very strategic in his planning and made sure to tell each person a different item from his wish list in order to be sure he got everything he wanted. His strategy worked and he really did walk away with everything on his list. Pretty smart thinking for a 6-year-old!

We had a small family birthday party this year and Mommy Kim got to come to his party for the very first time since he was born. She's always lived outside of Utah up until now, so it was great to have her here to celebrate his big day with us. She is so amazing and we love her so much.

Bryson recently finished playing indoor soccer again with his cousin Naish. Bryson LOVES soccer and decided to play outdoor soccer instead of baseball this year. He is becoming quite the player and is a pretty fast little runner.

For some reason Bryson decided to start copying The Book of Mormon into his new little notebook from school. I have no idea what inspired him to start doing this but he's been doing it pretty consistently over the last few weeks and spends a few minutes before bed most nights copying down a few lines of text. He's such a cutie.

Bryson absolutely LOVES school! He has an amazing teacher and has made some really great friends. He has been in all-day kindergarten and it has been fun to watch him progress and learn. He got chosen to be the student of the month and they gave him this cute little framed certificate to take home. What his teacher said about him was so cute and made me tear up a little when I read it. He is such a good kid and we are so proud of him.

I try to do a video each year of Bryson telling about his life and this is this years video. He was quite the little talker so I had to edit it a little so it wasn't so long. Enjoy!

We can't get enough of our little man and love him so much!

After School Snack

Bryson has all-day kindergarten which can make for a pretty long day for a 5-year-old--but he honestly cannot get enough of it! He loves school and I love the quality time I get with Lilly while he's away. When Bryson gets home from school, Lilly is always down for an afternoon nap, so that leaves me to enjoy some quality alone time with him. It works out perfectly. One of the first things we do everyday after school is make an afternoon snack together. One of my goals as a mother is to raise responsible, self-reliant children and I feel there is no better way to do that than by teaching children how to do things for themselves. So this week Bryson has been mastering the art of making nutritious smoothies!

I pull out all the fruit and veggie choices and then he picks the ones he wants to put in the smoothie. This time he chose a delicious antioxidant-packed berry concoction of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. I threw in a banana, some kale and some spinach. Then we added a little greek yogurt and milk for some extra calcium & protein and to help it mix together more easily.

He blends it all up (his favorite part) and then we sit and slurp up our smoothies together while I attempt to get him to tell me about his day. Getting him to talk about his day is literally like pulling teeth but I can usually manage to get one or two small details out of him. The rest forever remains a mystery! Gotta love boys.

After we finish our snack we sit at the kitchen table and I help Bryson with his homework and then we snuggle up on the couch and Bryson reads to me and I read to him. This precious time I get to spend alone with him every day is something I cherish so much. It's one of the many golden moments I get to experience each day as a mother and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Life rules.

Granger 15-Year Reunion

This weekend was my 15-year high school reunion! It was so much fun to go and spend time catching up with old friends but at the same time crazy nuts to realize we're all getting as old as we are!

Granger High was built in 1958 and since this will be its last year standing, our class invited ALL other classes to our reunion as one big last "hurrah" before they tear down the asbestos filled school...

and replace it with this new state-of-the-art beauty, which will be finished next year. 

All six of my siblings are Granger alumni, but my big brother Zack was the only one that showed up so we had some good brother/sister bonding time as we roamed the halls together reminiscing about the good ol' days. Zack was a senior when I was a sophomore and always made sure to embarrass me in front of all of his super cute friends because he knew I had crushes on every single one of them. He played the role of a big brother VERY well.

While roaming the halls we found Zack's name on this plaque in one of the trophy cases for being the outstanding male athlete in his class (I couldn't get a good shot of his name because it was behind the trophy). My little sister's hubby's name (Abbel Aiono) was on it too, so that was fun to see.

My hot date (aka: Mike) and Zack looking at old class pictures that line the halls.

Even some of our old teachers attended the reunion! Here's Zack with one of his football coaches from back in the day. It was such a fun evening and I'm glad I was able to attend and pay my final respects to the school I love.

Kindergarten

Our little man started kindergarten today! Of course he chose to wear his new Star Wars Lego shirt, which he was beyond excited about. He got his outfit all laid out perfectly on the floor last night so he was all ready to go.

When we got to his school this morning Bryson was a little nervous as he waited in line--but then he saw his friend from church (the boy behind him) and learned they had the same teacher, so that got him really excited and quickly put him at ease.

Before I knew it, his teacher whisked his line into the school and my little boy was gone! 

Off to start a new chapter in his life.

Good luck little buddy!

Now that Bryson is back in school he's been working really hard to get to bed on time. To help him, I created a bedtime schedule that we hung on his bedroom wall so he can remember the things he needs to do each night before he goes to bed and so he knows what time they need to be done in order to get to bed on time. It has worked wonders and has helped Mike and I keep things straight too!

Bryson has also been working really hard to learn how to read. I made him this sticker chart to motivate him to do 30 minutes of reading every day. He reads to me for 15 minutes out of one of his beginner reading books and then I read to him for 15 minutes out of a book from the library--right now we are enjoying Stuart Little. He can earn $1 a week if he reads every day. So far he's earned $2 and is anxiously saving for a double-bladed light saber.

Bryson is almost riding his bike without his training wheels! Mike has been practicing with him a lot this week and he almost has it down! Check him out:


And here's one last 30 second video of Bryson water skiing for the first time that I've been meaning to post for a few weeks. Check out all of his fancy tricks:

Bryson rules. Life rules.

Preschool Graduation

Our little man graduated from preschool on Monday and we are so proud of him! His graduation ceremony was so cute and Granny and Grandpa Hink came to watch. Now he's off to kindergarten at a new school in the Fall.

Here are some of my favorite things about Bryson right now:

1. He loves to race me up the stairs (he almost always wins).
2. He loves to draw pictures...especially pictures of pirate ships.
3. He says to me several times everyday,  "I love you. You're pretty."
4. Whenever I vacuum, he grabs a sword and fights off the vacuum like its a bad guy.
5. When he doesn't know the words to the hymns in church, he sings "hi-ho cherrio!"
6. He's learning all of the names & faces of the modern-day prophets and prays every night that Heavenly Father will help him remember them.
7. He knows who he is (ask him the next time you see him and you'll love his answers).

Bryson with his teacher Ms. Moore.

Bryson with one of his best preschool buddies Brad. His other best buddy is Isaac, but we didn't get a picture with him. Bryson had a lot of fun play dates with Brad this the year.

Words cannot even begin to express how blessed we feel to have this little boy in our lives.

We love you Bryson!