Soccer, Guitar, & A Field Trip

Cody and Kaden are both playing soccer this year. Cody has been playing for many years, this is Kaden's first year. It's a bit more difficult to get two kids to soccer each week, especially when their games are at the same time, but they enjoy playing, so it makes it worth the craziness.

Cody is the one closest to the ball. I know it's hard to tell, but I thought it was a great action shot!

Here's Kaden showing off his awesome soccer skills!

Cody had a guitar concert for his school guitar class. It was a Beatles theme and the classes all did a great job. Cody absolutely loves playing the guitar. He's getting very good and I really like to hear him play. At the concert, he was chosen to play bass guitar for a couple songs.

We couldn't get him to actually smile at us for a picture, so rather than choose the one with him pretty much scowling at us, here he is looking away.

Here he is playing the bass. He's concentrating very hard!

Brooklyn's preschool class went on a field trip to Black Island Farms in Syracuse. They went on a hay ride to learn about some of the vegetables grown on the farm and then all of the kids were able to choose a pumpkin to take home. They also played on the slides and went through a corn maze.
Here is Brooklyn holding one of the carrots they passed around.

Kaden and his pumpkin that he picked.

Next up....Family Pictures!

Really Big Pumpkins & Someone Has A Birthday!

Our neighbor grew some really huge pumpkins this year and he was kind enough to take a picture of our kids with them since our camera was still broken and we didn't have a new one yet. Yay for really nice neighbors!

I seriously can't believe how big those pumpkins got. I love this picture!

Next up was Kaden's birthday. Les was able to order us a new camera just in time to take pictures for his birthday. He turned 6 this year. He's growing up way too fast!

We surprised him with a bike and by his expression in the picture, I'd say he was pretty excited about it!

And of course, safety first! We got him a bike helmet to go with it. Unfortunately I'm not very good about reminding my kids to wear helmets, so I don't think he even knows where it is now, but it's the thought that counts, right?!

We had a combined birthday party for both Kaden and Cody with the family. Notice Jacob trying to help out with the candles. :)

Jacob was really determined to blow out some candles, but Cody wasn't going to have it!

I'd say the boys both had great birthdays this year. The kids just keep getting older and it makes me sad that it's happening so fast.

Coming up next time, Soccer, Guitar, and a Field Trip!

The first of many updates

Hey there, so obviously it's been a while since I've updated, but that's all about to change. This will be the first of many updates to come to catch you all up on everything that's happened (at least everything with pictures) since last September.

At the end of September we took our annual trip to Yellowstone! As I've said quite a few times in this blog, Yellowstone is one of my favorite places to go. We went a little later this year than usual, so we were worried about it being a bit too cold to camp, so we decided to stay in a hotel

Check out that crazy luggage of ours! We stayed at the Kelly Inn in West Yellowstone which was very nice. We took advantage of the free breakfast and the pool and hot tub everyday.

One of our all-time favorite restaurants in West Yellowstone is Wild West Pizzeria. We like it so much we ended up there twice in five days. If you ever go, you have to try the macaroni and cheese, you won't be sorry!

There are quite a few of these painted buffalo around town, which of course make awesome photo ops!

Here is one of the many elk that we saw while we were there. We saw many buffalo as well, unfortunately we didn't get many pictures of wildlife this time around, as will be explained below.

Just another cute picture of the kids. They can be so photogenic when they want to be.

We also celebrated Cody's 14th birthday while we were in Yellowstone. He's growing up so fast I can hardly stand it. He's a great kid and a great sport to spend his birthday in Yellowstone with his family!

Shopping in West Yellowstone is always a lot of fun. The kids really liked the hats!

Sadly, this is the last picture we were able to take in Yellowstone. This was taken at Grant's Village at the visitor center overlooking the lake. It was gorgeous there that morning, but very cold! Right after this picture was taken, the camera was dropped and we couldn't get it to work, but at least we were able to save the pictures that we had already taken.

We spent the rest of the week hiking around Yellowstone, seeing many buffalo and elk, one about 6 feet away from us on a hiking trail, and wandering through shops and visitor centers. We also took a drive around Hebgen Lake and ate lunch with Les's brother and his family at a cabin they were staying in right on the lake. It was a great family vacation and I can't wait to do it again!

Coming up next time on the Buchanan Family Blog, (said in your best Jeff Probst voice for all you Survivor fans) some really big pumpkins and someone has a birthday!

So You Think You Can Dance

We love the show So You Think You Can Dance, so when I saw a flier for a workshop featuring dancers from the show I had to sign Kenzie up. One of my all-time favorite dancers from the show was going to be there, namely Twitch!!! He is such a great dancer and has such a fun personality. If you aren't familiar with him, just go to YouTube and watch some videos, he's awesome!

Anyway, the workshop was on Saturday from 8-5. Kenzie was able to learn choreography from three different dancers from the show, Twitch, Lauren, and Legacy.

Her first class was with Twitch. He taught a really cool hip-hop routine. It was much harder choreography than Kenzie was used to, but she had a lot of fun with it and has some new moves to show her friends. Twitch was a great teacher and really fun to watch.

Her second class was with Lauren. She taught a jazz contemporary routine. Kenzie wasn't all that fond of the dance style, but learned a few moves that she really liked. Lauren is a fantastic dancer and it was really cool to see what she was capable of.

The last class was with Legacy. He also taught a hip-hop routine and actually ended up using the same music as Twitch so they could add the two routines together. Legacy was recently a backup dancer for Justin Bieber, so he spent a large part of the class doing his best Justin Bieber impression. It was very funny! He also showed off some of his moves at the end and it was absolutely amazing!

After the classes, we all gathered together to sing Happy Birthday to Twitch and they brought out cake for everybody. Then we were all able to get pictures with the three of them and then line up for autographs. We were able to get a shirt signed and a poster. It was a very long, but very fun day!

My goal by the end of the day was to get a picture of me with Twitch for my new profile picture on Facebook. I was a little worried it wasn't going to happen, but right before we left there was no one around Twitch, so we were able to talk him into it. I seriously felt like one of those teenage girls that gets all starstruck by their favorite celebrity, but I just couldn't help it.

Hogle Zoo

Since the weather was gorgeous this week, we decided it was the perfect time to go to the zoo. We brought our niece, Amaya, with us since she hadn't been to the zoo for a while and really wanted to go. We ended up buying a membership because it was only a few more dollars than getting all 7 of us in. Hopefully with the membership we'll actually make it down a few more times this year and experience the animals in different times of the year. I've heard they are much more active in the winter, so we'll see. It was our first time going to the zoo without a stroller and it was heaven! It's such a different experience to be able to get through the crowds without pushing a large stroller everywhere you go. Brooklyn and Kaden did get a little tired, but overall it was so much better. We rode the train and the carousel while we were there, had a picnic lunch, and saw most of the animals. It was a long, but fun day.

Brooklyn had told me that she didn't want to see the gorillas when we were there because she had a nightmare about a gorilla biting her foot. I thought she would get over it by the time we got there, but as soon as we went in the building to see the gorillas she started crying. She was so scared even though they were behind a glass wall.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Where do I begin?

After 5 months of no updates, it's hard to know where to start, so I guess I'll just go back to May and move forward.

At the end of May my mom underwent heart surgery and my grandma passed away. That put a bit of a damper on the beginning of summer and I don't really feel like it began until the end of June.

Right before my mom went in for surgery, Kaden had one last field trip with his preschool to Discovery Gateway. We rode the train down and enjoyed a couple hours there and then went to lunch with Les. We had a great time together.



Kenzie also had a puppet show at the end of May. Her group did a really good job and it was fun to see all of the kids creativity with their puppets.


Kenzie, Kaden, and Brooklyn were all a part of a dance/tumbling recital at the end of June. It was a hectic two days of dress rehearsals and performances, but it was a lot of fun to see all of their hard work pay off.


At the end of July, Kenzie and Kaden started school. Kenzie is in the 6th grade and Kaden is in Kindergarten. They both have great teachers and are doing really well in school.


We also took our first camping trip of the summer at the end of July to the Uintah's with Les's family. We were able to spend time with his parents, four of his brothers, all of his nieces and nephews, a couple aunts, one uncle, and a few cousins. The kids had a blast floating down the river. It was great to finally get out and have some fun after the rough start to our summer.


In August we celebrated Kenzie's 11th birthday. I surprised her by decorating her room for her while she was at school. It was fun to see her reaction, she even got a bit teary-eyed, which in turn made me teary too. It was well worth the time and effort!



A couple days later, my mom ended up back in the hospital after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain) which wouldn't stop because of the blood thinner she takes for her mechanical valve. It was very scary to go through something like that again and very stressful. She was in the hospital for over two weeks and I tried to make it up there everyday to keep her company. She's doing really well again, thank goodness, and hopefully we won't have anymore scares like that again.

Cody started school in August as well, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him on his first day. He started the 8th grade this year and he's definitely noticing the difference in homework this year.

We woke up to a surprise one Sunday morning at the end of August. Our very large willow tree in the front yard had blown over in the wind. It was quite the site. Luckily it was too short to hit the house, but it was very close.


Over Labor Day weekend we finally were able to take a camping trip with my parents. We went up to Flaming Gorge. We spent time in the boat, hiking, and just relaxing. It was a much needed break after the craziness of our summer. Cody's friend Nate came with us for the weekend for his very first camping trip ever. It was fun to have him around and Cody definitely enjoyed the company.


Brooklyn started preschool a couple days after getting home. She absolutely loves it! She wishes she could go to school everyday like the other kids. I just can't believe my baby is in school. I'm kind of stuck between emotions on that one. On one hand, having some alone time is pure bliss, on the other, I'm sad that my kids are growing up so fast.




In a nutshell, this has been the past 5 months for our family. It's been quite the roller coaster ride. Hopefully this will be the last marathon post for a very long while!

Has it really been 4 years?

How did my baby go from this.....



to this.....

I can't believe that Brooklyn is 4. This boggles my mind to think that my baby is getting so big. Of course, I've been around to witness it, but I think I must have been in denial that she's really growing up.

To celebrate her birthday, last Friday we rode the train down to Salt Lake and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and then got some candy at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and wandered around Gateway for a little while. On Saturday, we had a birthday party for her and she got lots of fun presents. A few of her favorites were a Barbie and Ken doll, a fairy princess costume, and a Tinkerbell scooter.

A few of Brooklyn's favorites right now are dancing, singing, playing games (she's really good at Memory), watching Dora the Explorer on TV, and the color pink.

Brooklyn is such a sweetheart and we love her very much!!! Happy Birthday Brooklyn!