Our Crazy Week!!

How much can you pack into a week? With four teenagers and moving from one Ranch to the other….You can pack a lot in. I might actually sleep a little while I write this blog to catch up ha. ZZZZZ…okay back! I am awake. What was I saying again? Oh yes! We had a crazy fun week.

 We have had two baseball games with Jason. They won both games and he was able to steal home. I love watching him play especially because he enjoys it so much.

 Joshua turned 15! I still can’t believe I have a 15 year old that is 6’2’’. He is by far the tallest in our household. He has outgrown Ryan and I by the time he was 14 ha! I still can’t believe he is already 15. He had a great time with his friends the weekend before with a slumber party. He was beyond excited when he got his present of his headphones that he has been wanting forever. On his ACTUAL birthday we were moving and let me tell you he used that to his advantage ha! Plus that got all the kids more snacks and soda which we don’t normally have in the house. The other kids were grateful for that too. Right now is the only time of the year that I have a 17, 16, 15 and then 14 year old. At different times of the year it ends up being two 17 year olds and two 15 year olds. That’s what happens when you have an amazing blended family.

 Side note! Four teenagers. In just one week we will have a Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. What was I ever thinking? In four years it’s going to be so quiet. I am SO NOT looking forward to that.

 Then we had the FFA event. Future Farmers of America where Cassie and Joshua both won awards. It was a nice Tri tip Dinner and seeing what they have been doing this year. It was a good event. Jackson was in FFA last year and Jason is in 4H this year. It will be interesting which kids decide to do it next year. Joshua won his Greenhand Degree and Parliamentary Procedure Career Development Event Award. Cassie received her Chapter FFA degree. I was very proud of those two.

 The kids had a field trip couple hours away to an Aquatics Center also. They had a lot of fun with their friends. Pretty neat to be a small school so everyone could all go. Love how they do this at the end of the year.

 Then on top of all of this we were moving. Yep! We moved a whole house of stuff from one ranch to another. I am so grateful for my husband and kids. I have to give extra kudos to my oldest Jackson because he really used a lot of strength. We got a HUGE U-Haul, loaded it in one day and unloaded it the next.  Then had to bring all the animals up also. It was just the 6 of us and Jackson’s good friend Mateo.  Thankfully it was a three day weekend. We were all beat. The kids set up their rooms and I worked on the rest of the house while also feeding them every 5 minutes it seemed. You know teenagers get…they are NEVER full.

 I absolutely love this house. Love Love Love it! Its beautiful inside and out but the views are glorious for as far as the eye can see. This was one crazy week! Next week is even more. 8^th grade trip, Baseball games, Academic Awards Ceremony, Ortho Appointments and Maybe a Bull riding event if the double header gets done in time. Oh and did I mention Finals and Graduations? Man this time of year is crazy busy but its so worth it. I really should stop beating myself up for not blogging this week huh? Now that we are all set up in the new house I will be more on top of it. Its hard to blog when your stuff is in a box. J

Twins? Tahoe? FUN!

When your three year old niece tells you that all she wants for her Birthday is for her cousins to come play with her.....you listen:)

Between Jason's Basketball game and school we weren't able to make the 5 hour drive to Mariah's 3rd birthday. Since we lucked out and it was a three day weekend we decided to get a house and pet sitter and head over to see our nieces. Mariah just turned 3 and Kylie is almost 6. Love these girls and they love, love their cousins!

Its funny when you see the interaction of teenagers with their little cousins. You would think they thought they were too good to do something but they get down on the ground and have tea parties. I love seeing how excited my nieces get with the kids.

Now Kelly is Ryan's twin sister. Kelly is older by a couple of minutes. As we are all growing older she doesn't say that as much now ha! My mother in law Sally came down too so we all could get together. It was really fun. I am very lucky because I get along with my mother in law. I know ppl are used to hearing the "MIL" jokes or "oh my MIL is so horrible she says this or that" but I am blessed to really truly like her. We could even hang out without her son, my husband....GASP! I know right!

I love Ryan's family a lot. They mean the world to me and 7 years ago they took me and my children in as their own. I am sure I get on their nerves or get cranky sometimes but they have been there for me through everything. My MIL even has taken me home from the hospital and taken care of me a few times. She will drive hours to come see us and even to watch our house, animals, kids anytime we need her to help out. Most of the time 9 times out of 10 she offers before we even ask. That in itself is pretty amazing!

With a blended family of four teenagers you would think ppl would treat the kids differently....but they don't. They are all told the same things..."I love you", "Use your fork properly", "How are your grades?", "You are so funny" ETC. Its nice to be apart of such a fun, entertaining family.

Anyways on to the day! Kelly and Dave and the kids had everything set up for us to stay there. Its not easy having a family of 6 come to stay. Kelly is always the very gracious host and I am thankful for that. Where they live they have a community pool that is apart of the package so we always bring our swimsuits come rain, shine or snow (hey its Tahoe). The first thing we did was head on over to the pool after our greetings and hellos. Dave stayed back and Grandma Sally (MIL) stayed back to start cooking dinner for everyone.

We had so much fun. I am so impressed with my niece Kylie who is five. She swims around with her goggles and flippers like she is a mermaid. I really think she should go into the swim team because she is an amazing swimmer. She can be like her Auntie Rae Rae and do swim team all through all her school years. She cracks me up because hooked onto Jason and wouldn't let him out of her sight. Love that kid!

Mariah went back and forth from the hot tub to the pool with us. She is so cute with her little ladybug life jacket. She would swim from Ryan to me to Jackson and Cassie. She was all over the place too just swimming and smiling away. She would keep going to Ryan or I so we could throw her in the air. Mariah would be thrown and go underwater and come up smiling wanting more.

Cassie and Jason were swimming with the kids a lot and hot tubing with us all. Then the craziness ensued!!!! Josh decided he was going to belly flop off of the diving board. He went and did it and SMACK! straight to the belly. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO DO THAT ON PURPOSE? Teenagers are weird creatures I tell ya. After him doing it about 3 times Jackson decided to do it also. What were they thinking? I do have to say out of the four kids Josh and Jack are always the dare devil ones. The other two are the watchers lol.  I tried getting Josh on video tape but the Video ran out and after that solid good belly flop he was done with doing it. So Jackson decided to do one and only belly flop before we left. I cracked up because he held his face and his well..."jewels" as he calls it and SMACK!! down he went. I actually got that one on video and you can see it by clicking this link! I am telling him not to waste my time because my phone was at 3 percent and we had 60 seconds of video left hahaha! He came up all smiles but had a bloody nose. We learned our lesson....if you are going to be crazy enough to do a belly flop...DONT hold your face because it will smack your nose! Click here to see his Belly Flop Jacksons Belly Flop

So as you can see teens can be crazy. We all went back to Kelly and Dave's house, showered and were pretty hungry. Dave had finished BBQ the chicken which was delicious and Grandma had finished all the yummy goodies to go with it. We all ate and watched a movie.

Fast forward to the next morning. Everyone is everywhere lol. I announce that I need to go to the donut shop to get us all donuts as everyone is eating cake from the birthday party ha! Collins family definitely has a sweet tooth:) We don't have a donut place anywhere near us where we live and I just wanted a donut considering I had decided to start low carbing the next day! After everyone's breakfast we did what we do best......Ryan helped him mom on her laptop on how to use it, Kids studied for their finals and took turns playing with the girls. I played Connect Four with Mariah and taught Mariah and Kylie how to play Candy land. Connect Four with a 3 year old is pretty interesting. Its basically match the color haha and Mariah saying "I got you!". LOL..... I loved watching Kylies wheels turn in her head on Candy land and really understand it. Such smart little girls! Uncle Dave showed the kids a helicopter and Kelly was just making sure everyone had what they needed for everything. She is organized like that which I love.

Around lunchtime we decided to all go over to a little Mexican Bistro Place with clean good foods. We had Grandma, Donna (her bff), our crew of 6 and then took the little girls so Mom and Dad could have an hour or so of peace:) We went to go meet Amber and Austin which is Ryan's bff. Amber is also a twin. She grew up with Ryan and they were always Babysat together. Amber and Austin are amazing. They are the only couple I know that liked each other in middle school. Dated each other in High School and after High school got married. They have only ever been with each other their whole lives and are still very much in love. I love seeing them. Ryan loves it more though because they have always been so much apart of each others lives.

The kids say that Austin is like a really big 12 year old and they always fight on who gets to sit next to him or who is going to talk to him first. Amber is this amazingly smart gal who I think has a heart of gold. I liked her the first instant I saw her. We had a great time at lunch and everyone talked, ate, and talked some more. Soon it seemed like 15 minutes had only gone by but it had been almost 2 hours. We had to say our goodbyes but we knew we would be seeing them probably in the next couple weeks closer to our house. As we were leaving they gave us this huge box of t-shirts and sweatshirts for the kids. Its all logos from their shop that they own called IN YOUR FACE SIGNS AND TEES. I love places that are family owned and ran! Check out their website if every interested....  In Your Face Signs and Tees

So the day was already getting to the point where we had to pack up and get ready to go. I already was missing the girls before we even left. I love being able to see everyone and have fun. I love the joking and all the memories. We had a 5 hour drive home and kids had to be back by bedtime so they could be well rested for Finals Week. We all gave our hugs and said our "see you soon" and headed on the road to go home. It was a fun short little trip and I am glad we did it. I am thankful for Dave and Kelly's hospitality. Its not easy having 6 ppl come to anyone's home. We will be back soon. Until then.......

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