Yeah for Miles!!!!

Our big guy had a birthday last month. We had such a fun day together! We had a very fancy dinner at pizza hut - Miles ate two whole pieces plus a bread stick. This boy love to eat! Then we came home for the cake. First birthdays are my absolute favorites! I am not a mom that makes a white cake with white frosting so it won't be messy - no sir. The messier the better!! Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! I want him to go to town and get it everywhere!! Well of all my kids, I knew Miles would not disappoint!! I think that the pictures speak for themselves. We love this little man so much! He has been a great addition to our family. He is so different than my other kids. He is an animal. He is walking all over the place getting into everything!! He gets into the cupboards and pulls anything out he can. He chases the kids and growls at them and joins in the wrestling matches like he can take them all. He is just hilarious! He is a big tank full of smiles. We love you Miles!! Happy Birthday!

corn maze

What a day to go to the corn maze! It was raining the whole time. We had fun anyway though! We were very lost, but had a great time. 

Preschool

Marcus has started preschool.  We get together with some kids from the ward and boy do they have a great time! Here is little Marcus on the 1st day of school. I love that the backpack is down to his knees! What a cutie!

teddy bear parade

So the kids have an awesome school and do some really fun things!! They are right next to the high school and get to have a teddy bear parade every year with the marching band. They all bring a stuffed animal to school and walk around the track. It is a big deal and the whole town practically shows up. It was freezing cold that day with hurricane winds ( at least it felt like it!)  We had a great time anyway.

They wouldn't even stop to get a picture taken :)

Fun with fam

I know this is a hideous picture of me and all my chins, but pretty funny of Miles. We were at Brady's house and the kids wanted to have a fire. We borrowed some of Kate's pj's and Miles is looking good!! These are some of the pictures that we took while we were in Utah. 

Fun around the campfire!

Here are the Woodruff crew. They have so much fun playing together!!! I just love how they have their arms around each other :)

CRAZY kids! The noise level when they are together is enough to drive you nuts!!

What a goof!!

The bouncer at grandma Lu's. They just love it!

And of course they have to play the Disney BINGO every trip home!

We went to Gardiner Village and they had all of their Halloween decorations up. This is my most favorite time of year. We had so much fun looking at all the silly witches!

Here is the crew with my grandma Jenkins. We all love "great grandma"!

We had a great time, and like always, it went by way too fast. We are blessed to have the greatest families who love and support us in everything that we do. Love you all!!

The wedding

The wedding

This is the reason we were able to go home. I seriously only took like 5 pictures with my own camera. I was a little busy dealing with four crazy kids running around the temple grounds. It was just a perfect day and I'm so glad we were able to go! You seriously need to check out this website:  heathermickey.com 

Go to her blog and you can see some pictures of the wedding day and the reception.

She is our cousin and is super talented!! Scroll through some older posts too to see Erin's engagement and bridals. I seriously hate being her sister - she is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous!! Congrats Erin and Shawn! We love you both!!

On a side note, Kenley got sick after the temple. She threw up every 15 minutes the whole night. We tried setting up camp in the backyard with a blanket and barf bucket, but that totally didn't work. I guess the guests weren't too thrilled about seeing her blow chunks. We tried to make it inside once and she totally threw up all over the back porch, right in front of the wedding line. Good times. She was such a trooper and even let us dress her back into her cute little dress and have some more pictures taken. She really was a trooper through the whole thing. She told me that she was probably sick because we had to take too many pictures at the temple. I didn't have the heart to tell her that we were also getting our family pictures, Woodruff fam, and Jenkins fam pictures taken in the next two days!! What a cutie!

BACK TO SCHOOL

I just have to tell you right up front that there are a ton of pictures in this post!! Some pretty important things are going on and I want my family to see. 

I have so many fun memories of back to school time. My mom (and dad :)) really made it a great time for us. My mom would take each of the kids out on a separate day to do school shopping. We also got to pick our favorite restaurant to eat at. I remember being so excited and felt so special that I got my mom to myself for a whole day. This continued on until I was a senior in high school - and I loved it. I think I may have chosen to eat at El Matador 99% of the time!!! So I wanted to do the same for my kids. 

It was Kade's turn first. Of all places to pick to eat - he chooses McDonald's! He was thrilled to get some alone time and had a permanent grin on his face the entire time. It was so fun to see, and reminded me that I need to do this way more often - you know, in my spare time!

Here we are before our big outing

A couple of nights later it was miss Kenley's turn. She was much smarter about the food selection and chose to go to Olive Garden. She just loves the bread sticks and white dip!! We both stuffed ourselves on the salad and bread and didn't even touch our pasta!!

Kenley was much more opinionated about the whole shopping thing, which made things a tad more difficult, but what can I say, that's my Kenley!! We had a great time together!! She says we should go out with just the girls more - and I agree!

Then on Friday we had kindergarten orientation. They go to the cutest school ever. It is set up so awesome. They only have kindergarten and 1st grade at the school, which allows for really great class sizes. I think they have 14 kids in their class. We met their teacher and got to take a look at the classroom. It really made me so excited and really panicked at the same time. I love their teacher and I think it's going to be a great year! Here are some pics before we left.

We even got to take a practice bus ride to get ready for Tuesday. They were loving it!!!!

So then on Saturday we decided to go have some fun before school got started. We went to a children's museum and had a great time!!! Here is Kade making grandpa Mark proud!!

He had a great time driving the tractor!!

Marcus ringing up some groceries

Kenley at the cash register

Face painting

So then Monday night we also carried on a tradition from my childhood....... a back-to-school fashion show!! The kids really got into it, I was laughing my head off!!! The best of all though, was Justin. I expected him to just sit there like my dad did and act like he was interested and oooh and aaaah in all the right places. He shocked us all by being the best fashion runway announcer I have ever heard. He was hilarious!!!!! It was so much fun and is sure to be a Woodruff tradition!! Here they are striking a pose

Then we ended the night with father's blessings. They were so cute and held so still, I think they felt really special. Of course I was crying the whole time. I'm so happy for them to go to school, but so sad that they are growing up so fast!!!! I love them so much!!

Then finally ( I told you it was going to long!!!!!!!) Here they are on the first day of school

Getting on the bus. This was the hardest part for me, it was breaking my heart!!

Have a good day!! Remember not to pick your nose, or fart with your armpit, or hit other kids, or any of the other embarrassing and weird things that you do at home - PLEASE!!!

Then I ran inside and cried my eyes out and called my mom.  I'm trying to stay positive and it's only half day, so I know I will be fine. They just grow up so fast. I have to stop now or I will start crying again.