A Happy Birthday!

Hailey turned 7 on August 30th! She was super excited for this day because it's the first year she's decided to do a friend party and she couldn't wait!

She started out the day with breakfast in bed. She wanted pancakes (which we made into a 7, eggs, and a drinkable yogurt.)
She spent most of the day at school. Baylen and I did, however, check her out to take her to lunch. On the way to the restaurant, she mentioned that she wished she could eat lunch at school because they were having Chinese food. Sometimes you can't win :) She decided to go to Golden Corral and we had a lot of fun.

We started her party right after school. We went to Classic Fun Center and did the Bounce Zone and Pirates Cove. We also had pizza and cupcakes! The kids had a great time. They went non stop for 2 1/2 hours. Some of them even chose to skip eating so that they wouldn't have to miss out on play time. They were all beet red and dripping in sweat by the time we left. It was nice going in the afternoon because we were the only ones there for most of the time. Other than 2 bloody noses and one kid throwing up (luckily his mom wanted to come with us so she was there to take care of him), the party was a success!
Yes, Hailey has A LOT of friends that are boys. Should I be nervous that boys like hanging out with her so much?!After the party we were in need of some definite down time. We came back and watched Rio and then opened family presents.

Hailey wanted a lamp for her birthday. So, one day I took her to Hobby Lobby to choose the lamp she wanted. She's holding the tag in this picture because she was so so excited that her lamp was made in China. She told everyone that she got a lamp made in China. She's pretty proud of it. I didn't have the heart to tell her that that wasn't necessarily a good thing :)

We also got Hailey this tent. I thought it would be a fun thing for the kids to play games, etc in when we go camping!
Here are a few things about Hailey at 7...

Hailey is such a sweet generous little girl. She is always giving... even if that means she doesn't get any of whatever she is giving away. We gave Hailey a bag full of candy for her birthday and she gave most of it to the family as we were watching the movie. I'm so grateful for her selflessness. She is such an example to me that giving really does make a person happy!

Hailey is a really good friend. Kids are naturally drawn to her. It seems like there is always someone at our door to see if she can play.

Hailey is really good at tumbling. She's only been taking lessons for less than a month and has already moved up a level. She really loves it. Her life revolves around how many more days or hours there are until her next tumbling class.

We sure love our Lou-Hou!

Mini Explorers Preschool

Ashlyn started her second year of preschool the first week of September. The two weeks before that were really tough for her. She was used to having tons of kids to play with all summer and now everyone was at school. I felt bad because I loved playing with her. But, there were still things that I needed to get done during the day so I couldn't give her all eight hours while the kids were at school. Needless to say, she was super excited when preschool started and she had a social life again!

We actually ended up getting "first day of school" pictures of her on two different days. This is the picture that we took right before her preschool open house...
Here's her backpack with all of her favorite princesses...
Here she is before her first class day...

We have Ashlyn taking at Mini Explorers Preschool. It's a lady in my neighborhood that teaches it so it's super close. Ashlyn LOVES it. She goes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The four days between Thursday and Monday that she has to wait to go back about does her in. She would go all day every day if she could.

I've been reading a lot about the pioneers lately. It made me realize how interesting little facts are that I don't always include in my journaling. So, for posterity sake I wanted to include the price of preschool. We are paying $85.00 a month for her to go 3 days a week for 2 1/2 hours a day. She also eats lunch there. It's actually a very reasonable price for preschools around here. We paid more for Hailey and she didn't each lunch there. It's crazy, though, to think that I'm sure some day someone will read this and be baffled by how cheap preschool was back in 2011 :)

School Days

These pictures are of the kids on their first day of school. We had a great summer but they were excited to go back. I'm so glad that all my kids love school so much.

Here's my second grader! The poor girl was really not feeling good. I went back and forth all morning as to whether to send her. Even though she felt awful, she wanted to go so badly. How can you miss your first day of school? I decided to let her go. I did a whole lot of praying during the day and she came home saying that her day was great. What a tender mercy!!!

Here are my fifth graders! 5th grade... that's getting up there. Tanner and Mickell were both so excited because they have the best teacher in the entire school this year! Mickell also ended up with two of her best friends in her class (besides Tanner, that is!)



Poor Kell ended up sick on the second day and had to miss. It was a rough first week.

I just wanted to include an e-mail that Tanner and Mickell's teacher sent home to Baylen and I so that we have it in our blog book. I'm so proud of my kids. They are such amazing little people!

Hi Alison and Baylen,

I just wanted to take a minute to tell you how darling I think your two children are. First of all, Mickell is such a sweet child, and her willingness to do her best is apparent, and I know she will get her far in life. She puts so much thought into all of her work. We had our final map due this week, and she was the ONLY child that took it upon herself to plan out her week and make sure she had it done by the deadline. The kids who spend more time making sure their work is quality work, were tending to be slower on this project...expected, of course, but I still needed to put a due date to it. Mickell planned out her week and took it upon herself to get it done. Huge responsibility bones points to her. Many kids didn't have it done today, but Mickell's is done and done BEAUTIFULLY!

Tanner, is just funny. He has a certain vibe that surrounds him, that just makes people want to be his friend. He has been a HUGE help to me. We have the learning center children integrated into our room. This is new to me, and I have depended on the children that know these kids to really "AMP" it up. Tanner has gone beyond the call of duty. He is helpful, patient, and a good friend to these kids that need that special help.

You have done a fabulous job raising your two children. They know appropriate behavior for the appropriate time. They are funny and goofy when they need to be, yet when it is time to buckle down and get serious, they are right there being the first two of the class to be a great example.

You deserve a pat on the back, and thank you so much for supporting all three of us!

"M" Line

Mickell has been wanting to get a hair cut for a long time now. The only problem is

that her dance teachers wouldn't let her cut it until after her recital in May. At that point, I decided that she might as well wait until right before school so that it would be new and special for school. She decided that she wanted to do something drastic like an A-line. Ashlyn told her that she couldn't get an A-line. She would have to get an M-line (for Mickell). I had to turn my head when the stylist made the first cut. She chopped a ton off!

I didn't plan on taking the camera to the salon. When I saw the pile of hair on the floor I wished I had my camera. Then I remembered that it was in the van. How lucky is that?!

So, here she is getting the style finished up...

Here is the end result... I think she looks so much older now. I love the style!

And here is the pile of hair on the ground. It was an inch or two shy of being enough to donate for locks of love, but there was still a TON of hair!

It's a First

We've decided that you can never get enough of the cabin... it's impossible. So, when Baylen ended up with a week off the first part of August, we decided to head up to High Valley again. We tried talking several people into going up with us, but it didn't work out for anyone. So, we went alone. We know so many amazing people (family and friends) that we NEVER vacation with just our family. I honestly don't know when the last time was that we did. This is the first time we've ever been up to the cabin with just our family. I had a few people in the Whipple clan ask which way we liked better- being there with everyone or being there by ourselves. Honestly, the two experiences are so different that they don't even compare. They are both amazing. We did miss the extended family but enjoyed spending more quality time with our kids, too. It was definitely strange that Baylen and I slept downstairs and all of the kids got their own beds. It was also strange to all sit around the outside table for meals.

Here are some of our adventures in High Valley...

Of course we spent a fair amount of time out on the lake. The lake was actually very clean this trip!

One day we set up a little restaurant for the kids. We made menus and Tanner was able to be the waiter... quite the amazing one, I might add...

We spent lots of time with these huge bubble blowers that I brought up...

We also made slime! Lots and lots of hours were spent playing with slime. We even got grandma Betty addicted to it!

We went on a few longer ATV rides. We found that as long as we went on flat road, the kids are still small enough that we could ride three people on each ATV...

One day we drove to Sage Hen Reservoir. I didn't take any pictures... probably because it was an awful experience. The roads were super bad and Ashlyn ended up getting car sick at throwing up all over the van. To make matters worse, we drove around the reservoir twice and couldn't find a single place to get out and see the water. So, we stopped on the side of the road, had a picnic with thousands of mosquitos, and drove back to the cabin. I'm writing about this experience so that we remember to never ever go back to Sage Hen Reservoir.

Another day we drove over to McCall. We took the canoe with us and found a spot on the far side of the lake where you can take a canoe trip down an inlet. The area had a fun sandy beach. So, while Baylen took the kids on canoe trips, I would stay back with the others to play on the beach. It was a really really fun day!

Grandma Betty and Randy were so sweet to come up and visit us one day. We had a great time with them! Ashlyn LOVES Uncle Randy. If he wasn't swinging her or taking her for an ATV ride, she was on his lap. He is so amazing with all of my kids!

On the last evening, the girls and I had fun painting faces. Ashlyn started out with a mustache in honor of Randy...

Later on, while we were on an ATV ride, we found hundreds and hundreds of wild raspberry bushes. We spent a long time picking them. They were soooo good!

I took this picture of Ashlyn because she had a thing with the orange helmet during this trip. She wore it all the time. If you notice in the slime picture, she has her awesome helmet and goggles on.

Right before we left, Ashlyn picked me a bunch of wildflowers. She had done it earlier in the week with Uncle Randy but I think she wanted to make sure I had some to take home with me. So thoughtful!

Here are our bear pictures. I wanted to post a few from our little photo shoot because I think they show what crazy, fun kids I have!

The following pictures are some of the scenery pictures that Baylen took while we were up there. I want to include them in this history because they truly represent the amazing beauty that we are surrounded by every time we are able to go to High Valley.






I'm so glad that we were able to take this trip. We were able to spend such amazing quality time together as a family. I know that we are closer because of it. We had so much fun together!