August 2014

All the vacationing and fun of the summer had to come to an end at some point in time.  3 days after we got back from California school started.  

Peyton's first day of 8th grade

Hailey's first day of 4th grade

Lexi's first day of Kindergarten

Addison just didn't want to be left out.

Alexis was so excited to start school.  She wasn't nervous at all and has loved every minute of it.  There were no tears shed only smiles.

We had our annual back to school candlelight dinner.  Such a fun tradition (although I forgot to buy sparkling cider and the girls were not very happy about that!).

Peyton celebrated her 13th birthday in August.  I can't believe I am the mother of a teenager.  Time goes by so fast.  She enjoyed her crepes with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast.  Then she got to open her presents before she went to school.

That night she had a little birthday party with 10 of her friends.  They came over and played games and ate snacks and treats.  They had a great time.

We also bought a house in August.  We are actually building a house but we were able to get approved for the loan and pick out all of the design stuff over the past few weeks.  We won't actually close on the house until March 31st and won't move in to it until school gets out in May but we are so excited.  We have never purchased a house before so this is a huge step in our lives.  The girls are excited to have a house of our own but also a little nervous because they will be changing schools and school districts.  Hopefully they will love it.  Here they are in front of our nice dirt lot.  I can't wait to see the progress of the house over the next 7 months.

July 2014

Once we got back from our trip to Utah we were able to do a few things around Gilbert.  My niece Summer was in a Princess Festival and we were able to go and see her perform.  The girls loved it.

Hailey was able to get her ears pierced.  Ryan took her and she was all smiles when she got home.

I was able to go to Girls Camp with Peyton at Camp Lo Mia.  I had been in the Young Women's presidency in my ward but was released in the middle of June because I was called to be in the new Primary Presidency.  I asked them when I was released if I could still go to girls camp since I knew Peyton would be upset if I didn't go.  I hadn't been to girls camp since I was in young women's and I had a great time.

Here we are on the bus riding up to camp.

We had a huge rainstorm while we were there and Peyton got drenched helping her leader get her stuff to her cabin.

Our beautiful hike.

My 4 cute 2nd years and 2 YCL's from my cabin.  I loved being with them.

Peyton came home with a few injuries.  She somehow managed to sprain her big toe on our hike.  I'm not sure how she managed to do that with tennis shoes on.  She also tripped and fell head first into some rocks.  That is how she got this nice scrape on her head.  I have to say she takes after me in the accident prone category (or some people might call us clumsy!).  I luckily came home with no injuries.

Hailey and her friend Brooklyn and her cousin Kate decided to dress up and have a cute little photo shoot (Peyton was the photographer).  I love when my girls have fun like this.

My dad even got in on the action.

We found out in the middle of July that we were having a boy.  Ryan was so excited and I was relieved because that is really one of the main reasons I agreed to have another baby.  Ryan wanted a son so bad and I was dragging my feet because I wasn't sure I could handle having another baby.  He kept promising me that if I would just have one more baby that it would be a boy.  He knew it for sure.  It took a lot of fasting and prayer on my part to see that this is what I needed to do.  I still haven't fully come to terms with the fact that we are going to have another baby.  I still have my ups and downs with this pregnancy but I have seen the Lord's hand in it so I keep trying to stay positive about it.  The girls weren't too excited to find out it was a boy but hopefully in the end they will adore him.  I love how he is putting his arms up in the ultrasound pictures as if he were saying "I'm not sure I'm ready to be sent to a family with 4 older sisters".

At the very end of July and beginning of August we were able to go to San Clemente, CA with my family for our family reunion.  We stayed at the same place we went to when we were children with my mom's side of the family.  It was so much fun.  The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool and relaxing in the hot tub.

We also went to the beach every day.  Addison loved the beach.  She loved digging in the sand with all of her cousins and running in to the water.  She was not afraid at all.

Alexis had a great time hanging out with her cousin Julia.  They also loved the water and just ran around for hours.

Ryan taught Peyton and Hailey how to boogie board and they loved it.  Peyton especially loved it and spent many hours doing it every day.  In the end she spent too many hours doing it because she ended up with a terrible sunburn.  It was not good.

Hailey loved holding her cousin Brynn.  Doesn't she have the cutest smile.

Addison had a great time playing with her cousin Deborah.

Best Friends and Cousins Alexis and Julia

We loved being able to spend time with Steve and Rachael (especially since they live in Wisconsin and we rarely get to see them).  Addison was obsessed with Uncle Steve and asked for him all the time.  She adores him.

We tried taking a few pictures at the beach at sunset but my phone didn't do the best job of capturing it.  Here I am with my parents and siblings.

Me and my siblings trying to jump at the same time.  Rachael and Andrew have mad jumping skills.

Here is the whole Cardon family minus Noah and Andy who couldn't come.  We had such a great time reliving our childhood and making more great memories with my family.  We can't wait to do it again.  Thanks mom and dad for such a fun trip.

June 2014

June was another busy month for us.  At the beginning of the month we had cousin Makenna stay with us for 5 days.  We had a great time with her.

We played lots of Skip-bo

Went rock climbing at the Freestone Park Rec Center

went to the movies and did lots of other things.  A week after Makenna left our house we left for a 3 1/2 week long vacation to Utah.  One of our first stops in Provo was the cougar.  The girls love going there.

They also enjoyed rolling down the hills at the BYU football stadium.

The main reason for going to Utah was the Ferrell Family vacation at Aspen Grove.  We love this family reunion we get to have every 2 years with Ryan's family.  We of course had family pictures taken.

The whole family

The grandkids and grandparents

Our little family

Peyton

Hailey

Alexis

Addison

My 4 favorite girls

Peyton had a great time doing their ropes course.  I was so proud of her for making it through the whole thing.  It is super hard and she never gave up.

Addison loved playing outside all the time.  

She spent a lot of time with her 2 cousins Jack and Aiden.  They loved playing with each other (and fighting with each other).  The twins are only 3 weeks younger than Addison.

Hailey celebrated her 9th birthday during our vacation.  She enjoyed being able to share cupcakes and open presents with all of her cousins.

One of the best parts of the trip was my 2 childhood best friends being up at Aspen Grove at the same time I was there.  I spent so much time at the Ellefsen house growing up that they were like my second family.  I adore Brenda and Lisa and am so glad I got to see them.

Peyton loved her group and had a good time taking pictures with them during their hike to the waterfall.

A big highlight of the vacation for my kids is that it snowed while we were there.  They loved going out in the snow and dancing around.

The family dance is one of the best parts of Aspen Grove.  My girls love dancing with their family.

Hailey and Jaxon

Addison and Jonathan

Our family of 6.

Saying goodbye to cousins can be so hard.

Thanks Mom and Dad Ferrell for the amazing family reunion.

While we were at Aspen Grove we announced that we were expecting baby #5 with Addison wearing this shirt.  Everyone was excited for us.

After the family reunion we spent 2 1/2 weeks at the condo in Provo.  We were able to see lots of our friends we have made over the years.  We saw Carrie, Beth, Stacey, Keri, Catherine, and Lauren.  Here I am with my good friend Lauren who I met while living in Irvine, CA.  Hailey is with Lauren's daughter Claire who was her best friend in California.  

We also spent lots of time with my brother Andrew and his family.  Andrew was actually extremely busy with school and work so it was mainly me and Michelle hanging out with the kids.  Michelle took us to the Herriman Reservoir and the girls loved it.

We went bowling at BYU.

Went to a splash pad.

Went to the Provo Beach Resort 

The girls talked me in to renting this bike for an hour and riding around the Riverwoods.  It was a lot of work.

We got hot and tired after 30 minutes so we stopped to play in the splash pad for a little bit.

We were able to celebrate the 4th of July and watched "Stadium of Fire" from outside of the stadium.

We also went to Seven Peaks about 8 times while we were in Utah along with going swimming at the Provo Rec Center which was super fun.  We had such a great time in Utah and can't wait to go back.