X-ray time

 Well more broken bones for us this year. Kylee and I took the kids to the skate park. Everyone was having the best time and right before we left Benjamin crashed. He said he hurt his thumb and well an hour later it was really swollen. We went for X-rays the next day. Well that lead to lots of drs calls and finally an appt with a hand specialist. They did more X-rays to make sure the alignment was ok. Luckily it is and the dr thinks his tendon is good too as well as his growth plate. Benjamin will be in a cast for a month and then we will re-evaluate if he needs another cast or a thumb splint. Then he will go to a different splint. Pretty crazy for a broken thumb but we are super glad that the bones were still aligned so he didn’t have to have surgery. He has a green cast just in time for his birthday and Christmas. Way to finish off 2020!

Real Santa!

Our friends were lucky and had Santa come to their house. The kids loved getting the experience of talking to him and telling him what hey wanted. After Noah’s turn he sat by Santa at the table and in between other kids he would add to his list.... lizard, hamster, bunny, oh and a suitcase full of cash! This kid has big dreams. We had a great night! 

At the Bulloch Christmas party we had donuts and hot chocolate. Us parents sat around the fire while the kids did crafts and played. Then we had a visitor! Santa! Guess what?! It was the exact same Santa that we had seen at our friends. The kids could not believe it! It was really magic in their eyes as they told us this couldn’t be a helper and had to be the real Santa. I love that joy they get in this season. My favorite time of the year!

Bass Pro Santa

 

We made a reservation this year in order to go see Santa over at Bass pro shops. It was pretty weird because Santa had a mask on and was behind a plexiglass. I guess that’s what you get for 2020. With the reservation it was great because not many people were there. The kids had the place to themselves and got to play the shooting and bow and arrow games over and over. We had a great holiday afternoon! 

Gingerbread houses and sugar cookies

 The last few years we have gotten together to do gingerbread houses with cousins. The kids love using all the frosting and the fun candy for decorations. It’s so much fun seeing the kids work together and then half the houses fall because of sooo much candy on them. Then as soon as we take pictures the kids start eating them 😂. Maybe one day they will want to display them, but with all that sugar who knows. 

This year Melissa worked so hard and made so many cookies for us! We went over for dinner and then got to decorate cookies. The kids loved it. They would get really creative with one and then be crazy for a couple. Navy was the last one at the table trying to eat all the frosting. We weren’t sure where the Santa cookies were under the frosting she used on them! Benjamin was pretty impressive with only having one hand and his left. Definitely fun night and we will do it again. 

Drive in

 Everyone knows how we love our drive in nights. Well Croods 2 came out and we loved it! Everyone was laughing and enjoyed the movie. The kids had a blast with so many cousins. It was awesome having Jake’s brothers and my sisters there 😍

Pumpkin patch

The kids had a great night running from ride to ride all night. The boys would just go back and forth on the obstacle courses without getting off. They just loved it! Emma was so sweet and got her cousins cotton candy. They are so cute giggling together. The kids sure had a blast with their cousins, we had 13/15 there. It was awesome seeing Jake and his brothers together too. 

7 years for Noah

 Happy birthday to my little boy! We had a great week. He had a countdown going for months before! We went to uptown jungle and then back to our house for dinner and cupcakes. The kids had a blast. I even played for awhile and went down the fastest slide with them. The girls loved playing in the ball pit. The boys were perfecting their flips on the tramps! 

The next night on his birthday we went to the drive in. We saw “war with grandpa” and it had all of us laughing! My dad kept teasing the boys for ideas. 

Noah is just the sweetest kid. He is definitely an old soul. He is sarcastic and makes us laugh. The other day he said “damn” in an argument, when I questioned him he said he meant the Hoover dam version. Umm how?? He is too smart for his own good. Noah is so caring and loves sending letters in the mail to his grandparents. He loves art and being outside. We love the cooler weather for bikes, scooters, and his new longboard. Noah is so excited to be back in school and he is killing it! Such a smart kid. He loves math and is doing so well in reading as well. Noah is still me cuddle buddy too. He really is so sweet and loves his mama so much! I can’t wait to see the big things you do Noah! We love you!

Parowan

 

We spent the weekend up in Parowan, Utah. It is right above Cedar City. We had the best time with friends. The kids loved being able to go to the playground across the street whenever they wanted. The fall weather was heavenly and I loved every minute. The dads took all the kids on a ride and us girls met them up at Brianhead for pizza. 

Before dinner we went to a pumpkin patch. They had a petting zoo, where Noah, Emma and Benjamin all got bit my these little piglets! After that they stuck with the sheep, goats and mini horses. They loved how the animals ate right from their hands. After we went on the longest hay ride. We saw deer along the whole way. I think it was the first time I saw some before Jake hahaha! Then we all got stocked up on pumpkins! The kids and I ended the night playing Ticket to Ride where I am still the champion. Emma told Benjamin to get used to it, I love that they play games and love it like I do. 

Before we went home we stopped at the Parowan gap. There are petroglyphs all over the sides of the rocks. We got to read all about their meanings. Some were from thousands of years ago and then there were some from the 1800’s when Parowan was discovered. Our last stop was a place where they discovered dinosaur footprints. The kids climbed all over and Navy was very disappointed that we didn’t see any live dinosaurs. 

Thanks to our friends for enjoying an “end of summer” trip before the kids finally get to go back to school!

Pumpkin Patch

 Our alarms went off early today! We got up and headed over to the pumpkin patch. We wanted to make sure to get our pumpkins and treats for the season. The kids had the best time and were the absolute cutest as they helped each other find their perfect pumpkin. I love seeing these kids help and love one another. They even helped auntie Em and I find out green and white pumpkins we love. 

We made sure to grab some yummy apple cider and apple cider mini donuts to go and of course kettle corn. We had a great morning doing our first fall activity. 

Ghost King

Well, we were looking at new puppies for a friend for Beast before he passed. As much as it broke our hearts we knew we needed some dog love in our home. We never thought it would happen so fast. We found a dog up in the middle of Idaho. The lady was willing to meet us in Utah so I thought might as well as my cousin if she would go up and meet her then meet us. Well Kelsey was in Grace, ID! What?! Same tiny town as our puppy. We figured it was fate and she went and got him for us. 

He is a AKC Lab. His coloring is Silver and we had never seen that before. He is a beautiful dog and fits right in with us. Sometimes he is a light brown and sometimes totally all grey. He blends in with everything so we decided on Ghost for his name. He loves to play and then come over for snuggles. 

He is the sweetest pup ever! He loves to cuddle so much and loves us. He already knows to lay on my feet to keep my toes warm. We have had him a week now and he is so dang smart! He knows his name, sit, down, come, will wait for a treat, gives me nose kisses. The kids can’t wait till he learns hide and seek, we are just giving him another week or so ;).  The cat “Beauty” and him are already friends. It’s so funny to watch them play and the cat teases him just out of his reach then will go and pounce! He loves other puppy friends. Nola (Troy and Erin’s golden doodle) and Mila (my mom and dad’s German shepherd) and him are going to be great friends! We already love our play dates. I am obsessed and call him my new baby. 

Drive in time!

 We are loving that weather is cooling off and had to go back to the drive in. What a perfect night in October. We watched Hocus Pocus and where better to watch it for the first time this month then outside under the moon! The kids kept staring from the moon to the screen and back. We even had some first time Hocus Pocus friends there. Loved it and we will be back soon. 

No place like the mountain!

 We took a long weekend and went up to grandpa’s cabin by Cedar. We had the cabin to ourselves the first night and it was so quiet. We saw lot of deer and the kids were wanting to find the mountain lion that they caught on the trail cam the week before. There is a group of turkeys up there too the kids love to find. It was my dream sitting on the porch reading my book in the fall weather up there. 

The next day lots of people came and joined us all day long. The kids were so excited for all the cousins to get there. They went on lots of rides. Benjamin and Emma went on the waterfall hike with some of their big cousins and had a blast. While they were gone the other kids all painted rocks. The little girls decided to paint the table and the porch and themselves too. They figured out they can just take the lids off and the paint comes out so much faster! Well we will be replenishing that paint supply next trip, hahahahaha. We had yummy food the whole weekend too. A whole taco layout and then steaks the next night! So yummy. We even had pizza hand delivered by airplane from Jake’s uncle Troy! Jake got to fly in the airplane and took a trip down to Cedar one afternoon. The kids can’t wait to get a turn one of these next times. Grandpa Bulloch loves that and it’s heartwarming to see the smile he gets at all of these kids making memories together and having a blast!

We took our new pup there, we just got him and that will be a next post. He played and played and made a new BFF Nola. She is the sweetest golden doodle. 

The highlight of the trip was being able to get a mission lesson from on of Jake’s cousins, Hunter. Elder Bulloch was on it. The kids were so excited to see him. We all loved listening to him. He has a lot of proud family here. The kids are going to write something from this weekends General Conference then Aunt Erin will send them all to him. 

Great weekend that was filled with hugs, laughter and the spirit. Can’t wait till next time, I know we all had a blast up there. I would be there every weekend in the fall if we could make it, it’s a dream. 

Beast 10/2016 - 9/2020

 Beast passed away sometime last night. We found him outside this morning. Jake came home from work and my mom and madi came right over to help. Charlotte watched the kids while we took him to the animal foundation. My mom organized and handled everything for me and I’m so appreciative. I don’t think I could have done it myself. The ladies that took him back were so kind and made a paw print form for us.

Super heartbreaking, he was almost 4. He didn’t show any signs of being hurt or sick, so it was a very hard find this morning. Before we took him in we all said goodbye. My heart was already broken and then my momma heart broke even more watching my kids say bye. Our house was almost broken into at the beginning of the year and Beast scared him off before he got inside. The guy didn’t know that he would have just been slobbered all over. He protected our home just by being him. 

 I always said he was the perfect dog for our family at home. He got way excited when others came over, but he was perfect for us. He was obsessed with feet and when you have a 150 lbs dog going at your feet it’s a lot! The weather was cooling off and the kids were loving taking him on walks. He thought he was one of the kids and loved being out with them. Beast always liked to sleep by everyone. He moved from each of our rooms every night and would sleep by all of us. He loved so much and couldn’t be happier as long as he was by us. I will for sure miss my foot warmer. I didn’t think any of us would say this, but we will even miss the drool. We had him since Navy was a couple months old. Noah and Beast were buddies and Noah hated when he wouldn’t sleep by him the entire night. Benjamin took great care of him and always helped out. Emma has had two cats and Beast was the best with them both. Chip and Beast were the best of friends and we loved watching Beauty and Beast get closer to that every day.  

They call St. Bernards gentle giants and that is exactly what he was. The kids could crawl all over him and he just laid there. It’s definitely going to change our house with him gone. We will miss you always Beast. 😔

31 years

 This year my birthday has lasted a week. It started off with my girls taking me out to dinner and dessert. I don’t know what I would do without them! My sisters all came over and brought me lunch. Its rare we can all get together with a picture after chasing kids around and the craziness of life. I am so blessed to have such amazing ladies in my life. For dinner Emylee called last minute and after me having a tiring day and when she realized we were just home she came right over with my favorite ice cream and we ordered pizza for dinner. I got to play games with my kids and then Penny and Em joined us. I love games so love when we can get a good one going. My mom made my requested biscuits and gravy for my dinner and cheesecake. So yummy! Jake got me a weighted blanket, I got gift cards, a shopping trip with my mom and sister, another fun game, new Birks and Yeti’s. 

Navy is Four

 Our baby is growing up so fast. We always tell her she will still be our baby forever and she argues that she is a big girl now. She has a whole bunch of sass to go with her sweet little face. This year we got to celebrate with her adoration for llamas and unicorns. Where she got llamas we have no clue and they are hard to find. She was convinced my dad was getting her a real baby llama from the real llama store. My mom got her the cutest shaking booty llama and Navy dances right along with it. One of my amazing, talented friends painted her a picture of a llama for her room. Navy says good night and good morning to it every day and think it is the most special thing in the world. It is a beautiful picture. She is so fun to shop for and just loved everything she got. She has been acting like such a big girl as she takes care of her new baby doll that laughs, sleeps, eats and more. She got a camera from deedee and loves that she can take real pictures too. She wants to be too big too fast. 

She is still as spunky as ever and everyone still loves her and she knows it. Her facial expressions get even more animated with age. I was asking some of her favorite things and she just loves everything so the list was getting pretty long. One of her newer things is being a copy cat. It makes for sone fun phone conversations. She loves to do her nails, make up and changes her earrings daily, but not her hair. It’s probably why she keeps cutting it off so I can’t do it! She is a little light switch and changes directions, conversations, attitudes or whatever in a second. She also might break a record for how much she talks. Navy loves her family and friends so much! Her little heart has so much love to give it is the sweetest thing. 

Summer BBQ’s

 We have been taking advantage of Jeff and Vicki’s pool since it’s so dang hot here. Jeff does a delicious BBQ too. The kids love going out there and playing with cousins. We have made some great memories this summer with them. Us ladies get to lay out while the kids splash away. The guys show off their skills with the kids and it’s awesome to watch. This last time we finally got Jeff in the pool. It was a big group effort lol but we got him in, not by choice hahaha. I also added in Emma and Penny in some twinning outfits from our fun times.

Annual Bulloch Family Reunion

 It was that time of year again. We had the absolute best time at the ranch this year. The kids had so much fun playing with all their cousins. The weather was great the whole weekend too. Jake’s uncle brought golf balls up and we hit them all weekend. I think Jake was practicing for the next time at Top Golf. Of course the kids rode on four wheelers and dirt bikes the whole time. Uncle Brent even taught Benjamin how to take care of the next bike up 100 by showing him to check the oil and tires first. Noah rode the 50 like a pro too. The big girls and the little girls each stayed together and had a blast making memories. The big girls were off the whole time and the little girls were either being taken on rides or playing on the swing. One time the big girls came back and Emma was telling us they found rattlesnakes at the other cabin. So Jake went over to check it out. He found one of them and killed it. He said it was pretty dang intense. He chopped the head off and brought the rest back to show everyone. It was crazy the body kept moving even without the head! Noah said it felt gross, Navy wouldn’t keep her eyes off of it, but didn’t want to get close after it moved when she touched it. I was so proud of our four girls for coming and getting us and being so brave after!

A big group of us went and shot skeet. I usually don’t go as I watch the kids, but this time I went and shot my first shot gun! Benjamin got to shoot too and hit his first skeet as his first time with a shotgun too! Uncle Jeff was prepared and brought a little handgun to teach the kids how to shoot and be safe too. Navy hit pretty dang close to the bullseye and was pretty excited. He was awesome and helped me too!

Each night the kids all put on a parade for us. The second night they even threw candy! They sang and danced and put on quite the show for us. They had a little pool up and when the boys needed a rinse I took them outside and they hopped right in. They thought it was hilarious and loved their shower ranch style. We did a fruit by the foot challenge too. Jake, Jason and Chad all competed against one another. Chad obliterated them!!!! He had the whole thing gone before Jason and Jake were even half way. 

The best part of the trip was spending time with everyone. We loved chatting away like always. This time we got to spend time listening to Jake’s grandpa tell us stories a few times. It was beautiful as we listened of his love for the ranch, the temple, his wife, kids, family and the gospel. Thanks for giving us a place that we can make such great memories Grandpa, we love it!

11 Years

 Jake and I are 11 years down! This year we went to the Venetian and had a stay-cation. It was so nice having a little getaway to relax and just hang out. Crazy we had to wear masks whenever we went out. Not very much was open, but we really had fun at TopGolf. I won’t say who won both games because we had so much fun anyways! (it was me)! It was definitely a different experience on the strip compared to what we are used too. 

I’m grateful for what we have built together. Our family means everything to me and I am so grateful for the people that have stood by us, loving and supporting us. We couldn’t have done it without all the amazing people in our life. I’m grateful for our Heavenly Father and Savior. We wouldn’t have made it without having a Christ centered home and being so blessed with the gospel in our lives.

For a long time our family was growing as we added our amazing kids and now it is growing as these kids are growing into incredible people. I love you Jake, thanks for being on my side through life. 

Beauty

 After losing Chip we had an empty spot so we have filled it with this little girl. We named her Beauty and so now have Beauty and Beast (st Bernard). She is a crack up, so much energy. She loves to play and play. She will play with anything she finds. Underneath the kitchen table is a jungle gym to her. Beauty and Navy play every night. Beauty hunts Navy and it is the funniest game to watch. We all just sit around watching her because she is so entertaining. When she isn’t playing she wants to sleep by you. She loves sleeping by everyone. We all want to cuddle with her because she purrs so loud and is such a comfort to us. She has fit in just perfect with our family! 

God bless America

This year we went out to Jake’s dad, Grandpa Jeff and Grammy Vicki’s to celebrate the fourth. They just built a new pool and we were so excited to go swim. The kids jumped and went down the slide all day long! They have jumping rocks at different levels, a rock waterfall with a grotto underneath and a water slide that goes so fast! Even Navy was brave enough to jump off the waterfall. The kids had a blast with their cousins. We had bbq for dinner and then swam some more. When it got dark we drove through valley of fire to the reservation to watch fireworks. It was incredible. People buy the fireworks and then they have a whole section where you can light them off. It is a constant firework show for hours long! Charlotte, Blayke, Benjamin and Noah loved watching them get lit. They said it looked like a battlefield.

We are very grateful to live in the USA. To be blessed that we can believe and celebrate how we want to with our families. In Idaho my dad talked to us about heroes. Captain Moroni and the title of liberty. How we still value today and need to defend- our religion, freedom, peace and our families. Talking to the kids about their great grandpa who died in war and was a hero, saving so many. How Jesus Christ died for all of us so that we can be forgiven for our sins and to live with him again and to be with our families forever. This talk has so much power and the kids sat, participating and listening the whole time. Watching their minds take in the importance of those values and those people in our lives as they learn about our country and history. This was perfect for the lead up to the fourth. The kids were so excited to celebrate with family. We sang patriotic songs and just loved being Americans. Navy combined all the songs and made her own song that she sang all day as she waved her little flag.

Thank you Jeff and Vicki for having us out to party for the USA! The kids are already asking when we can go back out, so we can’t wait for more swim days!

Chip

Emma got Chip for her 8th birthday. On one of his ears the color was missing just like a little chip from beauty and the beast teacup. He fit in perfect already. Chip was like a dog! He came when called and wasn't afraid of people at all. He also loved human food. Chip was Emma’s best friend and slept with her every night. Whenever she was upset or cried he would run to her and just cuddle her. Emma’s anxiety has increased a lot lately and he was such a comfort to her. When the other kids were sick he would cuddle with them to cheer them up. Chip was tiny and played with Beast (st. Bernard) all the time. They would crack us up as we watched them play together. On the Fourth of July he went out through the doggy door and hasn’t come back. A lot of effort has gone into finding him and we miss him terribly. Emma is heartbroken and Chip can never be replaced. We are still hoping that one day he will just show up. Special thanks to all of our friends and family who have helped search for him!