School is out ALREADY?!

Wow. This year just flew by for me! Tomorrow is the first official day of summer for my boys! They are excited...I am worried :)...! My boys are going through a phase where they just fight all the time!! So I feel like I need a white and black stripped shirt with an attached whistle! I am hoping that we can come up with lots of fun things to do this summer to keep them distracted and happy. I'm open to ideas...wish me luck! Anyhow, because school was out on Friday it has been a busy couple of weeks with end of the year programs and graduations. So before I get to far behind here are a few pictures.

Tyce had his first year of preschool this year. It was in the basement of a girl from our church. She was so fun! I am so glad that he gets to go back to her next year! Tyce can be a tough nut to crack but once you get him going its hard to get him to stop. So I am glad that he doesn't have to start all over with a new teacher next year.


They sang a bunch of cute songs and I was impressed that Tyce actually mouthed the words. He does NOT like to perform in public. His teacher told me that Tyce LOVED to play with the girls during play time. He is such a little flirt...I am going to be in trouble when this little blondie gets older!






Here is Tyce and Mrs. Brooke. Tyce has a habit of picking his fingernails, especially when he is nervous and you can see he is doing it in this picture...my brother Dane picks his nails so I blame him mostly.


Kamden finished 2nd grade this year! The 2nd graders had an AWESOME program where they celebrated America and sang a bunch of patriotic songs. Kamden kept telling me for weeks that I might cry during the last song which was "Proud to be an American". I have to admit I did get teary eyed! I was so impressed with how well the kids knew all the songs! Kam was a little sad that his dad didn't make it to the program (he was racing there and missed it by 5 min), but Brad made it up to him by checking him out of school and taking him out to lunch and then to Ross to buy some new basketball shorts! I love this handsome little boy and I can't believe that after next year he will be halfway done with grade school!



I tried taking a picture of the whole huge group but I was to far away and it was to dark to see anything. Besides we only really care about that good looking little stud anyway!




Then there's my KyKy! He graduated from Kindergarten! He was so proud! He kept saying "I'm so excited for 1st grade!". I can't even put into words how happy I am with his teachers this year and the progress he has made! I was so worried that he would be labeled the "bad kid" but it was completely the opposite. I'm pretty sure his teacher and Aid are going straight to heaven for the awesome work they do with these kids! I cried my eyes out after his graduation when I said goodbye to his teachers! They couldn't have been better! I keep joking with them that because my dad is the director of the school I am going to pull some strings and make sure they just follow Ky all the way to 6th grade...man I really wish I had that kind of power cuz I SOOO would!

Ky and Mrs. D (Dornan) aka "worlds best teacher"


The awesome aid for Ky's class Megan! They are like the Dream Team!





Oh and I just had to post this picture because I just couldn't leave Blakely out!...that, and she is just to cute for words in this outfit :)

FLASHBACK: Seattle May 2010

Remember how I said I would be doing some catch up from the past year or so, due to my utter failure at blogging. I'm just a year behind on this one...it could be worse right?!
Last year in May Brad started working for Jetblue part time taking reservations so that our family could travel. Buying 5 plane tickets these days is ridiculous! A few weeks after he started I decided to take the boys (I was 6 1/2 months pregnant at the time) to visit Brads brother Clark and his family in Seattle. I grew up in Washington, so Seattle has a special place in my heart and I had been waiting for a chance to go visit the "Seattle Hartley's", and having free flights made it to hard to resist. Even though it meant traveling with 3 boys by myself while being majorly pregnant. It was so funny in the airport, each boy had their own carry on and would just follow me like a mama duck and her ducklings through the airport. I got some funny looks for sure! I had so many people tell me that I was "brave" to travel with all my boys, my reply was always, "brave or just really stupid"! But in all actuality they were SO well behaved on the plane! Anyway, I'll just break it down with pictures.


We had a 6 hour layover in Long Beach and I was FREAKING out trying to figure out what to do with 3 small boys in THE smallest airport in America! A nice cop took pity on a huge pregnant girl and watched my boys so I could go rent a car and take them to the beach. We went to Seal Beach and the boys played on the playground and we walked on the pier watching people catch fish.

















Of course the first 5 minutes we were there Ky went to just put his feet in the water and ended up falling in and getting soaking wet in his clothes...hence the lack of shirt in all these pic's. We were trying to get it to dry off. We had a fun day and it was way better than playing Ispy in the airport for 6 hours, which was the original plan.














It was rainy and cold the whole time we were there, but it is spring in Seattle people what else could we expect? We didn't let that stop our adventures though. We took the Ferry one day with our cars to a little island...I can't remember what it was called. Even though it was drizzling and windy and cold the kids had a blast! They collected shells and found a "shelter" made out of driftwood that someone had built and decided that it was their house and it needed to be decorated. They spent a long time collecting shells and other things to put in their house.


Ky & Tyce

Ky found this gross dead starfish that eventually also became a decoration. Clark & Laura also brought little kites and it was perfect weather to fly them.


Ky loved flying the kite too. At some point he got tired of holding it and just let go...we watched the kite fly all the way across the sound...little stinker.



Who would have thought we could get a good picture with ALL 7 kids!! This was the first one I took too! They had a fun day and could have cared less it was so cold!

Another day we took the kids downtown to the Pacific Science Center (which I'm pretty sure they haven't changed since I was there as a kid). The kids liked it but it stressed me out having my 3 boys running in all different directions and only having one set of eyes to keep track of them.



Kam looks thrilled to take a picture with the bees huh?! I'm pretty sure I'm the one who made him point haha


After the science museum we went to my favorite place in Seattle...Pike Street Market. I loved this place as a kid (and as a grown up too, who am I kidding!)

My cute boys on the Pig :)



A rare good picture with Ky actually looking AT the camera!




This is the fish stand where they throw the fish to each other when someone buys something. It is so fun to watch and the guys that work there were so good with the kids! They actually brought out a GIANT halibut for the kids to look at and touch...I think Laura has that picture. Clark and Laura actually bought some salmon there that day and we took it home and I showed them how it cook it...sooooo good!



The GUM wall...nasty huh?! But Clark bought all the kids gum to chew so they could leave their mark! I'm surprised Ky would even get close cuz he HATES gum!! He doesn't even like it when I chew gum haha.





It was such a fun trip! I even got to squeeze in a dinner with one of my best friends from high school. So even though it was a rainy cold mess I was so glad we went and hopefully they will have us back after all that craziness!


Oh yeah...one last cute pic...the Jetblue pilot on the way home was so cute with the boys! He gave them all wings and let them sit in the cock pit after we landed in Long Beach. They thought it was so cool!

We were doing so well...

I have to say, this winter has been pretty mild, for both snow in the Valley and sickness for the Hartley's. We hadn't had our usual weekly trips to Dr. Cox for Strep, Ear Infections, Impetigo...you know the stuff we normally get. All this good luck was bound to end, and end it did on April 10th. It was Sunday and we were frantically finishing getting ready for church (which is at 9...I don't know how we EVER make it in time), all the kids were ready and Brad and i were just finishing getting ready in our bathroom when we heard Blakely start screaming.She didn't quit crying when Brad picked her up which is unusual for her but i thought it was just because she was ready for a nap. We put her in her car seat (all the while she is screaming) and headed off to church. Right when we walked into church I sent Brad and the boys in to find a seat and i took her straight into the mothers room to feed her and get her to sleep. When I reached in to pull her out she flinched like I had just pinched her REALLY hard and started screaming. Again, I thought she was hungry and tired and just tried to nurse her and make her happy. She just couldn't stop crying though...it didn't take me long to figure out that something was really wrong. Every time i even grazed her right arm she FREAKED out! I went and got Brad and showed him how much she was hurt and we decided to take her straight to Insta-Care. Blake was in so much pain! She just wanted to cuddle with me, which if you know Blake you know that is NOT NORMAL.


Once she had x-rays (she screamed through the whole thing), the Dr saw that there were no broken bones and thought that maybe she had what is called "nurse maid elbow", which is essentially a dislocated elbow. So she did this quick little maneuver and left us alone for 15 min to see if it helped. Turns out that's what it was. Her little arm was tender for a few days but she was back to normal pretty quick. Here is a sad little picture of us waiting for the Dr. at insta-care.


I wish she would cuddle with me more, but not under these circumstances!!



That same week I got a call from Ky's school that his big toe looked infected, so I picked him up and ran him to a podiatrist that Brad works with and he had an ingrown toenail that had to be removed...that was pleasant (did you catch the sarcasm?). He actually did better than I expected but I couldn't watch! Tyce on the other hand stood right next to the Dr. and watched the whole thing and was fascinated. It didn't gross him out one bit...maybe we have a doctor on our hands. Sure wish I was a doctor, I would have paid for med school with all the savings I would have had by not having to go the the dr so often!

Ky and his toe...all better!


We also got a call from the Health Department that week informing us that Blakely had a possible exposure to measles while we were at the instacare taking care of her arm. She had to go get an MMR and we waited on pins and needles for the rest of the week hoping she wouldn't be quarantined and not allowed to go on our Aruba trip. It was a stressful week to say the least. But all is well that ends well I guess.

Trying so hard!

My little princess is getting so big! I remember with Kamden I couldn't wait for him to do new things! I was always working with him to sit up on his own, to crawl and then to walk. Everything was new and exciting and it was so fun seeing him grow! With Blakely I just want her to stay little! She didn't sit up on her own until after 6 months and at 9 months she has yet to even come close to mastering crawling. And I love it! The longer she is a baby the better! Each new phase is so fun, but a piece of me is so sad that she is getting big. Since I don't really want to encourage crawling yet (partly cuz once she is mobile I may as well kiss my life goodbye and partly cuz I'm not ready for her to grow up) she has decided to take it upon herself to learn...At this point she has figured out how to go backwards but doesn't realize why she is getting farther away from what she wants rather than closer :) She gets so mad when she is trying to get something but she is pushing away from it haha. Here is a little video I took today of her doing it...I kinda can't believe I'm posting it because she doesn't have a bow on her head! But in my defense we had just gotten home from church (where she DID have a bow on) and she was a sweaty mess after taking a long nap in her car seat, so I had taken off her cute shirt and bow to cool her off.

Only a boy...

Yesterday was a beautiful day for the first time in a while. We spent most of it outside. It was great. Towards the end of the day I was heading inside to change Blakely's diaper and I hear Ky say "Mom! I'm holding a real live snake!" I come outside to see this...

Seriously Ky?! Only a boy would see a snake and have his first instinct be to pick it up. So gross. But he kept saying "aren't you so proud of me that I held a real live snake?"...um sure bud, I'm happy it wasn't poisonous and that we live in a day in age where anti-bacterial soap is readily available.
















Kam didn't want to be left out so he needed a turn to hold this nasty thing...p.s. I DO feed this kid! He actually eats more than his other brothers combined!!! I wish I had that kind of metabolism!

Karate...or Aikido (to be more accurate)

We have tried putting Ky into organized sports before (with not so great results). Soccer was a complete disaster for him (unless you consider running to the monkey-bars during the game a success)...let's just say that "team" sports are not his thing. I think this is true for a number of reasons. First, he is a perfectionist. If he doesn't think he is good at something he gets SUPER frustrated with himself. Being on a team where kids other than him were scoring goals was NOT ok. Second, he HATES taking turns, (although he has gotten better over the last year or so. When we had him in soccer and someone else had the ball he would get so mad and would just sit down in the middle of the field with his legs crossed and refuse to play, like so...



We decided to not torture him and didn't even make him play the whole season. So this year we got the bright idea to put him in Karate. Now Kamden often holds "Karate Class" in our living room for his 2 brothers (keep in mind the extent of his karate training was watching the movie "The 3 Ninjas" like 20 times), but we thought that Ky would really enjoy taking a class from a legitimate person, aka Sensai. We were right. It is the perfect sport for him. He is actually really coordinated and he doesn't have to compete with anyone. It was fun watching him do "his" thing! He officially looks forward to Thursdays and is ready to go! Last week he took and passed his yellow belt test! So he received his yellow belt and a certificate of advancement. Brad took a video and it is so cute. I'm going to try to figure out how to load it to my blog from his iPhone, but in the mean time, here are the pictures from the event. I am so proud of Ky and how much he has progressed these last 2 years and I am so happy that he has finally found his "thing"...at least for the moment!
Ky was a little mad in this picture because we missed one Thursday so he didn't get the Perfect Attendance medal...such is life in our house, buddy!

FLASHBACK: The Princess!

The most important thing that has happened to us since I last blogged was the SHOCKING revalation that we were going to be having a GIRL!!! At my 14 week appointment my Dr. asked if I wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl...Sidenote: I had been surprised on all three of my first pregnancys and had never known if it was going to be a boy or girl. This time however I had decided to find out and here is why. I realy really really wanted a girl. I was sure however that #4 was going to be a boy. So I figured if i found out it was going to be a boy there was enivitably going to be a twing of dissapointment knowing that I really was probably never going to get my girl and I for SURE didn't want any disapointment on the day he was born. I knew I would get over it fast I just didn't want to associate the day he was born with any kind of regret. BUT if it was a girl i knew I need time to GET READY FOR THE PINK! -k- that little "sidenote" just turned into a novel but I digress. :) I told him we wanted to know, but that I was sure it was another boy and I was ready for boy #4! He was looking at the ultrasound machine and just said, "huh." and then "huh." again. "I just want to make sure before I say anything." And then 3 amazing words came out of his mouth that I NEVER thought I'd hear..."Its a girl". WHAT! I couldn't believe it! I asked him how sure he was and he pointed to 3 lines on the screen and said, "see those 3 lines right there? That means it's a girl. I am 99% positive right now, and next month I will be 115% positive." I cried. :) Blakely Rae Hartley was born on July 21st 2010. Her birth story will come later but needless to say she has been the most amazing thing to happen to our family! The boys are IN LOVE with her! She has been the BEST baby...my only complaint is her sleeping habits but she is just so stinkin' cute the rest of the time I can't hold that against her. She is one loved "little princess" as the boys like to call her and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful fun baby!