20 Days Till Disneyland!

So we are going to Disneyland in August and I am so excited. It's going to be my parents, Lacey, Hailey, and the kids and I. Me and Lacey have been getting a whole bunch of stuff ready for the trip to make it HUGE!!

Here's what we have ready so far...

Our road trip count-down
We are going to hang this in the car and when we get to these places we are going to have a treat and an activity for the kids to go with each. 

Build-A-Bear!!!
We are staying in an actual Disneyland Hotel--Paradise Peir
With the hotel we are able to get a private Build-A-Bear session! 

These are going to be necklaces--one of each for each girl!
I got the idea from this site found via Pinterest
http://acreativeprincess.blogspot.ca/2012/04/mickey-mouse-washer-necklace.html
I didn't do it exactly how she did mainly because I don't have the right size hole punch
So I just painted the washers, glued them together with hot glue, then put thread around
The thread is necessary to keep the ears on as well as for looks
Hot glue does not hold washers together very well. 

Printed off a whole bunch of coloring pages for the car ride

Disney Pin Trading!!!
The top one is my lanyard and the bottom one is Lexi's

Ziploc bags with stickers 

Cinderella bag of stickers

I'm totally going to join the adult women in the family and sport the fanny pack!
Found this one at a yard sale for a quarter! 

Lexi and Javid's bags for in the park

We are also going to make some shirts, a whole lot of fun Disney themed snacks, a licence plate bingo game, some clipboards for each of us to color or write on in the car, and a bunch of little car games and activities for the kids.

Chase's Farewell and Abby's Blessing

Sunday was a very eventful day for our family. My little brother Chase talked in church for his mission farewell and my niece Abby was blessed. It was a wonderful meeting! Chase did awesome on his talk, relating things to sports made it totally Chase, but it was what made it such a great talk. And Mike was able to stand in the circle to help bless Abby! It is the second time he has had the opportunity to use the Priesthood since being given the Melchezedic Priesthood. He was able to help set apart Hailey in her calling for Stake Youth Comity a couple weeks ago. It is so awesome for me to see Mike using the Priesthood!

After the meeting we all went over to the high school cafeteria and had a wonderful lunch, visited with all of the friends and family that were there to support Abby and Chase, and took many pictures... none of which were with my camera so I don't actually have them. But I do have a pretty great picture of Chase at the Temple.

Our Missionary! 

He left for the MTC on Wednesday and for some reason it feels so weird to me that he is gone on his mission! A lot more weird than it was when Dustin and Brandon left. 

For Time and All Eternity!

We got our Endowments and were sealed together as a family on July 7, 2012

In the beautiful Bountiful Temple

My mom was my escort and my dad was Mike's 

For the Sealing, my brothers Dustin and Brandon were our witnesses

My sister Lacey held Javid and my Aunt Mabel stood with Alexia

During the Endowment session the kids stayed in the nursery in the temple

They really enjoyed it, had snacks and colored pictures of the Bountiful temple

Which I will be scrapbooking! :)

Our first appearance as a Forever Family

Brandon and Tori

Hailey

Dave Sotutu

Suzy Stoddard and Abby

All of our family that was there

Another angle-you can see Austin in this one

Paul and Amanda Jenkins

The Coburn Family

For Time and All Eternity

Addy

Our dog Addy passed away yesterday morning. We think it may have been parvovirus. So I decided to do a small post in memory of Addy.

This was when we first got the dogs

Addy and Zoe on Mike

Heading up to the Beaver Dams

Playing in the snow at the Beaver Dams

On the way home from the Beaver Dams

This was taken just a couple weeks ago, Addy in the one on the right. 

4th of July

For the 4th this year we went to the parade with my parents in Soda and then over to the little carnival that Soda puts on. We then met up with Mike's parents and went to Lava. Mike's cousin Sherry, her husband Matt, Mike and I went tubing in the river a couple times. Then we hung out in Lava at the park until it was time for the fireworks. Lexi had a lot of fun playing at the playground and absolutely loved the fireworks! Every time there was a green one she would yell, "That's my favorite!".

Javid at the beginning of the parade

Getting Candy

Javid would not let go of the candy he had

Resting on Dad's head after the parade

Lounging in the Wagon

Waiting for the fireworks

About ready to fall asleep

Ackerman Family Reunion 2012

We had a great time at the Ackerman Family Reunion this year. It was held in Junction, Utah which is about an hour south of Manti... so like a 6 hour drive from Grace. Luckily we did break the drive down up quite a bit. We stayed the Wednesday night in Lehi, then headed to Manti where we took a break at the temple to that Mom, Dad, Lacey and Chase could do a session. Me and Hailey sat in the car for about an hour of it while the kids were napping and then walked around Manti for a while. Then we went to Junction. We stayed at an old court house that has been made into a Family Reunion home. It was a great place to hold our huge family. We ended up having a total of 85(I think) people that attended. This included my Grandma Ackerman, all of my Grandpa Ackermans sibling and their spouses and some of their kids and grandkids, all but one of my Dad's sibling(Uncle Vince and his family are living a bit too far away right now to come! We missed you Vince, Michelle, Josh, and Luka!), most of my dad's sibling's spouses, and a lot of their kids.

The girl cousins that were there
Naomi, Lucy, Kelsey, Me, Lacey, Hailey, Boston, Camille, Colleen, Allicent, Chantelle, Madison, Hanna, Kia, Tauni

The Boy Cousins that were there
Chase, Vander, Scott, Little Nathan, Big Nathan, Collen, Torrek, Ben, Tristan, Johnny, Dustin, Brandon, Justin, Mike

Grandma Ackerman with Grandpa's Siblings
Uncle Gerald, Grandma, Aunt Ann, Aunt Nita, Aunt Sally, Aunt Marcia

We had a lot of fun at the reunion and it was great to see all of the family, some of which it's been around 10 years since I've seen them last. Lexi had a blast playing with her cousins, she still can't stop talking about her cousins and how she wants to go back to the family reunion and play with them. She played wonderfully with Lucy and Madison and Allicent, and both her and Javid just loved Collen.

Lexi and Javid playing in the sand

 The sand  pool was a big hit with the kids! My parents gathered a whole bunch of change, around $90 worth, including $20 in 50 cent peices and 6 silver dollars and put it in the sand for the kids to find. They just loved finding the money and getting to walk down to the general store to spend their riches. Lexi bought a bug juice and Cheetos with hers. Then as an added bonus the sand was there to play in for the rest of the weekend.

Kelsey and Javid

Lexi watching Vander and Hanna play in the creek
Lexi also played in it but I don't have a picture 

Maddy

Grandma Ackerman holding Abby-her 4th great grandchild

The John Ackerman Family
Me, Lexi, Tori, Brandon, Hailey, Mom, Dad, Lacey, Javid, Chase, Alyssa, Abby, Dustin

I wish I had taken more pictures but I was pretty busy with Javid. He got extra clingy with all of the many new people around and I didn't get much time of not holding him. But a few of the aunts and cousins took quite a few pictures so I am going to try to get pictures from them and just do a posting later of of more pictures from the reunion.

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Wow, a lot has been going on the last couple of weeks and I haven't really had the chance to  blog so I have a lot of blogging to do. To start off my large string of blogs I am going to do a little family updating, I decided I want to do an update post twice a year. Around Christmas and around the kids birthdays. So here goes.

Mike is doing great, jobs are kinda back and forth and crazy right now. He has been working at Alexander company in Bancroft but they have been slow so he's been sort of laid off for the last couple weeks. But that gave him time to finish the drywall job that he was doing on the side and he is also working for a guy in town doing logging. So he keeps busy. Plus, I have plenty of projects for him to do around here. Our next home improvement projects are going to be: Alexia's bedroom, Kitchen floor, and the building permit for the shed and fence(which we will hopefully be putting up in August).

Alexia is three years old and smart as a whip. She is constantly amazing me with things that she says. We had a great discussion about bones the other day. She was sitting in the kitchen and pointed to the dog and asked, "What's inside her?" I replied, "Same thing that's inside you."  Her eyes got really big and she said, "Blood?". Lol, I told her that there was blood but there was also muscles, and bones. She then asked quite amazed, "I have bones inside me?" We then discussed where in her body all of her bones were and what parts didn't have bones. She was pretty amazed at the whole thing. She is so funny, and stubborn, and is a wonderful big sister. I watch her and nursery and see that she is just born to be a big sister, always looking out for Javid and Jett during nursery. And even though she's not always the nicest girl she's always sticking up for any little kid that she sees getting picked on. And she is so aware of what her brother needs. She always tells me if he has something he shouldn't or if he puts something in his mouth. She even sometimes asks me if he can have something that me or Mike are giving to him; just to make sure :).

Eating her Popsicle with Zoe

Washing Javid's Hair

Javid is growing fast and getting into everything! He can walk great, climb anything, and is always getting stuck in things. He has become a major momma's boy lately, will hardly go to anyone else and is very opposed to me leaving a room that he is in. He is still sleeping wonderfully though. Falls asleep on his own at around 7:30 most nights, all I have to do is lay him down in bed, and sleeps till around 7 in the morning. He can say dog, mom, and dad. And I think he says hi. He is getting a bit of a mean streak though. The other day Hailey wanted him to give her "five" and he acted like he was going to but at the last second moved his hand and slapped her in the face instead. And he loves to wake people up, especially his sister. The dogs are definetely his favorite though, the just loves them to death and they are so good with him.

He Loves Yogurt

Climbing the Gate

When he wants to go somewhere he throws things to that place
This mess means that Javid wants to get out of the Living Room

And me! Well, I have been very busy with the kids and family stuff, but I have been able to do some sewing this summer. Many of the ideas found on pinterest! Love pinterest! I made 3 swaddles for little Abby, some seat belt pillows for Lexi, Hailey and Lacey, and a couple little hair things for Lexi. I plan on making Javid a levi blanket, making a cushon for the mud room bench and some finger puppets for Lexi  (to play with in church and the car). I also want to find time to get a bunch of scrapbooking done this summer. I am also applying to the nursing program this semester, and taking the teas test which I have to do a lot of studying for this summer.

A headband I made for Lexi

Lovin on Zoe

Zoe is very patient with them

Big Hug for Zoe! 

And here's what you can look forward to reading about in the next few days: Ackerman Family Reunion, The 4th of July, and our family being sealed together in the Bountiful Temple! Also Happening Today: Abby's Blessing, and Chase's Mission Farewell!