Cascade Springs

Utah (in my opinion) is the best place to live!

Because there is so much to do!!

While most of my family was here for our brother's homecoming we went on a short family hike up the American Fork Canyon. The hike was called Cascade Springs. It was amazing! The hike was paved the whole way with stairs to get to the higher falls.

An amazing place for the whole family to go and fun for the kiddos!

I took a break from writing on my blog because I started my youtube channel about my family.

www.youtube.com/1of17mystory

Its been a crazy ride but the most rewarding. I've loved every moment of sharing my family life with the world and I can't imagine not sharing with everyone!

I realized something, along with my love for making videos about my family, I also love writing about my family. I've to start writing again!

WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE LAST 2 YEARS?!

So much I don't even know where to begin! So i'll just start with the last month.

My brother Michael, came home from his 2 year LDS mission in Frankfurt Germany. During his time in Germany we aren't able to communicate with him other than one email a week and 2 Skype calls during the year, one on Mother's Day the other on Christmas Day. When you having a sibling out those 2 days become your favorite new days of the year.

Michael returned on June 1, 2017! Make sure to check out the video! https://youtu.be/X1fxasbE95E

We love having him home and can't wait to see where life takes him next!

xoxo
Stacey

Lots of changes!

I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew, but I am so excited to say that I've started a YouTube channel about my family! I love writing I really do! But it has been getting a little bit tough trying to keep up with my blog and I've done an awful job lately with it!

I am so excited about my YouTube channel!

Now you may be thinking "why in the world does she have a channel and a blog? Isn't one enough?" Well yes, one might be enough but I didn't want to stop there. With my crazy beautiful life, I am always recording things and taking pictures. So I thought to myself one day "Stacey why don't you start a YouTube channel to share all the amazing things that are happening?" So that is what I decided to do! I sat down with my amazingly awesome parents and told them that I wanted to start a channel about our family from the inside. There are so many different channels out there where it is the parents showing the lives of their children and I think that is amazing! One of my guilty pleasures is watching those families on YouTube! But as I was watching and searching I wanted to see families, and big families where the children take charge and show what it is like in a family. So that is what I, Stacey have done. I have taken my family and my placement in it and started running with it!

It is crazy I know! But I have already found so much joy in sharing my family's live with people not just through writing and pictures, but with video and sound.

So go check it out and subscribe!

it is called 1of17 My Story and the link is below!


www.youtube.com/1of17MyStory


For those who are wondering, I will still be writing on the blog because lets get real, sometimes you just need to write and get your feelings out there! But the channel will be updated constantly and gives you a real idea about what my family is like!

Thank you all for your support and love!

xoxo
Stacey

Long time, No post

Since the last time I posted so many things have happened.  I went to California twice to visit my oldest brother and his adorable family. His wife had twins! They are so adorable! She had her hands full, so I offered to go down for eight days to help. It was so much fun to be there and catch up with my sister in law. The second time was just a couple days later when the whole family took a road trip down to San Diego to go to the twins baby blessings. I would personally like to send a shout out to Apple for providing constant entertainment for us while in the car for what seemed to be a million hours! 

While driving down our sweet van started to act up and began to do something crazy. I don't know what it was because I don't speak car, at all. We got into Las Vegas and we stopped at this car place and this sweet man helped us out. We all got booted out of the car and we sat in the hot Las Vegas sun for almost and hour while he checked out the car. Its funny because there is never a dull moment in our family! 

My second oldest brother and his wife had a new baby! She is beautiful and growing up so fast! Just days later they moved from Idaho to Kansas to start a new job, and they are loving it so much!!

My younger brother Michael participated in a CrossFit competition in Cedar City Utah this past month! He dominated it! He got first in overall for men and first in the obstacle course. I am so proud of him! He has found something that he loves and is becoming amazing at it! He was the youngest of all the men there. At 17, he was able to compete against 30 year olds and win! I am so proud of him! 

My other younger brother Paul went to Hawaii with his basketball team to play in the Maui Invitational! They had a team full of 14 and 15 year olds, and they won the tournament for their division! I am so proud of him and all of his hard work! Plus, he got to go to Maui with all of his best friends for a week and a half! I am sure he loved having the freedom there. I called him late one night and wanted to talk, after a few minutes he said "Stac what do you need? I am in the middle of a FIFA tournament with my coaches!" He loved it and can't wait to go back next year! 

Those are the really big things that have happened since the beginning of July.

Being part of a big family is so fun because we each have something new happening and we love keeping up with each other! We have a family thread on our phones, and you can bet that during any given weekend we are constantly messaging, because everyone loves to talk! 

I am my parents nanny, because my mom runs her own business and my dad has his full time job in Salt Lake City. I am home for all the big events that happen at our house. This past week school has started up again for us and the kids are all growing up so fast! I can not believe that it was almost 10 years ago that we started down the adoption road. I think back on it and I am flabbergasted at how much love we have in the family. I wish that I could just film my family all the time to show how much love is in our home. Don't get me wrong, just like every other normal family we have our moments where we can't stand something another person is doing, but for the most part, we all get along so well. I can't imagine my life any different. I would do it all over again if I could. 

Joseph is going to a completely different school than the other kids. He was given the chance to go to a charter school and we couldn't pass up that opportunity for him! He is loving it there! 

I love writing about my family and sharing just some of our many stories!

xoxo

Stacey

4th of July Weekend

The 4th of July is our favorite Holiday!!

And pictures are worth a thousand words! Enjoy looking at our fun family weekend :)

Craig's holiday shirt was the best one I saw all day!! "Back 2 Back World War Champs"

Looks like dad was successful on putting Jaxon down for this nap!  

 Escaping the heat! Heading to the Pool!! 

 Saturday we went up and spend the day at our favorite lake! We always have a blast up there!!

Jacob is adorable! He couldn't resist showing me how strong he is! "Look at my muscles Stacey! I have better muscles then Michael!"

Being a basketball player Paul has a pretty bad tan line from his shorts! 

How cute is Mandie!? She is the perfect outdoors girl with her subway and camo hat! 

 First time on a canoe... I think like the house boat better. 

After a long fun filled weekend, you can see it was hard to stay awake! We have so much fun whenever we get together! The kids get so worn out that they can't even get into the car before falling asleep! Happy birthday America!! I am so thankful to live in this country and to have the freedoms I have! I hope everyone had a fun safe weekend! 

Xoxo

Stacey