January and February Catch Up

Life has been crazy around here purchasing and moving into a new home and fixing up and getting our old home ready to rent. So to catch up on the last two months....

Between moving and working on the house we have taken the kiddos hiking...

Played at the park several times...

 

The boys always love to go pick up the girls from school and play on the playground. William loves the bikes and goes down all the slides by himself.

We have also enjoyed going to the library almost every week with Aunt Sarah, Jackson, and Gavin.

We had a fun quadruple date with some friends and went rock climbing!

We had a lot of fun climbing and repelling. We only had one incident where my not so coordinated self got my braid tangled in the rope and almost had to have it cut off while dangling 30 feet in the air on the mountain. But it ended up our lead instructor didn't have his pocket knife in his pocket. But he repelled down and saved me by doing a fancy knot and having me stand in it while pulling my braid out. A little singed hair but I was free! And ever so grateful to get down. And yes I did go again. And my husband excitedly practiced "saving me" since he missed out on all the excitement.

Then Chad's parents were so kind and let us move in with them for a couple of weeks so we could get the house painted and ready to rent and get everything packed and ready to move into our new home! Why we thought we could get the house completely packed and painted while living in it with four kids is beyond me!

 It was sad to leave our first home that we brought all of our babies home to. But we were excited to move into a home that better fit our family and gave us some space to enjoy!

 

My parent's rented a trailer for our move which made it go much faster. And we are excited to be moved in and settled. We are in love with our yard and the kids love to hangout outside and ride bikes and scooters all day.

Chad and the kids also built a fun fire pit area with materials that were left by the previous owner!

The boys were serious helpers. Easton insisted he needed his tools to help Dad.

Sophie also had a couple of plays for school last month. First was the second grade musical.

It was a baseball musical and a cute little play. She did a great job singing all of the songs.

Sophie also wrote a story at the beginning of the year for school which was chosen by Empire High school to turn into a play! It is called the Page to Stage Program and the teacher picks a story from an elementary student for each of his students who then have to create a play. Then the class votes for their favorites to perform on stage. Sophie's story and 8 others were chosen.

 

We got to go see the play for free and they had the young authors stand to be recognized.  She was so funny because she couldn't remember what her story was about. In her words "I wrote it at like the beginning of the year. I don't remember!" So it was a surprise for all of us.

Her play was called Blue Sparkle which is a planet of unicorns, dolphins, and rainbows. Haha totally Sophie. A Rock flies by and sees everyone so happy and he is sad and wants to make everyone sad like him and so he freezes the planet. Eventually the Dolphin invites the rock to be their friend instead and be happy with them and the planet is saved.

The high school students did a good job and it was hilarious watching all the plays inspired by young minds.

Clayton Family Christmas Part 4

On the last day we all headed to the Grand Canyon. It is sad to say that I have live in Arizona for 12 years and have never been.

They had a cool old train station that Easton loved.

The kids did the Junior Ranger Program. They had to complete activities about the canyon and then turn it in to the Park Ranger.

He swore them in as Junior Rangers adding at the end that they needed to eat their veggies everyday. Not all of them swore to that haha. And gave them all badges.

Then we climbed a tower that looks over the canyon. It was some pretty awesome views.

It was crazy busy that day and it would be fun to go back when it is less crowded.

We had such a great time being at the cabin together and the cousins all got along so well. Thank you Mom and Dad for a fun time!

Clayton Family Christmas Part 3

On Monday we went sledding and the kids lasted way longer then I thought they would. They had so much fun.

The only one that didn't enjoy himself was William. He was pretty angry having to be so bundled up. Chad took him down the hill a few times and he just didn't care.

On Tuesday we headed to Sedona and hiked Chimney Rock. The trail was really muddy and icy. We had a few falls and heroes saving people from falling down the hill with a baby attached to her. That may or may not have been me....not the hero....ahem. Thank you Aimee for saving a clumsy girl.

 

Alex, Tyrone, and Chad hiked to the top while the rest of us did the loop around.

We headed to the Sedona History Museum and the kids had a blast playing dress up.

Then we went and checked out the fun shops.  They had the coolest fudge shop where you can watch them make the fudge. Delicious fudge if I might mention. And Lydia found the sign that describes her love of chocolate.

And on the way back to the cabin we saw a whole herd of elk.