Cherry Days

We celebrated the 4th of July in North Ogden for their Cherry Days. Porter & Hudson participated in the Children's Parade first thing in the morning. They decorated their bike & scooter for it.

Waiting for the start of the parade.

They had so much fun being in an actual parade!

Even though it was hot, hot, hot, they had a blast!

Then the Cherry Days Parade started. My three cute monkeys waiting patiently for it to start.

Brody loved waving at all the floats & animals that went by. He was soooo cute!

Porter was a champ at collecting the candy that was thrown. It's a good thing he is such a good sharer, because he shared all his candy with his brothers.

After the parade, we went to the children's corner at a park where they had fun games for kids. Uncle Ryan was a part if the parade & children's corner. His singles ward went all out dressing up as Disney characters! Ryan was King Fergus from Brave. Doesn't he look good???

They played games until we got too hot to be outside anymore!

It was such a fun day!

Big Changes for the Hoopes'!

This spring, we decided to put our house on the market. We had the intention of eventually moving to Utah to be closer to my family. Brandon has been wanting a change in his job, so it just made sense to make the move! We thought we would have a lot of time, because we would be waiting on our house to sell. Well, we put our house on the market on May 8th. That day, I had a call to set up a showing for the next day at noon (I was still teaching preschool!) So May 9th right after preschool, the kiddos & I went to Subway to pick up lunch then headed to the splash park in Gervais for water fun & a picnic. Later that evening, I had planned to do some shopping while Brandon stayed with the kids. He was planning on camping out in the backyard with them. Well, while I was out, Brandon called me & told me I better come home quick because we had an offer on our house!!! Our realtor was heading over, also. So my shopping trip was cut short, but it was worth it because the people offered $4,000 more than we were asking! We were shocked! We figured it would have been a low-ball offer. We obviously took the offer (duh!) and filled out the paper work that night to sell our house! We still can't believe we sold our house in ONE DAY!!!! That's unheard of! We feel soooooo blessed that not only were we able to sell our house that quickly, but to be able to make a good amount of money on it for a down payment on our next house!

So fast forward to June 29th which was our moving day. In between May 9th & June 29th was just a blur. I have just been busy packing & getting ready for this move. That's why I haven't been very good at keeping my blog updated. But I think I have a pretty good excuse:)

Here's our moving truck. We had to add a trailer to it to fit in all our stuff.

This is how my house has looked the past month or so... chaos with boxes everywhere!

 I couldn't believe our whole house was going to fit in here!

These three were champs during this time. They pretty much fended for themselves while I got all the packing done!

 This was our front yard on moving day! And yes, that is a car:)

Brandon & I feel so blessed to have the awesome friends we have. We had so much help loading the truck & cleaning the house. It was a very humbling experience for us.

Brody didn't know what was going on! All he knew is that his room was completely empty & that bothered him!

Entertaining themselves while all the adults were frantically moving stuff out of the house.

Here's the truck packed to the brim! There was not an extra inch of space left!

My parents also came our to help with the move. My dad & Brandon took turns driving the truck, I drove the van, & my mom drove her car. We were quite the caravan! Each of the boys got turns to ride in the truck. The same day we packed the truck, we started on our journey to Utah. We made it to Pendleton where we had a much-needed swimming session, then crashed for some much needed sleep! The next day, we made it the rest of the way to Utah! 

Here's some pics of the trip:

Brody got the first turn riding in the big truck!

And a much-needed snooze!

 Hudson as happy as can be riding in the truck!

This trip made us all feel pretty silly!

I even got a turn riding in the truck! My mom was driving the van & she said that the temp on the van showed 111 degrees! I wish I would have gotten a pic of it! We were somewhere in Idaho, close to Boise. It was blasted hot!

The kiddos entertained themselves with movies, treats, magazines & playing games on our phones. Whatever works!

We made it to my parent's house late on Sunday night. The next morning, we unloaded our truck & trailer into a storage unit. My dad, brothers, & the Weber High Wrestling team helped us unload it all. Again, a humbling experience to see all the people helping us! That evening, Brandon had to fly back to Oregon. Remember how we sold our house in one day??? Well, we decided to just get moved out here with all our stuff, but Brandon's job here in Utah isn't ready yet. So he is still working in Oregon until he can start his job here. It's not the ideal situation, but at least we're not waiting on our house to sell, like we thought would happen!

After we dropped Brandon off at the air port, we went to a block party in my parent's neighborhood. It was do much fun! They had water balloons with a big sling shot...

Brody didn't use the sling shot, he just loved throwing them:)

They had sparklers...

And fireworks at the very end! It was a great way for my kids to make some friends in the neighborhood, too!

End of School ~ Beginning of Summer!

Sorry I have been MIA! A lot has been going on & more on that in another post, but in the mean time, school ended & summer has started!

I had my end-of-school preschool party. The invites we're butterflies since we had butterflies in our classroom this year. I made these cute water bottles for my kids filled with treats & kool aid that say "Have a KOOL summer!" And the cutest butterfly cupcakes!

The kids could play with bubbles in the sand & water, we ate dinner on the lawn & then the kids had a little program prepared with their favorite songs. It was so fun, but I'm sad preschool is over:(

On the last day of preschool we got to release our butterflies!

My boys can't get enough of bubble baths!

My parents came into town during Memorial Day weekend. This little guy couldn't get enough of his Papa! (I realize I didn't get a pic of grandma, but I promise she was there, too!)

Nana & Papa took us to an iris & peony farm. The boys had a blast exploring & roaming around!

We have also been enjoying the new splash park that is close to our house!

And of course Summer can't start without swimming!

I just had to add this pic! I went to check on Brody during nap time & this is what I see. His bed is normally on the far right wall! He moved it all the way over to his rocking chair! At least he fell asleep on his bed:)

I love how they all play together! Brothers are built-in play buddies!

Porter lost his second tooth!

We have been making lots of fruit smoothies & my kiddos LOVE them! I love that they are so healthy!

We went strawberry pickin'. Not a surprise, but Brody & Hudson didn't get any berries in their container, just in their tummies:) But Porter was an awesome picker & a big help!

Porter requested strawberry pie with some of the strawberries we picked, & I was more than happy to oblige! Yum!